Check out my Pinterest board of really small humanspaces. They're no more than backyard forts some of them, very useful and practical to many people, especially the unhoused. Lockable, dry, critter-proof. A warm safe place to sleep. Anyone who has ever tried to find one outdoors in a city knows how difficult it is and how brutal the resulting lack of sleep. A little wooden cube-home is far better than a cardboard box, a tent or a tarp, and some can even be moved by bicycle or hand-pushing as well as small cars. I would allow villages of these types of shelters in cities experiencing housing crises. Bring back "Hooverville", but with style, dignity and services. Yes, in my neighborhood. It's being done in Eugene.
That's another topic.
When I say "tiny house" in my universe, I mean under 200 square feet, not some of the bungalows and cabins and such featured on so many "tiny house" websites, where they sometimes stretch the definition up to 1200 sf. That's a generously sized 2-bedroom house for a family of 4-6 where I grew up. Tiny compared to a starter McMansion i guess.
My little writer's cube, the "CactiShack" or "RatCube" is 24 sq ft (6x4x6) and i could take care of all my functions if needed, if i lived in it in a tiny village. Sleep, eat, drink, art, body-care, communications, crafts.
Yes, Even that function.
But usually it's most convenient and hygenic to be close to a shower and toilet facility if your space is this small. I'll show you the inside in a future post.
( How do i do doo when there's nowhere to do da doo? Shit in a sturdy bag, wipe if needed, put wipe in bag, tie it shut. Pitch it in the trash. Just like a bag of dog-shit, a load from the catbox or a dirty diaper. Extra nice if you put clean dirt, pine-needles, kitty litter or sawdust in your bag first, especially if there may be urine as well. Use a small wastebasket or bucket to hold your bag if you need help with aim. Wet-wipes are a nice way to keep clean. I've not needed this system here. My RV is 30 ft away.)
I have lived small in hotel rooms, rented rooms, curtained-off corners, old single-wide trailers, old station wagons, old vans, and now an actual new-ish self-contained RV. It's 200 sq. feet. No slide-out rooms. We find it very useful and practical space so much that we live in it full-time. We even have a mobile recording studio in the back "bedroom" area. No kids, no pets, no cigarettes......
But something about the nestlike confines of a very tiny space inspires great bursts of creative thought from yours truly. Let's build a blanket fort under the table and invent something.....
Here's the current state of the CactiCube. There's a bird on it.
