Alexis Monkhouse, a Black tiny house owner, is kid-free for the weekend and getting ready for an outdoor adventure with a friend to go camping.
“I’ve never done this before, so I’m going with someone who actually knows what they’re doing,” she told Travel Noire.
Camping is just one experience that owning a tiny house has made Alexis open up to. She purchased her 325-square-foot home in 2018 for $75,000.
“For me, it was all about financial freedom at the time, but now I realize it’s also about the time you get back because now, I don’t have to necessarily work a full-time job to pay for this place because it’s cheaper than a normal home. Now you have a home for your kids, and you don’t have to clean a 2,000 square-foot-house.”
With the time she’s saving, she’s able to spend more time with her daughter and embark on new experiences like camping. She’s also using some of her free time advocating for more people of color to join the tiny house community.
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“When I went tiny, there were Black people out there but I didn’t see them,” she added.
Alexis adds, however, that tiny house living has its challenges, especially when it comes to dating. She’s 5-foot- 2 and it’s easy to fit in her tiny home where the ceilings reach six-feet-5-inches but it’s hard to date someone taller than that without them being cramped inside. It’s also harder to host people comfortably in her home, which means a lot of time is either spent outdoors with her guests or traveling to them.
But despite these challenges, Alexis says she’s learned a lot about herself that living in a traditional home would not have provided.
“I do not have to live to society’s standards. It sounds like that’s a ‘duh’ moment, but you don’t realize how much you’re living by society’s standards until you’re living out of it,” she said. “It was after I got my tiny house when I discovered minimalism. Even with the outdoors things. My family will take their children to the park in the city, but they don’t get to go outside and play in the mud, go canoeing, or camping. It’s not something my family ever did, and I was not ever going to do any of this stuff, but then I went tiny. I realized I could make my own life and not work a 9-to-5 and I have more time with my daughter, Boss.”
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If you’re thinking about going “tiny,” Alexis said forget everything you see on social media and the network HGTV and really research the lifestyle as these outlets tend to make the experience a “fairytale lifestyle.”
“People don’t do their research, and then they go tiny, and hate it. They wonder, ‘am I doing something wrong?’ and the answer is no. You probably didn’t research as much as you should’ve. Sometimes you can achieve the feelings of being connected with your family or learning about yourself as I did by going smaller and not necessarily tiny.”
You can follow Alexis’ journey and reach out to her on Instagram.
