7 Reasons to Love Living in a Small Home
There are many factors that go into deciding what size home to choose for your family. We’ve lived in several different size homes over the years, but when we moved to California, we downsized to a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1260 sq ft home. We have 3 teens who homeschool and 2 dogs, so it’s definitely a full house (check out my tips for living in a small house with teens), but we’ve found that there are many reasons to love living in a small home.
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Reasons to Love Living in a Small Home
Small is less, but better. Living small is choosing quality over quantity and experiences over things. -Laura Fenton, The Little Book of Living Small
1. MORE AFFORDABLE
Location and lifestyle were our top priorities when choosing our home. We really wanted to live near the California coastline and experience the laid-back lifestyle of living in a small beach town. We wanted to go on walks with beautiful coastal views, soak up the warm sunshine, and watch the sun set over the Pacific Ocean.
But buying and renovating a larger house in this area was out of the budget, so choosing a smaller home within our price range made it possible to follow our dreams and live in our desired location. On top of that, our small home came with a nice yard and an amazing city view that we enjoy every day. I feel so much joy and gratitude that we get to live here and experience the beauty of coastal living every day. If we had been unwilling to live in a small home, we would have missed out on an amazing opportunity to experience a bigger life.
Bathroom Hand Towel / Turkish Bath Towel
2. LESS TO CLEAN
Less house means less to clean. All the previous homes we’ve owned have been larger and had more bathrooms than our current home. One of our homes had a master bathroom that included a garden tub, water closet, shower, and double vanity. While living there, I realized that I hated cleaning that big bathroom and didn’t ever want to live in a home with a big bathroom again.
I don’t enjoy spending my time cleaning, so I love that our small house takes much less time to clean and maintain than previous homes. In total, this house has nine small rooms (3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a sun room, living room, dining room, and kitchen) all on one floor. Our last home was double this size, so of course it took more time to keep clean. I would much rather spend my time and energy doing other things than cleaning the house.
Woven Wood Shades / Pillow (Use Code : JAIMEJSCOTT) / Frame TV
3. FOCUS ON QUALITY
In smaller homes, there are less rooms to renovate and furnish so you can intentionally spend your money investing in quality pieces that you love. For example, our bathrooms in this home are very small, so when we renovated them, I was able to splurge and get the vanities, fixtures, and tiles I really wanted. On the flip side, if we had renovated a larger home with larger bathrooms, we would have needed to buy bigger vanities and more floor and shower tiles, so we would have had to find ways to be more economical with our choices.
We were also able to invest in higher quality furniture pieces that we wanted because we didn’t have as many rooms to furnish. By downsizing our square footage we were able to focus on buying less, but better quality items for our home.
4. NO WASTED SPACE
In our last two houses, there were several rooms in the basements that we rarely used, but we still had to furnish, heat, cool, and clean. It felt like wasted space, time, and money. In this home, there isn’t any wasted space; every square inch is purposefully planned out and put to good use. I actually enjoy the challenge of working within the limitations of a small home and figuring out creative ways to make every space function well for our family.
5. LOWER BILLS
Since we live in California, our basic utility bills are pretty expensive. But having less square footage to heat and cool also means that it won’t take as much electricity or gas as in a larger home. So, in that sense, we spend less money on utility bills each month by living in a smaller home. And when we recently needed a new roof, it was much less expensive than what replacing a larger roof (for a larger house) would have cost us.
6. ACCUMULATE LESS
A small home sets natural limits on the amount of things you can buy which encourages contentment and satisfaction with what you own. In our larger homes, I was continuously switching up furniture, adding decor, or rearranging rooms, because there was extra space to fill and very little limitations. Large closets meant there was plenty of room to fill up with clothes and shoes. Extra rooms in the basement required more couches, beds, and t.v.s. But in our small home, there isn’t room for excessive decor, lots of clothes, unnecessary furniture pieces, or more than what we need, so it’s easier to find rest and contentment with less. Living in a small home has taught me to be more thoughtful about our purchases because I know everything we buy needs to have a place to store it. Keeping this in mind, I have learned to choose our things more intentionally.
“What if the formula, “more stuff equals more happiness” is bad math? What if more stuff often equals more stress, more hours at the office, more debt, …. more time wasted cleaning and maintaining and fixing and playing with and organizing and re-organizing … What if more stuff actually equals less of what matters most?”
– John Mark Comer, Ruthless Elimination of Hurry
7. MORE FAMILY TIME
Living in a small home means we have more family togetherness because there just isn’t space for people to spread out and go anywhere else. We’re always close to one another and we interact constantly. Of course this can be hard sometimes too, but overall I hope it’s helping us create strong bonds and connections within our family. Our three kids are teenagers now and our time together with them all living at home is limited, so I’m grateful for the ways our small house holds us close together.
“Love grows best in little houses with fewer walls to separate. Where you eat and sleep so close together, you can’t help but communicate. And if we had more room between us think of all we’d miss. Love grows best in houses just like this.”
– Doug Stone, Singer
For more inspiration on living small, check out these books:
The Little Book of Living Small by Laura Fenton
Small Space Style by Whitney Leigh Morris
