When you look around your home, do you see the kid’s mess on the floor, stuff falling off shelves and chaos around every corner? And, looking at this scene, do you wonder if a bigger house would help?

For many people, house size is a contentious issue. On the one hand, if you were just a bit more organized and learned to recognize the reasons behind your untidy home, you might discover that you don’t need more space at all. On the other hand, you may have genuinely outgrown your space and need something more practical for your family to grow into. 

So how can you tell?

Throw Out Your Junk

Most blogs about moving house will tell you that this is the perfect time to go through your junk and edit what you own. This means deciding what you no longer need and then either selling it, donating it to charity or chucking it in the bin. Tidying is no easy feat but as any good removalist like Chess Moving will tell you, the more you sort now, the easier moving day will be. 

Of course, the best reason to throw your junk out now is to see whether you actually need a bigger house or not. If you can see the floor by the time you are done and you have a sense of space and calm when you walk through the front door, you might be able to avoid moving just yet. 

What Do Your Finances Say?

A very good reason to avoid moving into a bigger house, and to learn to make do with what you have, is money. Moving house comes with all kinds of hidden costs, not to mention the additional costs of running a larger home. Your utility bills will be higher and you will have to spend more in maintenance and upkeep too. There’s a reason so many people are downsizing these days! 

The question here is whether your money is working best when put into bricks and mortar or into other things. So, you could buy a bigger house, have more room and fill it with more stuff but you might be missing out on other things from eating out to going on holiday. 

Is Your Family Still Growing?

One of the major reasons people choose to move into a larger property is that their children are growing and need more space. The ideal family home probably looks different to you depending on your circumstances but most people look for a room per child, plus one for mom and dad, a large open plan kitchen and living area as well as a family bathroom and a separate toilet.

If your family is still growing, you should also plan ahead for what you need in the future. So, if you want more kids, you might invest in a house with an extra room or two. But, to make the best choice for your family, you must consider all the variables first. Look at your finances, make some room by throwing out your junk and then start looking at other properties to see if something better is really out there.

This is a contributed post.