I read this post recently from Becoming Minimalist’s Joshua Becker and found myself agreeing with every word:
Since we’ve decided to buy a home, I’ve been thinking a lot about our real needs. Our current home, while lovely, is simply too big for us. A lot of people would be surprised to hear that, since it’s a 4/3 and there are 9 bodies here.
But it’s true. There are large areas of our home that are never used or underutilized.
Below, our never-used fireplace. Taken in January 2015 at Josiah’s homecoming. (Side note: Wow how the kids have changed!)
Our living room – half of it is empty all the time. The ceilings are tall, which looks lovely, but bites us in the backside every month when we pay our utility bills. We can’t feel the air coming down from the ceiling fans, not to mention changing the light bulbs and cleaning the fan blades is a major hassle.
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We’ve never once used our fireplace. It looks pretty, but it smokes up the house, and we haven’t had the desire to hire someone to clean it out.
Also, fireplaces are dangerous – both because of the smoke and chemicals they release into the air (bad for the preemie and the adult troubled with lung issues) as well as for… well, fires.
Several years ago, my mom nearly died in a house fire caused by their fireplace. The fire had been extinguished, and there were two screens in front of it, but a cinder still popped out hours later and lit the rug aflame.
And while it seems counter-intuitive, fireplaces are terribly inefficient for heating up a house. When we want to enjoy a fire, we’ve built one outside! (There have been many, and yes, they’re lovely!) So, no fireplace in the new house, please.
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Right now we have 3 bathrooms but would be happy with 2. It’s better to have to wait a minute to use a bathroom than to have to clean 3 bathrooms weekly.
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We don’t need our formal dining room. It’s just one more area to sweep and mop, heat and cool. We would be perfectly content with an eating area off the kitchen.
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We never use our deck. We do use our screened-in back porch to eat on when the weather’s nice, but we could just as easily set up an outdoor table… outdoors.
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I’ve had kitchens much smaller than the one I have now, with less storage space, and was happy with them. Less to clean, and the less storage, the less clutter you accumulate.
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We have a separate laundry room, but I’ve discovered that I prefer the washer and dryer in a small space off the kitchen. Having it in another room just makes more work of laundry, and more dirty and clean laundry piles up in there because out of sight, out of mind.
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We have a den (the “TV room”) that we don’t need. The only time it’s occupied is for band practice, but I would rather have a finished basement or an outbuilding equipped with electricity for that purpose (so that goes on the “things we want in our new home” list).
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Our home has several storage closets, but they’re not necessary for our family, as they’re all half empty.
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My 13-year-old thinks the ideal home for us would have small community spaces but several small bedrooms (one for each kid). I told her not to get her hopes up because I’m not sure such a thing exists. 😉
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Our large yard is lovely, but my husband has allergies and I’m just plain clueless about keeping up a yard and/or garden. So all we need is a small backyard for kids to play in, not acreage.
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The bigger space just means higher energy costs, more work cleaning and a fatter mortgage. No, thanks. I would rather read the kids a book than scrub all those kitchen cabinets again this week.
Have you ever moved from a larger space to a smaller one? What was your experience?
It’s good to know what you use and what you like. Our good friends recently rented a home that was too big for them because they couldn’t find anything smaller that they could legally rent because they had “too many kids.” They pointed out that the ginormous master bath was a complete waste of space because they were always freezing when they showered. I hadn’t thought of that before, but it made sense.
And though they’re lovely, I’ve never been a fan of extra high ceilings . . . all that wasted heat in the summer!
I hope you all find your dream home!!
@Anne – so true! One of the reasons we’re eager to buy is that it’s hard for a large family to rent. Landlords are prejudiced against large families (perhaps understandably, but we’re not going to leave the place a shambles) and some have flat out refused to rent to us, even a 5 bedroom!
Also, sometimes one doesn’t know what they want/need until they experience what they DON’T want. I’m grateful for our years of renting. Now that I’ve raised a larger family in different styles of home and apartment, I have a clear idea of what our family actually needs in terms of space and floor plan.
I much perle smaller houses as well.. I have 4 kids and we recently downsized to a small home. I don’t love the layout (we rent) but for now, it works. I’m with you however, large houses = large upkeep.