Want-Wants

I am on a role, let me warn you.  A little something that you don’t know about me, until now perhaps… that I am a private ranter.  My friends, I think, can attest to this.  There are so many things that bug me.  They are: laziness, people who make the same mistakes over and over again without learning, rude behaviour, thieves, apathy, cruelty to animals, racists, sexists and so on and so on.   These are things that privately set me off.

Here though, at Tiny House Ontario, I really do try not to let this strongly opinionated part of my personality overwhelm you all.  I think there are enough negative things that people hear about in their day to day lives and this is not really the place.  You know, one thing that I really like about the tiny house movement is that largely it is filled with optimism and it offers light at the end of the tunnel for a lot of people.  I think this is why it is so appealing to so many people.

Fortunately for me, this is what I really love to concentrate on too.  If you have read my blog before then you will have a very clear idea as to what really interests me.  For those of you who are just now joining me, the topics you can expect to see on my blog are: easy and inexpensive environmentally conscious projects, off grid ideas, the beauty of nature, art, music, links to history, stories of hope-change-interest, interesting people who are leaders to our movement, building codes, where to build and live in a tiny house in Canada, all things tiny house and of course Tiny House Ontario.   Recently, too I have also discussed my health… which is not a topic that I enjoy writing about, but which I do in order to keep those in the know, up to date on my progress in this department.

Today, again… two days in a row… there is another issue that I have to discuss.  I take on this topic at the risk of alienating people.  It is not just a very sensitive subject.  I want you to understand that my annoyance with this should not be mistaken for a terrible apathy about those who are really in need.  Nor should people who have genuine interest and in going tiny think this applies to them, in fact I was one of those people once. What I mean to target really is the laziness of the Want-Wants – who want your money for doing nothing.

The Want-Wants in terms of the tiny house movement are a breed of people who are relatively new to this movement.  They are people who have just learned about the movement and who see the light and want what we have without doing one single bit of work to get there.  They simply make a page asking for funding and then post requests on every tiny house Facebook page that they are able to Google.  This is the extent of the work they do.

Sometimes the pages of these Want-Wants have hard luck stories, sometimes not.  Sometimes they have well written requests, sometimes not.  Sometimes they are even fraudsters who post a wonderful “tiny house community” idea and try to get people to join for a fee… BUT…  Those who actually do know about bylaws, zoning and building codes, and struggle to get tiny houses legitimized, know that this is something that they will never have researched and will never be able to be seen to fruition because they don’t have the money or connections that it takes to lobby for change.  No matter, the shape that these people take, they have one thing in common.  They all want-want-want-want you, to give them your money.

I feel now is a good time to qualify, that I DO NOT include legitimate tiny house funding proposals as Want-Wants.  Lots of requests for funding are great and I while I don’t have a lot of money (not even enough to complete my own house), I have donated to many of these fund raisers myself.  As a matter of fact, there is a small one called The Hovel (on my Facebook page) that I just donated to.  Other great and legitimate funding requests that I remember off the top of my head, came when a tiny house that was nearly built burned down.  Another was a little girl who was building with her dad and he was suddenly killed in an accident.  Another came from a girl named Jessica who researched for a long time, saved 5K towards her dream and was looking for and got matching funding.  There are a lot of great and worthwhile tiny house funding projects and I certainly do not want to include these in my very pointed annoyance toward the Want-Wants of the world.

Who I mean to include in this are people who hear about tiny houses, want-want-want-want a tiny house and do NOT A LICK of work.  No research, no planning, no clear idea of how they can live in a tiny house, no idea where they will live in the house if if becomes a reality and certainly no started project or even a 2×4 in place.  Who I mean are those who simply post a request for money because they want-want-want-want what we have.

The thing is that as a relatively well known tiny houser, I get quite some number of requests about this.  The Want-Wants post to my wall and write to me privately.  Also my readers often ask about them including not just those who are asking for funding on sites specifically designed for this, but also about ones that are on their own website that look “legitimate”.  The question is, do they really deserve your money just because they want it?   So, I  decided instead of replying to each of these individually, I would instead explain the Want-Wants, post this link back to them, and hope that they understand what it is, exactly that I am driving at.

Which is, to the Want-Wants: we grow tired of people who don’t do a thing for themselves, asking for hand outs.

And for those of you who are donating, please beware the Want-Wants!

Can we fund everyone who does not do a thing for themselves?