I know quite a few moms on here have talked about living in small spaces and soon that’s going to be me too. 
I’m having a hard time gauging how much real estate a little person needs (and me too for that matter). The last time I rented an apartment I had 1003 sq ft of space all to myself, but my kitchen was tiny!Please share how big (or small) your apartment/condo is and how you use the space. For instance, does your LO have a play kitchen or train set up? Or do you have a round table with four chairs or can fit a rectangular table for six? Do you have space to work from home or for exercise equipment?
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When we lived in the city, we had a 1050 sq foot condo, 2 bedrooms. It was set up better for adults only, honestly. Open concept, with a good size kitchen for the space, decent living area, but then we basically had to choose either a play space behind the couch OR a table and chairs. We opted to sit at the island and have the toys and storage and play space where other people had their dining tables setup in similar units. DH also had a small desk in that corner but it wasn’t a good set up for working from home.
It felt smaller as our LO got older for sure. We prob could have had a play kitchen if we set things up better and were more minimalist but that would be it.
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We lived in about a 900 sqft city apartment when we had my oldest. Luckily it had a lot of built in storage! It had two bedrooms so that had crib, dresser, etc - not really any play stuff. We never had big baby stuff like a glider, swing, jumparoo and even now in a bigger space I don’t have those things! In our main/largest area we had the couch and coffee table on one wall, the tv stand to the right so that kind of made up the living room area, to the left was the hallway to the kitchen (not bad for cooking but no room for a table) so we had a round table with an optional leaf to sit 4-6 (plus high chair) in the main area. Then in the remaining space we had a kid area - some stacking bins, a 3-opening cube storage with a seat on top that held more bins, and a play kitchen, all on a rug. It was key to me to have enough kid storage that we could make the room look presentable. I think it’s totally doable and it just forces you to be creative with the space and purge a lot! And spend too much at the Container Store
As to the last - would have been hard to have exercise equipment unless it could fit in a bedroom, which was not true for us (maybe we could have fit something in the kid room if we prioritized it). We had a secretary style desk in the main room and that could have been a small work at home space, maybe not great for every day but ok for occasionally doing so.
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We had LO1 in an 850 sq ft apartment in Brooklyn (and later an 1100 sq ft place in Texas). There was a tiny kitchen overlooking the big main living/dining area. We had (still have, actually) an Ikea extendable table (sort of like this: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20340824/) that seats 4 but can extend to 6 or even 8 if needed.
We didn't have a train table or play kitchen in our apartments but we lived within walking distance of a lot of shops, toy stores, children's museum etc., so we were out and about a lot. Our Texas apartment had a gym and jogging trails surrounding it so no need for equipment. I also did a lot of Jillian Michaels DVDs/YouTube workout videos that didn't require much. I have a friend (single mom of two) who's done Beachbody videos on demand in her living room every single day for the past two years.
I work from home sometimes but just on the couch.
We now have a house but sometimes I wish I could move back to our little apartments! It's just easier to keep up with, not lose things, not accumulate too much, etc. And kids have a way of making their own fun with whatever's around.
One thing we did that was helpful in our NY apartment was hire an interior decorator. The space was kind of weird and she helped us figure out how to lay it out, what to buy so we'd have enough storage, what rug to get that would hide stains, etc. Lately I've been using Havenly for interior design services - it's only like $120 per room and they'll send you a floor plan and things to buy. I have a discount code I could send if you're interested.
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I've only ever lived in apartments and condos as an adult. Our current one is just a bit over 2000 sqft, 3 beds and 3.5 baths. The kids rooms are pretty tiny but the rest of the apartment feels spacious. They each have a twin bed. My older LO has a decent sized desk and still room to play. My younger LO has an ikea play kitchen and two toy/book shelves in her room. The key is that we don't have any dressers because the closets are fairly roomy and have drawers, so we don't need a separate piece of furniture for clothes. We have an open concept kitchen/dining/living area and it's quite spacious, probably almost half of the apartment. I try to keep living room toys to a minimum, but they still sneak in. We have one larger bookshelf that holds children's books and board games.
Our previous apt was also 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, but smaller, about 1350 sqft, but again, a fairly large living area, and the LOs bedrooms were bigger compared to what we have now. It didn't feel small at all because there was very little wasted space.
In both cases, I've worked from home/been a student. While I would love a separate office, it's just not possible in the 3 bedroom configuration, but I've had a little nook in each master bedroom where I've set up my home office.
No gym equipment, but our current condo has a gym/pool.
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I would need storage space, in addition to living space. My son has a bike, where would I keep it? Also parking, covered garage is a must.
I feel like I could make a small space work, everything has to do double duty basically, and use vertical space.
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Oh also- we knew our space was somewhat temporary so we didn’t purge as much as we could have- like the baby’s room had both our old queen size guest bed and the crib, plus the dresser/ changing table. So there was no room for toys or playing in there. If we had a storage unit or got rid of the queen bed we could have kept toys in there and used the space in the living area. All the closets were pretty small though
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We live in a split level condo with about 1500 sq.ft. We do have a basement and an attached garage. We do have space for an office, and thanks to my mom's boss we have a ridiculously gigantic 6-seater dining table that expands to fit 8. We have some toys and all books in the kids' room, but we did essentially cut our usable living room space in half to make room for a play area. We have a play kitchen, a kids table, and an art easel in it. There's a 4x4 IKEA Expedit that's full of their toys, sorted into clear Sterilite totes. Yay for surburban living haha
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@lamariniere: would you mind sharing a picture of office book set up or link to the desk you use? Currently, my home office consists of four pieces- 48” desk, credenza I put my printer on and two bookcases. I definitely don’t need this many pieces, but the storage of the desk alone is insufficient.
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We live in a 1350 sq ft 3/2 very close to NyC. We have two small children and out of state family (so when they visit, they come for a week).
We have our oldest in one bedroom. We are in the master and the baby either sleeps in our master closet or in the pack n play in the third bedroom. The third bedroom is our guest room/offices/gym/storage.
Our kitchen is large and open to the family room. We have a extendable dining table pushed against a wall. It is a waste of space really. We eat most meals at the island.
Thankfully we have built ins in all of our closets and we have underbed storage also. We keep toys to a minimum especially large ones. We also rent a storage unit. We are currently on the hunt for more space because my husband needs an office away from the kids. The space is totally doable but we’d just like more space.
My husbands desk is an ikea dining table. My desk is a tiny simple desk that houses my Mac. -
@hummusgirl: thanks for the Havenly offer, I’m going to attempt to downsize and decorate on my own first. I’m still in the early stages of what to keep, sell, or donate.
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: In this apartment, I keep all my books on the living room bookshelf. But in the previous one I kept them on a medium sized shelf behind my desk. I bought the desk at a local place when we lived in Austria and it is about 47x26 but I have a huge screen and would actually like to upgrade to a deeper desk at some point. The desk has 3 storage areas but they are not very tall so I keep odds and ends like stationary and little boxes of pens. I want to get a small credenza for behind the desk instead of the ugly metal filing cabinet we currently have (printer lives on top of it). Also, I have a tiny chair, it’s one of those kneeling chairs so it doesn’t take up much space like a typical office chair, I would take a pic, but it’s already nighttime here so it’s dark. If I remember tomorrow, I’ll take a pic.
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We lived in a 1350 sq ft 2/2 until DS was almost 3. Coming from NYC, it felt HUGE. The kitchen/living/dining was all open, and we were able to make the area behind the couch (about 8x6) into a play area with a mat, play kitchen etc. When DS was smaller, we actually had that area gated. We also had a locked storage cage in the building's basement which helped a lot for luggage, tools/paint etc.
We could have fit an exercise bike in the bedroom, but we opted to make that space into a home office for DH to WFH 1-2 days a week.
I was ruthless about purging stuff as soon as we no longer needed it, which helps a lot for small spaces! Also built in storage and maximizing storage space in closets.
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I have a three bedroom/1200 sq ft condo. Upstairs the boys share a room,we have a room, and we have a guest room/office. Downstairs is a living room/playroom and kitchen/dining room. We have a huge cube storage system in the living room and store a lot of toys under the bed.
We don't have a train table, but have a train cubby. J builds huge train systems and then puts all of the pieces back in the cubby each night.
The house is a mess,but this can give you an idea of how we store stuff
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@Pollywog: your son is a couple months older than mine. His dad just bought him this Melissa & Doug train tracks and set. He can’t put it together or fix broken tracks yet by himself. Is this the kind of train set your son can do on his own? I’m wondering if in a few months when we move I won’t have to worry about having it set up all the time.
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: we have a very similar set. J doesn't set it up perfectly, but he does set up all of the pieces with minimal help. It isn't how I would do it (see below, this is at school, but is similar to what we do at home), but he is adamant he can do it himself. He really started playing with his train set about 2 months ago (32 months old). He got really into building stuff then. It was like a light switched overnight
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I used to live in 500 SF with two kids under five, and it mostly worked OK. We had one room (living room/bedroom), a kitchen, and a very big hallway that could fit a dresser, two scooters, and everyone's shoes and jackets. The hallway and the massive amounts of closet space were our saving grace.
The kitchen fit a table for three (pushed up by the wall) and a high chair. No real counters and so not a lot of cooking space, but the table was just barely enough for that. We had a second table in the main room for working, and for when we had guests over.
I used freestanding screens to create some temporary walls in the main room... they did have to be folded up if no adults were in the room, until the kids were old enough to leave them alone.
We had room for a train set in the middle of the room. It was a bit of a pain to keep walking around it, but not too bad. DS learned to assemble and disassemble it pretty fast.
The two things that broke me were that I couldn't keep my things private, and that there were toys everywhere. If people had listened to us and stopped giving the kids toys, we could have lived there another couple of years with some creative furniture choices. As it was, I kept running in place trying to control the clutter, and was losing my mind by the time we moved out.
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I don't have tips, by I used to live in 1000 sq ft 2 bed apartment and I could have definitely made that work just me and one kid.
We currently have 3 bed, 2 bath, 1300 sq ft, no attic or basement, 4 person family and it works fine.
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@DesertDreams88: Same here...we live in 1300 square ft which includes our finished basement. It's a house, not a condo or apartment and totally doable.
I could live in a smaller space easily if I had to. We have crap we dont need and spaces that are not heavily used.
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: I saw your post about downsizing before--is it temporary or potentially long term?
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@Anagram: definitely long term downsizing from what we have now, but temporarily living in an even smaller space than what will become the permanent smaller space. Does that make sense how I am describing it?
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We live in a 1290 sq foot 2 bed/2 bath with 2 kids. We have space in our garage for our adult bikes, but everything else is in our apartment.
We recently switched to bunk beds in the kids room, so there's more space in that room now--so the play kitchen and all their toys are in their room now, save for their art table and chairs, which are in our living room against one wall. We have a pretty big entertainment center in the LR and one side of the cabinets is dedicate to kid toys/puzzles/games, so it's there but out of sight.
Our kitchen is small (open concept, but not many cabinets), but we have a big pantry so it works out. I also have a small liquor cabinet and the other half of our entertainment cabinet holds kitchen appliances I don't use very often.
We have space for a dining table that fits 6. My husband works from home, and he just plants himself on the couch or at the dining table, where he can see the TV. I'll post some crappy cell phone pics. We've been here 5 years and it's been fine. I would love a 3 bedroom, but it has to be just the right space and tick all the boxes, and we haven't seen anything we like in our neighborhood in a long time (my husband won't move downtown, even though it's less than a mile from where we live now--eye roll).
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You can see the pantry in this pic. Our kitchen would have no storage space without it.
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If the train set is something you think your son will play with a lot, you could always forgo a formal coffee table in your living space and instead use a train table with storage underneath.
We have an Ikea table that's been repurposed into a lego table, it has baskets underneath that hold all the pieces.
Look at it as a short term season and you won't miss the adult furniture. Try to repurpose what you can, maybe the desk has to go, but the credenza can go in the dining space?
eta: I also would get a built in murphy bed with a desk that folds out. What you can do in a small space is amazing now!
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Our kids room is like this:
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The toy side:
We have toy storage under the beds and in the closet, too.
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: I think you’ll be fine. We have friends in our building with 2 kids and our exact floor plan. They had an enormous train table in their kids’ room for the past 2 years, along with a crib and a toddler bed and 2 dressers and a ton of toys. So, you just make it work.
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@Anagram: thank you, the visuals help! In fact I have two foyer tables that I’m not sure which one will make the final cut that remind me of the piece you have behind the sofa. Where does your husband set up his printer? TBH I’ve never really used my desk as intended, but now I have a second monitor which is supposed to make me more efficient. I can’t balance both the monitor and laptop on lap.
@looch: already LO has taken over our existing coffee table, but it’s an hexagon shape the train set won’t fit on it. IKEA for the win!
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Love this thread! I have 3 kids under 5 in a 900-1000 SF 2 bed room 1.5 bathroom apartment.
With one kid I’d say it’s super doable but you have to sit and figure out what’s important to you.
For me what’s important: play kitchen, keyboard, desk/chairs, easel, and a Montessori type shelf for their toys, a real dining table (seats 6)
Not as important: a whole lot of other toys, tv, I’d love more kitchen space but I’m used to a small kitchen so I can make do...
We don’t have a train table but we covered our coffee table with a rug and they use it like one. I would have invested in a nicer train table/coffee table combo if I knew ahead of time.
Our living room is spacious so one side we put the couches and the keyboard (we don’t have a tv but we have keyboard in that space instead haha) and the other side has their little table and chairs, a Montessori type shelf with toys and books, and an easel.
The kids room have beds, playbkitchen, an expedit with more toys and books, and the glider. Their clothes are in their closet.
Because our kids share a room we gave the big room to them and we use the little room.. it’s my least favorite room in the house bc we crammed our bookshelves, desk, and bedroom furniture in there. It’s the “least presentable” room and I’m discontent with it but I will sacrifice that over having a more presentable/uncluttered living room and kids room.
We have a shared laundry room with some other units and we have some storage boxes in there as well as the kdis’ Scooters.
As an emergency storage we use our cars... haha!!!
With one kid it was fine but honestly now that I have three and my oldest is getting closer to 5 I can’t WAIT to get a bigger place! But we love our location and the set up of our place so I guess we are just staying here until we burst at the seams haha.
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We lived in 800 sq ft (me, husband, boy) until our son was 20 months. It was a little tight; before he was born when it was just us as a couple it was totally fine. I think if you could find something that was 1000~ sq ft and had garage storage or basement storage for seasonal stuff, etc, it would be super easy and livable. My best advice is to have fewer pieces of nice furniture that *really* earn their keep vs buying a bunch of small-scale pieces. Like, a nice/comfortably sized couch vs a small couch and small loveseat. And like a pp said, ruthless clutter-clearing and stuff-purging.
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: so no one I know has a printer at home....except for us. And it’s basically exclusively used to print amazon return labels, which is practically a daily occurrence in our house.
In our master bedroom, we have a giant IKEA PAX wardrobe on one wall for my husbands clothes (I use our walk in closet for my clothes, plus luggage, seasonal decor, art supplies, the vacuum, etc), and my husband drilled a hole in the back of the PAX, so he can store the printer inside but keep it plugged up and able to print while inside the wardrobe.
We actually have no furniture except the PAX, our bed, and our bedside tables. Our neighbors have a typical bureau and dresser, plus a tiny desk in their master.
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My office set up in the master bedroom. I can’t work in the living room because there are too many distractions and it’s too hot during the day.
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@lamariniere: your office looks nice and not obtrusive at all. I think I could still get away with the double monitors for my space.
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: We are in a 900 sq ft 1bed/1ba. 1 LO. Kitchen, bath, and closet are tiny. In the great room, we have a 72 x 36 dining table that can double as a work space, with a large credenza for storage on one side and a 30 x 60 desk with large monitor on the other. I also have a treadmill, couch, lounge chair, bookcase (LO's favorite things are books), and DH has a bunch of stuff for his hobbies in that room. LO's crib is in our room, together with a king size bed, chair, and dresser. There's an office nook off the living room (completely open with no door) that we use for LO's toys, glider, storage cabinet, and dresser/changing table. Outgrown baby gear goes under our bed and in a couple of bins in the closet. Stroller gets folded up in the living room entry, and carseat sits there as well (we don't have a car). If we were going to be there long run, I would purge more stuff, as the clutter does reach me no matter how hard I work to organize what we have. But there are limits... if we weren't storing the outgrown baby stuff and didn't have to keep the stroller and carseat in there, I think it would be better....
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p.s. there would be room for a train set or toy kitchen in the place where we have LO's toys...
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@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: it’s hard to tell from the pic, but my monitor is huge; it’s like having 3 monitors (I used to have 2 separate ones). It’s a total game changer having one huge one and makes for a nicer aesthetic. The bonus is that we use it to watch movies in the bedroom from time to time.
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We are currently in an 890sf 2BD/2BA with LO1. I’m due in 1.5 weeks with LO2 and we will move into an 1100sf 3BD/2BA in February. (I know, we are crazy.)
No room for exercise equipment other than dumbbells/resistance bands and a yoga mat. We’ve only ever lived in buildings with gyms, though. The dining table doubles as LO’s art table and I move my sewing machine on and off of it as well. It’s a rectangular table that’s pushed against the wall unless we have guests over.
We don’t have a coffee table to maximize play space. There is a breakfast bar counter but instead of having bar stools we tuck a play kitchen and toy toolbench under it.
Before LO was born, we chose his dresser for the comfortable height to double as a change table. We are also getting to a point where I refuse to buy furniture that doesn’t have storage in it. Our beds have drawers and we will probably get a storage ottoman as a coffee table for the new place. I am also planning on replacing our nightstands with a pair of low dressers.
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We live in a 1100 sq feet apartment - 2bed/2bath with a 4 yr old, 23 month old, and I'm due in June. We don't plan to move unless my job moves us this summer. My bedroom has a queen size bed, 3 bookcases, and 2 chest of drawers. We also have a small storage for towels/sheets/etc and a walk-in closet.
The kids room has a set of bunk beds with a trundle bed, a chest of drawers, a bookcase, and another piece of furniture (drawers and hanging space) that we also use as a changing table. We have a washer/dryer closet and a walk in closet as well.
Our open living room has the kitchen with a 4 person table immediately upon leaving the kitchen. There is a short bookcase there as well with cookbooks on the top shelf. We have a small chest freezer next to the table. If we didn't have the freezer, we could have a larger table. The rest of the space is taken by another bookcase, the TV/video game player/DVD player, sofa across from the TV, and a recliner. We have never had a coffee table. We have a small play kitchen and doll house in the living room. Most of their toys stay in the living room and live on the lower shelves of the two bookcases in the living room.
One bathroom attaches to the master while the other attaches to the kids and the kitchen. We have a small coat closet, but it's always blocked by our open double stroller.
The kids play mostly in the living room, occasionally their room or ours. They like to be in the same room that we are.
We also have a small balcony with two chairs and a small table. We have a few plants and we had a small round water table during the summer.
We do have storage, however, most of it is outgrown toys/clothes and empty boxes. I'm military and we will move again. We both prefer to put our electronics and kitchen items back in the original box. It's safer to move that way.
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@Raspberry: great idea about the bar stool area.
Now, that I am finally using my Peleton I don’t want to give it up!
@Mrs. Toad: Yes for water tables! I’m definitely bringing the one my late dad built for LO with us.
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I realize I'm really late for this thread, but I wrote this whole response last week and then apparently forgot to hit submit
I grew up in a house that was over 3000 sq ft. So I'm used to copious amounts of space and storage. Which is why I blame myself for how much stuff I have
We lived in 750 sq ft until DS turned 2. Kitchen was very small. We augmented with a stainless steel rolling cart with shelf storage. Now we also have a chest freezer that doubles as counter space. The desk went in the living room. DH is a gamer and perpetual student, so we've always had a desk. We had two very large couches (hand me downs of course) that were really too large for every space they've been in, but we made them work.
We've always had bookshelves next to the desk to augment the storage and a paper organizer on the desk to pseudo-hide clutter until we got to it.
We upgraded to a 850 sq ft apt with a storage shed and that was great. Like others, we have an expandable IKEA table. For extra seating, we got little IKEA stools https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10135659/ that we kept in the coat closet.
For kids: DS shared a room with our food storage/pantry for a while, but in the 850 sq ft space we got him a bunkbed and used the top bunk for storage. We had the bed turned so the ladder was against the wall. We fit 10 boxes of diapers as well as an unreasonable amount of 'sentimental' quilts/blankets from my MIL up there. We filled underneath the bed with toy bins and DH is working on a lego table we can roll underneath when he's not playing. Crib was set up on the other side of the room for DD. All clothes lived in the closet. Toys lived in the living room in bins under the TV and we rotated the bins in the coat closet for variety.
But when DD refused to sleep nicely with DS in the same room, she ended up in our room in the pack and play and DH and I were slowly going insane, so we moved again to 1300 sq ft with 3 bedrooms and over half the space as a kitchen/dining room/living room open concept. My closets are still stuffed to the brim, but the kids have more playspace in the front and DH got a bigger L-shaped desk to put in the living room corner.
I know I want more kids so I keep all the baby stuff which is the primary reason I feel like I don't have enough space. DD has almost her entire closet filled with old baby toys, swing, jumper, carseat, bottles, etc. All outgrown kid clothes I shove into the ziploc vacuum bags by size (pro-tip: stick colorful post-it notes inside the bag with the size/gender) and stack in bins in the garage.
I'm constantly organizing. Kallax shelves are my favorite, they're in every room.
In the end, living small is a perpetual process. You or someone else is always going to be stuffing new things into the house. Have an unreasonable amount of drawers and storage. Trim down on shoes (I'm serious, they take up so much space even in storage!), clothes, decorations, seasonal stuff, and do floor-to-ceiling storage everywhere you can. Get used to using walkways as places to put things. My room gets sacrificed every holiday. I have less than a foot of space on my side of the bed.
I wish I was a better minimalist, but every purging season I listen/read minimalist blogs and podcasts to get me in the right mood
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