Lulu is a young mother who was left devastated when she had to give up the home she shared with her daughter. After weeks brainstorming what to do next, Lulu decided that she did not want to move into a traditional home. Instead, she decided to think out of the box in a big way!

Lulu decided to transform a shipping container into the perfect home for herself and her daughter, and it ended up only costing her $4,000 to make it happen!

Lulu later recounted the moment that she realized she did not need a traditional house to be happy.

“At one point I was stuffing all of these pink toys into a box and I was like, ‘Since when, in order to have a happy childhood, do you have to have a pink room with pink curtains and pink stuff?'” she said. “This was really a choice about how many hours do we have in our life and how do I want to spend those hours.”

Not only does Lulu work full time, she is also a student who is trying to raise a child on top of all of that, so she felt the shipping container made the most sense for her financially. She spent months renovating the shipping container by doing things like installing adequate insulation and setting up a full kitchen, which was complete with a camp stove and an on-demand water heater.

Despite the fact that the container is 8×20-square-feet, Lulu managed to fit in a bed, couch, bookshelf and storage with kitchen cabinets!

She also used only recyclable products, so her home is totally green!

“It’s really mostly built like a shed. It’s a nice looking shed, but it’s really an 8 by 16 shed with windows in it,” she said.

It’s amazing what some people are able to do when designing their tiny homes! Watch Lulu give a tour of hers in the video below!