36 years old for years Anders Boisen He lived in flats all over the city of Aarhus, Denmark’s second largest city.

Despite having a comfortable living situation—a two-bedroom apartment he shared with a girlfriend at the time—and a job working in urban development for a local municipality, Boisen told CNBC Make It that he felt constrained by his lifestyle and social pressure. life should look like at his age.

“I had a claustrophobic feeling about living in an apartment, not so much because of the size of the apartment but because of the lifestyle that seemed predefined,” he says.

During this time, Boisen came across a YouTube Channel featuring people living in tiny houses completely off the grid.

“I thought it was very inspiring and opened my eyes to a new possibility where I could live more economically freely and also live relatively sustainably,” he says. “If I could build a house that was unconventional and in harmony with nature, then perhaps I could learn how to give life a better meaning on a philosophical level.”

He left his Boisen home and moved into a house with a garden, where he came up with the idea of ​​building a small house of his own. Boisen started producing a mobile device in 2018, but it was stolen a few months later.

“It was all over the news in Denmark, but we couldn’t find it,” says Boisen.

But Boisen did not give up and began building another one the following year. Boisen completed the tiny house in the spring of 2020 after working on it on and off for eight months.

He did most of the building himself and estimates he spent between 80,000 and 90,000 Danish kroner, or $11,366 to $12,787.

The tiny house is six and a half feet tall and eight feet wide, making it 21.3 feet tall and 6.6 feet wide.

At the time, Boisen was living on land he had been renting for over a year.

To finish building the tiny house, Boisen quit his job and focused on the project full-time. He also started a Facebook group to share his journey, and some of the people he met there helped with the construction process along the way.

“I realized how personal this house already was because I had built most of it by myself, so it was full of my own memories and personal decisions,” he says. “But there were also memories of all the people who came and helped. Having a contractor build a house for you was qualitatively very different from what I had imagined.”

Since leaving his job, Boisen has furthered his career by producing content for YouTube and speaking across the country about tiny living and off-grid living.

While Boisen has fond memories of building his tiny house, he admits he encountered many technical problems along the way, such as moving the house and creating a hole in the roof.

“At the time, I didn’t reinforce the frame enough so it wasn’t stable. When I moved the house, it leaned to one side, which was difficult to fix later,” says Boisen.

“There was a mishap and I got a little depressed. In my dreams, I dreamed that I burned the house down because then I would get rid of the problem. But of course I didn’t do that, but it was very stressful,” he adds with a laugh.

Despite these challenges, Boisen says there is no greater feeling than seeing the tiny house he built finished.

“There were bad things, but it was a good feeling knowing that I had created something that would become my home. You get this giddy feeling because you’re so excited about the things you’re doing. It was like realizing a dream.” Boisen says. “I wasn’t just building a roof over my head; I was actually building a dream. It was like stepping into a new chapter in my life and everything I hoped would follow in this life.”

According to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It, Boisen purchased approximately 17,800 square meters of land outside Aarhus in September 2021 for 160,000 Danish kroner, or $22,791.

“It’s at the end of a dirt road and has no immediate neighbors. It also has a meadow and a big forest next to it, so it looks a lot bigger than it actually is,” Boisen says.

A month later, Boisen moved his tiny house from the property he was renting to the land he now owns.

Living off the grid in a forest

Boisen made sure his tiny house was equipped for off-grid living, which he describes as “self-sufficient in terms of water, electricity and heat.”

The house has a rainwater filtration system, solar panels and batteries for energy storage.

Boisen has lived in the tiny house for more than four years and says his electricity has been out several times and his water has been out only once.

He now keeps a close eye on his water tank, takes short baths if his tank starts to run low, and aims to save water in other ways.

“I think I need power, but then I think to myself if it’s a lack of power or how much power I’m actually using, and that’s part of my journey,” he says.

In the winter, Boisen uses less power and lives a more sustainable life by storing some products, such as milk and condiments, outside in the cold instead of using electricity for the refrigerator.

“The purpose of this house is to teach me how to consume fewer resources, and that was part of the idea from the beginning,” says Boisen. “I wanted to see how far living comfortably in a tiny house could go. My journey is not just to make the tiny house livable, but also to adjust my need for resources and my behavior. The house nudges my behavior in some way.”

Boisen also has a permaculture garden. Better Homes and Gardens defines as one “It helps build the soil and does not rely on synthetic inputs” – where he grows potatoes, various fruits, apples, leeks, cabbage and different types of herbs.

“I try to plant permanent plants that will give me the longest yield,” he says. “I will increase my overall food production because right now it is only in the trial phase, but starting next season I will significantly expand the size of the garden.”

Boisen says growing his own food is an extension of his original journey toward self-sufficiency.

“On a personal level, this is teaching me how to be more in tune with the seasons and nature in general. I need to learn a lot about gardening so I can grow food. It makes me happy that each season has its own unique types of food, so you’re always looking forward to something and you always eat local and seasonal food.”

Boisen uses food scraps to feed his chickens and turns them into compost to use in the soil in his garden.

After Boisen completed the initial work on the tiny house, he added a mudroom and improved the water filtration system. He’s building a new house and getting ready to sell it.

Boisen says the plan is to build a smaller house that’s more practical for having a family and maintaining a self-sufficient lifestyle: “In a way, I’m preparing for the future.”

He plans to finish the new house next spring.

Conversions to USD were made on November 15, 2024 using OANDA conversion rates. All amounts are rounded to the nearest dollar.

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