One of the most challenging parts of forming emergency plans is finding a good place to bug out. After you’ve stockpiled basic supplies, put together a bug-out bag, and started to learn survival skills, finding a safe location where you could take shelter during a large-scale disaster is the next logical step.
Some preppers have solved this problem by building underground bunkers. Others are planning to live in yurts or tents indefinitely. However, it’s challenging to find a shelter that’s both substantial and inexpensive.
Tiny homes offer a unique solution to this problem. Here’s how these homes can form an integral part of your bug-out plan.
Tiny Homes Are Cost-Effective
Keeping up a modern residence can be very expensive, and many people carry debt for a long time to make it work. Although the cost of a tiny home varies depending on how it’s built and what it includes, it’s always cheaper than a full-sized house.
For example, prefabricated houses and those made by contractors tend to cost in the $30,000 to $60,000 range. However, you can create your own tiny home for as little as $400 if you’re willing to build small and use recycled materials.
Spending less on shelter means you may be able to afford land to put your house on. Because tiny homes take up very little space, even half an acre could be enough for your home and a garden. It would be easy to build a tiny home in a wooded area if you want more privacy for security reasons.
In addition, mobile tiny homes usually aren’t subject to the same kind of taxes homeowners pay. Choosing to build a mobile home could help you save even more over the long term. However, if you put your home on a foundation for increased stability, it will be legally treated as a house.
Prepping can be expensive, and saving on your home would mean you could invest in more expensive items. These items could include equipment like solar panels and water heaters and additional security spaces like an attached underground bunker. Stockpiling food and survival supplies can also be expensive.
The total cost of your tiny home will depend on what you intend to use it for. If you want to create a sustainable campground that you can flee to in emergencies, the cost will probably be low. However, outfitting a place to live full time will probably cost more, especially if you purchase specialized equipment like solar panels and backup generators.
Tiny Homes Are Secure
Safety is essential for a solid bug-out location. It’s unlikely that you’ll need to flee to this location unless something serious has happened, but once there, you’ll need confidence that you are protected and that it’s safe to stay.
Because they’re so small, tiny homes can easily be made secure. Depending on the materials you use to build, your home could be bulletproof, have small windows, and an internal air filter to protect against airborne pathogens. It’s also important to protect your tiny home from being stolen as a unit.
Choosing neutral paint colors and an out-of-the-way location will help your home blend into the surrounding scenery. If you want to build an underground bunker in case of serious emergencies, you could use your tiny home as the entrance and plan to retreat underground only if necessary.
Another advantage of tiny homes is that they’re too small to hide an intruder. Most tiny houses are built with an open floor plan, so you can see every space at once. Even with room dividers, you’ll be aware of everyone in the home at all times.
Because there’s limited space inside a tiny home, you’ll also be very organized and prepared to fend off invaders. The space limitations mean you’ll only have the belongings you really need, and you’ll know exactly where they are at any given time.
The situation of your home on the land will also be essential for creating a secure bug-out location. If you intend to build in a wooded area, you should build mostly on-site. However, if you’re alright with a more accessible location, you can easily move your tiny house to its site after it’s completed and then move again later if necessary.
While preppers are commonly believed to be loners, people are stronger when they’re in a community. Connecting with like-minded individuals in your area will ensure you have a support system and access to many different skills when disaster strikes.
While you should be careful about revealing the location of your supplies, it’s imperative to have strong community ties. Don’t make the mistake of building deep in the woods, far away from other people – if disaster does strike, you’ll want a trustworthy community of like-minded individuals around you.
Tiny Homes Are Sustainable
There’s a difference between preppers who stockpile items and preppers who plan to sustain themselves through skills and off-grid systems. Although both kinds of preppers are prepared for the future, the second kind is better equipped for long-term survival in a disaster situation.
After a severe disaster event, supplies will eventually run out. At that point, knowing how to grow food and find clean drinking water will go from a hobby to an essential life skill. Preppers who want to live off-grid and create their own electricity, clean water, and sewage systems can particularly benefit from making tiny homes their bug-out locations.
Tiny homes easily lend themselves to off-grid homesteads, partly because they require so little electricity to keep everything running. Solar panels and wind turbines can easily power these homes, especially if you invest in a battery storage system to carry you through cloudy weather.
Off-grid preppers are constantly digging deeper to ask where their resources come from and whether they can replace those resources with a sustainable source that won’t run out. For instance, most homeowners get clean water from the tap. If their tap water is contaminated, they get filtered water from the store.
However, what happens when the stores are out of water too? What if it doesn’t rain for a long time, and the city water is contaminated and unsafe to drink? Off-grid preppers choose to take complete responsibility for their care by ensuring they can meet their own needs without any outside help.
One of the main ways they do this is by buying land, where they can grow food, hunt, and create their own water filtration, electric, and sewage systems. Being off-grid doesn’t mean being without electricity – it just means you can generate your own indefinitely.
Because tiny homes are so small, preppers can create essential systems that will work for a long time at a relatively low cost. Although homesteading takes more work than living in a modern home, it gives many preppers peace of mind since they know their home setup is capable of caring for all their needs.
Tiny Homes Are Flexible
Although some preppers may build a tiny home as part of a homestead, using one for a getaway location is just as valid a way to prepare. One of the best things about a tiny home is how customizable it is for meeting your preparedness goals.
Many tiny homes are mobile, both for legal and financial reasons. Tiny homes built on a foundation are more stable during strong winds and other kinds of bad weather. However, once on a foundation, you won’t be able to take your tiny home with you if you need to escape a certain area. Depending on your access to a gas supply, that might not be an option anyway – remember, your choices for a tiny home all depend on what you’re preparing for.
If you’re torn between building on a foundation or staying mobile, know that there are significant benefits to each choice and adjustments you can make if you realize too late that you’ve made the wrong decision for your area. For instance, tiny homes without foundations can be tied down to nearby anchor points to keep them steady during bad weather.
If your area frequently experiences natural disasters like hurricanes, floods, or tornadoes, you’ll probably need to leave your home whether or not it’s on a foundation. Sometimes, the only option is to move out of harm’s way, and that could mean leaving your bug-out location behind.
Whether or not your tiny home is your permanent location is also up to you. Some preppers build tiny homes as a last-minute escape location, while others move into their homes and start developing homesteads. Again, these bug-out locations can be adapted to your personal and financial needs.
Because these homes are so small, they could also be constructed as part of a community on a relatively small piece of land. Tiny homes are a great solution for groups of preppers looking to construct a long-term community or a family that wants to provide separate spaces for adult children and their extended families on one piece of property.
Some preppers may even choose to rent their tiny homes as a temporary camping location until they’re needed. That way, your bug-out location can actually bring in money and equip you to continue prepping until an emergency event requires evacuation.
Regardless of your bug-out goals, a tiny home can meet your needs with minimal expense and an endless amount of design possibilities. Start by considering your bug-out goals, and then ask yourself how a tiny home could best meet those needs. You may be surprised at what a good fit these homes prove to be!
Tiny Homes Spark Ingenuity
Internal preparation and thinking outside the box is the most important part of prepping. Without careful planning and good questions, any prep you do could be wide of the mark and essentially useless in the face of disaster.
Tiny homes pose several challenges that push preppers to think outside the box and find innovative solutions for creating the ultimate bug-out location. One of the most obvious shortcomings of a tiny home is a lack of space.
Even in a very cleverly designed tiny home, storage space is very limited. Although minimalism and simplicity is part of the charm of a tiny home, it doesn’t mesh well with stockpiling supplies to sustain you during a long-term disaster event. However, like every limitation, this lack of space is also an opportunity for ingenuity.
Some preppers get around this limitation by building a storage shed or underground facility for extra items. Digging a cellar is a good choice for off-grid preppers, who need a place to store and preserve food over the winter anyway. Others stockpile goods in creative locations like under the bed, beneath the floorboards, and in clever rotating storage systems.
For preppers who plan to live off-grid, investing in long-term solutions like farming and community ties may be more beneficial than stockpiling anyway. While the lack of space in a tiny home might feel like a limitation, it’s actually an invitation to reconsider where you’re investing your time and resources.
Developing skills like hunting, gardening, and foraging could benefit you for much longer than hoarding a stockpile of beans and rice. Ultimately, the way you solve the storage issue depends on your particular goals as a prepper and what kind of situation you’re preparing for.
Tiny homes can also be difficult to understand legally since they fit in between the categories of mobile homes and regular homes. Depending on which state you live in, it can be challenging to find a location where it’s legal to build a tiny home.
Parking can also be an issue. Many RV parks have regulations about how long vehicles can occupy spaces, so tiny homes won’t be able to stay there permanently. A parked mobile home takes up a lot of space, and you have to have a heavy-duty car to pull it. This can add significantly to the expense of living in a mobile home.
Although tiny homes can be a perfect fit for preppers, it’s important to consider legal and practical issues before you build one. Building on land or owning land to park a mobile tiny home on are generally the best solutions, although laws vary by state and size of the house.
Building a Secure Bug-Out Location
If you’ve reached some of your smaller preparedness goals, it may be time to consider prepping on a larger scale. Building a tiny home may be the perfect solution for creating a secure, cost-effective bug-out location for you and your family.
While a tiny home can give you refuge during a cross-country escape, it’s also the perfect solution for creating a sustainable homestead. You can personally design your house to meet your needs and source your own electricity and water so that you’re already off-grid before a major disaster.
More seasoned preppers may find moving off-grid to a tiny home is an excellent way to invest in the future and security of your family. Living this way is hard work, but this lifestyle can also bring you back to what really matters – personal responsibility, connection with nature and community.
[Note: This was a guest post.]
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