10 Livable Tiny House Tips

Are you new to tiny home living, or are you considering taking the plunge? Here are ten tips from the trenches for a livable tiny house lifestyle! From siting the tiny house to heating and cooling, and hanging up everything in between, we hope these ideas will empower you to be comfortable in your space.

Livable Tiny House – Our Story in Brief

My family of five have been living in about 600 square feet for several years now. Although this wasn’t our plan initially, and even though we didn’t get to design the tiny house we’re living in, we’ve still managed to make the little space our home.

I’ve watched plenty of tiny house videos on social media of sleek little homes with all kinds of fancy hidden drawers and cool gadgets. I admire the design and thought that goes into those spaces!

I don’t have any of those things, though. Ours was a shed to tiny house conversion with no frills. My family finished the dry wall, painted it, built the staircases to the lofts, and mixed and matched the furniture we already had. 

Our budget was so small as to nearly be non-existent and we did it all as we had time while managing one crises after another. We have a livable tiny house now but it took a lot of grit and time and making do.

It’s home and we love it but there’s nothing fancy about it. And we’re still not done!

• (Word to the wise, put up the window, door, and floor trim BEFORE you move in because you’re less likely to move furniture to do so once you live in that space. Just sayin’.)

In Praise of the Tiny House

The best part about a tiny home is that it’s so much easier to clean than any of my other houses! That’s simply because it’s smaller. 

It’s a challenge because of limited space to move furniture out of the way to deep clean behind the pieces, but there’s so much less “stuff” overall, that it all takes less time.

Another lovely thing about tiny house living is that you strip down to essentials and learn to leave useless chaff behind. We discovered that as long as we could be together – safe and cozy – nothing else really mattered all that much.

The fact that we don’t have a mortgage payment is also a very attractive virtue of our tiny house!

10 Livable Tiny House Tips

Having said all that, however, there was certainly a learning curve to figuring out the ins and outs of a livable tiny house. If you’re considering tiny house living, I hope the following ideas will help you feel more prepared.

If I’ve missed a topic you’ve been curious about, just leave me a comment and I’ll do my best to address it.

#1 – Orient the House Correctly

To have an energy wise, livable tiny house, be sure to orient the house correctly when having it put in place. Examine the site and collect a little bit of data.

• Where is the morning sun? The setting sun?
• Which side of the tiny house should be facing either sun event?
• From which direction come the prevailing winds?

It’s much easier to logically place the tiny house to capture heat from the sun in the winter and hide the house from the heat of the sun in summer. Trying to regulate temperature with a poorly sited tiny house is a challenge! (Ask me how I know.)

As you’re considering where to position the house, keep in mind where the doors will be and what will need to be close by for easy access.

• Will you have a porch?
• What about a kitchen or herb garden?
• Do your pets or maybe your chicken coop need to be somewhere close by in order to see to their needs?

Also consider elements like where to park your car, etc. Once the most logical footpaths are marked and the area immediately around the outside of the house is tentatively designed, everything else will fall into place.

Permaculture Connection

In permaculture, we call this area in which we move most often zone 1 – this is the zone where the daily action is and you want to be sure you’ve place your front or back door right where you need it.

For more help designing your homestead and placing elements of it (including your tiny house) please read the following articles when you have time:

Plan a Permaculture Homestead Layout

Permaculture Zones on the Homestead

Stacking Functions on the Homestead

#2 – Build That Porch

Your home may be tiny, but there’s no reason it can’t be as comfortable as any other home. Consider building a porch around one or more of your doors – all the way around the home is always better, if you can afford it.

• Porches are useful outdoor spaces that can provide an extension of your indoor spaces, especially when you live in a tiny house. May times we simply don’t have the room to entertain indoors but a porch provides more space for socializing and relaxing.
• Porches also provide a place to cook outdoors that is protected by the elements. Believe me, a tiny house heats up fast when you start cooking and baking in the kitchen!

This is desirable in the winter, but in the summer it can be awful. A porch area means you can move the cooking outside easily.

• Another thing a porch allows you to do is to keep the windows and screen doors open even if it’s raining. Sometimes, the nicest, coolest air is available during a delightful rainstorm. Without a porch, the rain requires that we keep the windows and doors shut!

Temperature regulation is a full time job in a livable tiny house, so do yourself a favor and build a porch as quickly as you can! 

#3 – Screen Doors and Windows

If you have the opportunity of designing your tiny house, be sure to include as many windows as you can, including up in the lofts. If you can, be sure to include screen doors, too.

Many tiny houses are without central heat and air, so natural air flow through the home is very important. Open windows and doors to air the house on pleasant days in winter, as well as the cooler nights of summer. 

Temperature control doesn’t just effect the people, it also effects pets, stored foods, fermenting foods, and how fast the butter softens (or melts altogether). I don’t bake as much during the summer because all my baked goods are long-ferment sourdough items. The heat of my house can make them go wonky!

#4 – Everything Goes Up!

Since floor space is limited it tiny houses, anything that can hang on the wall should. When floor space is limited, that also means furniture surfaces like countertops, tabletops, and shelving are at a premium.

Every pitcher, cup, bowl, container, office caddy, and anything else that holds smaller items like office supplies, kitchen utensils, and spices and more has to vie for space on household surfaces. 

Look for ANYTHING with a hole or loop in the handle and hang it up on hooks, bars, racks, and baskets. Items that can hang:

• Lamps
• Fans
• Coats & hats
• Belts & shoes
• Baskets of every kind – stuff them with scarves & gloves, or craft & kitchen supplies, or freshly foraged food
• Folding chairs & camp chairs
• Produce bags filled with produce
• Kitchen utensils like spatulas and mixing spoons
• Mugs & pitchers

Stylized wall cabinets for items like spices, bathroom supplies, and craft items can also come in handy. Be careful and thoughtful with your wall space. 

In a tiny house, wall space is just as measured as floor space!

#5 – Everyone Downsizes Periodically

In order to maintain a livable tiny house, everyone will need to go through their personal items, including clothing and shoes, every quarter. Bare minimum, every six months.

• This is especially true for any family member under the age of twelve. Children are natural scientists and artists, which means you often find piles of rocks, modeling clay, and random birds’ nests squirreled away in various corners. 

In a tiny house, there’s just enough room to entertain and encourage creativity but not enough room for the piles to become another member of the family. They must be returned to the outdoors (if they’re natural materials) or repurposed (as with craft supplies).

My youngest is a budding geologist and is constantly finding amazing fossils and rocks. In order to keep a livable tiny house, my husband built her some simple shelves just off our front porch. We call this area her rock museum.

Every time we come back from a walk or a swim in the river, the newest amazing rocks go onto the shelves, or “into the museum”. She goes through them every now and then to clear out the old to make room for the new because she knows that her space is limited indoors. 

(To be perfectly honest, I love rocks as much as she does and we do have the most interesting specimens sitting on bookshelves and the bathroom counter. We’re simply very selective.)

To help you downsize and declutter, we invite you to join our newsletter family and download your copy of Homestead Declutter & Downsize workbook from your newsletter family library. It’s free and easy to do!

 

Remember: Heat Rises

If you have lofts, they should have windows, if at all possible. Heat in summer and winter rises and you’ll want a way to easily vent it out of the tiny house.

• A high quality ceiling fan in the middle of the house will work wonders for air movement and I highly, highly recommend you install one.
• Be sure you can reverse the blades to push warm air from the ceiling and lofts down into the main house in winter.

As important as a center ceiling fan is, being able to vent the lofts at each end makes those space so much more enjoyable. To have a truly livable tiny house, the lofts must be comfortable!

Also, consider air conditioning units and fans and make plans for their use, but calculate their electricity draw if you’re off grid or have limited power. Because of our electrical set up, I have to strategically use both AC and fans during the day to keep the house cool.

• Window AC units are usually the most economical but mini split systems are far more efficient. Plus, a mini split or portable AC doesn’t take up an entire window which could be opened to direct natural air into the home on nice days.

#6 – Use the Woodstove

If you live in an area with cold winters, purchase a wood stove to fit your square footage and then use it as much as you can. We purchased our small stove at Northwoods Fabrication because they’re American made, which was important to us. They’re also very affordable and well made.

It’s a great stove and we love it but it isn’t insulated like some of the larger models. To create radiant heat with our stove, we wrapped it entirely in fire bricks. 

The bricks capture the direct heat from the woodstove like a battery and then slowly release it over the day and night. The bricks also create a barrier between the direct heat of the stove and everything else around the stove which reduces potential fire hazard.

• The wood ash can be used effectively around the homestead, so don’t just throw it out! Practical Self Reliance has 70+ ways to use wood ash for you.
• We also use the heat to dry delicate clothing – we’ve positioned a small laundry rack on the wall next to the stove. Likewise, I use the area around the stove to culture my sourdough bread dough.
• When the stove is hot, I keep a pot of potpourri to keep the air moist and healthy. The Herbal Academy has a great recipe for a woodland winter stovetop potpourri mix that works so well on a woodstove.
• I also use the radiant heat to safely and slowly melt old candle wax to make ornaments and other craft items. Or soften butter, as you can see in this photo.

#7 – Count Your Linens

If you’re coming from a standard-sized house and are just learning how to make a livable tiny house, start by counting your linens. If you’re like me, you have quite a stash!

• How many sheets, pillowcases, and blankets do you really need for 12 months?
• How many bath towels, hand towels, and kitchen towels?
• How many shower curtains, window curtains, and tablecloths?

Keep only what you’re using and donate, upcycle, or store the rest. (Yes, you do need storage space even in a tiny house.)

This can be difficult for some of us but I promise that it will cause you more sorrow and frustration to try to keep clean, keep tidy, and keep stored your surplus. 

After you’ve counted and sorted your linens, do the same thing with:

• Silverware
• Plates & bowls
• Cups & mugs – seriously, why do I have so many of these?!
• Clothing
• Games & craft supplies
• Books & homeschool material
• Bathroom supplies

Stacking Functions in a Tiny House

Managing an overabundance of things in a tiny house is exhausting! It’s like having to constantly shove a very round peg into a very square hole. Life is too short!

• Don’t consider these extra things wasted, though – they’re just extra. Ponder on ways you can use them around the home or homestead. If not, feel free to pass them on to others who can make use of them.

We start to think of the things that surround us in a different way when were short on space. We’re always considering if we can get multiple uses out of the same space.

• In permaculture, we call this stacking functions. Even though permaculture’s main focus is to teach us how to how to grow food in abundance, the principles can be applied to the inside of our homes, too!

The Toaster Oven Example

For example, I cooked for a few years on just a stovetop and with a pressure cooker in our tiny house. However, we missed having an oven for baking and hadn’t built the outdoor oven yet. 

So, I started looking at the larger toaster ovens on the market today. I knew, though, that if I were going to give up precious kitchen space to an oven, I was going to have to make that space serve serval different purposes.

I had only once place the oven could go and it was going to be a tight fit.

1. I finally found on a stainless steel counter with shelves that could house my new toaster oven on its rack underneath the counter.
2. The counter itself provided much needed workspace that I had been trying to provide myself for months. There’s never enough counter space in the kitchen when you cook all your meals and bake at home. (I find this true in large and small kitchens – my kingdom for more counter space!)
3. Under the counter, there was just enough room for my food storage buckets containing bulk flour, rice, sugar, etc. I’d been tripping over them for months trying to work them into my tiny kitchen. The counter was the perfect solution.

So, one space has served multiple purposes in my kitchen, improving the user experience and helping provide better for our livable tiny house environment.

You Still Need Storage in a Livable Tiny House

As a homesteader, you still need storage somewhere! Homesteaders have equipment and supplies that are integral to maintaining our land and home.

Infrastructure like:

• Barns & livestock pens
• A garage or shop
• Tool sheds
• Greenhouses or grow tunnels
• Smokehouses

And more! Each structure can hold supplies and tools that suit the purpose of the building, but you’ll need to apply the same principles of evaluating, decluttering, etc.

We also have seasonal storage like clothing and holiday decorations; this gets changed out according to the time of year. We always leave a space for these items in the house but we’re careful about what we keep.

To help you brainstorm very doable storage ideas for small spaces, try these articles:

• 25 Tiny House Storage Ideas for Any Size Home, by Tiffany the Tiny Home.
• 17 Small House Storage Hacks, by Simple Living Mommy.

#8 – Don’t Over-Decorate

My husband and son were the first of our family to live in our tiny house as they finished the main work of getting the structure livable. By the time the girls and I arrived, we had drywall and paint, a bathroom and (finally, yay!) a kitchen sink and counter. We didn’t have real electricity yet, but whatever!

It didn’t take me long to start applying my hygge principles and habits to our tiny house to turn it into a home. I brought in the homeschool supplies and the books, along with the house plants and candles.

We also started hanging artwork and putting quotes up on the walls like we had in all our other standard-sized houses. I also added candle wall scones and candle holders because we loose power a lot during storms.

I lived with the house that way for about three months, including through a Christmas season when there’s always a lot of decorations and extra light. After I put the holiday things away, I realized I was starting to feel oppressed by all the “stuff” on the walls.

• There was just too much going on in that small space – hanging tools and cups and candles, pictures and paintings, my kids’ art and school work, etc.
• I made a goal to keep a deliberate balance between having too much stuff and still living my life. I knew I needed my books and holiday fun, but did I really need everything I’d put out?

Calm Your Space

To expose more blank wall and calm down the space, I decided to:

1. Reduce the number of pictures to only the most beloved. I kept a small, seasonal reserve to change out for the seasons – this is part of a hyggelig home for me (part of hygge decorating).
2. Use paint color on the walls to keep the atmosphere light and airy.
3. Keep my food and kitchen supply shelves neat and tidy so that they weren’t distracting to the eye. We have a lot of people and we require a lot of food storage space, but keeping it organized and clutter-free is less chaotic. 
4. Use my curtains to control both temperature and light during the day and evening in all seasons. Natural light is so important to include in your home.
5. Keep my “fairy” lights up in the family room to add soft, calming light that takes up nearly no space. Fairy lights is the hygge term we often use to refer to Christmas-type lights – small, twinkling lights, strings of Edison lights, small lanterns, etc. I like both colored and white lights, depending on the season.
6. Use a lot of natural decorations and crafts that tend to be seasonal. They can be returned outside to compost.

Last Christmas, all of our Christmas tree ornaments were made from natural or repurposed materials. Instead of gifts, we treated ourselves to a family trip to the Florida coast where we collected a few shells that then became tree decorations.

We also turned old walnut shell halves into owl-faced ornaments and repurposed old candle wax into scented decorations. The entire tree was covered in natural, homemade decorations and we loved it!

#9 – Create an Outdoor Kitchen Area

We already touched on this idea in the porch section, but it bears repeating. Anytime you can take your cooking outside, do it! Building an outdoor kitchen area doesn’t have to be expensive or difficult. 

• Please visit this article from Homestead Honey to learn how to build a simple outdoor kitchen.

Creating an outdoor kitchen area:

1. Provides an extension of your family space during good weather. Even if you’re careful with your furniture inside the home, it can still feel cramped if you have a lot of people.
2. Provides an extension of your kitchen space. You can keep totes for equipment and tools in your outdoor kitchen, especially for outdoor cooking like grilling, live fire cooking, smoking, and baking (including in an outdoor oven).
3. Removes the heat of cooking from your home in the summer, which is such a blessing! 
4. Keeps the mess of big cooking tasks and seasonal canning projects outdoors.

Please visit the ad below to learn more about building an outdoor oven from our good friend Teri Page of Homestead Honey. She and her husband wrote a book on how they used natural materials to build their outdoor oven easily – with their kids, too!

#10 – Expandable Seating

The only real inconvenience to living in a tiny house when you have a large family or like to have friends over for dinner is gathering space, which includes seating! If this is a concern for you, I suggest the following:

1. Carefully consider the furniture you have in your common space. Is it efficient – can it seat people comfortably without taking up the whole room? Sell and replace any piece of furniture that doesn’t.
2. As you can afford it, acquire the most compact folding chairs you can find. We’ve used these even for ourselves at dinner time when sitting around the table (which doubles as my office desk during the day). With industrial hooks meant for hanging heavy items, you can store your folded chairs on the wall when they’re not in use.
3. Keep camp chairs in your outdoor kitchen or tool shed to use in a pinch when you have extra guests. No one cares what they’re sitting on when everyone is eating good food and socializing together.
4. Food storage pails with a towel for padding on top make great seats for kids.
5. Use benches in your outdoor kitchen for seating multiple people close together. You can even use folding benches in the house and stack them to the side of a shelving unit when they’re not in use. 

Did I miss anything – do you have advice to add to this list from your time living in a tiny house? Just leave a comment to help out other readers!

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