We The Tiny House People
This is journey into the tiny homes of people searching for simplicity, self-sufficiency, minimalism and happiness by creating shelter in caves, converted garages, trailers, tool sheds, river boats and former pigeon coops.
Basically, Dirksen made a documentary on people living in tiny houses. For around five years she was traveling the world and filming these segments.
Kirsten Dirksen is co-founder of faircompanies.com and a Huffington Post blogger. She has worked for MTV, Oxygen, The Travel Channel and Sundance Channel.
From the author: I still live in a relatively spacious 1000 square foot apartment with my family of 4 (soon-to-be 5) and I’m not looking to downsize, but I can’t get enough of these tiny homes. I’m sure there’s something Thoreauvian in my attraction to the examined lives of those who inhabit them.
I continue to be impressed by how so many Tiny House People have been able to let go of their stuff and not despite, but because of this, find a certain calm. This very Buddhist/Gandhian/Stoic concept of non-attachment as a path to happiness is hardly new.
Over 2 millennia ago Socrates counseled, "The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less."
Is everyone that lives in a tiny house a gay male
Interesting idea for a 30 minute show... stretched into a 1.5 hour ramble.
Boring. The narrators voice is putting me to sleep.
having a small home + the world as your garden.
i`ve learnt to minimize over the years. less is more.
i`mm planning on living more in the woods with a couple of tents.
grow my own food.
to be free.
If he gets to anoint himself as "fair" then I get to anoint myself as "smart, good looking and humble enough to admit it.
Some day before I die I want to live in "Tiny House"
this was pretty awesome!
I love the idea of small houses. I don't need a ton of space. As long as I have a way of making food/storing food, a bathroom, a bedroom, and maybe a lounge area. That's enough! Trying to decide if I want to build a tiny house. I love the idea of building and designing my own house.
I love this idea, but being a parent I don''t think it would work for me. I have travelled a fair bit but now I feel is the time to put down roots. Fair play to everyone who can live like this. I love the idea of low overheads and I try to integrate this into my lifestyle too.
Buy a plot with planning permission and then get the plan approved?
You'd better gave a lot of cash, in the UK, anyway!
I love this movement along with minimalism, unfortunately, being married it's not possible since the other half isn't on the same page and is the main contributor. I'd prefer to live with minimal to no debt personally. I'd love to have a tiny home with touches of Japanese design. Being free of debt would leave us to do whatever we want, especially travel but oh well, all I can do is dream about it and hope one day we got enough money to do so.
I wish I had something like that to live in. My very own home...
while I agree that her voice is rather annoying as a narrator this is a well made documentary. the homes, the design, the people and the lifestyle is inspiring. however I find it rather puzzling that she would omit japan from her documentary....arguably the motherland of incredibly well designed, functional small spaces. they are far more ahead of any other country in the world when it comes to this concept and have been doing it for far longer. I was really looking forward to seeing that. but alas no......
It is a nice idea, but trying to raise a family in that would be crazy.
I've lived in small places for the last 15 years ... a shed, a tent, a small room in a warehouse, and now a 12' x 8' x 14' (high) room in Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY. It's easy to live in small places and it motivates you to only keep what you need and to eliminate the unnecessary. Own less, live more.
There is no argument against the cost obviously. Fun, would be to try and design a normal size home but just as cheep.
I live in a small flat, not this small, but it's small. It's possible obviously and a very common architectural concept. But I'm just about ready to kill someone about now, when I'm in a rush nothing works, if you fart the hole house smells like fart, in the summer you boil, in the winter you freeze, the size renders the insulation useless, I'm ready for a normal adequate size home. Small is not as functional or practical as it looks, it's a bit like the Swiss army knife, you have everything but at a cost, and the cost is functionality.
The commentary is hard to listen to. Sounds so unnatural.
I am going to start building one. "Simple living, high thinking" - A.C. Bhaktivedanta, Swami.
i need english subtitles of all TDF. most of my friends want to watch these films but they cant speak english so i want to translate them. how and where can i find these subtitles?
Less space means less chores.
haha. Sort of. The more space, the larger the capacity to mess it up spectacularly but as a small space dweller (my house is about the size of a 1 bedroom apartment in sq footage.) you have to CLEAN MORE FREQUENTLY because a small space is less forgiving of ANY amount of clutter. That's something to keep in mind.
This is a great documentary. I've been a small house aficionado since about 2006. But her voice... I find it very hard to listen to her ponderous, zombified drone that she mistakes for engaging. This is not a voice that should narrate anything.
Absolutely astonishing!
One of the greatest documentaries I have seen yet!
Thank you!
You inspire me!
It is sad that our human population has exponentially exploded to the point that young people are paying 800 per month for 78 sq feet. Humans are adaptable and necessity is the mother of invention. Simple life gives rise to clarity of thought and calmer emotions. I don't guess we can go much smaller now.
Why everything what they build in US looks like s*it? Boring documents. Why she dont go Japan to look really innovative small homes?
I will NEVER complain again that I don't have enough space!! I have too much stuff that I don't need and don't make good use of the space I have. Thank you for this wonderful documentary.
I'll not comment on the film, but rather the ideas expressed.
First, a disclaimer, since I'm sure I'll be stepping on a few toes here. The tiny homes were well-made, tasteful, efficient, and attractive in their own ways, and I can appreciate much about them.
However, what I see here is trying to make lemonade out of lemons, instead of rejecting the constant barrage of lemons.
There are reasons why real estate is expensive. It's because the land is taken from the commons by real estate speculators aided by the state.
Pretend all you want that your reason for living in a tiny space is because it confirms your buddhist values, but it's pretty clear that the main reason people are taking up this lifestyle, is because they have to. Zoning, rent, and other external pressures.
It's a lifestyle that doesn't challenge the status quo in the slightest, despite how underground these folks want to think they are. It's survival capitalism, and all these value judgments, and universalizing the subjective, only go to show how far the wool has been pulled over our eyes.
Rarely were any actual numbers mentioned in this film. Seemed mostly middle class white people buying into some pre-packaged self-help trip.
Demand more from those who control us. In fact, demand that we no longer be controlled. Being happy with food in your belly is a poor way to deal with exploitation.
These are individualistic solutions to social problems. These lifestyles might well suit some, but all this talk about 'realizing what's important' is horsesh*t. Don't tell me what's important. You don't want a garden, pets, or skis/camping gear and other things that require storage space, let alone space to work on projects, then fine, but this movie was extremely condescending towards anyone who doesn't fit the mold.
In fact, as the movie makes clear, there's no real challenge to the American Dream here. And by the look of the architecture and designs shown in many of the houses, it's really not that cheap either. Unaffordable is still unaffordable. $600,000 for a tiny house? WTF.
This isn't that far from the mainstream, these people have hardly shaken off their attachments, and these innovative solutions are mere reforms. What's needed is some radical analysis.
There is definitely something appealing about tiny homes. My first house was way too big at 2300 sq ft. I hardly ever even went into most of the rooms, so I sold it and bought a 1400 sq ft house. And subsequently discovered that that one is also too big - again, with some rooms I never even enter and others that I only pass-through.
I don't think I would want to live in one of those 120 sq ft house for very long, but a 400 sq ft house in Hawaii sounds pretty good. Living aboard a sailboat has always appealed to me, too.
Does anybody know Earth is a regenerating planet? We can blow up the United States and re build it six months later. In fact, that would be a great idea, and you could shift all the American's to Canada so they can help build all the wind farms and hydroelectric generators we need now. And you can pay them twice as much as you're paying them at Government Motors of America.
A midsection mega mansion is not a "tiny home"
Ok, no top level for all the unused gym equipment, sold that and
bought all the assets that you don't own (ha ha)
Oh ya, and now I'll tell you what I think is sustainable because
I'm apart of some club I don't know I'm even been apart of
and have been since the beginning of time.
Give me a break. Tiny house people. More like tiny brain people.
Fantastic docu. I have recently been looking for exactly this kind of inspiration and will now definitely put my thumbprint on the land I have in mind.
I aim to build a small house in Cambodia with a fruit and vegetable garden and would be grateful for any advice.
The land is near the beach in Sihanoukville .
Please contact (no personal info allowed) moderator"
I enjoyed this documentary, I did not find the music in the least bit annoying and thought it was narrated beautifully - however I found some of the "tiny houses" were not much smaller than the "2 up 2 down" terraced houses built in Victorian times in which families still live in my hometown of Belfast and also in other cities in Ireland and the UK such as Dublin, Manchester, Glasgow etc. The cave house was not tiny by my standards and neither was the boat, however they were fantastic to see in such detail.
My confusion with the documentary is that millions of Americans live in static mobile homes (trailers) which are no bigger than some of the apartments which were included and there was no mention or sight of any of these at all - I find that strange - surely the "Trailer" is as American as the romanticised log cabin and much more common nowadays.
I also found it unusual that modern camper vans and the culture of Roma and other travelling people was not even referred to in passing this is odd as they having been living such pared down lives for hundreds of years.
It has certainly made me questions the square footage of pointless "stuff" cluttering up my life and inspired me to convert my attic space into a small self-contained "little house" where I can hide away from my family when necessary.
Heck, it would only take 2/3rds, or perhaps 3/4ths, of the continental U.S. to fit the word's entire population in a comfortable city like density... Not a New York style density, I'm talking Sarasota, FL density, very comfortable. Using a New York style density, it would only take a State the size of Texas, perhaps a hair bigger, so I really don't get why people feel they need to live in such cramp quarters. What gives?
Uh, you do all realize that there isn't a shortage of space on this planet, right? The entire world's population could fit in Los Angeles, shoulder to shoulder. So, why is the thought of living in a trailer-like-space so radical, as if we need to see a documentary on it? The concept is nothing new and it does little to "save the planet", very little. This seems more like propaganda to me, not a documentary. If it is a documentary, it is made by people who don't really understand the factors at play in this world.
This doc was absolutely incredible! Very inspiring
There is nothing wrong with contentment by sincere individual choice. Just keep all options and take care not to get carried off or lose both your home and the land of your offspring at the end to be stacked without consent in ever tinier and more expensive rental habitat boxes and urns.
Thanks, I enjoyed your story and video perspective. I am a art, Photography student with some video background and enjoyed your work. I am going to try and capture the Seattle movement.
Jorge
An excellent introduction to a radically different approach to habitation. It inspires a creative perspective. It is not a contest to see how small a space, any more than how large a space I "live"in. Rather the opposite. What parameters best free me and meet my needs. A favorite quote, by Erich Hoffer: "It is impossible to get enough of what you don't need to make you happy."
Brilliant film, I am well into small living (but not necessarily tiny living), but someone else can save the planet, I am too old for that! Great for ideas, but we need more people to be interested in order to get this ball moving.
Bank of America directors must be panicking because of this trend. The days of people chaining their lives to a home loan that they could never pay are coming to an end and very fast. Next in line, college education. Harvard, watch out!
Anyone interested might want to check out the Katrina Cottages. These plans were designed as an alternative to FEMA mobile homes. They start at 200 sf and have many floorplans. You can even get some as kits through Lowes.
I can't imagine paying $800 a month for 78 sf.
The background music does nothing to advance the story.
I thought I was going to watch a documentary about people living in tiny houses, not a documentary about gay people who can't afford to live in big houses.
I'm all for simplicity but, that teenage boy who wants a Composting Toilet in his tiny space, I draw the line at that point
Im not a homosexual architect so i do not know if the community would accept me
great doc gave me some ideas for my tiny rent-a-closet
You have inspired me to get a tiny home when i am out of college. Thank you!
marvelous documentary and so inspiring!
I did enjoy the home in Spain. The nature, simplicity and view of the mountains, caught my eye. I could pick up from Canada and live like this in another country. It makes it very difficult to live like this here, for the simple fact that we have bitter winters. We practically NEED a house, and the sad reality is, that a small 900 square foot home, goes for $200,000 in Canada. I remember the days where homes cost $50,000 and it was a decent home. Now, we are lucky to find a shack (literally a shack) for that price!!