post off: how many square feet do you really need?
Our first house was a 1940s ranch. At 960 square feet, it seemed like all the space we would ever need. Then we started thinking about having children, moved 800 miles and more than doubled our square footage. While 2,000 square feet certainly isn’t a McMansion in scale, it is probably more than we need. After all, my parents’ generation raised a family of four (or five or six or even eight) in under 1,000 square feet. And for the city dwellers among us, smaller quarters are nothing new. So the question is, how much space do you really need for yourself? For a family? Is the McMansion era behind us for good, or just undergoing a temporary slim down? Weigh in. — Sarah L.
Image from antiquehome.org, where you’ll find lots of great house plans from 1900-1971.
I think a good floor plan can do wonders, no matter the size of your space. We (myself, my husband and our toddler) currently have a 1300 sq. ft. condo, but it’s split between three levels plus a basement office. It feels much more crowded than it should because of the small rooms–too many walls and too many stairs!
I think 1500-2000 square feet would be perfect for us if the house had an open floor plan with a few rooms to escape to for privacy.
This post made me feel so much better. My husband and I just bought our first home – 1300 sq. ft, 2 BRs. Shortly after moving in I started to feel pretty panicky about running out of room, should we ever have kids. And then one day I noticed that under a layer of white paint, a previous owner had labeled the cubbies in the laundry room with the names of everyone who lived there: Mom, Dad, and two boys. Proof that at some point, four people lived in our house and survived past toddler-hood. But I can’t help but point out: in the 1940s, most folks probably didn’t need home offices. (Especially moms!) And that’s where that 3rd bedroom would be really, really nice. But seriously, I think we’ll be fine :)
This subject is near and dear to my heart!
We lived in a 600 square foot bungalow for 8 years. We stayed until I was 8 months pregnant with our 3rd child. The hardest part for us was not when the 4 of us were there, but when we wanted to have friends over. Then our house felt pretty tiny.
What we did was make the best use of our limited space. Our saving grace was a biggish front yard which we could use most of the year for dinner parties or entertaining.
With the arrival of baby # 3 came the purchase of our first home and an additional 600 square feet. I feel like this house is spacious and fits us just right. We looked long and hard for a layout that would make the best use of the space. We also do our best with the space by making deliberate choices regarding our use of space. Our 3 kids share the master and we took one of the smaller bedrooms. This allows us an extra room for books, computer, legos and art making space. We don’t have much in the way of clutter or big furniture. We try to respect our space.
It surprises me when people say our house is small. It seems just right to me. I wouldn’t want more space because it seems more space just equals more stuff.
I would, however, not mind having another bathroom. 6 people and 1 bathroom isn’t the best of circumstances.
But, it could be worse! There is no outhouse in our backyard. :)
I used to happily live in a tiny 265 square-foot studio, but a few years back, I upgraded to a 600 square-foot one bedroom, which felt huge at first. Recently, my boyfriend moved in, and I was scared we’d want to kill each other in the small space. However, I am pleasantly surprised to find it still feels large enough for us — and our stuff. While I’d love more space, the space we have is all we really “need” right now.
Our house is “technically” 1400 square feet, or so they lied to us when we bought it, heh, because the basement was “finished” (if you’ve been reading Shelterrific for long, you know that we had to tear out everything that was down there). So now with an unfinished basement we do most of our living in around 750 square feet. The kitchen is much smaller than I’d like, but overall, it’s a lot easier than our previous house in Ohio which was three floors and 2500 square feet. We were constantly losing things because we’d leave them on the third floor and then be down in the basement when we needed it…ugh. Still, I’m looking forward to finishing our basement again. (We don’t have kids, FYI.)
It depends a lot on the kids’ genders and ages, too, how long you can last as a family in a small home. We had twelve good years in a 700 sq. foot apartment, because our kids are the same gender and could share a bedroom. But at that point, they just began to really get annoyed with one another. Once we moved to a larger home, where they have their own bedrooms, things were serene (mostly) again.
Through much trial and error over the years, I’ve figured out that 900-1000 sf is perfect for me and my little family. Any more than that is too much work to take care of and keep clean. Less than that and my husband and I, and our three dogs, all feel like we’re on top of each other and chaos ensues.
We have about 1350 sq. ft. We also have two dogs, one that is a 170-lb. mastiff. That definitely makes out house feel smaller (although it feels bigger than our 900 sq. ft. house did!!).
Other than the dogs and one cat, it’s me, the hubby and our 19 month old daughter. We might decide to add another little one in a year. We already know we won’t be in this house in 10 years, but it’s layout, not the size. The common areas are fine, almost spacious even. The bedrooms (it’s a 1940s house) are tiny!! That would be okay because we don’t lounge in our bedrooms, but the closets are also tiny. We have no place to put our clothes. We don’t even have room in the bedrooms for wardrobes or other common solutions.
Other than that, we love our house. If we could easily and cheaply add 5-10 ft. to the back two bedrooms, I bet we’d stay here longer (and who knows, maybe we will one day).
I wonder about this a lot. We have our first home (a 1300 sq ft, 3 bedroom, 2 bath) on the market and are looking for our long-term house. In our price range, houses go from 2000-3500 sq. ft. I think 2000 is around what we’re looking at, but knowing I can technically “afford” more space, does that mean I should go for it? We’re four people, one large dog and one large cat. I want space to entertain (a lot) and have overnight guests. My kids are going to want their privacy when they’re older. Part of me thinks, go small with a good floor plan and add-on later if it’s important and the other part says, go big, it’s cheaper to re-decorate than it is to add-on. Any thoughts?
Our first home, where we stayed until our youngest (of three children) daughter was ten, was 840 square feet. It was a bit of a struggle having 5 people share 1 bathroom. We moved to a 1400 sq. ft. home with two bathrooms, and that was plenty for us. Now, with the children grown and gone, we rattle a bit.
I hope that my 1923 colonial is not a mcmansion precursor, but if you are willing to clean and maintain it all, I say as big as you like.
Then again I am so pleased when a well thought out hotel room comes into my life and if I had no pets I think I could live in about 250 comfortably. (which is only 10x less than what I currently have)
Right now it’s three of us and two cats in a 700-ish sqft apartment. I agree that layout makes a huge difference. I also think that too much space just leads to accumulating stuff for the sole purpose of filling the space up. (Though I would like a bit more space than we’ve got. I wish our living room was a bit bigger as it’s host to two desks and seating. I want a bit more room for moving around while playing with the Wii and entertaining.)
Our house is around 1450 sq ft , 3 bed/2 bath. I think it’s the perfect size for the six of us, but then my older step-daughter is away at college most of the time and the younger step-daughter spends every-other weekend at her mom’s. We’ve thought about moving to gain another bedroom, larger yard, eat-in kitchen, 3 car garage, etc… but then we’re getting into McMansion territory and I don’t want to pay a McMansion sized mortgage and property taxes.
we’ve been all over the map on this one (12 houses in 15 years) and are currently in the process of moving out of our 3000sqft place of business/home and back into our cozy little 800sqft cottage (there will be 5 of us in March) with a few little projects to take care of storage and updates I couldn’t be more excited. it seems that no matter where we live we all end up within 15 feet of each other-or closer-like all snuggled up on the same couch. the big house is just too much…we need less.
My darling husband says he doesn’t know how many sq ft our house is, so I’ll just say that while I have no need for a mcmansion, two kids later our trilevel is starting to feel a little cramped!
Right now it’s just me, but I just moved into a 350 sq foot studio and I was terrified of having not enough space, but really, It’s totally cozy and I love it. I’m lucky that my kitchen closes off so it’s not as confined as some studios. I had to downsize and leave a few things in storage (books, mostly), but I’m loving my downsized life!
Our starter house (around 1000sqft on the main, w/800 in finished basement) has turned into a home for my husband and I and our four children. Our three boys share a 10×11 room and the baby rooms in w/my husband and I in our bedroom that is the same size. It’s forced us to become super organized and to simplify our belongings to little more than necessities. But I like it that way.
Yes, we are looking for a bigger house. But I am happy that living in this tiny one for so long has set us up with a simplified and organized lifestyle that will hopefully carry over into the new house.
There’s 6 if us in our 1250 sq foot home and we have PLENTY of room! I hear it constantly- people asking when we’re moving, assuming we need a bigger home. The kids share a room, the baby sleeps in our room, and we even have a bedroom that is a playroom. I always know where everyone is, and when we get crowded, we go outside. I do believe that if money were no issue, we’d still stay here and use the money to make improvements or to do something to make life happier for others.
Steph
I grew up with four people in 900 square feet and HATED IT. I’m an introvert and there was no place to go to have quiet and be alone. We had to tiptoe around when my dad took a nap on the couch in the living room and forget about the bathroom–no privacy at all! When my husband and I got our first condo it was 1200 sqft I think and felt HUGE. We moved around a lot (he was in the military) and when we settled down and decided to buy a house in Northern Virginia we quickly realized there was no in-between… there were very old very tiny homes, and newer very huge homes. But nothing in the middle at all. Due to my job as a work-at-home artist and needing studio space, and my husband’s hobby as motorcyclist and needing garage space, we opted for the huge house–about 3000 sqft I think. And it’s really way, way too big. I hate cleaning it. I hate sprinting up and down stairs trying to get to the phone before voicemail picks up. I hate dusting it and did I mention I hate cleaning it? So.much.dusting. But I feel very fortunate to have so much space so I don’t complain… but since you asked I thought I’d be honest. :)
We’ve got a 1900 sq ft 2 story with a finished basement.
It’s too much space for me, Hubby and our 5-year old. We didn’t plan on only having 1 child, so thought at LEAST 3 of the 4 bedrooms would be full. In addition to the 4 bedrooms, we have a playroom, an office, and a loft. Just too much space. I wish we could just get a crane to lift up this house and drop down a smaller bungalow.
It’s a pretty lucky problem to have… i understand that.
Being forced to live in small quarters has advantages:
1. You learn to get along with other people. More space just means you can avoid each other rather than dealing with problems.
2. You develop better judgement about what to buy and what to keep. As someone said above, a lot of times having you end up having more stuff because of the space you have (to fill it up), rather than the other way around.
I grew up in an 800 sf 3BR/1BA house with four people and two dogs. Now I live in a 300 SF efficiency with 1 other person and a cat. I think it is hardest on the cat.
We currently live in a house that is ~1800SF. It’s me, my husband, our middle-school-aged son, and our six (!) cats. In the past, we’ve also lived in a house (1100SF), an apartment (650SF), a twin (2500SF), a rowhome (1500SF) and a loft (1000SF).
Lifestyle makes a difference in what your needs may be. My husband and I both work full-time from home, and feel that we need our office spaces to be separate from the rest of the house space. So, even though we are a family of three, we have a four-bedroom house, and it does not feel like it is too large. Also, in the past, we homeschooled our son, which meant that all of us were home a lot of the time, sometimes hosting other homeschooled families and children for activities during the day. That meant that we needed more space than might be typical for a family of three.
After living in so many different places, I can also say that well-designed space makes a huge difference. In our current house, we use every room every day. It feels like the perfect fit for our family.
EXACTLY!!!! (i didn’t read all the posted replies just your topic) and I could not agree more! When my husband and I got married we moved into a small home that he already was living in. I do not know exact Sq Ft but it was pretty small. It worked for us and our son then we had another child and it started to feel “cramped”. He got a new job that required us to move anyway but the problem with that first home was we did not have a basement, attic, we had practically NO storage and terrible closet space. So we went up to a little over 2,000 sq ft and are now in a new home that while it is beautiful and has PLENTY of storage space (which we do love that fact) it also is a bit much for us. I am not the greatest cleaning lady, wife and mom….i love to keep a neat and nice and simple home but I despise any cleaning other then dusting and vacuuming! So having a bigger home…well there is more space to clean :) But seriously the biggest thing we realize is that while we DO need storage…we do NOT need 2000 sq ft of living space. We can downsize! We have started seriously planning out a 5 year savings plan to where we can downsize and build a smaller home (thinking 1100 sq ft or smaller if we can hack it!) and being able to save up enough to pay for it and not have a mortgage…so far we have worked some numbers and it should work! With building a smaller home, we are saving allot and also it will be more energy efficient so our utilites are not through the roof! Yes, we make ends meet each month but we have realized that we do not want to be a slave to our home, to a mortgage and to high utilities until we have grandchildren or longer! I found this blog because I am starting to look at ways we can lay out the design of the smaller home to make it “feel larger” then it is! And space saving ways to eliminate the furniture but have the proper shelving and storage! I believe it can be done :)
Meghan
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Finding this blog has helped me to breathe a sigh of relief! We’re moving out of our 1400 sq. foot townhome into a 1400 sq. foot single family. We need an extra bedroom and garage for storage, but can’t afford to upgrade on sq. footage. I’ve been stressing that 1400 will be too small once we have baby #2, but it sounds like with the great layout, it will be perfect. I like the comment about being more organized and less cluttered. Thanks!