When we decided on a sort of last minute trip to Seattle for a mini vacation we weren’t sure if we would have any luck finding a place to stay. Hotels are often really pricey with little to offer so we turned to Airbnb. We seriously lucked out because we found a tiny home, little house, or cottage if you will that was available. We booked it immediately after seeing it had great reviews and didn’t give the small space a second thought.
The idea of “tiny living” for our stay appealed to us. If we could make a hotel room work, why wouldn’t a small space like this?
FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF A TINY HOME
Walking into the place, we immediately saw everything. All of the necessities were right there. A kitchen, washroom, living room, and a loft that had a bed. As a parent I loved this whole layout, there was nowhere for the girls to disappear to. Staying in small quarters like this could make things interesting while on vacation. Thankfully the tiny space we were staying in, is not the smallest out there. We had some wiggle room compared to others.
I did have a concern about the bedtime routine and what we would do. Normally our girls go to bed pretty early. On this trip, there was no true separate bedroom. We made the decision to push their bedtime back a bit, and ours would be earlier. I was okay with an earlier bedtime after our travel day to get there, we were all tired.
The other thing I worried about was the spiral staircase. I didn’t want the girls sleeping up in the loft just in case they needed to come down in the middle of the night. This is something to keep in mind if you are thinking of booking a tiny home for your vacation; is the space child-friendly? Where we stayed had a sofa that doubled as a bonus bed, which was exactly what we needed. Everyone had a spot to sleep come bedtime.
A SMALLER KITCHEN MEANT KEEPING IT SIMPLE
Cooking in the tiny home was interesting. While it stated we had a full kitchen, it was full in a different sense. Everything is mini, except for the microwave. There was a mini fridge and a mini toaster oven to use. We made a pit stop at Target to get some necessities for dinner, breakfast, and lunch to-go the next day. My husband also went to a corner market and picked up some fresh items like fruit and veggies.
We kept the meals very simple. For dinner, we enjoyed baked macaroni with Hawaiian buns, peas, and blueberries. Breakfast and lunch the next day were even more simplistic. We had yogurt, bananas, blueberries to enjoy for breakfast. Lunch we got items we could take to-go since we were checking out and heading to the local zoo. Keeping the meals easy meant no stress in the kitchen. We knew what we had and we knew what we were able to make easily.
HOME AWAY FROM HOME
Our kids were kids and definitely had their whirlwind moment. It quickly became their home away from home. They turned the place upside down in the living room with the board games that were provided there as well as the one toy and couple stuffies we let them bring from home. When we feel like we’re constantly picking up at our own house, it was the same in the tiny home and especially when we were packing up to leave.
Thankfully, because it was small we were able to quickly find everything and get the home cleaned up and our bags packed. It also made a difference that this trip we had a more minimalist mindset when it came to our wardrobes, especially for the girls. But, more on that in another post soon.
While permanently living in a small space is not right for us, at least not during this season of our life, it is definitely something we would do again while on vacation. We enjoyed how it truly had the comforts of a home, where a hotel just feels so different. We loved staying in a tiny home, it was a fun way to change things up and experience something different.
HAVE YOU STAYED IN A TINY HOME?
What a fun idea! I’ve never stayed in a tiny house… but great way to cut costs staying in Seattle.