Minimalist living – an intro to our Hut life

The UK has a housing crisis. Apart from the 400,00 homeless people (a low estimate), some 8.4 million people are living in accommodation that is unaffordable, insecure or unsuitable. That’s over 10% of the population. In the county of Essex, where we are currently based, 144,000 new homes are needed to meet demand for housing, but it is unlikely they will be built. And, if they are, it is unlikely that many will be affordable, whatever that means. Decent housing (shelter) is a basic human right, and should always be affordable. In our village, the cheapest house sold recently was a tiny, two-bedroomed mid-terrace at £181,000. Rents start at over £1000 per month. So, there was no chance that we’d be able to either afford to buy a house here or indeed rent one, notwithstanding our menagerie of dogs and cat. But, there are answers to these problems, if only society was not so obsessed with the concept of land wealth, ownership and the ‘property ladder’.

We were fortunate; we found a solution in a pre-fabricated, mobile unit AKA the Hut. We were also fortunate that Mr VV’s parents had sufficient space and, because they needed care, we were able to obtain consent to site our temporary home quite easily. Our Sunrise lodge was built in less than two weeks and delivered to site on the back of a large low loader. From start to finish, including the planning application, building the base, connecting the services and moving in, took three months. A small development could be assembled in a few months, but no doubt the ‘nimbys’ would have something to say about it. And, I wonder how many people would really like to live in a such a small space? But, if you are content with fulfilling your needs, rather than your wants, then less really is more. Having lived in a 6.5m motorhome, we’ve had no difficulty at all adapting to life in our 48 square meter up-market static caravan. There is a growing tiny house movement (check out some great YouTube videos), as there is a move away from consumerism and consumption towards minimalism, so we are ‘on-trend’ 😊.

Welcome to The Hut

I’ve promised some of my Facebook friends a few photos of the Hut and a few words about life inside. (Note: this is how it is – I didn’t tidy up before taking these pics.) The first trick to small-house living is not to have too much stuff and to be very tidy. We didn’t need to bring any furniture with us from France as the lodge was delivered fully furnished and has loads of storage. However, we did bring our favourite Ikea reading chair and my office desk and chair. Otherwise, we just brought clothes, enough kitchen equipment to cover our needs, personal effects and a few photos. And of course, we brought the animals with their array of eleven beds (they haven’t adopted minimalism) and stuff occupying two kitchen cupboards.

Despite its small footprint, the Hut provides us with a large open plan kitchen-diner-lounge. There are French doors at one end, which one day will lead out to a patio, but we haven’t even opened them yet! The kitchen is fully fitted with gas hob and oven, extractor, microwave, a huge fridge-freezer and washer-dryer. There’s more than enough cupboard space for our crockery, cutlery, saucepans and food. The dining table and chairs were part of the furniture pack, as was a coffee table, a huge very comfortable corner sofa and a built-in TV shelving unit cum bookcase. Carpeted throughout and with matching curtains at all the double-glazed windows, the overall colour scheme is modern and calming.

Off a narrow corridor, which we’ve brightened up with our collection of postcards from our campervan travels, there is the second bedroom, which I’ve commandeered for an office and the main shower room. The opposite end of the Hut is our bedroom. This is fitted out with loads of storage space, even under the bed, and huge sliding door wardrobe. A small ensuite is tucked behind the wardrobe, too. But, it is surprising how much room even our small clothing collection and two sets of towels and bedclothes takes up, and we quickly filled all the available space.

Like buying any new home there were a few teething troubles, but these were all quickly resolved by the suppliers or their contractors – one advantage of buying from a local company. We’ve had to learn to manage the gas system, ordering new bottles to be delivered about once a fortnight at the moment. Otherwise, it’s just like living in a house and we don’t really notice the small space. Although the only floor area big enough to roll out the yoga mat is the kitchen floor, I actually prefer doing yoga there than my old den in France. The pets’ favourite is the large full height windows where they can sit for hours watching for squirrels and birds. We all love our Hut; it has quickly become our home and I can’t foresee us wanting to live in anything much bigger in the future.

Looking for squirrels!