From the archives: This story was last updated in April 2019.
The New Zealand dream (or the Kiwi dream) has always been about owning your own family house on a quarter-acre plot of land. However, more Kiwis are now opting for newer homes’ smaller sections, according to NewsHub.One such Kiwi is Brenda Kelly, from Auckland, who has always had a “passion for small spaces.” She dreamed of living in a tiny house ever since she was 13.
“I'd fallen in love with the space several years previously, but wasn’t ready to buy,” Kelly said. “But when I found a shipping container on the market for AU$3,000 (US$2,129) and bought the space, things came to life.”
The unique house, comprising just two container shells painted in a black steel paint, can sleep up to seven people, and it has everything you need inside.
“I'd always been into minimalist living, and so making my home inside a shipping container hugely appealed,” she said.
Inside Kelly’s cozy abode, there is one full kitchen, a sitting area, one bathroom, and one bedroom in one 40-foot container, while her office and a spare bedroom are located in the second 20-foot container.
“In my home, there is no cavity that’s not used,” Kelly said.
To fit everything into the small space, Kelly customized her home with adaptable furniture, including a corner sofa with a large storage compartment under the cushions that can also be transformed into a versatile double sofa bed, a lift-down bed on the wall, a bed that turns into a desk when folded, and a portable wardrobe that can serve as a room divider.
Her house with UPVC double-glazed windows is equipped with eco-features such as solar panels on the roof, as well as a rainwater-recycling setup and appliances.
The rainwater-harvesting features collect water runoff from the roof, which can be used for laundry and flushing the toilet, in turn, saving water costs up to 45 percent.
Kelly also implements a vermiculture waste system, in which a large green tank absorbs the building’s wastewater, whilst tiger worms inside the tank break it down.
Furthermore, there is a second large black water tank that treats waste from the dishwasher, because the salts used in cleaning are harmful to the worms.
“For me, this home has given me any number of benefits—it’s affordable (I think the sum total of my bills last month was AUD $2), I don’t fill it up with junk and it’s very low maintenance. I can sleep seven people too!” Kelly said.
- It pays to buy your furniture before you buy your house. You can make your home fit around it.
- Think outside of the square box of convention when it comes to design, and have an open mind.
- Get furniture that has more than one purpose and lose all of the junk from your life that you don’t need.
- It’s also important to know that while this will be affordable, making a shipping container home shouldn’t be seen as cheap—it took me a while to figure that one out.
Lastly, Kelly advised it’s wise to “adopt an ecological outlook” when designing the home.
Wow! Kelly’s shipping container tiny house sounds fascinating, doesn’t it? Do you fancy living in a shipping container too?
