I spent 9 months in a tiny home on my employer’s property with just enough room for my bed and snowboards – here’s what it was like

• Keenan Laurence, 21, is a professional ultimate Frisbee player from Palo Alto, California.
• In May 2020, he moved into tiny home in Silverthorne, Colorado where he lived for nine months.
• Here's what he says it was like to live in the small space, as told to freelance writer Molly O'Brien.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

I graduated from high school in Palo Alto, California, three years ago and have been living the nomadic lifestyle since then. The most time I've spent in one place so far was in a tiny home in Colorado for nine months from end of May 2020 until March 2021.

My main work gig is as a professional Frisbee player for the San Jose Spiders, in the American Ultimate Disk League. This job requires me to be in the Bay Area for six months at a time. In the off-season, I split my time between California and Fiji, where I help with my family's business of running a beachfront villa property.

In March of 2020, I missed the cutoff to get to Fiji by one day – I was on the last flight scheduled to get out of the US and it was cancelled due to the pandemic.

Moving into a tiny home in Colorado just kind of fell into place.

My sister connected me with one of her very good friends who was looking for someone to help with improvement projects around his property in Silverthorne, Colorado. When you live up at 9,000 feet you need help to do these projects in the summer, because you can't do many over winter when there's snow on the ground.

When the pandemic started I was quick to accept that it was going to last for a while, so I thought I might as well do my best to make the most of it. Since I'm a huge snowboarder, I knew I'd enjoy being in Colorado.

I moved into the tiny house on my employer's property in May 2020 and spent the next nine months out in nature. I adventured with backpacking and hiking in the summer, and went skiing and snowboarding in the winter. Being in a small indoor space inspired me to go outside more and explore, and it also felt amazing to come back to my cozy space after a day outdoors.

Tiny homes are made out to be picturesque, so sometimes people don't get the whole picture of what living in one is like.

Depending on where the home is, if it's bad weather, you might get stuck inside. During occasional snowstorms I would often feel a bit claustrophobic when I couldn't go outside.

The tiny home was just 9.5 feet by 6 feet, but luckily there were high ceilings. While there, I repainted the exterior and interior and built interior shelves and a bed frame.

Since it didn't have a kitchen or bathroom, I used these amenities in my employer's main house nearby. As far as snacks go, I kept a big bag of trail mix next to my bed to get me through those times when I was stuck inside the home due to bad weather.

Tiny homes are small, so it's important to maximize all available space.

When it came to organizing my space, I put a lot of thought behind how I wanted my home to operate. For example, when I would get back to the house with all of my snowboard equipment that still had snow on it - where would I put that, and get undressed, and hang all my coats? I learned to be meticulous about what's close to the door, what's far from the door, and arrange it so there's a nice flow of coming back home or leaving.

Once I found my systems and routine inside the tiny home, I was able to build out the shelves and the bed frame specifically to accommodate my storage needs. My main goal was not to leave anything outside my tiny home, so I stored most of my clothes, shoes, and equipment under the bed. You have to get creative, it's almost like designing a college dorm room.

After nine months living in my tiny home in Colorado, although I was sad to leave, I moved back to the Bay Area in March to return to my career as a professional ultimate Frisbee player.

My biggest takeaway from living in a tiny home was learning how to downsize my life.

I took everything that could fit in my Subaru, which made it easy to know what I could fit into my new home - it was a fun little challenge. My main advice for anyone who's interested in a similar type of move is that you have to want to do it. It's going to take a lot of effort on your part to downsize and get organized.

It's also important to know how to keep yourself company and enjoy time alone. You have to know how to enjoy time with yourself! If that's something you already enjoy, it's a really great escape.