Does moving into a tiny house mean downsizing and getting rid of all of your stuff? A lot of people think the answer is “yes,” but actually, it depends!
Some people want to downsize, and that is fine. But a lot of folks would rather fit as many of their possessions as possible into a tiny home while still living comfortably and clutter-free.
Depending on how much stuff you own, it might be possible to avoid downsizing your possessions. Oftentimes, the trick is just to find clever storage solutions in your tiny house.
In this post, we are going to offer you some recommendations for maximizing tiny house storage space while maintaining a clean, open look. As you will discover, a lot of it comes down to choosing the right layout to begin with.
1. Consider a raised floor model.
If you pick a well-designed tiny house model, the work you will have to do to store your items will be kept to a minimum. You will not have to engineer clever solutions, because the builder will have already done that for you.
To take an example, consider our popular Woodland Park Timber Ridge Woodlands Vault model.
As you can see, the Woodlands Vault takes its name from the huge storage area located underneath the raised floor in the living room.
These slide-out drawers allow you to store even really long items. You can access them with ease, but they are kept totally out of your way, and they don’t clutter up your interior space at all.
As you can see, the raised floor has the effect of visually partitioning off the living room from the kitchen, emphasizing its separate purpose. So, raising the floor adds to the beauty of this layout, rather than subtracting, and leaves the same amount of functional floor space. At the same time, the living room and kitchen are fully connected, keeping the layout open.
In this photo, you will also notice there are some interior cabinets built into the platform, giving you access from the kitchen to even more storage space—perfect for big pots, pans, and appliances.
2. Get a model with a large loft.
For a while, most tiny houses on the market seemed to feature layouts without a downstairs bedroom. Instead, there would be a loft intended for sleeping.
But there are more flexible layouts available now, like the Woodland Park Timber Ridge Grand Tetons park model.
This model does feature a downstairs bedroom, but it also comes with a loft.
Of course, you could use the loft as a second bedroom. But if you do not need a second bedroom, you could utilize this entire space for extra storage.
Just imagine how much room that would free up throughout the rest of your tiny house.
3. Pick a model with plenty of closets and cabinets built right into the layout.
A lot of tiny house storage tips focus on choosing configurable storage products for your home. But the need for these types of specialized products goes way down when you have lots of closets, cabinets and shelves integrated into your build.
As an example, look at all of the hall storage in the Essence.
This photo also gives you a glimpse of some of the kitchen storage.
As you can see, there is also ample storage built into the spacious bathroom.
The bedroom comes with storage built in as well around the head of the bed.
4. Store items on top of cabinets and closets.
Something else that can help a lot when it comes to maximizing the storage potential of your tiny house is not to neglect the areas on top of cabinets.
In fact, you might have noticed in the photo above of the Essence, there is some extra room on top of the cabinets above the bed.
Here is another photo of the bedroom in the Essence, this time showing off the dresser and closets. Between them, they already offer plenty of storage space. But there is a lot of extra room up above them where you see the clerestory window. In fact, this would be a great spot to stow some larger items.
5. Purchase clever storage solutions.
Chances are good that if you choose a tiny house model like one of those above, you will not need to buy a lot of extra storage supplies. Your home will come with everything you need.
But if you do find yourself in need of some extra space, you can always invest in products like:
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Hanging storage for your kitchen or bathroom. Baskets work great for this, and are ideal in situations where you are out of wall space.
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Open shelves that you can install where you do have some extra wall space available.
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Configurable seating that you can move around as needed or open to reveal extra storage space.
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Pull-out storage cabinets. Most commonly, pull-out pantries are featured in kitchens, allowing you to slide spices and other foodstuffs out of sight and into your wall. But you can find other examples of pull-out cabinets in bathrooms, bedrooms, and other spaces in tiny homes.
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A bed that features built-in storage, or which can be raised up off the floor to provide extra room for storage underneath.
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Furnishings that pull double duty, for example a couch that you can convert into a bed. While these items may not be storage containers themselves, they do free up more room in your home for storage solutions.
You will probably be surprised by just how much you an fit into a tiny house and still have plenty of room left over.
If you enjoyed checking out some of the featured models in this post, be sure and fill out our contact form or give us a call. We’d love to help you customize one of our park model homes and give you personalized advice for how you can maximize the storage space in your new tiny home!
