Let me tell you about our house. Our haven of small house living. I love our house. It is the first, and only, house my husband and I have ever owned. We moved in six days before our second son was born. The midwives assured me that it was, in fact, extremely common to move while pregnant. Perhaps it is ultimate form of nesting.
So we bought a house. I chose paint colors and painted one living room wall. My husband painted the rest of the house after work while I fell asleep on a mattress in one of the bedrooms. During my awake hours, I lined the kitchen cupboards with dollar tree contact paper. On moving day, a kindly group of volunteers rearranged the changing table and crib and dresser a few too many times before I was satisfied.
Over the past five years, we have replaced the trim, the flooring, and every single appliance. My husband has ripped up the backyard and reseeded the lawn. He also built planter boxes for our garden. A domineering ash tree took over those raised beds with roots. We cut the tree down. We have added a strawberry patch, and wildflowers, and a slew of battered toys to the yard.
I chose my favorite color of green for the living room and hallway. We filled one wall with bookshelves. On another wall, we made a home for our record collection. Throughout our home, you will find stray googly eyes left over from my annual April Fool’s Day fun. In the kitchen, you will find our beloved card catalogue and a shelf of mugs.
How Small is Our House?
But the thing most notable about our home is its size. Our home is 1,173 square feet. Given the fact that the average home size in America is over 2,000 square feet, most people consider our house small. Given the fact that the average family size is now 3.13 people, most people consider our home absurdly cramped.
Our home is filled with seven people. Over twice the size of the average family living in half the space of the average house.
Believe it or not, I really do love our house. Believe it or not, one of the things I like about it is its size. The beauty and benefits of a smaller home extend far beyond the lower mortgage and monthly bills. Let me tell you about ten perks of living in a small(er) house.
Ten Things to Love About Living in a Small House
- I always know where everyone is. In a house of this size, it is almost impossible for a child, no matter how sneaky, to be out of sight and out of mind for very long.
- There are two bathrooms to clean. That’s it!
- No playroom! Seriously, this is a perk. There is no room crammed full of toys constantly tumbling towards chaos. We have a shelf of toys in our living room, which means less toys to pick up (or trip over), and it means our family is together more often than not.
- Lower cost of living – in everything from heating costs to paint to the actual cost of the house.
- Our kids share a bedroom. It is adorable to sneak into their bedroom at night and see them all sleeping in their matching pair of bunk beds. It is also adorable to hear them tell each other knock-knock jokes after bedtime, even when they should be sleeping, because I know they are becoming friends for life.
- I can sweep and mop all the floors in under an hour.
- We are forced to be thoughtful about our possessions. Because space is limited, we cannot keep things we don’t need or really want.
- There are not enough rooms for everyone to hide behind closed doors. This means that when we get on each other’s nerves, we have to solve our problems, no retreat.
- Our vacuum can reach almost the entire house from one outlet. How great is that?!
- In our home, people are always more valuable than things, and I pray that this is always the case, no matter how big our home may be.
The Difficulties of Small House Living
I admit, there are days I wish for more space. Sometimes I long for a bigger kitchen table, and more room to walk around it. Many days, I imagine the luxury of sending the kids to a playroom, or better yet, a different floor of the house. There are days I wish for space for a cake stand, or an air fryer, or more canned goods. But most of the time, when I think about having a playroom to clean, or more floors to mop, or more kitchen gadgets to maintain, I am instantly grateful that I don’t have those things.
We have enough room for our family, and plenty of food and clothes and belongings, and I don’t spend all day doing housework.
Of course, there are logistical considerations when living in a smaller house. Though it was once the norm to live in a house this size (or smaller) with this size of family (or larger!), it is no longer common practice. Admittedly, it requires living a little differently than the family next door. But there are countless fantastic blessings of living in a small(er) house.
Here at Little Houseful, we hope to celebrate the joys of small house life, while also offering solutions for some of the logistical challenges of living in a smaller space.
Read more about valuing family over things here.
Here’s to small houses!