There comes a stage when your house can begin to feel like it has too many rooms and not enough people.
When raising a family, it makes sense to want as much space as possible. The junk that goes along with child-raising has a tendency to spill out into every conceivable corner, meaning that no matter how big your house is it still has a tendency to feel cramped. You might need the rooms to accommodate the size of your brood, or just so you can have somewhere in the house that isn’t stuffed to the brim with various school supplies.
This isn’t a sensation that vanishes the minute your kids go to college and the family home reverts to just being for you and your partner. Kids come home from college; even when they enter the world of work, they still want to know their old bedroom is waiting for them if they need a bolt hole.
When they have a family of their own and you experience the delights of being a grandparent, it still makes sense to have the extra space in the initial years. After awhile however, it can feel like you’re spending a lot of money to maintain a large house – most of which you and your partner no longer have any need for.
It’s an inevitable question we have to ask ourselves. Running a large family home is a necessity when you have a large family cluttered around the table every night. But when you have more space for yourself, the power bills and land tax can be more than it makes any sense to keep.
It’s also worth thinking towards your twilight years, when your mobility might be more compromised. If you have to currently move up and down a flight (or flights) of stairs, then that might be something you want to move away from. Downsizing might seem like a big shock to the system, but there’s actually a multitude of reasons it could make the perfect sense for you.
Is Downsizing A Stress?
To an extent, any time that you move house there is going to be a degree of stress that goes along with it. There is never going to be a quick and simple way of dealing with the clutter, chaos, moving companies, contracts and the general cost involved. That isn’t going to magically disappear because of moving for a slightly different reason.
Does it add stress? Not particularly. There is an emotional toll to be expected; you might have to ask your kids to decide what they want to keep from their childhood mementoes, what they want to move to their own houses, and what can be recycled or donated. They might not appreciate this, but it will usually be a temporary situation. It helps if you explain the reasons you’re doing it in great detail – if it makes sense for you, they should be able to see the practical side.
Some people do choose to downsize and love it. Others maintain their large family home for the rest of their lives. There are benefits on either side, but the one point to retain is that there is little different from downsizing to any other house move. It might have a period of stress, but it could be the best move you have ever made.
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