Showering - Tiny House Style

Not too long ago I was having dinner with a friend when he offhandedly asked me if I showered at my landlady's house.  It struck me odd that he would even think I would, let alone that I might need to.  The guy had spent the whole day umpiring little league and obviously he must have spent too much time in the sun so I didn’t give him too much of a hard time.

I could have told him that I stand outside and use a garden hose, but instead I just laughed at him and said "No, I use my own shower."

Then it occurred to me that a lot of people might wonder how on earth someone can shower with only six gallons of hot water available at a time so I figured I'd tell you how we do it.  You see three of us need to shower or bathe and it does take a little bit of coordinating to get it all done sometimes.

One thing that is nice is that a six gallon hot water tank recovers pretty fast.  And our shower head is designed to restrict the water flow enough to conserve water but still shoot it out so you feel like you are in a regular shower.  It's pretty nice.

Depending on what is going on we typically rotate between night time and morning showers.  So all three of us needing to shower at the same time rarely happens.  I have it pretty much down to a science and can get shampooed, soaped, shaved and rinsed in less than ten minutes with hot water to spare.  Using a combination shampoo with conditioner in it saves time as well as having everything I need ready to use in the shower caddy.  My youngest isn't as organized and finds that rinsing off, then turning off the water while shampooing and soaping, then turning the water back on to rinse works best.  Most people I know with RVs tend to do it that way.

For baths it is much easier.  I fill the tub and boil a kettle full of water to add to my bath water.  Once the hot water runs out of the tank I can add the kettle to the tub with more cold water to get the level up to where I like it.  Sometimes a girl just needs a good soak in the tub. 

Definitely personal hygiene has not been an obstacle at all for us in the tiny house.  All three of us trying to walk through the RV at the same time however, is a whole different issue.  We still try do see if we can do it too.  Some people just never learn.