[hiccamups]

We're a family of 5, soon to be 6. We live in a regular sized modern home, 3 bedrooms.

We're contemplating a move, into a smaller house but with a better garden and better suburb.

The thing is, the house is 2 bedrooms and is very small. Rooms themselves are roomy, but still, there's lucky to be 100m2 of house.

It's a scary prospect, having come from such a roomy house, but we're seriously considering it.

Do you have your larger family in a small house? How do you find it? Have you done it before? I'd love to hear your stories.

[Mamabug]

Look to the future. You can do it now, but what happens when they are older?

We have a boy/girl sharing and a girl/girl sharing. There will come a time when it will not be okay for the lad to be in with his sisters, and the girls will shift about in their sharing, depending on ages.

What are your long term plans for this move/house?

Six months ago we lived in a 2br house and it was slowly sending back into the spiral of gloom and depression. Mostly because I could not escape the kids AT ALL, and there was no storage.

Seriously, storage, and potential storage options are a major factor. Also, depending on your age/gender mixes, it is okay, but what about living areas? Is there space for kids and parents - even having your bedorrom to yourself (onece the little one is big enough to be evicted!) makes a difference, but we never ven had that until we moved.

My state of mind has improved noticeably with a bigger house...

[mum2five]

My state of mind has improved noticeably with a bigger house...

This. We went from 7 of us across 3 bedroom one living room house to 6/7 bedrooms three living areas. Just having space to walk around the dining table, not to upack the whole cupboard to get to things needed at the back, kids being able to have there 'treasures' out and not packed away because we have to eat dinner in that space now.

[62459]

We have five children and live in a small house. 3 bedroom, one lounge/dining, no outside covered area & a small yard, our entire block is only 330m2 and I cannot wait to move. I dream about it every.single.day.

The lack of personal space is a big factor, no matter where you go in the house, someone is usually already there. I find my eldest (10yo) is finding it very difficult of late and it has caused a few dramas within our home.

We have a 8 seater dining table & during the day I push it against the wall, simply to give us a little more floor space. Our loungeroom is not quite big enough for the modular couch I want, so we just have a three seater, I hate it, the kids fight over who is sitting where, they cant lay down to watch TV because there is no room for the others to sit. I don't have a coffee table, I desperately want a coffee table, to go with the modular couch I also have no room for

I find the lack of space such a huge issue and it gets me down dreadfully some days, not having enough space to have the filing cabinet in easy reach, I have to move toy boxes etc out of the way all the time, so the bills/correspondence that needs to go in the filing cabinet tend pile up on the side of my desk, until I get sick of it and file it all at once. Such a little thing & you think, really, thats not so bad, but there always seems to be "stuff" around, the girls tallboys don't fit in their room, so their clothes are in the boys wardrobes, they hate it, I hate it. I do the folding & then have piles of clothes to put away, the baby is asleep, so I cant get to the boys room, where all the kids clothes are, the filing on the desk, just "stuff". I cant tell you how insane it drives me.

Oh, oh, oh oh & another issue is, BUNKS.

I HATE BUNKS. I have TWO sets of bunks. I HATE BUNKS.


TBH I at this point, do not see one good thing about a big family in a little house

[~my happiness~]

If you can avoid it. Avoid it.
Small houses with big families = frustration.

OF course if that's what you've got then that's what you've got and everyone makes do with their home.

But if you have a choice of moving to a smaller house then don't do it. IMO

I agree the storage space is a massive factor, large families need to put STUFF somewhere; and as mummypig said, before we renovated, if you were planning on going somewhere to 'escape' forget it, someone is already sitting/eating/breathing there.

I do remember someone telling me once, buy the biggest house you can possibly afford, because you're gonna need it! Not because we materialistic and want a massive house, but because if you're going to go down the large family route, these kids need space, they're not going to be newborns taking up the space of a bassinette forever, they need to run, move, when its raining, where will they "be" etc.,

[MickeyBoo]

We are a family of soon to be 7, 2 adults and 5 kids and we currently live in a house around the 100sqm mark. It has larger living areas and a huge backyard and up to now has been do-able, annoying at times, but liveable We are now though at the end of our rope with the limited space for storage, kids sharing and just the need for more living space to give us all some breathing room, we've been here since before #1 and have made room and adjustments along the way to improve the living space etc, but now it's time for a big change, so we are trying to get an extension done to almost double the house space. We will still have a generous back yard with the extension so we're not compromising anything and I think that we would all go crazy if we had to share in a house this small with the kids all over 8 years of age.

I would not choose to be stuck in a house this small with 5 growing kids, it can be done but it would cause a lot of frustrations along the way.

[hiccamups]

Thank you so much guys. I think you've really given me such practical reasons to keep looking for a bigger property.

I think your state of mind is so important, especially with a new baby in the home, that I don't think risking it is worthwhile, just for locality.

TBH I at this point, do not see one good thing about a big family in a little house

I think the little house we saw was perfect for a family with 2 children, no more. Back to the drawing board for us.

[mpjp]

We went from huge 6 bedroom McMansion to a tiny 3 bed townhouse.

I LOVE IT.

But for me its because we are not having to commute an hour or more through Melbourne traffic to get to school and work each day. Now the kids and I walk to school/ work and I've saved around 15 hours a wek.

I love living in the city etc. So for me teh LOVE is not about the small house but the location and lifestyle.

We just downsized everything, gave away heaps and spend a fortune on IKEA storage solutions!!!

[Princess.cranky....]

Okay we are a family of 5 so not that big. But we live in a small 4 bed house and feel many of the frustrations the PP's have posted. And we only have 3 kids! We cannot wait till we move into something bigger.

One of the biggest problems is the tiny living/dining area. I always seem to be tripping over stuff/toys/children and it drives me insane! I get frustrated with the small living space because we can't fit enough furniture in. We have very little storage and there just seems to be stuff everywhere as a result. I get depressed and I do think the lack of space impacts negatively on our family.

If this house is one you will be staying in for awhile then I do think you need to think ahead to when kids are older. It's now that our kids are getting older (mind you they are still young 7/3/20months) that we are really finding the need for more space.

Our next house I want 2 living areas, lots of storage and decent size bedrooms. There is no way we would fit in a tiny 2 bed house. Don't do it!

[hiccamups]

There is no way we would fit in a tiny 2 bed house. Don't do it!

You're right. There wasn't even a hallway.