AIBU to be amazed at how far you have to walk in some houses?

[ChachiChichi]

Ok right I'm in a holiday cottage and it's taking me a good 60 steps (ok I wrote this as a guess originally , it's actually 33 but the point still stands!) between the living room and kitchen. The bedroom feels miles away. How do you manage when you live in a massive house? I only have to walk 1 step between my living room and kitchen and I don't have any corridors in my house (just a small landing). I'd find it boring walking around just to get to the kitchen /living room/ bedroom/ toilet.

AIBU to think there's just too much walking involved with some houses and it makes them boring and tiresome?

We have a moving walkway from our kitchen to our lounge its so long, even then it takes a while.
Life's problems are hard.

Is now a good time to remind everyone to plan a fire escape route or two

When I lived in my old flat the kitchen was tiny . You could stand in one place and the sink, the fridge, the oven /hob , all the work tops and most of the cupboards were pretty much reachable. You just had to take 1 step or turn. I found it so annoying when I moved to our current house and have to walk to take something out of the oven and put it on the counter. Walk to put things away. Walk to take something off the hob to put it in the oven. It doesnt help that its really poorly laid out!

The bungalow legs thing is more likely to be due to the fact that moving to a bungalow estate is often connected with people's horizons shrinking, so that they don't get out of their home enough; flat dwellers in central locations don't develop similar issues.

Not a problem here.

Our house isn't small but on my WFH days I can sometimes do under 500 steps!

At least you're making me feel better about staying in our house with lots of stairs.

When I moved to my current house after 30 years’ living in flats what drove me nuts was having to go up to the loo. I quickly learned to use the loo every time I went up, whether I needed it or not!

I’ve heard about bungalow legs too. It’s an actual thing. The advice is not to move out of a house with stairs before you must.

Walking? When I want to pop to the kitchen to make a massive salad, I need a bicycle! I feel sorry for poor people who live in little houses, how do they manage?

I love our big house! In fact, I would happily have bigger. Indeed, I even enjoy the fact on days when I’m not going out at all, it still feels like I’ve moved around a bit from just doing a bit of housework.

I'm also on holiday at the moment in a 4 storey townhouse. My room in the top floor / loft conversion and it's so far down to the kitchen 😂last night I forgot my water for next to my bed, I didn't realise til I got into bed and I felt like crying at having to go all the way down to the kitchen 😂

That makes sense, I grew up in the countryside and nobody has an upstairs (except the manses). But people are out working on the land until the day they die so are active their whole lives so no 'bungalow legs'.

And if anything you end up doing more steps in a large bungalow than in a house with an upstairs which is efficiently planned.

I'm starting to think that and feeling more appreciative of the hard work house I have to care for. Might be good for me!

Well it turns out it is 40 steps including the stairs from my bedroom to the kettle in kitchen and 22 from my sofa to kettle. The kettle is an integral destination for me.

I expect people in these big houses wear especially comfy designer shoes or something so they don't get blisters. Probably can afford those foot spa thingies as well, and maybe even a pouffe to take the weight off after a hard day traipsing.

We moved into our house a couple years ago, which is admittedly quite big. 5 bedrooms but across separate ‘wings’ with two separate staircases and the lounge and kitchen are on opposite ends of a long hallway.

I love it. The long hall was one of the things that really attracted me. I love houses that aren’t all on top of each other. But when we moved here, I noticed I was easily doing an extra 8k steps a day just walking around the house. 😂

We moved from a tiny 2 bed we had completely outgrown, to a 4 bed over three floors which is tall and long shaped - so I work in what would have probably been the dining room once upon a time as my office and it's a really long narrow hallway from the front of the house to this room (builders have commented it's the narrowest hallway they've seen in parts). The garden is long as well, and then the stairs are steep and wind around - and we have the attic conversion too - DD1 loves being in her bedroom right at the rear of the house away from us, DH is up in the attic when he WFH and DD2 who is clingier is in the bedroom where she can be in the middle of everyone.

As for yelling - we're lazy and use Alexas in all the rooms - with the two offices having one with the display so we can check on the front doorbell.

@5128gap

a pouffe to take the weight off

I'd love one of those, but I think DH might object.

I had to try and it’s 23 steps from sofa to kettle.
41 from sofa to loo.
52 from sofa to bed.
We live in what I would call a little house - 2 bed 30s terrace.

I do 10k steps easily every day walking round my house. On a day I’m at home and cleaning etc it’s nearer 20k. We have a downstairs toilet though which makes life easier. We’re in a holiday cottage atm smaller than our house but the loo is on the first floor and I have spent all week needing a wee but not going because I can’t be arsed

We have to walk 200 metres to the fucking orchard to get any sun in winter (which it is now). Thats 260 steps.

I used to live in a shared house in London in my twenties where the 1 bathroom (shared by 7 women) was down four storeys and 8 flights of stairs. So that was nice when you are busting for a wee at 3 am or indeed, about to throw up.

Something like this makes good material for a humble brag: "Oh it is so exhausting living in such an enormous home and having to walk for so long between rooms!"

(not aimed at you OP as I know it isn't your own house).

Book a smaller place next time 😂😂

Yes, mine wasn't keen. But he was finding mauling my sedan chair a bit much on his own.

Yes it’s really annoying. Our house is long and the stairs are at one end. If you want to go from kitchen to spare room you have to walk the length of the house, up the stairs and walk the length of the house again.

we’ve also got a large kitchen diner and hoovering and mopping the floor takes forever