Dreaming Of A Tiny House Pending Rent Inspection Letter

I live in a large house in Australia. It's not by any means an expensive rental, my family and I live in one of the most affordable homes in one of the most affordable suburbs in Perth, W.A. and I am tired for all the wrong reasons. Here is why.

Living in a large rental means you have a lot to keep maintained. There are a million large windows in this house, when we get that rent inspection letter we have to clean them all inside and out, including taking off the fly wire and cleaning those or even replacing them when they begin to degrade. The curtains are vertical blinds so we have to wipe each and every individual one down if they get dusty or if one of my four children gets finger prints on them. We have quite a large garden with five garden beds out the front and three garden beds in our back yard, the big one lines three fence lines. Keeping the grass out of them is a constant battle. And just in general, there are too many rooms. We have an open plan area which is semi divided into five other sections by either a vertical half wall or a wall coming into another section on a funny angle, this gives us a kitchen which looks onto an alfresco, a lounge room, and a dining room, plus, we have another "parents retreat" lounge room with a bonus "book and coffee nook" outside our bedroom. I know it sounds fancy but it's not, it was made with profit in mind in a cheap area with high hopes at the time for growth, now a lot of unemployed and low income people (such as my one income family) live in this area because it is very affordable. We have industrial carpet and cheap doors, doorknobs, lights and other fittings. There are two white bathrooms to clean. Each and every wall has to be wiped down before a rent inspection. Our whole driveway is paved and new weeds spring up from between each and every crack every other day to every week. Every three months that letter arrives and each and every time I am unimpressed by the immensity of what is to come. Trying to keep up on a few things helps obviously, most of the things on that list need to be done a few times in that time otherwise the tasks take longer and are sometimes a little more complicated when the time comes if it is just neglected.

Now it's not just the immensity of cleaning the home which is overwhelming when we get that letter in the mail once every three months, it is how much stuff you realize isn't organized and isn't needed. I recently went through all my fabrics which were left over from a long forgotten, hand made pram liner business. The scraps were all folded but they were untidily spilling out from each and every shelf because there were just so many. I had trouble letting them go because I thought I may use them one day, the truth is there was so much fabric there that I didn't want to even go near it. So I culled, I kept only the fabrics I absolutely loved for me and by boys, and I even had room to place my sewing machine and a few little ornaments my children had made me for mothers day over the years. And I'm in love with that little space! It embodies everything I am, which is a mother, my love for black and red and bohemian type patterns as well as pending projects for my four boys, one which I have begun again, and just my love for sewing!

I also find that it is too easy for us all to go into our own separate areas and isolate ourselves rather than hang about as a family.

These are all the reasons I would love to have a tiny home! Less to clean and maintain, less stuff, you have to be super organized with what you own and where you would store all your belongings and you all function as a family. If I were to work as hard in a garden as I currently do I would love to have only edible things to take care of, not a bunch of pretty, poisonous things such as Oleander tree's. I know there is so much more to know about owning and living in a tiny home, especially with a family, but when I'm looking through Pinterest and I see all these beautifully staged homes with perfect lighting it all looks so romantic! It looks like less to clean and maintain, less to cool or heat so less energy bills, and it looks like closeness.

I began thinking about a tiny home village where there is a circle of established tiny homes, I think if I ever win $20 million on a lotto ticket I may consider creating one so that others can buy an affordable home and live there too, or I might just wait until it's a bit more legal and find a nice bit of land high on a hill and set up camp there, but as I come back down to earth I realize it would be a long drive back to civilization and I'm not interested in home schooling and neither are my children. And as I read through the blogs about people who love living in a tiny home I realize it's not actually as romantic as Pinterest makes it look, there are a lot of changes to make and there aren't many places you can set down permanently that are close to all the places you need to be. But maybe one day I can have my effort rewarding, easy to maintain tiny home... I can dream!