4 Myths About Tiny Homes

Busting the Myths about Tiny Homes on Wheels

Living in a tiny home is living intentionally, away from what society thinks you should do, away from debt, and away from many day to day stresses. It gives dwellers freedom of location, finances, and time. While living tiny is not something new, it has been newly embraced as people realize the current system of big houses, big mortgages, and big expenditures is unsustainable for the long term.

Despite the various benefits, this life of minimalism has its misconceptions. The reason is ignorance and the myths that surround tiny homes.

4 Myths About Tiny Homes

Tiny homes are meant for young hipster singles:

The biggest market for DIY tiny homes is actually women over 50 who have never built anything before. Tiny homes are about living intentionally rather than just living small. At Terraform Tiny Homes we have worked with families of four to traveling entrepreneurs, to single mothers. Tiny Homes are about a lifestyle more than a physical structure. They are suitable for anyone who wants to take control of their life and live intentionally.

Tiny Homes feel cramped:

It’s all about how you design them! At Terraform Tiny Homes, we strive to make each tiny house as spacious as we can so that you’re able to live comfortably.

When designing it is important to take into considerations things like, how the light moves through the house during the day, color pallets, room flow, and other concrete design features. In Terraform One we used pull-away walls and pocket doors to keep the whole home feeling open while still providing privacy when needed. Another tiny house dweller once told me “despite their home being the same exact size… Terraform One felt SO much bigger”.

With Terraform Three smart design takes an extremely tiny footprint and expands it, as one visitor described, “like Mary Poppins purse”. 54 sq ft of interior living space expands to 124 sq ft of usable space by opening up a back wall, turning the roof into usable space, and other clever design features. DIY tiny homes may feel cramped at times due to lack of professional planning but ones constructed with experienced guidance can be surprisingly spacious and comfortable.

They aren’t safe in a storm:

Not true! They are built to withstand hurricanes. When you are going down the highway at 60 mph and an 18-wheeler blows by at 60 mph in the opposite direction… That’s a 120 mph gust hitting your home. Add in potholes, swerves and bends in the road, and any number of road hazards, every tiny house move is a CAT 5 hurricane. So Tiny Homes are built to withstand these conditions. With the recent hurricanes in Florida and Houston, the tiny homes in the area did just fine. Learn more about their stories.

Another perk of living in a mobile dwelling is that in case of harsh weather conditions or expected hurricanes, you can take your home to a place where the weather is pleasant, something that you can’t do with a brick house.

Composting toilets are gross:

Living in a tiny house myself, I can assure you this it isn’t true at all. Through multiple exhibits, I’ve had over 10,000 people through Terraform One… Every exhibit I intentionally don’t dump my toilet beforehand to show first hand they are not as scary as people think. To this day, even with 3 weeks of poop and 10,000+ people just a few feet away, no one has told me that my toilet stinks.

Depending on your level of comfort there are different options. I use the Nature’s Head composting toilet which separates liquids and solids and has a vent fan to prevent odors. This is the Rolls Royce of composting toilets and comes with a high price tag, but the results are great. Many use simply a 5-gallon bucket and sawdust, while I haven’t gotten that brave, Terraform Three will have a DIY toilet somewhere in the middle of the two.

Composting toilets are much better for the environment. The average toilet uses 1.6 gallons of water per flush and is flushed between 5-7 times per day. Add that all up and the average person uses almost 3,000 gallons of fresh drinking water yearly. Crazy to think about when you realize 844 million people, 1 in 10 people worldwide don’t have access to clean water at all… and we poop in ours.

If the environmental crisis wasn’t convincing enough… composting toilets, believe it or not, are much easier to clean. They can be removed from the home, taken into the yard and simply hosed off. Much nicer than dealing with chemicals and sticking your head between the toilet and the cabinet to clean. A skeptic when I moved into my house, I have become an advocate for composting toilets as seen in my bedpan planters in Terraform One.

As Tiny house designers and dwellers ourselves, we strive to help people of all ages and backgrounds live more intentionally. While there are compromises and some struggles with living tiny, the net impact is extremely positive. This is how the tiny house community has evolved over the last few years and has witnessed a rapid rise in members.

Tiny house on wheels designers, Terraform Tiny Homes offers car camper designs, school bus conversions, and many more services to make your dream of living in an alternative dwelling come true.