It’s not as much fun as it always seems

It sounds so romantic and cozy: living in a tiny house. Although we can easily imagine that it’s not always sunshine and rainbows. After all, such a house is quite small. Several owners talk about its drawbacks.

It is expensive to travel with it

A large proportion of tiny houses are simply in a fixed location. Some people, on the other hand – especially people in the United States – also travel with them. Sounds nice, but it’s not cheap. Alexis Stephens and her partner travel all over America with their tiny house. When they do this, they have to fill the tank of the tow car every 150 miles (about 240 kilometers). “If we travel a lot throughout the day, that ticks up a lot,” Alexis told Insider. “I think it adds up to $1 per mile.”

Messy

Some people use a loft-like layout to store extra stuff. But storing stuff on that “second floor” can quickly make your space look cluttered. Plus, you often need a ladder to access it.

Amanda Burgers lives with her two children in a tiny house. She, too, has experienced how difficult it is to keep her house tidy. “I sometimes joke that it’s a big Rubik’s cube,” she tells Insider. “You have to keep changing everything constantly.”

Not for people with physical disabilities

A tiny house is often equipped with unusual stairs or crazy ladders. Yes, you can then get from one living level to another, but this is only possible if you have no physical limitations.

Heat and moisture

Regulating the temperature can be very tricky in a tiny house, but keeping moisture out is also difficult. Are you not doing this properly? Then you can quickly face mold in a tiny house. Moreover, summer is also a thing. Many owners of tiny houses complain that it can quickly get very hot inside.

No privacy when going for a number two

In most cases, you don’t have a separate toilet in a tiny house. With luck, it is located in the “bathroom,” but in many tiny houses, the toilet bowl is retractable. So the toilet can be slid out of a closet just like that. You just have to feel like peeing when you have visitors….

They are really very small

Of course, the name tiny house gives it away, but the cottages are really tiny. If you stay in them during a vacation, it’s fine. As a home, on the other hand, it is more difficult. Just find enough space for your stuff. For example, some tiny house owners find that the space sometimes feels more like a crawl space.

Want to read more? On the next day, we listed more drawbacks.

Claustrophobic feeling

Every owner of a tiny house tries to arrange such a space as conveniently as possible. Some therefore choose to create a second living level, where the bed, for example, can be placed. Efficient it certainly is, but it is not for everyone. That second layer is often used for a bed, but then there is not much space. Thus, you may often have to crawl into the bed to get in and out.

Making the bed

Speaking of the bed, making a bed isn’t helpful either if you can’t stand in your “bedroom. YouTuber Jenna Spesard talked about it in a video she recorded in 2013. “I feel like I’m performing acrobatic skills when I want to put the sheets down correctly on my bed,” she said.

Many things turn out not to fit

When you first move into a tiny house, you often have no idea what will actually fit inside. This was also Elizabeth Silva’s experience. She had a lot of trouble with this when she just moved into her tiny house. “You don’t know what will fit in it when you are just moving in,” she says about it.

The sinks are extremely small

Tiny houses come standard with a sink, but don’t expect too much. The sinks are incredibly small. You can wash your hands in them, but that’s about it.

Extensive cooking is not in the cards

A tiny house is smaller than a normal house, so it is not surprising that a kitchen is also smaller than a normal kitchen. Many tiny houses are therefore equipped with only two gas stoves. This often makes it more difficult to cook elaborate meals.

Grocery shopping more often

Storage spaces and the refrigerator are also a lot smaller in a tiny house. So you can store less products, so you will have to shop more often. In addition, it is also wise not to cook meals that are too large, because you cannot store many leftovers in a small refrigerator.

‘Special’ layout

A bed, a toilet, a shower, a kitchen, a refrigerator, storage space. It all just has to fit in a tiny house. And the most efficient layout, is not always the nicest layout. For example, your bed may be next to the refrigerator. Or worse: next to the toilet.

You have to do your laundry somewhere else

In most tiny houses, there is no room for a washing machine, let alone a dryer. So residents of these tiny houses will always have to seek out a laundromat if they want to wash their clothes.

Parking

As we just mentioned, most tiny houses have a permanent pitch. However, some people decide they want a nomadic existence. They convert a bus into a tiny house and drive around different countries. Somehow it is very convenient, you always have your home and belongings with you. But one thing should not be forgotten: you have to be able to stop somewhere. People with such vans report that they do not always find it easy to find a place to park.

Source: Insider | Image: Pexels