smaller homeThere will be a point in your life when you start to consider moving to a smaller home.  Typically, we start to think along those lines as we get older.  We slow down and don’t have the energy or physical capacity to manage the tasks associated with a big home.

You may have started out with a smaller home, then as you moved along life’s path, you needed more space so you upsized to a larger home, maybe more than once.

The kids came along and you needed more space to accommodate more things for more people.  You needed more space to spread out so that you weren’t on top of each other.  There were birthday parties, kids sleepovers, anniversary parties and holiday gatherings that required more space.

All of this space requires maintenance on a regular basis.  The bigger the space, the more maintenance your big home requires.  And that’s just the inside of your home.  The work on the outside is also included in the overall maintenance for a big home, or any home for that matter. The amount of cleaning, purging, organizing, repairs and other general maintenance can be overwhelming as well as expensive.

All of this was more manageable when you were younger and may have had more income.  Now that the kids have moved out, maybe off to college or perhaps got married, you now have a lot of empty space.

Consider the questions below as you contemplate moving to a smaller home.  Then take a look at the benefits listed below to help you make your decision.

Do I really need or want to continue to spend the effort and money to maintain this big house?

How much space in the house am I truly using on a daily basis?

Am I storing things that I don’t use, need or love, are that are for others?

Physical

Stairs can be physically taxing on your body. In a lot of homes, the laundry room is in the basement. Or you may have more than one level in your house. Lugging baskets of clothes up and down stairs can wear you out!

Cleaning a smaller home, if you do it yourself, is a lot easier on your body and takes less time.

Yard work is another thing that is physically taxing on your body. The smaller the yard, like cleaning, makes it a lot easier and takes less time.

Cost

Save money on heating and cooling costs with smaller rooms. You may be closing off vents in rooms that are unoccupied to save on your heating and cooling bills.  With a smaller home, you will use all the space all the time, no need to close off vents to save money.

Taxes and insurance will also be less with a smaller home. If you decide to rent, you can save even more money on insurance(renters) and taxes won’t factor into your costs at all.  You also won’t have costs associated with maintenance.

The cost to clean your smaller home will be less than a bigger home in terms of hiring a company to do the work.  The smaller the space, the less time it will take and that equates to a cost savings.

Storage space in your home for things you no longer use, need or love, or are storing for others can be expensive. With a smaller home you will have limited storage so you won’t have the space to store excess that you won’t use. Storing things for others will no longer be an option. You can determine the cost per square foot by dividing the cost of your home by the square footage.