Home > Blog > House Sitting in a Tiny Home
Quick Facts
| Our baseline | We live in a campervan of about six square metres |
| The four things that matter | A bed, a kitchen, a toilet, and a bathroom |
| The only real difference | Cleaning. A tiny home takes minutes, a big one takes longer |
| The unexpected advantage | You cannot clutter a small space, because then it stops working |
| What breaks | Nothing unusual. Same systems, just smaller. Off-grid homes are the exception |
| Our advice | Start with two weeks, not two months |
A tiny home is easier than most sitters expect. You need a bed, a kitchen, a toilet and a bathroom, and after that it is comfortable. Cleaning is the only meaningful difference, and the clutter problem solves itself because a small space will not tolerate it.
The whole process, from the first application to the handover, is in our book Travel More for Less. This page is about one specific kind of home, and we are unusually well placed to write it, because we live in one.
Our campervan is a 1998 VW T4 with about six square metres of living space. No running water, twenty litres in containers, a power station we keep topped up, and no toilet at all, which means we spend a lot of our lives finding one. When we move into even a small house, it feels generous.
For most of Europe we point sitters at TrustedHouseSitters first, since it has the widest spread of sits. None of what follows depends on which platform you use.
If you are weighing up a small sit against a large one, campervan versus house sitting covers the trade-offs we have actually lived with.
What Transfers From Van Life, and What Does Not
Honestly, not as much as you would think. Living in a van teaches you to be comfortable in a small space, and that is most of it. The rest is specific to being off-grid in a vehicle rather than living in a small building.
The van has no running water, so we carry twenty litres and are always aware of it. It has no toilet, so we plan around finding one. The power station needs topping up or we run out. Storage is minimal, and our entire sitting area is about two square metres.
A tiny home has none of those problems. Which is why moving from the van into even a modest house feels like an upgrade, and why our answer to "is a tiny home difficult" is a fairly confident no.
The Four Things You Actually Need
This is the whole test, and it comes from someone who has lived in under 38 square metres and found it genuinely comfortable: as long as you have a bed, a kitchen, a toilet and a bathroom, it is comfortable no matter what. The smallest place I have stayed in regularly was a cabin by a lake in Iceland, under 20 square metres, with two bunk beds, a toilet and a kitchen. I went back to it several times. Give me a flat surface for a laptop and a decent internet connection and I am genuinely content.
You do not need space for its own sake. You need somewhere to sleep, somewhere to cook, and a working bathroom. Beyond that, a small home holds more than people expect. You can fit a lot into 30 square metres when the layout is sensible.
The counterpoint is worth stating, because we have had both. There is something genuinely lovely about a large home, and it is not vanity. It is the freedom to walk around, and not being in each other's space constantly. If you are sitting as a pair, solo versus couple sitting is worth reading before you decide which you prefer. We have noticed it on big sits and appreciated it every time.
The Unexpected Advantage of a Small Space
This is the part we did not expect and now think about a lot.
You cannot clutter a tiny home, because a tiny home stops working the moment you do. In a large house there is always room to add one more thing, and then another, and gradually it feels heavier than it needs to. A small space physically refuses that. So you end up with less, and you do not feel closed in, which sounds like a contradiction until you have lived it.
We have written separately about character versus clutter in someone else's home, which is a different problem. But if you are worried that a small sit will feel cramped, the opposite is usually true.
What Actually Changes: Cleaning, and Almost Nothing Else
If we had to name the single real difference between sitting a tiny home and sitting a large one, it is how long the cleaning takes.
A tiny home is a few minutes of work. Vacuum, mop the floors, clean the bathroom, and you are done. A large house is more of everything, and the cleaning standard is the same in both.
The thing it does not change is how clean the place is when you arrive. That depends entirely on the owners, not the square footage. We have walked into messy small homes and spotless enormous ones.
Which is why the photographs matter so much before you accept. A home is as clean as its owners, and you can see that in the pictures, no matter what size the house is. If the photos look untidy, that is what you will arrive to.
What Breaks in a Tiny Home
Almost nothing, and this surprised us too. A tiny home is usually well insulated with good windows, and everything inside it is a normal appliance at a smaller scale. Same toilets, same wiring, same boiler.
The exception is an off-grid tiny home, which comes with a 12 volt system, solar panels and possibly a composting toilet. If that sounds like more to go wrong, it mostly is not. There are very few moving parts in a composting toilet, and very few in a solar setup. In our experience those things fail far less often than a boiler.
If you are sitting somewhere with panels, a battery bank or a composting toilet, our sustainable house sitting guide covers the day-to-day of living with those systems. For the vehicle version, setting up a campervan is the equivalent page.
Where Your Stuff Goes
We travel with very little, so this has never been a problem for us. We need a corner to set down two boxes and we are finished. We genuinely do not need cupboard space, because everything is already tidy in the box, nothing needs unpacking, and moving on means carrying the boxes back to the van.
If you travel with more, our packing guide covers how little you actually need. The honest answer is that a good host has already thought about it. They will clear a cupboard and a drawer and tell you where to put things. If a listing is a tiny home and there is no mention of storage, that is a fair thing to ask on the video call rather than discover on arrival with a full suitcase.
Before You Accept, Ask These Five Things
| Ask | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Is there internet, and how fast? | This is the one that is genuinely non-negotiable for us. Everything else we can work around. Test it before you accept. |
| Is there a working shower? | It sounds basic, and in a tiny home it is worth confirming rather than assuming. |
| Is it on mains power? | An off-grid setup is fine. Knowing in advance is what makes it fine. |
| Is the toilet a composting one? | No problem at all, and worth knowing so you are not surprised on the first morning. |
| Where do I put my things? | The practical question every sitter with a suitcase should ask. |
You can add the usual questions about the pet to that. If it is a large dog in a small home, expect more time outside and, usually, a garden for exactly that reason. Beyond the animal, the two homes are much the same.
Start Shorter Than You Think
This is the advice we would give anyone trying a small space for the first time, and it applies to house sitting generally.
Start with a short sit, two weeks at most, and find out how it actually feels. If you like it, take longer ones. If you do not, you have lost a fortnight rather than three months.
Two things make this more important in a tiny home. First, you cannot fully predict how you will respond to a small space until you are in one. If you end up extending, long term house sitting covers how those longer arrangements work. Second, **if you are sitting solo, a tiny home is genuinely cosy. If you are there as a couple, you will be in each other's space a lot.** That is not a problem, but it is a real consideration that a big house does not raise.
Our own evidence cuts both ways. A month in a large home in France felt slightly too long for us. The six-month sit we are on now, in Portugal, is completely comfortable. What suits you is not about size, and you only find out by starting small and building up.
Would We Take One
Yes. If it is on our route, in a place we want to be, or has an animal we would love to look after, we would take it without hesitating. Size is genuinely not part of our decision. It is about the experience we will get out of it.
The one thing we would keep is internet. With a connection we can work, and the power station keeps the laptops charged either way. Give us that, and a shower, and we are comfortable in almost anything.
Conclusion
A tiny home is easier than it looks. You need four things and the space provides them. Cleaning is faster rather than harder. The clutter problem solves itself. And the thing most people worry about, feeling closed in, tends to go the other way once you live it.
What we would say is this. Try it short first. Keep it to two weeks while you work out whether small suits you, the way we tested a month in France and learned something from it. Small spaces are not a compromise. They are just a different shape, and most people are far more comfortable in them than they expect.
Caro and I have completed 20 house sits across 12 countries, driven 19,000km across Europe in our 1998 VW T4, and saved over $26,500 in accommodation costs over three years of house sitting.
DM us @housesittersguide, we answer everyone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a tiny home harder to house sit than a normal house?
No, and cleaning is the only real difference. A tiny home is usually quicker to clean than a large one. Everything else, the appliances, the boiler, the bathroom, works exactly as it does in a bigger house.
What do you actually need in a tiny home to be comfortable?
A bed, a kitchen, a toilet and a bathroom. I have lived in under 34 square metres and found it genuinely comfortable. Beyond those four things, extra space is a preference rather than a need.
Where do I put my belongings in a tiny home?
A good host will have cleared a cupboard and a drawer for you. We travel with two boxes and do not need cupboard space at all, but if you travel heavier, ask on the video call rather than arriving with a full suitcase.
Do tiny homes have more problems with appliances and systems?
Not usually, and off-grid homes are better than people think. A composting toilet and a solar setup have very few moving parts. In our experience they fail less often than a conventional boiler.
How long should my first tiny home sit be?
Two weeks at most, then build up. You cannot predict how you will respond to a small space until you are in one. A fortnight tells you what you need to know without committing you to a season.
What should I ask before accepting a tiny home sit?
Internet, a shower, whether it is on mains power, what kind of toilet, and where your things go. Internet is the only one we would call non-negotiable. The rest are about being informed rather than being put off.
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