Who will win the #living in the smallest apt "game"?

amother

OP ↓

Thu, Jul 11 2024, 6:32 pm

Describe how small your apt is and how many kids you have. Are you tripping over toys and items constantly? Where do you keep all your things?
Share how you make it a positive experience living in cramped corners

amother

Snow ↓

Thu, Jul 11 2024, 6:36 pm

Not a positive experience and not something I would recommend. Quality of life and mental health vastly improved when we moved. (7 kids/2 bedrooms) I’m still trying trying to recover from the experience and overwhelm (moved 1.5 yes ago).

amother

Hosta

Thu, Jul 11 2024, 6:39 pm

hate it and live in a dump. pay almost 3k for it.
ill nver be able to buy a house tho so I try to go to my parents in the 5ts as often as possible. Everyday after camp I go to my parents or in laws who have big backyards.

amother

Cobalt ↓

Thu, Jul 11 2024, 6:42 pm

Total of 700 sqft, 2 bedrooms. 4 kids. Tiny kitchen. One drawer in kitchen. No counter space. It's not fun at all. Would not recommend. Oh and always infested with mice.

amother

Lightgray

Thu, Jul 11 2024, 6:53 pm

6 kids, ages 16-newborn, (some teenagers) in a tiny 4 room apartment, 3rd floor, no hall, one bathroom, which is across the entrance. (This apartment is made for newly married couples). Several children have ADHD.
2 sleeping in our bedroom. One child, every time he gets angry, punches a hole from his room to the MBR! One child peels the paint from the walls when angry. One child wants some privacy, so he pulls a blanket across the bunk bed. One sleeping on a cot on the floor.
Though I saw someone with more kids, in a 2 bedroom apartment too.

icedcoffee

Thu, Jul 11 2024, 7:02 pm

We are also about 700sqft, one toddler and one on the way. 2 bedrooms and BH a large kitchen. Honestly, we love living here. It's not like I'd say no if someone offered us a free trade for a 1500sqft apartment, but with tiny kids, I really like the efficiency of everything being so close together. When we visit family with houses, there are obviously benefits to the space, but I also hate how freaking spread out everything is - the amount of times each day I go up and down the stairs because my son left his milk bottle upstairs, or not knowing if I put something in the bedroom or the den, etc. With a newborn, I love being able to quickly find and grab things, or have my husband always literally right there if I need him for something. And I LOVE living in the city.

That said, it's the right home for us right now. I don't expect or want to be raising teens here. We paid approximately what many people paid for their house, so I'm hoping we can sell it and get a house when the time comes. But it's perfect for us at this point in our lives.

amother

Honeysuckle

Thu, Jul 11 2024, 7:05 pm

BH 540 square foot studio with 2 kids. BH!!!!

amother

Silver

Thu, Jul 11 2024, 7:17 pm

You know the game Rush Hour? You have to slide the cars back and forth in order to have space to make your move.

That's what I think of when I try to cook in our tiny kitchen.
If you need counter space, you have to remove the drainboard from the counter and balance it on top of the garbage can. Collect all the peels that are supposed to go in the garbage can in the sink instead. Remove the peels from the sink when you need the sink for pouring off boiling water.

amother

↑ OP

Thu, Jul 11 2024, 7:24 pm

I also use my sink as a garbage for peeling, etc since it'll kill my back to stand over the garbage can. Thought I was the only 1

amother

↑ Cobalt

Thu, Jul 11 2024, 7:34 pm

Lol, yes so the benefits are, if I'm I'm the mood of cleaning. It takes really fast cuz there's not much space. Food rarely goes to waste cuz I only buy what I need cuz no space. Cooking needs to be done very systematically, everything put away right away and I can reach everything, fridge stove sink, food closets... when standing in one place. Lol

amother

Brass

Thu, Jul 11 2024, 7:40 pm

I live in 450 square feet with a 4 year old and 1 year old. It's a great layout but it's getting really difficult. No storage space or space for clothes and toys. But it's not like our kids really realize how small it is because we spend a lot of time outdoors and at family where they have space to run around. I think living in small spaces with teenage kids is way more challenging.

amother

Clematis

Thu, Jul 11 2024, 7:49 pm

700 square feet . Two bedrooms,9 kids kyh. Holes in the walls holes in the floors. Pipes leak. Comes complete with waterbugs,and,centipedes in summer.
I'm ganna smile and be happ. Its,like the Berenstain bears vacation, we tell the kids,we say we lole,our bungalow so much we stay on vacation all year

amother

↑ Snow ↓

Thu, Jul 11 2024, 8:00 pm

Never found it was faster to clean because there were layers of food, clothing, toys, stuff that was so overwhelming to clean up. Erev shabbos I felt like I was excavating the table from all the stuff.
Also drove me crazy that every room did double or triple duty, like kitchen was also laundry room so couldn’t open machines if table was pulled out for supper, and dining room/living room combined so couldn’t open recliner on couch if anyone needed to pass through or use the table, and kids played in front hallway, hung laundry over shower rod so bath time was a whole shuffle, desk in bedroom to work, kids clothing hanging in linen closet, was crazy overwhelming so much stuff packed into a tiny space.

amother

Skyblue

Thu, Jul 11 2024, 8:00 pm

I lived in an apt that was around 300 Sq ft for 5 years.
One very tight squeeze bedroom. One bathroom with tiny stackable washer/dryer One dollhouse size kitchen and they even pushed in a dinette/seeting area for 2. One tiny dinning room. And 2 loooong narrow hallways.
4 decent sized windows and even a step out porch!

The apt square footage was tiny. But the layout was unbelievable smart and workable. It was an amazing apt.
It was also 5th floor walkup!!! And we loved the roof cuz it was like 2 more LARGE porches front and back. We went roller skating there, we put down fake carpet grass on one side and made little playground and pool for our then baby/toddler.
We moved a few weeks before we had our 2nd. Due to mold issues. (The landlord paid for someone to do professional remediation but it came back and I wasn't gonna live there while they do a bigger gut/remediation.)
We also had the most amazing landlord. We loved above his house. So it was pretty private. And they asked very minimal rent.
Anything we looked at 2 or 3 bedrooms was minimum double of what we paid then.
We ended up moving out of the city becuase we couldn't afford. We liced in a comdo and absolute hated it.
Eventually we bought a house in another town woth grass trees and flowes. We moved into a 2100 Sq ft 4 bedroom 2 batheoom bilevel highranch.
That means 3 bedrooms on main floor and 4th is in (ground level, walk out) basement.
We thought the house was HUGE. But now with preteens and teenagers, young children and toddlers/babies it's tiny and we are planning to add on iyh sooner rather than later.
Noone wants to sleep downstairs. So basically we are mostly existing in 11000 sqft.
In my first apt, I developed such strong organizational skills. And I only strictly bought what I had room for.
This is one thing I miss from truly tiny living becuase there wasn't any tolerance for clutter in order to keep the space pleasant.
Now we have so much space downstairs that doesn't necessarily have purpose then the garage is FULL of stuff. Half of it is bikes scooters skates segways push bikes baby bikes walkers water table extra lawn chairs, work table and a million tool for the tool bench that dh uses maybe 5x a year. Shovels and rakes and leaf blower. And a gazillion outdoor toys.
The shed has the broken snow blower that still needs to be fixed. Power tools and some more chemicals like weed killer ans plant food (locked up!) And what else am I forgetting???

When I think about it, I often wonder, which way of life is better. Becuase the "stuff" is truly overwhelming.

amother

Hyssop ↓

Thu, Jul 11 2024, 8:01 pm

amother Clematis wrote:

Where do you live? Are your kids resentful?

amother

Khaki

Thu, Jul 11 2024, 8:02 pm

3 kids teeny tiny apartment. 2 absolutely tiny bedrooms. Always tripping over toys and literally must straighten up constantly in order for it to be semi decent. It can get very overwhelming but it's also cute and cozy. Putting anything anywhere and trying to organize is like a tetras game. But apartment is very homey and I kinda love living here. Also, we are near parks and great outdoor locations so that helps a huge amount.

amother

↑ Snow ↓

Thu, Jul 11 2024, 8:02 pm

amother Brass wrote:

Yes the teenagers take up a lot of space and the lack of privacy really got to them. Also I had no privacy- there was no where to have a private conversation except for in my room where my husband was also in the phone. Much much easier with little kids.

amother

↑ Snow

Thu, Jul 11 2024, 8:06 pm

Sometimes you don’t have a choice about having a lot of “stuff” so it’s not always a trade off of more space=more stuff

ahappygirl12

Thu, Jul 11 2024, 8:19 pm

3 bed 2 bath, one toddler and a baby on the way ... paying 2400 in Flatbush.

Very very very outdated and old things always fall apart, 3rd floor apartment but spacious and comfortable

amother

Feverfew

Thu, Jul 11 2024, 9:35 pm

I lived in a 1 1/2 bedroom apartment for 12 1/2 years. The 2nd bedroom was so small that if you pulled out the high riser fully, you couldn't fully open the door (we got rid of it and got a bunk bed when #3 was born), and it did not have a closet. I had 3 kids in there (bunk bed + crib and then bunk bed with pull out trundle which never got pulled out more than 1/2 way. My 4th child was a baby when we moved, and still slept in my bedroom). I had one small room as my living room/dining room/playroom/home office. If one toy was out, and a 2nd kid wanted a different toy, they had to play in the small hallway. We had one bathroom for 2 adults and 3 toilet trained kids.

The place was a mess as we had no place to put anything.

We moved to a different state and BH was able to buy a house. It's not huge, but much bigger than our tiny apartment. We live here 8 years and still marvel how big it feels.