8 Reasons You’ll Never Want to Live in a Standard House Again

If you had the freedom to do anything you wanted with your life, what would you do?

Would you quit your job? Maybe buy your first home? Take up a sport? Spend more time with loved ones? Volunteer? Open up a business? Travel the world? Make babies? Go back to school? Become a Buddhist monk?

Mentalize your answer. Okay, next question. What is holding you back?

The three most common factors that keep the majority of us from living the life we desire are money, time, and our own self-imposed limitations. Fortunately, there is one thing that can help free you from these limiting factors — a tiny house.

What Exactly is a Tiny House?

As far as size, there is no official document stating how big or small a tiny house must be, however, it is on average 186 square feet while a standard house in America is around 2,687 square feet. In other words, you can fit 11 tiny houses in one standard American house. To be legally considered a mobile home, it must have wheels.

At this point, you may be thinking how you could possibly live in a human-sized chicken coop! But when you experience what a tiny home is really like you will realize that it provides you with the space that you need without any excess. The reason why having a tiny home seems like a crazy idea at first is because we have forgotten the true purpose of a home. The home should be a place of safety, comfort, joy, and love. Instead, we become prisoners to our own houses — overcome with debt, stress, and chaos.

The Prison That We Built for Ourselves

We have been working 5 out of 7 days, full-time, just so we can pay our bills, instead of investing in a better life. We pay for rent, mortgage, electricity, water, health insurance, car bills, schooling, food and water, taxes, then we (try to) save some money. At the end of all that, we take the small amount of money we have left and (try to) enjoy our one or two days of rest. But the whole time we feel like we are walking a tightrope, ready to plummet into foreclosure with any misstep.

What happens when you don’t have enough money to pay off all your bills? And what about time? Working full-time how can you find a way to go on a nice, relaxing trip, indulge in activities you’re passionate about, or do those things you wrote down on your bucket list? Shouldn’t life be more simple, relaxing, and enjoyable?

It’s Time to Break Out of Prison

In this article, you will discover how you can live a big life in a tiny home, that will allow you to have a dream life that most only achieve, after long years of hard, consistent work and self-sacrifice.
Yes, you can have financial and emotional freedom once and for all. No more worrying about bills, money, time or even your health. So without further ado, here are 8 ways a tiny home is the answer to your prayers.

1. Say “Goodbye” to Your Mortgage and “Hello” to Your Dream Home.

Sometimes our budget won’t buy us the home of our dreams or rent us the apartment we wanted, forcing us to turn to banks for a “solution”, while many times, being left in huge debt and distress. Financing your tiny home, however, is much easier.

Statistics show that 68% of tiny house owners have no mortgage compared to 29.3% of all U.S. homeowners. But why is that?

Well, the cost of a tiny home ranges between $30,000-$40,000 when you hire a contractor to build it or if you choose to buy it ready. The cost lowers to $23.000 if you were to buy the materials and build it yourself.

The Standard American home, on the other hand, costs on average $272.000. But that price is only for those who have that full amount in their bank account. If you are like most of us who don’t have all that money saved up, you add $209.704 of interest on a 4.25% 30-year loan and there you have it! $481.704 is the accurate pricing for your average standard home.

So what that means is that by choosing a tiny home you would be saving around $441,704 just on the house itself. That’s without counting the health you will gain along with extra life years if you subtract about 3 decades of mortgage, stress and sleepless nights from that equation.

2. Take Your Tiny House with You While Traveling.

Imagine you get offered an incredible job opportunity a few states over, and you need to sell your home fast. How long do you think it would take until you had everything settled for a move with a standard house? Definitely not the next day right?

Let’s face it, with a standard home you’re stuck (literally).

This is why a tiny house is the most practical way of living. You can travel with it at any time. Just hook it up to the back of a truck and drive to your newest adventure.

You mean I won’t have to pay for hotel rooms anymore!?

That’s right. With a tiny home, there is no need to worry about shelter when you are on the road.

If the move is permanent, you would need to rent or buy a piece of land to park it on and that’s it. Could a standard American home provide you with this much freedom?

3. You Can Have an Organized and Clutter-Free Life.

By ridding your house of all the things that you don’t need, you will have a neat and organized home that you will take pleasure in coming back to. In the tiny house, it’s a lot easier to make this happen since you won’t have that full sized closet space for storage anymore.

So when you hop over to a store like Target to grab that toilet paper, and you start automatically reaching for a pair of Cheetah print shoes, you will think twice about it. (which in this case i really hope you do.) If you live in a standard home, you will probably buy those Cheetah print shoes because it’s easier to justify. I mean, you already have the space and you are already in debt, so why not?
A tiny home really allows you to keep in check with reality. You will have the opportunity to finally donate and sell those extra items, helping more people and getting extra money to spend.

As Elise Boulding, the sociologist and credited author once wisely said:

The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things.”

Here is a great “how to” video on de-cluttering to help you:

4. Save More and Live Better.

It is by no coincidence that 55% of tiny house people have more savings than the average american, with a median of 10,972 in the bank.Think about it, when you cut down the size of your home, it’s only natural that you cut down the size of your costs. With a tiny house your utility bill, as well as rental of property are symbolic in value compared to bills of a standard house.

If you do take out loans to build it, you will have paid it off in few years max, where with standard homes you spend decades or pretty much your entire life paying mortgage while running the risk of losing everything you’ve invested. With these smaller costs of living, you can use that extra money with things and experiences that will bring you happiness and satisfaction.

I talked with Jon Dandridge, a financial analyst, medical student as well as tiny house owner who says:

It’s really nice to know that our house is paid for you know? We didn’t need to take out any loans for it. This is just unheard of nowadays with traditional houses.”

The savings continue to add up, even after the tiny home is built. For example, Jon recently had a problem with the plumbing in his tiny home and had to redo all of it. In a standard, 2-bathroom home this would cost between $4,000 and $10,000. But how much did it cost Jon?

It cost us only about a hundred bucks. It’s incredible how we save tons of money just by living simpler.”

While many of us are itching our heads, constantly worried about where we’ll come up with the money to pay for that unexpected bill, tiny house owners are continuously filling up their savings account, going on adventures, and living out their dreams.

5. You can Make it the Most Eco-Friendly Home.

We are facing a serious global crisis in terms of pollution levels, global warming, climate change as well as extinction of wild species, and these little houses are making a huge positive impact.

While each standard home produces on average an absurd amount of 28,000 pounds of CO2 per year for electricity, heating and cooling, uses up 7 full logging trucks of lumber and has 45 light bulbs consuming 639 kWh of electricity per year, a tiny home only produces 2,000 pounds of CO2, uses ½ of a logging truck of lumber and has 6 light bulbs consuming a measly 85.2 kWh of electricity per year.

Pretty incredible, huh?

For those who are passionate about saving the planet (as well as money), there are numerous other ways to do it in a tiny house. Some examples are: utilizing composting toilets, solar panels, rainwater harvesting tool, insulated windows, water-saving shower-heads, eco-kettles, starting your own organic garden and etc. There is a world of opportunities for you beautiful souls.

6. It can be Adapted to Fit Any Lifestyle.

A common worry people have is that a tiny house is only meant for one person to live in, which is a false statement. There are many families living comfortably in tiny homes all over the world, in fact, some even prefer it. Let’s take Kim Kasl for example, a tiny housewife and mother of two kids who says that “parenting (in the tiny) is much easier. We’re more connected, cozy, and engaged.”

This means that with a tiny house you are free to raise a family, as you get to design your home as perfectly as you need it as far as size, decoration, the exterior environment and more. Every detail can be well thought out so that it fits your specific needs at a small cost. For example, if you are handicapped, have a special disease, live in severe cold weather or in very hot environment, you will be able to find a creative solution to meet your needs.

Check out this awesome tiny house that is wheelchair friendly:

7. Living In a Tiny Home Promotes Stronger and Healthier Relationships.

Just as having a baby can create a beautiful bond between a man and a woman who love each other, so can a tiny house. You go from planning it out and discussing all the details, to seeing it come true before your own two eyes.

Jon says building a tiny house with his wife Adelle “enhanced his relationship”. They not only designed it together, but built most of it.

I also asked Adelle about how building the tiny house together affected their relationship:

building the tiny house with Jon helped balance out the dynamics of the relationship. It made our respect for each other grow as we learned to give in to each others wishes instead of wanting to control.”

Thank you for the feedback Jon and Adelle, we genuinely wish you both a blessed journey together in your enchanting tiny home.

8. What is Better than Having More Money? Having More Time.

Most of us live a high-maintenance reality where we are forced to run, sweat and work our butts off on a regular basis, otherwise we get run over by “life”. But is life truly forcing us to live a hectic experience, or is it just us being slaves to our illusions? Selling our souls for a job that we hate because it pays well? What is the point in being able to afford all superfluous things in the world if you have to be in a stressful work environment everyday? If you don’t have freedom? If you don’t have time?

Must Read: How To Be Happy

A tiny house cuts down your costs of living, so that you may work way less, if you wish, and have more time to experience life to the fullest, while also increasing your health as a consequence of being more stress-free and purposeful.

Here is a quick, fun little video about time that will change your perception of life.

The Takeaway

Regardless whether you are retired with a fixed income wanting a simpler life, a single college graduate looking to buy your first home, someone who is tired of sharing a house, or a parent with kids to raise, a tiny home is exactly what you are looking for.

You can be one of the 65% of tiny house people with zero credit card debt, you can save and go after that job you know will make you happy, maybe give up that routine and live with audacity, get out there and start dating again, try something new, live an adventure, travel, write a book, start a family etc. The options are endless!

A tiny house gives you the opportunity to start living. This is why they are such a mind blowing life hack. Who thought that you could have the home of your dreams, while saving tons of money, benefiting the environment, growing your relationship, getting rid of debt, and improving your health and life quality with the freedom to go anywhere, at any time? Yes, tiny homes are here to revolutionize.

They are here to ask you one simple question:

Why just get through life, when you can start living?

Tiny Homes — The Biggest Life Hack