Anyone make a small space work long term?

[Anonymous]

My dh and I have recently started visiting a financial advisor to organize retirement and college goals and we both realized we need to decide if we will be making our house our long term home (meaning we will raise our kids here) or if within the next 5 years we want to upgrade to a bigger house. We have 2 kids ages 2 and 4 and are done having children. We currently live in a 1200 sq foot home but the neighborhood is ideal, and the location serves us perfectly in terms of employment and schooling options. I am inclined to plan on staying here and focus that money into other areas but many people have assured me we will eventually need more space. Kids start socializing more and the need to sprawl will come up quick. We only have one full bath and a non finished basement, but down the line we could finish the basement and add another full bath. I grew up in NYC and living in this amount of space is totally fine and practical to me, but DH isn't so sure, and the majority of people we have casually polled seem to agree with DH. Anyone stay in a small home and raise their kids without regrets or do didnyou end up moving when the kids got older? Obviously this is a first world problem and I hope I don't come off snotty, just genuinely curious what peoples opinions are on this issue. For what it's worth if we did eventually move it would be to a house 2000 sq, so it's not like stay here or build a 4500 sq foot house. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I think if you could organize the flow of your space (including finishing the basement and adding a full bath) it would be fine. Perhaps you can make use of your yard as extra living space as well for when the kids get older. We are in a smaller split level (4 bedrooms 2.5 baths) with two older kids (ms and hs) and it is working fine for us.

[Anonymous]

We live in a similar sized house. Our kids are 6 and 4. We are moving to a larger house.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in a small NYC apartment and shared a room with my brother. There were 2 doors and we had a wooden partition in the middle (so they were more like our own rooms, but 0 sound barrier, etc). Many people would think that is nuts, but it was what I was accustomed to. It was difficult to have only 1 living room (where the dining table was, etc). Hard to share the sound; study if someone else wanted to watch TV, etc. But you can make it work. I think it will just depend on your family and how comfortable DH is with it.

[Anonymous]

We currently live in a 1200 sq foot home but the neighborhood is ideal, and the location serves us perfectly in terms of employment and schooling options.

This says it all. Finish all or some of the basement, to include another bath. To some extent it depends on how your space flows, but if this would make the difference, I would stay put. We are a family of 3 (so, admittedly smaller than yours) but our house is 1000sf on the main level, and another 600sf or so in the finished basement, where we enlarged a half bath into a full. Makes all the difference. We have two offices down there (one is office/guest room), TV room, laundry room, unfinished basement storage space, and the full bath. Very comfortable for guests and good for separating TV noise (downstairs) from living room quiet (upstairs).

[Anonymous]

We're in the same boat and are staying put. We might add a deck and possibly a mudroom, but that's it. We do have 2 baths. I read smallhouselife.com for inspiration. Less to clean and less liklihood of accumulating excess stuff in a small house.

[Anonymous]

I would prefer to live in a small space in a desirable location then move to a lesser 'hood or trade up and be house poor. I think the key is to maximize the space you have--finish the basement, get closet organizers, do custom cabinets in the kitchen, etc. We also just rented a storage unit for things we don't use everyday but need to keep (like luggage). Reducing some of the clutter has made a huge difference.

I also think you're going a good thing for the planet when you live in a smaller space. And I think people in a lot of other countries don't have this "bigger is better" mentality and raise kids in smaller spaces without giving it a second thought. If they can do it, so can I.

[Anonymous]

In California, everyone we knew lived and raised their family in a space that small. We did it for 2 years - boy 9 girl 13 and they shared a room .

The size of the space is not the issue as much as the lack of a 3rd bedroom. small spaces are much easier to take care of and it prevents you from accumulating junk and spending money.

Give it the old college try! you can always decide later to move.

[Anonymous]

Is your basement 600 sq ft or 1200 sq feet? I would finish that basement, you would be surprised how much space you can add by finishing the basement. BTW we (3) live in a 1000 sq foot house with a 1000 sq foot basement. It is small, but we do lots in the basement, rec room, laundry, second bathroom, storage, office space.