Well hello there!
I knew the nosy part of you just wouldn’t be able to stay away. I’m nosy too. I always find it fascinating to see how other people live. I am a sucker for a house tour or those “Day in the life..” posts. I just find it super interesting. We only get this one life so we don’t generally have enough time to experiment with a lot of different lifestyle possibilities, so living vicariously through someone for a bit is fun. To help you live that tiny-space life without having to live the tiny-space life here is a glimpse inside our 360 square foot apartment in Omaha, Nebraska. I’m sharing a little bit of why we live here as well as some things we like and some things we don’t. I hope you enjoy.
Why Are you living in 360SF?
It feels relevant to address the reason why we are currently living in a small space. The answer isn’t straight forward so I’ll back up and start from the beginning.
Two years ago we wanted to sell our Omaha house in hopes of both leaving Omaha, Nebraska and simultaneously freeing ourselves of the responsibilities of home ownership. At the time that we were looking to sell, our friends were contemplating turning their then Airbnb into a long-term rental. The stars aligned. We sold anything that wouldn’t fit into the 360sf Airbnb apartment and moved in that October.
When we discussed with out landlords / friends the idea of us moving into their Airbnb, we had initially thought we’d live there for maybe six months and then head off on our next adventure. As fate would have it, a few months after we moved into the apartment Josiah got a job here in Omaha that he is head over heels for — decreasing our desire to relocate at this time. Once we started to settle into the space we decided that we actually really loved the simplicity it brought us and have now been calling it home for the last 2 years with no immediate plans to move.
As you’d expect though, living in a tiny space comes with its pros and cons. There are definitely some things we love about it and some things we don’t love.
Things we love about living in a small space
Less Time to Clean
I remember dreading cleaning our old house because it would take half the day if I really wanted it to feel super clean. Now it takes us about 20-30 minutes to do a deep clean of the apartment which gives us so much of our time back to do other things.
Financial Freedom
Our rent, utilities, internet, etc. is all rolled into one, fixed monthly payment that we make to our landlords / friends which has been really nice for us. This generous deal has allowed us to pursue our financial goals and we are now 99.9% debt free (just a few more car payments!) which is the most incredible feeling. And we were able to accomplish that while still going on crazy adventures since we were living in our tiny, more affordable space.
More Travel
This is probably the reason that keeps me in this tiny apartment the most, but living in this space has allowed us to travel more. With the money we’re not spending on our apartment/house we’re able to set that aside for travel. We’ve been able to go to Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Portugal, and many more places over the last two years with the money we’ve been saving.
Less Things
The reality of living in 360sf is that you can not have as many things as you could if you lived in a larger space. This makes the art of appreciating something, but not feeling the need to own it, a necessary practice. I am not perfect at, but living in a tiny space has forced me to be more conscious about my purchases. This saves money and time because we really can’t spend a lot of time shopping.
No Maintenance / responsibility
One thing that had really started to get to us about home ownership was the maintenance and unexpected expenses that were constantly coming up. We had a super old house and there was always something that needed fixed. Although I’m happy we were able to experience home ownership we are really glad to not have those responsibilities right now. Aside from cleaning our apartment weekly our landlords take care of everything — garbage, mowing the lawn, pulling weeds, etc. This saves us a lot of time, energy, and money which is perfect for the current goals that we have.
Less Stress
All the above reasons have lead to decreased stress in our lives which is a huge win all around.
Things we don’t love about living in a small space
Small Kitchen
With the amount of cooking I do the kitchen space is a challenge, but since Josiah and I have been married we’ve lived in almost 9 apartments/houses and although I wish it was bigger I have found a groove. I do still wish there was more cabinet space.
QUICKLY cluttered
If one things is out of place the apartment can start to feel really cluttered quickly. When we are on our best game we try to put everything away pretty immediately when we’re not using it to avoid this, but when we slip up in this area it definitely shows quickly. This is most evident when we get back from a trip and bring all our stuff in at once.
Hard to host
Not surprising, but 360sf isn’t great for hosting people. This is definitely a con, but we have found ways to host our friends on our patio if the weather is good and sometimes we just get cozy and all hang out inside anyway. Still it’s definitely a drawback of living in a tiny space.
Harder to Have alone time
This one can be tough for us because I like to have a decent amount of alone time. In such a tiny space you don’t really have another area of the house to hide out in. This was definitely a pain point for us in the first year of living here. I’ve started to retreat to the kitchen and put my Airpods in when I feel like I need some alone time which helps me feel like I have a little separation (even if Josiah and the dogs are actually only like 10 feet away). It’s definitely not the same as having a separate area of the house though.
how long will we keep doing this?
Right now we’re happy. Josiah is in school so for now financially staying in our tiny apartment works. I’m not sure what we will do when he is done, but what we do know after living tiny for two years is that we want to continue to strive for simple so that we can keep moving towards the things that bring us joy.
Thanks for hopping over and taking a look around. I know living in a tiny space is not for everyone and that is 100% okay. I hope you enjoyed getting a glimpse inside our space and seeing a little behind the scenes of our life. Drop whatever questions you have below!
