Could You Live in an One Room Strawbale Cabin Off Grid

We live as a family of three in a 45 square meter straw-built cabin with one room. No walls dividing us, no separate bedrooms, no home office and no playroom. Just one open space where we cook, eat, sleep, work, play and live. And honestly, I wouldn't want it any other way. But I know what you're thinking. How does it work actually, with a toddler? With doing creative work? Or with hosting friends? So today I want to show you the honest reality. What is hard, what is surprisingly beautiful and what this way of living has taught us about what we actually need. So let me show you around. 45 square meters of inside space. We built these straw bale walls ourselves. They're thick, breathable and keep us warm in the Estonian winters and cool in summer. So this here is the living space corner with our comfy sleeping couch. There's also a desk area where I do my business work and Jonas plays video games at times with his friends in the evening. We have running water, a sink here in the kitchen area and a small shower room tucked in the corner of the house. We're connected to our off-grid solar system with a backup generator. So we have electricity for lights, a fridge in the warm season and all of our tools. Everything technical lives in the big closet here. The washing machine, the tools, the noisy stuff. When you only have one room, sounds matters. This is where we sleep. A simple bed platform. So this space is used for storing my pumpkins that I grow in the summer months. And they are storing very well here during the autumn season and still far into the winter. But soon it will be time to start my tomato seedlings which will be growing here in these little pots. And that will be the start of the new growing season which I'm very excited about. This is where I carve my woodblock prints. My workspace is just kind of part of the room. Right now it shares space with daily life. So that's the tour and that took about 90 seconds. But that's the whole point. When you live in one room there's not much to show. Before you think that we are those ultra minimalist people that only own seven things. We're not. We have art supplies, things and stuff that comes with having a toddler. We have woodworking tools. We have kitchen equipment. We just don't have much extra. And living like this taught me a few things that I didn't expect. The first thing is what I call the closet test. Everything we need for daily life fits in this room. We do have a storage shed for some dried foods and garden supplies and a workshop for our tools. But those are for things that don't need the warmth or aren't used daily. In here it's just what we actually use every day. And when everything in your living space has to be essential you can't just buy something and figure out where to put it later. So before anything new comes in we ask what's leaving. It sounds restrictive but it's actually quite liberating in a way. Because most things we want we just want them momentarily. And after a while they become clutter. And clutter can somehow take up quite a lot of physical but also mental space. So this space won't let us do that. It really forces the question do we actually need this or are we just gathering stuff. The second lesson. When you can't have much you choose carefully. We've learned to invest in things that are both functional and beautiful. A cup made by a local potter. Tools that feel good in your hands. But it's not just beauty. It's about things that actually improve our quality of life here. Our perky water filter for example. Clean drinking water without electricity. Without plastic waste. And our blue light blocking lighting. Soft warm light that doesn't interrupt our natural sleep cycles. It feels a bit like candlelight honestly. These aren't luxury items. They're investments in living well in an off-grid space. When you're limited in what you can have you focus on what actually makes a difference. The third lesson is about proximity. There are no separate rooms here. No closed doors. No going off to different corners of the house. That means that we are really never separated. If someone is being noisy there's no way to close yourself off from that. But on the other hand we don't drift apart in our own spaces. In our own worlds. In our own screens. So we try to be more present with each other. For better or for worse. And I think especially with a young child there's something really precious about that. Now let me show you the hard part. With a toddler and three people using this space all the time it can look like a tornado hit in about four minutes. There's no hiding the mess here. But the flip side is you have to reset regularly. You can't let it pile up because there's nowhere for it to pile. So we have built in these rhythms. The quick resets multiple times a day. A real cleanup every evening. It's a bit of discipline. But it's also that it keeps things from getting overwhelming. We do a regular checkup of all our stuff. Every few months we go through everything and ask Are we still using this? Do we still need it? Because if we don't the space gets cluttered so quickly. Here is something practical. Heating one room is easy. One wood stove heats this entire space. We use so much less firewood than we would in a bigger house. Less wood to cut and less work. So it's a bit more sustainable. Small spaces are efficient. And in a cold climate like Estonia that matters. Now the printmaking. Right now my studio is just part of this room. I work on the kitchen table. My prints dry on a little string here in the middle of the house. And I will be honest because printmaking is a bit hard to combine with toddlers. So we're building a separate studio out in a forest. An hexagonal roundwood art studio where my printmaking practice can have its own space. I think it's important to say that living simply isn't about being dogmatic. It's not about proving that we can live in one room. Some things need their own space and that's okay. The goal isn't to cram everything in just one room because we can. The goal is about being intentional about what we actually need. One room also means we host differently. We can't have big parties. There's just no space for it. But honestly I prefer it this way. Smaller gatherings. Three or four friends at a time. Quality over quantity. Not just with objects but with people too. So what does this lifestyle actually require? It requires discipline. It requires regular resets. And it requires letting go of the idea that bigger is always better. It requires honesty about what you actually use versus what you think you should have. But in return it gives you focus. When you're not managing a lot of stuff. A lot of space. A lot of rooms. Your attention goes elsewhere. To the people you're with. To the work you're doing. To the life you're actually living. And that's what I mean by richness towards simplicity. It's not about deprivation. It's about intention. We're not staying like this forever because we're planning to do a little bedroom extension here where you see the back door behind me. There's gonna be a little room for Eliana to sleep. But even with an addition we're keeping it small and simple. So could you live in a one-room cabin? Maybe. Maybe not. It's not for everyone and that's completely fine. But I think the bigger question isn't could you live in one room? The bigger question is what could you simplify? What are you holding on to because you think you need it? Not because you actually use it. What space could you reclaim? Not by getting a bigger house but by needing less to fill it. We have found that richness doesn't come from having more stuff or owning a bigger space. It comes from knowing what is actually important to you and about being brave enough to let go of all the rest. That's what this one room has taught us so far. I hope you enjoyed the video and I hope to see you soon. Bye for now.