Downsizing advice?

[MagicMaha]

Has anyone had to downsize their home in anticipation of a drop in income due to going part time when having a baby?

Can anyone share their experience?

It wasn't to do with a baby but I downsized a lot to reflect a drop in income. My comments are

Think about needs and wants and how you live your life- eg is living and outside space a priority or number of bedrooms?

Room sizes- think about how your furniture will fit- my sofa just fits in my new living room but if I'd had to replace it would have added to lots of cost

Declutter ruthlessly before the move!

It can work- I do miss my old space but the lack of financial stress is a bonus. A lot of people struggle with what they should have versus what works as a family for them. Good luck!

How much is downsizing going to cost (legal fees, removals, EA fees etc), how much will it save you, how long do you intend being off work/PT and what happens when you want/need to upsize again?

The trouble with down sizing is not that you end up with fewer rooms, but that the actual rooms are smaller too.
Just because the kids have left home and I need fewer bedrooms doesn't mean I want a smaller living room 😳

I'm currently in the process of downsizing but I'm doing it because I need a smaller house as children are now adults (1 left home) and I'm looking towards retirement and being mortgage free.

It was very hard initially looking at houses and trying to fit our current furniture in. But now I've got my head around it I'm ok.

We're going from a large 3 storey 4 bedroom townhouse with 4 toilets to. 3 bed semi with 1 toilet. It's going to be interesting.

It's costing us £5k to sell and buy.

This is true. We're buying a 3 bed semi with an extended living room so we can fit our sofa in.

Not at that stage of life, no.

Agree with a pp - grind the numbers, because it costs a lot of £££ to move and it's completely the wrong time of life and is stressful.

A relative did this, not for a baby but they had to go part-time and otherwise wouldn't have been able to afford the space.

Can you work out your likely costs over the next five years eg childcare etc? Then the cost of moving. Bearing in mind moving often brings surprise costs if you find something wrong with the house or furniture won't fit etc. As well as the fees, stamp duty. We moved to interest only mortgage to make our money go a bit further during the years of very high childcare costs but that made more sense long term than selling up and moving somewhere cheaper.

How much are you oversized by now and how much space will you need for the baby? How easy is it to access work and amenities where you currently are?