The Tiny Home Movement was underway long before the pandemic drove working people out of their offices and into a makeshift workspace on the dining room table. Over the previous decade there was an architectural revolution occurring that was embraced by people from several generations, towards a more simple life in a smaller space. It was a revolt against the burdens of huge mortgages or rent and the emotional attachment to lots of STUFF.
Less Is More
In truth, the beginnings of this movement are probably rooted in the 1980’s and 90’s, when people started to mull over the idea that “less equals more,” driven by those who still romanticized over the teachings of Emerson and Thoreau. And perhaps, by people who realized they were wasting precious financial resources on rarely used square footage, when they could have been using it to create memories and explore the world. Now many professionals and retirees alike are trading three-thousand square feet for six-hundred or less, and some of them on wheels!
It’s as much a social movement as architectural, in that living a simpler life with less home space removes many of the obstacles to people’s happiness. There are significant financial benefits, including the upfront cost of the home, and smaller electricity and gas bills. A tiny home has fewer maintenance costs, lower property taxes, and usually results in spending less money on frivolous purchases. Less utility usage also has a smaller impact on the environment, and less consumption means less waste being deposited into landfills.
Considered a fad by many real estate moguls before 2020, it has accelerated even faster during and after the pandemic. As people transitioned to work-from-home models or seeking completely new jobs, a paradigm shift occurred. A wide range of jobs that we used to think of as exclusively limited to in-office work, could apparently be done quite well from somewhere else, and the new landscape of digital knowledge-work created more time for controlling and living our lives the way we want. People don’t want to go back to long commutes or the confinement of a cubical, and many have shed the restriction of working solely for one company. They now work for many companies around the world, unbound by commuting or time zones.
Making Effective Use Of Space
The big challenge in transitioning to tiny home living, is how to incorporate the essentials of a full life into a compact space. Even in a large house, storage space can be a problem, so in a tiny home you have to be genuinely creative, but there’s a lot of space that is often overlooked. The empty space under stairs is a great place to start, as well as creating accessible storage under furniture and beds. Utilize the space that is always left empty over cabinets and close to the ceiling, and don’t forget the corners and awkward spaces.Using stylish double-duty furniture, such as sofas that convert into beds and lifestyle pieces that fold and hide away, like collapsible exercise equipment, are great ways to convert limited space into a multi-functional environment. And walls, the most underutilized area in any home, are the perfect location for a DropTop.™ from Pith & Stem.
As the nature of work has changed for brave new-worlders, and for those who seek to simplify their lives in a more compact dwelling, they must also find ways to work from the same space.
DropTop.™ is a stylish, space effective solution for tiny-home professionals. When not in use it folds neatly against the wall and offers an element of modern decor, and when opened it provides a compact workstation able to rival the best corporate office setups. It provides generous desk space and is fully integrated with monitors, ready to "plug and play" with any laptop.
For those who seek to reduce their footprint in the world, and yet still be able to work effectively and have a career, the DropTop.™ is an innovative work-space for the compact home revolution.
