Tiny Home, Big Life

Tiny homes are catching on in a big way and for good reason. The charm factor alone makes affordable living look glamorous and realistic, all in one cozy little package. As societal trends shift away from traditional values and nuclear living, many of us have felt free to live a consciously single life, and tiny homes provide the ideal setting.

I'm currently renting a tiny home in Northern California, but I've lived in many tiny homes, small cottages and even a float house when I was young. Cozy living feels right to me. It all comes down to how you use what small space you have. I personally love the challenge of folding, fitting, hanging and engineering a lifestyle that can fit into the smallest of spaces.

While there are an infinite ways to design a tiny home, many have sleeping lofts to take advantage of vertical space. While not all tiny homes have sleeping lofts, it's pretty safe to say that most if not ALL have limited square footage on ground level, as well as limited counter space. For that reason, there are 2 products that I would recommend to anyone looking to maximize a tiny kitchen.

The first product I would recommend is the Over the Sink Dish Drying Rack. Seriously, I think this is one of the best purchases I've made in my adult life;) I was able to find one on Amazon for less than $35, and the quality is great. It was quick and easy to assemble with a basic Phillips head screw driver, and it is adjustable for the perfect fit. It saves me so much space versus the dish drying racks that sit on the counter or take up half the sink! The one pictured above can be found here.

The other item that I would definitely recommend to anyone looking to make the best use of a tiny kitchen is a little folding kitchen breakfast bar set. I searched locally at every nice furniture outlet and thrift store I could find, but ultimately decided it wasn't worth settling on something that wasn't quite right, because space is so tight.

The set I bought has a leaf that folds up to make the table twice as big, and folds down to save space. It has 2 drawers for storage, and a towel rack on either side. It also came with 2 matching stools that sit on their own little storage shelf underneath. It even comes with wheels for when you want to make room on the floor to spread out your beading projects - ha! As a gal who lives alone, I like it when things are easy to move by myself. I was pretty pleased with the final result, but here's a pro tip: if you can get power tools for this project, do. The assembly was not complicated or confusing, it was just time-consuming, and my hand is still cramped up from all that screwing! The instructions were easy to follow, but it still took me a little over 2 hours to put it all together by myself. Still though, worth it! The Breakfast Bar Set you see above can be found here.

A major tip I would offer when it comes to tiny home living is to maximize your outdoor space as much as possible. I think of my covered walkway as an extension of my kitchen, where I plan to plant fresh herbs in space-saving vertical column-gardens. Fresh herbs on the ready growing just steps away from my fridge - what a dream! I'll be posting garden adventures/advice here soon - trust me, I can't help myself.

Tiny home living is helping me heal from and dismantle the American Dream of over-consumption and greed. Learning about permaculture and sustainably growing my own food helps me heal my relationship with my body and the community. Becoming that much more self-sufficient is a powerful way of taking our power back, and it has an exponential affect. It's empowering to be able to grow our own food and medicine. Furthermore, it's even more empowering to share this information with others, because this is how we heal the wound of scarcity. I hope you'll join me and we can learn together about life in a tiny home with a garden of big dreams.