How Much House Do We Really Need?
suburbia April 26th, 2009
Attention Bing visitors: I’m getting tons of traffic today for this post and everyone’s using exactly the same search string to get here. I’m perplexed why this is happening. If someone could leave a note in the comments explaining what led you here, I’d be super grateful!
November 16, 2010
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I enjoy watching House Hunters on the HGTV network, where a single person, couple, or family decides which house to buy after touring three of them.
Yesterday I watched in amazement as a woman said she was concerned that a 4,000 sq. foot house wasn’t enough room for herself, her husband and three small children.
Four thousand feet isn’t enough? Gimme a break!
I grew up with two parents and four siblings in a 1,250 sq. foot house and survived. And here’s the incredible part. All seven of us shared ONE bathroom and we didn’t die.
My husband and I share a 1,700 sq. foot home and that’s plenty of house for two people. In fact, we don’t even use the two front rooms at all. One is I guess what you’d call a sitting room. We don’t sit in there. We store crap in there.
The other room is our dining room. Ha! Dining room. That’s rich. We barely cook. So we have more crap and decorative items in there that we could do without if we had to.
Together we watched another episode of House Hunters where a couple sought an apartment in Paris. They had a budget of $300,000US and wound up buying a flat with no more than 400 sq. feet!
We agreed we could totally live in that small space. The payoff, of course, is that we’d be living in Paris.
How much house do you have? Do you wish you had more? Could you live with less? What would you want in exchange for less room?
Stumble it!
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:14 pm
I hear you. I think that our generation has been overly indulged. A lot of people put more importance on things and comfort than they do on people. A large family can easily be very happy and healthy in quite a small house. In fact, as I’m getting older I feel more and more strongly that the more we have the more hassle we have in our live. In my mind the equation is NOT Bigger House = More Happiness. The equation is a lot more like Bigger House = More work to clean and maintain + More money to finance = Less time for my beloved wife and kids and other loved ones. This thinkink doesn’t only apply to house size, but to a lot of the other junk we tend to accumulate. The fundamental principle being that people are more important than things. We can get by with much less than we think.
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November 7th, 2009 at 11:04 am
Having too much space means more expenses. I go for a house with enough room to move in and enough rooms to contain my family.
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December 8th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
4,000 feet is not enough space for a family of five? We have a family of five. We live in a mobile home with an add-on room addition and a carport for a garage. Seriously? Wow. That’s just kind of boggling…
January 13th, 2010 at 3:29 am
I totally agree with the idea that we do not need big space. I should say that I like to tour big condos, it looks nice. But since I have two small kids, I do not want to own a big place and chase after them everyday. We have a 1,300 square feet with my husband and I feel tired of tidy it up:-)
March 19th, 2010 at 11:36 pm
Loved this article….and I sell homes for a living. I currently have my personal residence on the market which is too much house for us in this economy. I’m moving from 3250 sq. ft. for a family of 3 to 1350 sq. ft. Bravo for those who recognize their fate if they stay trapped in the financial strain of paying for and maintaining larger homes. I’m protecting my retirement and looking forward to less house to clean
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November 16th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
Hello!
In answer to your question… There is a link on the main MSN homepage today that says “How much house do you really need?” That link takes you directly to Bing search results, of which yours is #3 on the list. HaHaHa! That would be a bit perplexing to wake up one morning to find a bajillion hits on a post you wrote over a year ago!
Fun blog post! It’s especially fun to read all the responses. This is a subject close to my heart right now, as we are in the process of buying a new 2900 sq ft. home. We are currently feeling a bit cramped in a 1400 sq ft rental with 3 kids (and one on the way!). But sometimes I wonder if doubling our space might be too much. It’s probably more than we “need.” With virtually no basements, and 9 months/year of yucky weather here in Washington, my main desire was to have a dedicated playroom for the kids and all their STUFF! The kids will still be sharing bedrooms, which I think is a good thing.
I think it’s true though, our generation seems to think we “need” much more than previous generations ever did. Hmmm… Something to think about.