Moving Into A Tiny House? Consider These Downsides Before You Make The Switch

Filled with bright light and cleverly designed spaces, a cascade of tiny homes might appear all over your social media feed or pop up in your YouTube recommendations, making you wistful for a simpler life. But there can be downsides when you make the switch, especially in terms of storage, practicality, and location. You might be dazzled by the dreamy lifestyle of living small online, but it requires serious consideration before you decide to downsize. Your day-to-day life can look very different when you "go tiny," even compared to an apartment or condo. What looks good online might not be as glamorous in real life, and what may seem like an easy tradeoff, such as having fewer appliances, can quickly become a frustration when you're all settled into your new space.

Saying that moving into a tiny house is a dramatic switch is an understatement. The average size of a tiny home is 300 square feet, reports HomeGnome, though some homeowners live in spaces much smaller. The term typically applies to homes between 100 to 600 square feet. Considering that the average new single-family home measures 2,404 square feet, per LendingTree, you likely could fit several tiny homes inside one of these properties. Note that not all tiny homes are alike, as some are mobile, loaded on trailers for towing, while others are stationary. Yet despite those differences, prospective tiny owners may come across the same limitations and downsides.

Tiny home storage is a luxury. Without careful planning, you might find yourself drowning in piles of things — far from the picture-perfect life you might imagine browsing through the 'gram. While it's clear upfront that tinies lack the basement, garage, or attic of traditional homes, there's still the question of where to store your stuff. You may try to store winter clothes for summer, only to find that you don't have anywhere to do so comfortably. Bulky items such as holiday decorations, craft supplies, and exercise gear can be difficult to store even in an average-size home, but are a challenging puzzle in a tiny home, leaving you feeling like it's a game of Tetris trying to fit things in every nook and cranny.

Even when you trim everything down to essentials, with ample storage cabinets and vertical shelving, there's still the need to keep the space clean. Yes, it can take less time to tidy compared to cleaning a full-size home, but just a few things left out in your tiny home can make it look cluttered. Add in any mess from cleaning, pets, or just taking a walk outside, and it's harder to keep a tiny house sparkling clean than you thought. To combat the growing mess, tiny home dwellers recommend you clean every day. YouTuber Tiny House, Giant Journey shares that she feels like she's constantly cleaning, and points out that the weather can also have an impact: When it's rainy, she can't hang her laundry outside, so it's covering every square inch as it dries within the home.

It's not just your storage that shrinks when moving into a tiny home, nor is it just the property itself — it's also what's in it. The appliances in a tiny home are usually on a smaller scale, sometimes requiring a little sacrifice. You might have room for a full-size refrigerator, but not a dishwasher. Or you could have to adapt how you prepare food, swapping a cooktop and toaster oven for your usual kitchen appliances. Laundry may be another sharp shift as well, because many tiny homes lack the space for a washer and dryer. Some tiny house models may come equipped with a washer-dryer combo, but not all, which means you'll need to figure out how and where to do laundry.

With such a reduced footprint, is it any surprise that living in a tiny home means sounds and smells are much bigger? As Tiny House, Giant Journey explains, odors like burnt food can attach themselves to your linens and curtains, sticking around for a few days. If you have an ill pet, a malfunctioning toilet, or even just some stinky fish, your whole home can feel unpleasant. 

Finally, there's the sounds. If you think your washer makes an irritating noise or your fridge hums a bit too loud, just imagine it in a tiny home with less insulation and few or no barriers, where everything is echoed. If you're sensitive to sounds, a tiny home requires some careful thought.

Even if you're content with limited space and fewer things, there are still potential challenges with a tiny house. First, you need to figure out exactly where your home will go. You may be able to place your dwelling on a friend's piece of land, as many tiny owners do, or perhaps rent in a tiny home community, but not everyone has those options available. If so, you're stuck looking for spots within your area. Zoning for tiny homes differs heavily from state to state, so your parking options may be limited. There are also limitations on the home itself, as the local building codes may dictate how small you can really go with your home. The same may apply if you consider buying a pre-fab tiny home. You may even have trouble buying a homeowners' insurance policy to cover your tiny home, depending on the local regulations.

If you eventually want to upgrade or sell your home, it can be a challenge to find a new owner, especially in a cooling housing market. Tiny homes might lack the same appeal as other available homes within your area, nor do they appreciate at the same rate because they're technically personal property rather than real estate. On top of this, you're working with a smaller buyer market, so you could be sitting with an unsold tiny home for quite a while. If you do find a prospective buyer, traditional mortgages likely won't apply, and it might be hard for your buyer to find an interested lender. All of these downsides make tiny homes a serious decision.