How Much House Do You Need?
Published on - November 17th, 2009 (Modified on - December 18th, 2009) (by April Dykman) This post is from GRS staff writer April Dykman.
For more than a decade, Jay Shafer of Tumbleweed Tiny House Company has lived in an 89 square-foot home.
His decision to live in a tiny house came from concerns about the effects a larger house would have on the environment, and his desire to not maintain a lot of unused or unusable space.
Obviously Jay’s home is at the extreme low end of how small one can go with living space, but it meets his needs and allows him to live the simple lifestyle he was seeking. While it may seem impossibly small to the majority of people, 89 square feet is Jay’s right-sized home.
Contrast this with the average American home, which in 2004, was 2349 square feet, up from 1695 square feet in 1974. In 30 years, the size of kitchens doubled, ground-floor ceilings grew by more than a foot, and bedrooms increased by 54 square feet. In 2004, the average family size was 2.6 people. Thirty years ago, it was 3.1 people. Our homes have been getting larger while our families are getting smaller.
But earlier this year USA TODAY reported a change in that trend:
New homes, after doubling in size since 1960, are shrinking. Last year, for the first time in at least 10 years, the average square footage of single-family homes under construction fell dramatically, from 2,629 in the second quarter to 2,343 in the fourth quarter, Census data show.
The average size of a new home is approximately 15 percent smaller than it was just a year ago. Architects and designers believe this trend toward smaller homes was caused by the economic meltdown — but they expect it to be a lasting change.
Too big, too small
I’ve mentioned that my husband and I will be building a home soon, and we’ve gone back and forth with our architect on several sketches, trying to find our right-sized home. Most of the designs have been appealing, but some have been bigger than we need, and others smaller.
Buying or building too much home has a lot of drawbacks, including:
- Environmental effects
- Higher mortgage payment means more energy goes into paying for housing
- Higher taxes and insurance
- Requires more time and money to maintain and clean
- Higher utility bills
- More rooms to furnish
Buying or building too small is economical, but can cost in other ways. If your house is too small, you might face some of the following challenges:
- No room to expand if you have kids.
- Lack of storage space, even for basic household items.
- Not enough room to entertain friends and family. (If you enjoy entertaining, that is!)
- Lack of space for an office (if you work from home) or hobbies.
- Feeling like you’re living on top of your family members, with no personal space.
Finding a size that is just right
Too big is a waste, and too small is a headache. How does one find a Goldilocks house — sized just right? There are many considerations, such as the following:
- Lifestyle. Do you work from home and need office space? Do you travel a lot? How often do you entertain?
- Family. Do you have children? If not, do you plan to have kids (and plan to stay in the same home)? Are there elderly relatives who live with you or might need to in the future?
- Hobbies. Some hobbies require a bit of room, even if it’s just a sewing cabinet or a dedicated space for a piano.
- Future goals. Do you plan to live in the house for a long time? Do you want to travel? What are your savings goals?
Calculating the size of your Goldilocks home
Once you have an idea of what you need your house to do, you can calculate your magic number. In the article “Square Feat: Foot Steps”, architect Dan Maginn recommends starting with your current home and following these five steps:
- Measure and record each of the rooms in your current home, thinking in terms of the functions of each room. Include cooking, dining, bedrooms, closets, bathrooms, living, storage, circulation, and mechanical/utility space.
- Note whether each space feels too big or too small.
- Write down how your needs for each function might change in the future. For example, if you plan to stay in the house and have kids, bedroom space is a consideration.
- Given how the spaces currently feel and your future needs, adjust the sizes until the spaces feel right.
- Add up the adjusted numbers.
Right now our number is around 1800 square feet, with a loft that can be built out later if and when our needs change. That number sounds big to me, but looking at the plans, spaces, and considering our future needs (we don’t plan to move from this house), it might just be our right-sized house.
What is the square footage of your right-sized living space? Do you currently live in more space than you need, or could you use some more room?
J.D.’s note: I love the Tumbleweed Homes. I want one.
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This post is hitting me on a bad day. We’re trying to make a decision regarding an opportunity to get the “perfect-sized” house and it’s just about killing me. Part of the problem is the uncertainty about selling our existing house. If we knew we could get X amount for our house, than it would make it easier to quantify the new house or not.
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My house in Japan is small by western standards, but still a little too big for my wife and I. It is nice to have the extra space particularly when guests come, but we definitely regret buying it now.
We could probably get by with two bedrooms and a medium sized living room/kitchen. The bigger house forced us to buy a lot of extra furniture and it is more work to clean and maintain.
Our next place will be half the size. I am not sure on how Japanese sizes compare to the US, but I would guess that our house is somewhere around 800 square feet now.
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I am renting so I don’t have to worry about this. I will never have to reside in a place that is too large just because I might need the space someday.
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Suzanne (46)–”Also, attitudes have gotten out of control. My best friend believes that she would be almost abusing her child if the two of them lived in less than 2,000 sq ft. And she doesn’t understand why she can’t get ahead.”
That’s child abuse? I think our culture has OD’d on “The Brady Bunch”…
She might also be using her child as a justification to buy a house she really can’t afford.
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Hey April,
Buying a big house because you desire tons of space is like buying a Hummer because you desire a big car.
Buying a big house because you think you’ll need the extra rooms later is like buying an SUV because you think you’ll need to go off-road sometime in the future – but you only drive to the stores.
Best,
Oleg
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I grew up in a 1200sq ft, three bedroom house with Mom, Dad, two brothers and a sister. Sis was the only child that got her own room.
I currently live in a 1k sq ft house and could easily down size if I got rid of some of the clutter.
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it’s interesting to me how different American and Canadian standards are, given that we are such close neighbours and subject to much of the same media and cultural influences. We built a 1670 square foot home 12 years ago when our 2 kids were young and it was a considerable size by Canadian standards. With one out of the nest and our second in high school, we are definitely considering downsizing.
I googled the stat to see if my personal observations were correct and found the average Canadian home(in 2005) was 1353 square feet.
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@Kevin, my friend isn’t using her son as an excuse, she just really doesn’t get it. She’s a single mom with a very high salary – her son must have room to play inside & outside! I try to teach her, but it’s hard because she has so many emotions and so much guilt wrapped around the issue. It’s sad. She probably makes 4-5 times as much as I do, but I’m more financially stable. (Now that’s saying something since I’m still paying off debt!).
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My wife and I live in this little one-bedroom house:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tylerkaraszewski/4081058356/
Last year our joint gross income was about $170k, but we still find this house plenty adequate, and it means our housing costs are proportionally *half* of the 30-35% of income that people generally recommend.
The house is fantastic in other ways, too. For instance, there beach is about 50 yards behind where that photo was taken, separating us by just one other house.
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I think it’s important to keep in mind that the tiny houses mentioned don’t include the loft area, which is an additional floor with a bed (and usually nothing else). That does make a difference, obviously.
When I moved to Canada, I was surprised that everything was so big. The stores, the streets, the people… the houses.
I’m renting an appartment right now, it’s too big for me. We know what the ideal size for us is : 500 square feet. Bigger is too big for me, and I start to depress. Smaller isn’t practical for two humans and two cats (We’d prefer something smaller if it wasn’t for the cats).
When I go back to France to visit, I’ll share one of my best friends apartment studio : 10 square meters, about 11O square feet. Regular size for a student apartment in Paris. (And if that doesn’t scare you yet, let me add that it costs 500 euros monthly. Or 750 dollars if you prefer. That’s what I spend right now for 5 times the size).
We’ve done it before, 2 people in 110 square meters. It’s livable, if you’re clever with space, and you don’t spend all your time at home. Oh, and of course you need to share a bed, because there won’t be room for a second one.
I grew up in a city where there just aren’t houses. There are apartments, and when there needs more housing, you build higher because there just isn’t room left. So I’m used to it, and that might explain my preferences.
Although my environmental impact matters to me, I just feel more at home in a smaller place. Like it’s “hugging” me. Something too big feels empty, and empty isn’t like home. It’s not cosy.
And I’m not about to buy Stuff to fill the space.
My ideal bedroom has room for the bed, an end table on each side, and a closet for clothes (not a walk-in closet, just a regular one). Anything more is too big for me.
But different people have different needs. As long as you realise bigger isn’t always better like we’re being told so often, you can start looking for the perfect size for you. no matter if it’s a house or an appartment, if you’re buying or renting.
(About places being higher than they used to be… My husband is 6’6″ and one of the places we visited, he couldn’t even stand up in it. That was kinda funny)
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We are still in the first house we bought, but we have done a lot of remodeling over time. For the first 10 years, we had an unofficial apartment in the downstairs, with its own kitchen and bathroom a smallish entry room where a dining room table could sit and a greatroom. When we paid off the mortgage and ran out of friends who needed short-term living arrangements, we converted the downstairs kitchen to a laundry room and redid the bathroom. And put in wall to wall bookshelves in the greatroom for all of our book collection.
Upstairs, we have three bedrooms for two people, but since the DH and I both feel we “need” a study of our own, it seems just right. It’s an old house, though, and when we bought a queen size bed for our bedroom we then realized we can’t have much else in the room… Ditto the living room, which doesn’t have a couch, just four comfortable chairs around the coffee table…
sometimes we do go out and look at open houses — I really dislike the trends toward enormous bathrooms, with soaking tubs or jacuzzies that I bet aren’t used more than a few times a year (?) and especially the double sink idea. I love the DH, but I don’t want to brush my teeth with him!
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My question to Jay is this: Is there indoor plumbing & a functioning bath & kitchen area in the tiny home?
My current home is the largest I’ve lived in as an independent adult & is a bit over 1100 square feet. One person, two dogs, occassional visitors, & three art mediums that don’t play well together fit into it just fine. Then my parents moved from a stuffed-to-the-brim, over-sized 6-bedroom home into a compact 2-bedroom retirement apartment. I bought some of their furniture, tools & equipment for my home & the next thing I knew it became the drop-zone for a lot of “stuff” no one else wanted that didn’t sell in any of the garage sales. Yes, I still have trouble saying “no” to my Mom. Four years later, I’m slowly & quietly rearranging & disposing of the excess that crowds my home.
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Our apartment is about 1400 square feet and it’s too big! I’m glad we have a spare bedroom, but it’s about twice as big as it needs to be. So is the bathroom. And the living/dining room is a square, which leaves a big corner of empty space – our neighbors have used his space as an office, but my husband said he doesn’t want an office in the living room. However, we don’t have kids yet, so I think the extra space in the guest bedroom will come in handy then. I would love to live in a tumbleweed home!! I keep telling hubby I would like to live in a studio apartment once in my life.
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If I’m not making use of every room, I feel that I am wasting money (and that means that I am missing out on life opportunities that would follow from making better use of my money). There’s a lot of stuff that people trying to sell us houses do to make it appear that the cost of owning unused space is not that great. I try to tune that stuff out.
If I am using all the space I own, I don’t object to paying the price for it. If I am not using it, there’s something wrong. That’s a simple but I think a good general rule.
Rob
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My husband and I live in an 1800sq foot home which I like, but it is really too big for us. It would be perfect if we could just chop off the third bedroom. Unfortunately, it’s really hard to find a 2 bedroom house in our area. There are smaller homes, but almost all are 3 bedrooms, which means the room size just gets smaller and that’s not what we need. But, we’ve been rethinking a lot lately and maybe after 10 years here, it’s time to rethink where we live too.
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We have a 1920s Spanish Eclectic bungalow which is about 915 sq feet (for me, husband, 1 dog, 3 cats). 2 BR, 1 Bath. All the rooms are small but the layout is intelligent and flows well.
We love our house; it has details that you just don’t see in many houses any longer (unless they are custom built to exacting details), such as lovely coved ceilings.
However, it’d be nice if it were a bit bigger. The one bathroom is very small, and it’d be very handy to have a half bath/toilet. I would love a room to use as a studio (I knit & spin & would love to start weaving but there’s no place for a loom), and I know my husband would like a pool table (figure that room could be a library/pool table room) (he earned $ for college expenses playing pool).
Our bedroom doesn’t really have room for our dressers (they’re in the 2nd bedroom, which doesn’t have a bed) (that room is actually where are cats stay during the day, they’re indoors only but the dog has a dog door which we close at night — at least one cat would use the dog door if he had access).
A room for guests would be good, but I could combine that with my studio (have a murphy bed perhaps).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephcat/sets/72157594387433377/
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I would love to have one of those houses—in my backyard!
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@Tyler (#59)
I love your little house. What’s that wooden structure in the right of that photo?
I’ve written before that I feel like Kris and I have bitten off more than we can chew. We can afford our mortgage just fine, but we have 3/5ths of an acre and 1800 square feet. That’s more than two people (and four cats) need. It’s too much. We have rooms that get little or no use. We can’t keep up with the yard — especially when one of us is writing a book.
When I think about it, even the 965-square-foot apartment we lived in when we were first married was more than enough. We had an extra room! This leads me to believe that maybe 800 square feet would be perfect. (Of course, now we have tons of extra Stuff that we’ve bought to fill the big empty spaces in this house…)
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Our house is about 1250 sqft. I could go smaller except my husband is a pack rat. We are also not very organized, so our stuff could potentially take up less space than it does.
Mostly the house is a good size though. We have a guest room which gets a fair amount of use, and a good-size living area for parties. We each have our own office space and the kitchen is big and open, with an eating area (the dining area is taken up by a piano, which we both play). There is a second 1/2 bath which is a treat; I never want to live in a one-bathroom house again!
The yard is what’s really too much. We got it for our dogs, and they of course love it, but I find it overwhelming. In the summer the grass is out of control, and don’t even talk to me about dandelions. I don’t have the time or desire to maintain it. I think we’d be happier with maybe 1/2 or 1/3 the yard we have, and the dogs would not mind much.
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we live in 1800 sq feet, mom dad and 4 kiddos. Our basement is a walkout but unfinished and is a planned space to finish for teens. Also have 1/2 acre. It’s just right for our family size.
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Tyler (59)–I looked at the house on Flickr. You and your wife earn $170k? You have my utmost respect for being successful and rejecting the need to let anyone know about it.
A good friend of mine, earning six figures, owned a 1990s vintage Saturn for many years, with nearly 300,000 miles on it. It looked like an updated version of a Columbo car, if anyone can remember that TV show. He could easily afford to drive something better, but he wasn’t motivated in that direction. This was something I found completely admirable about him.
When you can live beneath your means like that, you’ll never be owned by anyone. Not creditors or even employers. THAT is the definition of success and it means more then the biggest, in-your-face house or car you can buy.
Success shouldn’t need to be proven to others.
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This was a great post, with some very helpful tips and guidelines. I wish it had been around when my wife and I bought our house.
We bought a house that’s way bigger than we need. We bought a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath home (with rough-in for a fourth bath in the basement), and 2600 sq. ft., for just the two of us. We’ve never planned to have kids, and we still don’t. It feels so luxurious to have all this space for just the two of us. It’s very convenient when friends or family come to visit and need a place to sleep over. There are 3 spare bedrooms (all with queen-size beds) to choose from.
We didn’t skimp on the finishes, either. The entire main floor (including the kitchen) is solid American Cherry hardwood (not laminate). The kitchen has granite countertops and birch cabinets, with stainless steel appliances. The main floor and basement (yes, basement!) have 9-foot ceilings. Our ensuite bath has dual sinks, and a two-person roman tub with Jacuzzi jets. We’re on a corner lot (3-times as much lawn as our neighbors), we have a 2-car garage, a study, a huge dining room, natural gas fireplace, 20-foot ceilings in the foyer and family rooms, … I could go on. It’s comfortable, luxurious, convenient, and just a really nice place to spend our free time. You’re going to spend a lot of time in your home. If you’re not positive about how much space you think you need, I would recommend erring on the side of “too much” rather than “not enough.” Moving sucks.
The only downside I’ve found after living here for 9 years is the cleaning. It can be annoying to clean 3 bathrooms and 4 bedrooms. However, given that it’s just the two of us, the spare rooms don’t really need much cleaning very often.
It’s the one area in our life where we splurged, and we don’t regret it. We have no other debt besides the mortgage, we drive a 5-year old Mazda 3, we don’t eat out very often, we’ve never been to Europe, neither of us has a cell phone, we strictly stick to our budget and save over $3,000/month for various goals (travel, retirement, vehicle replacement, etc.). All this on a pre-tax household income of around $140,000.
That said, when we eventually retire and move back to the coast to be nearer our families, we will not likely get as big a house. We’ll almost certainly get something smaller, and put the extra equity towards a cottage, or a condo somewhere down south for the winters.
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Happy in my cozy 770 sq foot home! Bought it in remodeled condition, sits on a double lot, near large cities and suburbs, and on an income that has increased by 35% since! This allows for lots of savings of course! Every day I am reminded how lucky I am, and how I could never rent on what i pay on my mortgage. I showed the house to a realtor recently just to get a feel of his opinion, which was very positive.
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We live in 980 sq ft. My husband was worried that it wouldn’t be big enough when we first got married. We made a deal that, we would get rid of enough stuff to fit comfortably in this space and if it still wasn’t big enough we’d move. Amazingly after paring down our stuff, we decided to stay. Every once in a while I wish we had a guest room for visitors, but really difference in mortgage payments isn’t worth a room we’d only use four or five times a year.
The biggest issue we faced was finding furniture that was the right size. So much furniture today is designed for much larger rooms than we have.
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Wow Tyler #59, what a balling house!
You must be saving a lot of money every month then, which is great!
I think having 700sqft per person is a good amount i.e. 2800 sqft for a family of 4. 500/sqft is at the lower end of my comfort range.
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We’ve been all over the map, both geographically and in home size. Our homes have ranged from 900 sq ft to 2950 sq ft. We found that 2400 sq ft was comfortable for our family of 6 with too many toys. We also found that 1800 sq ft with 4 bedrooms was quite comfortable before the last child was born. We’re currently moving back down from 2500 to 1750. That should be quite comfortable for us with the two remaining kids, not overly huge for us when the kids are all gone (just close the doors on a couple of bedrooms), and comfortable when it comes time to take in an elderly relative or two.
Our ideal home (which we have never found and can’t afford to build) would be a 4/2 around 1800 sq ft with lots of storage, a large living/family room, one eating area and a smallish room for the piano and some seating, isolated from the living/family room. Bedrooms from 10×11 to 14×16 (master) work well, more is unnecessary. Oh, and give us lots of closets or other storage. We would be comfortable with less finished square footage if we could have a basement, but that’s not really an option in most of coastal Florida.
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My husband and I just bought a house, and it’s much larger than we currently need. (It’s a 2800 sq ft house, and there’s just the two of us living there.) However, we got a great price on the house (within the recommended debt limit, based on the lower of our two salaries) and a really great mortgage rate, and we’re planning on living in the house for twenty or thirty years. (We’re in our mid twenties.) We plan to have kids, and we each have two parents, one or more of whom might conceivably end up living with us eventually. We also love to entertain. So, although the house is laughably large (and has very little furniture) now, I think that it’s the right size for us in the long run.
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J.D.:
That’s an old wooden play structure that’s a bit dilapidated that I’ve been intending on tearing down, but haven’t yet gotten around to doing.
Kevin:
Well, I did post my salary publicly on the internet — I don’t mind if people know how much I earn. But, my goals in life aren’t focused around showing that off. I’m successful if I’m healthy and happy, if I get to work with smart people on interesting projects, if I get to set my own schedule and feel appreciated. If my wife is able to stay home if she wants to. If I can go out for a bike ride in the afternoon on nice days. A big house? It’s not on *my* list of criteria for success, and wouldn’t sacrifice any of those other things for it.
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Well my husband, myself, 6 dogs, and a cat live in a 738 sq. ft. house in Florida. We have a 2 bedrooms, large front porch, large one car garage, small back porch of the garage and little less than one acre. We are about to update with a new front porch, french door off the kitchen so we can connect the house to the back porch. We plan on having one child in this house in the next 2-3 years. If we have 2 children we thought about moving to a three bedroom, but many just rearange the space we have…
Lat year we almost bought a 3500 sq. ft house -4 bedroom, dinning room, office, den, 3 car garage, jr. olympic pool, and an extra 800 sq. ft. “out building” with AC. We really stopped and assessed our goals. I loved the bigger house, it was my “dream home.” The mortgage was 3 times our now and it would take 4x as long to clean, plus all the extra of having a large home.
Nope! We will stay in out “small home.”
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Thanks for the post. This was on our minds for the last couple of months, weighing what to buy for a house.
We’re buying a townhouse this month for my husband and I and it’s 1680 sqft. We plan on staying here for a while and we think this will be enough room for living and the home office.
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We bought our 1200 square foot house 20 years ago. It was built in the 20s and it was love at first sight.
It’s amazing to see the closets though, about the size of a broom closet! I have a rule, nothing comes in the house without something going out, it keeps clutter to a minimum.
The house next door just sold (the couple had a child and expect another) and they really needed more room. But the good news is the value has held up, they sold their 1100 square foot house for 5 times what we paid.
I will never sell this house, if we ever move I’ll keep it as a rental but our plan is to find a cottage at the beach, also small, to spend weekends. I’d take a shack for the right price!
On the other hand my husband grew up in an enormous house (4 kids, 6 bedrooms, 2 acres) in a wealthy area. EVERYTHING about that house costs a fortune (at least they can afford it). For example, I can go to the nursery and get a flat or two of flowers for my garden and you’ll actually notice them. Those are the small kinds of things people need to consider when buying a large house.
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The median home size in the USA is about 1758 sq ft as of 2005.
See 948 – Housing Units-Size of Units and Lot: 2005 :
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/construction_housing/housing_units_and_characteristics.html
The number they give above is the MEAN figure for NEW homes. New homes are larger than old homes. And the average mean is going to be skewed high by the mansions. But most Americans don’t live in new homes and the median size is a more accurate reflection of a typical American.
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We(husband, wife and 2 kids)moved from a 1100 sq.ft. 2 bed/2 bath rental apartment this year and purchased a 2400+ sq.ft. 4 bed/3 bath,2 floor (thankfully with 2 zone heating/cooling)cape home on a 1/4 acre with a huge masonry patio out back facing a lake. The extra space feels like a luxury to us. Kids have their own rooms(one is a whopping 15′x 15′),us parents have a large master(23′x14′)suite with a vaulted ceiling and spa-like bath, 4th(small) bedroom on first floor will serve as a home office/guest room with full bath next door, first floor is an open floor plan living space (divided into a living/tv room and a dining area with another sitting area facing lake)with a large 10′x20′ kitchen and a laundry/utility room. But with all that space, we STILL could really use one extra multi-use space since we do not have a basement(trade off for lake view…we do have a large storage closet under the stairs and a large unfinished attic the size of 2/3 of the upstairs for additional storage). So we plan on adding an all year round sunroom so that our kids can use it as a playroom or that we can escape to when their friends visit. Problem is we have to save for college first so we dont know when we will ever get to actually do it!
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We are two adults and 2 DKs ages 8 and 5. We live in a 4-season part of the country, where summer temps get into the 80s F and winter temps can get to -10F.
In our current flat in a duplex we own, we’re upstairs — which means we share the downstairs tenant’s heat! We have about 1200ft^2 with 2br/1ba + an office/walk-in closet with a window and a LR/DR. Our tenant’s rent covers 90% of the mortgage. So, our fixed monthly housing costs are now about $700.
To compare, we still own but rented out the nearby 1800 ft^2 house we regret* purchasing in 2005. Even with a $750/mo mortgage, it was costing us $1500/mo most months (including utilities, insurance, mortgage, and property taxes). We’re happy to have a tenant covering those expenses until we hopefully pass it on next year. We’ll get at most 90% of what we paid for it, but we could have made a costlier mistake.*
The 1200 ft^2 really doesn’t seem too small most of the time. It does when the kids are antsy and we’re all home together, which is really only parts of the weekend and most evenings. We also feel pinched when we accumulate too much junk that isn’t organized, which isn’t a problem I’m willing to pay extra for!
We made the switch two years ago because we were pretty sure our sole breadwinner was going to be laid off. Still waiting for that, but we’re ready.
We’ll definitely end up in a bigger home someday (at least a 3br/1.5ba duplex), but we figure we have another 2-3 years before we need to make that move.
*I use the words “regret” and “mistake”, because our guts told us to rent for a few years after selling house #1 and moving across the country, and we listened to a financial adviser instead. Doh. Right-sized and priced house, but wrong time and not quite the right house. At least, we didn’t splurge on a lake house we “could afford”.
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My house is about 1500 sq. feet. We have a finished basement with a tenant in it, and the rest of the house is for my family (3 people and a cat). Aside from the basement suite, it has three bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, a home office, dining room, living room and kitchen.
For a house built in 1880 it is pretty well designed for our purposes, although changes have been made to utilize the space to it’s fullest.
There is an add-on in the back to house the home office, and the walls were torn down downstairs to create one huge room for the living/dining area with a half-wall into the kitchen. We saved space by stacking our washer/dryer and building a laundry cupboard in the kitchen.
The bedrooms upstairs are pretty small – the smallest one is our storage room since our basement is being utilized by our tenant.
Although our house is large by downtown Toronto standards, it is quite small compared to the homes in the suburbs. It is a compromise I am very willing to make since I can walk to work in 12 minutes flat.
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My husband and I rent a little cottage by the sea on Cape Cod. We have a bit less than 400 square feet (including the loft), but it’s the absolute perfect size for the two of us (and our dog and cat too). If we buy our own home in a few years, we’d like something roughly this size.
Even though our cottage is only 400 square feet, we both work from home successfully and we couldn’t imagine living in a bigger place. For us, having a smaller place means there’s less room to fill with stuff. As a result, all of the “stuff” we do have was chosen deliberately. And it’s a great motivator for being (and staying) organized too!
Of course an added bonus to our little cottage is that the ocean is only 500 feet away!
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We live in a 4 bedroom, 2400 sqft two-story farm house that was built in 1966 (the same year I was born!) — me, husband, & 2 kids. I wouldn’t mind going smaller, but I’d have to have less stuff, & I think I’m probably the only one in the family who would even consider a smaller house. Our bedrooms are small, but our house is about the right size for the 4 of us. I really do love my house and (especially) my property.
We sit on a full wooded acre & have a little barn for our two pygmy goats, as well as the coolest multi-level treehouse ever (built by my incredibly talented & handy husband). One side of our property is a road, and the other is a horse field. Jake the horse makes a great neighbor & never plays his music too loud. We have dogs, cats, and rabbits as well as the goats, and two kids who are very involved in the local 4H program. I always think of our place as a wonderland for kids. I’ve never loved a house as much as I love this one.
We also have too much stuff. I’m in the process of doing a major pre-holiday declutter — 30 things per day for 30 days (I’m on day 3). By the end of it, things should look a lot better around the old farmhouse.
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I have a question I wonder if folks could give me advice on: DH and I bought a 3/1 1100sf house a year ago. We had four roommates at the time, but now it is just the two of us and it feels MUCH too big. We are thinking about downsizing to a house half the size, and half the price. The problem is, we want kids. This house will be perfect in 5-8 years when we have three little ones, and it is walking distance to the elementary, jr high, and high schools.
Should we downsize for now, and upsize again as needed? Or, should we stay put and just wait it out?
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Des, can you get some more roommates? The money you’ll save by moving into something smaller may very well be eaten up by the cost of moving twice.
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I think houses got so big because people kept buying more than they could afford. “Oh you’ll give me $300,000? Sure, I’ll buy a 3,000 square foot house”. Now that (hopefully) people are thinking a little more, maybe house sizes will come down even more than they have recently.
I think a good rule of thumb is to buy a house as big as you can AFFORD. Not many people can say “I want the best of everything” and be able to afford it, so pick and choose what features are most important. I’m in my early 20s and not exactly in the buying stage yet, but I know that I want a large kitchen since I like to cook, and my current kitchen in my 1-bedroom apartment doesn’t cut it. And yes, if you have a lot of empty rooms, it is tempting to fill them with furniture you may not be able to afford.
I think it really just comes down to planning. Not just planning for the house costs itself, but figuring out what you’ll need to buy for the layout you’re planning on buying/building, and whether it’ll meet your future needs (kids, etc.). Plan on working from home? Then the extra bedroom might be necessary. Want a big backyard for the dog? Well you might have to pay to landscape it, etc.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with buying the biggest house you can afford, but most of the time people don’t consider what it actually costs to run a household, let alone one that IS bigger than they can afford. Being housepoor sucks!
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Though we still rent, I think our current house is the perfect size for us. I don’t know the exact square feet, but its about 1600. We both work from home and have home based hobbies so a smaller home would not work for us. I think if we both worked outside of the house 40+ hours a week, less space would probably be ideal. Since we are home almost all the time, we’d probably kill each other! Larger would be overkill. We are not planning on having children.
I think we have enough self control not to fill the house with things we don’t need even if we have open space. I like not feeling like things are crowding me.
This article is something I will keep in mind when we start to look to buy in the near future.
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We live in a 1060 square foot home. It is small but we can afford it. When we bought it we only had 1 child and now #2 has come along so yes it’s a little tight but love grows best in small houses. I also feel a house or anyplace you dwell can seem small if you have too much stuff. The smaller your house the less stuff you can keep. I have pared down the excess and freed up space for the important stuff and am trying to instill this into my son who thinks you must keep everything anyone has ever given you.
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We just moved twice in the last few months, so I’ve had an opportunity to try out three differently sized places for our 2-adult, 2-kid family.
House 1: (lived for 5 years): 1400 sq. ft. bungalow. At first was too small, but when we finished the basement, I think it was perfect!
We had a windfall (wahoo!) and decided to move to a better neighborhood for the schools, and while we were at it, upgrade our house.
House 2: 2 bed, 2 bath apartment during the remodeling of House 3. At first, I thought this would be way too small. But there were advantages. So much less to clean. So much less stuff (we had a ton in storage and honestly, didn’t miss is!). I thought having two kids in the same room would be a nightmare, but the putting to bed process was so much shorter. We weren’t herding them upstairs to their bedrooms and chasing them around. Being in the same room was nice and they got used to it.
House 3: Maybe 2,000 sq. ft.? Definitely the biggest house we’ve had. It’s wonderful, we love the neighborhood, but there’s definitely more to clean, I do miss the kids sharing a room sometimes for the ease, and I’m always running around looking for stuff.
Is it upstairs, downstairs?
Conclusion — same as yours — best to be “right sized.” More space for the sake of more space isn’t better. Pare down all your “stuff.” I was surprised how the apartment didn’t drive us crazy! The layout was important though…probably more than anything.
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We had to move due to my DH’s job and that meant renting about a 900 sq ft condo with 1 car garage after living in a 1600 sq ft house with a 2 1/2 car garage on 1/2 acre lot. He misses the house. I do except for now we have a better school for our daughter and it’s almost like we don’t pay utilities compared to the house. Our house needed new windows and new a/c unit so both summer and winter bills were extremely high. I don’t think we spend as much here in one year as we did there in 3 extreme weather months. The thing I miss the most though is the space to do my sewing/quilting and no room for exercise equip. Luckily when family visits they don’t care about air mattresses on the floor.
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Neat post! I have no clue how large the place is that I rent – but I might get out the measuring tape when I get home.
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Well, we decided against the “perfect size” house. We just aren’t where we want to be financially to take on the added costs. Also we would not be able time-wise, weather-wise, and money-wise to be able to properly prepare our current house to sell it when the better house will be coming on the market.
Right now, we are living in a 1290 sq ft ranch house from the 40s. When it’s just the three of us, the house is comfortable, but the living room and kitchen are so small that it quickly feels too small when anyone comes to visit. And whoever mentioned the problems with buying furniture for smaller houses–you are right on! We had a bear of a time finding a couch that wouldn’t take over our living room or a nice looking table for our kitchen. Almost everything we found was styled large to fill out the McMansion Great Rooms, and wouldn’t fit properly in our house. Makes me wish I was a furniture designer. I’d start a line of smaller scaled pieces for people in apartments and smaller homes.
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I’m in a between stage. My daughters are in HS and a local college, not quite gone, but not quite home either and there is no real telling how much longer I will need to keep space for them. I’m currently in 1700 sq ft, but see that as way too much house for me with grown children who (presumably) will eventually live elsewhere.
Next question: how much space will I need, and how soon, when they start having children of their own? Yikes!
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This is such a great article, and it is clearly hitting a nerve with a lot of people. It comes at a good time for my husband and me, since we’re starting to look for a new house (or for land where we can build).
We don’t necessarily want more square footage, but we need more than our house can offer: an open floor plan, more indoor and outdoor storage, a home office, and attached garage plus workshop.
We have three small children and live in a ~2100 square foot house (two stories, 4 br, 2 ba). It’s 100+ years old and at least 500 sq. ft. is unusable. There is almost no storage and the rooms are small. The basement is not finishable, which is a problem.
We have a huge yard, which we love, but there’s a one-car detached garage that doesn’t even fit our minivan, let alone my husband’s business stuff.
Both my husband and I work from home, so we need at least one home office that’s very separate from our living space and kids. My husband also needs significant storage/work space outside the house to accommodate his business. We love to cook and entertain, but our kitchen and dining areas can’t accommodate that, so we need a floor plan that works for two cooks.
We love this area, but we’ve outgrown our house. I can only hope we find (or build) our Goldilocks house soon!
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#71 Kevin – everyone knows that Columbo didn’t drive a Saturn, he drove a volvo : )
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My husband, daughter, and I live in a 1,053-square foot ranch home with a partially finished basement. It is just right for us. There are three bedrooms on the main floor and one in the basement, so we have room for more children. Whoever allocated the space in our basement did a great job, as it also has a family room/library area and a large play area as well as a big room for laundry and storage.
Our main floor living area is very open, although I do wish our living room was a little larger. Someone else mentioned their home is less than 1,000 square feet and it’s hard to find furniture that doesn’t look too big … that’s our problem in our living room, too.
We have several elderly neighbors who raised three or four children each in their homes back in the day, so we know it can be done.
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