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Here Are 8 Reasons To Know It’s Time To Downsize Your Home
We explored how the benefits of downsizing your home could open doors to new opportunities!
When it’s time for a change, bigger may not always be better. While living in a big house or on acres of land may sound like the life of luxury, it also comes with high bills and heaps of maintenance. After a while, homeowners may find that a life of simplicity and lower bills that a smaller home can provide may be preferable. Alternatively, when the kids have grown up and moved away, empty nesters can find that they simply don’t need so much space. If you are wondering if it’s time to downsize your home, make sure you consider these 8 reasons.
You want to reduce costs.
A desire to reduce costs may be the top reason homeowners decide it’s time to downsize. Sometimes, downsizing can actually be a necessity if the cost of living in your current home is unsustainable in the long run. That said, bigger homes and large amounts of land inevitably will require more money to upkeep. Utilities, such as heating and air conditioning, will cost more money each month because you are heating and cooling a bigger space. Plus, you will have to address more natural wear and tear, and may need to hire staff to help maintain your property, such as a pool guy or gardeners.
If you choose to move to a small house or a property with less land, you’ll likely see an immediate decrease in your monthly spending. You won’t have to spend as much on maintenance or utilities, and can even spend less money trying to furnish your new home. When you use the profits of your old home to downsize, you may also find that you will be able to buy your new property in cash, or that you can pay off your new house sooner and with lower mortgage payments.
You need or want the money for something else.
Reducing your living costs by downsizing to a smaller house allows you to put your hard-earned money toward other opportunities. Having more spending money available to you is beneficial if you are hoping to retire sooner rather than later, or can be put toward once in a lifetime experiences. Some homeowners will use their downsized lifestyle as a means to retire early and travel the world! You could even buy a vacation home abroad and have two smaller houses you love instead of one big one! Other homeowners will use the profits from the sale of their old home to bolster their savings, help put their kids through college, or to escape a cycle of debt.
You want to move to a more desirable location.
When neighborhoods are considered trendy or desirable, the prices of available homes can skyrocket. If you want to move to one of these hot spots, you may need to compromise on the size of your new home for practicality and affordability. For example, if you are moving from a country suburb to a popular city hub, you likely won’t be able to get the same amount of space for the same price. However, you would be living in a smaller space in exchange for the chance to experience all the perks that city life has to offer.
The maintenance is becoming overwhelming.
As the years fly by, taking care of all the maintenance your home or land requires may simply become too overwhelming. Sometimes it seems like one thing after another is falling apart, and there is a new repairman visiting your home each week, on top of all the normal upkeep. Eventually, taking the time to tend your garden or manage your home stops being fun, and starts becoming boring or tedious. And that’s okay. Our tastes change as we live our lives, and now your time could be better spent on something you do enjoy instead of maintaining your house.
As we get older, we also have to be willing to accept that we might not be able to handle all the maintenance our home requires. Medical conditions, such as aching joints, bad backs, or arthritis, might be aggravated by your daily maintenance routine. If you or someone in your home has developed a medical condition that puts you at a higher risk of falling, moving from a two-story house to a one-story house may be safer because it eliminates the need to climb stairs.
You aren’t using your home to its full potential.
Does your home have empty, unused rooms? Do you find you only consistently use a small part of your house, or there’s rooms you never go in? Have you turned your kids’ old bedrooms into glorified storage closets that are packed with clutter? If you answered yes to any of these questions, it may be time to downsize. If you aren’t using your home to its full potential, you shouldn’t be paying the extra costs of having a bigger house. By not using your home to its full extent, you’ve already shown that you can live comfortably in a smaller space.
There is a major life change.
In major life changes, downsizing may be the correct course of action. After the loss of a spouse or a marriage ends, widows or widowers and divorcees often find it’s too painful to stay in the home without their partner. Downsizing to a smaller home that is just for them can help people heal from loss and start fresh. On a lighter note, some empty nesters decide to downsize after their children have moved away. They don’t need the same amount of space anymore, or the constant reminder that their children won’t be living in the home with them again. Alternatively, a career change or unexpected job loss could warrant downsizing to a less expensive home.
It’s time for your next design project.
If home design is your passion, downsizing is an opportunity to start your next project. Since the house will be smaller, you’ll be able to use more of your budget toward perfecting all the little details to truly make this new property your dream home. They’ll never be the one thing you’ve always wanted to fix, but just couldn’t afford to get around to it. Then, you can take pride in welcoming friends and family into your remodeled home.
You want to simplify your life.
Wanting a simpler life is more than enough of a reason to downsize. Maintaining a big property can get complicated and stressful, especially when wear and tear warrants a need for emergency repairs. Some people do this as a way to break free of materialism. Since they will be living in a smaller space, they will need to live a more minimalist lifestyle with less stuff. Other homeowners decide they want to take the time and money they put into their house and focus it on life experiences and time with family. The lesser expenses associated with a smaller property could mean you can work less hours and spend more time doing the things you love with your favorite people.
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