Her Tiny Home Cut Her Living Expenses in Half

I was dipping into savings all the time to maintain my house. Living in a tiny home doesn't mean you have to have a twin size bed in your bedroom. The more things you get rid of, the more at peace you are. And I think that's a big part of going tiny. In selling my house and going tiny, I was able to have more security, more money in the bank. Hi, I'm Sharon. Come take a tour of my tiny home. Welcome to my living room. I lived in a 1800 square foot home and had a big living room. But I've discovered all I need is my recliner and all my dogs need is their sofa with their beds. We live in a small space, but it's big to us. There's plenty of room for everything. When I decided to go tiny, I went through and picked out what I wanted to take with me. Then everything else I got rid of. It was difficult at first, but I knew the size of the space that I was moving into. When I was looking at floor plans and model homes, this particular model home appealed to me because of the openness. When you walk in the front door, it's one big open space. I have an island in the center that I can move out of the way to create a lot of floor space, or I can leave it where it's an island for the kitchen. It serves as a dinner table, craft table, sewing table, anything I need to do. We're in the living room now and there's one part of the living room we haven't seen, so that's where we're going next. Here's the other angle of my living room. My recliner is here and all the way across the room is my television set, but all the way across the room in a tiny home is not too far to see the television. This is where I put up some shelves just so I'd have room to display some personal items. This particular TV area is right beside the kitchen, but in the grand scheme of the whole room, it's part of the living room. There were other models where an entertainment center would be specifically part of the living room. I just like the openness of this particular model. For many years, I've looked at tiny homes, watched all the TV shows, just been so interested in all the concepts, and I kept looking for tiny home communities that might possibly be a fit. One time I was searching the internet and a tiny home community came up that's right here, Barton Cottages. It's within 30 minutes of my church, my friends, all my activities, and I thought if there's any time to do it, it's now. When I found the lot to put my home, that's the first thing you have to have is somewhere to put your home before you buy it, and then I went to look for tiny homes and found a local manufacturer. They had model homes of all different floor plans. This particular floor plan started around $97,000. I ended up paying about $103,000. Right now, I pay $650 a month for rent, but my rent includes the water and electricity. In the summer, it's up to $50 electricity, anything over that in the summer we are billed for, but I've paid like maybe $10 for electricity in the summer, which is awesome. Welcome to my kitchen. The layout of this kitchen is very user-friendly. I have a full-size stove, oven, microwave, and it's a triangle, so I have the kitchen sink and the refrigerator behind me. I have plenty of storage space after I downsized. I have a drawer underneath the oven. I have plenty of cabinets, but then I also use space above the cabinets and above the refrigerator. I'm retired, and it's the perfect home for me because there's very little maintenance, very little upkeep. The reason that I went to a tiny home is that I was dipping into savings all the time to maintain my house. My house was paid for, but I still had upkeep. In selling my house and going tiny, I was able to have more security, more money in the bank. Since my home was new, I don't have maintenance issues. Everything is in good shape and easily maintained. Overall, I love my kitchen. There's plenty of room for me to do what I need to do, and it's very open, and I love it. Now that we're finished in the kitchen, I'll take you to my office and show you where I do laundry. Now we're in the area where I have my office. Behind me is the laundry area, bathroom, and my bedroom is to my right. I have a desk and chair. I'm able to keep my laptop stored in here and get it out when I need it. When I picked out the floor plan for my tiny home, I measured all the rooms, all the spaces, and so I knew that a loveseat would fit in between the two windows, and I had room for my desk here. That is one recommendation I would have when you're picking out your tiny home. I even listed how many drawers I had in the kitchen, how many drawers I had in the bedroom, so that when I was downsizing, I would know that I had so many spaces to fill, so that helped me in knowing what to bring with me. I have lots of Amazon finds in my house. This was one of the first ones. I knew how much space I had, so I went on Amazon and looked for this size of a cabinet. It has upper and lower doors, one drawer, and a space right here. It's just really handy. Now we've moved from the desk and the office area to the laundry room, and I have stackable washer and dryer that have been very efficient. They're a little smaller, but they hold plenty of laundry. I really have enjoyed my bathroom because there's room for linen storage. I have upper and lower cabinets. I have drawers, cabinet under the sink, and one thing I really like is my huge shower. There's no bathtub, which is fine, but there's plenty of room in the shower. It's very spacious. From your angle, there's a pocket door entering the bathroom, and where I'm standing, there's another pocket door going into the bedroom, so we'll go into the bedroom next. This is where I share the bed with my four dogs. Living in a tiny home doesn't mean you have to have a twin-size bed in your bedroom. This is a queen, but there's plenty of room on either side. If you wanted a king-size bed, there's room at the end for a longer bed, so it doesn't have to be small. I had shutters installed. They did not come with the house, but I like the shutters rather than taking up space with curtains. There's plenty of storage in the bedroom. I have baskets on wheels underneath the bed that I got from Amazon. I have storage here. This area is probably meant for a television, but I didn't want one in here, so I found these baskets. Above the closet, I have lots of baskets that I have stored seasonal items in and things I don't use very often. The house came with two closets and a built-in chest of drawers. I have a blanket ladder to store blankets. The nightstands were from Amazon, and they're very narrow so they don't take up a lot of room beside the bed. I chose not to have a loft in my house. I didn't want to store items in my house that I would have to climb ladders to get to. I have a storage building outside. If there's anything that won't fit in here, it's in the storage building. I have everything I need on this level. Just make life simple for yourself. Going tiny has taught me that I need a lot less to be content. One of the things that the tiny home living has brought me is more freedom. I have the freedom to travel. I have more money to spend on experiences rather than things, and that's one thing that has blessed me so far. Boom. Thanks for stopping by and touring my tiny home. I wish you well in your own journey of going tiny.