Welcome to the off the grid tiny house
built from the land and from
second-hand materials here at
Le Rêve de Gaïa in southern France.
This tiny house serves as a
demonstration site for
sustainable and simple living to
help you be able to live more
sustainably and simply, wherever
you are in the world.
Today, I'm going to give you a tour
of the house and the set-up, and
show you how you can adapt these things
at home, wherever you are, to live a
more simple and sustainable life.
In my last video, I already showed the
whole building process, from tree to tiny
house, so you can watch that video.
Just to recap on that a little bit, all of
the wood for this tiny house was actually
from trees that were harvested
sustainably right here on-site and then
milled right here on-site as well.
The other aspects are all second-hand.
The doors and the windows were leftover.
Companies that install new doors and
windows throw out the old ones when
they replace them. Everything else pretty
much is second-hand material, stuff that
was laying around at the farm, stuff
salvaged from the landfill, and this
entire thing cost under $100, including
the little bit of materials that we did
need to buy, the gasoline and the screws,
just some very basic stuff.
I want to take you inside and show you
everything else.
Here I am, on the bed inside the tiny
house and the lesson here is that we
don't need a lot to live sustainably.
In fact, the less we need, the more we can
simplify, the easier it actually is to
live sustainably. So, this place is about
really stripping back to the basics,
showing a way of simplifying and being
happy with what we have, rather than
always wanting more. There's a simple,
comfortable bed here. Then, on the other
side, here, there's going to be a second
bed as well. The shelves are all made
from wood here on-site, really simple,
just screws and wood and some small
shelves here as well for some basic items.
Just next to the bed here, we have a
little seating area. Then, you can see how
the storage works, just comes right out
from underneath the bed, and it's the
perfect size for some simple crates to
go under. Here, you can see the
shelves that were built on both sides,
very simple to be able to store basic
items. Then, above me, here we have
spots for hanging clothes, some clothes
hangers here. If it's raining outside and
you can't hang dry your clothes outside,
this is a good place to be able to dry
some clothes as well.
It's a comfortable place. It's designed to
have great lighting because this is off
the grid. There's actually not electricity
here, so for light, there is a headlamp,
which this one light lights up the place
quite a bit, then that can be charged back
at the community, and then there are
candles as well. So, that's the inside of
the tiny house. As you can see, very
simple, but very comfortable and a
wonderful place to just work on living
simply and connecting to the basics and
just being happy, being outside, being in
nature, loving the world that we live in.
Continuing on with loving the world, it's
about the way that we interact with
the world, so next I'm going to take you
outside to show you what we do there.
Most of the food here is grown on
the farm, in the big fields, where a lot
of food is grown. But here, next to the
tiny house, we have a simple raised bed
garden and I wanted to put this here to
show how simple it is to grow some of
your own food. A raised bed is as simple
as a couple of posts in each corner and
then some planks, some basic wood.
All you have to do is be able to hold the
soil in, have soil, have water, have
sunlight and some plants. We can all
grow a little bit of our own food, whether
it's herbs on a balcony or a windowsill,
or turning our whole front yard into a
garden. Or, if we really don't have any
space, joining a community garden. If not
any of that, then seeking out local food
and supporting the people that are
growing food locally.
Here we are in the outdoor kitchen, and
this is constructed from wood harvested
here, on site, as well as scrap
materials, things that were salvaged that
would have gone to waste, which is one of
the great lessons here, utilizing wasted
resources as well as sustainably
harvesting from earth that we live on.
I use a plant-based biodegradable soap, so
this goes into what's called gray water.
Here, we just fill up the water from the
spring or from harvesting rainwater. Then,
the water that goes into the sink doesn't
go to a wastewater treatment plant. It
goes down, it's collected in a bucket, and
then that water can be used for watering
plants and growing food. If you're at
home, you can actually unscrew the P-trap
under your sink and put a bucket there.
Also, when you shower, when the water is
heating up, you can fill a bucket and use
that for watering. You can set up your
laundry to go directly to your landscape.
That's called laundry to landscape.
So, at home, whether you're on the grid or
off the grid, there's a lot of ways to use
your gray water. We also harvest rainwater
so I want to show you that.
Here is the rainwater harvesting system.
It's extremely simple. Rainwater
harvesting is not complex. It's not
difficult. We have a gutter collecting
the water that falls onto the house and
then it goes into a bucket. Rainwater
harvesting is as simple as that. You can
use small buckets. You can get large,
55-gallon drums or you can have giant
cisterns. Of course, the kitchen would
not be complete without a place to cook.
In communities, one of the keys is
actually cooking together, in a central
location. That drastically reduces
workload. Here, we just have a simple
stove using rocks here from on-site,
then also wood from here on-site. We have
wood that comes from the spruce trees and
then the leftover wood from building the
house. This is a very simple stove that's
designed to be pretty efficient, with just
using a little bit of wood for basic
cooking. That's the stove.
Here I am at the outdoor shower. This
incorporates multiple things. First of
all, it incorporates solar heating, so
these black buckets can be put out into
the sun and then the black absorbs the
heat. If you put out the water from the
spring in the morning, by the afternoon or
evening, you have yourself a nice, warm
shower or even hot shower, depending
on the weather.
This works really simply. There are holes
screwed into the bottom of the bucket.
This bucket comes off the bottom and then
it's able to come out. Something that you
can do at home is build an outdoor shower
for the summer months. You can save
water from your shower to water your
garden or even redirect your shower
to your landscape.
Here, I am at the compost bin. Composting
is very simple, not complicated. The Earth
has been doing it for millions and
millions of years. This compost bin is
just built from wood and screws. In
cities, you can collect pallets, put
three pallets together and then make
a front and you've got yourself a compost
bin. Chicken wire in a circle is another
really easy compost bin. You can also
buy closed rotating containers as well,
if you want to spend some money, or
find them used. One key to composting
well is to make sure you have plenty of
carbon. For beginner composters,
if you have any smells, if you have a lot
of insects, just make sure you have 2-3
times more dry carbon matter than your
wet matter, like food waste and things
like that, that create smells. Composting
is something we can all do to reduce waste
to the landfill. If we don't have a space
to compost ourselves, in cities, a lot of
times you can bring it to a central
location, like a community garden or
some farmers' markets collect it, so
this is a great way to keep stuff out
of the landfill and not turn our waste
into someone else's problem, but instead
make fertile soil for growing our own food
right here on-site.
This is the compost toilet and this is
definitely more advanced sustainability
for the average person, but I want to show
it to you. As far as building the compost
toilet, it's so simple. Just some wood to
make a box and then have a lid.
For me, the key is a raised stool, also
called a squatty potty, to actually
raise up your legs when you're
pooping in order to have a more natural
way of sitting and flowing. Underneath
this, there are two buckets. This one,
which I just emptied, collects the poop.
You put a couple of scoops of sawdust
onto that poop. Amazing how well
a compost toilet works. You would be
amazed the first time that you use one.
Here, the toilet paper that we use is
called mullein. It's super-soft and it's a
perennial plant that grows in abundance
here. If you want to learn about
composting human poop, you can check out
The Humanure Handbook, by Joseph Jenkins.
Humanure stands for human and manure.
You can get all the information that you
need there.
I hope that you learned a lot from this
video, things that you can do to live more
sustainably and simply. Keep in mind,
you don't have to live in a tiny house,
you don't have to live on a farm in order
to be able to do a lot to live in a more
connected way with the Earth that gives
us life. In the description, I have
links to many useful guides to help you
live more sustainably and simply. Check
out Le Rêve de Gaïa. Their website and
their social media is there so you can
actually visit this place if you want to.
I spent about five weeks here, five lovely
weeks, and it's an incredible place to
be able to visit.
I really enjoyed giving this tour to
you. I hope you enjoyed it as well.
If you did, make sure that you subscribe
to this channel. Help this video get out
there by liking it and commenting and
sharing it with friends. On that note,
I'll see you again real soon for another
video. I love you all very much.