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Category: Tiny Homes

Tiny Houses – So Much More Than Just A Home

For those folks who have made the jump to tiny-house living, they are finding there are benefits that far outweigh traditional-home living. Living mortgage-free or cutting the time to pay off the mortgage way sooner, paring utility bills down to a minimum, and learning to live simply are just some of the perks of tiny-home life.

However, for those who do not wish to make this jump, or are not ready quite yet, be aware that a tiny house is a versatile animal, which can be used for more than just tiny living, so check out these other handy uses of a tiny, which can be placed in your own backyard or on some vacation land you may have.

A tiny house can be used as an office – If you currently work from home, and wish for your own professional space that’s not next to the kitchen or living room, using a tiny house as your office area can be a great idea. The stand-alone structure of a tiny house can separate your work life from your home life, serve as a quieter area to work from, plus at the end of the day, you can walk away (even if it’s only a few steps!).

A tiny house can be used as an online zone – Wi-Fi has connected the world nearly everywhere, and it’s always at our disposal, sometimes to the degree of alienating us from our family lives. Having a dedicated place to go to check email, be online, and play games could be the answer to effectively separating our online presence from reality. Even if it’s just in your backyard, going to your tiny-house tech zone can place a healthy divider between the activities we pursue on the internet and improving our family time.

A tiny house can be used as a weekend home or a second home – Everyone gets a hankering to get away for a little while, and whether it’s in your backyard or situated in another, relaxing area, a tiny house can help fulfill this requirement, without costing an arm and a leg. When you decorate it the way you want (and decorating IS cheaper to do in a tiny, rather than a larger house), you’ll have your own personal Shangri-la to escape to!

A tiny house can be used as a workshop or studio – whether you’re a DIY type of person, a hairdresser, a writer, a massage therapist, or you fit somewhere in a slew of other professions or hobbies, using a tiny house to create art, write, perform massages or cut hair is a great idea. Additionally, you get the benefits of this space without worrying about paying a landlord rent for it (which can increase at any time), nor do you have to be bothered by any tenants occupying spaces close to yours, such in a strip shopping center or the like.

A tiny house can be used for your teens – Teens crave independence. You may crave a break for a blaring stereo, TV, or the constant drone of video devices. Win-win, right? Keep the peace, while giving your teen(s) more time on their own to do their own thing by putting a teen tiny space in the backyard. You can even teach them about budgeting for the energy and water used in the ‘teen house’.

A tiny house can be used as a rental – You’ll have to check out your local regulations and possible restrictions for a rental property on your residence, but if the rules in your area are relatively lax, renting out the tiny house on your property could help with your own mortgage and other costs in your life. Air BnB and similar services are becoming more popular all the time, so you could perhaps offer up your tiny house for this purpose.

A tiny house can be used to homeschool – Homeschooling is quite popular. Sometimes, it can be hard to keep kids on task and focused while in their own house, surrounded by pets, their toys and games and by other familiar objects or other household members who may distract their attention (and yours). By using a tiny house as a dedicated place for learning, separates school from home and could make children feel more excited about learning. Remember – in the early days of this country, one-room schoolhouses existed everywhere. You can bring back that old tradition in a new, modern way and make learning more fun!

Even if you don’t imagine tiny-house living full-time, these great little structures can be re-purposed for so many other things in your life. By erecting a tiny house unit on your property, think of the benefits it can offer you, plus, if you’re considering living in a tiny home down the road, you’ll get to experience first-hand what this will be like!

December 25, 2020 by Olga 0 Comments

Great Holiday Gift Ideas for Your Tiny-House Friends

Santa may not be able to fit down the chimney of a tiny home (if one exists at all), but you can make sure your tiny-house-dwelling friends are covered, gift-wise, during this holiday season!

Now, no doubt one of the big reasons those friends of yours have decided to go tiny is due to the beauty of living a minimalist lifestyle. They no longer are encumbered with, nor need to worry about a lot of, well, stuff(!) in their lives anymore; nor do they have the room, at that.

With this in mind, we made the following list (and checked it twice!) of Yule-time, gift-giving ideas that are sure to delight and

excite your tiny-living friends and family!

Digital Entertainment Subscription

These little gems take up no room and can be enjoyed on a cell phone, iPad, other digital devices or on an existing television which may be in a tiny house already.

Consider paying for an automatically renewable subscription to the following services:

– Netflix

– Audible (provides books that are read aloud to the listener)

– Scribd (a service which is chock-full of digital books, audiobooks, magazines, and other documents)

– Amazon Prime

– HBO Max

– And others…!

A Digital Book Reading Device

For the tiny homeowner who loves books, but doesn’t have unlimited room for hordes of them, a digital book reading device is the perfect answer. The most popular and well-known device for years has been the Kindle from Amazon; the owner can download books to read right on the device, then they can take the device anywhere. The technology of these reading devices has evolved to make it easy to read in any type of condition, from broad daylight to total darkness.

A Smart-Home Assistant Device

These pint-sized gadgets fit easily in a small space and perform multiple functions, such as allowing the user to control smart devices in their home by the using just their voice. The user can also surf the internet, look up recipes, make and receive video calls, use the device as a photo frame, watch movies and videos on it, and a lot more. Check out Amazon’s Echo Show device, Google’s Nest Hub, or Lenovo’s Smart Clock, just to name a few.

Space-Saving Storage Bags

With options for storage space at a premium in a tiny house, treat your tiny-home friends to a set of vacuum storage bags. They just have to fill the bags with items (like clothes or bed linens) and suck out the excess air with a vacuum cleaner hose, which then provides an air-tight, space-friendly storage option!

Reusable Produce Bags

For your tiny-house buddies looking to live greener by reducing their carbon footprint, giving them the gift of reusable produce bags alleviates the necessity of using plastic bags for produce. These bags are durable and stretchable, which means they can also hold all sorts of other items as well. They can be also used as a hanging food storage bag in a tiny house kitchen which will also come in handy.

Portable Power Station

Portable power stations contain handles in which to carry the unit and are used mainly for fishing or camping or for an emergency. Your pals who live off-grid are regularly monitoring how much energy their tiny house uses, especially if it’s run off solar power. This nifty, little power station helps reduce power usage and can expediently power and charge all types of smart devices, from tablets to phones. Many of these units also come with an AC outlet, a powerful flashlight that can display in SOS mode, and more cool features. Whether one is using this to help curtail their energy consumption or not, it’s still never a bad idea to have a portable power station around, no matter where you are!

Floating Bookshelves Umbra Conceal Floating Bookshelves, available on Amazon are great for those tiny homeowners who have some non-virtual books that need storing. These nifty shelves contain hidden mounting hardware, and when books are placed on these shelves, they appear to float. Other things, besides books, can be stored on these shelves as well, naturally.

Doorway Jungle Gym for the Kids

Pint-sized tiny dwellers need to let off energy, and despite the limited space in a tiny home or the lack of a backyard, kids can have a blast on The Doorway Jungle Gym available online from Hammacher Schlemmer. It easily mounts to door frames, and contains a swing, a pair of rings, a trapeze bar and a climbing rope and ladder!

Fun Experiences Outside the Tiny House

No matter the size of our dwellings, many humans can feel cooped up every now and again, and feel the need to get out and have fun. This can be especially true of those living in a home the fraction of the size of a traditional house, so why not splurge on movie tickets, ski passes, musical festival tickets or a national park pass for your tiny-house pals?

Gift Cards

 

This pint-sized present can pay off in many ways, whether it’s in the form of plastic or an online certificate, and takes up next-to-no space! Treat your friends to DIY gift cards to places such as Home Depot or Lowe’s. Gift them an Amazon e-card, where they can buy what they like, or present them with food cards, such as for McDonald’s, Dominos, Grubhub, or DoorDash for those nights they want to give cooking a break.

With the advent (no seasonal pun intended!) of the tiny-house movement, more and more have jumped on this bandwagon. If you have one such person or family in your life who has gone tiny, it may be perplexing to decide what to get them during this season of great tidings and joy. We hope this list is a good start to the possibilities of smaller, space-saving, and even invisible gifts that your recipients will love and appreciate as much as any sized gift– we think they will.

Happy Holidays to all!

How Crisis Sows the Seeds of Solidarity in Communities

It’s no secret that in the last few decades our society has become more insular.

From the advent of television, up to the technology of today, we humans have gradually become more solitary. Neighbors can live a long time next to each other and not know each other or know one another’s names. We spend a lot of time on the internet or doing the “Netflix and Chill” thing or playing video games or a myriad of other technologically-driven tasks, which over time, have proven to isolate our species.

According to the American Sociological Review, 25% of Americans say they have no close friends or confidants, and the number of people living on their own keeps rising. Humans were not built to be isolated or on their own.

However, whenever an “imperfect world” crisis happens, something interesting occurs. Consider the following examples:

– The volunteer Cajun Navy navigated flooded neighborhoods in their boats to rescue the stranded in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

– After a fire burned through Santa Rosa in October, 2017, the community came together to create Undocufund, which was formed specifically to help Santa Rosa’s undocumented community.

– A bunch of anonymous New Yorkers walking down a street in lower Manhattan spontaneously joined together to help dig out trapped construction workers under collapsed scaffolding in November, 2017.

– A nearby town to Fuego, Guatemala, where a volcano erupted in June, 2018 sounded its church bells after the eruption, to call the community to start collecting food, clothes, blankets and other items.

These and countless other instances (dare I mention 2020 with Covid-19 and the wildfires?) have brought together and strengthened communities, time and time again.

In a world where people have become more selfish, insular, and competitive, one has to marvel that there still are many acts of heroic self-endangerment and self-sacrifice which occur on a regular basis. It would seem that during a disaster or crisis that the default “truths” which our society has learned to hold self-evident – such as selfishness and competitiveness – go out the window and are replaced by solidarity, generosity, bravery, cooperation and sacrifice. Altruism abounds during and after a disaster, finding most humans not just caring for themselves and their families, but also actively engaged in helping others around them, neighbors, friends and strangers, alike.

Yes, we live in a world where we are taught during these modern times to “look after number-one”, “survival of the fittest” and many other axioms. We are taught to be wary of the competition – of those out to “destroy” us. We have learned to be a selfish and competitive species. Notice, however, that these things have been imposed on us – we have been conditioned or have learned adverse behaviors which dictate by default a lot of today’s human actions.

However, when a crisis strikes, unprecedented acts of altruism abound, and we humans join together to help our fellows in need.  Contrast a time of crisis with the every-day grind we are used to where the other automatic, baser behaviors prevail.  It therefore seems as if a compassionate side effect of disasters or crises entails reawakening – if only for a while – the ingrained altruism and instinct to help our fellow man, allowing us as a species to show our greatness by striving to save others, donating items, creating relief funds and enacting better systems for the future.

Systems which are put into place after a disaster can lead to lasting initiatives which benefit many.  Take a look at Hurricane Maria which ravaged Puerto Rico in September of 2017; soon after, a volunteer-run soup kitchen was set up in the town of Caguas.  This one community soup kitchen transformed into Mutual Aid Centers – an island-wide community center network.  Furthermore, these centers provide much more than just food; they offer various other educational opportunities, art and therapy services as well, including counseling for PTSD which some inhabitants experienced, due to the hurricane.

Puerto Rico’s Mutual Aid Center isn’t the only example of the good which can emerge after a disaster.  We have seen examples all throughout history of communities looking after each other and forming new solidarities, which can result in positive political action.  Recovery centers pop up, religious institutions join the initiatives to help, and aid centers assist to give an improved vision of public life.

In these uncertain times, where stress and uncertainty abound, we all have an opportunity, and a duty as a human being to embrace hope, and the belief that we can come together in times of adversity to care for our fellow man.  Solidarity doesn’t have to happen just during a disaster, either; we can all find ways to “pay something forward” – donate our time or efforts to a charity or community initiative that we believe in, or we can donate items to the Red Cross, Salvation Army or other relief organization.  Obviously, there is so much more than that, as well.

Opportunities to practice altruism exist all around us, regularly.  We can transfer the solidarity and good deeds we humans practice in difficult times and translate it to the daily, to the habitual.

Imagine the greatness we could achieve if we lived that way.  

 

Big Differences Between Tiny Houses and RVs

So, you’re thinking about downsizing and choosing either a Tiny House or an RV as your new abode.  Congratulations on that!

A lot of folks out there group RVs and tiny homes into one category, and if you’re one of those people who does, we’re here to set the record straight;  there are some huge differences between the two, so read the insights below, as they may very well have an impact on which smaller-living option you will choose.

The Issue of Depreciation:

RV stands for – as most are aware – “Recreational Vehicle”, the operative word here being “vehicle”.  RVs are sold on sales’ lots, just like cars, and also being vehicles, they depreciate very steeply as soon as you drive them off the sales’ lot, and they continue to depreciate, the longer you own them.  On the other hand, a tiny home is considered more of a permanent living option, like a standard house.  From the building to the fixtures, to the insulation, tiny homes are very similar to conventional homes – they are built to last a long time and therefore they keep their value up.

Insulation:

You can purchase an RV that is classified as “four seasons”, meaning that they are marketed for year-round use, but the reality is they’re only moderately insulated, at best.  RV owners who have spent a winter in their vehicle often find the furnace runs 24/7, and monthly propane bills for a poorly-insulated RV can run into the hundreds of dollars.

In contrast, tiny house builders ensure their little homes are insulated very well – in some cases, even better than traditional homes, and are therefore suited for year-round use, at the fraction of the cost for heating (and cooling!) an RV.  As well as better insulation, tiny houses can be fit with heat-recovery ventilators, solar power systems, wood stoves, heat pumps, radiant floor heating, and more.  Sure, an RV can have some of these things retrofit, but due to better insulation from a tiny home, an RV retrofit would prove less efficient.

Tiny houses equal an eco-friendly relationship:

As mentioned before, tiny homes are built like their bigger brothers – traditional houses, and as such, use superior higher-quality materials.  Individuals building tiny homes can pick out the construction materials and methods they want for their homes, which include green, eco-friendly options, recycled materials, better paints for dwellers who are sensitive to chemicals, and so forth. 

There’s no place like (tiny) home:

Like cars, RVs are mass-produced.  You go to the lot, choose what’s available, drive it away.  Tiny houses are extremely customizable to fit owners’ tastes and needs.  A user can choose to build or partially build their tiny house, but whichever option they choose, they can have lots of say on the specs and the personalization, from the inside to the surroundings. 

Times are a changin’:

As the tiny house movement takes hold, towns and municipalities are becoming more lenient in allowing tiny homes to become permanent dwellings.  Tiny home communities and neighborhoods are popping up throughout the country, with some even offering rent-to-own options.  There is work taking place to include tiny houses in the International Residential Building Code.  More and more banks are happy to offer loans for RVIA (Recreation Vehicle Industry Association)-certified tiny homes.

The moral of this article is to think carefully before downsizing to a living option that may not suit your long-term goals.  RVs could be your answer if you plan to travel a lot in less extreme weather conditions and you plan to replace your RV every few years.  Tiny homes are built to last as long as traditional housing – they are better insulated than RVs, highly customizable, and don’t depreciate at the rate of an RV, which is a vehicle, after all!

 

 

 

Turkey Day – The Tiny House Way

It is 2020, and America is poised on the brink of another Thanksgiving. 

Be it a stroke of situational luck for tiny homeowners (if you choose to look at it this way), we have been told to keep the numbers down as we celebrate the holidays this year due to the Coronavirus.  We have been advised to keep our guest list minimal during our festive gatherings, which may give some tiny-house dwellers a good excuse to host Thanksgiving, or at least think about it this year.  

So, how does one hold Thanksgiving in a tiny house which has limited space?  Firstly, by believing it can be done, and it has been done by hoards of other tiny-housers already!  Secondly, by planning and keeping it real, so let’s check this out.

  Before you make the stock, take some stock 

 Every tiny-house kitchen is different, depending on the needs and the desires of its dwellers.  Do you have big or small appliances?  How large is your oven (if you have one), and how many burners does it have?  How large is your refrigerator?  Do you own a turkey fryer, a crock pot, or a grill?  Are you abounding in cookware and Tupperware to store leftovers or with which to serve the dinner?  Think about all of this. 

  What’s on the menu? 

 Depending on the size and amount of your kitchen resources which you have just analyzed, think about what you are going to serve, next.  Consider quality over quantity.  A satisfying Thanksgiving meal can consist of just an appetizer, a turkey or other protein source, a couple of side dishes, some type of bread, a dessert, and a drink of your choosing.  Even if all you have is a toaster oven, fear not, you can use it to cook all the bakeables in it.

See the link below to learn exactly how to do this!  The internet is also chock-full of Thanksgiving culinary delights which can be made on the grill, in a crockpot, and more! 

Check this out >>

How to toaster bake your entire Thanksgiving meal

 

Don’t feel like cooking or don’t have space or inventory to do so?  No problem!  Many local and online food stores and supermarkets offer complete Thanksgiving dinners or side dishes that you can pre-order and have delivered or be ready for pick-up.  Even people who live in traditionally-sized houses go this stress-free route – just know it’s available to you.   

A lot of family and friends also ask their guests to bring a dish to Thanksgiving dinner.  Let them know what you are cooking, decide what you need them to bring, write a list of these items, and give everyone a choice of what they’d like to bring from the list. 

Who’s on the guest list? 

Again, as in the food selection, think quality over quantity.  If you live in a warmer area of the country, hold your dinner outside, and ask your guests, if necessary, to bring a chair and a blanket if it starts to get colder.  If you hold your dinner in your tiny house, not a lot of them have room for a big dining table.  Consider holding the dinner around a low table – such as a coffee table – and situate the guests on comfy cushions that you can provide, or go BYOC (Bring Your Own Cushion)!  

  It’s dinnertime! 

The logistical consideration of how to serve your feast will now be tackled.  If you do live in that temperate climate, and all can eat outside, say on a picnic table or on outdoor furniture, these logistics are not as big of an issue as when the dinner is held inside.  A good method of serving food is buffet style; let the troops choose what they want to fill their plates with.  Speaking of plates, save clean-up time and effort and serve the dinner on paper or Styrofoam disposable plates; decorated or not, they are convenient and serve a purpose, and don’t forget disposable utensils and cups, too!  If you have a folding table and chairs, utilize these, and if you don’t, it may not be a bad idea to invest in a set.

 

  Miscellaneous Tips 

 In the aftermath of Thanksgiving dinner, leftovers are almost a certainty.  If you don’t have, or want to find space, for said leftovers, ask everyone to bring a storage container so you can share the extras with them.

  • In the aftermath of Thanksgiving dinner, leftovers are almost a certainty.  If you don’t have, or want to find space, for said leftovers, ask everyone to bring a storage container so you can share the extras with them.   
     
  • Put a large trashcan outside your tiny house in an accessible area, where guests can dispose of their plates, plastic utensils, napkins, and cups.  This saves mess and clutter from building up in your tiny home. 
     
  • A cooler can go a long way in helping to store extra drinks or desserts; leave the covered cooler outside, to keep beverages cold.  
Tiny homes indeed can host holiday dinners, and Thanksgiving is no exception.  With some planning and communication, this can be pulled off successfully.  We at International Housing Concepts want to wish you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving, wherever you live. Whatever you do, stay safe, and have a wonderful holiday, filled with friends and loved ones – make it one to remember! 

 

Embracing Opportunity As We Rise from the Ashes

One could say that cavemen were the first tiny house dwellers. However, a lot has happened since then, and what started off with our distant ancestors has today turned into an actual movement, where people are consciously rejecting bigger living spaces as they choose smaller, pared-down, more efficient habitats.

The Big History of the Tiny House

One could say that cavemen were the first tiny house dwellers. However, a lot has happened since then, and what started off with our distant ancestors has today turned into an actual movement, where people are consciously rejecting bigger living spaces as they choose smaller, pared-down, more efficient habitats.