Minimize Sinks and Chairs

Why have so many sinks, when they serve the same purpose? Some people think it’s disgusting to brush your teeth in the kitchen sink, but we have to ask: Really? Is it better to buy another vanity and extra sinks to accommodate an on the go family, or modify your lifestyle so that only one person at time needs the sink?

Many of our ideas come from the RV lifestyle, where you often minimize the space with smaller appliances, or by having one space serve multiple purposes. For example, tables often collapse into beds. We found an interesting idea about re-purposing the space for a shower.

Consider that you only shower for a few minutes every day (or should!); then what does that shower floor space become for the other 23+ hours of the day? It seems terribly inefficient, especially in an RV or tiny home, to have dedicated shower space. In a 2500 square foot home, you have plenty of space for a dedicated shower, but not in a RV. One enterprising idea is to have a shower space with retractable curtain and retractable shower head.

But this post is about sinks and chairs. When we designed our tiny house, we chose to go with one sink only, in the kitchen. When you finish your business in the bathroom, simply walk the extra couple of feet to the kitchen to wash your hands. In this manner, we have one less sink, less water lines, and less things to maintain or repair.

As for chairs: how many do you really need? We have nice recliners in the living room and we each have a nice office chair. We have some folding chairs for outdoor use, and an interesting twist/collapse thing that shrinks to almost nothing. Even with minimizing we have two people and about dozen places to sit. Before minimizing? Well, let’s just say it was lopsided how many places two people could choose to sit.