How big is your home and how does that affect your life?

[Breadsauce77]

I’m currently living in a home that is much too small for our needs. Less than 1000 square foot for a family with a child. Maybe around 600 square feet. No outside space of any sort.

In our case we are fortunate as it’s temporary (1-2 years) and I fully appreciate many people are living in inadequate accommodation long term, so this is not a moan.

I’ve just noticed how much harder things feel than when we were living in a decent size house with garden.

I feel like I am permanently tidying up because everything has to be in its place or it is chaos, there is limited room for DC to play, play dates are a nightmare, DC can’t go outside to let off stream. It’s dark and cluttered and gets me down. It’s tricky to go on wet muddy walks as literally nowhere to store / hang muddy wellies and wet coats. No where to keep bikes or scooters.

I WFH too so spend far too much time here.

It’s really made me realise how much harder life is for those who do not live in accommodation that meets their needs.

When we moved in I thought maybe life would be easier as less cleaning . But I was so wrong!!

The only advantage is heating is very cheap!

Sorry OP sounds hard. I think layout makes a big difference too I actually found our 1.5 bed flat much easier to live in than our next 3 bed Victorian terrace as the kitchen was tucked right at the back as a mum of small kids I felt back there away from everyone constantly! We are very lucky we have a 4 bed Edwardian semi with a big kitchen diner and seperate lounge. It’s so much better having a big family space and has impacted us positively. I did love our old flat though and reckon we could live there comfortably if we got rid of loads of our stuff!

Fairly big but an odd layout, and I think living space massively affects our life! It's a 5 bed and living room upstairs, then large kitchen and playroom downstairs. But we essentially don't have a separate living room as the upstairs one has become a spare room, junk room, craft room and my home office. We have the TV and a sofa in the kitchen downstairs. I do miss having a separate cosy living room but overall it more than meets our needs and i feel very lucky. We have 2DC, 4 and 2, plus 4 guinea pigs and a cat!

I used to live in a 650sqft flat, then moved into my current house which is 4,000sqft. The house I was raised in is over 10,000sqft so I think I’ve experienced a good mix.

I think my current house is the best size-wise as we have more than enough space (just two of us living here) and plenty of storage, but it’s well laid out and feels very homely and cosy. We’re also lucky to have decent outdoor space which we didn’t have in the flat- found that harder than the actual size of the flat. I’ve come to the conclusion that I need garden access as I find it really beneficial in terms of mood/wellbeibg.

Haven't a clue how many square foot my house is tbh

It's a 6 bed detached with 3 ensuite and 3 reception rooms kitchen dining room and ....

Nah I'm lying it's a 3 bed semi with kitchen and a separate diner with downstairs loo

It seems big enough for our family but I'd love a bit more space

Which 'home'?

Guffaw, gaffaw...

I live in a 6 bedroom house with 1 bathroom and 2 shower rooms. It has a very big garden and a huge conservatory too. When all my children lived at home growing up it was really lovely. Now there's just me, DH and 1 foster son. It's far too big but DH is so stubborn he won't agree to downsize. He just says there's room for DC and DGC to stay. I've tried pointing out if we downsized we'd have far lower council tax to pay, he'd have less lawn to mow but he just won't budge. It's expensive to heat, and even empty rooms get dusty and cobwebs if you don't keep on top of them. I'd prefer a 3 bedroom house with an ensuite and bathroom and an average sized garden.

Big enough, 3 bed, 2 reception, large kitchen diner. We moved from another 3 bed that was about half the size of this house and omg did we feel the increase! out last house felt like we were living on top of each other but this house has room to breath. I was incredibly thankful we’d moved before lockdown otherwise I’d have probably lost my mind.

I’m the opposite in that ours is big, but not lovely spacious with lots of storage big. It has a lot of small rooms across lots of floors and very little storage. I’m constantly going up and down stairs returning things to where they belong and lots of things don’t really have a good home so end up looking a mess even when they’re where they should be eg dp and dc do a lot of sports and my hall has tennis bags and boot bags and hockey sticks etc in as well as youngest twos bikes and scooters because there’s not really anywhere else to put these things, also muddy boots like you say, they live in the shoe cupboard when dry but end up just lying in the hall a lot of the time because we go on a lot of muddy walks! Also there’s nowhere to put the vacuum and mop away properly so they just have a corner. I seem to spend my whole life tidying and cleaning and it still looks a mess!

Mine's 650 square foot, but it's just me and two dogs so plenty big enough. It's over three floors though, so I get a lot of incidental exercise going upstairs to the loo and downstairs to let the dogs out or make a cup of tea.

Ours is a big too big for our needs as there’s just the two of us now but we won’t be moving as we live where our business is. It’s ideal when family come to visit though. It’s a 6 bedroom, 4 bathrooms upstairs and 2 reception rooms, a family bathroom and cloak room, large office and 2 kitchens with utility rooms downstairs. We have a “working” kitchen which is used by staff and our kitchen is separate as people come in with boots on into the working kitchen. I had a little flat before I met DH and loved that just as much as our family home.

1600 sq ft from memory, me + 2DC.

How it affects my life …. I need to keep slogging it out in a really stressful role I’ve come to hate to pay my mortgage.

I have a three bed end of terraced ex council house ( which I own).

I hate how judgy people are about ex council houses- they make assumptions. However, I am grateful that I have my own secure home I can afford.

My house has enough room for me, but I would love a bigger kitchen- I don’t have much space for dining or to have people around for meals

It makes a huge difference. We were a family of 4 in a house under 1000sqft, I want to say around 800sqft if I remember the particulars, a very small new build 3 bed. I actually liked the house, was cosy and cheap to run, but it was stressful with 2 children, especially when Covid hit and WFH 😩 we moved areas and were able to upsize to a 4 bed detached that's not massive at around 1500sqft but more than suitable for our needs. An office for me, decent sized bedrooms for the kids, box room for DH's hobbies, and a second reception room. I can't tell you how life changing it was, I felt like I'd been gearing up my whole adult life for this home, I often wondered if it would be anticlimatic but it wasn't. I still walk around my house every single day 4 years later saying how much I love it and how grateful I am for it, really is one of our proudest achievements! But I wouldn't change a thing, living in our small house is what makes us grateful now.

(Our sales particulars mentioned the square footage before the usual sneering comments about how do people know the size!)

two bedroomed flat with adult sons and I squeezed in. I have largest bedroom, one son in the other bedroom and eldest son in the lounge converted to a bedroom. One son in spare room; one in lounge converted to bedroom.
I'd LOVE more spare room! nah, would just love my lounge back, but son isn't moving out anytime soon!

Ooh do I win for having the smallest yet on the thread? 350sq ft, one bed. Me and my partner and 2 small dogs. Yes, it’s very small and I would like more space but mostly I’m just grateful to own my own flat as I grew up poor (although in a 2 bed terrace) so never thought I’d own anything, let alone in London. The mortgage and bills are cheap meaning we can both pursue freelance creative careers where income fluctuates. So yes I do feel cramped sometimes and would like more storage space, but it’s not unbearable.

I am TTC #1 in a house that’s around 700 square feet with a small garden and planning to move next year for this reason. It’s a generous size for two of us (I WFH and use the second bedroom as an office) but there isn’t space for a cot in our bedroom or big toys in the living room and the garden is almost entirely uneven paving stones which aren’t toddler friendly.

Do you have a front garden? DH attached an anchor to the wall and we lock our bikes to it and put a cover over. We’ve had them out there for 5 years and they haven’t been stolen yet even though it’s not a great area and they are right next to the pavement.

I don’t know how many sq feet it is but we live in a 4 bed detached. It’s just DH and I, we have a kitchen diner and a reception room, plus utility and downstairs loo. Upstairs we have our bedroom, en suite, a spare room, office/ baby DGS’s room, main bedroom and a dressing room. We’ve got a nice sized garden and double garage. It’s not huge, but it suits us fine.

We lived in a two bed terrace when we our 2 DC were small. We coped ok because we had less stuff because we had nowhere to put it.

Similar size to yours OP, we are also a couple with a baby, tiny two bed but built from scratch (by us) and as a result mortgage free. We do have a small garden but it currently resembles a rubble pile! Not a forever home but a very special first home, current plan is to retain and downsize back down to in the far-flung future. Layout is key, we made some decisions to give a greater sense of space like a generous double height hallway, inbuilt storage wherever possible and large internal windows which bounce light around and extend views. I hope we will look back on our time living here very fondly (especially the cheap heating bills!)

We have the opposite problem. Rebuilt a ruin and ended up with 3 bathrooms, a draughty home prone to damp, and a hectare of land that needs constant maintenance. Not expecting you to feel sorry for me, but it's not much fun either! No time or £££ for anything but upkeep. The 21st century has many advantages. Our next house, if we play our cards right, will be a tiny bungalow!

Yeah I lived in just under 400sqm as a family of 4….drove me insane…literally, I had a mental breakdown and had to leave.

1200ft 4 bed semi (but really equivalent of a 2 bed semi as 2 bedrooms are inadequately sized) with 2 adults and a 6 and 4 year old.

The house would be adequately sized but I'm finding it really hard to live in as it's really poorly laid out and you have to wind your way through the downstairs/bash your knees off everything in the kitchen. It's also really dark.

We're planning to move within the next few years and would be looking for >2200sq ft (assuming we can afford it).

@AcceptAllChanges I think this is why I like new builds against most opinions on MN, I grew up in a very large but draughty Edwardian house that constantly needed work and I came to value functionality and ease over size or indeed character, I think I'm the only person I know who detests high ceilings 😂

Depends on how much “stuff” you have - we just moved from a 70sqm 2 bedroom flat to a 100sqm three bedroom house, and it feels massive. If we didn’t have to house DH’s record collection and book collection (currently taking up all of spare room and dining room), I would have so much space I wouldn’t know what to do with it.

If you have a loft, get it boarded and sealed. Costs about £3k but it has been an absolute game changer to have somewhere clean, warm and dry to store things like beach stuff, out of season clothes, decorating things. Like having an enormous walk-in wardrobe.

Ours is big enough in terms of floor space (small 3 bed, us and two young DC). But there is no storage which makes it a real pain. Even a decent, accessible under stairs cupboard would be a massive help. Ours is only half height, and the layout of the house means the tiny door to it has to be behind the sofa.