As you know, we love organizing houses of all shapes and sizes…but it wasn't until our San Diego team told us that one of their organizers actually lives in a real life TINY house did we realize what "true" organization actually looked like. Please meet Carissa Leach who lives in the most adorable tiny house you've ever seen with her photographer boyfriend, Noel! Carissa, please tell us everything…
Our tiny house is 8'-6" wide x 13'-6" high x 24' long with the tongue. It weighs 10,540 lbs. (We drove it onto a truck scale when we were finished with the build!)
Noel and I spent a great deal of time thinking about how we would be using the space and what sort of items we use most often. Noel has construction experience and I learned how to draft floor plans while studying Interior Design, so we are at an advantage when it comes to DIY!
A bathtub, king-size bed, dishwasher and washer/dryer were key components of the design process. We began sketching and mapping out the house around them. Every inch counts when you only have 260sf to work with and the details are crucial! I started a bunch of boards on Pinterest, tore pages out of magazines and visited tile stores for design inspiration. After a few months, rough blueprints in hand, we began sourcing materials and bought the trailer bed.
We planned on having open vertical space in the kitchen and decided to install a metal rack to store pots and rails to hang pans and utensil caddies. The kitchen cabinets are fairly high up so we store less used items in them. The open shelving look appeals to us and we knew clear glass jars were the way to go! A lazy suzan was built into the corner cabinet and holds most of our dry goods.
We designed floating stairs with a built-in desk underneath for a modern look. A small file cabinet holds all of our important documents and I walk immediately from my mailbox to the recycling bin and discard unimportant papers. The stairs take you up to the loft where we built a walnut and polycarbonate closet for our hanging clothes and fabric baskets for folded garments. We donated and scaled down to what we thought would fit and then donated some more. The interesting thing about living in a tiny house is that it challenges us to really think about our purchases and if we truly need a product or not.
A pocket door was built to slide into the bathroom wall using polycarbonate to let light through and make the space feel open. We lifted the mirrored cabinets a few inches above the floor to make the room seem spacious. An outdoor shower extends off the back to rinse sandy feet from beach outings and wash out wetsuits.
Everything from the reclaimed redwood to the cabinet hardware was handpicked and installed/built by us! (Except for the spray-foam insulation.)
Carissa, this house could not be any cuter! You and Noel did an amazing job. Thanks for showing all of us the importance of minimalism and how any size place can be bright and cheery if you put some effort into it. Wish we could move in…if only it could fit all of us!
We are Ashley and Molly, the founders of Neat Method.
Lets face it – we obviously love to organize and are a little…or maybe we should say a lot type-A. This perfect storm created The Neat Life. Welcome! We’ve seen it all, heard it all, organized it all, and are always obsessed with seeing a perfectly NEAT space. Even if a clutter free space doesn’t tickle your fancy as much as ours, we guarantee you will be entertained by our antics and drive to make the world a NEAT-er place!
