To ask if you are happy in your 'small' home?

We have a large 3 bed but both work from home. We love the house and the area, have fantastic neighbours so wanted to stay. When we had 2nd DC we built a garden office. It has spotlights, flooring, plastered and painted. Essentially it's like another room. We use this as the office.

We have also got the attic fully boarded and fitted wardrobes in both DDs rooms. We are in the process of decluttering and have got rid of a lot this year already x

We live in a bog-standard 3 bedroom ex council house with three children and it is definitely too small for us. Unfortunately DH refuses point blank to move and increase our tiny mortgage. I think with only two children it would have been absolutely fine but could absolutely kick myself for not insisting we move before agreeing to have a third.

Your house is bigger than mine, and there's more of us. Sounds like you need to declutter and be more intentional with your choices of furniture. I'd love a second toilet, but we've loads of room for now. It's not expensive to heat, quick to clean. We will probably move to a 4 bed before our 3DC are teens, but for now I wouldn't want to be paying for space we don't need when we can be spending it on fun and investments.

My husband and I have one child, he's 7. We live in a ground floor 2 bedroom 2 bathroom flat. We've lived here since I was pregnant. It's small, but completely fine for us.

I am so strict with clutter. I am a very organised person so I make sure the flat never feels overwhelmed with "stuff." Both bedrooms have built in wardrobes. Our bedroom has an en-suite shower and toilet, and the main bathroom has a bath. Tv wall mounted in livingroom and kids room. In our bedroom we have a tv bed so we can put the tv away during the day.

Small can work if you make it.

The only thing I don't like about my flat is the kitchen not having a window. But that's just because of layout and I wouldn't move because of it.

Sure, we could move to somewhere bigger and spend more. But keeping a small, easy to maintain home means having more disposable income for a more interesting life.

I moved last year and downsized a lot (more expensive area). I wish I'd spent a bit more and bought a little bigger. Two bedroom (one decent sized, one box room), one sitting room, tiny kitchen (no space for a table). I'm planning on having a conservatory at some point which will give a little extra space. I have a mid sleeper in my daughter's room so she has space to play underneath.

I wish I'd stayed in my 1000 sq ft house, we have double the space and I hate it. I dont have time to clean it, do the garden etc. I did need to move though cos once my DH died I couldnt live there anymore, however I should have stayed with a smaller house.

My recommendation would be to add an extension - it doesnt have to be huge to make a difference - and open plan the ground floor that way as the kids get older you will still see them and will all still spend time in the family room/kitchen. H9nestly I missed this with my kids as they went through teenage years and spent all their time in their rooms only surfacing to get food!

Ref bedroom space, thing about going up into the loft. You could probably add a decent room and shower room up.their and either you have it or your eldest does. This gives you a spare room for visitors. The extension and extra room will probably add more than double their cost to the value of your house too.

It is subjective. I have a small two bed (just me and the dog though so It's fine) but my parent's house is huge-howvever my postage stamp sized kitchen has more surface space than theirs. Theirs would drive me nuts as nowhere to put anything down near the cooker/stove.

I would like somewhere slightly bigger, maybe a larger reception room but overall I'm happy and it means life is more affordable.

Same position except we wouldn't move, it's literally what you make of it.4 kids aswell 3 beds, made a 2nd toilet downstairs and we all cosy and happy

This is exactly our plan! 1200 sqft, but only two bedrooms. The kids will share until DS is approaching his teens, then we'll move somewhere with 3 bedrooms. Tbh it's so nice to live somewhere where we don't even have to worry about paying for it every month because the costs are so low.

My grandparents have a three bed flat which is about 600 sq ft + a tiny (and I do mean tiny - under 35 sq ft) kitchen, toilet and shower room. At various points over the last 60 years there were anywhere between 4 and 7 people living there. The kitchen was never big enough for a dining table to fit everyone around so we have a custom-built folding table there and if there were more than 3 people eating dinner, we would put up a leaf table in the living room. When I was little, we had a tiny fridge which was actually hung on the wall above the dining table as there was no other way to fit it. We have since found a different solution.
I love the flat. It's cosy, it has lovely memories and somehow we all fitted there without anyone feeling it was too small.

We made the move and it was worth it. No more bathroom bottleneck in the morning as we have more bathrooms. No more laundry Tetris as we have a utility room to sit the airer in. No more kids waking each other during the night as they now have their own room. No more lying awake all bloody night as DH and I now have space for a king size bed and he’s a blessed few inches further away. The house is easier to maintain as we have proper cupboard/wardrobe space and everything has somewhere to go, so it’s quick to tidy which means quick to clean.
life is just so much calmer in this house. I can breathe. *we are a bit more stretched financially but not overly so, I am generally quite risk averse

Overall yes I am happy, it is a warm house, heats up really quick and retains the heat. We have a large shed which helps out with storage, and a average size garden.

I would love to have a downstairs loo or second bathroom and a full size 3rd bedroom, but not enough to take on the bigger mortgage. Costs of loft extension are prohibitive too.

I live on a 57ft narrow boat. 2 adults, one 6yr old and fat staffie. We operate a one in one out policy on clothes, coats and shoes etc.
We have an allotment that has a lot of our outdoor stuff, like bikes.
It is small and there are days i curse living in a floating corridor but the lack of material belongings i find freeing...

I loved my teeny tiny first flat.

But then again I had no kids it was just me. I’m pretty frugal and love having minimalist wardrobe etc.

I live in an expensive but small home. It’s a new build and looks good, stunning bathroom
& kitchen (hence the cost) but I’m feeling like I have outgrown the space and would love an extra room or two.

I think once you’ve done everything you can in your space ie ticked off all the furniture and decoration purchases, it’s a sign that you’re ready to move on. I feel finished with the decoration now and I’m on the hunt for something bigger. I just think my happiness is capped being here because I’m finding myself having to make do a lot, ie no designated office space or proper space to workout/get a yoga mat out. I’m also finding I need to declutter things I’d rather keep as eg I don’t have enough space for clothes AND spare towels/bedding in my drawers etc.

Personally the extra space and flexibility is worth upsizing.

We're also in a 3 bed (1150sqft) and our children share a room because DH works from home. We need to declutter (working on it) but it's honestly lovely. I love our home even though it needs work. The bones are great.

The vast majority of people have raised families in small houses or flats for generations. You're totally over thinking this.

My house is a small 3 bed terrace 950sqft. I like having disposable income.

There were 8 new builds along the road a few years ago. 4 beds. Expensive. Less sq footage than my very old 2 bed terrace.

I have 2 large reception rooms, an ok kitchen (gallery style) 2 massive bedrooms and a large bathroom. I could in theory have a downstairs bedroom as the living room is seperate, abd the dining room big enough for dining and living areas

We lived as a family of 7 in a 100square foot home for 1.5 years. Baby in with us, 3 kids in the biggest bedroom and eldest in their own room (though it wasn’t a total box room). We managed but now we have moved to a 1600 square foot 4 bed with a separate playroom and office life is so much better for us all, with 2 kids I would definitely have stayed in the 1000 square foot house and saved money, but with 5 it was a no brainer to move somewhere bigger (which we could afford partly by moving to a cheaper area).

We live in a 638sq ft house (very precise as I just looked it up lol) there's 2 adults 1 child in 2 double bedrooms. We're very happy. We're considerate in what we buy, how we store things etc, house is easy to clean and maintain.

We live in a small house - I don't know the square footage but it's a small 2.5 bed Victorian terrace.

The things I don't like:
Galley kitchen, although we will fix this soon by removing the wall to the dining room
Only one loo
The bedrooms are very unequal sizes - second bedroom is a decent sized double, third a tiny box. The DC are good about swapping over every few years to keep it fair.

Positives are the very central location that can't be replicated without tripling the mortgage, it heats up fast and cheaply, low council tax, less space to clean and furnish. All that means we have plenty of ££ left over for holidays, contributions to university costs, and extracurricular. No plans to move as for us the positives outweigh the negatives.

A couple of things I have seen people do which i think are great ideas that may give some inspiration:

• Do you have space under your stairs you could put a extra toilet and sink?
• Could you declutter your garage enough that you could use half for storage and the other half you could convert into a utility and downstairs toilet, or even a small dining room so your kitchen feels bigger, maybe even a playroom?
• Box room, I saw a really cool design where someone put ikea kitchen cupboards on the wall above the bed to maximise the storage. It sounds a bit rubbish the way I’ve explained it but honestly looked really good!

In a similar situation to you OP but I am slowly really loving my little home. I could think of 100 reasons why I need somewhere bigger, but the reality is for me at the minute, our lifestyle with a small child and another on the way is that I don’t need any extra space to clean or maintain. We are having to do a lot of decluttering at the minute as we need to make space for another DC but the more I’m getting rid of, the more I’m loving my home. It feels so much bigger. I love I can spend my weekends as a family taking my son to different places - my friends with bigger houses and expenses can only do that occasionally. Then I also think it’s nice to be able to bring a baby home to a nice, cosy, well designed house not a building site or somewhere which needs completely renovating. The only thing I really do wish was bigger was our garden as it’s basically a courtyard so we can’t ever have friends over but we counteract that by going out places which in reality is probably a lot more interesting and means I don’t have to host other peoples kids which is always a bonus for me!

I'd stick with the smaller property for now and continue with your updating/renovations.

We live in a "normal" sized home which sounds similar to yours although my kitchen fits a table in comfortably and we have a downstairs loo as an extra.

For me although I sometimes think I'd love some extra space the extra costs just isn't worth it.

I do also think we are so influenced now via social media and tv to think that large houses with beautiful massive kitchens with an island and bi-fold doors is the norm when actually at least in my part of the country it really isn't.

This is our issue. Good size living room, good size separate dining room, good size kitchen. Large bathroom, 2 large doubles, and a tiny box room. If we upsized we would ultimately be trading it in for a double and 2 singles and an open plan kitchen diner etc