Welcome to the Teeny Greeny.
My name is Rob Greenfield
and this is my off the grid,
in the city, tiny house adventure.
After years of simplifying,
I have gotten down to a debt free
and bill free lifestyle.
I moved here 4 months ago
with only the possessions that fit
on my bike and my trailer
and I bought this house for $950.
And I’ve been living wonderfully,
simply, and healthfully the last 4 months.
Today I'm going to give you a tour
and show you what's going on here
in my off the grid in San Diego, tiny house life.
So first of all, let me show you the house.
Alright, so come on inside.
I was planning on buying something bigger
but I went on Craigslist
and found this listed for $950.
I was going to build my own,
but I just couldn't resist.
It's not quite tall enough to stand in
but by not being able to stand,
I don't spend most my time in here.
This is all 50 square feet of it.
Pretty simple living in here.
All of the woodwork is just refurbished wood.
The shelf I built myself and these as well.
This is a simple mattress for $75
on Craigslist that pulls out.
Yeah, pretty simple on the inside.
This light is powered by the solar panels
which I’ll show you
It’s a 3 watt light bulb.
And my clothes, my books,
and some of my basic necessities are here.
Hardwood floors, repurposed materials
That's the inside but
what's more important is the outside.
A lot in my life revolves around food so
I’m going to take you to the kitchen next.
This is really simple, this is just a little camp kitchen
that I got online used.
The sinks are right here and the water
just drains down Into this 5-gallon bucket.
Here's the refrigerator / cabinet.
All of my food is stored in jars.
I buy all the food in bulk at the local co-op
so that there's no packaging.
I brew my own Kombucha,
sprout a lot on my own things,
and then I do lentils things like that.
Got my fresh vegetables
The amazing thing is this stays cool.
Even the coconut oil doesn't melt
on a warm day.
So this thing is natural refrigeration
with the air that is in the doors.
A kitchen wouldn't be complete without a stove.
This isn't your typical American stove,
this is a rocket stove
built out of a couple dozen bricks
that I found in an alley
And I just use wood
that's fallen from local trees.
And use it to cook up
whatever I want, in my simple pot and pan.
I pretty have oatmeal for breakfast almost
every day. And then lots of things like
veggies, fruits, and grains.
One of my favorite parts about
living off the grid is drinking rainwater.
This is pure water straight from the sky
No chemicals like chlorine or fluoride
This simple Berkey filter that uses
a very natural filtration system.
You simply fill this with a 5-gallon jug
and you don't have to worry about chemicals,
bacteria, protozoa, viruses or anything like
that. But you're probably wondering well
how do I get the rain from out of the sky
into my Berkey? I'll show you
the rainwater harvesting system.
So rainwater harvesting is very simple.
Those are some old 55-gallon drums
that used to have applesauce in them.
Those are some simple gutters that I built.
It’s as simple as channeling the rainwater
from the roof into the gutters and
into the barrels.
There was a huge storm about 2 weeks ago
I managed to collect 200 gallons of water
which for me using
only 2 gallons of water per day
will last me about 100 days.
This is my only source of water.
The average American uses a mind-boggling
80 to 100 gallons of water each day.
For me that's a 1 to 2 months
supply of water for everything I need.
200 gallons is what I have now in May
and that's going to last me
probably till the next time it rains
towards the end of the summer.
So for me it's important to use water wisely.
That 200 gallons is used
like more than 200 gallons of water though
because I use every bit 2 to 3 times
For example first I wash my hands with it,
then wash dishes with it, and then
it goes down into this 5-gallon bucket
which I will then use
to the water the plants or put in the compost.
Behind me you'll see my bathroom which cost me about
$50-$60 to put together.
Again, very simple
So this is a simple compost toilet.
When you have to go, you just sit down, you go.
It goes into a 5 gallon bucket
which then after you go,
you just cover it with leaves.
Amazingly the leaves take care of the smell.
Then once this bucket is full,
you take it and you put it in the compost.
In the bathroom, we have the sink area
which is just simply a pitcher with water.
You can use here to freshen up, wash your hands.
And here are my simple bathroom items
which isn't much.
A mirror, toilet paper from a CVS dumpster
because they throw away all sorts of stuff.
And that’s the simple bathroom.
So, let’s head to the compost.
So this is the compost
which is fundamental part of living
an earth friendly lifestyle.
Rather than sending stuff to the landfill
or to the treatment facilities.
I'm taking care of it right here on the spot
and turning things back into soil.
The black tarp is to keep the moisture in
since this is a dry area.
What you see here
was originally food waste,
human waste, and yard waste.
The amazing thing, there's no foul smell
and if you are doing compost right
even with humanure, there won't be a smell.
This is new to me but I'm amazed at
just how fine it is.
Smell’s like Earth!
For the last 4 months living here
I’ve been buying food at the farmers market,
the co-op, and doing dumpster diving.
Especially for my fruits and veggies,
but soon i'll be growing my own food.
These are called wicking bed gardens.
And their great for drought tolerant gardening.
I live here in San Diego where
we don't have a ton of water.
So basically how this works
is you water through this little pipe here on top
and that fills a reservoir below.
That's basically rocks like this
and burlap over that.
The water wicks up through the burlap
into the soil and then waters the plants.
I have a couple a basils growing right now.
I'll be starting to grow food probably this weekend
and soon this will be covered
in high quality organic greens mostly.
You’ll notice that there's not many things
around the yard I need electricity for.
I've got my computer, bike lights, headlamp,
and the light inside the house
and maybe a few other small things but
I just don't use much electricity.
I just use good old fashioned manpower and
nature to a large extent.
But I do a couple a solar panels to charge
the things that I am using.
These are two solar panels
and they charge simple batteries
that I then use to charge what I need.
My computer, my bike lights, my headlamp, and my light inside.
And one of my favorite parts of the day
is sitting in my birds nest.
I just sit up here and read my book or
eat my oatmeal, do some writing,
and just sit and take in the beautiful ocean view.
Life is pretty simple. Life is pretty good.
I don't have a cell phone.
I got rid of that 4 or 5 months ago
and I don't have internet here by choice.
The reason being is that when I’m right here
I'm extremely connected to my surroundings
And disconnected from the computer
and the phone and all the stresses of life.
So when I do need to use the Internet
or get in touch with people
I hop on my bike, open my gate
and I head out to a cafe or to the library
and I can choose when to be connected
and when not to.
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