Anyone else have a bigger family but a small house?

[TamberlyRN]

Only in America do people have these space issues!! Look into how families live around the world- often several generations in tighter quarters. As long as your house is tidy and organized, I think any size is fine!

[Kindermama]

Originally Posted by TamberlyRN Only in America do people have these space issues!!!

so true and so sad because I fell for the "american dream" aka big house in the suburbs now I am bound and shackled to this huge house until it sells (we have listed it twice already) I spend more time cleaning and tidying it than i do enjoying it!

[ummsmiley]

We have 4 bedrooms total, but we have all five of our girls in two sets of bunk beds in the largest bedroom, then there's hubby and me in another. The 3 rd bedroom is a classroom for homeschooling, and the forth is a sewing room/art room. We don't have a basement or dining room and none of the rooms are big at all. We work it out without a problem. The more home you have, the more stuff you need to fill it and just as most have said, it's more up keep and cleaning. The kids are forced to go outside more, because there isn't a ton of room but that's a good thing! It forces them to get fresh air and be active instead of being in the house all day.
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[KaleidoscopeEyes]

we have a 1100 sq ft 3 bed 1 bath house. right now the boys share a room, bedroom 3 is an office, dd rooms in with us and new baby will as well. MIL is in the garage (she's moving out soon) we want to eventually turn the garage in a play/bedroom for the girls.

[mollypeters]

i would love to fit my bigger family into a smaller house. less to clean, and easier to call the kids for dinner or whatever (three stories plus basement over here. it's like herding cats...). i don't think 2 kids per room is unreasonable at all, and if it works for u, the newb could room w/ u and ur dh while an infant

[4dramamama]

We rent a 1300 sq ft apartment. We're expecting #6 in the spring. We also homeschool which takes up some space but I really like our 3br/2ba home. I believe that in Texas, where we rent, the person limit is up to the landlord, but there are minimums which they legally can't refuse to rent to which is 2 persons per bedroom.

[swismiself]

In our town they have this ridiculous rule that states only two people per bedroom. I thought - surely - this can't count towards kids in the same family...but apparently it does. It's a college town so I totally understand why they'd limit the number of people in a house, but seriously? I feel bad for larger families who have to rent 3 or 4 bedroom homes because of some arbitrary law, verses what they actually need. Three kids in one bedroom isn't all that unreasonable. At least, I don't think so.

[dolphingirl]

Thought I responded to this one awhile back, but apparently not! Anyways, we have 6 kids ages 0 to 12, and we live in a 3 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath ranch house that's just under 1700 sq. ft. Three boys in one room, 2 girls in one room, and the baby is with dh and me. We have a big unfinished basement, but eventually we'll finish it by putting in a couple bedrooms and another bathroom. (We only have one tub/shower--it would be nice to have another as the kids get older, but for now it works!)
We don't feel crowded. Occasionally, when the house gets totally out of order (like now!) I feel like the amount of stuff is out of control, but not the amount of people! We all just have so much unnecessary "stuff"! My dream is to simplify--just a matter of finding the time!

[AcrossTheUniverse]

In CA it is actually 2 people per bedroom +1 in the living room. So if you have 2 bedrooms you would be able to have a max of 5 people living there.

However, in my experience, most places are more lenient if it is young kids. I lived in a 2 bed, 1 bath, 800sq.ft. apartment with my DH and 5 kids for 18 months. Our oldest 4 shared the largest bedroom and then DH, myself, and the baby had a room. It was tight but doable. I actually kind of miss it (we moved into a 4 bed, 2 bath, 1600sq.ft. home a few months ago). Even now my older 4 sleep in the same room. We tried to give the girls their own room and the boys their own room but they weren't having it. So now we have a "sleeping room" and a play room.

[7arrows4God]

Right now we are living in a cabin that has about 1200 sq feet, but no storage or closets and hauling water to a holding tank from a well. We have 11 children. Most are in bunk beds up in the loft and I am surprised how well it is working. We are currently builing a new home. Anyway we sold our other farm then moved north and bought another farm that has 3 cabins on it, that will one day be starter homes for the children that want to stay here, while they build their own homes debt free. For now we will use the cabins for friends and family, for fellowship and studing of the word, to get away from the rate race.

Our biggest trouble is food storage and it is a big issue as we are far from main shopping so need to buy bulk and we eat a lot of raw food so need a lot of fridge space. Right now we have our big commercial fridge in the screen porch but winter is fast approaching and that will not work. So hopefully before long we can be in our house even if it just has the roof on and water connected.

Small spaces are very doable and would never let that dictate that amount of children, as there is farm more blessings in the realtionship of family in small or large spaces. I do appreciate my more space, but this has been fine. Just need laundry hook up. Also need to still get all our homeschool stuff in here if we do not get into the other house soon, and with that many children we do have a lot and I mean a lot of books. But I could do it.