Does a bigger house = more clutter?

[2GR8KIDS]

My husband and I are trying to decide whether to remodel our house. It would end up quite a bit larger than it is now. Although it would be nice to have more space for living, especially as the kids get bigger, I worry that if we have more space we will just end up with more stuff, and the stuff we have will just be scattered over a bigger area. Has anyone succeeded in staying decluttered/simplified after moving to a larger space?

[ekortering]

We moved from a comfortable 2 bedroom condo with a basement and 1 carport to a 2 story, 4 bedroom, 2.5 baths, 2 car garage house and I must say I liked the 2 bedroom condo better. All our "stuff" has spread out and accumulated in our new home. I would love to downsize within the next few years.

[Shiloh]

We went from 2 bedrooms to four and soon we'll probably go smaller again.
I find my stuff just lives in different spaces, like flotsam it just spreads out.

I would suggest if you remodel - storage, closets, butler's pantry, mud room, window seats, etc.

There are so many cool built ins, etc great for having stuff onhand but out of sight. You might want to pick up a book on built ins as things like window seats, etc are easy to do when you start storage looks clumsy after.

I would start by also asking people with your type of family but older kids what type of stuff they have as they age - less ride on toys - more hockey equipment! etc. My daughter going from birth to 11 is now into less stuff, toys, clothes but likes more personal space.

Alison

[2GR8KIDS]

Thanks for the advice!

[Spock]

I definitely think that it's very easy to just expand to fit the space you are in. We went from a 2 bedroom apartment to a 4 bedroom house and it was such a short time before the house filled up. I've been trying lately to go back to a more spartan lifestyle b/c I would really like to move to a smaller house. I think it takes a very conscious effort to not fill up a bigger space with more stuff and I've been struggling with it andI'm not always successful!

[member]

IME, more room means more clutter for us. We've been living in a 400 sq ft apartment for 4 years and I love it, because I've slowly downsized to the point that I feel like we have some sentimental stuff, deocorative stuff, but we're not swimming in it.

[root*children]

I think it all depends on you. If you are in a mindset of not having alot of clutter, then you won't have a problem in a bigger house.
My dad is a severe pack-rat. He's in a tiny house, and has every little nook and cranny FILLED with junk! If he moved into a bigger house, he'd just find more junk. But not everyone's like that.
The book that helped me get into a no-clutter mindset was "Confessions of an Organized Homemaker". Read it and then live it, and then you'll feel confident that you CAN have a bigger house and actually have more living space than more clutter

[Ruthla]

I'm hoping that the inverse is true- we're moving to a smaller house and I'm hoping we can be less cluttered when we get there!!!

[umbrella]

Does a bigger house = more clutter?

Only if you buy more stuff to fill it up!

We recently moved into a home almost twice the size of our previous home. We have bought a few new pieces of furniture that we've been needing/wanting anyway, and it's great we finally have the space for them. We have many books, but had only one book case. We now have two more bookcases, and believe me, that wall could handle 3 more. We also bought another cabinet for storage (our home is lacking in closets).

Our rooms are so big and airy. Compared to our neighbors' homes, they look almost bare but we have all the furniture we need, and it's nice to have so much space around it all.

I look at some of these people's homes, with these beautiful chairs in the oddests spots, obviously just to fill the space. Who is ever going to sit there? No one is going to sit there. Or tables tops filling blank space, with just a candle on top. It really looks like they're filling the space for the sake of filling the space.

[mamakay]

Originally Posted by Ruthla

I'm hoping that the inverse is true- we're moving to a smaller house and I'm hoping we can be less cluttered when we get there!!!

Well, you'll have to find some "home" for all the crap. We now have an attick and a storage shed.
And we threw a lot of stuff away, and donated a lot to the people that moved in.
We went from living in a 6 br, 3 bath, 3 living room, and a couple of dining rooms, 3 kitckens (with 6 roomates, but most of the "stuff" was ours) situation to a very small 1 br house.
But, yeah...We're less cluttered now. Now, if I even think about bringing anything home, I'm also thinking of what I'll have to get rid of.
When we lived in that huge house I always knew I could squeeze something else in, even if I'd end up cussing it all later for having to dust it.
But weirdly, for my own packrat self, a smaller home has meant less clutter.
(I do miss that very old, Victorian house, though...*sigh*...and buying groceries in bulk with the roomates.)