Financial independence is one of the main reasons people decide to downsize.
But what if you had the foresight to go tiny before ever signing a mortgage?
Well,
in today's video you're going to meet a young woman who started designing her
own tiny home at 19 and now has achieved financial independence at a young age
while owning her first home.
I'm Haley, we're in Simi Valley, California and this is my house, the tiny
I've always loved like small spaces and just having everything I need in one
area.
Just thinking about all the energy and resources that go into maintaining these
large homes, like it's so frustrating for me.
I think our generation respects the experience rather than the things in our
lives.
So you automatically just cut out all the extra stuff that you don't need to
worry about and then you can focus on experiences and what is really important
to you.
So I designed the house when I was 19 and it costs around $50,000 a lot of
people thought it was crazy though. People were like, do you like it?
Is it different? Just because it's small doesn't mean it's like feels small.
I'm renting a piece of land in Simi Valley. I'm parked up on a Hill.
It was one of the most difficult processes to move it up here because it's a
very steep Hill and it's very windy,
but it's so worth it because the view is insane.
I think my favorite part about this house is that it's like very me,
you know,
like this is my space and then I can invite people into it and like kind of
inspire people.
One of my mom's friends like started building a tiny house after he saw this,
which was really nice.
Hey everyone. Welcome to the tiny come on in
so this is my living room slash guest bedroom area.
This right now is set up as a couch, but it comes as like a chair.
At this point.
I just kind of keep it down all the time because when people are over,
this is like the main place that people kind of initially sit down and hang out.
And this is also where I have on my books. So it's like my little library area.
This is where I read.
I also have a projector over there and so this is where I watch movies
and stuff. It's
like surrounded by windows on all sides so you're getting light no matter what
time of the day it is. You get in the morning light,
afternoon light and I also have a really nice view so sometimes just sit here in
the morning and look at the view. I also have a lot of plants.
I just love plants.
A lot of it is just like me really liking an item and I only bring it in here if
I really like it and it really like speaks to me and over here is my ladder to
my storage loft and up there. I have like my projector, my printer.
It's kind of the stuff that I don't want down here just to kind of stick it up
there and try and keep it as organized as possible.
Here we have like the breakfast nook slash extended cooking area slash alternate
workspace. People are coming over, they'll hang out here, I'll do work here.
A lot of the stuff that's hanging here. I've actually made,
I have a espresso machine because I've always wanted to know how to do latte
art. Still working on that.
I got that for my friends basically to make them latte.
Here we have the pantry.
One of the biggest focuses when making this house was storage and space for
cooking. I lucked out because I didn't even think of um,
choosing a sink when I was designing the house and I,
they just chose a larger sink. Thank God.
I'm very grateful that it worked out that way.
If you need to like soak clothes in here, you could wash a small dog in here.
It's just easier to like have for cooking for dishes.
Just because it's a small space doesn't mean you have to sacrifice size for
everything.
This is my oven.
It is a little difficult to use and it is not the most accurate but that's okay
because it runs off propane and it does the job and I'm really glad that I got
this because I do have the ability to bake and cook and have four burners and
it's like worked like a charm and I actually recently put in this shelf above
the stove just to free up counter space.
There's like always ways to like store up in tiny houses I find so that you have
more space, you don't feel as crowded.
One of the things that I've always loved doing is having people over.
Lately we've been doing a lot of breakfast so people come over and I just cook
over here and then we usually go and sit outside
and over here I have all my spices on the side of the fridge,
which obviously clears up more space in the pantry and then it's just super easy
to grab it while I'm cooking and put it in whenever I'm making.
So I have a pretty large fridge for tiny houses. The three fourth size fridge.
It's especially been good now because where I am it's a bit more, so I'm
not close to the markets in places that I usually shop for food at.
And I like the fact that I have like a decent size freezer as well cause I make
a lot of things in bulk and I just freeze it and I keep it in there.
Here's the bathroom right here is a shower. Um,
it's pretty small shower but it does the job.
And then here's my sink and here's my composting toilet.
It's a nature's head composting toilet. I really like the composting toilet.
It works very well. It's very efficient. And then over here I have three shelfs,
actually just added one recently and has all my makeup and skin products and it
kind of is like a cool display.
I've never felt crowded by it or anything. I'm usually,
when I'm getting ready I just leave the door open and you know,
everything's in arms reach, which is also kind of nice.
These are the stairs that lead up to my bedroom
loft slash they are more storage and I keep things like towels,
art supplies, camera stuff all in here.
The main reason that I wanted these stairs though was for this one,
this is Momo, my dog
and I wanted to make sure that he could go up and down from the loft without any
hassle like me carrying him up and down a ladder.
It was just not that appealing. So these stairs are really for him
This is the loft. This is where I have all of my clothes stored up here.
I am used to three by three rule,
which is if they haven't used it in three months and I won't use it in three
months, I try and get rid of it.
The most important thing that I'm like really glad that I did is this skylight.
Right now it's covered up just so that it's not super bright in the morning,
but it opens up about a foot and a half I'd say,
which is a godsend for when it's summer because then all the heat that builds up
up here can just go right out there.
and it's nice to just kind of have like a kind of cozy space.
People call it like a cave.
I've actually moved the layout of this area around like two or three times now
and I like to be able to move things around.
So just having these temporary shelves has worked out for me so I can move
things around.
So overall tiny living really just gives you the ability to really customize
your space in the way that you want just because there's not a lot of space to
customize. You have the ability, I'd say financially to do it,
but it's still like really reflects on who you are and you know the space that
you want to have and that you're able to create.
Here I have my water in and my water out and this is where I keep my propane
tank,
which also connects to this little area right over here and a 55 gallon water
tank, um, that I always keep full in case of emergency earthquakes,
wildfires. And I also have a 40 gallon holding tank in the house,
which is hooked up to a battery operated pump.
If I do lose power I can have water coming into the house.
what everyone says and what I agree with when you live tiny is making your
outside space also enjoyable because you kind of have to coexist between inside
and outside because there isn't that much space inside.
I have my little setup out here and I also have my potted plants. Slash.
Garden plants are something that I've always loved so I love coming out here and
just taking care of the plants. It like calms me down. Centers me.
I don't think a space is my space until I've filled it with plants.
I'm excited to see like where this takes me in the future cause I think it is
setting me up for, you know,
more financial independence and I have like the ability to not be in this
constant state of anxiety because I have this,
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