How much house do we need?

At the end of the day, when all the children are asleep and most of the mess is picked up I sit down to take a few breaths and just look around. What I have noticed is that my house feels huge. I am not bragging, not at all. The only reason we have this huge house is because we snatched an amazing deal and we are renting.

Skip the next paragraph if you know me well; you already know this.

Brief history: We lived a an adorably cute tiny cape cod right downtown with an equally adorably cute tiny yard. We loved it. We had one child and it was perfect. Then, all the sudden we had three children and directly after another one on the way. Our house started feeling claustrophobic. We agreed that the size was difficult at times, but the layout was impossible. The house was full of tiny rooms and you could not see or hear anyone from any other room (great if you are trying to ignore someone but not great from a small child safety standpoint). So, we put our house up for sale for about one week. One week was all it took for me to decide that this was a terrible idea and there was absolutely no way I could keep my house clean with all those hands and feet bopping about. Fast forward three months and I got a call from a realtor that wanted to know if we were still interested in selling. "Yes" I said, trying not to sound too excited. A few more weeks later and our house was sold, we had no where to go and our 4th baby was due very soon. That is how we ended up renting (something we said we did not want to do but are happy we did).

The house we are in now is about 3 times the size of the house we sold. It is interesting how quickly you can fill up space with unnecessary junk. When thinking about simplifying I wonder, how much house do we really need? I am curious about other people's opinions. We have this house rented until June, at which point we are considering purchasing. We would like to buy a home that we can raise our children in and hopefully pay off sooner rather than later.

I have read up on the statistics of house sizes. It is pretty eye opening. Here is what I have found.

As the average size of our American families decrease, 3.1 people in 1974 to 2.6 people in 2004 the average size of our homes have drastically increased from 1,695 sq ft in 1974 to 2,349 sq ft in 2004. Interestingly, this scary market crash/ foreclosure nightmare has actually had many more people re-evaluate how much house they truly need. In 2008 the census data showed that the average size of homes under construction fell from an average of 2,629 sq ft in the second quarter to 2,343 sq ft in the fourth quarter.

To sum it all up, I feel like my "McMansion" as a dear friend calls it, is in deed just that, over the top. While I love my giant walk-in pantry, my laundry room that is the same size of my old kitchen and a master suite that is larger than most people's NYC apartments it does not seem necessary and actually has some draw backs. Number one on my list is cleaning. It takes me all week to go through the house and clean all of my rooms (7 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms). My old house I could clean in an afternoon and happily spend the rest of the time playing with the children. Also, our utilities bills (while somewhat better than expected because this is a newer home) are still much more than need be. And then the issue of accumulated junk, as mentioned before. If I am really going to simplify, and I am serious about this, then I think my home should reflect my values. What are your thoughts?