Once upon a time, I lived in a 400 sqft studio apartment. It was then I began thinking about tiny home living.
I didn’t have to get rid of too much stuff to fit in that apartment. A garage sale and gifting a desk to a friend was all I really needed. After a while, I downsized that big, blue futon too. But even though I moved from a 2-bedroom house to this little apartment, it still felt pretty spacious after a week or two of acclimation. I lived there for 2.5 years.
Then I moved to St. Pete. I was ready to maintain the size of the apartment, but I ended up finding my current one. A humongous (in comparison) apartment with ~650 sqft. It even had a separate bedroom!! And a dining room I converted into a workshop.
The additional space has been nice, but I’ve still had thoughts of a tiny house. So when I saw a Tiny Home Festival come across my social media newsfeeds a few months back, I bought tickets right away.
The event was this weekend.
It’s only Tuesday, but my imagination has been sparked. I’ve been Googling and plotting.
In my Googling, I found a Craigslist ad for a vintage Airstream RV that looks like it might be in good shape. When I think of tiny houses, I don’t think of RVs. Yet an RV could be an efficient way for me to enter the tiny house world.
So I’m going to check out this RV on Saturday. I’ve got no pressure to buy it, but I’m super excited at the prospect of buying it and figuring out how to live in it. Thoughts of how I would get rid of my extraneous stuff have already been entering my mind. Thoughts about how I would do this around my bike trip have been trickling in.
I’ve been researching financing, inspectors, how to secure a bike on an RV, how to live with cats in an RV, how to clean out the poop line (black water, in the lingo), and RV parks in my neck of the woods.
I guess I’m a little obsessed right now. Certainly I feel like I’m jumping the gun.
At the same time, things feel serendipitous. A friend said I could park it in her driveway while I got things figured out. My lease is up at the end of May. That’s a little too close to my trip for my comfort, but I could extend my lease a couple of months to make the timing a little more comfortable.
Considering I haven’t seen the thing in person yet, I’m definitely jumping the gun. But if it’s nice? If it’s in good shape? Maybe I’ll be spontaneous and jump in. I’ve only got me to worry about. It will be cheaper than my current rent.
Maybe more change is in the air this year than a big bike ride in Canada…