Highlights: How to Move Into a Tiny House
- Get clear on your new life and record the journey
- Take steps to avoid known issues
- Learn as much as you can about tiny living
Close to buying or building a tiny home? Spend some time staying in one first, plan your finances, and manage your emotions. Consider possible issues and plan ways to avoid them. Seek out knowledge, online and in-person, to make your transition smooth.
Prepare Yourself to Move Into a Tiny House
Experience It First
Tiny home living feels inherently different.
For example, you may relish choosing an outfit from a small closet, changing sheets while lying across a loft bed, even balancing your toothbrush on the rim of a quarter-sized sink.
But preparing food on a two-burner stove, with limited storage and counter space, might cross the line for you.
Figure out whether a small space feels more like a fun organizational puzzle to solve, or an option-constrained stressor, before you decide to move. Take a tiny home holiday or offer to house-sit a friend’s small abode. Live in one room of your current place for a week.
Then be honest with yourself – and with any friends or family roommates. If any aspect of tiny home living just plain freaks you out, see if you can adjust your plans, or your future home, to accommodate your wants and needs.
Take Care of Your Money
The majority of the wealth of all but the top 1% of Americans today sits in their homes. Families in every income bracket have accumulated, on average, at least twice as much in equity as they owe on outstanding mortgage balances.
Should you decide to buy a tiny home, you’ll likely avoid traditional mortgage payments, with associated interest rates and fees. But you’ll also miss the future time when monthly payments start to accumulate as equity, not to mention the steady increases in property value seen over most historical periods.
Whether you’re considering a tiny house for environmental or purely financial reasons, think about your future. Since your home won’t become as sizable a financial resource, plan to put money aside every month, if at all possible, and build your own savings and investment accounts.
Home mortgage payments carry the threat of foreclosure should you skip them. Find a personal way to create this same sense of discipline for your chosen money accumulation approach.
Get Your Head Around Moving into a Tiny House
Moving, to a tiny house or not, sits near the top of lists of stressful life events. Embrace this reality, and consider all of your emotions around it. Even happy transitions include loss, of what you’re leaving and even of options not taken.
Try making lists while you go. In addition to to-dos for practical, physical items to build, sell, or choose, make separate ones with all of the life changes you experience. Note items you say goodbye to, or hopes you have for your simpler digs. Take pictures along the way.
You might write a journal, or create a photo presentation on your computer, that includes pieces of your journey. Inspire yourself with the reasons you plan to make the change, and remind yourself and update these as you progress.
Change What You Must
Among the modern designs, clever storage, and sense of purpose in the tiny home movement nestle concerning details. Address them upfront.
Up to Code
State and local real estate codes protect homebuyers, whether of new or existing properties. It’s not always so with tiny houses, which may fall under the radar due to their size.
Check references for builders you hire. If you’re doing the construction, learn what the pros do and prioritize keeping your house safe. Include plumbing, electrical, mechanical, and safety features.
Take a page from the structured closing requirements for traditional homes and hire an inspector. If local home professionals feel unqualified to sign off on your small home, contact one of the inspection, certification, and testing organizations compiled by the Tiny House Alliance USA.
Land
While tiny home advocates such as Zack Giffin are “working with state and municipal governments around the US to convince policymakers to change housing codes that prevent tiny homes from parking or building in certain areas,” land may still present an issue for you.
Foundation-built tiny homes may fall below minimum square footage zoning requirements in many places.
Houses on wheels, in most of the US, bump up against RV limits. Two-week consecutive stay maximums and 180-days-per-year total limits put these vehicle/home hybrids into a legal gray area.
Some tiny homeowners buy a bit of land in a rural area with liberal zoning laws, or band together to buy an existing house and park on the property. Tiny home communities that have solved the zoning complications may warrant a look.
Make a plan ahead of time for where to locate your tiny home so you don’t end up living in uncertainty.
Weather the Storm
Think through likely, and even outlier, natural disasters in your chosen location. Seek advice on how best to protect your home, and yourself, against these possibilities.
While a house on wheels means you can drive it away from a storm, it’s best to research ways to shore up your defenses ahead of time. Look into hurricane shutters, consider anchoring your home-on-wheels to solid ground, and use water-resistant materials and sealants. Invest in insulation against the winter cold and install cooling measures for summers, especially in loft spaces.
On the Road
Though tiny spaces on wheels can be hauled to the next location you’ve chosen, this too requires preparation. Tie everything down. Look into ways to minimize wear on your home.
Price out the costs to rent or buy a truck that can haul it, and include gas costs for the larger engine required.
Learn About How to Move Into a Tiny House
Small space living’s appeal rests on embracing a culturally different idea. Rather than bigger-is-better, tiny home dwellers believe that small-is-beautiful. Become a student of how to achieve this idea in a way that suits you best.
Investigate Options
You’ll feel calmer about your decision if you felt you truly made one. Look into other ideas: a small condo or an older, fixer-upper home built at a time where lower square footage was the norm. Consider shipping container homes, check out a woodsy cabin, shop for a houseboat, read up on a bus or van conversion.
Price these different approaches to a simpler life. Weigh the pros and cons for your budget, location, and stage of family.
Tiny Community
If possible, visit a community of tiny home owners. Talk to residents. Ask what they like about their homes and what they wish they had done differently. Get tips for your own foray. Stay in touch as you continue.
Are there none near you? Try online groups and wade past the sales pitches to find people who will share the good and the bad with you.
Conclusion
Welcome the realities of moving into a tiny house, consider how you might best thrive, address possible downsides, and continually learn from others. The more you educate yourself and take action to be successful, the better your tiny home future will look.
