1. They are good for the environment.

Tiny homes are great for the environment. They generate substantially less CO2 than average homes and traditional mobile homes. Heating and cooling a tiny home generate roughly 850 pounds of CO2 compared to 12,000 pounds of CO2 to do the same for a traditional home.

It’s not just heating and cooling reducing the environmental impact. The manufacturing process is also substantially more efficient. Tiny house builders employ greener, more sustainable materials. During the construction of an average 2,000-square-foot home, four to seven tons of waste can be generated. Tiny homes, by comparison, generate significantly less waste in their construction.

2. Minimalism is trendy. 

The average size of a single-family home in the United States has been trending upwards. From 1978 to 2013, the average size of a single-family home grew from 1,708 to 2,662 square feet despite a decrease in the size of the average American family. The rise of the tiny house movement is often seen as a small-scale rebellion to the trends in American homebuilding.

Minimalism itself is having a moment in pop culture. Japanese consultant Marie Kondo took Netflix by storm with her show focused on clearing out people’s homes of everything that did not spark joy. Countless podcasts, blogs [link to “Marie Kondo Your Mobile Home” blog post], and books have proliferated in recent years giving advice on how people can live life with less clutter. All this is to say, minimalism is in right now and looks to have serious cultural staying power.

3. They are affordable. 

Perhaps the biggest factor in the tiny home movement is their affordability. In the Bay Area, for example, tiny homes offer the chance to own a home for about the same price you’d pay to rent the same square footage in an apartment complex, and for far less than you’d spend on a mortgage in the area. Tiny homes even have a leg up on traditional manufactured homes. The price for a fully equipped, two-story tiny home, including transport, setup, and skirting is approximately $70,800. Compare this to a well-appointed 24×54 doublewide with the same services coming in at $153,600.

Furthermore, tiny home owners save money on their monthly utility bills. Tiny homes are incredibly energy efficient, requiring approximately 7 percent of the average kilowatts required to light an average-sized American home. Tiny homes also offer other efficiencies through the use of specially designed ventilation systems, passive solar orientation, and more. This can provide substantial savings for residents. Older manufactured homes are tremendously inefficient, leading to energy bills upwards $200 a month. Tiny homes can reduce energy bills by 75 percent on average.

Making the Switch 

Tiny homes have taken off over the past decade. Whether you’re looking to reduce your environmental impact, save some money, or even just live a simpler life, tiny homes can help you meet your goals.

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At Harmony Communities, we feel strongly that each resident has a sense of home. That they come home from work and feel pride in their environment and in their place in the greater community. That families are comfortable raising children in our neighborhoods, and that couples and singles know that they belong to something bigger than their four walls. In other words, we seek to create harmony within each community, making our communities not just passable, but peaceful, safe, functional, and beautiful.

The post The Big Appeal of Tiny Homes appeared first on Other CMS.

If you have not seen the Netflix series “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo,” consider watching it for your next TV binge. The series showcases Marie Kondo, “tidying expert” and author of four organizing books. Her goal is to “spark joy in the world through tidying,” using the KonMari Method. The method takes a minimalist style approach to cleaning up by focusing on categories of items, and not room-by-room.

Following these six simple rules of the KonMari Method will help you when deciding what to keep and what to discard or donate.

Rule #1: Commit Yourself to Tidying Up

Once you decide to tidy up your home, you must commit to it. Set a realistic deadline for cleaning through your clutter, and promise yourself a non-material reward for reaching your goal, such as a mani-pedi or a movie date with friends.

Rule #2: Imagine Your Ideal Lifestyle

Think about what kind of house you want to have and how you want to live. Ask yourself why you want to tidy and how it will affect your lifestyle for the better once you have finished.

It helps to visualize the end result, so why not sketch out your ideal home or create a collage from photos in magazines or online?

Rule #3: Finish Discarding First

A big reason why tidying up never seems to last is because people do not get rid of anything. Your house may look clean and neat externally but if you have just stored everything in a new location, the cycle of getting messy and needing to tidy again will just continue.

Once you have discarded any unnecessary items then you can continue with the process and organize what you have kept.

Rule #4: Tidy by Category, Not by Location

Instead of focusing on room-by-room organization, the KonMari method focuses on organizing category-by-category. This prevents you from shifting items from one room to another and not knowing exactly how much stuff you actually have. By focusing on a specific category, you can identify how much you have of that category and what you need to get rid of.

Rule #5: Follow the Right Category

The five categories to tackle are: clothes, books, papers, Komono (miscellaneous items), and sentimental items, and they must be tackled in this order. Following the order is crucial; it helps you maintain focus on one category and saves the items that are harder to let go of – such as old sentimental objects and pictures – for last.

When tackling your clothing, it may be helpful to watch Marie Kondo’s Basic Folding Method video. This ensures you will be making the most of your space while still being able to easily identify what is stored where.

Rule #6: Ask Yourself if it Sparks Joy

This is Marie Kondo’s most important rule, and is the essence of the KonMari method. Look at each item you have, hold it, and ask yourself, “Does it spark joy?” If an item makes you feel a spark of happiness, then you keep it. If the item doesn’t give that feeling or you hesitate, then it is time for you to let it go.

Marie Kondo-ing your home is a great way to start the new decade. Keeping what sparks joy, and tossing what does not, will lift a weight off of your shoulders and create a more positive space for you to relax and enjoy in the year ahead.

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At Harmony Communities, we feel strongly that each resident has a sense of home. That they come home from work and feel pride in their environment and in their place in the greater community. That families are comfortable raising children in our neighborhoods, and that couples and singles know that they belong to something bigger than their four walls. In other words, we seek to create harmony within each community, making our communities not just passable, but peaceful, safe, functional, and beautiful.

The post Marie Kondo Your Mobile Home in Six Steps appeared first on Other CMS.

As Harmony Communities founder Matthew Davies tells Yahoo Finance, if you’re planning to put a tiny home on your property, “your first step would be going to your local building department, whether for the county or the city, and finding out the zoning regulations.”

Read the article in its entirety here.

The post Founder Matthew Davies quoted in Yahoo Finance article, “How to Get Tiny House Financing” appeared first on Other CMS.

Let’s start with ten.

#1: Downsize your possessions.

The first – and easiest – way to fit your full-sized life into your tiny home is to purge all that is no longer prized, best, or essential. Create three piles – donate, recycle, or sell – and assign a place for every item in your home. If you truly scrutinize what you own, you’ll inevitably find that you only truly use (or love) an extremely small percentage of your possessions.

#2: Live outside.

We don’t mean literally! But creating a comfortable, beautiful outdoor space like a built-in deck, patio, or even just a small grassy area with an outdoor table and chairs can extend the livable space within your home. As much as possible, entertain your guests outside or encourage your children to regularly get out for some fresh air. Not only will this make your home seem larger, but it will stave off any potential for conflict generated from living in such close quarters.

#3: Utilize lofts.

Think back to your college dorm room or apartment days when you boosted your bed off the ground to make room for your desk, chairs, or other possessions. The same tactic works for tiny homes. Some homeowners choose to loft their beds, while others opt for retractable beds that fold into the walls but build lofts to supply additional seating or storage. 

#4: Put your staircase to work. 

The space underneath a staircase, whether a full staircase or a ladder leading up to a loft, is wasted space, something you simply can’t afford in a home that’s already less than 400 square feet. Use the space underneath your stairs to house furniture, or better yet, build bookshelves or storage niches into the backs of the stairs.

#5: Create an illusion with mirrors.

Mirrors provide more than just a decorative touch: Strategically placed mirrors can actually make a space appear much larger. Hang mirrors throughout your tiny home to draw the eye upward and outward and to make your living quarters feel more spacious than they are.

#6: Install retractable pantry doors and foldable tables.

Your tiny kitchen has no room for swinging doors or cumbersome tables. Invest in a table that folds against the wall when it’s not in use. And install a pantry door that slides or retracts rather than a traditional door that swings open.

#7: Make your load bearing walls work harder.

Add a unique design touch and increase your storage space by installing built-ins on the sides of your load-bearing walls. You can use the built-ins to store books, baskets of toys for your children, or personal items and keepsakes. 

#8: Embrace sliding doors. 

By using sliding doors instead of traditional doors, you can save yourself tremendous space – and aggravation. Better yet, use room dividers or curtains instead of doors, so you can easily switch between providing privacy for your roommates or family members and opening your space to create a larger, common living area for everyone to enjoy.

#9: Fill your walls.

Yes, you can fill your walls with artwork and family photos, but also consider using them for additional storage! Install hooks and hang your pots and pans, dish towels, utensils, storage baskets, or even houseplants. This is not only an efficient use of your space but will also prevent excess clutter that would otherwise accumulate on the few flat surfaces in your home.

#10: Let your cabinet tops do more than collect dust. 

For tiny home residents, the excess space above kitchen and bathroom cabinets is storage gold. Fill baskets with your less frequently utilized items and stow them neatly above your cabinets to keep them out of sight, but still accessible.

Embracing Life with Less

Tiny home living is not just an affordable option, but a lifestyle choice that can lead us into cleaner, greener habits. Try these hacks to help you make the most of your home and live abundantly in your tiny space.

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At Harmony Communities, we feel strongly that each resident has a sense of home. That they come home from work and feel pride in their environment and in their place in the greater community. That families are comfortable raising children in our neighborhoods, and that couples and singles know that they belong to something bigger than their four walls. In other words, we seek to create harmony within each community, making our communities not just passable, but peaceful, safe, functional, and beautiful.

The post Ten Hacks for Living Large in a Tiny Home appeared first on Other CMS.

The City recently enacted a new ordinance that re-classifies THOWs as permanent structures rather than recreational vehicles, the status they carry in most other California cities. As a result, THOWs are now considered more akin to accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, that sit in the backyards of individually owned properties rather than RVs or other types of vehicles.

The tiny home ordinance imposes the following requirements on owners of THOWs, among others:

• THOWs must be between 120 and 400 square feet in size.
• They must look like traditional homes in terms of the style and quality of their siding and roofing, as well as their overall appearance and curb appeal.
• They must be situated in the back or side yard of a single-family home.
• The owner of the primary property must live in either the main home or the tiny home.
• The homes must be installed on a trailer that is currently registered with the DMV.

Needless to say, given these regulations, the new ordinance will come at a cost to owners of THOWs. The City application and utility hookup fees alone are estimated to reach $1,800 or more. Not to mention, building a tiny home from scratch can cost north of $35,000 before even considering the infrastructure of the home.

Further, the ordinance restricts the locations where owners can decamp: THOW owners seeking to install their homes on a particular piece of property are required to obtain a renewable, five-year permit. Fortunately, however, the permit can be renewed through a basic inspection to ensure safe and functional connections to water, sewer, and electricity hookups.

Nonetheless, the goal of the San Luis Obispo City Council is to make tiny home construction more affordable, so that SLO doesn’t just become a haven for the wealthy. In fact, the Council has already successfully proposed and enacted cost-saving measures for THOW owners, including loosening the annual inspection requirements, doing away with the “skirting” material intended to cover the THOWs’ wheels, and no longer requiring owners to install six-foot privacy fences around their homes – all items that add unnecessary cost. By doing so, SLO municipal leaders are ensuring that the new classification will help, not hinder, families’ ability to secure THOWs as a viable, safe, attractive, sustainable, and affordable housing option.

What’s Ahead for THOW Owners

Various advocacy groups in San Luis Obispo and other parts of California seek to expand this effort by creating sustainable communities to house underserved populations like homeless veterans and the elderly. This would look like park models of tiny homes – set up much like mobile home parks – rather than isolated tiny homes located in various backyards across the State.

Other cities are just behind SLO in considering reclassifying tiny homes: deeming THOWs as permanent structures or accessory dwelling units rather than recreational vehicles. These efforts will bring THOWs one step closer to serving as a viable, widespread affordable housing option for thousands of Californians.

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At Harmony Communities, we feel strongly that each resident has a sense of home. That they come home from work and feel pride in their environment and in their place in the greater community. That families are comfortable raising children in our neighborhoods, and that couples and singles know that they belong to something bigger than their four walls. In other words, we seek to create harmony within each community, making our communities not just passable, but peaceful, safe, functional, and beautiful.

The post Tiny Homes Take on a New Status in One California City appeared first on Other CMS.

“In addition to being more affordable to purchase than average homes or mobile homes, today’s tiny houses are cheaper and easier to maintain,” Matthew told reporter Claire Gillespie. Read the full article here.

The post Harmony Communities Founder Featured in Work + Money Article, “20 Truths About Tiny Homes” appeared first on Other CMS.