When we go on extended family vacations – extended in our world is a week or more – we bring only the essentials: four outfits that can be mixed-and-matched, washed and worn again a few times, two pairs of shoes each (especially if we’ll be on vacation over a weekend and will go to church), a dressy outfit if needed, and the bare minimum amount of toiletries and makeup. During these vacations, we tend to stay at places that have a kitchen to be able to prep our own meals
While on vacation, I just love how the chores I need to do don’t feel as burdensome as they do at home. The laundry will get done every other day, without fuss, we buy only the food we need and cook and prep in a tiny kitchen space. We use one pan, 2 pots, 5 plates and glasses, 1 or 2 mugs, and wash and reuse them for the next meal.
I often wonder what it would feel like to live with that kind of simplicity every day! Yes, maintenance chores multiply when you’re living in your own home. But we do tend to complicate things when we fill every space to the brim even if we could live with less.
The Tiny Home Movement
Tiny houses have exploded in popularity in the past decade, fueled by climate concerns, huge increases in cost of housing worldwide, and a yearning to live more simply and being more connected to nature and each other rather than to our material possessions.
That growth was pushed along by the onset of COVID-19, when many individuals and families moved away from cities to smaller towns and the country. Real estate experts expect that more people may now buy or build a home earlier than they had planned, and might consider a tiny home to fit within their budget (source: ipropertymanagement)
Whether these families choose a tiny home, or simply a much smaller traditional home, simply transplanting the current way of life into a tinier space is not likely to work. Instead, to learn how to love tiny spaces, we have to think differently.
10 Tiny Home Interior Ideas to Help Complete Your Space
Redfin recently asked a group of industry professionals and lifestyle specialists for their ideas about how to approach the interior of tiny spaces (I gave my idea in the “kitchen” section ;). Here’s the link to the full post: 10 Tiny Home Interior Ideas to Help Complete Your Space.
These ideas can totally be used in your own home right now, tiny or not!
- First things first, consider your daily activities
- Tiny home interior means multifunctional spaces
- Tiny home layout
- Tiny home interior for families
- Tiny home interior kitchen downsizing
- Tiny home interior ideas for pet owners
- Tiny home interior for nature lovers
- The importance of interior light
- Minimalist tiny home interior
- Go custom, where you can
Bottom Line:
While the general thinking might lead towards minimalism to make living in a tiny space really work, I think of it more as essentialism. Just as I bring only the essentials on our family vacations, thinking about your home as a place where only the essentials really belong will push you to remove the clutter, the “what if I need these in 2 months” thoughts that cause us to keep more than we really need.
Let me know which ideas in the Redfin article you’ll consider using in your home!
