Sustainability| 3 min read

10 Reasons Your Next Home Should Be A Tiny Home

A tiny home is exactly what it sounds like: a living space that’s usually between 100 and 400 square feet.

A tiny home is exactly what it sounds like: a living space that’s usually between 100 and 400 square feet. They come in all shapes and sizes. Some tiny homes are retrofitted buses, others are actually wooden homes built from scratch.

More and more people are joining the tiny home movement, and for good reason. It’s an easier, simpler way to live – if you’ve got the right mindset for it. Here’s 10 reasons you should consider a tiny home for your next home.

1. You save a ton of cash.

New homes built in the United States today are 1,000 square feet larger than those built in the 1970s. The median home size is now over 2,600 square feet! That’s a big space to heat in the winter and cool in the summer. Not just that, but you have to consider the cost of the stuff needed to fill all that space as well as the mortgage itself. Choosing a tiny home is way more cost effective than buying an enormous house.

2. You can hit the road any time.

It’s a popular design to put tiny homes on wheels. It’s sort of like an RV, but more customization is available. If you’re ready for a house but not ready to settle down in one spot, the tiny home is the way to do it.

3. Time is on your side.

Something you wouldn’t expect to get out of a house is time, but with a tiny home, you absolutely do. There’s so much time saved living in a smaller space. Less time cleaning, less time organizing, and less time searching for stuff. That’s more time for you to enjoy your life!

4. It’s the “green” thing to do.

The environmental consequences of owning a large home can be significant. Heating your home usually occurs in one of two ways – a natural gas furnace or electric heating. In both cases, you’re likely to be using fossil fuels to heat your home. With a tiny home, it’s easier to go off-grid entirely. You can have an electric heating unit powered by a small solar panel on the roof of your home.

5. There’s more room for gardening.

And who doesn’t love more space for things like gardening? Having a tiny home means less of your lot is dedicated to, well, being a house! That means you’ve got more room to grow your own food, play outside, and even have backyard chickens. And while we have you here, check out our story, 6 reasons to keep a flock of backyard chickens.

6. Your belongings become more valuable.

Recently, I wrote about my experiences with minimalism and what I learned. One thing you find with owning a tiny home is that you can’t fill it up with a bunch of frivolous wants. Instead, each item becomes more valuable. The things you own are truly useful.

7. You’re freer to do what you want.

Check your local ordinances, but in many regions, tiny homes fall below the square footage threshold where zoning and building laws come into play. This makes them easier to customize, but please make sure you’re still having professionals handle things like plumbing and electrical. We’d never advise you to take on projects like that unless you’re an expert on it.

8. It inspires creativity.

When you have limited space, you have to engage your mind more to figure out, well, how to live! Where will your books go? Where will your bed go? Is there space for the television? The answer to all of it will become clear, but you’ll have to get creative first.

9. No more mortgage!

Mortgages can soak up a lot of your income, but with a tiny home, you don’t need to worry about it. You own it up front! You can purchase a parcel of land, but they tend to run far far less expensive than buying an actual home. Just be warned, sometimes it costs a lot of money to dig a well, get septic, and get a power hookup.

10. You grow closer to your family.

When you’re in such a tight space, you can’t go to separate rooms and use separate electronic devices anymore. If you and your partner (and kids if you have them) are close enough to deal with that, you’ll likely grow even closer over time.

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