40 Reasons to Jump on the Tiny Living Train

Shannon Quinn - July 20, 2019
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40 Reasons to Jump on the Tiny Living Train
Photo: Many tiny house owners love taking cozy photos like this of their lifestyle. Credit: Shutterstock

Tiny house living has become incredibly trendy in recent years, especially among Millennials who are thinking of alternatives to expensive housing. You may be wondering: What are the benefits of tiny house living? And is it a lifestyle that you would truly enjoy? Everything has its pro’s and con’s, of course, and you can find plenty of people online who have negative things to say about living in a tiny house. But here on Home Addict, we are going to talk about 30 reasons why you should consider living in a tiny home.

40. The Ability to Travel With Your House

Most tiny homes are on trailers, so they can be taken anywhere. Credit: Shutterstock

Imagine waking up in a new place every single day. You could park by the side of the mountain, the ocean, or almost anywhere in the country. Many people who want to take road trips around the United States claim that their tiny home helps them to reduce the cost of hotel rooms when they are traveling cross-country. Of course, you will need a trailer, and a truck that can handle toting the house around from state-to-state. 

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39. Living Off The Grid 

Most tiny house owners aspire to live totally off the grid. Credit: Shutterstock

Many tiny homes have the ability to go off grid. This means that they do not need to rely on the traditional ways of getting electricity or water to the home. Normally this is accomplished through solar panels, composting toilets, and other green alternatives. In the winter time, many people use wood burning stoves to warm their tiny house, and they never have to pay for gas or electric heaters. Many people are thrilled to no longer have to pay for their utility bills every month, and they save thousands of dollars over the course of their year.

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38. The Comforts of Home Away From Home

Traveling in a tiny house is far more comfortable than staying in a hotel. Credit: Shutterstock

When you stay at an AirBnB or a hotel you are going to be surrounded by things that do not belong to you. It is way more difficult to get comfortable and sometimes people even have a difficult time falling asleep. Studies have shown that you will never get a good night’s rest in a hotel room, because your mind is always trying to stay alert in an unfamiliar place. But when you have a tiny home, everything in your living spaces yours. It is like having a home away from home no matter where you go. This means that you can get a very good night’s sleep, even if the outdoors are different every day. 

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37. Cheap Land Rental

Most tiny house owners have to rent land. Credit: Shutterstock

Despite what some people will try to tell you, living in a tiny home is not totally free. Sometimes, you can get very lucky and park your house on someone’s property for free, but most people rent land from someone. Or, if they choose to go on a road trip, they may have to pay a small rental fee to a campground. In fact, if you get caught parking in an unauthorized area, you may end up with a fine. However, in most cases, renting land is far cheaper than renting a house or even an apartment. Most tiny home owners save hundreds if not thousands of dollars by doing this.

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36. Mortgage Free

Tiny house owners can avoid taking out a 30-year mortgage. Credit: Shutterstock

Most tiny homes have to be built from scratch. Plenty of people do not have the money lying around to accomplish this, and they must take out a loan. Depending on the size of the house, people estimate spending between $5,000 and $30,000 to build their tiny house. Even so, these personal loans are going to be much smaller compared to a traditional home mortgage. If you can manage to pay off this loan within a few years, instead of 30. Then you can have a place to live mortgage-free… That is, of course, until you decide to move on to a bigger house some day.

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35. Fully Embracing Minimalism

This rustic tiny house is incredibly minimalistic. Credit: Shutterstock

Having a lot of things does not always make us happy. In fact, many people who become millionaires say that having material things only made in them happy for a short amount of time, and they went back to being miserable again.  In recent years, more and more people are embracing a minimalist lifestyle. When you live in a tiny home, you have no option but to be a minimalist. There is absolutely no space in a tiny house for clutter to pile up. This forces tiny homeowners to pick and choose the things that they want to keep, and ditch everything else. Most of the time, people have to dramatically downsize their belongings and wardrobe before moving into a tiny house. 

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34. Being One With Nature

Yosemite National Park is just one of the many places you can park a tiny home. Credit: Shutterstock

One of the many reasons why some people decide to have a tiny house is that it can bring them closer to nature. When you live in a city or suburb you cannot always be surrounded by mountains forest and the wilderness. If you enjoy the great outdoors, having a tiny house is a way to have the comforts of home right next to a scenic venue. Many tiny house owners have to park their house in an RV lot. This makes it possible for them to go to US National Parks on a regular basis for an extended period of time. Many of these parks are so big, it would take weeks to explore it all. For a tiny house owner, it would actually be possible for them to explore all of the trails.

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33. A Bonding Experience

Most couples who live in tiny houses together say that it brought them closer than ever before. Credit: Shutterstock

Since tiny houses are so small, many people either live in them alone or with just one other person. If a couple is living in a tiny house, there is a 50/50 shot of it either becoming a very good experience or terrible one. For those who say that they enjoyed their experience they say that by living in a tiny house it forced them to bond together and work on their relationship. When two people are stuck in such a small living space, they are forced to work through their problems instead of walking away and ignoring them. Most couples have reported that living in a tiny house forces them to spend more quality time together. 

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32. It Forces You to Get Out More

Most people who live in a tiny house report getting out more often. Credit: Shutterstock

Most tiny home owners say that living in a tiny house forces them to get out more. You really don’t have too much of an option to be a homebody, because it is not the most comfortable place in the world to lounge. This is especially true if one or both partners works from home. Many residents of tiny houses say that they go to cafes more often to work, so that they can concentrate. They also spend more time outside in general. After all, a house or an apartment really is just a place for you to go to sleep at the end of the night. It doesn’t have to be the main place where you live 24/7.

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31. It Makes Owning a Home More Affordable For Millennials

More people can afford a tiny house compared to a full-sized home. Credit: Shutterstock

So many Millennials are stuck with massive amounts of student loan debt. Unfortunately, wrecked credit scores and massive amounts of responsibility make it nearly impossible for some people to ever own a home. The great thing about tiny homes is that people can have house at their very own to keep forever even if they are in a lot of debt. The affordability factor is one of the many main reasons why people decide to build a tiny house in the first place. If they ever decide to leave the lifestyle, they can always sell the tiny house later to someone who is young and ambitious, wanting to begin their own journey.

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30. Lower Carbon Footprint

Tiny house owners have a lower carbon footprint compared to normal sized home owners. Credit: Shutterstock

It takes far fewer materials to build a tiny house compared to a traditional family home. Obviously though if people are traveling with their tiny house on the back of a pickup truck that will admit gas into the atmosphere. According to Renewable Energy World, tiny houses produce significantly less CO2 than standard-sized houses, due to the fact that there are less building materials, and most houses are self-sufficient when it comes to using energy. 

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29. Saving Money For A Future Family 

Living in a tiny house when you are young allows you to save money for your future family. Credit: Shutterstock

One of the major downsides of owning a tiny house is the fact that it is far too small to raise a family. Some parents manage to have babies and toddlers in a tiny house, but they will eventually out grow the space. For young people in their twenties who are living in a tiny home, they say that their monthly expenses have been cut in half. They also usually pay off their debt from the expense to build the house within just a few years. If they are smart with their income, they can put that saved money aside for a down payment on a future home.  Since they are saving half of their monthly expenses compared to living in an apartment, this means that if they wait several years by living in a tiny home they should have the considerable amount of money to go towards their future family. Once they are ready to buy a full-size home, they can list their tiny house on TinyHouseListings.com, and use that money for a down-payment.

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28. Cleaning Doesn’t Take Long at All

Cleaning time is cut down substantially in a tiny house. Credit: Shutterstock

Cleaning a normal sized house is a massive undertaking. If you really want to give the house a deep clean it may actually take you a few hours, or possibly all day to accomplish it. But in a tiny house you can clean everything top-to-bottom in about 30 minutes to an hour. A lot of this also has to do with the fact that most tiny houses are optimized for organization. So absolutely everything has a place for it to be put away. Once you get in a routine of cleaning a tiny house, it becomes very easy.

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27. Freedom To Travel the World

Many people choose to live in a tiny house because they want to travel. Credit: Shutterstock

A woman named Jenna from the YouTube channel Tiny House Giant Journey chose to live in a tiny home because she wanted to be able to afford to travel the world. In her YouTube videos, she said that she has the goal of visiting every single country before she dies. Yes, she can take her tiny home anywhere in the United States and Canada. But you can’t exactly take it on an airplane. Since she is saving so much money from not paying rent, Jenna is able to take her savings and use it to go on vacations to various places around the planet. If it were not for living in a tiny home, Jenna may not have had enough money to afford the vacations that she loves to go on. 

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26. Meeting New People

Many tiny house owners end up meeting new people regularly. Credit: Shutterstock

The tiny house community is very tight-knit. People are very friendly and willing to help one another with any questions that they may have. This is a great opportunity to make new friends all over the country. If you are interested in taking a class to learn about tiny house building, check out Tumbleweed Housing Workshops. They have different seminars and classes scheduled all over the United States, and every class is taught by people who have built their own tiny houses before. While you are there, you can meet other like-minded people.

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25. Focusing on What’s Important

In a small house, you can only keep the essentials. Credit: Shutterstock

In a capitalist society, we are trained to believe that we need more things to be happy. But the reality is that that is not what life is all about. It has so much more to do with our personal relationships, our passions, and what we choose to do with our lives and careers. When you live in a tiny house, there is no option of buying a fancy car. You can’t exactly drive both a tiny house and a fancy car at the same time. You also can’t overindulge on anything, because the small space forces you to really think about what is truly important to you and what deserves to be in your home.

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24. A Totally Custom Living Space

Tiny houses can be architectural marvels. Credit: Shutterstock

When you rent an apartment, every single unit looks exactly the same. They are all a blank canvas for you to add your stuff into, and there is nothing custom about it. Tiny houses on the other hand have to be built from the ground up. So you have the opportunity to build a house that is exactly your interior design style. Normally if you were building a normal sized house from scratch you would spend a tremendous amount of money. It’s like having a millionaire lifestyle for a fraction of the price.

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23. Using Reclaimed Materials

Many tiny house owners use reclaimed wood to build their homes. Credit: Shutterstock

Many people who are building tiny houses choose to use second hand and reclaimed materials. Most hardware stores like Home Depot and Lowes have leftover cuts of wood that can be reused. You can also check out the Habitat for Humanity Restore, where home builders have donated building materials like doors, furniture, and appliances. These are building materials that may have been thrown away if not rescued by these tiny house builders. By using reclaimed materials you will be essentially recycling. This will cut back on the amount of garbage that is sitting in a landfill.

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22. Building With Free Supplies

Sometimes, tiny house owners get free building materials from family and friends. Credit: Shutterstock

Many tiny house builders have been able to get free supplies off the side of the road or from Craigslist. Some people also get free materials from family and friends after they are tearing down a building or something along those lines. Since you’re building a quirky tiny house from scratch, it doesn’t matter if things are a little bit off-kilter. For example, you may find a free window sitting on the side of the road. Since you’re building this tiny house from scratch, it doesn’t really matter if one or two windows are identical to one another because as long as it’s free it can go on your tiny house. 

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21. You Have More Gratitude For The Things You Already Have

Tiny house owners often feel gratitude for the simple things in life. Credit: Shutterstock

Since you have to be careful about what you keep in a tiny house, you think long and hard before you keep something around. Many people will prioritize having a dog, because it means having constant companionship, which becomes a precious commodity. Since you are putting so much thought into why you love certain objects, it will only make you appreciate them more. By having gratitude for the things that you have you will become happier overall.

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20. Learn New Skills

Many tiny house owners are forced to learn carpentry and other skills. Credit: Shutterstock

If you are building your tiny house from scratch, you will learn a tremendous amount of skills that you would have never otherwise known. You will have to learn how to do construction, the laws of the land, and so much more. At the end of this long process you will have gained so much knowledge that you would have never had otherwise. It will also give you the confidence to know that in the future you could probably build another house again, even if it’s a larger one. 

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19. Buy Land Now, Build a Big House Later

You can buy a vacant lot of land to park your tiny house on. Credit: Shutterstock

When you go on websites like Realtor.com and Zillow, you may have noticed that if you arrange the listings as “lowest price first”, You will often find listings that are piece of land instead of an actual house. Since there are more and more legal restrictions against tiny houses across the country, you may want to eventually buy a piece of land to park the tiny house on. This is actually great, because once you own land in a place you love, you can use it to develop a full-sized house later. After all, you already learned those skills on building a house the first time. You just may be able to do it again. Or, at the very least, you can be your own general contractor.

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18. Impress Your Family and Friends

An impressive tiny house parked somewhere with a breathtaking view. Credit: Shutterstock

There are so few people who actually subscribe to the tiny house lifestyle. The odds are high that you may be the only person in your family that actually has one. You are probably the only person in your friend group that has one, too. This will likely be impressive to your friends, because you actually built a house with your own hands! They will probably want to come over to visit and see the house that you created. Most people will never be able to get breathtaking views on a daily basis. Most likely, everyone will be saying how they wish they could do it, too. 

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17. Opportunity For a Fresh Start 

Moving to a tiny house is a fresh start and a new adventure. Credit: Shutterstock

For some people, living in a tiny house gives them the option to start over again. One woman, Susan Parrish, decided to switch over to tiny house living when she suddenly got a divorce at 50 years old. She had to move out of a large home and into a small apartment. After realizing how much stuff she had accumulated over the years, she decided to donate most of it, and opt for the tiny house lifestyle. During this time, she was able to experience new things, and meet a new man. With the expense of a new mortgage or apartment, it would have probably been far more difficult for Parrish (or anyone else, for that matter) to live such a high quality of life.

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16. It Makes You More Creative 

Living in a tiny house often leaves more time for creative pursuits and hobbies. Credit: Shutterstock

Living in a tiny house always forces you to be on your toes, and think outside of the box. Whether you are creating custom art pieces to go in your tiny house, or if you are simply forced to come up with a creative solution to a problem, your mind will constantly be working in ways that it never has before. Many people who move into tiny houses say that they also have more time for their creative pursuits, whether it’s music, writing, art, or craftsmanship.

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15. It Forces You To Be More Mindful 

Living close to nature helps to keep you more mindful of your surroundings. Credit: Shutterstock

Some people go through life feeling like they are dragging their feet from one day to the next. There is an entire movement of people preaching “mindfulness”, which is trying to be more aware of your surroundings and become more present in the moment. In a tiny house, you always have to be fully alert and mindful of your surroundings. If you aren’t paying attention, you can fall out of your loft, or accidentally let the rain in through your windows. Your mind becomes sharp at all times. Sure, this can be seen as a negative thing, but it truly will keep you on your toes.

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14. Home Maintenance is Less Expensive 

In a small space like this, home repairs are very small. Credit: Shutterstock

Most first-time home buyers complain that repairs and maintenance were far more expensive than they had ever imagined. This is enough to scare some people off from ever buying a house at all, because some of the major repairs can cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. In a tiny house, everything is brand new. So it will take years before anything needs to be replaced. On top of that, the reduced square footage means that any maintenance is going to be less expensive, as well.

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13. Become Debt-Free 

Becoming debt-free is a goal that a lot of people strive for. Credit: Shutterstock

Many people who choose the tiny house lifestyle are saving so much money on rent, that they are able to pay off their debts at a faster pace. Becoming debt-free is one of the top priorities for tiny house owners. Of course, if you are barely making it by while living in a tiny house, this might not help you pay off debt, though. If you are smart about your financial situation, and seek to increase your income, you can leverage tiny house living to your advantage.

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12. An Instagram Worthy Lifestyle 

Many tiny house owners take photos of their alternative lifestyle. Credit: Shutterstock

Okay, some of you out there will immediately roll your eyes at this. But we all know it’s true, and photographers out there will totally agree. Living in a traveling tiny house or having the “van life” is something that looks great on social media. You are very likely to attract attention from your friends, and many people have actually used this to propel a career in blogging. Having the ability to travel from state to state also gives you the opportunity to explore more backdrops if you are interested in a career in photography.

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11. Living by Example 

The best way to show people that alternate lifestyles are possible is for you to do it yourself. Credit: Shutterstock

There are so many people out there who like to preach about reducing carbon footprint, minimalism, and all of that jazz, but fewer people who are willing to put their money where their mouth is. If green living truly is something that is important to you, living in a tiny house can be a way for you to lead by example. You can show other people that you truly do not need a huge McMansion and a four-car garage to be happy.

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10. It Gives You The Ability to Visit Your Relatives More Often

Many people living in a tiny house take more time to see their family. Credit: Shutterstock

When we live in a large house or comfortable apartment, it is all too easy to become a homebody. Sometimes we do not feel motivated to get out and see our relatives. Or, if our friends and family live too far away we may make the excuse that it is too expensive to travel there. With tiny house living, you are probably more likely to visit your family because you will feel the need to get out of the tiny space. It will also give you the ability to take your lodgings with you cross country. Now even if your relatives do not have a space for you to sleep in their house, you have your own bedroom. This makes it easier to visit relatives during the holidays or any other time of year.

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9. Your Dog Will Love It

Dogs usually love exploring new places. Credit: Shutterstock

Dogs love to explore. When you bring them to a new park, they are always sniffing and wagging their tails because they love seeing and smell new things. Imagine bringing your dog to a new park once a week. They will be happy to take long walks and hikes with you through the forest as you look at the wide world that you live in. On the flip side, if you live with a dog in an apartment, you might only give them the ability to circle the same small patch of grass. And it is likely that they are staying alone for hours at a time. 

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8. You Don’t Have to Host Family Holidays

Tiny house owners never have to host a Christmas party. Credit: Shutterstock

Whenever it is your turn to host Thanksgiving or Christmas it, sometimes becomes a huge nightmare. You will have to pay for food and figure out where everyone is going to sleep. This can be so stressful that some families opt to rotate the responsibility every year to a different member of the family.  When you live in a very small space like a tiny house, you will never have to take on this responsibility. In fact, it would actually be impossible. Most trailers have a weight limit, so you can only have a maximum of 3 to 4 people in the home at one time. If you like throwing parties, this could be a huge negative thing. But if you do not enjoy being the host of shindigs, that is a huge plus for your low-key lifestyle. 

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7. Less Stress

Owning a full-sized house can cause a lot of stress in your life. Credit: Shutterstock

When you own a full-sized house there is a lot to worry about. You will have to pay for repairs, taxes, and maintain your property and surrounding sidewalks. There is so much to worry about when you are a homeowner. It causes a tremendous amount of stress for a lot of people, and it is enough for some to become life-long renters so that they can totally abstain from the responsibility. With the tiny house, you really only have to worry about your small home and not much else.  In most cases, you will not own the land that your house is parked on. And you will therefore not be responsible for the taxes or maintaining any of the property. Plus, if the house is brand new, it is not likely that many things will break down on you.

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6. It’s Easy to Resell Later

Selling a house is normally a time-consuming and stressful process. Credit: Shutterstock

With so many people curious about living the tiny house lifestyle, you should not have a problem selling your tiny house once you’re done living in it. If you were selling a full-sized house, you would have to go through the process of working with a real estate agent, having inspections, repairs, and waiting for someone to quality for a mortgage. When it is time to sell a tiny house, you are often dealing in cash purchases, and it is simply a matter of switching the title over to the new owner, similar to an RV. Many people who are ready to start a family and say goodbye to tiny house living choose to put their houses on TinyHouseListings.com.

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5. Feel More Safe and Cozy

Many tiny house owners feel safe in their home. Credit: Shutterstock

Some people claim that when they stay in a large house alone, they do not feel as safe. This may be due to the fact that in a large home you cannot be totally aware of what is happening in every single room. For example, if you have a bedroom upstairs you may have no idea if someone has broken in downstairs. People who own a tiny house have claimed that they feel much more safe and secure because their entire living space is laid out in front of them. They can also hear any oncoming Intruders surrounding them if it were to ever happen. Plus, since it is such a small house it is unlikely that anyone would ever want to rob it, because they will already know that it’s owned by someone who is living a minimalist lifestyle with very few material things. What would they want to steal, a yoga mat? Unlikely. 

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4. Experience Living Alone

Many people love experiencing living alone for at least a year. Credit: Shutterstock

There are some people who will go their entire lives never living alone. They may transition from living with their parents to getting a college roommate to immediately moving in with a significant other. If this describes your life, there is nothing wrong with that. Loneliness is a real thing, and human beings are meant to spend life together. However, many people have reported that when they lived alone for the very first time, they found a part of themselves that they would have never been able to explore otherwise. If you live in a tiny house, it is likely that you are going solo. Even if you only spend one year living tiny, it may fundamentally change your life and help with discovering who you truly are as a person.

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3. It’s Warmer in the Winter

A wood stove would make a tiny house very warm very quickly. Credit: Shutterstock

In a large house it takes a lot of energy to heat the entire space. If there are very tall ceilings it also becomes almost impossible for a place to actually feel warm. After all,  heat rises and it will take a significant amount of time before you can feel cozy. But in a tiny house, if you have a wood stove it will become very warm very quickly. In such a small living space it does not take very much energy to heat up the house. So in many ways you will actually feel warmer in this little space compared to a large mansion. 

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2. You Become More Open-Minded

Living in a tiny house helps keep you more open-minded. Credit: Shutterstock

For people who live in an apartment or house, many of them believe in the traditional way of doing things. Some will even look down on anyone who decides to live in a sprinter van, trailer, or any other form of alternate housing. If you are choosing to live in a tiny house it means that you’re already an open-minded person who is willing to think outside of the box. If you actually cross the line and build or buy a tiny house you will begin a journey of meeting all different types of people who are living an alternate lifestyle. Many people say that the experience of living in a tiny house has helped them become less judgmental and more open-minded to all different kinds of people. 

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1. You are Forced to Stay in Good Shape

If you are hiking all the time, you will probably stay in good shape. Credit: Shutterstock

If you have to climb in and out of a loft to go to sleep everyday, this means that you are getting some form of physical activity. If you become lazy and are no longer physically fit it will become almost impossible for you to actually get up the ladder. Many people who live in a tiny house end up becoming even more healthy and fit than they were before they moved in. This comes from a combination of the physical activities of building the house, hiking, climbing, and all of the other necessities that go into making the house in the first place. You will not have the option to sit at your desk or plop on the couch at the end of the night. If you want to survive in a tiny house you need to stay in great physical shape.

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