When the Army moved us to the metro D.C. area (where the cost of living is a little insane), I knew I wouldn’t be getting that single family home that I wanted.
Well, if we were willing to sacrifice certain things, we could have lived in a bigger home. For example, we would have most likely lived further away from my husband’s work. That would mean more gas and time spent for him to travel (and here in the D.C. area it could mean hours!). We also liked the thought of being closer to Washington, D.C., in general, so we decided to live in a place that was only a few short miles from the installation.
When the time came, I moved out of a tiny New York City apartment into another apartment in the metro D.C. area. Even after deciding to rent an apartment here with my husband, I still managed to multiple my square footage from my previous 5 dwellings, all of which were located in one of the 5 boroughs of the city.
So, I was happy! All I really wanted was a separate room for my home office because I didn’t want that space to compete with any other room.
Fast-forward 2 years, it’s been fabulous here at our cozy apartment and there is so much more my husband and I have gained by our decision to go for a smaller home.
5 Things You Get When You Decide to Live in a Small Home
More money to save. I can’t avoid the most obvious reason. Ultimately, we decided to live in an apartment because of the opportunity to save extra BAH money for our rainy day fund.
Energy efficient. This adds to saving money factor too. Because the space you live is physically smaller, it takes less to power it all. Our electric bill is really reasonable and fits within our BAH, enough to save a pretty sizable amount after all our monthly bills are paid.
Less house means less to upkeep so your time can be spend on underutilized hobbies. Another addition to benefit one and two, you don’t have to tidy as much space, so your time spent cleaning extra square footage can go into other things. For me, I started back on my old hobby of playing the violin. I used to do so for school, but stopped. It’s nice to be able to pick it up again.
Encourages you to go outside and explore your duty station. Our small apartment motivates us to get out and make the most of the northern Virginia area. It’s nice to be able to feel like we live in a bigger space by utilizing the different parks around us.
Peace of mind. Overall, the culmination of everything equals peace of mind for me. We’re able to save money, spend less time cleaning, more time sightseeing, and being with each other. It ultimately was a win-win for us.
Don’t get me wrong, I still look forward to the instance that would bring us to live in a bigger home with a yard, garage and maybe stairs, but until then, our cozy apartment is just fine.
, I knew I wouldn’t be getting that single family home that I wanted. Instead we decided to live in a small apartment.){kind=link}