Having a smaller home can mean big savings in terms of money and time. In addition to a smaller initial outlay for a smaller home than for a larger one, a smaller home requires less ongoing maintenance costs as well as less time to provide that maintenance. Certainly every home regardless of size requires professional services such as new and/or cleaning carpets, insect spraying, exterior painting, new roofing, etc. but those professional services become less expensive in a smaller home simply because of the obvious…there’s less of it.
Here is a list of non-professional services/chores required in all homes that might be easier and less time consuming in a smaller home, thanks to our friends at Becoming Minimalist.
- Tidying up – de-cluttering the house will take less time and effort.
- Dusting – With fewer rooms, walls, shades, furniture, accessories, etc. dusting will take less time and effort.
- Taking out the trash – With fewer and closer together rooms, trash/recycling gathering will take less time and effort.
- Laundry – Most people do laundry almost daily regardless of the house size but gathering it up and returning it to the rightful owner will be easier in a smaller home.
- Cleaning floors – Less flooring and carpeting means less time for vacuuming and mopping.
- Washing windows – Fewer windows particularly with one level homes mean less time washing windows inside and out.
- Holiday/seasonal decorating – With fewer places to decorate, changing small home environments takes less time and fewer decorations.
- Scrubbing bathrooms – The fewer toilets and showers to scrub, the less time and effort it takes to scrub them.
- Cleaning furniture – With fewer rooms, there are fewer furniture pieces and accessories to clean.
- Deep cleaning baseboards, cabinets, corners, etc. – With less of everything, it takes less time and effort to clean everything.
Bottom line…smaller homes require less time, effort and money to maintain. They also require fewer “things” to fill them. Translate all of that into more time, money, and freedom to explore new places, experiences, and ideas. And, because family members are in closer proximity to one another in smaller homes than in larger ones, family relationships may just become more close as well.
