Recently, my parents downsized their home to a smaller house.
While on vacation in South Dakota (yeah, I vacation in South Dakota), I got to see it for the first time.
During our stay, I was surprised at how often my mother commented that “they just love their smaller house.” I wasn’t so much surprised that she felt that way about living small (I am a minimalist after all), but I was surprised at the frequency. It was a comment that she repeated over and over again during our one-week stay.
Toward the end of the week, I sat down with my mom and asked her to list all of the reasons why she is experiencing more happiness in her smaller house. And this post is the result.
Some people decide to start living small once they find that there are many advantages to downsizing. A smaller home means smaller bills and a smaller set of responsibilities.
People buy larger homes for a number of reasons:
- They “outgrow” their smaller home.
- They receive a promotion and raise at work.
- They are convinced by a realtor that they can afford it.
- They hope to impress others.
- They think a large home is the home of their dreams.
Another reason people keep buying bigger and bigger homes is that nobody tells them not to.
The mantra of the culture again comes calling, “buy as much and as big as possible.” They believe the lie and choose to buy a large home only because that’s “what you are supposed to do” when you start making money… you buy nice big stuff.
Nobody ever tells them not to. Nobody gives them permission to pursue smaller, rather than larger. Nobody gives them the reasons they may actually be happier if they downsize their home.
Here are 12 reasons why you may be happier if you downsized and bought a smaller house:
1. Smaller homes are easier to maintain. Anyone who has owned a house knows the amount of time, energy, and effort to maintain it. All things being equal, a smaller home requires less of your time, energy, and effort to accomplish that task.
2. You spend less time decluttering. And that should be reason enough.
3. Smaller homes are less expensive. Smaller homes are less expensive to purchase and less expensive to keep (insurance, taxes, heating, cooling, electricity, etc.)
4. Living small means you go into less debt and less risk. Dozens of on-line calculators will help you determine “how much house you can afford.” These formulas are based on net income, savings, current debt, and monthly mortgage payments. They are also based on the premise that we should spend “28% of our net income on our monthly mortgage payments.” But if we can be more financially stable and happier by only spending 15%… then why would we ever choose to spend 28?
5. Owning a smaller house is mentally freeing. As is the case with all of our possessions, the more we own, the more they own us. And the more stuff we own, the more mental energy is held hostage by them. The same is absolutely true with our largest, most valuable asset. Buy small and free your mind. That’s one of the benefits of minimalism.
6. Smaller homes have a smaller environmental impact. They require fewer resources to build and maintain. And that benefits all of us.
7. You free up more time. Many of the benefits above (less cleaning, less maintaining, mental freedom) result in the freeing up of our schedule to pursue the things in life that really matter – whatever you want that to be.
8. Smaller homes encourage family bonding. A smaller home results in more social interaction among the members of the family. And while this may be the reason that some people purchase bigger homes, I think just the opposite should be true.
9. Downsizing your home forces you to remove baggage. Moving into a smaller home forces you to intentionally pare down your belongings.
10. Smaller homes lessen the temptation to accumulate. If you don’t have any room in your house for that new treadmill, you’ll be less tempted to buy it in the first place (no offense to those of you who own a treadmill… and actually use it).
11. You’re less obligated to decorate. While some people love the idea of choosing wall color, carpet color, furniture, window treatments, decorations, and light fixtures for dozens of rooms, I don’t.
12. Smaller homes are in a wider market to sell. By its very definition, a smaller, more affordable house is affordable to a larger percentage of the population than a more expensive, less affordable one.
Downsizing your home and living small is a very personal decision that weighs in a large number of factors that can’t possibly be summed up in one 800-word post.
This post was not written to address each of them nor was it written as a “how to downsize your home” article.
Only you know all the variables that come into play when making your decision.
I just think you’ll be happier if you buy smaller—rather than the other way around.
Useful Resources:
Melanie in Austin says
We downsized from a 2200 sf suburban home with an oversized garage, a shed and yard into a 923 sf city condo with one parking space and shared bike storage (we being two adults, one child, one dog, one cat). It’s been an amazing move for us. My husband and I both walk to work, our son will be walking to school, we walk to grocery shopping, public library, restaurants, hike/bike trail, farmers’ market, the vet’s. We hardly use the cars (looking forward to selling one soon). We enjoy the condo pool, gas grill and we even sold our clothes washer/dryer because the laundry room is so convenient.
We couldn’t imagine going back to our more complicated, expansive, expensive, wasteful lives. It did take several months to pare down the possessions. Books have been hard to part with. But we have decided to go the Kindle route so I guess we’ll be hauling even more to sell at Half Price Books. I’m working on paring down the clothes, now. Not because of space issues, just because it feels so great to do more with less.
Karo says
I couldn’t agree more. My fiance and I live in a small one bedroom apartment and everything, from cleaning, to rent, to utilities has been less stressful because we chose to go with a smaller place. To keep it feeling open and bright we just try not to have a lot of stuff around, so it’s been a great deterrent from getting junk. I love it.
Ramblings of a Woman says
This is a great post! We too have lived in our house for 21 years. When we moved in we had a 7 and a 1 year old. We added 2 more kids to the mix, and in the think of things, it was a bit crowded here! We added on about 400 sq ft at one point.
3-4 years ago, just before the downturn, we were bit by the gotta-have-more-room-bug! Found my dream home, 5 times what we paid for this house. Planned to keep the small house and rent it. When it came time to make an offer, hubby said “nope, don’t feel right!” I was sooo mad at the moment, but that was the August before the October crash. If I were sitting in THAT beautiful house with that HUGE mortgage and the house worth at least 33% less, I’d really be ticked!
And you know what? The funny thing is, kids grow up, and they move away! We are down to 2 young adults now, and before you know it, they’ll be gone! I do admit, when we all gather (I have 6 grandchildren now!) it is a little crowded, but the addition we did was in the living space with a large kitchen sun room, and we have a lot of fun!
I get the bug to move every now and again, I mean, great deals are to be had! And we are tired of cutting that 1 acre that was so great when the kids were growing up! Our plan is to one day be intentional vagabonds traveling around the US. It will be nice to have this place to come back to, and besides, it’ll be paid for in about a year!
http://bernicewood.wordpress.com/2010/07/31/turning-mountains-into-molehills/
Bernice
Tabatha says
me and my boyfriend live in a fairly small apartment. When i first moved in with he, he was complaining all the time about how it was to small. I kept telling him we had to much stuff. I started getting rid of my stuff and he jumped on the bandwagon and started doing the same with his stuff. Now its not so bad in here and I don’t hear him complain about the size anymore. In fact his father was here for a very brief visit and my boyfriend showed him the apartment and both his parents were telling us it was to small and we need to buy a house and all that. my bf got a little defensive about it, he wasn’t concerned with the size(its actually the biggest apartment in the building, there are 5, and maybe one the block) when he looked for a place, just some place cheap with at least electric included.
we’ve talked about renting a house, or buying one, but that won’t be for a while. The only downsides to this place is that we don’t have our own yard, so we can’t have much of a garden. He’s tried, but people were stealing our veggies and fruits, so he kinda gave up. I feel bad b/c my BF really likes taking care of plants and really wanted his own garden. also I would like more cabinets b/c we have everything crammed into the one we have in the kitchen and the one under the sink. But we will make do with what we have.
I love it here b/c we are right near downtown and its cheap so we can afford to spend money on other things and don’t have to worry about money so much and it encourages me to get rid of more, so we have more open space, which i love.
Penny says
I just discovered your blog this morning and can’t wait to delve in and be inspired to scale down my life and my belongings. I have had the desire to be happy with less for quite some time now. I am looking for a new home for my family and it will be smaller.
I do have to say I immediately took offense in the beginning of this post though, the first post I’ve read on this blog. You see, I am a Realtor. You said, (people buy bigger because) “They are convinced by a realtor that they can afford it.” Ouch! You see, not all Realtors think bigger is better. A GOOD Realtor will not push someone to spend more. In fact, we have a duty to further and protect the interest of our client. That means encouraging them to make a decision they will be comfortable with in the long run. I often advise my clients to buy smaller to be more financially comfortable or to get the location they want, etc. And that often means I make less money.
So please be careful to not point fingers and make blanket judgments about who is solely responsible for people buying bigger. (And more often than not, it’s the banks that encourage people to borrow to the maximum, that’s how they fell into last year’s crisis.)
Looking forward to reading more…
Caroline says
My bf and I live in a 580 sq foot studio apt (with 2 cats). We had packed it with stuff for 3 years, but have been donating / selling / recycling / trashing for the past year. We used to think we needed more space, but we really just needed less stuff. This tiny apt let’s us live close to everything in our very expensive nation’s capital, and we still only spend 17% of our gross income on housing – including all utilities except internet. (Getting rid of books was the hardest part, but it gets easier with every book you donate or sell.) My friends all have houses – and none are all that big (who can afford anything around DC?) – but I have no desire to acquire what they have. They spend more time and money than I do AND they live farther out in the suburbs and depend on cars to get around. Bleh!
Antonio says
My brother is married to a Japanese woman, they lived in Japan after they got married and about 15 years ago they came to the USA and stayed with us for a while. The first thing my sister-in-law said when she saw our 2000 sq ft house that we were living in back them was:
“Wow on this much space you could have at least 4 families living together comfortably in Japan”
Also our home was sitting on 1/3 of an acre and she expressed that on that much space many houses could be built in Japan.
About 4 years ago I went to visit my brother in Japan and I was amazed at the size of the living spaces and I was amazed how them make do on those little spaces. Another thing that called my attention was that no piece of land goes to waste. I saw rice paddies and vegetable gardens on tiny spaces where here in the USA would be grass or nothing at all.
I think we are spoiled here in the US.
ixsy says
I have just returned from a visit to my nephew. His wife is a doctor and he is an accountant with his own business. They have 3 young children (12, 10 and 2) and a HUGE double story plus finished basement, 4 bedroom/5 bath, corner lot, pool home. It is a lovely home(about 5k to 6k sq feet) and they enjoy living in it. I noted that they hire a weekly cleaning crew for $120 each time that does basic tidying and cleaning on the ground floor and 1st floor. Then another crew comes once a month that does a deep clean on all three floors probably for more than $120 a visit. In the spring, they hired a landscaping crew that came and pruned and weeded the landscaping at a cost of $500. I can’t imagine how much the electricity bill is because in July, the basement was freezing cold and the other two floors were just comfortable enough and yet the aircon was on constantly. I noticed they lived mostly in the kitchen/family room and the master bedroom (where mom, dad and the two youngest all sleep in the same queen bed!). The house is large enough that the children don’t like to go upstairs or down to the basement without each other! It’s quite hilarious! In the evening, they will be in the kitchen/family room and then at bedtime, they huddle together and migrate up to the master bedroom. So, there is definitely family bonding going on in a large home! They are the kindest couple ever and the children are very sweet. They love to entertain and have all their friends and family over. I came away thinking that the only way to have a large home and enjoy it is to earn enough to support it and they certainly do. I’m glad to have experienced how the wealthy do it all. Our family is quite comfortable in a 2000sq ft home which I still struggle to keep clean. Our goal is to move into something small with with hardly a yard and no pool when our children leave the nest. I have already begun decluttering and living with less. Being jobless helps!
John Sifferman says
All good points, although I think “encourages family bonding” is a bit of a stretch. A good book that echoes some of these thoughts is The Not So Big House by Sarah Susanka. She’s an architect in favor of buying smaller, with the goal of having a home that better suits your lifestyle. There are a lot of great photographs of beautiful homes, too.
Jaryd says
I don’t think I’ll every buy a “large” house. I’m 21 now (going on 22) and I’m so glad I discovered the minimalist/small house/consume-less movement when I did. I so look forward to owning a small home, it being filled with memories and the people I love rather than the stuff I like.
Thank you for writing about this movement for free, so many more people can discover it!