Simplifying your life….through Tiny Living (Part 1-Size does matter)

Posted on June 21, 2020 by Ben Brown, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

The very first time I heard of and saw a “tiny house” on TV, a lady named Dee Williams, who, little did I know at the time, would put herself next to Jay Schafer as the “tiny house pioneers” behind what would, unbeknownst to them, become known as the “Tiny House Movement” put herself on a news story of how she lived in a 100 square foot space. At the time, it was about the only “thing on the internet” you could find on the topic of “living tiny.” I knew right then and there that living tiny was calling me in a sense and I made a commitment at that moment that eventually, I would live tiny and I decided in my blissful ignorance, that living tiny would essentially be the keystone puzzle piece to me living the ultimate life I envisioned for myself in the next ten years. Today, there are several dozen companies in many states across the country that custom build tiny living spaces. You can find everything from shipping container homes, to the traditional “tiny houses” (between 100 and 400 square feet, depending on who you ask), all the way over to treehouse tiny homes. There are countless websites, articles and even several TV shows on the subject. You can find Tiny Forums, a Tiny Jamboree that plays host to a 3-4 day festival about all things tiny every year in Colorado. And my personal favorite, there’s even (now two of them in Portland), Tiny House “hotels” where you can go “try the tiny experience out” with relatively little commitment. They are usually booked 3 months in advance! In the following series of blogs, I will explore all the reasons I was attracted to tiny living, why I have chosen to live tiny for over 3 years and articulate all the areas of my life that it has affected. I will also examine and discuss in (occasionally obnoxious detail), the good, the bad and the utterly strange along with the beautifully magical parts of living tiny. I will be making a case for self examination around one’s own personal value systems and invite the reader to explore areas in which they might find themselves having the ability to be flexible in understanding how their own culturescape fits into the picture that the “rules of society” ask of us to fit into while perhaps challenging the reader to make even a few small changes in their lives including the exploration of and perhaps a even a temporary run at living tiny, that might provide a new taste of simplicity, generate a platform for an increase in happiness, and certainly a deep consideration on where one lives, how that living space plays a role in the overall clarity in understanding of what it means to execute the delivery and practice of living one’s life with intention, whatever that looks like for them.

Ch.1-Size does matter! I originally chased after the idea living tiny from a place of fear. I’ll never forget sitting at my parent’s dinner telling me a story of some friends of theirs who lost their house to foreclosure. In that moment, I decided right there and then that I would never have to worry about that every happening to me. Here was a couple that played by the rules their whole live and they still ended up “homeless”, having had their home taken from them. Granted, it was in middle of the 2008 recession. But nonetheless, it made an impact on me. But as time went on, I realized that living tiny was not just about having a “bullet proof” plan when it came to my living situation. As I look back and from the time I was little, there was something about “living in a small space” that always seemed to make good sense to me. I would go into my “play house” that my dad built for us as kids. I would hang out in there for hours. I always felt safe, secure, cozy. When you look around, not matter what background you came from, the idea of living simply is something that always spoke to us when we were little. There were many versions of this. Virtually everyone at one time or another built “forts” out of couch cushions, and blankets. We used to joke about “we should just live here forever.” Similar stories are abound around living in tree houses and fantasies of digging and living in underground bunkers. Whatever it is that appeals to us when we are kids, we all seem to have gone through some version of “wouldn’t it be neat to live here” in our little fortress of solitude. That childhood appeal of simple structures and cozy spaces just never seemed to leave me. I did have an overwhelming illustration of this a few years back when I first moved out to salt lake city. I was dating a girl that was just getting ready to move into a new house. This house was WAY bigger than what she needed. She had no kids and she was moving into a three bedroom with a finished basement. I had my little realization of just how deeply the idea of tiny is somehow written into my DNA. She had taken me downstairs to tour her basement and opened a closet. As I looked in this little storage space, the ceiling began cascading down at an obtuse triangle style slant until it met up with the floor 8 feet later. I walked in, laid my head down towards the spot where the floor and the ceiling met, with my feet towards the door. I took a deep breath with a giant grin on my face and said “Now THIS is cozy!” To which she responded, “you’re weird!” Oh?! Am I? How interesting. I think it’s weird that you are about to waste your money paying for a house that has spaces that you will hardly ever spend time in. This brings me to one of the pivotal questions that I constantly pondered a great deal. It’s the simple questions of “how much space do I need to feel comfortable”? This inevitably brings up more question “What’s your relationship to the size of the structure you’re living in?” In other words, how well do you know the size of the space you need to be happy? Do you know the difference between tight, cramped and uncomfortable? Some of us know the answer to this at a very early age. My friend has a son, Ethan. Ethan is the autism spectrum. Like any normal kid in america, he has place that he keeps all of his toys. In this case, Ethan had a trunk. Normally, they sat in their trunk just fine. Until one day, the mom came home to find her son had taken all of his toys and put them all over the floor in front of it. She approached to find Ethan in the trunk with door closed. She asked “What are doing in there silly goose?” To which he responded, “I like it in here. It’s cozy!” But there was a problem. He also loved having the top closed. Mom explained to him that this is dangerous because he will simply run out of his beloved oxygen. Although, Ethan will tell you, he’d be perfectly content to just sit in there forever. As he explained that he like it dark because it made him feel “safe”, they met him halfway and took the top off the trunk. They gave him a piece of cardboard and a heavy blanket so he could have it dark but still breathe. To many of us, the idea of spending 3 minutes in a tiny trunk sounds pretty miserable. But for Ethan, this was paradise! I have a few friends that may not be able to tell you their “perfect space” but they could certainly tell you their “nightmare space” realized! Some of us could never live on a boat. I’m one of those people. I would be sick from the bobbing up and down in just a few minutes. And then there those that will take ten flights of stairs because you couldn’t pay them to get into a cramped elevator. As anyone starts to think about going tiny, it’s critically important that you have an accurate assessment of what you find cozy and what you find cramped. The modern day culture we live in encourages quite the opposite cultural value.

Stay tuned for part 2…Against the Grain of Western Culture