Photo cred: @loamlove
Regardless of what type of small home you choose, living in a smaller space reduces your energy use, footprint on the land itself, and elevates your consciousness regarding the belongings you acquire.
It basically makes your life more intentional in a multitude of ways by merely “going Tiny”.
People choose to live Tiny for many reasons, and for some the sustainable and eco-minded choices are a strong motivator.
Here are just three environmental reasons to reduce the space you inhabit:
1. Downsizing and donating your belongings. Then as a result of living small everything you own has a purpose, a place, and a connection to you. If you buy second hand or from ethical/eco sources you can take this so much further!
2. You don’t have space for loads of plastic bags and single use items. Everything you own must be reusable and with a purpose in mind. This is fun because you can choose items that are high functioning and aesthetically beautiful. Additionally, you won’t produce and have to take out as much trash. You can also allocate the space normally used for a large trash bin for something else.
- Buying your food in bulk and from local farmer’s markets reduces your waste, can be more economical and will hopefully encourage you to make more home-cooked and healthy meals.
3. Get into humanure and compost your waste!
Yes, this is something that many of us are not used to and may think is only for the hippies among us, however that’s so not true. More people everyday are looking towards alternative living situations and installing a composting toilet is beneficial in many ways. Composting your waste means that you can be off-grid, or at least not hooked up to a septic system. The Nature’s Head is the leading composting toilet because it doesn’t smell, actually breaks down the human waste in the base, and saves so much water!!!
Water is a precious resource that we NEED to be intentional about! By using a composting toilet over 12 gallons of water are saved a day per person. When you start adding up the numbers it’s insane how much water you can save, and if that’s not empowering I don’t know what is!
In the last two years using my composting toilet in my tiny house, I’ve saved roughly 8,760gallons of water. To put that into perspective, it’s equivalent to filling 22 hot tubs. So, I save 11 hot tubs worth of water each year by not depositing my waste into a bowl of clean potable water, which is so unnecessary to begin with!
Okay, rant over. You decide how you want to make an impact:)
