Living in a tiny house can be a rewarding and liberating experience, but it also comes with its own challenges and limitations. One of them is finding the right items to fit your small space and lifestyle. Sometimes, what seems like a good idea at first turns out to be a waste of money, space, or both.
We asked some tiny house owners to share their shopping regrets and what they learned from them. Here are five things you might want to avoid buying for your tiny house.
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1. Fragile Dishes
Antoinette Yvonne is a solo van-lifer who travels around the US and Mexico in her van Zion. She loves cooking and wanted to enjoy her meals on beautiful plates. So she bought two sets of Mercer dinnerware from Crate and Barrel before hitting the road.
However, she soon realized that porcelain dishes and bumpy roads don’t mix well. Despite wrapping and securing them, she broke three pieces in a few months. “I regret buying them because I live in a van. I drive. And things break,” she said.
She is now looking for durable and attractive dishes that can withstand the movement of her van.
2. Mini Washer and Dryer
Erika Kessler-Ison and her husband Raymond live in a 290 sq ft tiny house in Colorado with their dogs Otto and Stella. When they moved in, they received many gifts from their family that were mini versions of regular items. But smaller doesn’t always mean better or more practical.
One example was their portable RV washer and dryer. They thought it would be a convenient way to do laundry in their tiny house, but they were disappointed by its performance and size. “Because it was so small, we were doing laundry every day,” she said. “Even then, we still needed to go to the laundromat to wash larger items like sheets, blankets, etc.”
The machine broke after a couple of months and they didn’t bother to replace it. They now use laundromats and an on-site laundry at their parking spot.
3. Water Reclamation System
Jennifer Fuist built her tiny house Tiny Dreamer with the help of a builder. She decided to try an experimental 150-gallon water reclamation system that cost $2,850 to install. She was one of 15 people who tested the product.
The system was supposed to collect rainwater and filter it for use in the tiny house. However, it turned out to be more trouble than it was worth. “It leaked constantly, froze in the winter, and was just a pain to maintain,” she said.
She ended up removing the system and switching to city water hookups.
4. Too Many Clothes
Whitney Leigh Morris is a small space designer, author, consultant, and blogger behind Tiny Canal Cottage . She lives in a 362 sq ft cottage in Venice Beach, California with her husband Adam Winkleman and their son West.
She admits that one of her biggest shopping mistakes was buying too many clothes for herself and her son. “I used to buy clothing for West well ahead of time (sometimes years in advance) because I found great deals on secondhand items,” she said. “But I quickly learned that this was a mistake.”
She realized that storing clothes for future use took up valuable space and created clutter in her tiny home. She also found that some of the clothes didn’t fit or suit her son when he grew into them.
She now buys clothes only when they need them and donates or sells the ones they don’t wear anymore.
5. Bulky Furniture
Jenna Spesard is the founder of the blog Tiny House Giant Journey . She built and lived in a 160 sq ft tiny house on wheels for four years before settling down in a slightly larger cottage in Oregon.
She learned that bulky furniture can make a tiny space feel even smaller and less functional. She advises against buying furniture that doesn’t have multiple purposes or storage options.
For example, she regrets buying a couch that didn’t have any storage space underneath or behind it. She also wishes she had chosen a smaller dining table that could fold down when not in use.
She suggests looking for furniture that can adapt to your needs and fit your space without crowding it.
