Living on Wheels

Recently I was visiting with friends I had not seen in a while. A young couple with a toddler started telling me about tiny houses, which I have never heard of. Intrigued by what I heard I went home and started watching various videos on tiny houses. From there I started watching videos on RV vans, RV buses, and RVs.

We have a plan to live a lifestyle free from a house, mortgage, and stuff. Currently our house is 1,500 SF and with me researching, blogging, the magazine, creating organic skin care products, the podcast, and speaking I want something smaller. I want less to have to clean and more time to do what I love and that is helping others live a happy, healthy, natural life.

So guess what?? You all get to come with us on this journey from the start. We are not sure what we are going to go with as far as a dwelling, but know we want to be able to travel and take it with us. First off let's start with the tiny house, I really like love this idea.

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Tiny Houses

I love the concept of a tiny house and how it can be customized. It interested me that these houses are created on a trailer allowing the owner to move it or take where ever they want to. The first videos I  started watching talked about how a tiny house can be created to be less toxic than a regular house or a RV. Many dwellers also go off the grid with these houses, but also have incorporated components for on the grid living if they chose to.

Planning 

When planning on building a tiny house the biggest thing to keep in mind is storage. I have seen some really creative things done in tiny houses when it comes to storage. Also items can be incorporated that have multiple purposes. For example a couch could be made to be storage and turn into a bed for guests.

You also want to take into consideration how many people will be occupying the tiny house. It is important to make sure there is enough room for everyone. Decide if you want to build the house for off grid or on grid living. Personally I think doing a combination is the way to go as it allows you more freedom to chose. Plus there will be no regrets later.

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Sleeping

All but one tiny house I have seen have lofts for sleeping one on either side of the house. This is one area of the tiny house that will have to be really planned out. Most have low ceilings and only allow for a futon mattress. Now I can deal with the futon mattress, but I want to be able to at least sit up and not bump my head. Accessing the lofts are done two ways, either by latter or stairs. The latter takes up less space, but can be a challenge for some individuals. I like the idea of stairs plus they can be made to create storage rather inside the stair itself or be made into shelves. One of the lofts can be used as sleeping quarters for children or guests, can be used for storage or omitted all together. 

Bathroom 

This room takes on a whole new look in a tiny house. They are usually small, but you can design them the way you want. For instance what we want to do and is the most common is to have a composting toilet. This toilet looks like a regular toilet, but instead of a bowl it has a bucket. Sawdust is used after each use to cover up the smell and start the composting process. While this might not seem appealing there are other options, but I like this for conserving water, living off the grid, and living a more natural life.

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Kitchen

While in many households the kitchens are big for gatherings and conversing they are of course smaller in a tiny house. Now this is totally up to you on how big or small the kitchen will be. For us the main thing to consider is having enough room to prepare my skin care products. I would also like to get rid of the microwave for various reasons, but the biggest one being that it removes all the nutrients from our food. 

Some of the images I saw for utilizing the space under the stairs had the stove and sink there which I like. I really think we can go with a smaller fridge, like the ones in hotels. After all we just got back from Tennessee and the hotel we stayed at for two days didn't even have a fridge. We just used our cooler to keep all of our food and drinks cold and this is something I have seen others do as well. When it's just one or two people how much do you  really need anyway?

I really like the layout of the kitchen in the photo and while it is hard to see the floor for the living room is raised with drawers underneath. If you click on the photo credit you can see images of various tiny houses. It really is amazing what people are doing with them.

Living Room

This is one of my favorite rooms and I have so many ideas and I'm sure I will get more. Because I want to have room for guests I want to have a couch like the one I mentioned earlier. There are all sorts of styles or some just make their own. I want to incorporate a section of the living room for a office space, but at the same time be able to convert it into sitting space for company. I love a fireplace and was happy to find that we could actually incorporate one into our tiny house. Of course it wouldn't be the size we have now and some of them do not even look like a fireplace. In fact they are so small you use twigs to create the fire and I did see one that used coal.

Wheels or No Wheels

While the tiny house I am discussing here is the one that is built on a trailer to move where you want you can also construct a tiny house without wheels. Which ever options you chose there are a variety of things you can do to term the size. First is to just determine how much room you want or need. If you have a piece of land in mind to build this will make this easier. Now if you want a tiny house on wheels you still have some flexibility, but not as much as if you were building on land. There are various size trailers one can use to build a tiny house including a flat bed.

Buying or Building

While a lot of the videos I watched people built their own tiny house you can also purchase one. Think about how much you have to spend this could be the determining factor for buying of building. If having a home that is less toxic is an important factor be sure you discuss this with the builder. When building you have total control of what materials go into your tiny house. Also by building your own tiny house you can incorporate recycled items into the house. Downside to this is you may not be able to get information on the toxicities of the materials chosen for use. 

Research

Make sure to do your homework and research every aspect of living this type of lifestyle. I have been doing this for about a month now and have learned a lot. Be sure to check back as I will be sharing more on living on wheels, what I have learned, and what our plan is.

Questions

Do you live in a tiny house, RV, or RV van? I would love to hear your one piece of advice for those just starting out.

Would you live in a tiny house? If so on or off wheels?

Would you live on wheels at all? If so what is your preference?