Tiny House Realness

I was thinking about my tiny house today.  I was thinking about hiring some help for some spring cleaning.  Even though it's small, I really hate cleaning house.  The good thing is that there's hardly any carpet to vacuum.  The bad thing is that there's hardly any way to "put things away" in order to clean since there's hardly any space to hide things.

I found this website http://planner.roomsketcher.com/ that I used to make a mock-up of our house. The first house I drew looked lovely with all our furniture in it.  Then I calculated the area of my drawing and found it was 680 sq ft.

680 sq ft = too big

So then I started moving things around and trying to reduce the size of the floor plan.  I got it down to 500 sq ft.  I also added a few other key pieces of furniture that were missing in the first drawing.

500 sq ft = still too big

But our house is actually listed at 372 sq ft so I had to keep moving everything closer together to more accurately reflect the actual size of the home.

380 sq ft = closer to the true size

Now this is more of a true picture of what I'm living in with my husband and dog, Edna Jo.  When I watch the "tiny house" reality TV shows, I laugh at the people who are trying to consolidate their lives from 4000 sq ft into a tiny house.  They really have no idea what's coming.

I was considering taking you on an actual tour of our house, but as I said in the first paragraph, it's really messy right now.  Looking at the renderings from the roomsketcher is encouraging though because it shows me how it COULD look if it were really clean.

view of bedroom from bathroom

 One key piece of furniture that I loved when I first got it is the vanity (desk) pictured in the foreground above.  It was funny because it looked small in the box but when we tried to fit it in our tiny (Smart ForTwo) car, it was too wide.  There's a bench seat (with storage) that doubles as a stepstool.  The vanity itself has two drawers for my hair doodads and cosmetics.  It has a big three-fold mirror that I use to get ready for work.

view of bathroom looking inward

Removed from the drawing so that you can see inside is a really large shelving unit that we hang our bathrobes and stock linens and towels.  Under the sink is where I store the chemicals like Simple Green, Bleach, Drano, and PineSol.  We also keep laundry detergent, a travel-sized iron and small ironing board on that shelf.  There are dirty laundry baskets on the floor under that shelf, too.

view of bedroom from doorway

 The green shelves in this picture are pull-out canvas drawers (baskets) that we store our socks, t-shirts, shorts, underwear, and things that we wear every day.  We have a washer and dryer outside (through the French doors) on our back patio.  There's a clothesline out there, a bbq grill, and a bikestand.  There also a small table and chairs, which we hardly ever use, but they're there.  And a doghouse.

view of bedroom from vanity

Our actual closet is pretty tiny.  We have some bins in there for workout clothes and non-wrinkling dress clothes that don't fit on the hangers.  Mostly we hang our dress shirts that we wear to work and our cycling kits so that when we want to go for a bike ride, everything's grab-and-go.  I also have a bin for sweaters and another bin for pants.  Our nightstands are filing cabinets, which I put my scarves and swimsuits in.

galley kitchen

The kitchen counters have a knife-block, a coffee maker, and a microwave.  Above the oven, there's a spice rack.  On top of the fridge are two baskets for cereal and cereal bars.  In the cabinets below the countertop are pots & pans, and other special dishes we don't use often.  In the cabinets above the countertop are the everyday dishes.  The drawers below the countertop have all the utensils and ziploc bags.  We have our toaster oven just outside the kitchen on top of an old wine rack that you can see behind the blue chair pictured below.

reading area

 This is where we spend most of our time when we're home.  It's a great spot to put our feet up and read something.  The filing cabinet between the chairs is where we keep office supplies and reading material.  We also put our drinks there when we're sitting down.  We eat our meals in these chairs since the table (shown below) is always crowded with stuff.

table and desk from reading area

This is the other area I spend my time at home.  Not at the table unless I really need the space for some project.  I mean where I am now: at the computer.  We have a great printer and scanner, and a very large monitor that we use for a TV.  We can see it when we're in the big blue chairs.  We have a filing cabinet for storing papers and documents.  Under the table is where we have all of our tools and bike stuff.

looking inward from front door

If this was really our house, every surface and every wall would be covered with items: bicycles, tennis raquets, shoes, clothes, towels, backpacks, etc.  But I'm definitely inspired to reconfigure some of our existing shelves to accommodate books.  I'm not totally sure we could eliminate items, or "put them away" but perhaps reassigning some areas from one priority to another would reduce the clutter.

I promise if I ever get the house as clean as the renderings above, I will do a vlog about it.  We've lived in this house since June of 2011.

curb appeal

 One thing I loved instantly about the house was its stoop.  It's covered with plants now, but the cuteness of the whole facade really drew me in.

view of bathroom looking inward

 The bathroom from the rendering looks pretty much like this photo I took on the day we signed our lease agreement.

view of bedroom from bathroom

The view of our bedroom from bathroom looks similar to the rendering also.  I took these curtains down and replaced them with some noise-and-heat canceling curtains I bought when we lived in La Jolla.  They're darker (not as light and airy) but they do help keep the bedroom cool in the summer and quiet year round.

view of bedroom from vanity

The actual closet is smaller than the rendering (as you can see above) so that's why we have such issues with storing all our clothes in there at one time.  Our solution was to rent a 5' by 10' storage unit at Public Storage, right down the road.  We have lots of books in there, but also we moved all the non-essential clothing to that space, and we have a clothes rack on wheels that is a secondary closet. When winter is over, all heavy coats and clothing move down there.  When summer is over, all shorts and tank tops go there.

bicycle alley

The other charming thing about this house is that we can store our bicycles along the side of the house.  They're ready to go out a gate that leads to the front so we can just roll them out as needed.

BBQing veggie-style

We used to grill outside often, but not so much lately.  It's good because we have a propane refilling station nearby.  This was shortly after we moved in and before we got the storage unit.  All the stuff that didn't fit in our house was outside under a big tarp, which was hooked to the roof.

Using the bikes to dry my clothes

We also got some trainers for our bikes.  When we first moved to this area, I didn't know where to go bicycling and I thought the traffic was too scary to bike on the streets.  But I'm over it now and hardly ever (read: Never) use the trainers.

washer and dryer from craigslist (used)

 I do, however, use the washer and dryer all the time.  In fact, I should be doing laundry now instead of writing about doing it.  The w/d combo have gotten a bit more rusty than you see in this picture, and we had the switch on the washing machine replaced, but other than that, it's been great not having to haul everything to a laundromat.

bicycle-repair stand

We definitely do use the bike stand for simple repairs like adjusting brakes and derailleurs.  I also use it to take wheels on and off to repair flat tires.  Also, for cleaning the bikes.

now that's home

I'll close with this: I never thought I'd be living in this tiny house for 5 years.  Max, I thought, 2 years until we find a bigger, better place to live.  But the rent is relatively inexpensive for our area and the utilities are included.  We would definitely have less money to spend on fun things (or to put into savings) if we rented a larger house (or a condo or an apartment).  I KNOW for sure that we do more outdoor activities living in this house.  If it's a choice between staying in this cramped house and going out to ride bikes, I will definitely choose bike riding (or hiking, walking, camping, etc.).

If you know the joys of living in a tiny house, or you're considering it, drop a comment and let me know if this blog was helpful or at least entertaining.  And if you're bored, and you want to help me clean this place up, come on over.