Wondering if you should upsize your home? Sometimes upsizing is a true need, not a simple want.
My husband and I recently purchased a new home. We loved our cozy former home, but finally resigned ourselves to the fact that it just wasn't working for our large family.
I genuinely loved small house living. What’s not to love? There was less to clean, less to decorate, and it was less expensive to maintain (heating, cooling etc). I finally had to accept the fact that despite all my efforts to live a minimalist lifestyle, it still wasn't enough to make our small home possible for our family of five. "Living Small" started to feel like living way too small! I knew we needed to upsize, but I hated the idea, and felt like a failure at living up to my own ideals.
Here are four reasons we knew we needed to upsize (and why you might need to as well):
1) We were always fighting for the bathroom! We only had one bathroom in our former home, and once our youngest became potty trained, it just pushed us over the limit with trying to share a bathroom.
2) Despite decluttering as much as we possibly could, there simply wasn't enough room to store all the things we needed. There was nothing else left to declutter, and we were using our one car garage as a storage facility. I can't stand clutter, it makes me extremely cranky! Our small home didn’t take long to clean up, but when you live in a small home with a lot of people, the smallest messes are super obvious. I was driving myself crazy picking up toys and cleaning all day.
3) Everyone was always home...all day, everyday. My husband and I are both introverts and homebodies, so we spend a great deal of time home together. I am a SAHM, and homeschool my middle child. My toddler, is obviously always home, and my oldest goes to school, and spends the rest of his time at home. If we weren't always crammed together in a tiny space, for so many hours every single day, the house could have worked better for us.
4) Introverts in the family? As I stated, both my husband and I are introverts, and introverts need their own quiet space to unwind and de-stress. That is almost impossible in a very small home. We introverts despise open layouts. Give us our walls and nooks and crannies to hide in! Our former home was like living together in one big room. It was causing tension and stress.
Despite the housing market being "slim pickings", and mortgage interest rates being the highest they have been in years, we managed to find a home that suited our needs, at a price we could afford. We got lucky, because the home we purchased was initially under contract, but the sale fell through at the last minute. We purchased a home in a neighborhood we had previously lived in (and loved), and the home is very similar to the one we previously owned, in that neighborhood. After living in various styles of homes, we realized that we had made a mistake selling that home, and were thrilled to find one so similar to it. Our neighborhood has ranch style homes, with a very unique, HTF layout, that allows for separation among the sections of the house, and the privacy we need to co-exist peacefully. I also finally have my own en suite bath, no boys allowed! Sharing a bathroom with four males, was not fun to say the least.
Upsizing was definitely the right decision for us. Our home is still small enough to feel cozy, and appease my minimalist ideals, but is also big enough to give us our own spaces, and to live comfortably. Yes, our house payment has gone up quite a bit. BUT, we are much happier!
Sometimes, upsizing isn't just what a family wants, but what it needs!
