With our oldest nearing official teen-hood, we debated whether to do some remodeling in our current location or relocate. Living in a house that is only a little over 1,200 square feet for five people, it’s tempting to think bigger would be better. After researching other options for residence in the area we’ve come back around to staying put in our current location with a few modifications to maximize our space.
Two primary factors driving our decision to stay put: a) we really love our location and overall design of the house and b) we really don’t relish the idea of incurring significantly greater debt, taxes, utilities and other costs associated with a larger house.
Some Simple Space Saving Ideas Completed
- Make the master bedroom multi-purpose. Our bedroom houses guitars hung on the wall, a second computer in a compact desk, an exercise machine and a TV for entertainment.
- Add an additional flat screen TV in one of the girls room. Even with a small house there are now three locations for watching movies.
- Hang new light fixtures. This isn’t a space-saving feature per say, but it does add a nice touch in the overall style of the house.
On the Horizon
- Re-surface all floors except bedrooms with tile. Visually this ties the rooms together and is a nice touch to get away from living on wall-to-wall carpet.
- Add some storage buildings in the yard. This is a relatively inexpensive way to offset the need for storage in the house and garage.
- Convert the garage to a 400 square foot dance studio/multi-media room for the girls. By insulating, heating and cooling, and finishing-out the garage the girls will have the space they need.
- Add a covered porch to the back of the house. With the weather in Texas being so mild most of the year an outdoor living area is a very economical way to add living space.
The temptation is strong to continue to upgrade or move to a larger house that we will fill with more stuff. At what point do we hold ourselves accountable to push against the intense pull of consumerism. A friend of mine once said, "Consumerism consumes consumers." What steps are you taking to push against the pull to consume?
6 Comments
Phil, I’m not a good person to answer that question — especially when you’re talking about houses. I love the idea of remodeling and redesigning. It isn’t consumerism in my mind because it has nothing to do with a store, or company, or keeping up with the Joneses. It’s more to do with making something new — and that’s what you’ve described. That would be a new patio for us, or a new shower for the MoH. I can’t put a dance studio in my garage, because we have to park there and we have no girls to dance in it. But I’ll look forward to what you decide to do. We’ve resisted more than two televisions and one that is rarely watched. Good luck on your decisions! It’s a buyer’s market.
Thanks Kelly. It’s never an easy decision to know what to do is it? We should be moving ahead soon on some of these next renovations.
That sounds like a lot of changes! Good luck.
The wife and I go back and forth on floors. We used to rent an all wood floor house, and now we have almost all carpets. The carpets are a pain, because stuff gets spilled on them, and you have to shampoo them, and my wife would like to go back to no carpets.
Personally, I didn’t like no carpets, because you had to sweep all the time. My wife would sweep in the morning, and there would be hair balls by lunch time (2 big dogs and a cat, are to blame for that).
On the consumerism note, it boggles my mind to think about how much stuff people buy in the local super target. We try not to buy too many things, it’s a waste of money, and most of the time, you simply don’t need it.
Consumerism is a HUGE pull. There’s new stores coming in within a mile of our house and my wife just considers them a threat to our overall wealth. It’s amazing how much stuff one could waste away with nothing to show for it.
living in two bed flat with three children (and a wife) teaches one much about efficient use of space.
We gave away the TV and replaced it with a computer that we already had (this no doubles as the HiFi and DVD player too so goodbye Hifi). We have also been most inventive about where shelves go.
Slowly the flat starts to feel “bigger”. But in reality it is crowded here.
Sounds like you are being very wise with your space. I have a deep satisfaction in living below my means and doing more with less. It certainly pads the wallet as well. I hope you find joy in the frugal journey.