Housing and Life Cycles

 This week in Interior Design, we talked about housing life cycles. 

Physical and psychological needs of a house are simple...

Physical-

1. Shelter

2. Sleep

3. Food Preparation

4. Storage

5. Safety

Psychological-

1. Love and Belonging

2. Privacy

3. Creativity

4. Identity

Life Cycle also plays an important part in housing. First comes the young adults living in some sort of small apartment. Then, the young families living in a small home known as a starter home. That's where the stage called launching takes place. This is where the family is in a moderate sized house           and the children are leaving the house to go off to college. The last part of the cycle is the         empty-nesters. This happens when the family has no more kids and the family then has to down grade to maybe a small apartment, and the cycle starts again.

Housing choices relate to the life cycle because as your family gets bigger, you will need a bigger house, and as your family gets smaller, you won't need as big of a house.

At the age of 22, your will be at the stage of Young Adults. This means that the type of housing you will need is not going to be as big as if you had a family. A small apartment would do just fine.

At the age of 33, maybe you have started a small family, so you would need a starter house. A starter house is a medium sized home, which would be just the size for the family.

At age 42, you become an empty nester, which means that you will need a smaller house, because all of the children are leaving the house.

At the age of 75, your family wont be living with you, so you would move into an apartment, or nursing home maybe.

So the housing life cycle isnt that complicated when you think about it, it is just a part of life, but there is an art to it. Follow this life cycle and you will live a happy life.