5 Tiny House Myths: An Essay of Alarming Length

Some people think that something magical happens when you move into a tiny house. Suddenly, you're living the sunny, simple life. All your meals are home-cooked from exclusively whole foods, your thumb turns green, and it looks like Marie Kondo just spent her vacation in your home. 

I'll admit that somewhere in the back of my mind I was half expecting my ideal lifestyle would just fall into place once we started living tiny. But honestly, that's just not how it works. Things like intentionality, mindfulness and healthier living take real effort, just like in any home. 

So let me introduce to you 5 myths, or misconceptions, that I have unearthed in our first year and a half of living in a tiny home. 

Misconception #1: Tiny houses are easy to keep clean

I will be the first to admit that I won't be winning any awards for housekeeping any time soon, so I will just share my personal experience. I have found that less surface area has meant that things like vacuuming and mopping do take less time. Also, tiny house living by nature requires a person to have less "stuff," which should mean less to have maintain and tidy. So in those ways, cleaning does becomes a bit easier. 

That being said, there are some thing that don't change, regardless of house size. We still use the same amount of dishes, make the same amount of laundry, and generate the same amount of dust/pet hair, but all in much less space. Imagine you have a cup of sand. If you were to pour that cup into a wheelbarrow, it would seem like a fairly insignificant amount of dirt. But if you pour it into a flower pot, that sand suddenly feels a bit more substantial. In a little space, that basket of yet-to-be-folded laundry takes up half of your living room and a meal's worth of dishes is your entire counter space. If you can stay on top of things, it's all good. But as soon as you fall a little behind (say, if you have a baby needing attention, or perhaps you are a human being), the place starts to feel pretty messy pretty quick. Is it messier than in a standard house? No, but it feels like it. The mess simply has nowhere to hide.

This collapsible basket was a tiny-house-laundry game changer!

Misconception #2: Tiny house living gives you more free time

This is a really nice and even attainable idea. But it doesn't just happen and I don't think it should even necessarily be one's goal. I feel a more accurate description is that rather than creating more available time, tiny living helps you prioritize your time. 

The fact is, our daily routine since moving into our tiny house has in many ways actually takes more time than previously. We have realised that rushing is almost impossible in our home. Trying to rush around in our square footage usually results in messes or minor injuries as things get knocked over or people/pets get accidently bulldozed. 

Starting the day off most mornings of the year, we build a fire in our wood stove, a task that is more time consuming than turning up a thermostat. Only one of us can get ready for the day at a time, because we can only fit one person at a time in our bathroom. Everything must be put away right after it is used, even if we are running late (which of course never happens) because there is simply nowhere for it to exist except its 'home.' Making food in a tiny kitchen takes me more time than it would in a larger kitchen that has more space and bigger appliances. The list could go on. However, none of these things are actually bad things!

Justin has said over and over how he enjoys going out in the crisp, pre-dawn air to chop wood (something that definitely wouldn't happen to that night owl otherwise), and both of us find that moments tending the fire are extremely therapeutic. A tiny bathroom means that we both get an opportunity to hang out with our super awesome baby as the other person gets ready. A tiny kitchen has motivated me to start a monthly meal plan to keep my kitchen prep simple and straightforward, which in turn has meant saved money and less food waste. 

We all probably know this by now, but sometimes time is less about quantity, and more about quality.

Roughly a day's worth of day's worth of heat in -30

Misconception #3: Tiny houses are easier to build than standard houses

Justin has helped to build a handful of homes in his looooong old life, and he will be the first to admit that our tiny house has been one of the more difficult projects he's done. Small ≠ simple. For example, Justin designed our roofline, which I love. He had to make sure that it would fit our interior space, stay road-legal, and function in our snowy climate. Pre-fab trusses, therefore, were totally out of the question. Justin designed and built custom trusses to maximize R-value, be cost efficient, and still give himself head clearance. I personally think he used magic, but he says something about this stuff he calls math, which I don't believe in. 

Drywall, insulation, plywood, and OSB all come in standard sized sheets, that when used in such a small space require A LOT of tedious measuring and cutting. Combine this with building custom furniture to fit the space, as well as using atypical materials at times to meet the unique needs of a house on a trailer in a harsh climate, and you have yourself a build that is far from simple. 

Of course, this is our experience, and not necessarily a universal rule. We did a DIY build, but to hire a builder would obviously negate all of this. We built on a trailer, which again presents a unique set of challenges, especially where we live. We also tried to upcycle as much as possible and stick to a fairly modest budget, which definitely created more work for us. The overall complexity of the design of your house can also affect the difficulty. But for us, it was not as easy as we may have originally thought.  

Misconception #4: Tiny house living is inherently eco-friendly

Fact: eco-friendly living is a choice, regardless of where you live. It certainly looks different or becomes easier in certain circumstances. But conscientiousness is ultimately what contributes to a person's ecological footprint.

As with most of the previous points, a tiny house is a great step in the right direction, but it is not a free pass to green living. There are many ways that an itty bitty square footage can tempt a person towards less sustainable ways of living. For example, it's easy to want to purchase single-use items in a scenario in which you have little space to store reusable alternatives. It's also easy to find yourself throwing out an object in a hasty attempt to "minimalise," only to realise down the road that you need to replace that same item ("haste makes waste" - more on that some other time). Buying bulk is not always reasonable in a tiny space, meaning more packaging can end up in your garbage. Furthermore, most properties, at least in Canada, that legally allow for a tiny house year round are rural, meaning that a person uses their car more than they would if they lived in an urban center where they could walk or use public transit. 

For me, the most tangible example of this point is my cloth diapering journey, or lack thereof. We use a composting toilet, so we don't have black water. This is great, from an environmental perspective, but not so great from a cloth diapering perspective. I was so excited to cloth diaper as we anticipated the arrival of our little bean. One day I was enthusiastically showing my mom (who is a true cloth diapering hipster; doing it way before it was cool) the styles and colours I had in my online shopping cart, ready to press "checkout." She listened nicely, as moms do, before innocently dropping her bomb: "But how will you rinse them without water in your toilet?" I was crushed. I was unwilling to rinse poop into my shower every few hours, and with a newborn I found the idea of emptying a poopy bucket of water outside multiple times a day was beyond what I could manage. I had to use disposable diapers. 

That being said, a tiny house definitely can encourage green living. Less electricity is needed in a small space, meaning that solar energy is more plausible, even in our region. Heating requirements are minimal and can be achieved easily using sustainably sourced wood (one of our local hardware stores sells cheap lumber cutoffs to burn, which I think is pretty cool!). High efficiency or quality second-hand materials are more available and affordable in tiny quantities. And of course, there is the infamous composting toilet. There is give, and there is take. I think living green, regardless of the size of your house, is about trying to give more and take less.  

Our eco-friendly heated blanket (AKA an excuse to put my pets in this post)

Misconception #5: Living tiny will simplify your life

A small space can be very conducive to simple living. But, the reality is that mindfulness and minimalism is something that can be fostered anywhere. If a person is not committed to these things in their current home, moving into a smaller one will not magically make them priorities in their lives. I've dreamed for years of a simple, slow life and thought that our tiny house would really make this happen for me. And in many ways it has, but not without conscious effort. In some ways, it has actually made it more difficult, but our space is a daily reminder and encourager of my goal. 

In truth, what makes the above ideas 'myths,' is the misconception that they are instantaneous and a result of outside influences or environment. The reality is that all of these things take time, intentionality and personal commitment. A tiny house can be a gateway to the lifestyle you want, but you have to put on your walking shoes and make the journey yourself. 

Thanks for reading my thesis!