There has been an increasing awareness of how our seemingly insignificant individual life choices haves meaningful and larger-than-life ripple effects on the environment and global population – beginning with our immediate surroundings and spreading beyond to the ends of the Earth. Logically, curiosity about minimalism, small space living, and other less carbon-intensive lifestyles has taken root and thrived in recent years.
The movement is making its mark and changing lives for the better worldwide. Improvements are happening on the social scale – like in Canada, where there’s a whole village of tiny homes for homeless veterans – and on the individual scale – people converting to a minimalist lifestyle. The endeavor requires that residents downsize their living to just the fundamental essentials – to fit everything they have into a compact living space.
The tiny house movement is especially gaining interest from those fed up with living in a place that is so large they rarely use all of the space and where most of it’s filled with consumerist junk. Living in a small residence gives you the incentive to free yourself of unnecessary items and a chance to declutter your life. Compact living offers folks the opportunity to use fewer resources and live a debt-free life. People can live big in a tiny home by enjoying more stress-free existence.
Many big-name companies, like Ikea and Amazon, have jumped in the boat, offering sustainable, eco-friendly tiny dwellings as DIY kits. They are filled with green features, cheap, and easy, and fast to build. One smaller business called Arched Cabin has a DIY home that costs as little a $1320, shipped right to your doorstep! EconOdome is another brand that makes DIY home kits, and its structures are in the shape of a dome. Meanwhile, companies like Teacup Tiny Homes and BeauEr have stunning tiny residences on wheels – the former features off-grid solar features and the latter can expand to triple its size in 60 seconds!
And now we’ve got another inspiring tiny house story to include on the growing list. Swedish-born Ida Johansson has changed her life dramatically by moving into a little house after being inspired by watching the documentary Minimalism. She realized that she wanted to have a simpler life surrounded by nature, not one located in a drab city with automobiles parked right in front. So, she began building a tiny house on her own with the aid of a friend. But in the hopes of completing the project faster, she chose early on to hire the help of a Norwegian tiny-house-maker, Norske Mikrohus.
Within four months, her tiny house was completed, and she relocated it to a friend’s farm in the southern part of Norway. She now lives there happily with her cat, Teo. The 236-square-foot home has a genuinely soothing atmosphere. Its aesthetic leans toward a modern farmhouse style. The color palette is white and overwhelmingly pale grays heated up by the natural textures of wood, lending the house a distinctly Scandinavian-inspired feel.
The living room is very spacious because there’s no secondary loft, exposing the total height for the ceiling. There are plenty of windows, and the curtains are diaphanously sewn by Johansson by herself, adding a touch of softness to the room. The multifunctional sofa and features a great deal of storage hidden underneath and integrated USB billing ports on the sides. It’s also convertible, extending into a bed for when guests spend the night. The dining room table can fold down when not in use, and there’s lots of storage under the staircase.
Johansson explained in an interview:
Every centimeter is well thought out and adapted for tiny living here. Storage, sleeping space, kitchen, and bathroom—everything is designed for functionality and smart solutions. Before buying a tiny house, it’s good to talk to professionals who know how to optimize the space. I have learned so much about scaling down and still make it feel like home. I truly enjoy combining this with practical solutions.
Over in the kitchen, we have plenty of storage for food and utensils in the drawers and on the walls. We love the rustic plate rack that stores and also displays dishes at the same time. Across from the kitchen counter, we have the multifunctional staircase that has storage space integrated underneath each tread, including a cat-shaped cubby for Teo’s litter box.
Higher up the staircase, we have the refrigerator hidden within one section and two small closets for Johansson’s clothes, some of which she swaps out depending on the season, as winter clothes are bulkier and take up more space. Johansson offers this sage advice when it comes to tiny closets: use thinner metal hangers, and you can double the number of clothing pieces you can hang up!
Having lived inside her modest house for a year already, Johansson says that she’s delighted with all the ways things have turned out and hopes to motivate others to do the same.
She said:
I never thought I would enjoy living so minimalistically. [..] Those who are considering a tiny house must think carefully about what to get rid of and choose only what is essential in everyday life. Ask yourself: what is important to create a good home? Living sustainably has given me new priorities in life that I enjoy very much.
If you’re curious about Johansson’s tiny house journey from beginning to end, click here.
