Needs in a Tiny House

It can be daunting when beginning to design anything let alone a home. Keep things simple is what I always have to remind myself, it will get complicated by itself. It helps to figure out what your needs are in a space then figure what your wants are. Some things are a given, bed to sleep in, kitchen to eat and prepare food in, and a bathroom to do your business in. It gets a bit more difficult to manage once you begin to determine the details such as do I want an oven and a microwave or just a toaster oven, do I want a single bed or a queen, a shower or tub. It is also important to be brutally honest with yourself and know your habits both good and bad.

Needs

In the bathroom

1. Flushing toilet- Poop seems to be a major topic for tiny house people. For me it’s not even an issue. Once I have pooped and or peed and I never want to see, smell and definitely not touch it again……. EVER. I have seen a number of homes with nothing more than a bucket and sawdust......no sir, not for me. Buckets are for holding fish or dirt, not poop. There seems to be many options available however that are slightly more sophisticated than a Home Depot bucket. Where I am planning on placing the tiny house it has a septic tank I can tap into…thank you sweet baby Jesus the poop could have been a deal breaker for me.

2. Space- As a man, I enjoy my moments of Zen that is bathroom time. That being said I need a comfortable space that doesn’t feel cramped and tiny.

Kitchen

1. Sink- I will more than likely need a fair sized sink since I am planning on skipping the dishwasher. It comes in handy that I know myself pretty well at this point. I know that I hate doing dishes so a larger deeper sink will allow me more time to stack dirty dishes in before I feel like I have to clean them. Plus, since I am not trying to impress anyone on most occasions, I plan on using paper plates that will end up in my fire pit as often as possible.

2. Cooking- no oven needed, the closest I come to baking is occasionally whipping up some chex mix or a frozen pizza. I can cook most of the foods I eat in the microwave and a 2 burner stove top. I take pride in my grilling skills so a sweet grill outside will definitely happen.

Living room

1. Couch- Probably something custom made with storage under the cushions and hopefully long enough I can lay down comfortably on and take a midafternoon nap when it gets too hot to work in the shop.

2. Entertainment- I am a modern man and I need to watch sports. I plan on tapping into my shop WIFI so a computer connected to the television is a must. I Should be able to save some space by not having a cable box, DVD player or Xbox/ PlayStation. I do like to veg out with some tunes so some sort of speaker system will need to be placed somewhere in the living area.

Bedroom

1. Sleeping- Still up in the air whether to go with a queen size bed or single. I currently have a queen bed but I only sleep on a small section as crap seems to accumulate on the other side. I am sure this a subconscious effort so it feels like I am not sleeping alone, but that’s an issue for a therapist, not a tiny house.

2. Storage- Will probably store clothes in a closet downstairs. I may try and store some books near the bed so I can give the illusion that I have time to read. Plus, I have made the jump into the 21st century and have my books stored on my IPad. So storage near the bed will have to account for a bottle of water and alarm clock.

I am sure there will be additions to this list as I get further along in the process. But for now this is a good start at figuring out what I need in a tiny house design. I will save the my wants for another post as that list seems to be quite large.

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