For those of you who have a loft in your tiny house, I have recently discovered a very good reason why it can be helpful to also have some kind of sleeping arrangements on the main floor of your tiny, in addition to your loft, even if it is a bench-type seat that someone can sleep on.

There are several possibilities to choose from when designing your home. My favorites are the click clack sofas, also know as the jackknife couches, seen in many modern RV’s. They open up sideways, compared to the typical pullout sofa where the whole mattress opens into the room and frequently takes up way too much space. Oh, and by the way, most of them have a nice storage space underneath. In my case, my tiny does not have a loft; and my bed is on the first level.

I guess by now you are wondering why I am making this suggestion. What brought this to my attention was when I got very sick after a flight across the US in a packed plane with who knows how many germs bouncing around that tiny space. So sick, I could hardly move, let alone climb a ladder. I thought how grateful I was to have everything just steps away. Then I thought about my friends with their bed in a loft and wondered how they could handle this situation if it happened to them. Young and old get sick occasionally.

We want to consider every possible option for our home when we build it so it fits all of our needs. Having a floor-level sleeping area is a detail that can be a big help. We have a seating area on the first level anyway, so why not make it as useful as possible?