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.

I can imagine that your living conditions are really stressful OP.

We have settled at a good size for 2 adults and 2 kids - about 1600 sq foot and a reasonable garden. Some of the space isn’t used very well, and we need to fix that. But nothing urgent - been here 15 years and it’s my forever home. It’s “nothing special” but compared to my previous homes it is a dream.

it is getting harder now dc1 is a teen - she needs her big bedroom space! I wished for a loft conversion but our home isn’t suitable.

Layout is everything. Used to live in a typical 3 bed semi, which was fine but tiny narrow hallway always was cluttered and crowded - a rack full of coats, some stray amazon boxes, a dog and couple of people trying to get ready for work/school. Even if we would convert the garage and the loft, that tiny downstairs bottleneck at the heart of the house still would drive us all crazy. Now in a 4 bed detached, but most importantly - with a massive entry hall with double height ceiling, plants and actual furniture. Completely changes the perception of space in the house.

I agree that bigger houses seem to need less cleaning and tidying. The rooms don't get as messy or dirty because each room is used less, and there is enough storage.

We have a four bed detached, no idea on square footage. I love it. We moved from an area we loved for the space (we couldn’t afford the size of house we wanted in that area) and I have no regrets.

We have a spare room for family who live miles away to stay and a playroom for the kids’ toys. There’s a (tiny) office for wfh - very glad of that during covid, and dp wfh fully now in there. And I have an en suite so no queuing for the bathroom.

Space is so important to me I’d really struggle with anything smaller now. We’re lucky we live in the north and didn’t have to pay absolutely extortionate prices as well, I really feel for people in more expensive parts of the country.

We moved from a small 3 bed semi which felt really cramped when we had visitors to a large 4 bed detached. It has its own (first world) problems now, shouting the kids for dinner is ridiculous, they can't hear me. More to clean and takes ages to get to the front door for deliveries from my home office tucked away upstairs. Big garden is pain to maintain, weeds are everywhere and DH hates mowing to the lawn.

Am also really cramped. The less cleaning myth is bullshit! Everything always has to be shuffled about because everything competes for space. Eg the table is for food, homework, Lego, wfh, fixing stuff, projects, paperwork etc.

It really gets me down. When I see the comparative cost of homes in cheaper parts of the country I could weep. But I've always lived here. It's hard to want to leave family, friends, networks and roots.

It's a large 5 bed, the room sizes are very generous. To be honest it is too big for us as we ended up only having one kid. We do utilise most of the rooms but it's a definite "because we can" thing, we don't need them all. The garden is also big but it's a silly shape and quite hard to maintain. We will downsize in a couple of years when we know what secondary school DD is going to - makes sense to wait and buy somewhere walking distance to that (we don't have any in sensible walking distance at the moment)

6/7 bed 4 bath house. Kids are adults now but 2 still live here can't afford to move out. Absolutely love my house and the fact we have space to entertain a crowd.. it's just an easy house.

I'd love another bedroom for me . Partner & I not fallen out or anything , but the idea of having a bed just for myself , bliss .

I have a 2 bed flat that is 570 square feet. We do have 2 bedrooms and as i am pregnant (1 month pregnant) now, we do need to clear out the second bedroom to make space for the little one.. it was perfect for us as a couple. Our mortgage is v low for London like £1282 and we are in a lovely area and have a big communal garden. It does feel cramped now as I have pets in the second bedroom in a massive cage but they are over 2 years old and their lifespan is 3 to 4 years.

We bought this flat in 2019 after living with family in a cramped terrace (our bedroom was cold and mouldy) so it felt like paradise. We would probably need to move at some point but we are sticking to one child. I would probably move to a 75 sq m to 85 sq m 2 bed flat as I prioritise having a low mortgage

My first house was 180 square feet. 10 x 18 feet. We lived there for over 20 years.

We did that whole grand designs thing without tv. 20 years on, I'm bored of it.
It's all we ever do, try and finish the house. Every weekend it's garden or DIY time. I'm tired of having to convince DH that a coffee table/lighting/wardrobes are just something to buy and use. We don't have to build it ourselves.
It impacted my career, you can't have a complicated house and a full on job. The whole camping vibe was fun and I was pretty tough but I'm over it now.
I dream of a brutalist flat in a city.

Me, 18yo DS and a dog in a 3 bed (although none are very big, smallest is a proper box room and 2 biggest are weird shapes that barely fit a double bed in!) ex council semi. Living room and kitchen, plus conservatory that I added to use as a dining room/office space. Under stairs cupboard is now a toilet, so storage space is very limited. Loft is boarded out, but I'm disabled and access is via a pull down ladder, so it's not very accessible until I can afford to get proper stairs put up, but doing that would mean losing the box room as there's nowhere else to put them! There's technically space for us, but storage is a massive issue and the conservatory is currently full of camping stuff and anything else there isn't a home for.

I think storage makes all the difference. Or if you can quite simply get rid of all excessive junk but with kids this can be hard blaming the kids but really it's my 100s of shoes and coats

Usually 3 bed semi with big ish garden, ok for 3 of us but we have a lot of stuff which is the problem.
We are looking to upsize to a larger 3 bed, but finding more storage is proving hard.

We done this years ago and just ended up filling bigger house with more stuff and more to clean too.
Good luck whatever you decide just what happened to us.

DD, Ddog and I live in a very small ground floor flat with no garden or communal outdoor space. The living room and kitchen are one room. We each have a bedroom but they are small, I work from home so my desk is in my bedroom too. The only built in storage is a wardrobe and a hall cupboard. Its cramped and nowhere near ideal but it got us out of renting.

I bought a 3 bed mid terrace with DH. We had a lovely home in a nice area but it felt small when DS1 came along. The smallest bedroom was a nursery and the other spare was laundry and storage and a couch bed for visitors. Plan was to have 1 more baby and DS1 to get the bigger room. That baby ended up being twins and it became really cramped, especially the long narrow kitchen, there was only room for 1 high chair unless we moved the dining table to block the back door, so we had to move it several times a day. The hall was full of scooters and helmets. It became chaotic and really got us down. We felt trapped and I often dreaded opening our front door to come home.

We very luckily had a change in financial circumstances and moved to a 5 bed in the same lovely area. Twins still share so we have an empty office / guest room and a large en suite which is the 'Room of requirement'. Foldaway bed for guests, a big screen and bean bags for gaming nights or sleepovers, a well equipped gym. Our current debate is which room to forsake when kids want their own room. Dh and I have different views but we always check ourselves and realise what a wonderful problem we have. I feel incredibly lucky to have this house, it is almost impossible to exaggerate the difference having a nice place can have on MH and stress levels.

It's very small but pretty and it's only for me!

But the good thing is though that it will force me to downsize and sort things out - finally. I sometimes have difficulty letting go of things from the past so it will be good to have to do it.

Ours is around 2400sq ft, detached 5 bedrooms. That sq ft includes a double-garage though which is attached to the house and the upstairs goes over it. So upstairs feels quite spacious but downstairs less so. If it was just me I’d convert it, but the kids & DH have filled it with bikes/a table-tennis table, surf-boards etc! DH also likes to park one of our cars in it too, especially when it’s a frosty night.

1500sq ft 3 double bed bed late Victorian stone built semi in lovely leafy area plus a very well done garage conversion studio/ office - we rent it and it's like a very large cottage style for 2 of us. H works from home though and a lot of stuff for our business.

It doesn't feel that big as one bedroom has all our clothes in it plus all our storage as loft is wise than useless -

Space makes a huge difference to lifestyle if you have a lot of stuff and my H has ludicrous amounts of books/ dvds/ music and we work in media. If you have a lot less stuff then 1200sq ft would work

For a family I think the sweet spot is 1300 to 2000 sq ft

Do people really still think in square feet rather than metric metres?

I have no concept of feet at all, fully metric. My home is 220sq m with a good layout, very happy with it. But I have also lived in much smaller and wouldn’t rule it out again.

I don’t really think any either but 35 m² seem ridiculous written down. I suppose it is.

My house is about 680 square foot. I live in it with my 17yo and 12yo. It has a large living room and decent size kitchen (not big, but quite a lot of cupboard space and room for a small 2 seater table at the end). Upstairs there are 2 bedrooms (one decent double, one decent single) and a large bathroom. The only issue I have is as my children have the bedrooms I have to sleep downstairs. I do have to be pretty ruthless with decluttering. But the high ceilings help with the feeling of space and even though we only have a small garden, it's lovely to have outdoor space.

I am feeling very blessed with the space we have at the moment as my best friend is in a homeless hostel with her 2 children. Their room is half the size of my living room, for my bf and her 2 teenagers. She has been there a year.

615foot square (57m) 2 bed, 1 living room, one kitchen, one bathroom flat with not enough bedrooms. Too much stuff, not enough storage.

Lockdown with two autistic teens was hell.

We have a generously proportioned drafty Victorian 3 bed but can't afford to renovate and heat it so the space is lovely in the summer but challenging in the winter. Sometimes I wish for something smaller and cozier.