Downsizing?

Twenty years ago we started house hunting.
Fifteen years ago (in two weeks) we bought this house -- a lovely four-bedroom Colonial on a third of an acre in a suburban neighborhood.

At the time we did not have any children, but we knew we wanted at least one.

Fast forward a decade and a half. We have one child. We are almost always in the same room of the house. We have a yard we hardly use -- except to mow and to rake. We have a lot of stuff.

We are toying with a massive purge and a smaller home. A smaller home with a smaller yard a smaller price tag and a smaller tax bill. A smaller home in our same town so the only change is address.

The purge is necessary no matter what.

The smaller house? How much smaller? I'm thinking we want to live closer to Ashley's high school so she can walk home from activities. She is in 7th grade. Where will she go to high school? Do we move to where we think she'll go or wait until she has been accepted and start the hunt? 

I want to be walking distance to shopping, and other activities.

We've already looked at a couple of house. They were SOOOO small. SOOO small as in the master bedroom at 13x11 was too small to fit the furniture that fit in our 12x12 bedroom when we lived in Trenton. SOOOO small as in major pieces of furniture would need to be discarded. Plus the laundry room was in the basement and the garage was detached. Other than that, they are nice hundred year old houses on a nice street in town.

Yes, there are other houses. This brings back memories of house hunting in the late 1990s -- houses were either doll house sized, or enormous. Where is the middle ground? Where are the houses in the 1750 square foot range, instead of either 1000 or 2500 square foot ranges? 

I don't want this search to last five years.