Tiny House Blog

The single biggest roadblock to small living is, in my opinion, the excessive regulations that appear in the form of minimum-size requirements. Many of you that are reading this are likely looking for ways to live small yourself, and chances are that this is one of the reasons you haven’t been able to yet. But the limits of bureaucracy are not just visible in minimum size. In the county where Tyson lives, land parcels must remain a certain size with one main house on them in order to keep the area “rural.” In Portland, where Steph has her houseboat, no new houseboat slips can be created.

Finding ways to live small within a system that promotes the rapid spread of suburbia and limits or bans creative solutions is one of the biggest challenges we face, as can currently be seen in the stalled rebuilding efforts in New Orleans post-Katrina. So much red tape has kept Marianne Cusato’s Katrina Cottages from being built, despite the fact that they were hailed as lightyears better than FEMA trailers, since they could be expanded upon to create permanent dwellings. Although there is no one solution that we at SLJ have hit on, hopefully, this issue will get your wheels turning. Read the Small Living Journal Here.

Photo Credit: Amanda Abel

In this issue of the Small Living Journal we look at how more than one person can live in a tiny house. Most of the press covers the single person living in the tiny portable home.

Life for most people involves more than one person, so in this issue we tackle how multiple people can live in a tiny space.

Quoting Greg Johnson from his article: “One way of dealing with limited space more effectively is to have systems — a place for everything and everything in its place. Small places and small spaces are less forgiving when it comes to clutter. The key to having a system is having everyone know and agree upon the system.”

Read the Small Living Journal

In this issue of the Small Living Journal we interweave the two concepts of living smaller and living in communities because they are fundamentally linked: the smaller your home, the more you take advantage of the community around you.

We can’t help but be reminded of our collective past, one that is wonderfully devoid of clutter, high energy bills, spending lots of time alone in our cars and staring at glowing boxes for 8 hours a day. Is there a way to piece together a new, community-minded existence while living small?

Read the Small Living Journal Issue 6 – Community.

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Our future plans aren’t set in stone and that is perfectly okay with us. The world is changing quickly and flexibility is an important quality. Especially, in a time of economic woes. Being able to move or change plans quickly can open the door to unforeseen opportunities. 

Since our plans are lose and flexible, we’ve crafted a few guidelines for a bright future: (Tammy – RowdyKittens)

This issue of Small Living Journal focuses on our dreams, goals and plans for the future. As you read you’ll notice that each of us has a different approach. The diverse nature of our backgrounds must explain our different paths; but the one common thread is that living simply is helping us realize our dreams.

Read the Small Living Journal Issue #5 here.

Yesterday issue number three came out of the Small Living Journal. This issue is about where the authors live and includes some great video of homes that range from tiny to not so tiny.

They include Stephanie’s floating house above that she is in the middle of restoring, and Kevin’s Gypsy Rose below. There is a funny video about Tyson which you don’t want to miss.(not everyone’s sense of humor so watch out) So if you haven’t already, go check out the Small Living Journal and enjoy some good reading.

The editor of this issue is Kevin and he says: Come on in. Take a look around. In this issue of Small Living Journal, we invite you to take a peek inside the authors’ own homes.

Once inside, you’ll quickly see that small living does not place limitations on creativity. On the contrary, we’ve got homes that float, homes that roll, homes for the city and homes for the country – small homes for all.

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