To want to downsize

[Wotter]

I am over stuff. Having stuff. Cleaning stuff. Looking after stuff.

How much space does one need for a family of five? Two adults, three children under 10. What size house do we "need"?

@StreetwiseHercules - I've attached a photo as I can't do links, you can look it up

We live in a 2 bedroom mid terrace 1970 build. A three bed in not much bigger and all the bedrooms are smaller compared to ours. (Our room is big enough we are debating a tiny en-suite loo) there is three of us a large cat and a medium sized dog. We downsized from a three bed bungalow we where renting to what we are currently in which we brought. We wouldn't have got the area we wanted if we went into a three bed. We decluttered, Minimised and organised like crazy. Changed certain appliances so they done multiple jobs. Slow cooker that also does rice and a coffee machine that does milk frothing. We don't have a dryer (next one will be washer dryer) so we hang in the kitchen/dinning room and use a dehumidifier. It is doable but you have to think how to use space effectively. We get lots of comments are place is always clean and clutter free because it takes no time to clean it. Netflix has a documentary about minimalism that may get you started and also a series on the konmarie method.

Average uk house size is about 900 squares feet (or 85 squared meters). The sizes people are saying here are crazy. I have a large 3 bed in the south east and that’s about 1400 and we have more space than we need (and it’s about 60% bigger than the house we moved out of which was the average size of a 3 bed in our area).

Agree, these sizes are crazy. We have a 3 bed, about 1100 sqft, and when we've looked at moving it seems to be very average, possibly even slightly larger than average, for a 3 bed locally. 4 beds often aren't much more. Here's a few examples - I didn't hunt for small ones

4 bed, sitting, kitchen, dining, garage, en suite - 1305 sqft

4 beds, 1492 including garage

5 bedrooms, 1149sqft

I'm sure 500 per head would be lovely but I reckon very few families in the UK have even close to that. Assuming 2 parents and two kids that would be 2000 sqft for a family that would most typically be in a 3 bed. Might be an optimal architectural standard but I think it's pretty unrealistic.

The problem is that there is still a certain amount of stuff that you need... downsizing just makes you more cramped and trapped by the stuff.

500 per head doesn’t make sense either. One person needs more space proportionally than 2 or 3. 1 person would still require a bathroom, kitchen, sleeping space etc which would be shared in a larger household

@Wotter don't downsize until you have decluttered and thoroughly. You might change your mind. I am beginning to love my house now I am decluttering. I see how it works for me. Moving would only mean taking your baggage with you.

Thanks everyone.

I'll work on having less stuff first.

The children don't use the space now, but as the grow they might use the extra space. I guess they won't want to sleep in our bed/bedroom forever!

If they are still little I would def stay put rather than downsize! The older they get the more they like to be able to retreat to their own space. Also the less stuff they have/need so naturally the clutter reduces by itself.

I know you just said you will try to de-clutter but thought I’d chip in and say my experience of downsizing is my biggest regret in life 2 adults, 1 child & 1 dog.

Had the most enviable 4000sq ft property in a really good road but got fed up of working to fund it. Decided to work for us, not the house.

Downsized to an 1800sq ft bungalow out of our preferred area to be mortgage-free and HATE it. Survived for 2 years and are now saving to extend it to give us the floorspace we realise we need.

So disappointed.

@StreetwiseHercules here are the rough room sizes:

20 x 10 kitchen diner (200 sq ft)
12 x 12 lounge (150 sq ft)
12 x 10 playroom (120 sq ft)

Bedrooms are
2 rooms 12 x 12 each (300 sq ft)
2 rooms 8 x 8 each (150 sq ft).
Bathroom and en suite 7 x 7 each (100 sq ft).

By my reckoning that leaves around 200 sq ft of "moving about" space, most of which is the hall. The downstairs loo is super tiny but does the job. Perhaps only 4 x 3 ft or something! Clearly now I've worked it out the garage isn't included but it's far from full. We have modern, carefully chosen furniture but in our 12 x 12 ft bedroom we have a super king size bed, 3 chests of drawers, 2 bedside tables and a built in wardrobe and still enough space to walk around comfortably. DH is a 6 ft 2 former wrestler so it's not like we're tiny people, although kids are all under 8 and we haven't got pets.