Last October, I returned to London after working abroad for nearly a year in Central America and Southeast Asia.
Finding an apartment on a budget wasn’t easy. The average cost of a one-bedroom in Southwark, a borough in South London, is around $1,850 a month. That’s more than 75% of my income as an architectural designer.
At 28, my goal is to save up to buy a house of my own one day. But I didn’t want to move to the outskirts of the city, so I started looking into the possibility of living in a skip — or, as it’s called in the U.S., a dumpster.
How I turned a waste container into a tiny home
I run a small architecture company called CAUKIN Studio. We’ve done work with SKIP Gallery, which commissions emerging artists to create artwork in the confines of a dumpster.
After hearing about my project, an arts charity called Antepavilion granted me an empty, grassy lot in Southwark to put my house on. I currently rent the dumpster base from a waste management company for only $62 a month (although I have not been charged for it yet).
The building process, which began in December 2022, took three weeks. I had worked on similar projects in the past as an architect, so I had all the tools and knowledge I needed. On most days, my friends would come by and help.
It cost me roughly $5,000 to build the home:
- Building supplies (including timber, insulation and fixings): $4,620
- Interior furnishings (including storage and foam mattress): $380
I used my savings to fund the expenses, and paid movers $635 to transport the dumpster from the manufacturer to the construction site, then to the lot where it stands today.
My electricity bill is so small that it is included in my land sponsorship, and my water supply consists of a hose pipe that runs from a neighbor’s property.
For Wi-Fi, I use a dongle connected to mobile data to watch Netflix and take Zoom calls on my laptop. This costs $20 a month.
A look inside my tiny home
The base of the dumpster is only 25 square feet, so I had to make the…
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