I'm Jenna and this is my hundred and sixty-five square foot tiny house.
There are plenty of videos on YouTube that talk about all of the positive aspects of living tiny.
Downsizing and simplifying your life, freeing up your finances,
less chemicals in your house, mobility,
Eco friendly.
This video is not like that. I'm gonna get real with you.
This video is not going to be about why it's so fantastic to live tiny.
I'm not going to showcase those instagram-worthy photos.
Well, okay, maybe a few
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I'm gonna talk about the hardships of living tiny.
The realities and why it's sometimes stinks.
Literally and figuratively.
So these are my 10 pet peeves/least favorite things about living small.
I really wish there was a video like this before I decided to downsize so that I knew what I was getting myself into
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First up:
Everybody always talks about how easy it is to clean a tiny house.
and that's true it takes 20 minutes to clean a tiny house.
It's small. But you know, what else doesn't take much time?
Getting it dirty.
My house is the same size as a lot of people's entryway. Do you see an entryway in my tiny house?
No, there's the door and boom. You're inside. Let's say I just got done snowboarding.
I'm trekking in snow. If I just got done on a hike, I'm tracking in mud.
And yeah, I have a little porch that I could dust myself off, but when it's raining or super cold outside
I mean who's really gonna spend the time to get themselves completely clean before stepping inside their house? That just doesn't happen
So it's really easy to get your house dirty when you live in a small space.
Especially when you live with a dog and my dog is very hairy.
So I am sweeping this house constantly trying to get all of the hair off of my clothes, out of all the little crevices.
I am constantly cleaning.
Number two:
Adequately named, it's actually about my composting toilet.
Not everybody has a composting toilet in their tiny house
So this is really particular to mine.
I love my composting toilet. Don't get me wrong
I've talked about it plenty of times but one of the downsides
Is that it's not easy for people to learn how to use it right away
It's not like you just come in and know how to use a composting toilet. You have to read the directions.
And yes, I do have directions on how to use my composting toilet with pictures
But the reality is not everybody wants to read before using the bathroom.
They just want to go in and they want to do their business and they want to be done.
So when I have guests over I have to explain how to use the toilet.
What's the last thing you want to do at a dinner party?
Discuss toilet matters.
The first time I had my boyfriend over, I had to inform him that he needed to sit to pee
to use my toilet.
That's not a great icebreaker for a new relationship. But hey, he stuck around so I guess he passed the test.
(3) One of my least favorite things to do in my tiny house is make the bed.
Especially after washing the sheets and I have to do the whole thing where you put the fitted sheet on the bed
I mean, I'm in a loft so it's a very confined space.
I kind of feel like I'm doing acrobatics, barrel rolls over myself to try to get the sheets on the bed the correct way.
It is a whole ordeal, but I really like a made bed in my house. So I do it every single day.
Once it's done you're like: *I did that*
Number four is smells. I'm not talking about the toilet.
I'm talking about when you're cooking in a tiny house,
or when you put on too much perfume in a tiny house,
or when your dog smells like wet dog in a tiny house.
The smells will get on your clothes and it is difficult to get it out
and you can't escape them because you are in 165 square feet with that smell.
Sometimes living in a tiny house literally stinks.
Everybody always says, "Oh you can't have guests over."
I can have four or five people over for dinner.
"Semi"-comfortably at my little table, but that's about it.
Forget about game night in a tiny house.
You do not have space for that.
Also inviting guests over to stay. I have a futon mattress that folds out.
We're all kind of in the same area and we're sharing one bathroom that I have to explain.
Another downside of living in a tiny house is that there's no room to grow.
You are literally restricted by your trailer.
So if you decide: "Oh, you know what I'd really like to expand."
"I'd like to have another bedroom in my house."
You would have to redesign the whole layout and you're not really gaining any more space.
You're just redoing the layout and that works to some extent but it also has its limitations.
I think that's why a lot of people use tiny houses as an
in-between house.
When they're kind of looking for what the next step is in life and then eventually when they do need to grow.
They kind of have to move out of their tiny house and upgrade to something slightly bigger.
The next downside of a tiny house is that you're not just limited by the size of the trailer.
But you're also limited by the weight.
You can only put so much weight on those axles.
So, you know when I'm looking at cast-iron pans
I'm thinking about the weight of the cast-iron pan before I'm buying it.
When I'm looking at sink choices
I'm thinking about the porcelain versus a stainless steel and how much that weighs
and I'm constantly thinking about weight when it comes to my house.
In a regular house, you don't have to think about any of that.
If you like porcelain, you go with porcelain. If you like marble and you can afford It you go with it.
This is probably not a shocker, but there is a limited amount of closet space in a tiny house.
This is my closet.
All the space I have for clothes.
I've been in friends weddings since living in this tiny house and so I have to buy high heels,
I have to buy the bridesmaids dress and then I have to immediately get rid of it afterwards.
Why? Because I don't have space in my closet to keep a dress that I maybe will wear once or twice again or maybe never.
Sometimes you have this occasion like New Year's Eve and "We're going to Vegas!" and you're like "Wow, okay."
"Well I guess I'll wear the same thing that I wore to Molly's wedding last week."
Because I only have one dress-up outfit and that could be kind of depressing sometimes.
There are some challenging legalities to living in a tiny house and I'm sure you've all heard it before.
But it has to do with parking and it has to do with insurance.
Sometimes you just can't find that perfect parking space,
You can't buy land legally and park your tiny house on it in that specific place that you want to park.
Finding insurance can be difficult as well.
I've written articles about finding parking and finding insurance for tiny houses and you can find links to those in the description.
but I will say it can be a real bummer.
And last but not least: Other people will judge you.
Some are you are judging me right now. Don't lie. You're doing it
You're judging me right now. And you know what? It's something I've learned to live with.
It's not a big deal. Some people get it and some people don't and that's okay.
We're not all the same.
If you're gonna be different, if you're gonna live alternatively, you best be prepared for some scrutiny.
Hope you guys enjoyed this week's video. I didn't sugarcoat anything for you.
This is the reality of living small.
There are of course downsides to it.
Until next time. See you later.