To think that some people live in too big houses?

[URSick]

Lots of people live in (in my opinion) already big houses yet they want to move into even bigger ones.
I see so many families where all the children have their own bedrooms, bathrooms, big bedroom for the parents, guest room, study, living room, and yet they never seem to be satisfied and want to move into a bigger house. They all want playroom for the children. What's the point, when they could easily play in their bedrooms or the living room? There are houses where everybody has their own level, plus bathrooms on the landings, more toilets than family members, and yet they want Buckingham palace. It's good to have enough space and not be in each other's pockets but am I the only one who thinks these people are greedy and unreasonable? You don't need to live in a mansion to be a happy family.
Not to mention those houses where entire rooms are never used, lots of space is taken up by massive stairs and there are parts of the house that are just walkways.
What's your take on it?

Dontbeasalmon - excellent point, and I personally believe society can decide that collectively.
Personally, if society were to have that discussion I would argue that children having bedrooms separate to their parents was more important than a craft room.

Here you go salmon

When you think about it they are just houses. Theres no need to make our living spaces for our bodies. If you like space then hopefully you can afford space. But there's no need to insist that each human should have Xm sq only to live in.

Don't know why its sideways but tilt your head I suppose

With house prices the way they are it is a good thing as it frees up smaller more affordable homes for the rest of us.
Similarly telling older people in large houses to downsize is crazy as smaller houses would go up in price as sellers realise these older people will often be cash buyers and less small properties would be available for peeps trying to get on the property ladder.

It's fantastic! I am not showing the photo to my kids!

It perfectly illustrates the difference between surviving and living. We could all bunk into a studio flat ( 1 studio flat per family, not 1 for all the posters), but what's wrong with having the luxury to enjoy life?

Daft thread. Newsflash - some people have plenty of money and can afford to spend it on things they want but which are not actually necessary - bigger houses, nicer cars, more expensive clothes, private schools etc. By all means lament the inequality of riches in the world, but why express jealousy bafflement at one out of the many possible luxuries when it's obviously simply a matter of personal choice which ones people want to spend their money on if they have it?

We actually moved from a tiny two bedroom terraced house (before that a one bedroom flat) so having this much space is quite a luxury! Forgot about the music room too - in the basement, although right now its half music room and half firewood storage.

The ops objection was not written about people living in huge mansions, the ops objection was she sees kids having their own room or even a play room as being greedy and that's just plain ridiculous in my view. Very few people will argue that if your kids have their own room youre a greedy person.

exactly Bluntness

I need a study because I work from home a fair bit. DD 3 has a 'play room' (conservatory) because she has the box room and there is a bed and draws in it - no space for anything else.

I live in a semi in a fairly ordinary area and the house was not expensive

However, being able to buy a massive house far too big for your 'needs' whilst living in a country where there are millions of children in poverty is a symptom of deeply unequal society

Could you explain how the poverty of millions of children (and is that absolute or relative poverty, and what criteria for poverty are you using?) would be ameliorated or alleviated by people not buying larger houses? Surely the Exchequer gains from the stamp duty; the Local Authorities from larger CTax receipts of those who live in larger properties?

Yes my Ilaws rattle around in a large house. She likes her big kitchen but it's up to them. When we move we hope to buy somewhere bigger even though our house is spacious now dcs have moved out,

That playroom is fab Natsku. When my DC found out we were building a house they asked for a basement with a climbing wall and a foam pit, I'm being non-committal and hoping they forget in the time it takes to build the house. We can't have a basement anyway as the site is near a small river that floods occasionally.

I'm interested in FloweringDeranger's view that things used to be better and that there will be a serving class in the future, divided from the rich by separate entrances and corridors. I don't think that things were ever that much better in the past, and they were a great deal worse before living memory. My late grandmother's house, which is probably about 250 yrs old, was built to keep the servants apart from the owning family, as were most large houses of the time. It took a lot of people to keep it running, and there is a part of the house that is servants' quarters and there is a servants' staircase from that part so that the servants could access the family bedrooms for cleaning and fire-lighting. The future that you fear and the past that you revere seem remarkably similar to me.

It's not 'consumerism' at all.
More space makes for easier living. Nice wide stairs means people can pass each other on them. Big halls are great - plenty of room when everyone comes in at once or when visitors arrive. Empty bedrooms are great if you have guests staying over.
Plus there aren't really many better investments.

I'm totally jealous of those people and would love a massive house lol.

Bathroom for everyone - brilliant means I don't have to step on wee when my son or husbands been in before me.

In an ideal world I'd have an adults living room, a family living room, a dinning room - maybe a fancy dining room lol, a guest room, a room for the nanny (because I'm assuming if I could afford this house I would have a nanny), utility room is essential - why would I want washing hanging anywhere else in the house, an office, kids a bedroom each, playroom, a room room I could turn into a photography studio, a dressing room, a little snug library, a music room, a gym room, obvs a pool, erm am I missing anything? Lol

For me having a 2nd reception is a must. We use it as a dinning room slash playroom (or a playroom which also is home to our dinning room lol). I hate all the kids toys in the living room, & they don't have space for everything in their bedroom. I think it depends on the age of the children but I want my children downstairs rather than segregating themselves from their family playing in their bedrooms. Actually even with teens I'd love them to be downstairs when they get to that point.

If I had more money I absolutely would have a bigger house with more space. The more you have the more you can find a need for. I don't think they are looking for happiness but you can always improve your quality of life, and I do believe in a home more space is a better quality of life. I appreciate what I have now but I'd kill for more.
I don't think it makes them greedy at all, and as others have said if people that can afford more can get bigger housing it leaves more average homes for people with average incomes.

I think it's a different issue if you are talking about social housing. There's a crises and I do believe that people should be down sized if they are in a 4 bed home for example but their children have left and they only need a one or 2 bedroom. While there are mums in temporary accommodation and hostels with children, because a single person or couple is in a 3/4 bed house it's wrong.

However if it's your home and your money why wouldn't you want more space. What else are you going to spend your money on?

Buying 1 house is useful, and will last a long time. It'll still be a useful thing when you've finished with it and someone else can use it. Buying new a new phone for each member of your family each year is an unnecessary waste of resources.

You're equating size of house with wealth. They are not the same thing

This ^ x 100.
Some people seem to have a real 'thing' about people having a larger house, yet consider spending £££ on things that you don't keep, (phones, other gadgets, membership subscriptions, manicures, clothes, handbags, make up, etc., etc., etc.) to be 'normal'.

Surely, for those who are earning (or inherit or win) enough money, then it's up to them what they spend it on. Can't see why it bothers anyone else.

Our last place was small (2 beds). The place was constantly a wreck (messy and got dirty easily) as all of it it was in constant use. There was also no way to escape everyone else and the whole house was noisy. Life is SO much easier in a bigger house.

Have a

You'd probably hate me if I told you how many spare rooms we have. I've not been in some for several months. That said, they aren't supposed to be empty, but my apparent inability to carry a pregnancy to term seems to trump our desperation to fill them! I'm fairly certain our house and our spare rooms affect you not one tiny little bit!

I live in what some would consider to be a large house.

Frankly, it's got fuck all to do with you.

Scaryteacher - I said the exact opposite, that simply saying "dont buy big houses" will not solve the problem of poverty and inequality.

I said that people being able to buy houses that far exceed their needs whereas others go without is a symptom of our unequal society. The question is whether that inequality is an issue or not.

That said, they aren't supposed to be empty, but my apparent inability to carry a pregnancy to term seems to trump our desperation to fill them

And it's got what to do with you exactly??? Please! Invest your thinking time into something that actually matters.

"Frankly, it's got fuck all to do with you."

Adds so much to the debate, don't it?

This is something I have been thinking about recently. Ds1 has graduated and left home, ds2 graduates this (though he may go on to do a PGDE), and ds3 graduates in 2020, so just over three years from now, we will have a properly empty nest, and dh wants us to think about downsizing.

I am very ambivalent about it. Whilst we'd be able to manage, with three or even two bedrooms, we have a lot of stuff that needs downstairs space - I have a room that is basically a library, and even with three walls of books, I still have to have regular culls, so they fit on the available shelving. I love my books, and cannot get on with e-readers, and I don't see that changing as I get older.

I knit, and need a fair amount of storage space for yarn, and I also have other hobbies that require storage space for the stuff involved - art materials, fabric, sewing machine etc. We also have a piano - we inherited it from my mother in law, and so it has sentimental value for us, as well as being useful for me, because I sing in a choir and sometimes need to note-bash new pieces.

Then there is stuff which fit nicely in our current house, and that I enjoy having around me - an oak dresser with pretty plates on it. Yes, I could store the plates in a kitchen cupboard, but I love the look of the dresser and plates.

I look at the things we have accumulated over the years, and the thought of having to get rid of enough of the things I love, that what remained would fit into a much smaller house, daunts me. I suspect many older people are in a similar position - my mum moved from a reasonably sized three bed bungalow to a tiny two bed retirement bungalow, and even though she got rid of a huge amount of stuff, her new place is still horribly over-full and cluttered, and this has contributed to her feeling like she's not at home there, and she is finding that very hard, and depressing.

It's back to that old adage. Comparison is the thief of joy.

Op, honestly, I'd focus not on what others have and begrudging them that, but on counting your own blessings. Being jealous or bitter isn't going to change anything, it will simply make you and yours unhappier and unhappier.

You say you're personally happy with less, but the reality is uou aren't, otherwise you would have not proactively started a thread like this calling people greedy for something as basic as kids having their own room or a playroom.

I'm sure you have lots of things going on others would envy, for some that's just the roof over your head. There is always people with more and people with less. That's simply life.