If you need to feel good about living in a small house...

shopgirl78

The kids and I visited my parents about a week ago and their house is about 3 times the size of ours.   It was so hard to contain the kids.  There are so many ways to get so many places and with two kids, they'd go different ways and since my parents are not really used to having kids around.  There was stuff to get into.  I told DH, I'd pick our small house (1500 sq ft?) any day because I can see everyone and their location from the central room (living room) and I can hear when they are quiet or loud.   Often times, we find ourselves want more space but the grass wasn't that much greener on the other side...

Disclaimer:  I imagine if you live in a big house, you have ways to make it work...this is just to make us little house peeps feel better....

MsKellDel

I totally agree. We just moved from a big single family home back to a city row home. I love how I can see every room in the house and it is straight through. (And if I keep telling myself all the positives I will forget how much space I used to have)

Jamaica_Bride

Having lived in both big and small houses I will agree to disagree )

Yodajo

It is much easier to keep an eye on them in a smaller house.  We just moved two months ago to a house that is almost three times the size of our old house.  If I am upstairs, I cannot hear what is going on the 1st floor and vice versa.  At our old house, I could shut all the bedroom doors (before DS was able to open them) and know exactly where he was and what he was doing.  I never thought I'd miss our old house, but I do.  It was very cozy, easy to maintain and take care of DS in.  So, I agree-bigger is not necessarily always better.  I'm sure it'll get easier for us soon and the fact that we're still not unpacked and 100% settled is affecting my point of view, but for now, I am missing my little house.

stacynikki

We went from a 1700 sq ft house to a 2500 sq ft house.  We just keep all the doors off the main living area closed (with the child proof doors things on them).  We've been in this house before he was mobile so we just made it work as he started getting into things.  However, my parents bought our old house and moved in last weekend.  I have to admit I actually wished that we had kept our old house and made it work.  It would be nice to have less to upkeep and a much lower mortgage. 

snickerdoodle27

We have a smallish house, maybe 1350 square foot, not including the basement. I sometimes say that I'd love a bigger house, but then other times I realize it's a challenge for me to keep up with the house I have now! We've slowly been transforming it to get it the way we want it, and I joke with dh that once we finish it I won't want to sell it!

Chrisy-Wyobride

I like the close proximity too but the 2 best things about my small bungalow is that it takes very little time to clean & that it's more than half paid for (hence a very cheap mortgage & lots of extra money)!  I am one of the only people I know that is never worried about money.  I am often tempted to buy a bigger place in the burbs (that is even cheaper), but then I realize why I would do that (more space to buy more stuff) & change my mind.  My 3 kids are gonna share 1 tiny bedroom & I don't feel bad at all about that.

Jaylea

I always lol that 1500 or 1700 is "small".  We live in a 1080 sq. ft. house. My parents and inlaws live in 12-1300 sq ft. homes and have plenty of room.

We have a lot of old housing stock though (our house was built in the 20's)

firefightersgal

Jaylea:

I always lol that 1500 or 1700 is "small".  We live in a 1080 sq. ft. house. My parents and inlaws live in 12-1300 sq ft. homes and have plenty of room.

We have a lot of old housing stock though (our house was built in the 20's)

I also laugh when people say 1500 sq. ft. is a small house.  That's the size of our house now + a full basement.  We moved here from a house that was 620 sq. ft. with no basement.  Talk about SMALL.