Tiny house volunteer Sweden: eco-building & gardening in Västmanland

Small red cabin by a calm lake, surrounded by pine and birch forest in rural Sweden, with mossy rocks along the shore.

Tiny House Living in nature: Eco-building & gardening | Stay in our tiny house by the river and help out with eco-building projects or the food garden. If you are interested in a sustainable lifestyle, living close to the elements, this could be the spot for you 🙂 For the moment, we (Sara, Josef and baby Lily) are a new family with quite some projects going on which means we cannot serve food, so we ask for 3 hours work per day/15 hours a week.

This means a lot of free time to enjoy the spaciousness and beautiful nature of the place.

Off-grid tiny house living in nature

Come and join our family living the simple life in rural Sweden. We are located next to a river and the surroundings are full of nature reserves and great places for a swim or a hike. If you are a nature lover curious about living close to the elements then this is your place 🙂

Where you’ll stay:

Our land is 2,5 hectar and goes along a river with plenty of spaces to have your own spot. Either you can bring your own tent or use our tiny house with its own private place in the wild. We have even seen traces of lynx around it winter time 🙂 The tiny house is tiny but beautiful with a bed, a table and a chair. This is the third tiny house we’ve built and if you are interested in that lifestyle this is a great opportunity to try it out. You’ll have your own simple outdoor kitchen set up and compost toilet. This is suitable for one person or a couple (120 cm bed).

What to do

What to do:
This summer we are planning to do some work with clay, garden work and possibly a new outdoor toilet/shower set up. We like to use local materials and have found great clay in the river. Eco-building is an interest of ours as well as creating a self sustainable life style: growing our own food and harvesting wild herbs etc. If you are curious about these areas as well you are so welcome to join us!

The work is about 3 hours a day, 15 hours a week. We see this as a great way for volunteers to try out this lifestyle and learn new skills while enjoying the beauty and spaciousness of the place.

Free time

During your free time there is a lot of nice nature places that you can check out, or just enjoy your own private spot in the tiny house by the river. You can borrow our canoe and go along the river and just give us a call when you want to get picked up by car (canoeing back up the stream is a bit more of a struggle). You can also walk up the mountain next to us and visit the wet land area where you can find cranberries and golden berries. There are food stores 11 km away.

About us

Josef and Sara will be your hosts and we live here with our 1,5 year old daughter Lily and two cats. We have tried out different alternative lifestyles: spent years living van life and then built and lived in tiny homes. We enjoy doing things ourselves and constantly learning new skills. We have over the years collected some good knowledge about this lifestyle that we happily share.

We have a simple set-up here: collecting water from the well, outdoor compost toilet, outdoor bath tub etc. So it’s good if you are into this simple way of living, enjoying the closeness to nature 🙂

What category best describes your hosting arrangement? 🏡
  • Private home/family
Location (city/town, region, country) 📍
What are you looking for help with?
  • Building 🛠
  • Farming/Gardening 🌿🐄
  • General Help 💁‍♀️
What’s the mission of your community? 🎯

We like living simply with and in nature, building sustainably and creating a beautiful space to enjoy life in.

Do you charge volunteers a daily or weekly fee?
  • No fees, but we can only offer accommodation
How many hours of volunteering help will you expect per week?
  • less than 20 hours
How many volunteers could you host? 🎎
  • 2 volunteers (couple/friends)
When do you usually need volunteers? 📅
  • May-september
How many hours of help per day? ⏱
  • 2–3 hours/day
How many days of help per week? 🌒
  • 5 days/week
Notes about the work, schedule, and house rules (optional)

We typically start work around 9 and work until lunch, but depending on wishes, we can also do other hours.

There is a lot of space to have your own quiet spot here in nature. By the tiny house there is an outdoor kitchen and outdoor toilet. In the main building there is electricity you can use. We take water from the well (nice fresh spring water) and only outdoor shower / bath.

Are accommodation and food included? 🏠🍜
  • Only accommodation is included
What type of accommodation can you provide? 🏕
  • Private home (host family) 🔑
  • Private room for a couple 🎎
Diet – nutrition information 🥗🥤
  • No meals included
Fee transparency (required) 💳
  • No fee
VISA SUPPORT – Are you able to assist with visa support, information, or provide invitation letters? 🛂
  • No, volunteers must arrange visas independently ❌
What volunteers receive (in addition to food/accommodation) 🏆🏅
  • Over the years, we have collected some good knowledge about this kind of lifestyle which we happily share. Learning by doing and doing things ourselves offers both confidence and self-sufficiency.
What are the available activities during free time? 🚴🚣🦒
  • Borrow our canoe and go downstream by the river, enjoy the quitness of your own house on the forest, go for hikes to the wet lands, up the mountain, find your own spot by the river, visit nature reserves…
Languages spoken on site 🗣 🗣🇬🇧
  • Swedish, English and some German/spanish
Geography 🌳
  • This is a part of the more wild Sweden and there are big nature parks and eco parks around to enjoy. Lakes, streams of fresh water from the mountain and wild life.
How to get to your site ✈ 🗺
  • Closest train station is Skinnskatteberg (11 kms from us) where we can pick you up by car. Or you can park your vehicle on our parking and walk across the bridge over to our property.
Is there internet access? 🌐
  • Mobile data only

Small red cabin by a calm lake, surrounded by pine and birch forest in rural Sweden, with mossy rocks along the shore.

CONTACT DETAILS 🔍📧

Interested in volunteering for this project? Please email voluntouring.freelist@gmail.com with a short introduction and use this subject line: “Tiny house volunteer Skinnskatteberg, Sweden”. Due to the volume of requests, we may not be able to reply to everyone, but we will get back to shortlisted candidates with the hosts’ contact details.

Visit the Sweden section 🇸🇪

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Author: Voluntouring staff

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