Ten years ago, our family moved into a smaller home.
We made the decision because we recognized the benefits of owning a smaller house: less expense, less stress, more freedom, more family interaction, and more opportunity to spend our lives on greater things than square footage.
One of the most attractive advantages we have experienced in a smaller home is the extra time that has been returned to our lives. All homes require maintenance and cleaning, regardless of size. But smaller homes are easier to clean than larger ones. Consider these practical examples.
11 Household Chores Made Easier in a Smaller Home
1. Tidying-Up. In every home, items get moved and things get used. But in our smaller home, tidying up and refreshing the home for a clutter-free morning takes much less time and effort.
2. Dusting. Fewer rooms, fewer walls, fewer shelves, fewer decorations and fewer knick-knacks. Dusting has never been easier.
3. Taking Out the Trash. Because there are fewer rooms and each of them are closer together, taking out the trash/recycling each week is never difficult.
4. Doing Laundry. A smaller home does not mean less laundry—we still wear clothes everyday. But gathering the laundry from different areas in the home and returning the clean clothes is much less burdensome than completing the task in a larger home.
5. Cleaning Floors. Floors need to be vacuumed and/or swept on a routine basis. They also need to be mopped and scrubbed to be kept clean. Less flooring in our home makes this chore easier to accomplish—and easier to find the motivation to even start.
6. Washing Windows. Fewer windows means less time to clean them, both inside and outside. Of course, our single-story home also makes this chore significantly easier.
7. Putting up Holiday/Seasonal Decorating. We still decorate our home for the Fall and Holiday season. But changing the environment of our home takes less time today than before—and it takes fewer decorations to accomplish that cozy feeling.
8. Scrubbing bathrooms. Because who wants to clean more showers and toilets than they have to?
9. Cleaning the furniture. Because we’re not furnishing unnecessary rooms in our home anymore, cleaning furnishings is less burdensome (also cleaning behind/under the furniture). This is a job that gets neglected in many homes—but not ours.
10. Deep Cleaning Baseboard, Cabinets, Corners. In our previous home, the thought of cleaning baseboards and cabinets (especially in lesser-used rooms) was enough to keep us from ever tackling the chore. In our new home, we complete it on a regular basis.
11. Professional services. Stuff breaks and things wear out. And some home repairs are definitely outside my expertise. Each time we have needed a professional service in our new home (new carpets, exterior paint, spraying for insects), our expense has been far less than a comparable service in our previous home.
Because of the numerous practical benefits, I’ve never regretted the decision we made five years ago. We are far happier today living in a smaller home than if we’d purchased a larger one just because we could.
And I continue to recommend the idea to anyone who is listening.
One week ago, my husband and I sold our 8800 sq ft home and moved to a 1923 sq ft home. We have sold, donated, given away and trashed thousands of items. The amount of stuff we accumulated to fill that large house is sickening. We are still clearing out items we brought with us but don’t need and don’t want to “store.” I already feel freer and less burdened. The practice of minimalism is a much needed change in my life.
We just down sized in aug 2019 to a 700sq home my husband one 7 year old and myself. My older 2 boys had moved in with their dad before we decided to down size.
I know where every thing is in our home .and everything has a home.
I have less to clean .
We have a yard now but it’s small so we have a push mower and 2 rakes.
I can reach the window to clean them .best part our heating bill is reduced to maybe $20 a month
We are not going back..
Hashimo my mum was a great believer in a poem called ‘Dust if you must’ its insightful and although not minimalist as in belongings definitely minimalist in life values . Hope this helps .x
Almost four years ago, we downsized from a 3/2/2, 1717 Sq ft home to a 2/1, 876 Sq ft apartment. Haven’t regretted it for a minute. Best part is our complex has a community room with pool tables, pools, dog park, media room, fitness center, etc., and when repairs need to be made it’s on them. We get to enjoy a great space without the responsibility and maintenance. Although our monthly rent is more than our old house payment, the maintenance and utilities are so much cheaper that we come out ahead in money and time without factoring in the amenities. Hubby and I can clean the entire apt in an hour by double-teaming it.
I am also in the process of downsizing our posessions over the last 2 years. Just thinking about all the STUFF and how much time it has taken to sift through it all makes me cringe. I have a feeling of freedom and lightness that has come from the purge!
We live in 1200 sq ft ( just 2 adults) with unfinished but usable basement and it is plenty big enough for me. When I went through chronic illness for 3 years just taking care of the space we have was overwhelming. Perhaps would welcome even less space as we get older.
Right now we love our time outdoors in the shop and me in My large garden. Gardens take maintenance but for those of us with the passion for gardening it is not work.
I’m so happy I stumbled on this blog and others like it. I’m excited about the journey in minimalism!
I have found that “going smaller” has freed me to live larger. I have space and time to discover what is essential instead of being constantly driven by keeping up with a busy to do list. I am completely content with my little one bedroom apartment. Here I am finding the me I was meant to be.
I live in my 400 sq ft Studio Apartment, kitchen/livingroom and bedroom. So easy to clean, and especially music, so easy to listen – I put it in kitchen – and can hear it everywhere in my Apartment! I’ve been enjoying to live here in first floor (on the ground) with less than 222 items incl. furniture and my so called possessions. It is also affordable and easy to enjoy living here. Renting. No stress about loans and everything gets fixed by company. I try to use one item for multiple things also, for example laptop is for me also TV, and my phone is something more: music player, book screen, TV, camera, USB stick, Internet 4G modem… TV I don’t have, don’t have much of furniture. I’ve never been happier. Definitely recommend to downsize in home, digital life and clutter in general. I hate shopping, but I love shopping for music service, to listen Hardstyle! In my Studio.
Hi. I’m new to this website/blog but I have been ‘practicing’ minimalist behavior most of my 52 yrs of life. It was not something that my entire family did, it was just the ‘way I was’.
As a kid, I always liked having 3 or 4 really nice toys over having 10 or 20 pieces of junk toys. As a young teen when shopping with my parents for school clothes I would choose items that were more expensive but much fewer of them because I knew, with care, they had the potential to last the entire school year and then after I would be able to donate them to charity at the end of the year.
I always took extremely good care of my toys and my clothes because of this attitude.
That attitude was just one of greatest life choices that I’ve made. The best so far, in being a minimalist, was the choice to not have any children.
I have been married to my one (and only) husband for 24 years. We made this choice, together, before we married. Not because we physically couldn’t but because we didn’t want to. None of our friends or family ever questioned or challenged our decision/choice. No peer pressure to conform, no whiny parents questioning us about when they were going to be grandparents, etc.,etc.
Being a minimalist and practicing minimalism is about SO MUCH more than just the size of house you have and the amount of possessions you put inside of it. The pure freedom of minimal obligations and minimal worry this choice created for us is completely priceless!
You don’t HAVE to do, just because other’s are.
Think about that and
thanks for reading this.
This is a really nicest part about being minimalist with a family- especially with young children. Less time spent cleaning and organizing, and more time for each other! Thanks so much for your articles and encouragement!
When we are all in the bathroom at the same time, getting in each other’s way, I momentarily wish we had two bathrooms. Then I remember I’d need to clean it, and the desire passes.
Great posts. My wife and I live in an old villa/unit/townhouse (<700 sq ft) and we have more than enough room. Most probably too much. We now often entertain 10-12 for dinner.
We minimalised several years ago when the kids left home and married. I took to downsizing like an axeman to a tree, throwing out or giving away 80% of our stuff. Never missed anything.
The junk that people buy is flabbergasting. I include myself in that statement.
Happy days and thanks for the great site.
Max
I love that you host 10-12 people for dinner parties in 700sq ft.
You don’t need a really large space to have people over. Just a clear, clean and inviting one.
I’d love to see pics of your dinner parties. We just down-sized to 1300 square feet and I feel like we can’t have company anymore, lol.
In Spain people live in smaller homes that in the US, but anyway we tend to accumulate stuff. I have leant through the years that it’s so much better to accumulate experiences (specially those shared with my loved ones) than stuff.
I live in a one-story house now with 3 bedrooms and just one small bathroom, and it’s great to have the whole house clean in a couple of hours!
I totally agree with you, and I am sooo much happier since I started reading about minimalism and begun simplifying my life. Thanks!!
I love this article! It’s so true. While many people are rediscovering simple living and a small footprint/blueprint, many are still caught up in the idea that more is more. They don’t know what they are missing out on, in my opinion. Our family of 5 chose to downsize from 5 bedrooms/3 full baths/2700 sq ft to 3 bedrooms/2 baths/1200 sq ft and I’ve never been more content in my life. There are many reasons for this, but less cleaning is definitely one of the those reasons – and I actually enjoy cleaning. I’ve never been able to keep a home clean with as little effort and I love it! More living, less cleaning.
I borrowed “The More of Less” from my local library. It is without a doubt the best, most inspiring, simplest, non-judgemental book that I have read on minimalism and how to get there.
I have got farther on my de-cluttering while reading this book than ever before. It is written with few rules as we are all different, living different lives, just simple guidelines.
Well done Joshua and thank you for so many great ideas and a truly great book.
Ah, thanks Donna. Your words are very kind.
I love our <1000 sq. Ft. home. We bought it in the 80's to flip and then the coal mines closed. We decided to keep this house and be debt free. I do have 17 windows in a five room house… but it can be like living outside when the weather permits. We purge our home yearly to keep stuff at a minimum and we enjoy living with less stuff. As we are approaching retirement we have found our home to be a blessing… we had to have help after two major surgeries within a month and the person helping me could clean our home in a very short time and that saved so much. I am now able to take back the care of our home and enjoy every minute of caring for our nest. During our yearly sorting, I call in our nieces and nephews and let them have a free pick of items we no longer need…. the rest goes to a local thrift shop that helps fund scholarships for anyone from our town entering the field of medical care. It's a win / win situation! As the years are passing there is less and less stuff to get rid of because we just concentrate more on only buying consumables these days. There are still our special treasures that we keep and they have weathered many years of sorting. I think living a simple life has afforded us so many extra blessings in our lifetime and the ability to share blessings with others! We would not change a thing! Love this site!
How do you deep clean baseboards?
The easiest way is to spray them first with a cleaning spray, then come behind and wipe them with a wet cloth. If they haven’t been cleaned in a while, this may take some time. Maybe do one room at a time until you are caught up. After that dust them weekly with a feather duster or sweep them with a stiff broom.
All really good points. I would add two more things to this. Having a big garden and pool.
Unless you can / want to afford a gardener or gardening is your hobby stay clear of gardens with high maintenance plants. You’ll literally waste your life with gardening or your money on a gardener.
The same goes for a pool. Fun in theory the time you spend in the pool is generally less then the time it takes to main it. Or again you spend a lot of money every year getting someone else to do it.
Sad and stressful situation with a silver lining.
My mother’s health is quickly failing. At 88, after living independently in her own home (over 40 years as a widow), she now has moved to a very small assisted living apartment.
After numerous 3 day weekends, 18+ hour days, I have just finished emptying my mother’s sold home one week before closing. After the first stressful weekend I and my niece returned to our separate homes and began filling large trash bags with items we now realize are not at all important.
Why am I saving my notes and all text books from my first 2 degrees? …some light reading in the future? They are now gone. I sold my large corner hutch computer desk in my home office, replacing it with a very simple small desk with virtually no drawers or other built in storage, and much less horizontal surfaces to sit ‘stuff’ on. 50% of my belongings in my home office and closets are now gone.
My niece’s son confronted her in their basement saying, “Mom. Are you throwing away all my school artwork!?”. She replied, “John, just walk away. Trust me.” She filled 8 bags at her home the first night.
Neighbors and friends of my mother watched my niece and I filling a dumpster and moving Uhaul after Uhaul of ‘stuff’ to a local charity. Several neighbors spoke with us toward the end stating, ‘After watching what you have gone through, I am now cleaning out my home’ and ‘I am now going through each room in my home eliminating things, as I never want my children to go through that!’.
My mother loved her house. She loved her belongings. I had started reading over the last years about minimizing one’s belongings for a better life focused on what is truly important.
My mother may never fully understand the philosophy and benefit of ‘Minimalist’, and yet at 88 views the need to eliminate belongings and her home as defeat. Sadly, she also may never recognize the significant life changing lesson her ordeal has taught so many exposed to what she has had to do do.
As an older woman I think for your mother it may not be defeat but the loss of what was. I feel it myself some days. About 20 years ago I had 3 relatives get severely ill or pass away. All 3 involved my assisting in clearing out their homes that were lived in for years. The experience opened my eyes and I began the process of clearing out my home. As soon as the children moved out my husband and I downsized to 960 sq. feet from 2400. It’s so easy to clean our little place. I remember all the lugging and donating we did. I knew the name of the workers at Impact Thrift! I keep reading this blog because it keeps me on track.
I have many times felt grateful to only have one bathroom for my family of 5. I used to wish for another full bath, but realized last year that I didn’t have the time to clean a second one. As we prepare to do some renovations, and I can look forward to a second bathroom in the next two years, I sometimes find myself curious as to how much time I’ll spend cleaning – though by then my oldest will be old enough to help with some of the chores.
God, I thought about it when we lived in small cozy apartments on holiday. Just two moderate rooms, a kitchen and a bathroom. But it looked so secure, so private, so easy to keep clean and tidy!
Unfortunately, I can`t relocate into a smaller flat now, cause I live with my boyfriend in his flat and he thinks that the flat should be spacious. But I hope that with time he`ll understand my point of view and agree with it!
I am ready to downsize, hubby is not. Until he becomes ready, we are downsizing our possessions. I am hoping when he finally becomes ready, nothing more will need to be done for showing. Learned a long time ago to set mini-goals to reach long-term goals.
This is my struggle! I’m ready to downsize. Our home is 2700 sq ft. We have 4 kids. I just can’t keep up with it. He’s not on board. I just decided to start getting rid of “stuff.” I just started in October. I’ve gotten rid of so much. I can’t believe how much we still have hanging around! Every month I’m getting rid of at least 2 big boxes/bags. In October I go rid of WAAAY more in a yard sale. What I didn’t sell, I donated. None of it was coming home with us. We haven’t purchased anything to replace it. I got the itch to craft, so I just repurposed what we already owned for the front porch. I’m ready to just get rid of so much! Baby steps, I guess. Lol.
I totally agree, and even if money was no object I would never want to live in a large house. The thought of all the extra work and expense that would go into the upkeep of a big house (and garden) frankly scares me…and I hate dust!
15 years ago, as newlyweds, we bought our small ranch home, fully intending to “upsize” when the time was right. But I stumbled upon Becoming Minimalist in its early days and realized that we were already living in our perfect future retirement house. And since we have stayed small, our home will be paid off before our older daughter to heads off to college. Thanks so much for Being the inspiration for our minimalism lifestyle.
I have been working on de-cluttering, thanks to you, Joshua, and others like you, for about 18 months. It is slower going than I like because of working and going to school; and life in general. But I am getting there… sitting in my living room right now, that would be bare/sparse by conventional standards, but feels open and peaceful to me – especially the 16 feet of windows with no furniture to clutter the view or sunlight. I complete school in February, and am looking forward to free weekends to finish the process – and then a clutter-free (and school-free) summer of 2017!!!
My family currently lives in a 2600-sq foot home, while I am working/living in a faraway city in an 800-sq foot apt. This is a temporary arrangement necessitated by my job. But it affords us a great opportunity to review our lives. House or apartment — car or subway — yard or public park — home gym or nearby fitness center — and on and on. What I’ve found, and everyone else is coming around to, is that the smaller place is ideal.
I love this post. When I made my latest move, I’d hoped for a bigger apartment – instead it turned out to be about the same square footage but broken up differently, and that combined with some intensive decluttering have left me and my spouse both much happier with the situation.
A tip on minimalism:
If you have the choice, tile or hardwood floors are much better than an all-carpet home. Throw rugs can be used for getting out your aggression as you beat them, the floors don’t catch dust, dander and mites, and you don’t have to have a vacuum plus a mop plus a broom plus a dust mop plus who knows what else, like a carpet shampooer. You can do all your work with hand tools that are cheap to replace, easy to store, and easy to fix. Try to fix a vacuum cleaner? Hard. Try to fix a broom or a mop? Easy. So that’s my contribution for the day.
Lol! Agree with all of your points. Sinus issues decreased dramatically at our house when we got rid of all of the carpet. Probably, in part, because I clean more often….. hardwood floors don’t lie, you can IMMEDIATELY see when they’re dirty!
I do still have a vacuum cleaner however. It’s a good Dyson, bought and paid for before we eliminated all the carpet in the house. It comes in handy for dusting hard to reach areas (9 1/2 foot ceilings in some parts of the house), cleaning the upholstered furniture, cleaning the car’s interior, etc. And, since I have a place for it to “live”, it’s not taking up room that I don’t have or need for something else. But it’s definitely nice not to have to haul that noisy thing out every time I need to clean the floors. A broom and a dust pan are way, way quieter ad much, much lighter and easier to tote around!
Hashmo,
Great post, food for thought.
I am on journey to minimize. Have gotten rid of a third. But more than the physical purge, is the mental light bulb that lit up flashing, ITS JUST STUFF, much of it was just dragging me down.
I will have to work for several years yet regardless of what I get rid of, but atleast i know there is light at end if tunnel.
Thanks for the reminder.
thank you ren. I totally agree, decluttering is one of those things that gets easier the more you do it because often only when you start do you see the benefits of it and it becomes quite addictive and freeing. We only have one shot at this life, let’s not waste any more time/energy/money/space on stuff that really isn’t important and stopping us from being the best we can be.
We just bought a 1400sqft townhome without a garage and with a tiny patio, it will accommodate our family of four and my mother seasonally. We have been downsizing throughout the years and this townhome would offer us extra time and free some of our income, plus I do agree it is so much nicer when we are all in the same room. There is a bit of second guessing given that it is unconventional in the social groups we move in, but freedom is better than a bit of eyebrow rising from others ;)
I think you will find it sufficient. My husband I live is 1,500 square feet with 3 children. We are building a small suite over the garage in 2 years, to help with visitors, and also my need to frequently work from home. The additional space is welcome, but won’t fundamentally change our day-to-day life. We are really quite happy, and the size of the house encourages me to kick the kids outdoors most days. We also have friends/colleagues who don’t understand our choice to stay small. The financial freedom is the biggest blessing, and I think it’s something many folks can’t understand. Best of luck with your new home.
My husband and I are thinking about downsizing our house, but I’m concerned that we won’t have enough room if one or both of my parents need to move in with us (and our two boys) in the future. COPA, I’m curious how many bedrooms your house has and how you make it work when your mother is visiting.
My wife, son and I used to live in a lovely condo. Then my mother moved to assisted living and signed her home over to me. It’s a much bigger home and we’re blessed to have no mortgage. But it’s bigger and requires everything you wrote about. We’ve talked about selling the house when I retire and downsizing, to lower the property taxes and have more freedom!
My house isn’t huge by any means. But, it is more than I really need. One bedroom has the door closed, and is never used.
My plan is to downsize to a smaller condo next year. All the reasons listed in this post pretty much sum up my reasons. It will make life easier. Have identified most of the stuff that needs to go when I make the move.
We did the cycle from the 1300 sq foot townhouse to the 2300 Sq foot house to the 3200 sq foot house with the pool and the hot tub. The cost in time and money to maintain such a large house was stressful and unhealthy. We then downsized to a 1400 sq foot apartment – bigger than what we need now, but I worked from home so I needed the home office and some storage space. We now live Ina one bedroom apartment, and frankly I don’t miss anything from the big house – well maybe the hot tub. Owning and maintaining stuff is exhausting and takes away from what is truly important in life. Thank you for the blog on minimalism. Whenever I feel the urge to go back to my old ways of consumerism i go this website to ground myself.
My mum died two months ago.
We lived together and had a great relationship.
But there would be times when I was going to bed at night and she’d say “no time for one more hug?” and I’d say “no mum I can’t its already so late I need to go to work in the morning”. There’d be times when I’d be leaving for work in the morning and she’d say “sit with me for a while” and I’d say “I can’t I’m already late and I need to work to pay for our life in this house”. I’d part from her leaving a look of sadness in her eyes and guilt in my heart.
The more often I said that and the more I read about minimalism the more I realised we didn’t need our “life in this house” and that by giving up ‘this life’ I was actually gaining a better life I actually really wanted to live. So I embarked on my minimalism journey with the aim to declutter, downsize and spend more time with her.
This was three years ago and I never got to the point of downsizing what with juggling work, chores, care, family commitments (I’m almost there though). But my point is I never got to the point where I could give up my job so that I had time for those extra hugs. And I’ll never get a chance to do that now. I still intend to continue with my journey and downsize (albeit on my own now) but I would give EVERYTHING that I owned (including any time that I had remaining on this earth) to sit with her again for 10 minutes and press my cheek against her forehead. I will never experience that unconditional love from my best friend during the time that I have left on this planet and as much as I am thankful for God for Him allowing her to be in my life and accept the situation He has decided, I still wish I had made better use of that time and not let owning big house detract from it.
Minimalism (and that means your advice too Joshua!) gave me so much, our last couple of years in an increasingly clutter free home meant so much less stress and happiness.
To anyone reading, never give up on your journey and never put off starting it if you haven’t embarked on it yet.
I really liked your post Hashmo!
Thank you Janete. Peace and love from this side of the world.
A thoughtful post. And one that points out a moral that many, including myself, are slowly coming to be aware of: That too often we discover what’s important when it’s too late or nearly too late.
Thank you Tom. This whole experience has taught me to put what is important first and then use minimalism in all areas of life as a tool to slice away things that eat up my time/energy/space/money preventing me from focusing on the important things.
Thanks Hashmo. Your comment has really made me think. I’ve been trying to sort clutter for the past twenty years, but not really done it. You have given me the incentive I need. So I am going to start now !! PennyL
Go for it Penny! You’ll never regret it. So much of the past three years has been delayed by the “what if I need it just in case” syndrome. For me at lest, the biggest progress came when I did two things
1. I pinned up a single reason for why I was decluttering (what was the clutter preventing me from doing/achieving or what an uncluttered life would mean – push/pull factors). I read that reason every single morning and kept it on my person during decluttering sessions.
After a while I felt like even that wasn’t working. I read an article on the Minimalists that advised de-owning rather than decluttering. You see with decluttering you still secretly want to keep the item but you try and find a more important reason to get rid of it. But that niggling desire for keeping the item is still there. This, coupled with days when I couldn’t focus/had anxiety with all the objects around me, led me to try the Packing Party technique as an experiement. I boxed up EVERYTHING that I hadn’t used in the last year, labelled and stacked them in the garage. No tough decisions at all because it was always there when I needed it. This instantly gave me a minimal room and allowed me to taste the benefits of time/energy/space without those items and proved to me how much better life was without the item and how I never needed the item just in case. This is what helped the most progress for me. Because then I didn’t even want the item back in my life anymore and decluttering it from the garage was super easy. I hope that might help you in your journey!
….so quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep, I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep….
It was written by a mother after her fifth child was born. I read it before my first child was born and took it to heart. My house was NEVER spotless but there was always time to make a lap for a child, to listen to a story, to make things together.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there were a poem to remind us that time with our parents, grandparents is fleeting as well? And a magic wand that we could wave about to declutter our homes and shrink them to a manageable size?
My Grandmama raised me. She died six months after my first child was born. That was thirty-three years ago and I still miss her ever single day of my life. I regret the times that I didn’t make the time to visit or talk on the phone. And what I wouldn’t give to sit on the front porch swing with her, sipping a coke and holding her hand. But I learned from that to make time for those I love just as I did with my children. The dust bunnies can wait.
beautiful words kim.
In the last year of my mums life I read a quote from a saint in my faith that said “those who are good to their parents will never face poverty or hardship in life”. It changed everything about our relationship. I could suddenly breathe and stopped worrying about things that were less important.
I hope that one day God willing I am able to take your advice with my own children.
I’m sorry for your loss Hashmo.
I’m sure everyone of us at some time in our lives fall short with the ones we love the most.
Don’t be hard on yourself, be grateful that you loved your Mum so much.
I’m sure she knew that you loved her x
Thank you Angela. I teared up when I read this on the train home last night. Thank you xxx
Thank you for sharing your heart and thoughts so openly. I so appreciate your story and the message.
When our kids were 1 and 5 we moved from a 600 sq ft apartment to what we thought of as our “starter home”; a 1000 sq ft three (tiny) bedroom house. Four years later we are still here and have no plans on buying a bigger house. Having a small house means we have money and time to do the things we love, like travel. It’s amazing how freeing that feeling is.
The easiest way I’ve found to cut the time it takes for dusting is to not dust. :P
Hee! Love this. Some of us are highly allergic to whatever is in the dust; so we have learned to stay on top of it better and run helpafilters to catch the extra. That reminds me…I need to get dusting!
I agree. Not being a fussy housekeeper ( I can’t remember when I last dusted baseboards) I wouldn’t be much better in a smaller house. I do consider myself well organized, however, and as long as I have enough space to keep my necessary belongings in order I’m happy.
We just spent five months purging and selling most of what we accumulated over 35 years, then sold our three-story home, and moved into a 31-foot travel trailer. We stored only our real “keepers” in a storage unit. Already we feel lighter, more peaceful, and less stressful. Yes, less stuff means more life!
Joshua loved this post. We are in a larger house with 3 kids and hoping to downsize next year. Thanks for giving us more ideas to focus on as we go through this journey. Thanks!
20 years we lived in 600 sq foot house with a family of 4 now it is just 3. It is so true about time and money savings plus are family was and is always close.
I spent 10 years (my whole 20s) cleaning a 4000sqft home. So that’s time, youth, energy and money (the ridiculous mortgage for the MacMansion).
At 30 I had an opportunity to leave the country and rented a 1000sqft apartment with my four year old and newborn. Still hectic, understandably but so much better. No double storey homes for me ever again.
A few years later we bought a 2000 sqft apartment which is lovely to look at but I would downsize the next time. At 40 now, I only have energy to vacuum 1/2 of it at a time by the time I pick up the umpteen things left around, wipe the dust, you get the idea.
What will l do with the next 20 years.
Eighteen months ago I made the move from a 5 bedroom house to a 3 bedroom one. Previously I had one room that was literally full of junk, and everything I didn’t know what to do with went in that room. Moving was difficult, as I had to get rid of lots of things (and still have some to go), but I have never regretted it. Cleaning and looking after my now tiny garden is much easier and quicker. In addition, I think living in a small space encourages tidiness. I now make decisions about items as they come in to the home, and I’m much better at dealing with the post as it comes in too.
Agree! Well done for downsizing. We just bought a 3 bedroom place but I don’t see myself upsizing as the family grows.
Extra rooms can soon become junk rooms. It is so much quicker to clean not only a smaller home but a clutter free one.
totally agree. Also seeing things on the net about the Graham Hill Life Edited apartment and also how the Japanese approach life with multifunctional rooms has made me realise that a 3 bed home is plenty big enough even for a large family.