how much space do you need?

[Anonymous]

two adults, an infant and two cats. about 950 square feet. it's a bit cramped, but where we really feel it is not having enough storage space. and, I don't mean for junk, but for clothes, coats and whatnot. we don't even have a coat closet. our condo also isn't laid out very well, so there is a lot of wasted space by the front door. we have this beautiful foyer with floor-to-ceiling bookcases, but that's a good chunk of space. the foyer would actually be big enough for a small nursery if it was in another part of the apartment.

[Anonymous]

Two adults, 3 kids (school aged and preschool) and a dog in a 2100 sq ft house. It seems huge to us, as we recently moved from a 1600 sq ft house. I abhor clutter, and we are pretty organized. I like smaller houses.

[Anonymous]

Two adults and a baby/toddler in 800 square feet started to feel crowded the more the baby turned into a toddler.

We moved. Now two adults and a toddler in 1280 square feet feels lovely. Most of the space is in the large living/dining/kitchen area, which is where we spend all day anyway, so I like that. No sense having a gigantic master bedroom when I hardly get to spend any time there!

I love this size. Less to clean and I can keep a closer eye on the kiddo!

[Anonymous]

Every house and every layout is different. A 1200 sq ft house may have more "room" than a 1200 sq ft townhouse. Walls, rooms, hallways, vaulted ceilings, and furninture can all make a place smaller or bigger.

Dumb question.

[Anonymous]

Two adults, one preschooler, 2 dogs/1 cat in ~ 3000 sq ft. This sounds huge I know, but it's a 1910 house and, by today's standards, has a stupid layout. All three of us can't fit into the kitchen at the same time, for example, but we have a true third floor that goes almost entirely unused.

We have no coat closet, so we throw our filthy snow (mud!) boots all over the oversized grand foyer. Kinda ruins the effect. My personal favorite is that each bedroom has a closet that's only a little wider than a standard door. Because, apparently, in 1910 people only owned one part of pants and one shirt ....

[Anonymous]

2 adults, one toddler and a cat in an 1800 sq foot condo. Sound huge, but here's the catch -- we have enough space but not enough storage. For the amount of square feet we have a very disproportional amount of closet space (i.e. no coat closet, no linen closet) and no garage or outside storage at all (not even under the stairs or attic storage). We feel cramped, but we're also not good at getting rid of things. We have a huge master bedroom so we've been able to put our office furniture in there and use our former office as a guest/play room. It works for now, but if we have another baby we'll want more space.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have 3 kids and 2 dogs in a 1300 sq ft house and we don't feel cramped. Everyone thinks we're nuts but the house is clean and organized and it works. We had a baby and two adult in a 900 sq ft house and that was fine till the second one came. It all depends on your personal need for space. We lived in the UK for a long time and compared to homes there, our house is huge.

You are my new hero, and I am not being sarcastic. Do you have any organizational tips to share? We have 1 toddler, 2 dogs and 2 adults in the same sized house and feel like things are closing in on us sometimes. But it's more the "stuff" than the people/animals I think.

We have the same thing (3 kids/1300 sq ft) and our house is organized too. We have floor to ceiling bookcases built into many of the rooms with lots and lots of baskets for storage. We also have bench style seating in the kitchen with storage under the seats. Mail is my biggest enemy, the more I sort and shread the more that keeps coming. Drives me crazy. But I have to confess we hired a great designer who's also an amazing organizer and she put all our systems in place. We've just learned to keep up with them.

[Anonymous]

Two adults, two kids and 2 cats. We live in a TH with about 1,800 square feet. It is a bit small, but we love where we live and it just forces us to really use space well. We remodeled quite a bit and put in lots or storage, built-ins to house the kids toys, etc. It is amazing what a good remodel will do (our TH is actually pretty old, so we pretty much had to remodel every room). I HATE clutter, so I throw pretty much anything not in use away. Or donate it.

Luckily, we started the remodeling process when I was pregnant so EVERYTHING is geared toward being safe and friendly for young kids.

[Anonymous]

We are 2 adults and 1 child in a 4500 (maybe more) square foot house - we LIVE in the kitchen/family room. We moved here from a MUCH smaller apartment and in two years accumated way too much stuff. I would gladly give it all up and move back into less than half the space. I feel that the more space you have the more stuff you gather...I am more unorganized in this space and feel lost in this house. Only appreciate it when we have guests, of course! I think 2000-2500 sq. feet is ideal for a family....it also depends on the floorplan and the way the space is utilized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every house and every layout is different. A 1200 sq ft house may have more "room" than a 1200 sq ft townhouse. Walls, rooms, hallways, vaulted ceilings, and furninture can all make a place smaller or bigger.

Dumb question.

Why do you have to be so mean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every house and every layout is different. A 1200 sq ft house may have more "room" than a 1200 sq ft townhouse. Walls, rooms, hallways, vaulted ceilings, and furninture can all make a place smaller or bigger.

Dumb question.

Why do you have to be so mean?

yeah, really!

[Anonymous]

2 adults, 2 small kids, frequent long-term guests (2 at a time) in 1300 sq ft w/large yard. we did some remodelling too to add a lot of storage. oh, and we have a large storage space that does not count as footage (attic like) that stores camping stuff, kids stuff, seasonal stuff etc. without that storage space, it would be too small. with it, it is great, the yard really adds to it cause in nice weather we spend so much time outside, on the patio, and it also stores strollers, bikes, and other stuff (DH tools etc).

it is a cape cod - i think that if we have a 3rd we may have to lift the roof/add to it but seeing families with 3 kids living is a similar size house gives me inspiration!

for those w/3 kids in smaller house, do your kids share a room?

[Anonymous]

2 adults, 1 baby, 1 toddler, 1 mid-size dog. 1600 sq. ft. -- the layout is great. sure we would like more space...but we really try not to keep 'junk'. -- Had a 3000 sq ft house BEFORE kids (yes, we went backwards--but better neighborhood for kids). and honestly...we just got rid of crap.

Maybe someday we will add on but for us, our criteria was big family room and open kitchen, bedrooms and closets are small but...oh well. Grateful to have a home.

[Anonymous]

2100 sq ft poster - two of my kids share a room, the other gets the smaller of the bedrooms. And although I feel our house is big, it is over 120 years old, and has virtually NO closets! Really not sure how those victorians dealt with winter coats!

[Anonymous]

Two adults and two small children in 1450 square feet. Would be more than large enough if we had ANY storage!