Recently I came across a concept called Tiny Houses or Mini-Homes. My favorite site is: http://tinyhouseblog.com/ It’s about building and living in:
- Teeny Houses (under 300 sq ft)
- Tiny Houses (300-600 sq ft)
- Little Houses (600-900 sq ft)
- Small Houses (900-1200 sq ft)
This mobile home we live in is about 900 sq ft. Plus we have a tool shed, and two storage sheds in the yard. So this place would count as a Small Home. Funnily enough, we’ve been thinking of it as too small. There’s only three people here (and 5 animals!!).
Something about the concept of Tiny Homes (Teeny is just too…well, too teeny for me to even consider), uh, anyway, something about the concept of Tiny Homes struck a note with me. I love the idea. To think of how inexpensive the homes could be, and how more families could have access to their own homes, and how there would be a smaller footprint per family.
Now, I admit that I’m a product of my environment. And that environment has included lots of waste, wasted time, wasted money, wasted space, etc. Stuff Stuff Everywhere and not a thing to do. Anyways, it’s an idea that seems to fit in pretty well with my current decluttering and clearing out attempts. It gives me a goal, something to work towards. To reduce my STUFF down to minimum. To try to get it down to where I could actually live in a Tiny Home of my own (and still have room to walk around in!!!).
While checking out the tiny home concept, I kept running into sustainability ideas as well. And, well, things kinda ran away with themselves.
Some of the changes I’m considering are:
- line-drying clothes and most linens (not blankets nor sheets). This would have to be done inside the home mostly, due to the pacific northwest rain as well as all those spiders and bugs that are out in the yard here.
- handwashing (sorta) our own clothes. Reserving the washer for blankets and sheets. I say “sorta” because I’m considering using the 5 gal bucket + Gamma lid (ala WonderWash: http://tinyhouseblog.com/tiny-furnishings/tiny-washing-machine/ & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33OHmWckcDc )
- possibly heating water in a solar oven (not sure how pnw weather will work with that one)
- making and using simple cleaning products (such as baking soda, vinegar, tea tree oil, etc) for house cleaning
- making and using simple body care products (such as baking soda shampoo with acv rinse, etc)
- reducing how much electricity we use
- reducing how much water we use
I’ve got a few other ideas, but the above are the ones that I’ve been looking into recently. There are some issues that will have to be overcome (not including my own laziness and habits or “traditions”), and I’m not sure just how effective the experiments will be. But I figure it’s worth a shot.
Richard took a reading of our water and our electricty meters. I don’t know what we’ve actually been using in either. Though our electric bill does show an approximation of how much electricy we used in the same month the previous year compared to the same month this year. There’s also a little graph for each month so I can get a quick view of if things are going up or down, and relatively how much up or how much down. I figure if he takes readings once a week, and I journal what changes we’re making, then we might see the meters go down over the next few months. There is no way I am doing an all or nothing kind of thing. Just a few minor changes here and there, trying to find out what works for us and what doesn’t.
I’ll do some posts over the next few weeks talking about various attempts and such.
Until then, wish me luck. :D
