Top 10 Shipping Container Tiny Homes

Meet Tracy Metro and her lush 560 square foot houseboat that she and her husband live in full-time.

She’s the designer on I Live With My Mom and she calls her small houseboat the Metro Retro.

Tracy and her husband bought the boat and it had a challenging layout, so she completely changed it up as you’ll see in the video tour below.

When you walk in there’s a bar and a hangout right in the kitchen area. Go down a couple of steps and you’re in the living room.

The bedroom is interesting because it’s the opposite of what you find in most tiny houses on wheels since you crawl into it instead of climb up into it. It’s located underneath the kitchen.

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Tracy leaves you with some insight when designing a small space that I found important and helpful and that’s to take into account every little square inch of space when designing, building, and/or renovating your small space.

As you’ll see in the video, she used the most unlikely areas for storage when lots of folks would have overlooked these and missed out on taking full advantage of the space.

I encourage you to watch the complete video of Tracy’s small houseboat below:

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Meet Barron Harrington. He’s a retired man who decided to build a treehouse 25 feet into the air in his backyard.

He wanted to do it without injuring the tree and with a small footprint. So he went with a simple 8′ by 10′ design. You can see a sketch of the floor plan below.

Barron said he’d always wanted to have a treehouse since he was a kid, so he took action towards making this dream come true and I’m excited to add his little backyard dwelling to our treehouses section here on Tiny House Talk.

As he got into it, he realized how challenging the project actually was. To get up into the house, he thought about all the different ways to get up there from a ladder to a hand-cranked elevator. He decided to keep it simple and continue using the ladder.

He uses the tiny house just as an extra room where he can read, relax, and sleep. When he first started designing he thought he would add a little kitchen and desk but he has since decided to keep it simple.

So inside you’ll just find a canopy bed where you can throw a mosquito net over it to protect you from the bugs. He’s also got a lightning rod installed on the top mostly for peace of mind. “It turns out that I use it mostly for sleeping,” says Harrington.

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Watch the video tour and listen to what Barron has to say in this interesting interview below:

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I wanted to get this post out to you after reading Michael’s write up called Consider a Tiny House Backup Plan over at Tiny House Design.

In it, he discusses the unavoidable truths of inflation and the scary possibilities of hyperinflation due to central banks printing more and more money.

Although this is nothing new, and it has been happening now for several decades, it’s something you and I should be aware of. Better yet, I’d like to leave you with ideas that you can take action on to come out stronger over the years.

For me, the tiny house movement isn’t just about extremely small homes because that’s just impractical for a lot of us. It works for some of us, but it won’t for a lot of people, especially families.

So the other message I like to get across to folks is to simply live within your means and that’s what the small house movement encourages you to do. So whether you decide to live in 2,000 square feet or 200 square feet, it’s really about resisting the urge to over extend ourselves when it’s most enticing.

It’s about staying put after you receive a pay raise. It’s about resisting the urge to upgrade your car when you receive an unexpected bonus. It’s about being satisfied with your 37″ LCD television when there’s a great deal on a 47″ one.

It’s saying “no thanks” when your bank offers you a low interest loan because you’ve built equity on your home over the years. But why? Because if you can resist all of these temptations you’ll be ready to take advantage of moments where you can have your money work for you instead of the other way around.

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Guest Post by Laura LaVoie

There are so many “sister movements” to living in a tiny house and I would love to explore all of them over time. They include things like living without refrigeration, not using commercial shampoo, and eating locally – all of which I have tried to one degree or another. While I will eventually share my experiences with all of them I wanted to start with the idea of eating local and eating fresh.

Changing the way we live by moving into a small space or simplifying our lives is just the beginning. My relationship to food has not been all that healthy. When I was living in the city and going to a job every day I would find that food was the only thing I personally had control over, so I would snack all day. When a customer or employee would stress me out, I would go get ice cream or chocolate. I realized that moving to the tiny house was a chance to break free of that cycle. Eating farm fresh foods seemed like a good way to start.

The Asheville area has several farmers’ markets making it very easy to find local produce and other farm fresh foods like meat, eggs, and cheeses. I am an omnivore, but I do walk through the markets with the eye of a vegetarian thinking of what I can do with all the delicious vegetables available. Farmers’ Markets are becoming quite popular and wherever you live there is likely a weekend market you can visit.

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Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Guest Post by Laura LaVoie

We just returned to our tiny house from a week long camping trip (and two week total vacation). We are so happy to be home in our little space on our mountain. We have camped before, often at festivals and typically for at least four days at a time.

This was our first 8 day camping trip and we only made it to the 7th day; we were simply ready to go home. We had a great time and I would do it again. I miss all of our friends and the community we built for that short time.

What found interesting were the number of parallels between tiny house living and long term festival camping. Here are some of the things I learned.

• • Have the right equipment. When we downsized our lives to move into in the tiny house we made sure we had all the necessary things to live comfortably but not take up a lot of space. One of the things we’ve struggled with is pots and pans. We were given a small pot and pan set which appeared as though it wouldn’t take up much space but it doesn’t stack or store well. While we were camping our friend had a nice set of stackable camping pots which worked great. We were excited by the idea that we can replace our current set with the ones that stack so they store better in the tiny house. Looking at luxury camping equipment for your small space is a great way to get the things you need and have them be as functional as possible.
  • Don’t skip the comfort. We don’t actually camp at these festivals, we “Glamp.” Glamping is a portmanteau for glamorous camping and we don’t skimp on anything. One night we made a six course meal and hosted a very successful dinner party. Our tents were nearly as comfortable as our homes with real bedding and as much organization as we could muster. Our kitchen and bar were well stocked. Living in a tiny house, even one off the grid like we do, doesn’t mean you have to trade comfort for simplicity. We have a nice mattress and a comfortable sofa for relaxing. We’ve nearly finished building an outdoor kitchen to make use of our mountain as much as we can. Just because we have a small house doesn’t mean we have to hide inside all the time.

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© Crystal Craig | Dreamstime.com

Guest Post by Laura LaVoie

As I type this I am sitting at a camping festival in central Illinois. On Thursday, Matt and I presented a workshop on tiny houses and off the grid living.

We had about 50 people attend which is pretty big for any of the workshops here even though attendance for the festival is over 1000 people. We were excited by the number of people at our workshop but it also showed us that there is a genuine interest in this topic from people all over the country and of all walks of life.

Some people were more interested in the tiny house itself and the construction. Some were interested in other types of alternative building. Some were interested in off the grid living and how to make it work in any situation. Everyone was there because they were craving a different kind of life.

Alex here at Tiny House Talk does a really good job of inviting bloggers to share their stories and there are so many more out there. Every time I turn around there are new tiny house blogs showing up and it is so exciting to read their adventures.

We are here to share our experiences and answer questions and maybe inspire someone else to radically change their lives. I’m not saying we become radical Tiny House missionaries but I do think we have a responsibility to make our community as accessible as it can be so people who are seeking this information can reach out to us easily. So I thought I would share some other websites on the movement that I have found helpful for networking.

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Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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This post showcases a remix video on modern space saving furniture for small homes, including tiny houses.

Many of the examples you might find impractical but they’re here to serve as inspiration for new ideas that you may be able to incorporate into your current home or future tiny home design.

Maybe you can simplify some of these to make them easier and cheaper to create but either way my hope is that they’ll open your eyes to the possibilities with furniture and how they can make your current or future space smarter.

Tiny house living, to me, is all about intelligent use of space no matter what the size since we all can’t squeeze into tiny homes because most of us have families or other needs that need to be accommodated.

I’d love to see this sort of furniture being used more often in small spaces like condominiums, apartments, and small homes so that we can help transform our current housing space into more sustainable and affordable housing for everyday people and families.

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Photo Credit YouTube

For example, imagine how this retractable bed would transform and expand a one- or two-bedroom condo, making it suitable for more inhabitants to enjoy the space for a longer period of time before they outgrow it.

Photo Credit YouTube

Furniture like this can help you have a guest room and an office without two separate rooms, saving you upfront purchasing costs and lowering your monthly bills as well. How would you like to use this kind of technology for your own home or office?

For even more ideas, watch the video below:

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Meet Kendall. She’s a high school student who started an amazing tiny house project that she calls Nerd Girl Homes.

Her goal is to build tiny houses for a good cause. Kendall is currently building a Tumbleweed Lusby Tiny House from the ground up and when she’s finished she will either donate it to a deserving person or give the proceeds of its raffle to a charity.

If you’re interested in helping her with her mission you can either donate your labor, some money, or materials for the project. My intention with this post is to inspire you to give Kendall a hand with her mission, even if it’s only $10 or $15 that you send her way (if you can and want to).

The Lusby is a 117 square foot home designed by Jay Shafer that’s meant to be built on an 18′ flat-bed utility trailer. Her goal is to raise $15,000 for this project and so far- as I write this post- she’s raised $9,091. Let’s help her reach her goal so she can give this home away to someone who needs it and start another!

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