Moving into a bigger house is a dream come true for many people, especially for the ones who have had to put up for years with all the inconveniences and nuisances of living in a home with insufficient living space.
Needless to say, the greatest advantage of moving into a big house is the extra living space a person will get and can use for various purposes. In the case of a growing family, that extra room will come as a blessing for each family member.
If you yourself are planning to move into a bigger place – often thanks to a higher income or an unexpected change in your lifestyle, then you should keep in mind that despite the numerous benefits of moving to a bigger house, there are also a number of disadvantages that come with a larger property.
You’re going to need to make an informed decision in order to avoid deep regrets after you’ve already moved and settled into the more spacious home. And to make the right choice prior to moving out, you’ll need to be aware of the obvious and not-so-obvious pros and cons of moving to a bigger house.
Advantages of moving into a bigger house
Here are the major pros of moving into a bigger house compared to the place you’re living in right now:
1. More living space for everyone
It’s hard to argue that the greatest benefit of moving to a larger house is the additional space you will get right after you cross the threshold of the new home. As a result, each family member, including any pets you may have, should be happier with more living space.
It’s no fun for a growing family to be restricted to a small home – after all, children grow fast and soon need their own rooms for more privacy. The great news is that you won’t have to negotiate a peace treaty between your kids when they fight over space-related issues.
But a bigger house is more than just each teenager having their own private room. You and your partner should also appreciate the fact that each one of you can get some breathing room for yourself from time to time.
Your dog or cat will also feel much happier when they have more room to run and play freely around the new house.
Ultimately, more living space means more breathing space without having to bump into each other all the time. And that’s a great, liberating feeling, isn’t it?
2. Enough space for all personal belongings
Another advantage of moving to a larger home is the abundance of storage space that you will get to keep your stuff.
The number of things in a house tends to increase with each passing year so when living under the roof of a small property, sometimes you may feel as if the place were literally bursting through the seams with all kinds of belongings, ranging from super useful and practical items to a bunch of worthless junk.
Prior to the move, you should still inventory your possessions and get rid of the things you have never really liked and don’t intend to use in the near future. However, when you’re not sure whether to take some things with you or not, you won’t be really worried about where you will store the items in question. Why?
It’s simple – you’re moving into a bigger house that will surely have enough storage space for your things. Basically, this means that thanks to the large storage areas of the house – garage, basement, attic, spare rooms, you’ll be able to enjoy a fairly decluttered lifestyle – at least in the very beginning
3. A spare room for out-of-town guests
Moving to a bigger place to live in will also give you an extra room, or maybe even rooms, for friends to spend the night when they come and visit you from out of town. And that’s a big bonus since you won’t need to worry about having to arrange a hotel for them or having your guests cramped up in a room corner.
Having a spare guest room in the house is a huge bonus.
If you happen to enjoy spending time with your friends, then you’re likely to like the idea of being free to invite your out-of-town pals whenever you feel like it. Having a spare guest room ready for such occasions is extremely convenient and hugely satisfying at the same time.
The thing is that you won’t ever feel uneasy or anxious when having your best pals over to spend the night at your place. As an added bonus, your children can also invite their school friends to a sleepover party at the new house.
4. More room for your own projects and a home office
The more space you have in your own home, the more opportunities you’ll have to develop personal projects over time – projects that require enough space to come to fruition.
If you enjoy working out, then you can easily choose to turn a big room into your personal gym – a place of your own where you can be at peace while staying fit or building a more muscular body. In reality, what this means is that you won’t need to worry about the working hours of local gyms and you’ll no longer have to pay for a gym membership card either.
Setting up a pool table or a ping pong table in one of the larger rooms will give you hours of enjoyment in your free time – a luxury that you could never afford when living in a place with a fairly limited living space.
Also, one of the not-so-obvious advantages of moving into a bigger house is that you can set up a home office in one of the rooms and potentially run a business of your own from the comfort of your own home. Also, if your primary job allows it, you can even work remotely from the new home without having to commute to your regular workplace twice a day.
5. Large space outdoors
There’s a big chance that the big house you move into will have a spacious backyard or/and a garden where children and pets can play together and engage in all types of fun activities depending on the climatic conditions outside.
A big house with a spacious yard – what more could you want out of life?
You can always set a trampoline or a swing set there in the outdoor space, or both, for hours of pure enjoyment. If you can afford it, getting a hot tub for the house garden should be a dream come true in many ways – a guarantee for unrivaled fun alone or with friends.
Of course, creating a barbeque area within the house garden is a must – especially during the summertime when you can have good friends over for memorable BBQ evenings.
The extra outdoor space that your bigger house will most certainly come with can also be used for more practical purposes such as growing vegetables or planting fruit trees there.
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Disadvantages of moving into a bigger house
Believe it or not, a bigger house comes with a few disadvantages as well. If it didn’t, everybody would be moving into larger houses, right?
Here are the major cons of moving into a bigger house:
1. Significantly higher costs
Everybody knows that moving into a bigger house is more expensive than moving into a smaller home. If you’re renting the property, then the monthly rent will be higher, sometimes much higher. If you’re moving into a big house as an owner, then the mortgage premium will be significantly higher.
The cost of the property itself is the major factor that will determine whether or not you can afford to move there. However, a large house comes with a number of associated costs that you should always factor in prior to your decision to relocate there.
Some of these extra costs include but are not limited to
homeowner’s insurance costs;
property taxes;
furnishing costs;
household utility costs;
maintenance costs;
renovation costs, etc.
As a rule of thumb, the larger the property is, the higher the above-mentioned costs will be.
Also, don’t forget that the proper maintenance of a large house garden can also be rather costly in the end considering the high costs of gardening equipment, various garden maintenance products, lawn furniture, etc. And if you don’t have the required time to keep your garden or backyard in good condition, you may need to pay somebody to do it for you – an extra expense you probably never included in your preliminary budget.
2. Extra time and energy to maintain the bigger property
One thing you should always keep in mind is that when it comes to properties, bigger is not always better.
You’ll always have your hands full after moving into a bigger house.
In addition to spending a fortune to purchase a bigger house or investing serious money into renting a larger home, you should be aware that maintaining a much more spacious property will require a lot of time and energy from you. And that’s something you may not be ready to do.
A bigger house will mean more time to arrange and clean the rooms inside it. A big garden will require constant care to remain presentable. Even minor repairs or small renovation jobs around the house can take a long time to complete.
Ultimately, you should be mentally prepared that living in a bigger house will subsequently mean less free time as there’ll always be something to do inside or outside the property. Of course, you can choose to pay somebody to do some of the jobs for you, but such a decision would mean more money out of your pocket too.
3. Less than desirable location
Location is one of the major factors when choosing where to live. And in most cases, big houses are usually found in the suburbs of a big city or in smaller towns. Ultimately, all of this means that you may need to sacrifice on location in order to move into a big house to live in.
Living away from the center of a big city can prove to be hugely advantageous for you but that’s not always the case you and you should weigh all factors in order to make the best possible decision in your set of circumstances.
After all, you may realize at a later stage that living in a big house is great but being too far from your workplace in the city or from your children’s schools is not ideal for you. So, the big question remains: is it worth moving to a bigger house if you’ll be forced to make a serious sacrifice on location?
Long before your move out, you just have to analyze all the pros and cons of moving into a bigger house and figure out if you’re making the right choice. And if it turns out that you are, then you should start thinking about how to organize the house move with minimum stress for you and your family.
The very first step? Use our Moving Cost Calculator to get free quotes from top-rated moving companies near you and secure their high-quality services for a highly successful relocation.
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