Is it better to live in a big house?

[rosiesunflower]

We've sold our small house and ended up renting a big house. We'll big to us anyway.
I feel so much more relaxed and calm. I have space for the first time. I get all the extra cleaning and things like that but overall the space is outweighing anything else.

We're now looking to buy again and everything has changed about what we thought we wanted in our next home. I feel like I can never go back to a small house again. Has anyone gone from a smaller house to a bigger one and regretted it? I'm talking quite a large house ie 4000 sq ft plus. Our house we sold was 1000sq ft! I suppose it would be very long term purchase. We only have one primary aged dc.

Dillydally
I find it difficult to believe five people are struggling in a 2500 square foot home. Do you have a loft and shed?

Your current home you deem as bursting at the seams is three times larger than my current home. I would be doing cartwheels in a 2500 sq ft house.

I suppose it depends what you are used to. I have never lived in a big house with more than one bathroom or reception room.

I have large 4 bed detached with a loft conversion of 2 further bedrooms and a shower room. When my 2 teen boys lived at home and 1 you get son it was great but now eldest in own home and middle son moving out later this year to own house it is just me, DH and youngest son and we don't need more than 4 beds. I'd like to downsize but youngest son plays cricket for an county and has an enormous net in garden. DH says we can't move because we need garden.

I'm the opposite😀have moved from a 3000+ sq ft house to a <1000 sq ft bungalow temporarily and I don't want to go back to my big house ! It's so quick to clean a tiny house, I feel free and calm and can do so much more 'fun stuff' with my time now I'm not tied to an endless list of household chores. Every room is so close and within reach, I don't procrastinate putting things away, or running back to fetch something I need to finish a job.

Yes I suppose I could get a cleaner back at home, but there's something really fulfilling (to me, personally) about keeping on top of the housework and having free time. I love a smaller house!

I expect it all comes down to what you're used to though - You're enjoying the benefits of a bigger place, I'm experiencing the benefits of a smaller place ... The grass is always greener, eh 😊

If taking on a bigger house means much larger mortgage commitments, you might really notice the difference in disposable income /quality of life. I'd always scrimped and saved to achieve a big house, and right now I'm having a lot of conversations with myself about turning that on its head - more disposable income seems quite an attractive payoff in return for less living space (which I know now brings its own benefits).

I’m with you on this. We moved from tiny flat to small house to bigger house to large house and every time I have felt less and less stressed. Just love having space.

Don't think that you've failed, a house is a home and happiness isn't determined by how big it is. This thread seems to be full of mumsnet one upping about who has the bigger house. 1000 is not very small and smaller houses are generally better for warmth, bills and maintenance.

I don't even have a garden and never want one. I don't feel like I have failed in life. But then am not British.

Pleiades2020
Thanks for the encouragement.
It is my own fault for opening this thread.

My old house was 2900 sq feet, my new one is 1600 - the latter is actually warm and because it's modern our bills aren't horrendous

We’ve gotten payrises, gone from small money to BIG money.
I feel so much more relaxed and calm. I can blast the heating all I like. I can do twenty loads of washing a day. I can guzzle petrol for breakfast.

I feel like I can never go back to chump change again. Has anyone gone from a smaller income to a bigger one and regretted it? I'm talking quite a large amount ie a squillion pounds plus.

The issue with large houses being cold isn’t their size but the fact that they’re poorly insulated! Good insulation and glazing is very important. Out big house ( more than double size) costs less to heat than our small cottage did

I have a family of five and we have lived in apartments in the US, 650 sq ft terrace, a 1,000 sq ft house with the smallest box-room bedroom I've ever encountered, a 1,300 sq ft house with a huge garden and garage all in England , a large 3,200 sq ft house (I felt it was too big), my current 2,500 sq ft in Texas over the past 30 years.

I am moving next year and I've decided we are buying a 1,400 sq ft single-story house. In Texas, they believe "bigger is better" and it's weirdly harder than I expected to find one. I'm spoilt for choice for a 4,000 sq ft and up but it doesn't suit me or my family. I like living simply and we manage to have plenty of space in a smaller residence because of it. We only keep what is necessary.

What's that British expression: "Horses for courses"? Or the American: "Different strokes for different folks".

4000 sq ft is huge though. Tbh the bills & maintenance would put me off.

My parents home is about 3500sq ft & I prefer about 2500 sq ft.

We live in a really big house (5000 plus sq ft) although as we live in the US it is less unusual.

I've been in big homes in the US & have often found they have huge hallways & big spacious bathrooms but other rooms aren't as big as they could be.

I've never lived in one, but YES! A thousand times. We have two adults and a child in a house that is three bedrooms but very small. This means that clutter is so noticeable and so is mess and dirt, to the point it can really be upsetting if you can't relax in clutter, which I can't.

With space you can shove things to the side and they are actually to the side. There are no sides here! It's all just on top of you all the time argh!

I think it’s what you do with the space and how much stuff and people you have in it. My house is 700 sq ft and feels big for two of us. But it’s very light and the whole downstairs is open plan.

I also agree space is important. I prefer wide houses, long narrow ones & tall ones don't feel so big.

I mean proportions.

Also I prefer location more than size, you are unlikely to get a massive house near the high street & tube.

Everyone on this thread has such big houses 😭 whereabouts do people live?

3, soon to be 4 of us in a 5 bed terraced. Went from 800sq ft to 1,850 sq ft plus an undercroft - still feels massive to us!!! Very happy with the space and feel incredibly lucky, but I’m sure I would learn to live with something bigger, somehow 😂

😄

My house is 1500 sq ft. Me and two kids. I’m a minimalist at heart and it feels far too big. I’d love to shrink it by a third. It’s not worth my while to move.

When we moved out of London we moved from around 1200 square feet to put current house which is about 3500 square feet. Our house is 5 bedrooms but one bedroom is a playroom. The others are for each kid to have a room. It’s honestly not that harder to keep clean. If you think about what you do when you are cleaning - the dishes stay the same no matter the house size, the bedding changes and laundry stays the same, it’s only vacuuming and an extra bathroom which only gets used by guests which add any work. Cleaning a small or long kitchen counter really isn’t very different.

I personally feel like having more space is an absolute luxury. Everyone gets more privacy and I don’t feel like we need to leave the house as much. We can spend whole weekend afternoons just hanging around. The kids have space to do crafts and not have to pack them up when we need the only table in the house.

We moved 200 miles away a couple of years ago with the intention of downsizing, which we almost did. We went from 4 beds, 2 bathrooms to 3 beds, 2 bathrooms but every room is much bigger in our current house.The garden is smaller, which we wanted.
We are just us two though now and I’ve retired so I don’t mind all the extra cleaning as I have time on my hands.