4 Reasons to Stay in Your Smaller Home

We live in a standard ranch home in the midwest. It has about 1600 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It’s plenty of space for us currently and probably will be just fine for us for several years to come, even if we add more children to our family. Even though we do really love our home and it’s perfectly adequate for us, we considering moving to a larger home just a few weeks ago.

After a few days discussing the pros and cons, my husband and I were leaning towards moving to a house that was for sale just a few blocks away from where we currently live. It would have given us another bedroom, bathroom, and over 1000 square feet more living space. However, after much deliberation, we decided to stay put. There were 4 reasons why we decided a bigger home was not going to be better for us.

1. Cost

Obviously, with bigger homes comes a higher price. But the higher price is much more than just the cost of the home. The number one reason why we decided not to move was the property taxes. We found out that our taxes would more than double by moving. That was just not something we were willing to work into our budget. I want to continue to be a stay-at-home mom and that wouldn’t be possible in this house. But taxes were not the only consideration.

With a bigger house comes a bigger mortgage and more debt. The utility bills are higher and the taxes are usually greater. When you are figuring the numbers to see if you can afford to move, it’s not just the increase in your monthly mortgage payment. There could easily be several hundred dollars worth of monthly expenses to squeeze into a budget. 

2. Cleaning

With more square footage, comes more cleaning. While it would be nice to spread out and have more room, I’m not sure I would enjoy cleaning more space. Cleaning takes time and that would be time I would have to take out of another area of my life.

The time it will take to clean a house is definitely something to think about when considering a larger home purchase. I can run my morning and evening routines in our current house in 10-20 minutes and do my entire weekly cleaning in a little over an hour! This would dramatically increase with a larger home.

3. More Space = More Clutter

While looking at the larger house, I kept commenting to Tom that there was so much storage. I was so excited! It just kept getting better as we walked through the home. But then he brought me back down to reality when he said, “Yes, but do we NEED that much storage?”

While it’s nice to have places to put things, sometimes there is such a thing as too much storage. When storage space is in abundance, we tend to fill it up. Clutter can easily get out of hand and fill the space we have available. When storage space is at a premium, we must make decisions on what is important for us to keep, what we truly love, and what we really need. With smaller spaces, we are forced to keep clutter a bay.

4. Less Family Time 

Our current home is basically comprised of one large open room with the living room, kitchen and eating area. We have a bonus room that is used as a family/play room and then the 3 bedrooms. We “live” in the open room where I cook meals, the boys play, and we eat dinner together. We spend a lot of quality family time in our home. The larger home had 3 different living spaces. THREE!! We would have room to spread out. But then again, we would have room to spread out…separately.

This may not be the case for every family. However, with more rooms and more space to just “get away,” time spent together can begin to diminish. Family time is something we cherish very dearly. While it would still be completely possible to spend time together in a larger house, it would be something we would have to put effort into. In our current house, there really isn’t anywhere else to go! 🙂

A smaller house provides a sense of simplicity to life. 

While a larger house would be nice in some ways, it would require sacrifices as well. The grass can sometimes look greener on the other side, but it’s not always the case.

Do you live in a smaller house? Or have you upgraded to a larger home?