Have you been considering downsizing to a smaller house or apartment? Big houses can certainly be beautiful, but a bigger house can significantly eat into your budget – and your time! Read on for ten reasons why living in a smaller home can change your life for the better.
Benefits of Downsizing Your Home
Less time spent cleaning
Housecleaning is, of course, a necessary task no matter where you live. If you have a particularly big house, it will be one that takes a considerable amount of time to keep up with. A smaller home could mean fewer bathrooms to clean, less floor space to vacuum or mop, fewer windows to wash, and far less space for dust to gather!
More free time
If you no longer have to devote so much time to housecleaning, imagine what you can do with the time you save! All of those extra minutes during the day could add up to more time for reading, exercise, creative hobbies, or a phone chat or coffee date with a friend. Not to mention, it feels so much nicer coming home from outside activities when you don’t have a mile-long chore list waiting for you!
Less room for clutter
Another major plus to a small home is that there are far fewer nooks, crannies, shelves, surfaces, extra rooms, cabinets, and closets to fill with “stuff!” And if clutter does try to sneak up on you, the chore of decluttering will be a much smaller one because you’ll catch it faster, and there simply won’t be room for it to multiply too much.
Efficient use of space
In a smaller home, you’ll naturally make better use of your space. You won’t have those extra bedrooms, bathrooms, or closets that become awkward holding spaces for items you don’t often use, turned into a “home office” when you don’t actually need one, or even worse, sit completely empty! Your home will feel cozier and more “homey” when it isn’t full of empty spaces and every room is regularly used and enjoyed.
Save money by reducing expenses
A smaller home can be far less expensive to maintain – leaving you with more money in your pocket each month. In most cases, the mortgage (or rent), property taxes, and homeowner’s insurance costs are all higher for a big house than a small one. And of course, heat, air conditioning, and electricity will be cheaper if you have less space to keep warm, cool, or bright. Also, if you own your home, some of the necessary upkeep, such as new insulation, roof, windows, flooring, or paint will usually be less expensive (and less time-consuming) projects.
The great thing is that before you buy a property, you can go online and find a mortgage calculator to see just how much your outgoings would be on your property every single month. Compare this to your current property and you can see exactly how much better off you would be every month, which is a great motivator.
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More disposable income
After making the switch to a smaller home, these reduced expenses will leave you with more money for fun! You could combine the time you’ll be saving on housecleaning and decluttering with the extra money in your pocket to start a new hobby or go to a class you’ve been curious about! Or you could keep the money on hand for times when the urge to treat yourself (or someone you love) pops up, or to save for a vacation, or for anything else that makes your heart happy!
A smaller to-do list
From routine tasks like dusting and mopping to keeping supplies like toilet paper, towels, and lightbulbs refreshed, most of us regularly have a pretty long to-do list that never actually reaches its end before restarting again. A smaller home equals a naturally shorter list to cycle through. The same goes for maintenance and small repairs. You’ll have fewer moving parts to eventually wear out or get squeaky and need attention.
More control over how your space looks
A smaller home may make renovations or home decor projects much more reasonable to take on. Generally, these projects will cost less in a smaller space – or it will allow you the leeway to splurge on the elements you really want. And when every space in your home feels like it’s there for a reason (and isn’t covered in clutter), creating a cohesive “look” for your home becomes much easier! You’ll also have less space that you “need” to fill, and can choose to fill your home with only the items and decor that truly speak to your heart.
More time spent together
In a bigger home, it’s easy for everyone to get in the habit of being off in their own space most of the time. An important benefit of a smaller house is that you’ll all naturally be closer to each other. Even if you’re cooking in the kitchen and your spouse is in the living room watching television, you’ll be close enough that you could talk to each other, or simply enjoy their quiet company. And it feels so much nicer not to have to wander through the house searching for someone when you need to ask them a question! So many daily opportunities to connect with your loved ones will be easily accessible when the space you share is smaller.
Your home won’t suck the life out of you!
Your home should be a happy, comfortable place that brings you joy! If your home is too big, it will be time-consuming and expensive to maintain and keep clean, clutter will mysteriously multiply, and even small decor projects or repairs may feel too big or too costly to take on. The last thing a home should be is an albatross around your neck! But if it’s draining your wallet and your precious time, your home won’t feel like the beautiful refuge it should! When you downsize, you’ll eliminate extra stress, extra rooms/clutter, and extra time, effort, and money spent.
Imagine having extra money to treat yourself each month, smaller bills in your mailbox, and smaller repair estimates when pieces of your home need to be replaced. Imagine a home that has just enough space to meet your needs (no unused rooms!), doesn’t take up too much time to clean, is decorated throughout in a style you love (with no clutter!), and your loved ones are close enough to easily find and talk to. When you’ve got all of that in place, your home will become a place of true enjoyment, happiness, and contentment – everything that “home” should be!