Questions To Ask Yourself To Know If You Are Ready For A Move

When my husband, Jason, and I bought our (tiny) town home, it felt huge to us. It was just the two of us at the time and we both worked outside of the home. We would walk around from room to room unable to imagine what we could possibly do with, much less how we could possibly fill, every room in our new home.

Just four very short years later, we had a toddler and a baby and we were absolutely bursting at the seams. In what felt like the blink of an eye, toys (and memories) seemed to have filled all of those rooms to the brim, and then some. The decision whether or not it was time for us to move into a new home was easy to make: our home was no longer able to house our life.

Today, almost nine years later, we are contemplating a second move and this time the decision to do so isn’t as clear-cut as it was before.

We are three kids, two dogs and several career changes later (I work from home now, my husband commutes), and while our current home absolutely fits our family, we are back to that same question of if our current home still fits our lives.

We know a bit more now about how quickly life stages change. And this time around, we are asking a few more questions as we delve into making this decision.

There are, in fact, so many great questions to ask yourself and your partner before making the decision to move. Here are 11 of them:

1. Can I afford a new home?
2. Do I know anyone who lives where I’m going?
3. Either way, how do I feel about that?
4. How are the schools there?
5. What kind of neighborhood lifestyle do I want?
6. Where can I get it?
7. Space: Do I have it and do I need more or less of it?
8. What am I losing if I leave?
9. What am I gaining?
10.  What is my goal for moving?
11.  How would a move affect my family?

When I look at these questions, I know that they are, indeed, so important to answer. And when the reason to move is clear, like it was for us the last time around, the answers come easily as well.

But when the reason for moving isn’t as obvious as when your tiny townhome for two no longer fits your family of four, the bottom-line questions to ask yourself before even delving into the 11 important ones above come down to this:

• What do I want my life to be like right now?
• What do I want my life to be like in five years?
• And can my current home house both of these?

This is a very different outlook than my husband and I took when we moved into our townhome! But today, I look at my elementary-school and middle-school-aged children and know exactly how much things can change in five years (we are so close to having high schoolers in our home!). These three questions are the ones that my husband and I keep coming back to as we try to decide if now is the time for our family to make another move.

This growth and future-focused mind-set is helpful because it not only simplifies the questions to ask yourself before making a move, but it also streamlines your family’s direction.

This article was written by: Galit Breen of Theselittlewaves.net and was originally posted on Progressive's blog.