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Tiny house living has really taken off over the past few years. More and more people are downsizing to homes measuring 500 square feet or less (often closer to 200-300 square feet). While this choice is more common among singles and couples, sometimes people even move their children into tiny houses with them.

What is it like downsizing to a tiny house? Are tiny houses practical? Are they comfortable? Are they easy to clean, organize and maintain? To answer some of these questions and help you decide if the tiny life is for you, let’s go over some tiny house pros and cons. We’ll start with the negatives, and then move to the positives.

Cons of Living in a Tiny House

• Building a tiny house may be a challenge from a legal perspective. Check your local zoning laws carefully before you build or buy one. You may be surprised by how the house is classified—assuming there is any clarity at all.

• You may have a hard time finding a place to put the house. This goes back in part to zoning restrictions, but it encompasses other considerations as well.

• You obviously cannot have as much stuff. If you own a lot of items now or you want to accumulate a lot of possessions, a tiny house may not be the best option. If you own valuable furnishings (i.e. family heirlooms), most of them probably will not fit in the tiny house. Tiny house organizing can be quite a challenge (though it may be a fun one in many respects).

• You will have to clean more often. It is true that there is less to clean overall in a tiny house, but in a way, it is like your entire house is your mudroom. As such, you can expect to have to do some degree of cleaning on a daily basis.

• There can be some hassles involving the bathroom. In particular, mold can easily become a problem in a small space. Controlling humidity levels can be a challenge in general; whenever you run the shower, it gets that much worse. This leaves you with needing to find a way to keep mold at bay, or you will need to consider an alternative like an outdoor or public shower.

• Privacy will be a thing of the past. One of the worst drawbacks of living in a tiny house is that it becomes very difficult (sometimes impossible) for anyone in your household to get some alone time. If you park your tiny house in an RV park or similar community, you have the additional annoyance of your neighbors constantly trying to get into your business.

While all of these tiny house drawbacks need to be considered carefully before you commit to downsizing, you will discover that there are quite a few pros which make up for these cons. Read on to Part 2 to find out what some of them are.