"So how is it?": Our First Year
The Big Question “How is living in a tiny house?”
Getting to the one year mark of living tiny, I've been introspective. What has this done for me? How have things changed in the last year? This was the most frequently asked question for us at the St. Pete Tiny House Festival in April. I think of it now as the big question. "How do you like it so far?" The first half of my standard answer was, "We love it!" And that's true. But the repeated question got me thinking. I wanted to be able to give a more thorough answer to this. Why is tiny living so great? Is it a fad? Are Tim and I better for doing this and why have we not killed each other yet?
The man, the myth, the legend...Timmy!
I can't speak for Tim, but I can describe what I've seen. He has gained a lot of confidence. He is always improving something, always doing projects. He loves to know how things work, loves making things better. As his confidence has grown, his projects have grown (island life!!). He is becoming more intentional with his time and his energy and navigating his way through work/life balance. And because he is Tim, he is always off exploring somewhere. He loves our Earth and makes time to go out and see it.
Has our relationship changed in a tiny house?
People were very curious about our relationship. Couples loved to joke, "We would kill each other!" I totally get this concern; it's a small space. But it's very liveable. If one of us does need some alone time, we need to be intentional and sometimes creative. We definitely communicate more effectively than we did before. Tim has always communicated beautifully. But we are a pretty normal couple, so we hit some speed bumps every now and then. And we share a lot of love. We feel incredibly grateful, and we choose each other and our life together. I'm mushy. Whateva. But this brings up an interesting point. If we are going to kill each other, we're going to kill each other in the big house. The space we live in doesn't determine our relationship.
I've changed a lot after moving into our tiny home
As for me, I would say that this year has been the best of my life. I have never grown as much as I have in this last year. Maybe it's the timing. I've been dealing with depression and anxiety, and life has had a lot of ups and downs. But I've grown and changed and learned how to deal. I can honestly say that this lifestyle has a lot to do with that. Having fewer distractions allows me to really look at my life and myself and decide what I like and start to change what I don't.
The second half of my answer to the big question was, "I don't think we'll ever go back." And that's true too. Year one has been beautiful and life-altering and we feel so very lucky to take part in this life we've made. I truly love to live in our home and continue to create things that make me love it even more.
Thanks for reading and supporting us on our journey.
-Sam