We’re not quite going this far, but we’re moving in that direction…
Image: Richard Elzey via flickr
Mom, you were right.
We don’t need a 3,000+ ft2 house.
I’ll explain.
When we moved here nearly two years ago, my mom was with me. Joseph was at training in another state. She & I looked at houses.
I was coming off a six month stint of living with our four kids in my parent’s basement. To say I was thrilled to have a bigger space to live in, would be an understatement.
Mine & Joseph’s criteria for a home was this: close to base (15 minutes or less), had a community pool, safe neighborhood, & was under our BAH (for non-military folks, that is the housing stipend we get each month). That was pretty much it. I thought it would be great if we could save a few hundred a month (the difference between our BAH allotment & our rent), but meeting the above criteria was most important for us at the time.
So, when we found the current house we’re living in & it matched our requirements, we signed a lease agreement & quickly moved in. I also thought it would be nice to have so much space. My mom thought otherwise & told me so.
Is a big house better?
Don’t get me wrong, it has been nice to have so much space for the kids to roam during the hot, hot summers when they can’t go outside or they’ll get heat stroke (it really does get that hot here). But on the flip side, it has been quite demanding to keep up with so much space.
Having had nearly two years under my belt of living in a massive house, I am absolutely sold on smaller homes. I want to move back to our 1700 ft2 home in Utah, when things were tight & cozy.
Here’s a little list of the reasons why I know I never want to live in a “big” house again:
- So. Much. To clean.
Being responsible for keeping every nook & cranny of this 3,000 ft2 house spic & span is beyond my capabilities. Or maybe I just don’t want to spend every waking minute scrubbing floors, walls, & vacuuming. Or maybe I’m just weak & my cleaning skills leave much to be desired. (FYI: We have our kids clean too, but even between the kids, Joseph, & myself, we still struggle staying on top of everything.) Either which way, it’s beyond my scope. - So. Much. Rent.
We’ve been paying $1475 a month in rent. This is more than covered by our BAH, but when I think of how much money we could have saved had we lived in a smaller home, say at $1200 a month, I could kick myself. Lesson learned (I hope). - So. Much. Wasted space.
Sleeping spaces, in mine & Joseph’s opinion, require little more than enough space to fit a bed & dresser. Anything beyond that is just fluff. I suppose this perspective is born from having both grown up in comparatively smallish homes with lots of siblings (Joseph never lived in a home with more than three bedrooms, even with six siblings). Our current master bedroom, is a perfect example of a ridiculous amount of wasted space–something like 600 ft2–for just sleeping. Also, though we have four bedrooms in this house, we only use three. The fourth is used for a toy room, one in which can go for days without being visited. Not including the kitchen & laundry room, bathrooms, or bedrooms, we have four other living spaces. Totally unnecessary. - So. Much. Energy use.
Last year we kept our A/C at a warm & toasty 82F. After realizing that this actually caused our pantry food to spoil faster (& therefore proved to be counter productive), we ratcheted it down to a still conservative 78F. I’m a light hound & try to never use lights during the day. I line dry our laundry. Even still, we’re paying a boatload of money each month to keep this energy hog fed. - Makes it easy to fill (with crap).
The more room you have, the easier it is to buy more mostly useless, space-filling, energy-draining things to break & dust. My closet, for example, is nearly the size of one of my bedrooms growing up (it actually has an A/C vent in it & currently serves as baby Tyndale’s bedroom). It’s just begging to be filled with more clothes, more shoes & other things I don’t really need “more” of.
Lesson learned: be grateful
Look, if you live in a ginormous house (anything above 3K square feet fits the bill) & love it, great!
But, I’m here to say, if you’re one of those, pining for more space, a bigger house–don’t.
Appreciate what you’ve got, even if it’s an itty bitty place with no more space than to sleep, eat, & enjoy such luxuries as warm showers & indoor plumbing. Because, even that, is much, much more than so much of the world’s population.
In December our lease ends. The rent is going up. And we will be moving out.
We’re looking for a much smaller place (half the size of our current house). In doing this we’ll:
- Save anywhere from $400-$600 a month (a month!!) on rent & utilities.
- Sell or give away a lot of our extra furniture.
When we moved in, we didn’t have enough furniture to fill 3,000 ft2. So we bought several pieces of furniture (a kitchen table, a large sectional, a sofa & love seat). Fortunately, it was all on craigslist for a super awesome deal, & we’ll be able to turn it around & sell it for about the price we paid for it. - Downsize everything else.
All those size 4 jeans that don’t currently fit me? Those are going on eBay (you know how I love to sell things on eBay). All the other clothes I haven’t really worn in years, also have got to go. I’m going to go through all the kid’s toys & clothes & throw out & give away anything that they don’t use regularly (which is a great practice to do before the holidays anyway). This oughta keep me busy for awhile. And all that fabric I got on clearance in hopes of sewing all my kids clothes but has only collected dust in my closet for the past year (such a pipe dream!)? It’s going too.
Less space/stuff=more freedom
When we consider how doing this is going to mightily add to our get-out-of-debt coffers (we’ll save/earn something like $4,000 in just a half a year’s time, enough to get us out of debt a few months earlier than planned!), it’s an absolute no-brainer. We’ve got to downsize & move.
The work of it all, the hassle of moving (especially considering that we’ll most likely be moving from Texas to an entirely new location next summer or winter)–does this deter me? Not in the slightest. The money saved, the energy saved from not having to clean & care for such a large space, is more than enough reason to motivate me.
So, if you wonder what I’ll be up to the next few months, I’ll be busy downsizing.
And at the end of it, our family will emerge lighter, richer, & closer to do our debt-free goal.
Now that is something to get excited about, don’t you think?
P.S. Today the movie Meet the Mormons comes out in theaters in the U.S. If you’ve ever wondered what Mormons are all about–which as you probably know, I am (proudly) one–I highly recommend it! It’s not a proselytizing film, but rather intended to increase understanding about who we are.
Also, all net profits from the show will go to the American Red Cross, which is super cool. Go HERE, to watch the trailer, listen to David Archuleta’s (he’s such a cutie) single for the movie, & find showtimes in your area.
Other bring joy posts you might want to read:
- How to make money by selling your stuff on craigslist–a few tips
- Distinguishing between needs & wants
- Debt snowball update (9/2014)
- We slashed the grocery budget to under $500 a month
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