Living in a Tiny House Full-Time

[Wanderlust]

Hello. Has anyone on here had any experience living in a tiny house full-time? Do you travel across the country full-time? If so, how do you pay for your food and expenses?

[AFchap]

Welcome to the forum!  

I would think living on the road in a tiny house would be very much like full-time RVing. I suspect some RV parks would be less enthusiastic about a tiny house than a traditional RV, mostly because they are terribly familiar with them. Some RV parks are also picky about what type and/or age of traditional RVs they will rent space to! Some full-time RVers work via internet, some do work-camping, and of course many have retirement income. 

Are there any tiny house folks on the forum who can tell us how tiny house traveling differs from traditional RVing?

[mptjelgin]

I've noticed in many of the "Tiny House" shows the people actually end up in a traditional RV or sometimes a park model. Since there seems to be no standard definition for a tiny house, it will be tough to answer this question. The most common definition I've seen for a tiny house is 400 square feet or less, so virtually all RV's and park model homes qualify.

With that definition in mind this entire forum would apply to living in a tiny house.

[Bill Joyce]

"If so, how do you pay for your food and expenses?"

With money from your job, pension or savings.  

[Second Chance]

My wife and I enjoy watching the tiny house shows on TV, but there are several aspects that make them very impractical for a completely mobile lifestyle:

1) they do not have on-board fresh water or waste tankage;

2) the trailers and suspension used are just adequate for getting the units from where they are built to the semi-permanent sites most of them end up on;

3) because of the traditional building materials used, many of them are much heavier than an equivalent size RV - and most are built on conventional pull-behind trailers. I'm also not sure how well these building materials and techniques will/would hold up in the long run when subjected to the roads and forces that our fifth wheel RV routinely experiences;

In addition to the above, nearly all of the models we've seen (there are some exceptions) have the main sleeping area in a loft. Getting into and out of the loft involves negotiating a ladder or steep, narrow stairs. For us older folks, that's an issue - especially for a middle-of-the-night bathroom run. I'm also fond of being able to stand up in my bedroom...

Just my two cents worth.

Rob

[sandsys]

This blog http://tinyhousegiantjourney.com is written by the owner of a tiny house built to RVIA standards so it could more easily go traveling. It's the best place I know of to get first hand experiences of someone doing this.

Linda Sand

[Kirk W]

Welcome to the Escapee forums! We are an RV community and many of us do live RVnow or have lived in an RV as our only homes. RVs are generally well under 400 square feet of living space, even in the largest ones, but I know of nobody here who drags either a "park model" or a "tiny house" around with them for many reasons. Few if any of those have any sort of water or waste tanks and most use an ordinary flush toilet which doesn't work well into a collection tank. In addition, most of them are far heavier than an RV of similar size. 

10 hours ago, Wanderlust said:

Do you travel across the country full-time?

We lived in an RV with no fixed home for about 12 years and loved it. We followed the weather generally, going north for summers and south for the winters. 

10 hours ago, Wanderlust said:

how do you pay for your food and expenses?

I took an early retirement at age 57 and my wife just quit her job. We lived on my pension and benefits from my previous career and also did a lot of volunteer positions in public parks, campgrounds, wildlife refuges, and historic sites in return for our RV site and amenities, to stretch the budget money. You can read more about what we did and how we did it on Kirk & Pam's Great Adventure , on the internet. 

There are those who live on the road in an RV and earn their living as they go and I'd suggest you start by reading a few books on the subject from Amazon or from your public library. 

[whj469]

By being retired with two SS checks and retirement from an IRA with over one million dollars in the account. I have worked my entire life since I graduated college, 1971, and always funded retirement with pre-tax dollars into a 403b retirement thru my employer. It is easy to do if you have the money taken out before you get your pay check. My employer also contributed to the account. During the last 20 years I always had the max amount allowed, now $23,000, per year taken from my paycheck and with what my employer put in when I retired last September 1st the account had $1,270,000. I feel very fortunate now but I did do without some of the things that I wanted during my working years. I also worked for the same company for the last 38 years. The last 9 years as the CEO and I was paid well. At least I thought so? Good Luck and save more for retirement. You may live a long time?

 

[bruce t]

Reality TV. Hmmm. I would be very careful about the what you see in any of them. (I have seen behind the scene in their making). Why would you live in a tiny house when for less money you could get a 'better' equipped, used, 5th wheel? Great dream but is it really sensible?

 

 

[Wanderlust]

Thank you all for the replies. I didn't think about living off income that is generated online. I guess with today's cell service and being able to buy an air card for your laptop, you can do "business" online just about anywhere you can get a cell phone signal.

As far as tiny homes not being well equipped for traveling, I did hear about that from other RV people as well. especially about not having sewage tanks or water tanks.

Something to consider, I guess. It's great to see some very wise people on here who worked hard and saved their money by living well within their means and now you are either in early retirement or you have over a million dollars in your bank account. Kudos! Try telling people young people (Millenials) to do that today (if you can even get them to look up from their smart phone long enough) and they give you a blank stare like you're speaking in Martian or something. Hahaha!

[sandsys]

Tiny Houses also tend to have open shelving since they rarely move. Everything would fall off at the first turn or stop if that was your design.

Linda Sand

[Kirk W]

8 hours ago, Wanderlust said:

I guess with today's cell service and being able to buy an air card for your laptop, you can do "business" online just about anywhere you can get a cell phone signal.

There is a growing number of people choosing to work via the net while traveling full-time and no reason why you couldn't become one of them. 

[RV_Fan44]

On 6/12/2017 at 4:42 PM, sandsys said:

This blog http://tinyhousegiantjourney.com is written by the owner of a tiny house built to RVIA standards so it could more easily go traveling. It's the best place I know of to get first hand experiences of someone doing this.

Linda Sand

This is a good resource! 

[Solo18]

I full-time in a regular motorhome.  I bought new because of allergies, and I paid for it by selling my condo and car and living entirely in my motorhome.  Also, I worked a second job teaching college classes part-time for 22 years before "retiring" from my regular job and beginning my travel.  And I currently teach half-time online so I can live on SS and my income without withdrawing from savings.  I've put 104,000 miles on my motorhome over the past five years, so I really do a lot of wandering!

And I planned all of these for many years, putting most of my second job income into a 401K so I would have funds for an "exit strategy" after I got too old to live this life and needed more care.  Many people volunteer or work their "second" job after retirement, but I did it before I "retired." 

I don't know how old you are, Wanderlust, but I strongly encourage you to save heavily and work a second job now to prepare for being able to travel.