While I was working at a local Tiny House company, a coworker got us started on a super useful, user-friendly program that really helped organize our builds and shop. It’s called Trello. Strange name, simple idea. It’s based on a Japanese card-based system called a Kanban board, but you don’t need to worry about that. Basically, it’s super-simple, great for collaboration and is a great collecting point for your ideas and date.
Some of you may already be using Pinterest and other things to collect ideas. This is great, but Pinterest is somewhat limited. Trello starts with a Board, onto which you create Stacks of Cards. It’s all very visual and easy to use. You can use stacks for whatever you like, such as “Design Ideas”, under which you’d have cards for that cool loft idea you saw, or the folding laundry table. Each idea gets a card, to which you can add pictures, links, to-do lists, comments, even deadlines. Imagine for example, you saw a great picture of a gas range you liked and wanted to save. You could add this picture to a card in your Appliances stack, then add the link to where you found it. Later you could write more about it, maybe a price and supplier you found, you could attach the install spec sheet, some pictures of it installed in other Tiny Houses, even discussion you found about how to get it working the first time. Once you’re ready to build you can share that card with your builder and gas-fitter and they know everything instantly.
I’ve shared a couple photos of my own TH build board. It’s quite detailed, with install specs for every appliance, notes for the build about what I want, details on weights and finishing touches. It’s endless what you can do. If you’re currently planning on paper or in a Word document, it’s a real step up. The best part is that you can share with other people and collaborate. Let your partner join in, invite your designer friend to add comments, anything! Click here to check out Trello and help me out… (I get a free month of premium if you sign up for a free account)
Has anyone else used Trello for planning or any other tools? Let us know in the comments.