Some days we feel so crowded! Sometimes life in one room is exhausting. We’re always together – and for this introvert, that can get old really fast! Like Yarrow and Ilya’s favorite toad in his “new house.”

(Don’t worry, he broke out only 5 minutes after being moved in, usually he lives happily under the porch!)

But unlike the toad, I really do love my tiny-house-life, more than all the space solitude could bring me! And so those days where life in one room feels tight are scattered lightly among thousands of days where it’s cozy and intimate, gentle, slow, and soothing.

What do I like about it, specifically?

• Being close to the people I love: I get to see my kids playing as if no one is around and gently helping each other as they go along. Because they’re so used to having us all together, they can forget we’re around and indulge in that delightful little joy of childhood – being unseen and unnoticed among many. And when I do see them in those almost unnoticed moments, I can see aspects of their personalities that are usually hidden!
• Seeing our house as a unified whole: We don’t have rooms, each with it’s own decor and purpose, we have a holistic sort of home. When I’m cooking, the whole house is my kitchen! When I’m sewing the whole house is open for creation! Our ‘homeschool space’ is overflowing onto the porch, or scattered around one wide open room that nourishes and educates in it’s atmosphere.

• Teaching my children how to be solitary among others: We all need ‘alone time’ from time to time, and living all in one room teaches my children early on that it’s ok to say, “I need to be alone right now” and expect to be left alone, even if everyone else is still in the same physical space. They also get to hear me and their daddy say the same, and they respect it, because it’s just a natural part of our lifestyle.

• Motivating us to spend more time outdoors: Our outhouse, animals, gardens, and woods are all outside the one room we live in. And being in just one room makes going out into the world so attractive! It’s like a second room, wilder and fresher than the house, but just as much ours. We each go outside at least a few times a day, even on the worst days, to walk to the outhouse or tend the animals. On lovely days, the door to the house is opened wide and we live in both worlds at once.

And one thing I miss about multiple-room-living?

• Few conversations are really and truly private until after we’re certain the kids are asleep. There is no distracting the kids in the living room to talk about current events down the hall in our little yurt. So we stay up late, Seth and I, sitting out on the porch, under the stars while the kids sleep. Talking and thinking – it makes our evenings together feel sometimes like one big date-night, but it can make waking up with Ilya at 5 am a challenge!