I absolutely love our new house. One of the many fantastic things about it is that we have room to grow. It is 1,100 sq. ft. larger than our previous house, giving us an additional bedroom, an additional bathroom, and more living space than we had before.
We’re so grateful for the additional space. As much as I appreciate it, though, I’ve realized that there were a number of benefits associated with living in a smaller home. It’s a classic case of not knowing what you have until it’s gone!
The benefits of living in a small home
- You’re always in close proximity to loved ones. Smaller homes necessitate a lot of interaction among family members. This promotes bonding and helps you learn how to work through conflict (after all, you can’t run to an empty room to be by yourself).
- You have less to clean. It didn’t take me long to realize how much longer it takes to clean a home that has more square footage! When you’re in a small home and have less to clean, you have more free time to spend on other tasks.
- You have lower utility bills. It generally costs less to heat and cool smaller spaces. It costs less because you are using less electricity and gas. Subsequently, you save a lot of green and be green by living in a smaller home.
- You have less to maintain. Though small homes can have the same leaks and squeaks that larger homes have, it’s generally easier and more affordable to address these because you’re only fixing leaks in one bathroom, not in three. Likewise, you’re only paying to replace a small roof instead of a large one.
- You need fewer furnishings. When you don’t have to pay for furnishings for many rooms, you can save money or choose to use this money on furnishing the rooms you do have with high-quality items that you really like.
- You are encouraged to simplify and declutter. Unless you’re going to live in a very cluttered environment, having the limited storage space afforded by small homes encourages you to routinely sort through your stuff and get rid of unneeded items.
- You get out of the house more often. The coziness of small homes can sometimes begin to feel confining. Believe it or not, this is actually a good thing! The desire to get out for a while drives you outside where you benefit from fresh air and the exercise that often accompanies outdoor activities.
I’m not trying to romanticize the benefits of living in a small home. Most families who live in small homes would say that there are plenty of challenges associated with having limited space! Additionally, there are a number of unique benefits associated with living in larger homes. We’ll take a look at these benefits in a couple of weeks.
Do you live in a small home or a large home? What benefits are associated with the amount of space you have?
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Love this, Shannon! Compared to most of the world, our family enjoys an embarrassment of riches and lives in a large-ish house. But compared to most everyone on HGTV, we live in a hut. Which is why I have to limit my HGTV consumption…for me, it breeds discontent. Am off now to clean my bathrooms…only 2 of them! 😉
Hi Elizabeth,
HGTV (and Pinterest, for me) can certainly breed discontent. It’s great to remember just how much we have compared to most people in the world.
I think these are great points! Especially the one about decluttering. It seems that sometimes, there is a trend to bigger homes for the sake of keeping more stuff-and while “stuff” isn’t bad, we can easily fall into having too much and not embracing a level of simplicity and tidiness. We live in an apartment, I think it’s about 800 square feet or so, and the size is perfect for us! It forces us to declutter and spend time together, and it’s very homey. The only downside is that it’s tougher to have groups of people over, since our dining room is almost nonexistent and our living room is tiny-but someday, we’ll hopefully move into a house with a little bit more room as we hopefully grow our family, and that’ll make it easier to entertain 🙂
Hospitality can certainly be a challenge in a small space, AnneMarie.
I agree that many people like larger homes so they can accommodate their “stuff.” My husband and I have to be intentional about not accumulating unneeded “stuff” now that we have a little space to store it!
I live in a teeny tiny (less than 500 sq. ft) apartment but all of these are true, save for the interacting with others, because it’s just me, and my little dog Elvis! And it’s always been enough room. The benefit I would add is that I’ve enjoyed a more inexpensive rent compared to others with more modern and spacious homes.
Hi Catherine,
I’m sure Elvis enjoys being close. 🙂
Lower rent (or mortgage payments) are often a significant benefit of smaller places!
I think most people would consider our home small. We are a family of 7 living with one bathroom. I’d certainly like the freedom to add on to this house some day. But I have definitely been considering the points you’ve mentioned here. I don’t need to add any more cleaning time into my busy day! And I do like the fact that the boys have grown close by sharing a bedroom.
I’m sure you could share about some challenges of small spaces, Jamie! Having just one bathroom really does cut down on cleaning time, though.
I agree that sharing bedrooms does a lot to foster closeness between siblings. My husband and I both had this experience while growing up.
We live in a two bedroom house with five people. You’re right about all of these things!
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Hi Laura,
You certainly speak from experience! Thanks for visiting.
There is much wisdom in what you have shared here. I have always wanted two bathrooms, but I can’t imagine having to clean two of them. lol.
We live in a 900 square foot three bedroom ranch. Pretty soon it will seem quite spacious when my daughter, son-in-law and one year old granddaughter move into their first home, but I know I will definitely miss very much, even the clutter, when they move.
Hi Karen,
Extra bathrooms are nice, but it sure is more difficult keeping things clean! How wonderful that you’ve been able to share your home with your daughter and her family. 🙂
I love all of these reasons and I have to say they are right on. We are currently living in a tiny space – about 900 sq. feet with six of us. It can be a challenge but it also comes with it’s unique joys. One of those is realizing that we do life together so much more than when we lived in a larger space. We gather frequently in the living room instead of spreading out in 5 different rooms like in the house before. We do get weary of each other sometimes, but usually a bike ride or a run helps us find the space we need. Small house living is for me – as the benefits far outweigh the negatives.
I think this has to be one of the best benefits, Victoria. How wonderful to be connected and close to our family members!
We currently rent a house that has 3 full baths and a half bath; when I clean bathrooms it takes me almost 2 hours to get them all done. I actually don’t complain about it since I love the space after years in an apartment with 3 kids but it was an eye opener when we got here how much more time I would spend cleaning! I do love it though and will be sad when we move out soon.
It really does take longer to clean, doesn’t it, Ana? I hope your new place meets your needs well.
The home pictured is such a cute an d sweet looking house. Nicely cared for.
Living in a small space can be quite interesting with 4 children. We lived in motel room with 4 kids for 4 months one time, had one small bathroom and very small kitchen. But we got thru it ok and none worse for wear. At least I didn’t have to do all the cleaning, lol. Hard to clean with beds everywhere in one room.
Hubs and I over last few years lived in 23 ft. travel trailer with dog/cat, I loved it. We’ve done that few times depending on where living, waiting to get into house/buy one. Hubs got kinda claustrophobic but I was loving it the last time when we first moved here to western CO.,lived at rv park for 10 months. We rented a house for while waiting to buy house once again. Then because our furniture was still in KY house we lived with no furniture and slept in trailer at night for almost 2 yrs.
Think I might be bit of gypsy as I loved living in his semi for months on end riding with him all over country and into Canada. That stopped after he retired from trucking in 2004, sure miss the traveling. We had a house in KY when hubs retired. not long after we moved to CO.
Our house now is 16×80 single wide on 1/2 acre few miles west of Grand Junction. Not big, about 1100 sq. ft but plenty big enuf for us. We have cat, dog and 5 chickens. I do crafts, decorating, sewing, spend too much time on this machine besides keeping a decent house and what all that entails ,hubs helps.. Hubs makes things for me sometimes if he’s in mood. Think this is end of our traveling and moving, hubs says we’re too old, he means him. I’m 75, he’s 74.
So living in small house can be done happily but have to attain a good attitude.
Happy rest of week
It sounds like you’ve had good attitudes about all of your living spaces, JaneEllen. Thanks for pointing out how important it is that we have good attitudes. Even huge houses won’t “work” for us if we approach them with negative attitudes!
Grand Junction is a lovely area! I hope you continue to enjoy living there.