Floor Plans and Tiny Living

Although we are planning on eventually having other structures to branch our living space out into, our tiny house trailer will be our only living space for anywhere from 1-6 months.  For this reason, we are putting a lot of effort into having it be as useful as possible for our family of five.  “Five?” you say…Well, yes.  We have a 14 year old, an 11 year old, a three year old, and us adult-type peoples.  We also have one dwarf hamster, and DD wants a cat.  I’m not sold on that one yet.

Our trailer is 8×20 ft.  The walls will be about half a foot each, so this leaves 7×19 ft.  This equals 133 square feet.  About half of our kitchen/dining area right now.  We are seriously downsizing.  Luckily, both Jason and I have lived out of backpacks for extended periods of time.  DD and I lived in a mid-size RV with her Daddy and two dogs while I was pregnant with DS #1.  Jason and the kids and I lived in a small Mobile home on an Avocado farm in the country in San Diego for a year and it was nice, apart from the crazy French landlady.

I spent a lot of time looking at various floor plans, and would have done something different if it was just me and hubs, but we have to work with what we’ve got.  So, we are planning a queen bed area, a full size loft area, a twin bed area, a small galley kitchen with a small table area, and a bathroom with at least a compost toilet and a shower, maybe a small bath.   DD teen will get the loft as private space for now.  I will share the queen with my 3yo.  Dad will get the twin bed, and DS 11 will sleep on a pull out mattress.

Here is a sketch:

We are planning built-in shelving in the kitchen area, the bathroom, and around the beds.  The queen and twin beds will have storage underneath.  A movable ladder will lead up to the loft.  It is quite small, but we are planning on having a either a cabin to branch out into, putting up a yurt, or having a house to share with other families asap.

Do you think you could do it?