To downsize when the kids are still young

[cowfacemonkey]

Family of four including two pre teens and a dog. Currently live in quite a large 4 bed house; which although lovely I feel has more negatives than positives. Huge mortgage, too many rooms to clean, unused space, high running costs and long term up keep. We can afford it BUT I feel actually it is holding us back and there is a better quality of life to be had if we downsized. Have seen a really lovely 3 bed bungalow and although we wouldn't completely clear the mortgage we could potentially be mortgage free in the next five years.
Anyone downsized and feel it's improved their quality of life and not just from a financial perspective?

Yeah do it , then you have a bungalow for when are older .

I would do it as long as the three bedrooms are decent sizes. We bought a house with what we thought were reasonable size bedrooms but once the DC got bigger and wanted double beds/desks in rooms they just weren’t big enough.

I think it sounds like a great idea! Each child would still have their own room and you'd be mortgage free soon - think how freeing that would be!

Unused space? Really?

I’d stick to be honest but obviously no idea re financial detail of your circumstances

Yes honestly there are 3 rooms in our house that rarely get used (bedroom 4/conservatory and dining room - I can count on one hand the times the conservatory has been used in 10 years).

Presuming the kids already share bedrooms/wouldn't mind sharing bedrooms I would, extra money, less upkeep and I grew up in a bungalow and loved it, I'd have another bungalow tomorrow if I could.

Move now if the rooms are big enough. Having less of a mortgage to worry about as well as saving on other costs is life affirming!

I would.

Good point about room sizes, good sized rooms but less of them is the ideal!

Yes go for it, we have a huge 5 bed house, only 2 adults and 1 child and 2 dogs, ive 2 bedrooms which are just clogged with junk, the house takes ages to clean and costs us a fortune in council tax and all other utilities. Im working my dh days off and we never see each other, i have a 5yr old and he wants us both around to do family stuff not just one parent every weekend. We will move to a nice 3 bed, im changing my job and we will have a better work life balance plus we will be mortgage free. Ive worked as a nurse for nearly 20yrs, been with loads of people dying and their families. On their death beds money, houses etc are obsolete they always talk about the lovely memories they have had with their families because memories are all you have left when your dying. I know for us if we dont spend the time to make those memories id regret it forever.

I would do this if both you and Dh are in agreement. Me and my Dh in theory would like to downsize (we have 2 tweens) and have no mortgage but I think would take the rest of our lives to find a house we both agreed on!

I think it's a sensible idea. But consider location and amenities. That makes a difference no matter how handy the house. Are the teens going to find it hard to see their friends/go into town and you'll be stuck being a chauffer?

Personally I think spare rooms are overrated. Ours is used about 3 times a year and it's wasted the rest of the time. I would have no problem if we had a 3 bed with giving guests our bed and decamping to a sofa bed in the sitting room. Not if it's once in a blue moon.

As long as the children's rooms are big enough to fit them as they grow I would go for it. If the rooms are not quite big enough could they be easily extended? Life with more money to save for university/holidays/pensions or just general day to day activities would be less stressful. I would go for it, I've never had a spare bedroom and I manage fine.

Not so much downsized as never upsized & remained in our adequate "first home" (ex council semi). Mortgage is only 10% of our income (though we overpay and could be free of it in 3 or 4 years without cutting back much). Doesn't take long to clean and not having loads of spare space discourages us from buying useless "stuff" too. Prefer to spend money on "experiences" rather than things, big or small!

(I realise we're really lucky to have living in this kind of house, with a tiny-percentage-of-our-income as a choice)

(We are a family of 4 btw)

We toyed with this recently. Us plus ds in large 4 bed house but one of the reasons we bought it in the first place was so that we would have space if ds wants to stay at home and save for his own house when he’s older. We’d have the space not to be on top of each other.

Ah yes definitely think carefully about location. When they get to teenagehood it can be a massive PITA if you live out in the sticks/not on a bus route. We chose wisely but friends of ours moved out into the countryside and are constantly playing taxi to their older teens...their own social life has also taken a battering as they are at the beck and call of their DC every weekend.

I would do it. But make sure the location works for the children. You do not want to be their taxis service unless you can help it!

We are a family of 4 in a 2 bed flat and it's fine. You need to be organised and on top of the clutter, but we aren't short of space. Like you, we do it for money reasons. We'll be mortgage free in 7 years, whereas an extra bedroom would add another £80k and many years to the mortgage.

Do it! We moved from 4 bed house to 3 (double) bedroom bungalow a couple of years ago! It's fab, I don't collect clutter as I don't have a 'spare' room to dump it all in anymore! We don't plan on moving again, ever!

Second the comments about location when you have teens, we can walk to lots of things our teen likes to do and it's so much better then getting in the car all the time. Good for their independence too.

Thanks for the comments, location wise we're looking in the same area we live now so no change in schools or distance from friends and family. I wouldn't move out of area to down size as I like where we are but on the flip side that limits what is available to buy.

I think the fact that I have become a real die hard declutterer over the past few years has shown me actually that we don't need this much space. I think the more space you have the more crap you fill it with.

Downsizing to a bungalow absolutely makes sense as you are buying your forever home. Bungalows round where I live go for a fortune as they are usually on large plots of land.

We are doing this! Our mortgage will be much smaller and we will be able to afford to fix the car when it breaks, go abroad etc.

I wish we'd done it five years ago as it's just been one financial struggle after another.

So often though smaller number of bedrooms = really small living areas. And teens take up a lot of space especially if they are sociable and have friends round a lot. I liked having space for that.

But sure, do what works for you.