My family of 4 (me, my husband, a 5 year old and a 2 year old) currently live in a 4 bedroom house (similar to this). Both kids have very large bedrooms, and we have a very big, nicely finished basement currently set up as a playroom. Our backyard is tiny. We have a ridiculous 4 bathrooms (2 full, one half, and one with a shower). It’s lovely, and we have done a fair amount of customizing and decorating (all of which I am very happy with) but it’s not my dream house and frankly, it involves way too much frigging cleaning and we have way too much frigging stuff.
We are in the very, very early stages of considering a move into a much, much smaller house, hopefully with a much, much bigger yard. We would have to get rid of a lot of furniture, toys, and other junk. It may or may not be a less expensive house, so there’s not necessarily any financial savings involved. Size aside, it would probably not be as “nice” as what we have now, and it would depend on what we could find as far as whether we’d be able to do any renovations, at least for a while. It wouldn’t be my dream house either, but neither is my current house.
Right now, I am finding the idea insanely appealling. Simplifying, getting rid of stuff, having more outside space, having less to clean. I am having trouble seeing a downside. But part of me wonders if we took the plunge, would I look back at my lovely big house and wonder what I was thinking?
Has anyone ever done it? Will I miss the space? The toys? The stuff? The storage? I hate, hate, hate clutter - is it harder to live clutter-free in a very small space? (Despite my talk about having too much stuff, it does all currently have a place and the house is generally very clutter-free.) Will I miss all the bathrooms? Will I regret having less space for overnight guests? Will I have trouble entertaining? Will we all go mad being in a tight space together? Will it get harder as the kids get bigger?
My situation is not as dramatic, but I’m also downsizing. I’m moving out of an apt and into a house, but the apt is about 100 sq ft bigger. However, the house has amenities that the apt doesn’t have (washer/dryer/dishwasher/central air). And it has a big fenced in yard. My cats–who’ve always been cooped up in apartments–will be so happy when we move in tomorrow! Some would question why I’m taking a step down, but it feels like I’m moving up. Less inside space to junk up, more outside space to play in, nice appliances, and a better neighborhood. Space isn’t everything.
The only downside that I can think of in your situation is that bigger yard comes with more maintenance.
My hypothesis is that people, like house plants, grow within the container that you put them in. When I lived in a 350 sq ft apartment, I accumulated only as much stuff as could fit in that space…purely out of necessity. Moving out of a much bigger apartment now, I just got rid of a ton of stuff. If you took everything that’s left remaining (bed, couches, bookcase, clothes), it would fit into that original 350 sq ft apartment…with a little space to spare. So I did make use of all the space in my bigger apartment…but not really.
Everyone’s different, of course. But if you think you’ve got too much house, you probably do.
Moved from a larger house with a tiny yard, to a tiny house on about a third of an acre. Thiswas very helpful. As were several books a couple of friends gave me. (PM me if you want more info.)
I did get rid of some stuff…but I don’t miss it at all. With inventive use of space and storage, I have everything I need on hand and more.
I did find myself missing outdoor usable space. This summer I had an enclosed front porch built, next summer a larger covered back deck. I live alone, but providing space for guests and sharing one bathroom is absolutely not a big deal. I grew up in a family of six sharing about 800 square feet though, so YMMV.
Also my property taxes are a ton less, which is very nice. That’s offset by more yard maintenance, but a neighbor with a riding mower does my whole yard for $30.00. I enjoy yard work other than mowing so it works for me.
You could always close off some of the rooms you currently have (like one of the bedrooms and 2 of the baths), and see how you get by while pretending that they don’t exist. You could use them like on-site storage (which you only access once or twice a year), or just completely empty them of anything. In either case, there is no need to clean more often than dusting/vacuuming a couple times a year, and just making sure to run the water and clear out the pipes every week or so.
This is a cheap way to find out if you can make do with the smaller space, without all the hassle of moving once (if you can) or moving twice (if you move once, can’t, and move again). Nothing at all is stopping you from getting rid of some of your stuff, if you guys have too much stuff.
I do not have a garage currently, and I do miss that. However, I have the space and if I had the money I could easily add a garage. That’s the cool thing about a small house on some land - you can add outdoor space fairly easily.
I did a drastic downsize (from 1200 sq ft to 700 sq ft for one person) and I love it. I find that home is so much more restful when there is much less to clean. I no longer have room for clutter or to store extra stuff that I don’t use. I don’t know why, but ditching all that stuff was a tremendous relief. Something about having too much “cargo” is stressful to me. I don’t miss anything that I’ve gotten rid of.
I’m currently renting, but I know if I owned a home, it would be an added relief to know there is so much less to maintain (and hence less cost).
I still entertain and have overnight guests. Tight spaces haven’t dissuaded anyone. All my rooms are multi-functional, except for my bedroom–but I chose the smallest room in the house for that purpose.
I do think that layout is the key to loving a small house. The layout to my place is ingenious.
You said you’'re not going to be saving money. So it sounds like the only motivation for a smaller house is to force you to have less stuff. So cut out the middleman and just get rid of the stuff. And then don’t buy replacement stuff.
The only regret I had when we moved into a place less than half the size of the previous one was the loss of storage space. We got rid of a lot of stuff, but there’s just not a lot closet or cabinet space.
My next major purchase is going to be a storage shed the back yard
Well I’m sort of on the other end of the scale. In the UK we are used to smaller houses.
As it is, We have 4 of us, 2 adults two children 4/6 and our house is a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom semi-detached with small front and rear garden plus garage. Probably 800 sq feet.
I’m not boasting to say that we can easily afford something far, far bigger but decided against it.
The kids have a room each, the small size keeps us on our toes clutter-wise. Also,our mortgage is very small and it would probably cost us 30-40k to move to somewhere more substantial plus the added outlay each month. And all that just to start downsizing again later when the kids start to spend time away. I’d rather put my money into an overseas rental and retirement property.
My parents did something similar when I was growing up. They’d close off rooms we didn’t need. We’d shut the heat/cooling registers and put covers on all the furniture. They did it to save on cleaning time and heat/AC cost. As a kid, I never missed the rooms we didn’t use.
I haven’t downsized as an adult, but we did frequently when I was a kid. My parents moved quite a bit and sometimes the houses were larger, sometimes smaller. I agree with **Monstro **that you sort of expand to fit the house you have. The only time moving to a smaller house bothered us as children was when we had to share bedrooms. We did like larger yards though. The yards seemed more important to us than the house.
And the larger yard. For that alone, I’d move, though it does mean more yard work.
W e’re looking at a move that will probably mean a downsize. I know what I want to keep (rooms for each child and formal dining room eg) and what I can lose (formal living room, huge acerage). I think it will be great to declutter.
Did it six months ago. We got rid of about 60% of our stuff - ruthlessly. Moved to a smaller house and a smaller yard - we had 18 acres, mostly bush. Now we have a quarter acre of garden - but a few blocks walk to lots of bush! We have no shed, and that really worried me. But not any more.
Regrets? None at all! I am now horrified at how much clutter we had and have nightmares about becoming cluttered again. The great thing is the impact on my budget - impulse buys no longer appeal. I see them as new clutter.
Another huge advantage - so much more time. Everything seems easier. The house is much easier to keep tidy because there is a place for everything, and no need to stack saucepans and stuff drawers. Everything is easier to get to and nothing gets lost. It is smaller, but we are not in any way more cramped. Just de-cluttered.
We downsized last year. I don’t miss any of the stuff that we got rid of. But I do miss my big kitchen. And since I like to cook, this is a daily reminder of what we gave up.
I miss the space but not all the stuff. Also, I don’t find it that much easier to clean just because it’s smaller.
I think not what you’d expect makes a very, very important point. Be careful what you downsize on. We did not downsize on the kitchen / living room. The house is more efficiently designed, so it is smaller, without downsizing on living space. The kitchen is open plan, so we double up on use - plenty of room for lounge / dining / kitchen in one room, plus one sitting room.
I think not what you’d expect makes another good point that smaller doesn’t necessarily make it easier to clean. But less junk certainly does.
Agreed. That’s what I was alluding to in my post. We’re trying to make a priority list of what we’d be happy ton lose, and what we do not want to lose.
We moved from a four bedroom house to a three bedroom house. Then we started having kids. I now wish that we had a fourth bedroom; the prospect of giving up the guest room gives me the willies, especially since I really depend on having my MIL visit once a month so I can run some errands without my little sidecar.
Other than that, I think that less house is more. We renovated the house we currently live in, and purposely put in pedestal sinks instead of bathroom counters, so that crap wouldn’t accumulate on those surfaces. We stuck my sewing room into a large closet, to discourage me from accumulating sewing crap. We have purposely not filled up a couple of walls with bookshelves, to discourage accumulation of physical books and tchotchke (we still have a wall of four Billy cases, so we have plenty of books, we just curate them carefully).
I’d say it’s ideal for all the kids to have their own bedrooms and for there to be at least two toilets. Other than that, small is good.