When we moved from our last house to our current one we ended up downsizing on the house but upsizing on the outside space. We went from a four bed, 2 bath house with a solarium and huge underbuild to a three bed, two bath bungalow with a smaller underbuild.
I think to some this might of been perceived as a bit odd as usually people downsize a lot later in life and we are at an age when we should be getting a bigger property surely.
We knew we wanted to move from our last house, but to be honest we were totally open to what type of house we were going to go for next. Of course budget dictated a lot to what we could afford, but this time round we were more about getting the location right and then seeing what was available.
We believe we found a real gem with our house. I’m sure not many would of agreed in the beginning. The house needed a full renovation as it had one owner since the 1980’s and still had the original decor. The garden was ridiculously overgrown, we didn’t even realise how big it was until we had trees cut back and started to clear the area. Even today I’ve been working on a part of the garden where I’ve been bagging up endless pine needles, cutting back bushes and weeds, it still astonishes me how much space appears when it’s tidied up.
We completely renovated the house and knew rooms would have to be tweaked for the space to work as we were loosing a bedroom and floor space by moving.
In the old house the rooms were divided up with our bedroom, a spare room, my dressing room and the study. We knew we could live without a spare room straight away. The whole time we had our last house we had two sets of guests, one was my mum who now lives in Spain, just half an hour away, so we knew having a whole room dedicated to non-existent guests was a waste.
The study was a non-negotiable (at the time) as we like to have a space for paperwork, books etc.
Then that left my dressing room. I was totally fine to sacrifice having a dressing room. It was lovely having a room solely for all my clothes, shoes, accessories, make-up and bit’s and pieces. I had a desk in there also, so if I wanted to blog I’d almost have my own office space too, but again like the spare bedroom it was a waste of a room to be completely honest. I obviously did use it everyday, but just to get ready in the mornings and that was all.
So in our house now we have our bedroom, the study which we made sure had big wardrobes in for the overspill of clothes. We’ve managed to fit a lot of drawer units in our bedroom and the study too. It’s amazing actually how much more you can store away in a chest of drawers rather then hanging everything. The third bedroom has a wall of fitted wardrobes for both our clothes and the remainder of that room is the cat’s playroom. For us that is much better use of space. The cats of course have the run of the house and they have stuff in literally every room, but it is nice to have a dedicated cat room for their overspill of toys, beds and scratching posts. It’s also meant we’ve been able to get them a huge climbing frame which goes across the whole of one wall and it’s also somewhere for their litter trays to go as well. It works well.
Another thing we did to make downsizing work is to have good storage in our bathrooms. We’ve loosely dedicated the bathroom for me and the en-suite is Marks. Obviously we are free to use both haha, but we do tend to have them as our own bathrooms. Mark has all his bit’s in the en-suite and I have all my make-up, lotions and potions in my bathroom. Again having good storage and our own bathrooms works well. I do joke the secret to a happy marriage is separate bathrooms!
When we renovated the house we reconfigured the kitchen and made sure we had lot’s of storage options. The kitchen is fully fitted and I even have a cupboard for my hoover, mop and bucket etc to go in, as we’re in a bungalow there’s obviously no under stair storage.
We didn’t have a huge declutter when we initially moved in, that’s something we’ve done over the years. Even to date I am always clearing out drawers and cupboards, buying boxes and baskets to organise things better.
Downsizing to a smaller property has definitely worked for us. I think because we tweaked the layout and really thought about how we live and what we want out of our home we managed to still end up with plenty of space for us, the fur-babies and our belongings.
One thing I would like to have re-done is the wardrobes in the ‘cat’ room. We’re not happy with how they turned out, the quality is really poor and the layout inside isn’t very good either, for the space I think they could be done so much better. But that’s a project for the future. I’m mentally collecting ideas for layouts and finishes for when the time comes for us to re-do the built in wardrobes.
Thinking about storage solutions has been the big key for us for making downsizing work. Looking at the layout of our home and realistically thinking how we live our daily life and what rooms are functional, what rooms are completely unused and what space you think needs to be improved. Be honest with yourself about spare rooms and dressing rooms if you are thinking about downsizing. Even rooms used as a study, maybe that space can be put to better use and a little nook in a corner somewhere with a small desk is more then ample for ‘study’ space.
Don’t be scared of downsizing, as as a society we all have way too much ‘stuff’, apparently we only wear 20% of whats in our wardrobes. Another thing to remember, which I have been saying a lot is that your home isn’t a storage unit. It’s your home, so only have the things that bring you joy and are useful and functional.
I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s post and if you’re thinking of downsizing or have downsized already hopefully you’ll be able to take away some tidbits from my blog post or let me know your top tips in the comments below. Let’s chat ♥
Heather x
Heather Townsend 