The Transition to Tiny Living

Mindset
I have personally always been very unconventional.  I question everything and am quick to entertain new ideas.  This made it very easy for me to picture myself living tiny.  Wyatt differs from me in that way.   I assumed that he didn't take on the idea as quick because he had the "American Dream" in mind.  When I asked him he said it wasn't that he dreamed of a 2,000 square foot house, two kids, and a dog... but that he figured that is what we would have some day.  When I thought about it, I guess at one point in my life I thought the same thing.  That's what we Americans work and strive for, right? Well, not me, not anymore! I see the tiny house lifestyle as the answer to all of my unconventional ideas and questioning.  The benefits were the answer to our problems* which eventually had Wyatt on board.
 *living paycheck to paycheck, being unable to travel as we wish, being locked into a mortgage or lease, etc 


The Move
After making the decision to live tiny my husband, Wyatt, and I had to figure out where to start.  We were not able to pay our mortgage (or a rent) and build a tiny house unless we wanted it to be a 10 year project.  Fortunately, my parents have more than enough room in their not-so-tiny house and offered to take us in and allow us to build our home on their property.  Even better yet, their 30 foot camper trailer sits on their property and it was decided that living in the camper would give Wyatt and I an idea of the tiny lifestyle.  

We had our important decisions made from the initial research we had done.  First, we don't plan to purchase land for our tiny home, we plan to rent.  My mom referred me to a site that has tiny houses for sale and parking listings. We will browse this site, post an ad on Craigslist and social media, and ask around in the community we are looking into.  We are considering temporarily placing our tiny home in a campground once it is finished while we locate a piece of land, too.  And second, we will be self sustainable and will not have to rely on having to plug in to a grid of any kind. There are a lot more decisions to be made but we find it less stressful to figure out the details as we go. 

Once we had an accepted offer on the house we downsized our possessions dramatically.  We went digital with our paperwork and got everything scanned into our cloud and shredded.  It was very easy for me to get rid of items as I do not attach myself to material things; I actually found it a quite therapeutic!  Wyatt wasn't as quick to downsize but he slowly realized the lack of purpose in many items and downsized his possessions to the basic necessities.  

We sold some of our larger items on Craigslist, many more at a garage sale my sister held, and the rest went to thrift stores.  We left ourselves with our clothes, electronics, and kitchen basics.  We haven't missed any of the items we got rid of; they served their purpose at the time and are no longer needed.  

We went from a 1300 square foot home (with a basement FULL of storage) to a 30 foot camper trailer. The camper is obviously not built for long-term use so we do have a few bins in my parents' basement with a couple of picture frames, extra blankets, and winter clothes.

Pros & Con(cern)s 

Shortly after hearing about the tiny house movement I read this amazing article about the top five regrets people have and it was so perfectly timed that I was convinced we had to give the lifestyle a try.  I found myself very moved while reading it and believe our new lifestyle will prevent us from having such regrets.  If you are considering the transition to tiny living don't let a few hurdles get in your way... you may regret it. 
 
Pros:
•Work Flexibility & Time
As a child I remember questioning things such as the regular work week.  I couldn't understand why one or two people had to work the five days a week just to get by.  If a person sleeps eight hours a night and works 40 hours a week, that leaves them with just 72 hours (awake) a week for everything else (not including travel time to work, getting ready, or overtime).  I find that incredibly sad. To have to spend the majority of your time somewhere that's only real purpose is to provide a good life for yourself... or partial life.  I found the person I want to spend the rest of my life with and I feel that I should be able to spend most of my time with him and the rest of my loved ones.
The tiny lifestyle will allow us to work less if we choose and provide more time for the things we love.


 •Money
Not only will we have more time to spend, but we will have more money as well.  When we were living paycheck to paycheck we weren't working for vacations, concerts, gifts, clothes, or savings for unexpected expenses.  We worked for food and housing and had to say "no" countless times to so many fun experiences and activities simply due to cost.  Why were we working to live?  

•Location Flexibility
Wyatt and I enjoy the city we first lived in but I despise Winter.  We have talked about temporarily moving to a warmer climate; and possibly permanently if we so choose.  Because we are unsure of where we want to live permanently, having a house on wheels with no mortgage or lease to get out of is absolutely perfect! While we understand finding land to rent will be a challenge, it outweighs the challenges of the alternative.

Concerns:
Some of my initial concerns included where we would live while we build, feeling claustrophobic, total cost, moving the house, parking the house, and fear. 
•The concern about where we would live and build has been solved by living with my parents and building on their land. 
•The worry of feeling claustrophobic is not a concern as we are currently living in a 30 foot camper trailer. Once we move into our tiny house it will feel like a mansion compared to this! 
•We still aren't completely sure of the total cost, but thankfully other tiny house dwellers are so willing to share budget and cost information that we have a good range of what to expect.  We expect our tiny house to cost between 18-25k.  The trailer was 7k so we expect to spend between 11 and 18k to finish it.  
•While in Wisconsin, we are able to ask family and/or friends to move the house (we don't want to purchase a big truck to move it a handful of times).  If we plan to move farther away (South, please!) we can rent a vehicle to move it. 
•Like I had mentioned above, we will check out tinyhouselistings.com for listings for parking the house but will also utilize social media, Craigslist, and asking around in the community about land to rent.  If we finish the house and have no parking established, we may park it in a campground temporarily. 
•Fear is always associated with change... for most people.  But this concern was not shared by me, just Wyatt.  Fear is totally normal and understandable but I do not fear change, I fear the opposite.  I encourage change and am excited about it for change encourages growth and knowledge.  This concern was outweighed by the benefits.  

These were just a few of our pros and con(cern)s.  Many people have more or less but we figure out the small details as we go and don't let them deter us from the big picture.

Research
Like I had mentioned in my summary post, I did my research on the tiny house movement by doing online searches.  I wanted to find real life answers to my initial concerns in order to determine if this lifestyle would be for us.

TinyHouseTalk.com has great articles that have answered dozens of my questions. I will usually just type in "tiny" and whatever question I have into Google and Tiny House Talk is one of the first results.  I also take the time to read comments for more detailed information and additional questions.  I love that people in the tiny house community are so willing to share information! 

My mom purchased and  borrowed us the book titled Tiny House Design and Construction Guide by Tiny Home Builders. It's a fantastic book that covers a lot but is not overwhelming to someone (me) completely unfamiliar with construction. I highly recommend it!

What if tiny ends up not being for me?
I found an article from Tiny House Talk regarding people who have moved out of their tiny homes.  We cannot predict the future and regardless of how excited we are about this transition there is not telling if it will last forever.  While I have read so much about the benefits of living tiny, I was left wondering how long the benefits would outweigh the big changes.

Long-Term Plan
While we may be happy forever in our tiny home, I do like the idea of eventually establishing ourselves in a permanent location.  Our plan is to buy land in a location we could live in for the rest of our lives.  We don't know if it will be in 10, 15, or 30 years but we plan to pay for it outright, have no loan payment, and to continue living off grid and tiny/small.