Moving into a Tiny House in Metro Vancouver: Difficulties and Solutions 

Last week, we talked about the benefits to the tiny house movement. After reading that, you may think that moving into a tiny house in Vancouver is the way to go. However, this may not be a solution for everyone. In this second part of our two part series, we will discuss the concerns of moving into a tiny house in Vancouver.

Where can I park my tiny house in Vancouver?

As we have mentioned in our previous article, a tiny house is not a permanent structure. While this makes it more flexible and mobile, we have to consider where we can place these tiny houses for long term stays.

Contrary to what some may believe, you cannot just park a tiny house wherever you like. One obvious option is to buy land. But since buying land in Vancouver is fairly expensive, that would negate the reduced costs of moving into a tiny house. It will be much easier to find land at a reduced rate outside the city. If you want to live in the Metro Vancouver area, it is likely that you will pay more to get a good location.

Where do I get utilities for my tiny house?

There are many things to consider when buying land for your tiny house. If we are looking for unoccupied land, we may need to consider a few other things. Costs that we do not often think about when we are moving into a regular home can be things such as water, electricity or sewage hook ups. Also, tiny houses require different equipment, such as smaller, less powerful heaters. They also might need expensive solar panels. One Abbotsford tiny house owner learned this by embarking on a tiny house design herself.

Most zoning rules, which determine the use of land and the buildings on the land, will allow residences to park trailers in their backyard. Because of this, many lane house homeowners suggest that it is easiest to contact other property owners to rent their land. But where do the rules lie when parking a tiny house, versus a trailer? If allowed, this would be a good idea because on a pre-existing residential lot, all the utility hook ups are already taken care of. Renting existing land and piggybacking off the residences’ utilities will be the easiest and possibly the cheapest route to take.

We found this Facebook page that lists information for tiny house seekers, including available places to park them.

A great place to start your research on this topic is to learn from the experiences of others. There is a Tiny House Meetup in Vancouver, where you can meet other downsizers and hopefully embark on figuring out the technicalities of these questions.

Where can I put all my stuff?

An obvious and very legitimate concern is whether the space will be enough. The tiny house movement is as much a change in living space as it is in lifestyle. Another movement that goes quite well with this is the minimalist lifestyle. Minimalism is a lifestyle where the minimalist chooses to live with a significantly reduced number of material possessions. Essentially, living with just what you need, and nothing more. Many believe this is a real release from the materialistic world, and can allow your life to be free of clutter and stress.

Not many are able to live like this, and even though you may have to part with many of your beloved items, there are ways to not take this to the extreme. One option is to have storage space nearby. You may want to use this if you have things that you want to keep but will not need every day. Larger items such as bikes, outdoor sporting equipment, and other seasonal things can go in there.

Another tip you can consider is to store documents and photos electronically. It would be a good idea to find a local professional scanning service, such as this one, that can scan a large volume of documents and photographs. Those large boxes of photos and documents, whether they are important or not, can all be scanned electronically. It is many times easier to search up a document by name or look through an electronic album than to go through the boxes stored up in your attic. For your new tiny home, you can display your important stored pictures with a few high-resolution digital picture frames.

Contact Ferguson Moving for Optimal Storage for Tiny Homes

We hope this short introduction to the tiny house movement has piqued your interest in your consideration to move! If you are planning to move, whether to a tiny house or not, for all your moving needs such as mobile friendly container storage solutions if you choose to downsize, contact us at 604-922-2212 or contact us online today!