Hey! Welcome to this tiny life.
A little patch of the internet dedicated to seasonal and simple living.
We’re Jack and Gabby, the two people behind it. Since 2019 we’ve lived tiny. Our current home is a 54ft narrowboat called Aritchoke, she’s fully solar powered and completely off-grid. It’s a lifestyle which, admittedly, we stumbled upon but not without a healthy dose of serendipity.
Both of us have always held a love of nature, good simple food and sustainability. I (Jack) was reared on diet of homegrown veggies whilst “River Cottage” was shown on the TV. My dream is to one day have a small holding with zero-waste, field to fork principles. Fortunately, I was lucky enough to meet Gabby who shared this passion of living small, in order to live big.
The main problem we faced – was how do we go about constructing a life where we could focus on what mattered to us the most. I was working in radio, Gabby in TV. Both freelance, unable to get a mortgage and time poor.
I then got made redundant.
Looking back now, that push was exactly what we needed to hit reset. We had to move out of our rented home and work out a plan. By chance we stumbled upon a boat for sale and instantly fell in love with the lifestyle. It was everything we wanted… A conscious way of life that was off-grid and also affordable. A way to realign our lives with the values most important to us. The only thing it lacked was the vegetable garden but, we do our best with some planters stored on our boat’s roof.
Truthfully, it’s hard to describe home much of an impact living this lifestyle has had. It forces you to slow down, to take notice of the seasons and environment around you. We were searching for a life that had consequences. Often in the modern world, you’re removed from the impact that we all have – what’s one bit of plastic when it’s in the recycling bin and collected from the doorstep? In boat life, that rubbish stays with you until you find the next refuse point. When you carry it with you, you quickly notice how much consumption leads to landfill.
this tiny life isn’t about getting preachy or us in anyway saying our life is better than yours. Simple living is not without its challenges – especially when I mention we have a composting loo which has to emptied weekly by yours truly.
Instead, this tiny life is a space for anyone who has thought about doing life a little differently and maybe feel slightly lost in the constantly quickening world around us. We value time. Time outside with a foraging trug. Time to pour love into a homecooked meal. Time to live a little more DIY. If this is you, then welcome aboard.
See you in the veg patch,
Jack + Gabby x