Perhaps this depends on the overall size of your home, but if you are maintaining your own yard, how big is too big before you rebel and say 'not moving here' or 'time to get some help'?
My property is 11 acres, the actual area I mow is about 5 plus the ATV trails on the back 6 acres. It takes me roughly 7-8 hours a week during the growing season to keep the yard area mowed and trimmed (4-5 hrs with tractor, 2-3 with pusher mower, 1-2 hrs with weedeater) but being retired, I have the time, and I enjoy the activity UNLESS there is a lot of rain and I end up raking the clippings.
The garden is about another 2-5 hours a week in spring and summer....still, I enjoy that too, except for weeding. Every year I use my tractor to enlarge the yard area by cutting back the pasture, in the past ten years I have added another acre of lawn to cut, but I am done enlarging the area because any more lawn to take care of, it's not worth the headache. The only reason I have so much lawn area is because I don't water or fertilize it, and I don't give a darn if the neighbors kids play on it, or if the guy down on the corner wants to drive on it to use my burn pile. My wife's brother has a half acre yard that looks like a putting green, he has a fit if anybody puts a wheel on any of it....stupid, IMO. Why go to all that work and expense and then worry if the grass gets matted down...:confused2: