Oftentimes I lament the fact that we live in a small home. I just want to be able to spread out. To decorate. To paint (we rent).
Then I pull out the vacuum and remember how much I loathe cleaning.
In an instant, I’m thankful we don’t live in a mansion.
And suddenly I’m counting the blessings that come with living in a small home.
-No storage space means regular sorting and purging. Only the important things stay.
-Did I mention less cleaning? PERK with capital letters.
-I can put an album on in the living room and hear it through the whole house.
-There’s no craft room, so art is everywhere. A messy perk.
-Smaller house = smaller payments.
-Less space to decorate means less stress in decorating.
-There’s enough space to be by yourself if you want to, but not enough space to lose each other for too long. (Unless I really want to get lost, in which case you might find me in my closet eating chocolate. But that never rarely happens).
This isn’t to say that we’ll never live in a bigger house. I have dreams of buying an older horse property in Gilbert. A single-story ranch with a basement and acres of land to plant vegetables and chickens. And let’s just be real here, my small house is only small from my suburban American perspective.
So today, I’m thankful for our small sweet home, the huge love that fills it, and the fact that it only takes five minutes to vacuum.
I was just thinking the same thing about the apartment my husband and I are renting. We are newlyweds and even though it really only has 3 rooms, I find it so comfortable and perfect for us at this time in our lives.
Awesome! There is something very special about a cozy home. The bonding and the closeness. I love this.
I’m just going to say a big fat DITTO to everything on this post – sometimes I can be a little self-conscious that we don’t live in a massive house, but the reality is that I can’t even keep this one super clean – I can’t imagine what it would be like to have double the mess!
This is awesome. I just found out that we are having our first baby. I’ve been sorting through how to make the guest room/office into our baby room. I know it will all come together. God is good and ALWAYS has us right where we need to be.
I love that you wrote this! I know you’ve heard me complain about my small house, but we like you continue to find blessings in it! We spend a lot of time together as a family, and with a busy busy 15 month old its nice not to have too chase him far! Thanks for all you honest words, again! I love reading your blog 🙂
I’m glad you see the blessing. I used to live in a small house and now my crew of 7 soon to be 8 live in a beautiful huge old house. The one I grew up in. I do love it, but more times than I care to admit, I long for the days of a small house because it was easy to clean. A large house comes with a lot of stress in that area and in just keeping track of stuff and people. But, I guess the secret is being content wherever we are :). God bless!
I needed this. I’ve been feeling a bit sorry for myself, with the six family members squashed into 3 tiny (8×10) bedrooms and a single bathroom. Still, when I dream of remodeling, it’s to have a small office so that I can work in silence and a larger kitchen so my husband can reclaim our one-car garage. I don’t lust after those massive houses. It seems like more room to store stuff I’m not interested in acquiring.
From one small home owner to another, thank you for the reminder to be grateful for what we have here and now.
Yes. Yes. Yes!
We have deliberately chosen to live in smaller houses (flats and basement suites, really) for all of these reasons. We’ve lived a fairly nomadic life and so owning a big house just doesn’t work for the lifestyle we’ve chosen. Sometimes it feels like it would be nice to have more rooms, an actual guest room instead of an air mattress in the living room but the cozy quarters brings out the best in people.
Thanks for the encouragement to be content. And I love your record player with the daffodils!!
Finding the good is indeed a blessing! Have a great weekend!
When we downsized our family of 5 from 3500 square feet to 2300 square feet, our theme song was “Little Houses” by Doug Stone. The main line is “Love grows best in little houses.” If you haven’t heard it, check it out!
ditto Kathy we did the same thing. big to littler we went down a bit smaller to. about 2000 sq ft. we still have a few boxes unpacked… needs to be done. we have taaken dumpsters (2) full of stuff out and uncountable trips to St.Vinnies and Good Will we are getting thing to fit and be comfortable again. One big perk… I don’t spend as much money. I have to use reuse what I have and not bring anything else in to the house.
Yes, I whole heartily agree. I also have always appreciated the small space in that having small children I am constantly needing to go to their rooms to feed, change, put back in bed, and having a small space makes it seem easier.
We raised our daughter (20 years), in our cozy 650 square ft. apartment.
I’m 50 now, with an empty nest. No need to downsize!
Some days I do wish for more rooms (and at some point they will be needed – 2 adults and 3 young children in a 1 bedroom + ‘sleepout’ home!!) but I always say at least when I lose something, there’s only so many places it can be!!
I saw this post on simple mom and I’m right there with ya! We live in a cozy 1 bedroom apartment in Manhattan. With 3 kids. It is insanely small but when I focus on the blessings it’s an amazon little place (and perhaps that’s why we still haven’t moved?!). We choose a small apartment in a fantastic neighborhood with a great school for my daughter. My husbands commute is shorter (than if we had a bigger place farther away), we do more things outside our apartment (especially compared to many friends who have bigger places). And I’m so glad I can spend my time doing a lot of other things instead of cleaning.
My husband and I are feeling the size of our home now that our kids have both headed off to college. Without the busy world that goes with a lot of kids, we’re starting to seriously think about the big “downsize” word. And boy is the thought of less to clean (especially when it comes to bathrooms) is very appealing indeed!
A space that cleans up quick? Heavenly 🙂
I LOVE THIS! We rent right now and while all my friends are buying homes, many of them are house-poor and disillusioned. Thanks for this post!
We just spent a week in a family owned condo that was maybe 1000 sq. feet. It was our family of 5 and my inlaws. And I loved every minute of it. It was cozy, we had necessities, we spent a lot of time together playing cards and board games and we spent a lot of time outside. I also cleaned the entire condo in about an hour, including mopping all floors. When we came back to our 3000 sq. foot home I cringed. I can’t believe how much stuff we have and don’t need. The five of us spread out so quickly to do our own thing, but it feels lonely. ANd the cleaning, ugh. I am keeping my eyes open for a functional downsize (hubby works from home). Thank you for this article.