If you’re thinking of downsizing and making a move to a smaller house, you might want to check out the advice and real-life experience in these tiny house blogs. They’ll provide inspiration and motivation even if all you ever do is downsize!
I wasn’t always a fan of blogs. I remember when my sister started one for her family, I teased her saying that blog sounded like something you’d hork up, not something you’d read. Well, look at me now.
Even though so much of my time is taken up with homesteading, homeschooling and writing, I still find a bit of time to read my favorite blogs because they’re a great way to get someone’s personal experience distilled into a 600 word article.
Is Tiny House Living For Me?
Have you heard of the tiny house movement? I hadn’t until a few years ago. And, really, I think it’s mostly Americans and other first worlders who think of this movement as novel – most of the rest of the world lives very small.
Some modern families are looking to constantly expand their living space – buying up, to bigger and bigger houses. Some of these reasons are ridiculously Babylonian in nature – status, wealth, pomp. Puke. Puke all over that.
Some families, however, are constantly expanding – new babies come while big teenagers still live at home and everyone starts to feel a bit crowded when you factor in clothes, books, pets, equipment and so forth. If you homeschool, add more books to that list and a seemingly never-ending stack of projects and papers. If you are a prepper and store emergency supplies and food, good luck finding space!
Who Lives in Tiny Houses?
Tiny house families are doing just the opposite of expanding, though. They’re intentionally downsizing in a major way. Not their families, necessarily, but the space that their family occupies. There isn’t a technical definition of a “tiny house” but here’s what Wikipedia has to say about them:
“The small house movement (also known as the “tiny house movement”) is a popular description for the architectural and social movement that advocates living simply in small homes.”
I’m not here to preach that moving to a tiny house is what your family needs to do but my husband and I have become fascinated by the intention of this way of living. To start, we’ve been downsizing our “stuff” as we prepare to move our homestead. To go through that process with us and try it for yourself, we encourage you to read our article KonMari for Homestead Families.
We’ve also been making tentative plans to adapt the essential ideas of a tiny home to the straw bale design that’s slowly emerging as my engineer husband wraps his brain around the dream of the new homestead. Let’s face it, there are seven of us and seven people do take up some space so, “tiny” we will not achieve. But smaller than we have now? Oh yeah, in a big way.
Tiny House Blogs
To prepare for that, I’ve turned to a trusted source for personal information in an easy to read format with real life experiences – the ever popular blog. In this case, tiny house blogs. I thought this list might prove helpful to some others out there who are learning about this way of living; it might just help some understand what those weirdo tiny house people are all about!
Generally Good Tiny House Blogs and Websites
Good Pictures
I’m a visual learner and so I like sites with a lot of real-life pictures of people actually designing and living in tiny houses. Here are some good visual tiny house blogs:
- Tiny House Blog. Duh – the name alone tells you its going to be useful. This is the place on the internet that most of us start when we’re learning about tiny houses, what they are and how they’re built. This site is a hub for all things Tiny House. Their newsletter is a fun kick every week – there are featured tiny houses, real life stories, various types of tiny house are examined and you can even hook up with tiny house listings, if you’re in the market to buy.
- Tiny House Design. This site has a great collection of guest posts from real people designing and building their own tiny houses. Incidentally, a tiny “house” can be a bus, camper, boat, wagon – just about anything! When I’m looking at one of these sites, I want pictures and lots of them. This blog doesn’t disappoint as nearly every article has a great collection of photos to go with the text. One of the hard parts of visualizing tiny house living for most of us is picturing how it could possibly work! Take this post, for example – look at the bed, table and hide-a-bed all located in the same space! Yeah, need a picture to figure that one out.
- Tiny House Swoon. Speaking of pictures, this blog is the best I’ve found for tons of photos. That’s basically all it is – some are of professionally built tiny house and some are from tiny houses regular people crafted. The site isn’t really organized so good luck trying to find something; just go on if you need some ideas and visual inspiration.
Other Good Tiny House Blogs
- Tiny Home Geniuses. Simple, no-nonsense source for information and suggested products. One of the hard parts of adjusting to tiny house life is knowing which tools to give special space to and which to ditch entirely. It’s good to read lots of perspectives until you know what you want to do. Here are some thoughts on the best ways to heat and cool a tiny home. So many things to think about even if the home is small!
- The Tiny Life – Similarly good reviews, good collection of articles and resources. Love this review of the Luggable Loo!
Tiny House Blogs for Families and Homesteaders
I happen to know Teri Page of Homestead Honey and can personally vouch for her down to earth writing, love of family and strong feeling of stewardship with the earth. Her resources are my first recommendation for tiny house, DIYers with families.
-
- Homestead Honey. This is one of my favorite homesteading blogs but it just so happens that Teri and Brian have spent several years in a tiny, off-grid house that they built themselves. All of her articles are of worth to anyone looking to learn the lifestyle of small living with a family. She has several books of interest, too, among which are a The Backyard Bread & Pizza Oven, a step by step guide to building your own outdoor wood-fired pizza, as well as her print book, Family Homesteading. Of particular interest to tiny house enthusiasts is her e-book, Creating Your Off Grid Homestead.
Other Tiny House Blogs for Families
Tiny House Family. Their family is such an inspiration to me! I go on there and just sort of poke around when I’m feeling overwhelmed with waiting to sell our home or wondering if we’ll ever get “there”. One thing you run into when you’re researching tiny homes is that most of the people building them are single or have 1.2 kids. This family only has two kids but they’re a great family who are very down to earth and I enjoy reading their musings and experiences. They also offer courses and have penned a book. On the blog, there’s a video “tour” that a reporter did but I wish it had more actual footage of the house; the interviews are good, though. Don’t miss the blog posts or the FAQ’s – both are great!
- Living in a Tiny House. I like this blog because this couple is young, goofy and totally real. They’re not professionally trained for all this tiny house building they’re doing but they just jump right in. They’re at such a different phase of life than I am but I find what they’re doing fun and inspiring to watch.
Bless This Tiny House. Although it doesn’t look like the blog has been maintained since 2014, I enjoy this one, too. Real family, real tiny house.
Tiny House Growing Family. I love the article Living with Tiny Kids. Read it, if you have kids.
Other Tiny House Blogs?
Did I miss one you enjoy? Do you write one that you think I should add to this list? Leave me a link in the comments so people can check out your site!
I hope this list of tiny house blogs has given you a place to start online with learning more about tiny houses and the people who live in them. These bloggers have certainly inspired me and my family and for that, I’m very grateful.
Julia @ Simplicity for Julia says
I love tiny houses. I love the innovation and creativity they inspire.
Have you checked out RelaxShacks.com, he also has a great youtube channel. His name is Derek Diedrickson and he does a lot of reclaimed projects. Thought you may enjoy it!
Homestead Lady says
No, but I will, Julia – thanks so much! I’ll check it out tonight…
Homestead Lady says
And what did we ever do before YouTube?!
Judith M. says
I didn’t see any specific instructions on how to enter the Brick giveaway but I would love to win.
Homestead Lady says
You’re right – let me check the code! So sorry!…
Judith M. says
Thank you for the giveaway.
Homestead Lady says
Judith – I looked at this again and when I put in the code this morning, part of the giveaway was missing. Please come back and get your entries – I don’t want you to miss out!
So sorry about that! Computer code is NOT my first language.
Good luck!
Jeannette Olton says
Thank you so much for this giveaway! I just moved to a “tiny” house and love your blog!!
Homestead Lady says
That’s exciting, Jeannette! Would you mind if I interviewed you for the blog? I’d love to share with our readers what your transition has been like, what you love, what you don’t love. Just let me know!
Scarlett says
This is really interesting topic! It is true that most of the people around the world live small. I actually think that the most people in America live in houses that are too big for them! Anyway, it is great that you are doing this together! Thanks for sharing! Greets, Man With Van Harringay Ltd.
Homestead Lady says
I think the only happy mediums I’ve seen are my Russian friends living in cottages on their dachas – that seems to be the perfect space. That’s the goal of most of the homesteaders I know and many of them are achieving their dreams. Of course, their city-dwelling counterparts wish for more space and I’ve heard several of my larger-house-dwelling acquaintances express a desire to just “get rid of all the stuff”. To each his own!
David Walker says
Well personally I like tiny houses as they are cheaper and moreover look more beautiful than a normal house. I wish if I could also have a tiny house. By the way it is very nicely written post so thank you for this post.
Homestead Lady says
I do, too, David – I’m completely in love with straw bales houses. I love their lines and their thick walls. Thanks for visiting!
moose henderson says
I enjoyed you site; I built and live full time in my off-grid tiny house. I have a blog that details some of the efforts of living off-grid, constructing a tiny house and also my former profession, wildlife photoraphy. I would be honored if you would take a look at my blog: https://moosevilla.blogspot.com/
The blog is relatively new but it is expanding quickly. Thank you in advance.
Ashlee says
Hi there!
I love these blogs as well. They have helped me so much on my journey as a Tiny House owner. I recently started a blog myself documenting my story as a young, single woman living in a completely off-grid Tiny House. I would absolutely appreciate if you could check it out at destinydweller.com
Thank you so much 😀
Sara Briley says
This is a great list! I have started building my own tiny house and am stoked as ever! Check out my tiny house blog at http://www.tiniestadventure.com! Going tiny is awesome!
Ashlee Fazio says
Living tiny has taught me so many things! I love seeing people recognize the value in this movement. Keep it up 😀
Silvana says
I love tiny house!
I would live there, but I would’yt know where to start to build one.
I live in a small flat, and although it’s not as nice as any tiny hose I see on the internet, I do my best to make it cute.
Ashlee says
destinydweller.com
Check it out to learn about my tiny house journey as well as for lots of real life applications for minimalism regardless of your lifestyle!
Homestead Lady says
Thanks for sharing, Ashlee!
Corinne Corley says
Here’s my vlog about my tiny house and “going tiny”:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_W34F8YdtaerLfPZcMRH1g
Thanks for this article! I’ll be following some of these!
Jennifer Southgate says
This is a wonderful blog, thanks so much for all your information. This is the tiny house I got https://bit.ly/2xaVAgE
Homestead Lady says
That is a simply adorable tiny house, Jennifer! How long have you been living in it?
So glad you stopped by!
Keith says
Some years ago we moved from a 5 bedroom 3 bathroom house to a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment. In the preceding years we accumulated a lot of “stuff”. The move was painful and we had to give away and throw much of what couldn’t fit in our new life away. It felt like such a waste!
Eight years on and we’ve learned to prioritise what we need vs want to fit into our new life. Although I am involved in the tiny house design business, I don’t actually live in one. However, I’d love to try. There’s something quite appealing about living in a place where every space is utilised.
Homestead Lady says
I agree! Maybe “tiny house” can be a state of mind, too.