One of the most popular articles here at Natural Papa has been my post about Our Tiny House Experiment. From talking to other people who are looking to either live in a low impact way, or to simple save money, I have found that the tiny house concept is one that really resonates with them. And thanks to the power of the internet, resources for how to make the transition to a micro house, how to build your own, or how to live in one, are only a click away.
16 Great Tiny House Websites
“In a nutshell, tiny houses give you back freedom in the form of time, money, and peace of mind. Why? How? Simply because they cost less to own, clean, heat, cool, etc. The less money you spend on your home the less you have to earn or the more you keep in the bank. The less time you spend cleaning and maintaining your house the more time you have to for the things you like to do.”
“This Tiny House is a girl-blog adventure, with a silent partner in crime. The girl is the author, obsessed with small spaces, efficiency, and living lightly on the earth. The boy is an outdoor explorer with a day job.”
“The goal of the tiny house blog is to discover the different options available for a person looking to down size into a tiny house or cabin.”
“I’ve embarked on a little experiment. I’m building a tiny house that’s cross between Henry David Thoreau’s cabin at Walden Pond and a Tumbleweed-like Tiny House on wheels, the only difference is that it will cost nothing.”
“This is the rather eclectic blog of a late-thirty-something woman in the process of overhauling her life in the wake of a short-lived and spectacularly disastrous marriage to the “Perfect Guy”. If you don’t already know me, perhaps the most important thing for you to know, at this point, is that in the last two years I’ve radically downsized my life from a high-consumption lifestyle in Tucson, Arizona to a small floating home in Portland, OR.”
“Once you start looking, tiny houses are everywhere. A tiny house, a little house, an itty bitty house, a mini house: any way you describe it, little houses and hideaways are dear to our sense of proportion.”
“Have you ever thought to yourself, “How would I do it if I had it to do all over again?” Usually this thought only pops into your head when you are about to die or your life is in ruin or perhaps during a midlife crisis where family and job stress suddenly takes its toll. This feeling is usually accompanied by mounting debt and an overwhelming feeling of being trapped in the life you have chosen. Tension in the world, an unstable economy, high fuel prices, and mind numbing popular culture may also add to this feeling of utter futility.”
“As hurricane Gustav plowed across Cuba headed for the gulf coast of the United States memories of Katrina and the potential displacement of thousands got me thinking. I wanted to do something to help. It occurred to me that someone else might find what I now about building with shipping pallets useful in the coming weeks and months. So I setup this simple micro-blog to make it easy to show others one way to build with pallets.”
“the size of a home varies around the world; while some families live in one room huts, others have gigantic homes which seem to never end. whatever the case, homes tend to grow with their owner’s prosperity. since 1970, the size of the average new american home has grown by 50 percent. this growth trend is similar in most western countries. however, for every trend there is an counter-trend. in the case of home size, more and more people are choosing to live in small homes”
“For 30 years I’ve wanted to build my own off-grid, energy efficient home and I’ve been drawing various designs for it on envelopes since I was at school. My grand design is a little smaller than most people’s idea of a home and this is a test run to prove to myself I can actually build a house. Start tiny, then move up in size once I have the skills established.”
“The Tiny House Project will bring together a group of artists to help us explore how we, in America, live. Nine artists will create a neighborhood of tiny homes in order to ask some very interesting questions about the choices we make. Do our choices bring us joy? How do they shape our connections with the people around us? In what ways will our choices change the lives of future generations? The Tiny House Project is a public art experiment, and everyone is invited to participate.”
“My goal is to show people what can be done with a concept I call Salvage Building, thus what you see is 99% Pure Salvage. That means that everything from the doors, floors, windows, lumber, porch posts, glass, door hardware, and even the siding has been saved and re-used to create houses that we hope will last for a century or more. I believe that there are presently enough building materials sitting on the ground to build much of the next generation of housing. All it takes to make it so is pure human energy, spirit, and the desire to build something that will last for several lifetimes.”
“Learn how to build a Vermont Tiny House from the ground up. Start by learning about what simple tools, building materials, and building practices are needed to complete a tiny house. Build 300 or less square feet of functional space that can be used as additional private space away from your main home.”
“My decision to inhabit just 89 square feet arose from some concerns I had about the impact a larger house would have on the environment, and because I do not want to maintain a lot of unused or unusable space. My houses have met all of my domestic needs without demanding much in return. The simple, slower lifestyle my homes have afforded is a luxury for which I am continually grateful.”
“The tiny house on wheels concept really appealed to me so I built one! I’ve spent a little over a year building my very own little home – and am now living with friends and family – being able to share myself and my time instead of just working to get by.”
“The Small House Society is a voice for the Small House Movement. The movement is the result of concerns about what we are doing to the environment, and what the environment is doing to us (wild fires, flooding, hurricanes), as well as a shifting economy. Some people just desire to live simply so that others can simply live.”
If you’re interested in building a mini house, and want to do it green, check out the green building jobs at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage! It could be a great place to start.
Got any other tiny house websites we should be reading? Leave the links in the comments!
Oh yeah –> You might want to also follow me on Twitter.
Image: nicolas.boullosa at Flickr
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Great stuff! I follow This Tiny House and Coming Unmoored already… also check out RowdyKittens (http://rowdykittens.com/).
Jessica´s last blog ..Green Living Gets Real
Fantastic round-up! I discuss tiny homes on my blog too.
RowdyKittens´s last blog ..Just Do It! Challenges of 2009
Wow, my bad. How could I miss Rowdy Kittens?
Is a tiny house possible if you have a husband and 3 boys? Who are very active? As they age, it might be more possible than with girls… but the thought of a tiny house with my 3 rambunctious boys makes me feel so claustrophobic (even though I really, really like the idea of a tiny house, and we will downsize soon)…
I think it’s definitely possible – but your definition of ‘tiny’ might be bigger than others. Or you may find that the boys need a tiny house of their own to play in? Anything smaller than the average American single family house would be an improvement as far as environmental impact, I believe.
omg! i think u are about to become my best friend! i love your writing lol mr perfect
and what a brilliant, helpful idea 
came JUST at the right time – downsize, mid-life crisis etc BIG 
will be following you – thanks!!!!
I think too many people make the mistake of not being selective because they dont want to be perceived as a pest. Do you agree?
I always liked those designs, but I wasn’t aware it’s so many of them! I followed all the links and the idea of opensource architecture is really great, unlike other links pointing to forty-something thousands dollar houses.
Thanks for sharing!
Serge´s last blog ..How much water does it take to make one latte?
Amazing experience shared! By browsing your linnk “16 great…” I fell on this video: http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/121 Where the architect lectures about the ugliness of places that are not worth saving in America: huge stop lights/malls on the way to nowhere. Tiny housing is definitely one way of scaling down the needs of energy sucked by these structures that not only are a sore to the eye, but also lead to a kind of internal sorrow of man made “modern deserts” that are currently named “parking lots”
I’m a huge fan of the TED talks – and Kunstler is a great no-punches-pulled kind of guy. Thanks for the link!
Love this post! Its a great way to get back to the basics of life, family etc, when we’re not so focused on having “more”. The tiny house is like the Lap-Band surgery for your life, forcing you to consume less and in turn allow you to live more!
Danny´s last blog ..Surfing the Arctic
Canadians live in the colder northern regions in Straw Bale home and Solar and wood heat – virtually free! while their Yankee counter-parts pay for oil and gas in the south! Smaller practical Straw Bale survival size homes in Canada are built and the folks that live in them swear by them! Whole books and complete plans can be had on this net! Look up “Straw Bale” to expand your mind! Look at what the Europeans call spacious – in Denmark, for example, or even a Paris apartment! You won’t see any Mc Mansions there! I need to be solidly attached to the earth and have storage space for my pressure canned garden preserves for winter survival here in Canada, so your plans seem a bit tight for me. Good luck! Keep on publishing! Especially space -saving ideas i love them, and if i get the chance to build another place will certainly borrow them, if not for my current smaller dwelling!
http://www.tinygreencabins.com is another tiny house website