The reality of tiny house living

All the pros and cons in one place

Aug 07, 2024

Tiny house living captures people’s imagination.

I’m sure most of my family and friends think I’m slightly insane for choosing this lifestyle. But I would argue: what’s not to like about being able to shower, cook, and clean all within a couple meters of each other? I can vacuum my entire house in 2 minutes—need I say more?

And yes, for those wondering, things do get a little tricky when it rains outside and you want to hang your washing to dry. Yes, it does feel like you’re living in a walk-in dryer.

There are many pros and cons to this lifestyle, so here is your definitive guide to the question you have surely been asking yourself: should you get a mansion or a tiny house?

Pro - Affordability

Time to get real: most people nowadays no longer have the choice between a mansion and a tiny house. Housing has become increasingly unaffordable.

I would love to say that our choice for a tiny house was only to cater to our minimalist tendencies, but to be honest our minimal budget definitely informed our decisions as well. For me, a tiny house equals financial freedom. There’s no need to take on the burden of a home loan which will see you paying for 30 years, and in the end, you’ve paid about 2 or 3 times what the house is actually worth.

Tiny houses can be as affordable or expensive as you like. I’ve seen ‘tiny’ houses for sale that are two stories and cost as much as a medium-sized home.

We were very lucky that my husband has many skills in the house-building department. He built our little tiny house entirely from scratch with his own two hands. I was supposed to help but got injured early on in the process - but that’s a different story. He’s very creative as well, so he was able to use materials that were ‘second choice (read: cheaper)’ or even free materials that were gifted.

Because of its size, this is a project you could take on yourself, something that just isn’t possible with a regular house.

Pro - Lower cost of living

Our cost of living has gone down drastically, whereas everyone else’s appears to be going up.

Of course, that has to do with the fact that we are completely off the grid—we have no bills (except for internet and phones). Tiny houses don’t have to be off the grid, though. Many tiny houses are fully on grid, but their costs are still lower.

It makes sense if you think about it. The house is smaller, so it’s easier to heat up. You use less electricity, too, because smaller spaces are more energy efficient.

But it’s not just about your power bill. When your house is smaller, the cost of maintenance goes down as well. The systems are often simpler and smaller in scale, hence you can often DIY it.

Pro and Con - Custom designs

One of the biggest advantages of this way of living, in my eyes, is that everything is designed the way we like it. You don’t have to fit into a certain aesthetic or way of doing things. We were able to choose every design element every step along the way.

Tiny houses open up so many possibilities—once you start thinking outside the box of what a house is supposed to look like, the options are endless. You can get really creative with how you do things. We’re currently in the planning stage for a seating area that can be turned into a sleeping area. Because the hubby will be building it to fit into our space, we can add shelves and little nooks wherever we want.

However, custom designs can quickly turn into a double-edged sword.

Because everything is smaller and custom made it can cause some issues when something breaks down. When everything is DIY, you’re also responsible for fixing it yourself when it breaks down. Qualified tradespeople will often be hesitant to come and look at your DIY puzzles because it just complicates things for them.

I’m very lucky with my clever husband who is able to fix things when they break down - but this is an important potential issue to keep in mind if you are thinking of embarking on a tiny home adventure.

Pro - Simplified Lifestyle

Before moving into our tiny house, we moved around quite a bit.

We had a few challenges finding a stable place to live, and we moved around about seven times in two years. You quickly learn that you have way too much stuff when you have to pack and unpack it all seven times and load it into a moving van seven times.

Every time we moved, our possessions reduced. Things that hadn’t been unpacked since last time were either gifted, sold, taken to op shops or thrown away.

I absolutely love having fewer things. Less possessions, less stress.

I wouldn’t call myself a minimalist per se. I definitely still buy the occasional new item, and what I own doesn’t fit neatly into one box. I don’t have a capsule wardrobe because I love new clothes. However, the things we do own have been carefully selected and had to earn their right to be in our space.

Whenever we buy something new, we consider whether something ‘old’ can go—a “one in—one out” approach. This is really helping to keep things under control.

Con - Clutter

Even though we own about half of what we used to, in a tiny house it can quickly feel too cluttered. Little things like leaving your shopping bag out can make the house feel too small.

I don’t always love unfolding and setting up our table when we want to have dinner, but leaving it out fills up the space.

Drying the washing inside is another example - some days we have a million socks hanging everywhere. It makes for funny looks when you have visitors.

This is reality in a tiny home, though. As someone who loves a tidy house and gets a little uneasy when it looks too cluttered, it’s a good lesson in managing my own stress levels.

On the other hand, cleaning up doesn’t take as long. Did I mention I can vacuum the entire thing in 2 minutes?

Con - Storage challenges

As I mentioned before, I wouldn’t consider myself a minimalist.

This means we do need some storage here and there for the many items we own. Most of the daily-use items have their designated space. The issue arises more when it comes to items we don’t use as often, for example, winter or summer clothes. The change of seasons means we have to go digging for our stuff.

I’m also the type of person (and unfortunately, so is my husband) who forgets what they have when they can’t see it. Just this morning, I saw an older photo of myself and noticed a jacket I had completely forgotten about. It must be in a box somewhere. A lot of my shoes live in a box that is stacked on top of the wardrobe. Needless to say I’ve been wearing the same shoes for the past year - taking that box of the wardrobe is just too much work.

If bulk shopping and getting the best deals at Costco is your thing then tiny house living may not be for you. There just isn’t any room to store that 48-pack of toilet paper or 10 cans of chickpeas. I have to do my shopping twice a week, whereas I used to be able to do one big shop a week. Our fridge isn’t full-sized, so there’s only so many vegetables and meats that we can safely store in there. It’s like a game of Tetris where you hope it doesn’t all fall out when you open the fridge door. Spoiler alert: it does all fall out when you open the fridge door.

Con - Regulatory issues and building codes

I won’t go into this too much because it will differ by country and even by region.

However, it’s important to be aware that tiny houses often have separate rules. Tiny houses on wheels, for example, have major issues with the building code because they aren’t technically buildings. Being creative and thinking outside the box is often difficult when you’re also needing to comply with the building code, which isn’t designed to take tiny houses into account.

Finding a good spot for your tiny house can present challenges. Some areas have minimum requirements for the size of the dwelling to be placed on the land, for example. Again, tiny houses on wheels can often be seen as not a permanent place to live, which makes things difficult for those who want to live in their tiny home permanently.

If you want to get a loan to finance the build of your tiny home, you may be disappointed as well. Of course, I can only speak for New Zealand, but here, it’s nearly impossible to get financing for your tiny house.

Con - Forget about privacy

If all of your rooms double as something else and your entire life is happening on 42 square metres, then you have to accept that privacy is a thing of the past.

If you’re like me and you need quiet time to relax, then this can be a bit of a challenge. If I want to read a book and my husband wants to watch YouTube videos one of us is going to have to use headphones. It’s all about communication, of course. Sometimes when I feel very overstimulated from a busy day at work, I’ll go into the bedroom for some quiet time. When my husband wants a bit of alone time, he’ll go outside, and that’s usually when the woodchopping begins.

Getting ready in the morning and trying to navigate the small space that is our bathroom requires a bit of planning too. Nothing is insurmountable, though.

Pro - Sustainable living

Tiny house (usually) equals tiny footprint.

The average floor space of a house in New Zealand is 141 square metres. Our floor space is 42 square metres. I just don’t believe we need the size of homes that we are currently building. Why do we need so many rooms and why do the rooms need to be so big?

A tiny house uses up a fraction of the resources that a regular sized house uses. Even more so when you live off the grid like we do. First of all, you just need less raw materials to build the house. But then once you live in it, you’re also using less energy. Not to mention the fact you’re literally taking up less space and often have less stuff to fill your house with.

I know I might sound like I’m sipping on a green smoothie while I’m writing this - I’m definitely not perfect and I’ll be the first to admit that some mornings we turn on the generator so we can make a (non-organic) coffee. It’s all about balance and for us, tiny house living is our contribution to trying to do something to live more sustainably.

Pro - Connection with the outdoors

When your indoor space is rather limited, you naturally gravitate to being outdoors more.

Our outdoor space is just as important as our indoor spaces. We do most of the cooking outside, eat outside most days and just generally spend so much more time outdoors. I noticed it has improved my mood, I´m definitely getting enough sunshine hours now.

The pros were easier to write

I’m happy to report that coming up with the pros was much easier. For me personally, there are so many more pros to living this way and I wouldn’t want to give it up for anything.

I often write about the realism of living this way and I know that can come across as perhaps I don’t enjoy it that much. This couldn’t be further away from the truth.

Our off-grid little cabin in the woods is really our dream come true. It has its challenges, but so does everything else in life. In the end, it just depends which challenges you’re willing to accept.

Me, I’m happy to have zero privacy on our 42 square metre floor space. I’m happy playing Tetris with my vegetables and not knowing where my winter coat is.

I get so much in return-it’s worth it.

I always love to hear from my readers. Tell me what you think about tiny house living in the comments.

The reality of tiny house living

All the pros and cons in one place

Discussion about this post