Briony Jenkinson is a little on the tall side at 6-foot-3.
So, when the single mum-of-two first saw a tiny home, she instantly wrote it off as something she could never possibly live in.
"I thought they were cute but not for me, and that I would be really claustrophobic living in something like that," Ms Jenkinson said.
Yet, not only did Ms Jenkinson change her mind, she is now one of the biggest advocates for tiny homes in Australia, having lived in her own "tiny" for three years now in central Victoria.
READ MORE: The Aussies breaking the mould to live in tiny mobile homes
Going tiny was, Ms Jenkinson said, "one of the best decisions of her life".
But almost anyone who has lived in a tiny home will admit that it's not for everyone.
Incredible advantages are tied up with dangerous pitfalls and there will be curveballs aplenty for anyone who takes the leap.
Glamorous photos on Instagram aside, we've taken a look at the reality of living in a tiny home.
Freedom from financial stress
One of the most powerful attractions of living in a tiny home is the promise of an escape it can offer from the mortgage or rental trap.
This was the case for Ms Jenkinson who was struggling to make ends meet in 2016, despite living in a unit where her rent was subsidised under an affordable housing scheme.
"The rent was what most people call affordable but when you're a single mum even that figure is a massive part of your weekly income," she said.
"It was awful, the financial stress day-to-day was just crippling.
"To have to tell your kids that you can't afford for them to go on school excursions or to have the day out with friends because you know you have only got $2 in the bank. It was heartbreaking.
"I had a big think about it and decided I could keep going with the rest of my life struggling for the sake of living in a regular house or I could make the big decision and sell up everything I had."
Ms Jenkinson made the huge decision to move herself and her two children – who are now 16 and 10 years – into a "daggy and old" caravan for a year.
It was a tough 12 months, she said, but the move allowed her to save up for their tiny home.
Ms Jenkinson then bought a block of land, and her tiny home from a young couple in NSW who had built the house themselves to live in but unexpectedly had to move overseas.
Ms Jenkinson said tiny living had delivered her the financial freedom she craved.
"As a single mum of two kids, working minimal hours – I lost both jobs I had to COVID – it has given me the flexibility to start my own business and build it up without the pressure," she said.
"I can list on one hand my overheads.
"I have thought about throwing it in and moving into a regular rental. And, as soon as I think about the bills that are involved and being stuck in one place, I realise I don't want to give this up.
"It's something I have worked really hard for and I can't stomach the thought of leaving it."
Do your research
Elle Paton co-founded the Australian Tiny House Association and now runs the Australian Tiny Houses Facebook page, which has 37,000 followers.
She has lived in her tiny house since March 2019. The 20-square-metre home built by Tinyhouse2go is in St Kilda, in Melbourne's south east, and was the first tiny home approved in an urban setting in Australia.
Although she was already involved in the industry before going tiny, Ms Paton said she did a tonne of research before she took the plunge.
She has recommended everyone else thinking about making the move do the same.
"I visited as many tiny houses as I could here in Australia. I went and did a tiny house building course as well to educated myself," she said.
"While on holiday in the US, I toured a lot of tiny homes there."
A month-long, practical experiment also gave Ms Paton an idea of whether she could live in a small space.
"I sectioned off a portion of my apartment once I knew what size of tiny house I was going to have, and I forced myself to live within the same square meterage," she said.
"Anything I had left outside the area I didn't use for that period of time. It forced me to think about culling what wasn't needed.
"It helped me get into the mindset of tiny living.
"Surprisingly, it was only the first few days when I was wanting to get things outside that sectioned off area.
"After that I was really liking that it reduced my choice and freed up my time."
Similarly, Ms Jenkinson found living in a caravan for a year was good preparation for tiny living.
"Even in the caravan with two kids I didn't find it restrictive at all," she said.
"I actually loved the feeling of freedom of not being a slave to my things and not having clutter.
"It was a really good test and it cemented in my mind that going tiny was the right decision."
'Not for the faint-hearted'
One of the biggest challenges people looking to move into a tiny home face is finding the land to put their house on.
The tiny home industry is unregulated and the homes themselves fall into a grey space between current building codes.
All of this can make it very hard to get council approval for a tiny home, Ms Paton said.
It took Ms Paton 20 months for her to get approval for occupancy from Port Phillip Council, who were supportive of her project.
"Going tiny is not for the faint-hearted because you have that lack of certainty when it comes to it being a council-by-council decision," Ms Paton said.
"Finding some land to place it on, it does require tenacity and commitment."
Ms Jenkinson said while she was fortunate to have been able to buy a block of land to put her tiny home on, she knew of others who had struggled to find land.
It was for this reason Ms Jenkinson decided to launch an online platform to connect land owners with people looking for a place to put their tiny home – ParkMyTinyHouse.com.au.
The toilet situation
Many tiny home owners will opt to live off the grid, which can be another steep learning curve, Ms Paton said.
Living off grid had taught her a lot about resource management, she added.
"If you are disconnected from the grid you can't rely on someone else to make sure your solar power reserves are okay," she said.
Then there is the small matter of sewage and waste removal.
While this aspect sometimes turned people off tiny living, it could be simply managed when you learned how, Ms Paton said.
Ms Paton has a composting toilet.
"All that is required is for me to go out and turn a handle a couple of times a week," she said.
"That unit will sit in place for eight months with no smell."
Once every eight months a canister needs to be replaced on the composting toilet, a job which can be outsourced if need be, Ms Paton said.
What about the mess?
No matter what Instagram would have you believe, tiny houses do get messy, and fast.
Ms Paton said she had been forced to alter her spending habits after going tiny.
"If I buy an item of clothing I will remove an item of clothing. If you go on a shopping spree, the space can get crowded very quickly."
Living in such a small space, wear-and-tear happened a lost faster, Ms Jenkinson said.
"I am the furthest thing from a domestic goddess. I do not clean and my house is not photogenic anymore.
"When there are three of us, living in 16 square metres, it gets dirty and it gets trashed really fast. That is the reality.
"If you imagine you have a section of carpet in your house that gets the most foot traffic, you have that worn track in your carpet, that is the entirety of a tiny house."
On the flip side, renovations are cheap, because of the tiny amounts of materials needed.
"I have to redo the floor in my tiny house, and I need about 10-square-metres of lino and I'm done," Ms Jenkinson said.
"Who can re-floor their whole home for under $1000? It's ridiculous."
Contact reporter Emily McPherson at em********@******om.au
