How My Tiny House Helped Me Embrace My Inner Lumberjane
Hello Friends,
It is I, your Tiny House Concierge. And this one goes out to all the ladies in the (tiny) house!
Guess what? Good news.
If you buy a tiny house, it will turbo-charge your self-sufficiency.
In fact, deciding to buy a tiny house and become a tiny homeowner is one of the most empowering things I have ever done. It's helped me embrace my inner lumber-jane, and may I say, that chick is a badass. She has gained so many skills and saved me so much money and B.S. as a result!
But while that's easy to say, embracing one's inner lumber-jane is a little harder to do. So let me pause here to address the elephant in the small-space living room:
The world has this idea that women and tools don't go together.
After all, most of us ladies are not taught how to grill steaks, replace door knobs, or reattach toilet paper dispensers, amiright?
But while this might be the case, this is also where a tiny house can provide a beautiful opportunity to learn all the bits and pieces we never did. We just have to have a little faith and learn from each other's experiences. Then we can take over the world. Sound good? Excellent.
Then in the spirit of sharing, here are three ways The Tiny House of Peace has helped me to embrace my inner Lumberjane.
I hope it serves to inspire you. And as you read this, please remember that I once struggled to use a craft drill.
3 Ways My Tiny House Helped Me Embrace My Inner Lumberjane
1) Tiny houses are small, so tasks seem easier.
I didn't see this one coming, but it's so true. When I lived in a bigger house, I would never have considered doing something like washing the exterior of the windows. There were too many of them! My apartment was on the second floor! But once I moved into a tiny house? Tasks like this became more feasible.
And with each task that I tackled, I became a little bolder. Now I'm like, transport my tiny house myself? MAYBE! OK, we'll see if I actually do that, but here's a picture of me practice-towing!
The point is that the sheer fact that my house is TINY has given me the confidence to try. Because maybe it's not as hard as it seems, you know?
2) My tiny house taught me how to change a propane tank.
Had I been taught to grill steaks, maybe I would have known how to change a propane tank, but I wasn't, and so it was my tiny house that taught me how.
And do you want to know the crazy thing? It turns out that changing a propane tank is so easy.
Here are the steps:
- You unscrew the tank like a garden hose.
- Go to a gas station and tell them you'd like to exchange a propane tank.
- They take the old one, and you take the new one.
- You drive home and screw the new one into place.
That's literally it.
And I'm telling you, my tiny house has taught me the following time and time again:
Replacing and fixing things is often super easy, but you don't know until you know.
Thanks, tiny house. <3
3) Hiring a handyman became more difficult, so I had to fix my tiny house myself.
First of all, when is it going to be handy-human? It even sounds better, but autocorrect is still fighting back on this one.
Whatever you call this job description, my statement is true. Going tiny has a few downsides, and one of them is that it can be harder to get someone to work on your house.
I don't see this as a negative thing, though. In fact, my occasional inability to hire someone at the speed and price point I desired has given me the push I needed to tackle more than one tiny house problem.
So I'm going to go ahead and put this in the pro-tiny house category.
Check out these badass Solo Women Tiny House dwellers!
Women & Tools & Tiny Homes
Friends, it's been two-and-a-half years since I bought my tiny house, and in that time, I've changed many a propane tank. I've also replaced door knobs, removed toilets, and repaired leaking water hoses.
And, yes, sometimes it's frustrating, and sometimes I cry. And sometimes, I even film it, so if you need moral support for your tiny home journey, you're welcome to watch my Tiny House Meltdown series on YouTube. I hope it makes you feel better.
Still, with all of the hardships, I would not trade the tiny house lifestyle for anything. And so, if you've been on the fence, I say do it! Buy that tiny house. After all, we only live once, and the world could use a few more lumber-janes!
See you at the Home Depot!
-Alaska
Alaska is a writer, realtor, and tiny homeowner living in the great state of Colorado. She is the founder of The Tiny House Concierge, a company that offers consultation and copywriting services for people looking to rethink their housing and rewrite their lives. In addition to her website, she can be found on Instagram and YouTube.
