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

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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.

I bought a very small house so that I would be able to afford to decorate and furnish it as I wanted. I live on my own so it's perfect but I have had to have a strict word with myself about not buying more stuff. I've got a 'one in, one out' regime for just about everything now.

3000sqft,
4 bed detached,
3.5 bathrooms,
2 adults + 3 kids + a dog

Gorgeous house, but no garage, small bathrooms and the gym/ playroom has dividers down the middle to separate.

3 bed semi probably could make better use of space especially adding some shelving etc

We are a family of 4 living in 42sqm. It's cramped, really really cramped and most definitely affects all of our moods negatively. Without continuous tidying it would be unbearable. We don't buy anything we don't need or haven't already found a space for and we can't ever buy something just because we love it. Decluttering happens almost weekly and we try to get out every day to make it slightly more bearable

I think it makes a big difference and so does layout.

We extended downstairs and it has been amazing. We have 4DC (eldest is 8, littlest is 1) and it makes a HUGE difference if someone having a nap/going to bed 3 hours before someone else doesn't mean you have to be quiet. Our house really isn't huge, but we have an insulated playroom so noisy children e.g. hideous beginner violin practice after other children are in bed is not an issue! Game changes.

Adequate bedrooms seems important. I think really if we want to stay here we'd need to extend upstairs as the 4th bedroom is a box room, no space for a mooching teenager.

I grew up in a big house, but poorly insulated, with a very convoluted layout and sound travelled. If my parents were watching TV it kept me up sometimes and my sister had this really annoying habit of sniffing that irritated me.

I also think it matters how you spend your time. If you're rarely at home you don't need as much space. But I love having a piano and I'm quite a home body. We used to love in London and although it was ok i much prefer our house now.

@Alltheusefulitems We lived in a 2bed Persimmon home for a while & it was very difficult for 3 of us. I believe it was approx 42SQM and 3.33m wide :(

6 beds, 4 receptions... but we have 5 kids, so we absolutely fill every inch. Our layout is weird, but it works ok for the needs of our family. We have a lot of ground around us that takes a lot of upkeep, and while it's nice to have space, I'd rather have less garden to tend to in the summer months. I feel blessed to have what we have, and I don't think I take it for granted.

About 850sqf with a decent garden. We have enough bedrooms for us, ds and a home office. It's fine but definitely lacking storage and feels cluttered. Kitchen is too small and large dog makes it feel smaller again. Could get something bigger but reluctant to spend more when our mortgage is so cheap, we enjoy the spare money

We live in an old 4 bed cottage of about 2,000 sq ft. It means ds and I have a room each and then rooms for friends to stay. We have enough space that when my ex visits, I can avoid him for most of the day.

It takes a fair bit of work, costs too much council tax but has been our home for 13 years. It's been a good place, we aren't cramped, we're quite a way from neighbours so we have privacy and can make as much noise as we like. It's well insulated and has a log burner so warm all year round.

It's easy to relax.

I went for a five bed, three bath, two reception in a slightly worse street than the four bed I originally looked at on the better road so we’ve chosen size over location. Sometimes I think I’d prefer the smarter front but we we have a full on gym in the garage, teen dc have their own bedrooms and “playroom” each for when friends come overly and we’re just used to being able to spread out now. Will probably move when they leave home.

We've got 890 sa fr in a 3 bed terrace. It's not ideal but liveable.

1000sq ft (also googled it) three bed semi, it’s fine for us as a family of four but I do feel like one extra room downstairs as an playroom then one extra room upstairs as an office would make a big difference. Very grateful to have what we have and I love our house but it does feel like all four of us are always in the living room.

I grew up sharing a small bedroom with 2 siblings. Have lived in a range of houses since.

I knew my current house was big (4,000 sqft) but what really puts it into perspective for me is reading about the houses on this thread that are less than half the size of our 1,000 sqft garage. We didn't build it - it's stupidly big.

1350sq ft.

Originally built as 4 bed with upstairs sitting room. As with PP, the upstairs sitting room became a bit of a non-room.

Extended to put a sitting room on the ground floor.

As DCs left home we split the first floor non-sitting room to give DH and me a large dressing room and me an office.

Now just one DC at home. We have only 2 actual bedrooms. One other bedroom is used as my sewing room, single bedroom is used by DS as a painting studio. I have an office.

I love this house. We bought it as a stop gap but have stayed because we have altered it to meet our changing needs.

3 bed house. Large driveway (fits 3 cars)

However teeny kitchen and zero storage inside

The garden backs onto 7 other properties (we prob have more outside space than inside) and it very unmanageable for me on my own (DH works away 2/3 months at a time!

I'd like a smaller garden and more storage in the house!

Yep we did an extension. No idea what square footage we have but our life is soooo much easier and simpler.

There’s actually somewhere to eat that is not the living room, for example.
The children each have a bedroom meaning toys have more places to be other than the living room.
We have a downstairs loo and a utility room, instead of washing machine being in the kitchen.
We have a fridge freezer in the kitchen instead of in the cold and dark garage.
It’s SOOOO much easier to clean and tidy as there is actually a space for everything.
Life changing!

My house is small but I have decent outdoor space…I find everyday is a work day based on the limited storage we have..we need to constantly clean and tidy,,we have to limit purchase of clothes and all house hold items..if I buy anything for my home I need to throw something out…I do find this frustrating but also really beneficial..I can’t have clutter,my home is beautiful but small..and I would not change it…I used to live in a bigger house and I filled every space with items…the more space you have the more items you will have..

I was in a 600 sq foot house and my DC used to cry at the front door every morning to go out and go to the park! 😳

We've moved now to a 2,100 sq foot house and our DC never, ever cry at the front door to get out - they just run around happily playing. It feels like we've won the lottery

our home is quite large at 1600ft2 (2 adults and 2 toddler) it feels spacious and we have lots of outdoors space, but not too big and we use every single room. However both DH and I grew up in MUCH smaller council homes with larger families than we have now, my DH shared a small bedroom with 3 other siblings and loved it. We had a brilliant upbringing with very fond memories our of childhood homes.Space isn’t everything, bigger home doesn’t equal better childhood.
I’ll be honest when I visit my parents in my childhood home with my kids it feels very cramped but it never felt like that growing up there, it’s just what you’re used to.

Mine is quite small I suppose, 2 bed terrace.

I'm not so bothered about floor space, it feels cosy. The main thing that gets me down is the darkness (only one window in each room) and nowhere to store anything.

My bedroom contains my Christmas tree, hoover, iron & ironing board and camping equipment...as well as all my clothes

I live in a 4 bed Victorian terrace in inner London, about 1800 sq ft. We have a family of 3 adults and 2 dc, and it meets our needs fairly well. We moved from a 2 bed flat, so it feels spacious and sometimes I think to myself it's amazing that we have the whole house for ourselves (other houses on our street are split into 2 or 3 flats).

I do struggle to stay on top of cleaning but that was the same in our smaller flat - I just prioritise other things. I didn't declutter then and I don't declutter now - still don't have time for it.

I wish we had one or two more bedrooms (I would like a bedroom for my hobbies, and a spare bedroom), a larger garden (I'm always browsing big garden toys like climbing frames), a separate office space (there were 2 receptions rooms but the sellers knocked them through into one, so anyone in the living room can see my messy desk). But the location is great and you don't really get larger houses around here, even if they are larger in sq footage they still tend to have just 4 beds.

Also googled! Apparently ours is 904 Square Foot. Or 84sqm.

It's a 3 bed terraced ex council. One bathroom. Kitchen but no separate dining. And living room. Small garden front and back.

Its adequate for the three of us. Though we'd love a tiny bit more space just so we could have a downstairs w/c. Apparently the three of us tend to need to use the loo at the same time! Would also prefer a bigger back garden but we've done it up very nicely so it's not bad.

We just recently moved into a 3 bed semi as we had DS2 and needed more room. It’s roughly 1200ft. It has made a huge difference to our quality of life, mood, and relationships with each other and extended family. We can comfortably host and have family stay over. We have a lovely big garden for DC to play in and a driveway.

Previously we were living in a 2 bed maisonette, and before that, we were living in a tiny 1 bed flat. If I didn’t have DC I would’ve happily lived in a smaller space.

We're in a large 4 bed terrace, I think it's around 1800 sq ft.

We were in a two bed flat (albeit a fairly large one of around 900 sq ft) with 2 kids for longer than planned as first DH lost his job when we were starting to think we were ready to move, then I lost my job when we next seemed ready and it got quite wearing because we were quite on top of one another. I think we moved out in the end just in time before the kids would have started to be bothered about sharing such a small bedroom. I just remember when we moved being in my bedroom and just about hearing the kids downstairs and thinking 'I'm at home and in a totally different place to my kids'

We hoped to do a loft extension one day but post-COVID price jumps may have put paid to that. Might yet do it if we come by the money somehow, as we live in London and neither of our teenagers is the type to go for high flying, high paid careers - which is fine with me, but they'll have a hard time being able to afford to move out if they stay in London. So the idea would be DH and I would move our bedroom to the loft and adult kid/s could have their own 'lounge' on the same floor as their bedrooms and have some sort of their own space to invite friends back to and so on.

We have a family of 5 in 900 sq. ft. It's not ideal, but if we had to make it long-term we would, but also glad to be moving soon.

I've only come to realise recently what a big impact it has on lifestyle. We can't camp for holidays because we don't have space to store and dry a tent, kids can't have bikes because there's nowhere to store them etc. If we were here for the next 10 years we'd do things differently and find ways of getting around it, but I've been surprised by the way it's impacted not just posessions but lifestyle.