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Is it time to move to a bigger home? While a small home can be cosy, it may eventually become impractical as your lifestyle changes. Here are just a few signs that it’s time to consider upsizing.
Your family is growing
If your family is growing, you can expect your home to get a lot more cramped in the future. You could be expecting kids or you may have plans to get a dog. In such cases, there could be a physical need for an extra bedroom or outdoor space if you haven’t got it already – this may only be achieved by upsizing. Kids and dogs can also lead to extra clutter accumulating including toys and various equipment. If your home is already cluttered, a larger home may be necessary to contain all these extra items. All in all, looking after your new family member could be a lot easier by taking the decision to upsize.
Your home is getting cluttered
On the topic of clutter, you may find that you have no space for any new personal belongings. If you’ve got a hoarding problem, upsizing is clearly not the healthy solution, but if you’re struggling to find room for basic items and equipment, it could be necessary to upsize. A small kitchen could be a prime example of this – if you’ve resorted to cluttering up your countertop because there’s no room left in the cupboards, it could be time to upsize to a home with a bigger kitchen. A cluttered home could be stressing you out and could be making tasks like cleaning more difficult. With more space, you can store away items and give yourself more breathing space.
Everyone is getting under each other’s feet
Are your family constantly getting under one another’s feet? Do you often find yourself fighting to use the kitchen or queuing for the bathroom? This could be a sign that you need to upsize and create more space. A larger kitchen could allow more than one person to cook and prepare food at a time, while a second bathroom could reduce queues. This could mean fewer family arguments and less stress in general.
You need your own private space
We all need our own private space. If your home is small, you may struggle to find this space. Upsizing could give you an extra room to use for this purpose – it could serve as a home office, a study, a workshop, an art studio or a private gym. An extra room could even be turned into an extra living space for your kids so that you can watch your own TV programs while they watch theirs. Whatever reason you have for wanting more private space, upsizing could enable it and make you feel more at peace.
You can afford to upsize
Upsizing to a bigger home could mean spending more each month. If you feel you’re living comfortably and are able to give up a little more income, you may as well as take advantage of this and increase your standard of living by upsizing. A mortgage broker such as https://altrua.ca can help you to secure the best mortgage rates if you’re planning on buying. You could also consider buying or renting with someone else to split costs. Another way of lowering the cost is to buy in a less attractive location – if you’re willing to move to a less trendy area, you could find that you’re able to buy a bigger house for less (possibly even the same value as your current smaller home).
What are your alternatives?
Upsizing isn’t the only way of adding space. There may be ways of adding space without having to move. These could be worth considering as an alternative option.
Extend
If you own a house with buildable land around it, there may be the option of building an extension. This could allow you to make your kitchen larger, to build an extra bedroom or to build the private space you’ve wanted. An extension may require planning permission – make sure to look into this first so that your extension is legal. The cost of an extension can vary, but it’s certain to be cheaper than upsizing, plus you’ll have the freedom to customize the added space in your very own image.
Convert
There may be unused space in your home that can be converted to help meet your needs. This could include an unused loft, an unused garage or an unused basement. You could even turn an understairs closet into a second bathroom. A conversion is likely to be cheaper than an extension and you likely won’t need planning permission. Not all conversions are feasible without also doing some extending (for example, if your loft ceiling is below the legal limit to be classified as a liveable space, you may have to consider the option of raising the roof).
Declutter
Valuable space in your home could be taken up by unwanted possessions. This is particularly the case with large unused items such as dusty treadmills, unplayed musical instruments or bulky toys that kids have grown out of. Find the time to get rid of these items and see what difference it makes to your home. Decluttering can have many other benefits from making your home easier to clean to reducing stress. You may even be able to sell items for cash and make some money out of the process.
Invest in space-saving furniture
Investing in new furniture could help you to free up space. Certain furniture is designed to save space such as dining tables and chairs that can be folded away, potentially turning an entire dining room into an empty space when not in use. A sofa-bed could also be a space-saving alternative to a guest bedroom. This site https://www.bystored.com/ offers a few space-saving ideas that could be worth looking into. Who needs lots of different rooms when you can simply create multi-purpose rooms?