To think this house IS big enough

@GreenTeaLikesMe - I certainly don't keep 5 bikes in my house!

The answer to the cricket bag is to put it in the garage except DH and DS disagree believe me i keep very little physical consumerism crap except the vast amount of clothes DD has acquired in my house and there is still a bloody cricket bag on my landing. consimerism in this house takes place in the form of tech

If thinking about the conservatory option be sure to also consider the heating cost issue, as I understand that they can be cold and expensive to heat.

Bikes can go in the garage or garden.

Less consumist stuff frees up space which can be used to store the cricket bag and ironing board and hoover - that is how it works. I'm sure the OP has a hoover and place for it already, anyway.

Teenagers benefit from having limits on how much stuff they can have or acquire, and learning how to declutter and how to shop selectively and avoid waste and impulse purchases.

If you read my other posts, you'll see I suggested other options around room configuration and considering the benefits if giving one of the children a bedroom instead of using it as an office for 3 days wfh or a guest room, both of which will be less useful day to day.

Thank you! I'm forever editing posts to correct my autocorrect and poor typing!

Yep. They're young enough to be brought up not to be consumerist.

That size of house is 3 times the size of the one that I grew up in with my 4 siblings and 2 parents. This thread has attracted the kind of people who don't have a clue how other people live!

Just raise them so less crap is their normal. It's not like forcing secondary aged children to give away half of what they own.

What so reduce the amount of stuff her existing children can have because she wants another baby? Sounds a great idea.

Children come with hobbies. Just finding somewhere sensible for the bloody cricket bag is something I've never mastered. A family of 5 = 5 bikes. You've got to keep the hoover and ironing board somewhere.

They have a garage. And probably don't plan on keeping 5 bikes in the house!

If you're a teen and live in a house without much space, you learn to live without much "stuff"

HTH

I've compared it to my own house, I have 3DC and DH works from home. The only way I can see this working once you have a third child is a garden office (I suspect the garden isn't massive though).

I don't think needing storage is just about consumerism. Children come with hobbies. Just finding somewhere sensible for the bloody cricket bag is something I've never mastered. A family of 5 = 5 bikes. You've got to keep the hoover and ironing board somewhere.

Definitely not. Move or shelf the new baby idea. They won’t always be a baby, one day they’ll be a teen with tons of their own stuff and they may well want their own space.

@Coconutsandpalmtree sorry you've had such a strange response on this thread.

I have three teenagers and live in a small 4 bedroom house. Like you we have two doubles and two singles, we decided that my kids would have a room each, so we don't have a guest room and I wfh on a fold out desk in the living room. Guests stay in our room and we have an inflatable bed we use downstairs. We did extend downstairs so we have an extra living space, this is also quite small but it's useful so we are not all on top of each other all of the time.

Housing is so expensive these days, we have made the intentional decisions not to move and spend some of the cost of upsizing (with all the associated costs like stamp duty, legal fees, moving costs etc) on the small extension. A conservatory would be another option if you have some space for it outside.

Our choice was based on wanting to live comfortably - having holidays, not worrying if something breaks down etc rather than stretching ourselves to have a bigger house. I do sometimes wish we had more space, but I always come back to thinking that we have a nice life that we couldn't necessarily have if we had a bigger house, and this house is completely fine!!

Cupboard in sitting room would probably make a small office space. Or move your youngest into the second double with new addition when the time comes and use the boxroom as an office. I wouldn't use anything that small as a bedroom. Invest in some bunk beds. If you end up with a gender clash then you might have to swap them around later on.

But you are currently worrying about something that a) may not happen and b) if it does the baby will be nine months in the making followed by about six months in yours at least.

My boss had one and his was about 28k it’s beautiful though and cheaper than moving I expect

There is nothing squashed or overcrowded about OPs home even is she does have another child

We had storage built into the eves of our attic for extra storage we can slide the big plastic storage box’s onto shelves and it has doubled our storage and no mould we put the little silicone things in each one it’s been fine.

Can you put the older two in the office then use the smaller bedroom for a baby and the small double as an office/ guest room? I would get a pull out sofa for guests. You can’t plan your life around the occasion guest coming and a guest room is a luxury a lot of people don’t have these days

OP has already said the house is tight on space, and they are thinking about another child, which won't make the space feel any bigger. How nice that you grew up in a "big" house; I grew up in a run-down council house - would that have been "normal" enough for you to visit to see how the "normal sized house" people live?

The house would be big enough for three children if one of the bedrooms wasn't an office. It's probably big enough for two children to share the bigger bedroom, depending on age, but whether they want to is another matter. OP asked for opinions, and people are giving opinions. How strange to think that's weird, when it's literally the point...

OP has already said the house is tight on space, and wants to add another child. Once the children get bigger, it will feel even tighter. I'm aware that people (including us) have lived in far smaller, but the whole point of the OP was that space is tight can we fit more people and stuff in, and people are giving their opinion because they were asked.

I think you might have hit the nail on the head, excessive consumerism meaning people feel they need heaps of storage. We live next door to a family with a very large house but they buy so much stuff that twice a year they fill a skip with brand new looking toys and equipment. And then the deliveries for more new stuff begin! And they have replaced their kitchen twice in the 6 years we have lived here! According to DD the mum has an Instagram account all about the house

Its hard to keep trying to do my bit for the planet when your neighbours are just pissing it away (vast AstroTurf lawn included)

Agreed.

This thread is weird. The majority of people must live in smaller houses than this.

I grew up in a house so big that as a little girl I was really excited to see what a "normal sized" house was like inside, and even I can see that there is plenty of space for 3 children in this house and that the horrified comments are utterly bizarre. Plenty of people live and have lovely happy lives in houses much smaller than that

I think they meant benefit from living a comfortable life without being squashed and overcrowded.

Yes and that is the nasty bit - its not remotely squashed or overcrowded and to suggest her family are living an uncomfortable life is rude and offensive. Not just to OP but to the many many families who don't live in massive houses but have perfectly comfy, happy and thriving family homes.