To ask how big is your house?

[FGSholdthedoor]

I'm grateful for what we have but I feel like I'm suffocating day to day.

We have a terraced house consisting of a small kitchen and lounge downstairs, a master bedroom, box room and tiny bathroom upstairs.
There's me, OH, DS (3), newborn DS and DDog.

There's no porch or wide hallways to have extra storage.
You walk straight into the kitchen where all the post and tat gets dumped on the nearest worktop or the table, no room for coat rack so jackets get dumped on the kitchen chairs, lounge has huge toybox as there's no room to keep DSs toys in his bedroom as its so small and now I'm having to figure out how to fit 2 DCs in there. The car seat for DS2 is in the lounge also as there's nowhere else to keep it.

There's clutter everywhere you turn despite trying to keep on top of it and it's a constant cycle of trying to cut down on stuff etc.
It makes me feel really down and I struggle to clear my head, it makes the days with the kids really difficult as sometimes you have to walk over stuff or trip over a bouncer or toy to get to the other side of the room.
I'm dreaming of a nice 3 bedroom house with an open plan kitchen and diner and a nice big lounge, oh and a utility room

AIBU to ask how big is your house and if you're happy with it?

I don't know if they just read the title, or they simply don't give a shit the op is struggling, but yes, a lot of people on here can't wait to boast.

Shame on them.*

Not having enough room to live your life happily is a feeling I know well. There is only one real answer- save and find the money to move. We thought for a long time it wasn't an option but we took the time to meet with mortgage brokers, estate agents etc and did the work and got a bigger house.

We were in a back to back until recently.

It was OK and the two bedrooms were a good size but the kitchen was so small you couldn't fit more than one person in at a time and I hated walking straight into the living room and having nowhere for coats and shoes.

Now we are in a semi with a HALL. I love it. Just having that extra entrance has made a huge difference.

3 double bed detached
Conservatory
2 receptions
Nice size rear garden
It's just right for us

For her sats my DD has been working out room sizes. Lounge is 36m squared, her Bedroom is 24m squared and bathroom is 20m squared. This is all full of tat however. LAW OF TAT- Tat expands to fill the space available. So more space=more tat.

4 bedrooms spread over 3 floors, not much room downstairs but the two bedrooms and our master upstairs are bigger than the norm. Zero storage space as new build. En suite, one family bathroom and a toilet on ground floor, there's myself DH and DS.

1920s good size three bed detached. What was the kitchen is now a study (we extended and moved the kitchen) and the plan is for it to be DS1s bedroom in a couple of years time (boys share and DD has her own room ). I love my house, it would be lovely to have extended the side etc but we don't need the space, if I could change anything I'd like an enclosed porch and a utility room so that muddy football boots don't come in the house! We downsized when we came here (moved South so less house for more money) but I'm happy with what we have and very grateful that we have it.

There is only one real answer- save and find the money to move

For many people this is simoly not feasible. Please try to have some empathy. Some folks struggle to get through the month never mind save money and buy a bigger house or extend.

I'm shocked people cannot perceive that situation.

We began in a two bed semi, moved to a three bed bungalow and then a 4 bed detached house. My husband hated the bigger house and never settled there, so after 4 years we moved to a 3 bed bungalow. We have no 'spare' room but it was absolutely the right thing to do. We had got drawn into 'bigger is always better' and learnt our lesson. I won't move again.

Four bed semi detatched, three double bedrooms one large single and a small study (currently full of junk) Huge living/dining room would like a larger kitchen tbh. Just me, ds and dd rattling around in it now but was plenty big enough when the older dc and exh lived here as well.

OP I think it's worse with little ones as they have so much 'stuff'. I'm sorry you feeling suffocated, do you like your house apart from the clutter? If you can decorate it makes the house feel nicer even if it's cluttered if that makes sense. I think you need to be creative with storage, maybe have a ruthless chuck out session too. What I will say is that it's only in the last couple of years that my house feels 'bigger' and that's because as the kids have got older (youngest is 9) they have a lot less stuff (even things like not needing their own plastic plates/cutlery as they use ours) and what they have tends to be in their rooms (so we aren't sitting in amongst all the toys they have when they're little). If you look on you tube there are lots of videos and ideas for storage in small houses which might be interesting. I think lots of people have things in there house that get them down, you could have a massive house with lots of space but in dire need of updating and could be unhappy in it (for example).

For many people this is simoly not feasible. Please try to have some empathy. Some folks struggle to get through the month never mind save money and buy a bigger house or extend.

That doesn't stop it being the answer though. We spent ages trying to declutter and wandering around IKEA looking for a storage solution that would magically make our house seem bigger - but they never did.

what worked was DH finding a better job, me upping my hours and then deciding to focus on spending money on a house, not anything else.

Op just a thought could you buy a second hand Wendy house and put it in the garden then put a lot of the kids toys in it?
Over the door hanger also work well and are cheap to buy.

4 bedrooms (2 ensuite) good sized living room, play room ( defunct) and big kitchen /diner open plan at back of house, and a study. Just 2 of us now, perhaps we should look to downsize.

That doesn't stop it being the answer though

Of course it does. If you can't afford it, it's not feasible. So the answer is something else. Decluttering, better storage, additional storage in garden, that sort of thing is the answer to make day to day life more bearable.

When someone posts they feel down, struggling with their kids, can't think straight, the answer isn't save and buy another house or you're forever fucked, if that's not going to be an option for a very long time if ever.

I really can't get my head round why people keep posting they have big houses and love them, after reading an op where the poster says she is struggling badly with cramped conditions. if she could extend or save and move that would have occurred to her.

I'm sure she was looking for answers from people in a similar situation to her, not from a bunch of folks saying my house is huge and I love it.😔

2 bed flat here. It's far from ideal (3rd floor, no lift) but it's not that cramped as it's just the 3 of us. Getting more cramped as DD gets older and toys get bigger.

Definitely not our ideal home but I'm only 25, plenty of time to work our way up to what we want. Hopefully be able to move into a house by the time DD starts school.

You have my total sympathy OP there is nothing worse than that feeling and I have known it.

I can tell you that now though I live in a 3500sq ft detached house yet it feels even bigger because it’s footprint is big. And I bloody LOVE it.

This is of no use to you unless I tell you that it cost us..... more than money!!
We made the move from a terraced house where not only the house but road ( office/hospital/school parking constantly ) felt claustrophobic.

We made the choice to move up knowing we would have to make sacrifices. We now have no money for holidays, little luxuries or savings, and had to sell our naice car. We have had to stop the gym and certain activities for the kids.

We knew we would have to tighten our belts a LOT. But that was the price we were willing to pay.

But on balance we are sooooooo much happier, our day to day existence is so much more relaxed.

I know families earning much higher than us but live in smaller cramped houses but have a fancy 4x4 parked out and 3/4 holidays abroad.

For me it’s a no brainer to feel like I’m on holiday everyday in my own home than somewhere else for a few weeks in a year.
But I guess that’s why we are all diff.

3 bed semi but quite large for its type. 2 bathrooms, large kitchen and large conservatory on the back. 3 very good sized bedrooms. Small garden though!

Large 5 bed with several reception rooms which never gets fully cleaned.

Although 6 of us plus 2 ddogs and other animals.

Decluttering, better storage, additional storage in garden, that sort of thing is the answer to make day to day life more bearable.

yeah sheds are a life saver for us and storage, I'm sure you could get them second hand pretty reasonably (or if anyone at home is handy, build one)

Smallish 3 bed 70s semi. We have enough room, just, but aren’t tidy enough people to properly capitalise on it.

I used to have a recurring dream of finding a whole new floor of our house through a previously unnoticed cupboard door. At least a few times a month - I would wake up feeling wistful.

I think a toy shed is a good idea. Something that many people would frown upon, but worked for us - cheaply flooring the attic and allowing older DC to quietly play up there. It was like a special hidey hole where they played board games, read ghost stories to each other, and had little picnics. It helped us from feeling quite so on top of each other.

We have a similar size house to the OP which would be fine except children have SO MUCH stuff and there is never anywhere to put DDs toys etc and it always looks untidy.
We’re planning on upgrading to a 3 bed next year to give us a) more storage and b) space for the grandparents to stay when they visit once a month

Pretty standard 3 bed semi-style house, however as we're the last house on the street, we're actually detached.

Decent sized hall, smallish living room, open plan kitchen/diner downstairs.

2 double/1 single bedrooms and a small
Bathroom upstairs.

The house is average really however its saving grace is that we have a large double garage, double driveway and large garden on all sides of the house so plenty of room for storage and in the summer with the doors open it feels much bigger.

Hi OP. When I had a house like yours and in your shoes, I switched rooms with my children. So my children had the biggest master bedroom, where I could also store their toys, and I carried on storing some of my clothes (all of those which needed to be hung). We got a "clever" double bed which had loads of inbuilt storage underneath, and that's where we stored other stuff. Then I had billy bookcases in all sorts of random places - they are quite narrow, so fit in lots of places, and store lots of random stuff. Good luck!

A three bed 1930s semi-detached. There’s only me and I struggle for space and storage.

Have you thought about going to IKEA and buying some wall storage? If you have a unit in the kitchen, livingroom and bedroom to ceiling height, that would help hugely.