Why did we start "Think Big Live Tiny"?
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"All our lives, we’re programmed that to be successful, we should go to college, get a high paying job, and buy a big house. By the time I reached high school, I knew my family couldn’t afford to put me through college, so it made me think carefully about what I truly wanted to do with my life. My parents had achieved the typical “American Dream” and to others appeared wildly successful. But from inside the situation, things looked a little bit different. It didn’t seem to matter how much money we made, because we were constantly behind and in debt. I saw the financial struggle of keeping our enormous house afloat, and the looming fear that we couldn’t keep this up forever, - at any moment we could run out of options and the life my parents worked so hard to build would fall apart. I knew there had to be another way. We were inspired by the tiny house movement and eventually found an opportunity to downsize and simplify our lives. It was an extremely stressful process, but our lives are so much fuller than we could have imagined. The tiny house movement has left such an impact on me that I wouldn’t even dream of living in a huge house again. As a young adult starting my life, I want to challenge the status quo and ask myself, “What makes sense for me?” I hope that I can use Think Big Live Tiny to help redefine success, and to inspire the next generation of homeowners to experience the freedom and happiness that comes with living small and smart."
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- Courtney, 19 years old
Founders Courtney & Mark
"After a lifetime of working towards, and finally achieving the typical "American Dream" - secure job, big house, planned retirement, etc - we experienced the crash in 2008. Like many others, our home, retirement, savings, and investments were devastated overnight. Starting over with almost nothing, life became about survival. At that point, we really had to decide what was most important for our family. I stumbled across tiny homes accidentally and was instantly fascinated. For some reason, I felt drawn to them, but I wasn't sure that going tiny was even possible for my family. After a few years of research, I decided it was time to change something; I was so tired of working just to hand over every penny I had for the house and its expenses. Pretty soon, an opportunity opened up for us to let go of our old way of living and really start over. We downsized drastically, and although the process wasn't easy, it was well worth it! We are finally able to experience financial stability and debt-free living. Best of all, going small has reminded us of where we started; we had so much fun in our first little house, before we decided it was too small. Now we are able to recreate that same closeness and happiness that we had long forgotten in our pursuit of "success". My hope is to help make it possible for others to experience the amazing gifts we have by going tiny."
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- Mark, 43 years old