Life
Single mom has to move out of house, so she builds tiny home from shipping container
Turning trash into treasure, and a shipping container into a home!
Haley Bean
11.09.20

Tiny homes. Van life. Minimalist living. These are all trends that are happening that involve people downsizing to live a fuller life. Whether it’s to travel or just enjoy the simple life, people all over the world have hopped on this trend. There are even whole tv shows dedicated to finding the perfect tiny home for families.

What if life got in the way though, and forced you to downsize, not because it was cool, but because it was what you needed to do to survive? That’s exactly what happened to this single mother, Lulu, looking to make ends meet while raising her daughter.

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“I had to move out of the house I was living in, and it was a friend who just said ‘why don’t you build something?’ and I thought that sounded like a great idea.” Believe it or not, she got the shipping container for free, so with her newly acquired container and around $4,000 she got started on her new home.

The build

She started with two by fours and insulation in the whole place so that the small space would retain heat. Next, she moved on to the cutouts, like windows and doors. Her only experience in construction was remodeling a boat, so this project was all new territory. Now, the space has a play area, a living room, and a kitchen complete with light plumbing and a camp stove- all of which Lulu put in herself.

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The whole container was 160 square feet. Eight by twelve feet, a tight space for two people (even if one of them is a child). It started out a bed, a living room and a kitchen, and that was all they needed at the time.

A lot of the materials they got for their home were recycled.

“When you don’t have money, you just get creative. I had to go to the junkyard and be like ‘ok, what am I gonna do? Ok, I’ll take that. How can I convert that into a closet?”

Lulu was used to modest living growing up in Argentina, so this lifestyle came natural to her. “Its incredible what you can find in the dump here.”

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Adding on

Originally Lulu’s plan was to build up and make rooms on top of the container for her and her daughter, but instead, she decided to build a shed on a flatbed trailer. ‘Shed’ is the best word for what it looks like, but it’s so much more than that.

Starting with the flatbed, they bolted the frame to the trailer and the building began to take shape from there. There is Lulu’s bed on the main floor, and a ladder leads to her daughter’s lofted bed. The shed is mostly windows so there is a ton of beautiful natural light and a great place to stargaze at night. “At nighttime when I lay in bed, I can see the moon rise and the moon set, and I did it on purpose,” Lulu said of her amazing view.

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The experience

One of her favorite things about living in the shipping container is being able to spend so much time outside and be so close to nature, something she never got in previous houses. She also knows that instead of obsessing over money and paying rent, she’s been able to spend more time with her daughter.

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She has big ideas for her small place, and with materials she’s been collecting she plans on building a greenhouse to connect her container to their shed. One day the two of them will even have their own rooms! Check out the video below for Lulu’s full story.

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