Downsizing in order to buy - experiences please?

[Rooners]

We finally have the opportunity to buy somewhere, but it will have to be quite small - we've been renting a large flat for ages, it's relatively big anyway but only has two beds and I've got 3 children.

Tried to think of ways to alter the layout but there is no solution here really.

Now we can buy somewhere but it will be smaller still.

Wondering what is best to do. I hate renting but not sure how to find somewhere we can all squeeze into for our budget.

Has anyone done this? Was it all Ok in the end?

We've found a flat which needs LOADS of work but is within budget, it's got two beds and a large living room I can divide so my bedroom is in that iyswim...the garden is shared...we have to get rid of loads of stuff if we're going to do that though.

yikes

We done this, gone from a rented large three bed semi, over a 1000 sq ft and bought a two bed terraced cottage which is just over 500 sq ft. There are four of us, two adults and two children and it did take a while adjusting mentally to new size now it's fine! We got rid of a great deal of stuff btw, furniture and bags and bags of 'stuff'. Not missed any of it...plus our mortgage is now less than our rent was each month.

Oh cool - thankyou, that is the kind of encouragement I need!

I am glad it worked out for you,

I am worried about squashing everyone in, especially as we are used to our own messy garden and the garden at this one is shared - worried about upsetting the other people with noise. I think we will be leaving the trampoline behind

I sometimes worry about noise, my kids are noisy and we live in a terrace but I then I just figure it's family life, we don't play music it's just general screeching playing from the children.

One thing I can say is declutter before you go, it think you would find it even more stressful if you can't cram everything in. And be rash, the less stuff you have the more space you will have at new property.

We made an intentional decision to go small, we could have chosen a bigger house, but compromise on location and I wasn't prepared to do that.

Thankyou so much for the tips. I will bear all of that in mind - we don't do music either, (I tell ds1 that's what headphones were invented for!) so hope we won't disturb people too much.

I guess that in an issue wherever you live isn't it.

Just trying to sort out the lack of parking now!

We have on street parking with residents permits, is that available to you?

Oh, and google tiny house living for inspiration and You Tube!
Also google Faircompany. Kirsten has done a ton of tiny house videos which could give you a whole load of ideas.

Should mention 'tiny house' is quite a big movement in the states so there is a lot written about it online...

Maybe you could have a Murphy bed in your living room which folds down from wall at night time...and is invisible during the day...

Oh cool Thankyou for all these ideas! Have just found a garage nearby to rent which is like a gift from above

will look into wall beds too.

Yay about the garage!
Is it likely you will buy the flat you've found? If so, it's all very exciting!

I'm getting scared about it now! It is such a weird thing moving to another house - I remember now how I used to jump at every noise, and so on, you can't tell what the people will be like or the neighbourhood etc.

But I am feeling better about it with the garage situation.

There may be other more suitabl places that come up - but we have to get on with it really so have to choose from what is available, obviously.

I have been drawing floorplans like billy-ho

Not wanting to scare you but we bought a house in the space of about 5-6 weeks! So once you find something, it can happen quickly I'm really passionate about tiny house living and family life etc so I could talk about it until the cows come home...

Just a warning, I found once I'd actually moved in I freaked out a bit and wondered what I had done and it was actually a difficult time, ten months or so down the line and it's all brilliant. I found I had to get use to living in a smaller environment, going from small to big is easy, going to big to small not so easy. My brain literally had to get use to walls being closer together etc! Now, looking back, I wouldn't hesitate to downsize again.

We renovating this house completely, we are having a staircase ripped out, new one built and reversed to change layout upstairs and will have a wonderful understairs cupboard which we don't have right now which I can't wait to get organised. It will give me the excuse to buy the tiny city Dyson Hoover...we also have to lose our separate dryer which I'm not so enthused about and buy a washer/dryer.