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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.