20 photos that show the ingenious ways tiny house owners store their belongings

Frank OlitoJul 6, 2020, 20:06 IST

Tiny house owners have to get creative when it comes to storage.Frank Olito/ Insider

Most tiny houses are less than 400 square feet, so owners have to get creative about storage space.
Amanda Burger uses the staircase in her home to store her clothes and food items, while DJ Gilley uses a loft space.
Misty Gilley and Elizabeth Silva both expertly use containers to house most of their property.

Going from a 2,355-square-foot home to a 300-square-foot tiny house can seem like a daunting task, but most tiny house owners have turned downsizing into an art.

Insider spoke with seven tiny house owners to find out the creative ways they fit their entire lives into their small homes.

From outdoor closets to hanging Murphy beds, these are all the ways tiny homeowners have gotten creative with their storage.

Christian Parsons and Alexis Stephens live in a 130-square-foot tiny house and have a pantry in their kitchen to store some of their food ...

Parsons and Stephen's pantry. Courtesy of Tiny House Expedition

... but Stephens does admit that they store a lot of their food and other belongings in the shower they rarely use.

Parson and Stephens' bathroom. Courtesy of Tiny House Expedition

Lindsay and Eric Wood were able to build a walk-in closet in their tiny house — well, sort of.

The closet space. Frank Olito/ Insider

Amanda Burger utilizes every inch of her tiny home, especially her staircase, which houses a huge clothing drawer.

Drawers in the staircase. Frank Olito/ Insider

Burger also uses a cabinet in her stairs as a pantry.

Pantry cabinet under the stairs. Frank Olito/ Insider

Right next to her pantry is a cabinet filled with hanging shirts.

Shirts in a cabinet under the stairs. Frank Olito/ Insider

Burger even found an ingenious way to store her kitchen table — hidden behind a painting.

A functional painting. Frank Olito/ Insider

When the painting is pulled down from the wall, it becomes Burger's kitchen table.

The painting is turned into a table. Frank Olito/ Insider

Her children's bedrooms are organized with storage containers, and the beds can be turned into chairs.

Burger's children's room. Frank Olito/ Insider

Unlike Burger, DJ Gilley doesn't have a staircase for storage, so she created a built-in wardrobe.

Gilley's kitchen and storage space. Frank Olito/ Insider

Above her bathroom is a loft, which Gilley uses for storage.

Gilley's loft. Frank Olito/ Insider

Shelving is also important in tiny homes so Gilley designed this cutting board-shaped shelf for her kitchen.

Gilley's kitchen shelving. Frank Olito/ Insider

Gilley's daughter, Misty, also lives in a tiny house, and she takes advantage of the height of her tiny home by storing her belongings all the way up to the ceiling.

Gilley's storage shelves. Frank Olito/ Insider

Even in her bathroom, Misty created a shelf of containers that are high up.

Storage containers in the bathroom. Frank Olito/ Insider

Meanwhile, Mickie Boehm uses cabinetry for most of her storage.

Boehm's bedroom. Frank Olito/ Insider

Her kitchen cabinets even double as a Murphy bed.

Boehm's kitchen has a hanging bed. Frank Olito/ Insider

Since no space is wasted, drawers were placed under the living room's couch for extra storage.

Storage space under the couch. Frank Olito/ Insider

The step into her house doubles as a place to store her dog's food and water bowls.

Dog dishes were built into the step. Frank Olito/ Insider

Like Gilley, Elizabeth Silva stores most of her belongings in containers too.

Containers sit atop Silva's Murphy bed. Frank Olito/ Insider

Her home also has an outdoor storage closet, which she uses to house most of her cleaning products.

Silva's outdoor closet. Frank Olito/ Insider

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