Tiny Home Living

 

I did it! I have officially moved into a tiny home. I have been wanting to down size for years.  I went from living in 2500 sqft to 3000 sqft for the last 6 years. It seemed as if my homes just kept getting bigger. And honestly I was so sick of it the last two years. After moving to Florida, I realized that I needed to live smarter not harder. Stop wasting my time on cleaning my house, taking care of laundry because of the mounds of clothes that I have accumulated and throwing away hard earned money for more square footage. So I went from living in 2800 sqft to a whopping 661 sqft. Now it is not quite a tiny home by tiny home standards. A tiny home is considered tiny at 500 sqft or less. I sold almost everything in an estate sale except for my king size mattress, old bedroom set (which I completely repainted stay tuned for a how to on chalk painting), one small flat screen, and some clothes and shoes oh and of course my hobbies. Now don’t let me full you, I have a 5×5 storage closet and a garage to hold a few items I am just not willing to part with quite yet. Those items include my sewing machine, I am hoping with my new found life I will be able to find some time to do more sewing. I do have some summer clothing packed away as well and then my husband has his tools in our garage as well. So the pros and cons of living in an almost tiny home are as follow:

Pros

• No more cleaning
• Takes less time to do everyday things such as cook, clean, get ready for the next morning, even shower.
• I live in a condo area so there is a community pool, gym, sidewalks for walking dogs (I needed this for my great big golden doodle), and even a car wash, all in walking distance.
• I can find things well for the most part get to negative below.
• Obtained smaller and lighter furniture for easier future move.
• Forced me to get rid of things I don’t need! Still needing to purge though it is not easy.
• It is making me go outside and walk the dogs, take runs with my golden doodle, go to the dog park, etc.
• In a tiny space means you can not let the laundry stack up in a room or you wont have a place to sleep and sit. So when there are two loads its time to wash!
• The actual location of our tiny home is awesome!!! It is close to all of Destin’s great restaurants, shopping, and of course beaches!
• We are saving about 2300 dollars a month because of our move. Now we had a very large home on a big lot on the water with a dock for our boat. So paying close to 3000 dollars a month for a home on the water is about average here. An average size home off the water is going to be around 1800 – 2200 dollars a month in this area. Then when you add utilities especially for a home that is close to 3000 square feet well let just say in warm months we were paying close to 1000 dollars in just utility bills. It is highly expensive and really ridiculous. The money we are saving is amazing.
• We are saving so much money that I am looking at different sectors of jobs. I can now be more selective on the position and where I work instead of how much I make. If I need to take a pay cut I finally can do that. My hope and aspirations are looking into higher education, college level director which does pay less then what I am currently making. This is probably the most exciting pro when it comes to tiny home living!

 

Cons

• It is tiny I currently feel like I have some clutter but I am going through things that just won’t fit in my life anymore. It did not hit me that I was in such a small space until I actually saw all of the boxes in the small space. Let’s just say I had too many boxes. I am still getting rid of stuff.
• My Golden doodle has had the hardest time adjusting she is big and used to the outdoors. I think she is a little depressed we go on a lot of daily walks and trips to the dog park.
• Sharing a one bedroom one bath and one closet with someone (spouse) is difficult, period!
• Walking dogs and working full time can be a difficult situation. Especially when the spouse leaves for several days on business and you are the a single dog owner. L
• The hardest thing to toss were my closets full of clothes!
• Our outside space is just not big enough

Now you may wonder will this tiny home I am living in be my almost tiny home forever. We are just currently renting, so this specific home will not be our forever home. I would like to build my next home it probably won’t be 661 sqft. But I am looking more at the 900 to 1100 sqft. on a decent sized lot with two nice outdoor spaces. Specifically I would like a screened in porch and an open porch in the back. I have decided I do not want a two story home. I am not sure if I can get away with having a one story home since I live so close to the beach and the unfortunate possibility of hurricanes here in the panhandle of Florida. I still may have to build a home with garage and storage on the bottom and then living space on top just to be out of flood danger mostly depends on the land I decide to purchase. My next home will definitely have two bathrooms. The second bath does not have to be big or fancy, it is just easier when you have guest over or one other person living in the home with you. I would like to have a two bedroom home with a decent sized loft. The loft would be a multifunctional space for guest to sleep as well as a small office. Some plans that I especially like are below.