Has anyone moved from the big family home when they didn't need to?

[ElderAve]

I (we) have been maintaining fairly standard, maybe slightly larger than average, 4 bed detached house with a larger than average, but not huge garden for 30 years now.

I've had enough. Whereas once upon a time, I would take pride in keeping the house and garden nice, choosing colour schemes etc now it's all just a chore.

I find myself hankering after a one bed flat or a tiny bungalow. We don't need to move for financial reasons and it's not that we can't maintain it anymore, just that I don't want to.

No DGC yet though. The only thing that's stopping me is the idea that there would be nowhere for the family to come back to, either in a time of need or for family gatherings.

Has anyone done it?

Do your children live locally?

One local and one in the forces

I have friends who did this. They plan to rent beautiful houses in lovely locations for family get togethers. Their children live in 2 different countries.

Many people sown size as they don’t want to upkeep a larger home.

If you downsize to a smaller home, could you hire a holiday home if family come to stay? Surely this would be more economical anyway than keeping empty bedrooms & paying council tax etc

You may not need to have the capital but a few holidays?

We moved from a 5 bed house two a 2 bed flat, half a mile away. We are now nearer the shops, tube station, buses, post office and doctor. We also :gained ' a nice chunk of money, about half of which we are spending on the flat making a new kitchen, new bathrooms, rewiring and new flooring. When it's done we will get new furniture. The dust is 1500 sq, ft. Our house was 2200 square feet. We too have no grandchildren however both sons own property fairly nearby. We have room for guests to stay in Murphy bed. We aim to future proof this place so we can stay c in it for our old age.

Both sets of parents stayed in their family homes for too long and found it too hard to manage a house. E. g. The wiring in the house was v old but the occupant needed a stair lift to be working.

The FLAT is 1500 sq feet.

We found the move exciting in 10 or 20 years it would be more stressful

How do you find a flat after a detached home Mosaic? I've said my perfect home would be a small but perfectly formed luxury flat, but somehow detached with a small courtyard garden. I'm not sure where I'm going to find that! I'm a bit nervous about neighbours (and their noise/our noise) being too close for comfort.

My parents downsized from 4 bed semi to a small 3 bed new build. They don’t regret it at all. Low maintenance and good chunk of money fir them to live on from sale. It’s a bit of a squeeze when we all get together but both my sister and I have larger family homes now so we just take turns hosting.

I'm planning to do this next year OP

Bought out my XH last year and now have 27 year mortgage for 5 bed detached house in an acre garden. Can't afford a gardener and although my solo salary plus XH child maintenance payments cover the mortgage and the basic living expenses I'm bored of endless lawn mowing and no holidays, clothes etc.
We bought it as a forever home as a couple but when we split I realised I wouldn't be buying this house in my new circs if it were in the market.

I've identified small semi-detached houses street in nearby big town so will enjoy being walking to culture etc plus will be mortgage free in 5-10 years and be able to assist my youngest with university fees.

Sometimes it breaks my heart knowing I'll leave the house I love so much but unless I find myself in a new partnership with someone who wants to co-habit here it's the pragmatic and sensible thing to do!

Best of luck and thanks for posting. Glad to see I'm not alone.

I know someone who did this, for the same reasons as you OP - got fed up and wanted gardens that were more easily maintained, rooms that could be decorated by themselves in a day - that sort of thing. They moved to a smaller property and garden and were happy with it. Not as small as an apartment, but more easily maintained on a day to day basis.

We are just in the process of doing the same thing. We have a large old Victorian house and garden. The dc are just about to go or have gone to Uni. And I’ve had enough of dealing with maintenance/cleaning. So we sold it last week and just bought a smaller modern house with small garden. Can’t wait to move and have spare cash to enjoy time with Dh travel/ weekends away.

I did. Moved from a large 4 bed with a sizeable garden to a tiny 2 bed with a courtyard. Was also asked to sell most of my furniture to the buyer of my previous house, so moved with almost nothing.

Once I got over the stress of refurnishing and decluttering all my personal bits, I have found it totally liberating. The house takes no more than an hour a day to keep spotless, the garden is full of pots so easy to maintain and my heating bills are a quarter of my last house.

I now spend my days having fun, rather than looking after a house !!

We've moved from a large 5 bed with huge garden to 3 bed bungalow. Kids at high school.

Will be doing some building work to get it how we want it. No regrets - everything so much more manageable and time and money to spend elsewhere...

Mosaic Small detached Bungalow maybe !

We looked for a bungalow for two years but couldn't find anything in a good position that we liked and was affordable. They all needed tons of work to be half decent. As they were almost all empty after the owner had gone into a care home or passed away. I wasn't at all sure about buying a flat, but we have a large balcony and I feel confident that either of us could live here on their own. I was also slightly worried about sleeping with a window open in a bungalow (ground floor), although there are ways around that (metal plantation shutters for example).

The opportunity to do whatever we like (decorating wise) to the flat is one I relish. It is share of Freehold so we are able to knock through an internal wall (relevsnt permission granted). My new kitchen and lounge will be larger than in my 5 bed house and v modern. Two decent sized bedrooms and two bathrooms.

It was also good getting rid of the clutter before we moved.

My Mums just done this, she lived alone and was rattling round in a large old house and was finding the upkeep a chore. She’s downsized to a two bed little house and is far happier. She got rid of loads of stuff but I think it was quite a nice change as she had furniture more for the house rather than it being things she loved. She also ended up with a chunk of savings, and I think will be better off monthly as the bills and maintenance will be less. She wishes she’d done it much sooner!

I'm just in the process of doing it - DH and I are both 56 and have 2 DS living their own lives (early 20s) in the UK (we are in EU). We have lived in a large 4 bed/2 bath house with small garden in the suburbs of an EU city for the last 12 years and last summer we both had a lightbulb moment. We'd had enough. Every last penny was going into the house for upkeep -we'd had new insulation put in the house, new windows, doors and there was still a bathroom that needed doing. We agreed that over the next 12 months we would sell the house and buy an apartment closer in to town.

I found the apartment first - 3 bedrooms, roof terrace - very exciting, so we bought it, put our house on the market and are crossing our fingers that it sells soon.

We also future-proofed - there's a lift for when we get old and doddery, we're much closer to public transport and we could leave there very happily for the rest of our lives. I'm currently thinning out 12 years of crap and "thanking each piece for its service" in a Marie Kondo kind of way. And I'm not even joking - passing stuff on to a charity shop and hoping that someone else will buy it and use it, and the money going to a good cause. I'm really enjoying this.

Do it, OP, don't get stuck in a house that's too big for you and that's still taking up your money even when you're retired and on a fixed income. Or worse still, being stuck in the house when your mobility is compromised and it's no longer suitable.

@ChinUpChestOut That sounds really great! And three bedrooms are enough for your sons to visit, too. I envy you the roof terrace - do you share that with others?

@HollowTalk we haven't moved in yet, but as the DSs only visit 2-3 times a year, we will just make it work. The bedrooms are doubles, so a reasonable size (but nothing like our present house), although we will need to use one of them as a home office for DH. We're just going to learn to live more flexibly when both come to visit. They're really happy for us, as the apartment is much closer to the city centre where all the action is!

Roof terrace is ours......

My friend's parents sold their 5 bed detached and bought a three bed flat in zone 1.

My friend was worried they'd lose their social circle (and depend too much on her...), but funny enough having spare bedrooms in such a central location means lots of visitors!