Moving to the country is definitely not a decision that you should make lightly, for oftentimes, such a critical choice can change your life forever.
For better or worse, you’re thinking about moving to a rural area of the country and that can easily turn out to be a drastic change from your current lifestyle, especially when you’re moving from the city to the country.
Before you reach your final decision, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons of moving to the country so that there are no bad surprises and hard feelings once you find yourself in the countryside.
You may be expecting a much better quality of life from your destination place in terms of health, safety, peacefulness, and stress but reality may be somewhat different from the way you envision it all in your head.
Make sure you know the advantages and disadvantages of moving to the country before it’s too late. A careful analysis of the good things and the bad things about moving to the countryside will reveal the right answer for you.
So, is life in the country good for you or not? Read on to find out.
TOP 5 (FIVE) ADVANTAGES of moving to the country
Living in the countryside is believed to be good for your health for a number of reasons, the first one being the cleaner air compared to living in a big city.
The pros of moving to the country are:
1. CLEAN AIR
In most cases, moving to the country will let you enjoy cleaner air thanks to the abundance of green areas around your home – meadows, parks, or even forests. Rural places tend to be so much greener than densely-populated concrete-and-glass cities, so all the greenness around your new home should be a huge plus for you, especially during the post-move adaptation period.
The air in the countryside is also cleaner because of the fewer vehicles on the roads and the much smaller number of industrial zones in rural areas. In reality, the fresh air is one of the most significant health benefits of living in the country, especially so if you happen to have any problems with your lungs: asthma, chronic bronchitis, etc.
So, if the cleaner air in urban areas is your number reason to want to escape the often polluted air in the big city, then you should research well your destination place and make sure there are no industrial factories in the vicinity.
2. MORE SPACE
Moving to a country house will give you all the space you may ever need.
Depending on your relocation parameters, moving from the city to the country can present a drastic change in your lifestyle. For example, if you’ve lived in a big city apartment, then living in a house in the countryside will give you all the living space you’ve always wanted, and more.
It’ll be a much different living experience to move to a big and spacious house with a large garden and backyard, especially when coming from a home with much-limited space. Quite literally, you’ll get that breathing space you may have missed for so long.
But moving to the countryside is not only about having more room inside the new house – it’s also enjoying the vast open spaces just outside the home. At first, it’ll probably feel strange and maybe a bit frightening to be surrounded by so much space… but once you get used to it, you may realize that you wouldn’t want to give it back for anything in the world.
3. LOW COST OF LIVING
As a rule, living in the country tends to be more affordable than living in big cities. Of course, that rule is not always valid – the cost of living in a rural place could be more expensive than the cost of living in an urban area.
As a matter of fact, the living costs will depend primarily on the exact place you’re moving to. And that is exactly why you should do your homework and research the general cost of living in your destination before you move there.
It should cost you less to rent or buy a house in the countryside. Home utilities and property taxes in rural areas should be lower than those in the city too. Also, the prices of groceries and gas – including the cost of essential services – should be (a bit) more affordable than their big-city counterparts.
Therefore, as long as you can keep your disposable income steady and fairly unchanged, the whole idea to move to the country can prove to be hugely beneficial for your (family) budget.
4. INCREASED SAFETY
One of the things to know before moving to the country is that in general, rural areas are safer than urban areas when it comes to the crime rate.
The logic behind this statistical fact is that most rural communities tend to be more united, closely-knit in a way. In smaller towns and villages, people seem to know well not only their immediate neighbors, but plenty of other residents as well.
Not surprisingly, places where (almost) everyone knows everyone else feel much safer and more secure than big city environments where everyone you meet is virtually a stranger.
Furthermore, thanks to the less everyday stress, people in the countryside seem somewhat warm and friendly, often ready to help their neighbors with whatever they can. As a result, living in such a cordial environment will definitely feel safer than living in a cold and faceless big-city setting.
Relocating to the country is a brilliant decision when you have a family and you wish your children to grow in a safe, stress-free, and pleasant atmosphere.
5. LESS STRESS
Stress? What stress?
On the whole, life in the country will be somewhat simpler and much more peaceful than a super-busy big-city lifestyle. Once you move to the countryside, you should be able to slow down your pace and allow yourself to enjoy the peaceful tranquility of a life away from the constant running in a desperate attempt to keep your hectic city schedules.
The slower pace of living that most rural areas offer is likely to have a hugely beneficial effect on your physical and mental health. Why? It’s the much lower intake of daily stress that will make all the difference in the world.
It’s no secret that stress can be really, REALLY bad for your health on every possible level. And that’s exactly why your choice to move away from the stressful big-city life and start a stress-free country life should make you both happier and healthier.
Without the extra doses of daily stress, you’ll be able to start leading a more relaxed and laid-back country life that will improve your overall well-being and will keep you in good mood throughout the day.
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TOP 5 (FIVE) DISADVANTAGES of moving to the country
Life in the countryside is not all sunshine and rainbows. Moving to the country will also have its share of disadvantages and it’s important that you know those drawbacks before the move so that you don’t end up regretting your decision to move away from where you are now.
The cons of moving to the country are:
1. LIMITED JOB PROSPECTS
One of the obvious disadvantages of moving to the countryside is the much fewer job opportunities that exist away from the big cities. As a rule of thumb, the further a place is from a city, the less chance there is to find a good job there.
If you’re relocating to the country as a retired person or you’ve already found a decent job in the destination place, then you’ve got nothing to worry about. Also, if you can work remotely via the Internet from the countryside, then that’s great – you should be able to combine all the pros of living in the country with a steady income.
However, your decision to move to the countryside without a secured job may prove to be too risky and could force you to commute for hours to a bigger town or city, or worse – to settle for a salary that you would not normally agree to.
Think about all that before the move becomes a fact. After all, living in the country can be great… as long as you have secured a stable income.
2. LIMITED OR INADEQUATE HEALTHCARE
Will you have access to good medical services when you move to the countryside?
One serious drawback of living in the country is the limited access to medical services that exist in the big cities and large towns.
You may overlook this critical aspect when analyzing the good and bad things about living in the country just because you feel perfectly healthy at the moment. The bad news is that you have no way of knowing what might happen at any given moment, so knowing that you can rely on emergency medical services when you need them will give you the peace of mind to enjoy a peaceful life away from the city.
If you or a family member needs frequent medical care, then a possible decision to relocate to a rural community becomes even more complicated to make. Will there be a medical center in the new area? Are there any competent doctors that you can count on in emergencies? What about good pharmacies that offer the medications that you need?
3. LIMITED OPTIONS FOR EDUCATION
When moving to the country with children who go to school, then you really want to make sure you’ve assessed the situation carefully before you complete the move.
Depending on the town or village you move to, your educational options for your school-age kids may be too limited. In other words, there may be no more than a few schools in the area that your children can attend. And it’s not only about the number of schools available, it’s also about the quality of the educational standards in those schools.
Driving your kids to and from a school that’s located in another more distant area is also an option but you have to take into account the travel expenses and the time lost on the road.
All in all, one of the worst things about moving into the countryside is the limited opportunities and limited options in many aspects of everyday life. As a parent, you’d want to give your children the best possible education, but that may be next to impossible once you move away from the big city.
4. LIMITED OR NO PUBLIC TRANSPORT
Life in the country will likely mean that you’ll have to rely on your car for almost everything. Away from big cities, public transport may be rather limited or non-existent and that will almost certainly prove to be inconvenient for you as a newcomer.
With limited or no public transport, you have to factor in the cost of gasoline into your budget as well. Also, using your automobile exclusively will increase its gradual wear-and-tear, thus increasing the car’s maintenance costs down the road.
Depending on just how rural your destination town or village is, you may find out that the roads there are not maintained well enough to your liking. In the wintertime, those same roads may become close to unusable if covered by snow or ice for prolonged periods of time.
5. LIMITED SERVICES AND AMENITIES
Will you have to become a handyman around the new home? Only time will tell.
Everybody knows that big cities offer the best possible amenities for their residents, so once you leave a large city for a more rural place, you should expect to lose certain comforts that you’ve enjoyed until that moment.
Some more rural areas may have occasional problems with the utilities – power cuts may be common during summer or winter storms and water supply issues are also possible.
Additionally, finding and using specialized professional services is likely to be much more difficult due to the smaller number of service providers. Are you ready to play the role of an electrician or a plumber when minor house maintenance problems occur?
And now that you know the major pros and cons and moving to the country, do you think that living in the countryside is for you?
Ideally, you’ll be able to spend some time in the place you wish to move to in order to know for sure whether you’re ready for that next step. And if it does turn out that life in the country is exactly what you’ve been looking for, then don’t hesitate to contact top-rated movers to help you turn that house move into reality.
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