Drive down any street and you’ll see a trend I am not a fan of—charming smaller homes being torn down willy-nilly, replaced with places that positively sprawl. While the McMansion phase is waning, especially in Westchester where building departments reign in developers, the average American new build home is still nearly three times the size of a home built in the ‘50s. And in my opinion—as someone who has just traded a rather large manse for a much, much smaller one—bigger is not always better. When I meet new clients considering buying an oversized behemoth, I caution them. Will a grand home, where the kids go off and isolate themselves in their own spaces, make you happier? Do you realize you not only have to pay for it now, but always—in rooms you don’t “always” (or almost ever) use? And what of the stuff? I’ve found that just as work expands to fill the allotted time, stuff expands to fill space. A lotta space means a lotta stuff.