Off-grid Tiny House with a Throne Composting Toilet

For Lucas and his partner, Natalie, home is wherever their 24-foot tiny house on wheels (THOW) takes them. Their off-grid Tiny House with a Throne composting toilet has been their home for eight years.

They’ve lived a minimalist, mobile lifestyle, traveling between northern Wisconsin, southern Oregon, and now settling on a couple of wooded acres in northern Minnesota. Their journey is all about self-reliance, resourcefulness, and the freedom that comes with living tiny.

What did life look like before you moved into your off-grid tiny house? 

We lived in small spaces prior to and while building our tiny house, including a 29′ sailboat and a small cabin. We also consider our time on extended backcountry expeditions as time living “tiny.” We decided to go tiny as a way of investing in ourselves – we wanted to stop paying rent to someone else, sought to get out of debt, and wanted our own space (we just didn’t know where we wanted to live, yet!). Additionally, we value simple, efficient living and being able to focus on and spend more time playing rather than upkeep of a space/things that didn’t support that lifestyle. We do envision continuing in our THOW for the foreseeable future and eventually building a small cabin/house – but still tiny in scale to most residential homes.

Tell us more about your off-grid tiny house!

We designed and built ourselves. It’s on a triple-axle flatbed trailer and have moved it halfway across the country twice (plus locally half a dozen times), and while it can be moved, we didn’t intend to travel frequently with it. For big moves, we’ve used “uShip” to bid out a hauler to tow it for us, for shorter moves we’ve rented a truck ourselves. Up until purchasing our own land, we would stay on friends’ land. We rely on solar and battery storage for our energy needs but also use a generator for backup during extended periods of grey weather. We have a mid-sized refrigerator, all of our lighting, and a vent fan that runs on 12v. Our ceiling fan and a variety of smaller items (vacuum, bathroom vent, internet) use AC through our inverter. Our home is dry (we rely on refilling water containers) and we routinely shut it down (quite easily) during periods throughout the year regardless if it’s -30deg F or 95deg F. Our only heat sources is a wood stove.

Tell us about something you love about your space! 

The building materials that were repurposed and are part of “our story.” They came from various aspects of our life together. We also love our “great room” which has a lofted ceiling (the half that isn’t our sleeping loft) and french doors for maximum natural light.

What’s something you’d want to change about your space?

I would love to have proper roof eaves for siding/window protection.

What are the biggest challenges with this type of lifestyle? What are the biggest benefits? 

Navigating proper ordinances for parking and living. Also, not having a well/water source on site.
The benefits are countless. It was affordable to build, suits our lifestyle and needs, is easy/quick to maintain and clean, is comfortable and cozy just the way we like, so easy to come/go without a long transition, no monthly utility bills, heats up efficiently, and there isn’t enough space to fill with crap.

I think that a fun side-benefit of this lifestyle is that we’re really easy-going when we visit/stay other places and the accommodations that come with it.

What does a typical day look like?

Routine depends on the season (winter time = starting a fire in the morning/evening). We eat mostly at home so well-cooked/prepared meals are a priority as is movement so we’ve factored in how to stretch/workout both inside and outside. Also, we tend to daily monitor our house utilities more: our battery balance, whether the panels are cleared off for optimal charging, and what our grey water, freshwater, and toilet levels are. This has also given us great awareness of our consumption that we never really experienced living in an on-grid, larger home earlier in life.

Tell us about your toilet solution! 

We’ve used a Nature’s Head from the beginning but didn’t like the hard-to-clean aspect of the solid’s space and agitator handle (a real pain in the cold winters). In keeping with our house’s theme, we wanted a really simple system to both use and empty/clean.
We now have a humanure bin built from wood/chicken wire to mix the solids with straw/hay. We broadcast the liquids jug.

Has your Throne solved the problems you were trying to address? 

Absolutely. The Throne fit into our existing toilet space almost seem-lessly. I was able to direct connect the 12v vent fan cable to our existing 12v outlet, the only modification was to reduce the fan vent to our smaller exiting PVC fitting through the exterior wall.

Finances can be a major crux for getting into this lifestyle. Do you have any advice?

Identify your order of operations and prioritize what is most important or has to come first. We did this and established a budget (anticipated cost for everything) and then worked through purchasing paycheck to paycheck. It was also helpful so we could look at what project items we wanted and could plan to take advantage of seasonal/yearly sales for a discount on new items. Also, what can be reclaimed or repurposed?

What is one question you frequently get asked about your lifestyle, and what’s your answer?

Where do you get water? We have access to an artesian well for refilling multiple containers but we’re also opportunistic and will bring a 5-gallon jug with us to friends’ homes and refill (with permission) there in between.