6 Reasons To Choose Small Town Living
Hey, hey! I hope y’all are having a great week! I wanted to share some of my thoughts about small town living with y’all today. It can be a bit intimidating choosing the right neighborhood when you first start out on your own, so I thought this would be fun to reminisce how my hubs and I got to where we are today. We each grew up in “the country” about fifteen minutes from town, so we have a love for fresh air and space.
In the several homes we’ve lived in over the last six years {including owning a home in a subdivision}, our favorites are the rental homes that were either in the country or in a small town. Our rural town is small and spread out. It has a gas station, hardware store, pharmacy, post office…no stop lights…oh, and a Dollar General. We love it!
6 Reasons To Choose Small Town Living
1. Close Community
It is fabulous to have wonderful neighbors who we can rely on. They are practically our grandparents who are incredibly helpful and kind. I love taking them baked goods. Ridley always loves to roll down his window to yell “hello” to the neighbors when we turn out of the driveway.
2. Affordable Cost of Living
Choosing a home out of the “big” city oftentimes brings with it lower rent as well as lower utilities. And…if we stay home more and enjoy our neighborhood parks, then we save gas money, eating out money and other expenses.
3. Safety and Security
A few weeks ago, we had a flea outbreak INSIDE our house. Yuck! A wild mother cat brought her kittens along with a quickly reproducing flea horde. After a few things that didn’t work, we fogged the house. I’m uber cautious about any kind of chemical in our home, so Ridley and I left for the day. After the fogger did it’s job, my dad came by and left everything open with fans running to get the “fog” out of the house. It was wonderful to not worry about the house being open.
4. Front Porch Living
We rent the oldest house on main street in our town. It is so relaxing to feel at home as we spend time on the front porch reading, watching the cars go by, waving to neighbors and sipping on a glass of cold {sweet} iced tea.
5. Unique Homes
As I mentioned we live in a very old home. It was built in the 1880s and has been added onto several times. Let’s just say it’s got a lot of “quirk.” In this modern era of subdivision or apartment living with very similar home designs {which is a totally great option, by the way!}, I love the unique homes that populate small towns. No two are the same and it’s just delightful to enjoy.
6. More Bang For Your Buck {Or More Space for Your Dolla}
Before my husband and I got married, we researched apartments versus small houses. With the other considerations that I’ve already mentioned, as well as our independent spirits needing space to show hospitality, it made sense for us to rent a free standing house. While we chose a rental home in a small town, I would definitely encourage you to research properties to find the right space for you that maximizes your dollars, too!
Do you live in a city or a small town? I would love to hear your take on where you live!!
Have a beautiful day, y’all!!!
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I am a city girl myself. Probably because I have always lived in the city. However, I do love to live in my own place…as in a house. We are currently in an apartment and the noise level/too much community is a little exhausting sometimes. We love community, but not the every time you walk out the door there tons of people to stop and talk to.
Overall though, I’m thankful for having lived in many different settings. Two houses with large yards in quiet neighborhoods, an apartment that was still pretty private, a house right in the city city, and now an apartment that is less private.
I can totally see the benefit of small town, but I have never experienced that, so… 🙂
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I think it’s wonderful to be content and happy where you are…no matter where that is. It’s great that you’ve had the experience of living in so many different settings!!
The city, totally! We need the culture, diversity, and independence the city provides. We also need the ability to walk places and ditch the car once in a while. When we do that, if feels good to contribute to the neighborhood and the community. There is burger night down at our local market 2 block away, jazz in the park on Sunday nights about 5 blocks away, with so much diversity in the plethora of folks coming from different backgrounds. I feel this makes me a more rounded person. I think I would shrivel up an die living in a place full of The Jones.
I love that Sherri!!! I totally LOVE visiting the city! The culture is fabulous! I think it’s wonderful that you are doing what is right for you! P.S. There’s more of hickville where I live instead of the Joneses! 😀
I love small towns! I grew up in one myself, and now we live in another one and I wouldn’t have it any other way! I kind of hate going to the “big city” now. 🙂
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I have a huge hankering to live in a small town…Mayberry or somewhere 🙂 Just got back from vacation and visiting small towns, Black Mountain, Marshall, Mars Hill and Hot Springs, all in NC. The people were so kind and when I didn’t have enough small change to buy an old Lu Ray plate at a Junk Shop, a man sitting around shooting the breeze reached in his wallet and handed me a dollar. Said he could think of a lot worse ways to spend a buck. Ha! Then when I would have had to break a $20 to buy a bottle of water at an ice cream shop, the girl wouldn’t hear of it and just made up the dif herself. Plus, I always drive the back roads just so I can see small towns. I found Quick Chic in Folkston, GA, where the girl sacrificed the last piece of homemade cake (BEST cake) that she had been saving for herself, just for me. LOVELY people in small towns. I live in a medium-sized city and my dream is to live in a small town just like you describe, Myra. Wonderful post, thank you!
P.S. In Black Mountain there is a tiny bakery called Hey, Hey Cupcakes! Two sister run it, it is precious.
We lived in Huntsville when we first moved to Alabama then moved to Decatur when our Christian school in Huntsville closed. We thought we would just be in Decatur until our kids graduated from High School but to our surprise, we LOVE Decatur and feel it is a more Southern town that fits our personalities! We recently downsized to a townhome and we are enjoying our freedom and our lovely neighbors. Decatur is a great small town!
wow- we have so much in common. I wish I had adequately introduced myself last week at Haven…but I am here now. I am a originally a city girl, who moved from NYC to Boston, and the small town of Charlottesville was small town enough for me, but our move to the country became necessary when my son started first grade and our school was out here. So we thought, lets give it a try…8 years later, we have gone from renting to owning our house…and enjoy all of the advantages you listed and more. Turns out- I LOVE the country…
Grow up in SF califnornia, the parents wanted to move to Chipley Fl in my senior year of HS.Talka bout culture shock! It was a nice change for sure. When we go back to Ca.we get a little “homesick” but 12 yrs ago, we moved to Tallahassee, Fl. We have the “city” feel if you go into the city ,and we live on in a older subdivision,not far from Ga..so I feel like we get the best of both worlds. All the homes look different and we loved that about the neiborhood, not “cookie cutter”…:)
Thanks to the down turn in the economy, we left Charlotte, NC (big city) and ended up in rural North Alabama when my husband changed industries. It has been quite the change, but we have learned to love living in the country and we make regular trips to the city (we drive 50 min to Huntsville for church and we drove 50 minutes to Chattanooga to deliver our first born).
I have really enjoyed your blog and was surprised to learn that you live in small-town Alabama!
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