apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I love small cozy spaces! My SF Victorian is about 1300 square feet and the rooms are small. Family members who live in big suburban houses wonder where we'll put all the baby stuff. We're very good about editing what we bring into the house and purging on a regular basis and I love to organize. We'll be fine with one baby. Of course if we ever decide to have another, that may get a bit tricky. But that's a big IF!

I love that book shelf. Where is it from?

I choose to live in a big city, so I choose to be happy with an urban-sized house, but I have to say that for some people who live in all-weather states, having a ginormous house with plenty of space and a basement turned playroom is understandable. Especially for families with 2 kids. And there's plenty of interaction.

I don't need the interior space because I have the outdoors all year.

The editing and gatekeeping I do are the key things that keep our (very small) space from getting overwhelmed. We don't need and can't have everything in the world and our kid knows that, too. Kid will be three in July and he now helps me sort through his toys and book to figure out what can be passed on to his younger cousin. I let him have some veto power, but I retain a lot of control.

840 sq ft baby my mom. somehow we've managed to survive for 3 months. the best part about living in a small space is that every time you get rid of something or move furniture around, you feel like it's a whole new place. we do have a basement storage space, and it's chock full of stuff, so even small-space dwellers aren't immune to hoarding.

space is like money for us. the more we have, the more we want (and the less we think we have).

beccatown, I believe the bookshelf in that photo was handmade by a relative. Pottery Barn kids used to sell a similar one, and Wal-Mart used to sell one, but unfortunately it seems that neither is still available.

I live in a very, very small town in the midwest. Our house is pretty average sized at 1200 square feet. I only wish we had zoos and museums to get out to in our town!!!

I agree with this article! I've lived in a huge house and it's a lot of work. A yard sounds nice sometimes:)
As of now we have 2 kids a 3rd on the way and live in a 1200 sq. feet 2 bedroom apartment. It seems to be working for us. the clutter part especially. We are constantly getting rid of things and it forces me to stay organised. Both my kids keep their bedroom clean and we have very limited toys.
Zoos and parks are our best friends during summer. During winters we live in the malls and museums.

I totally agree with this. I grew up in a 1300 sq. ft home with 2 brothers in one room, my parents in a third, and me, our live-in nanny and her infant daughter in a converted dining room. It was lovely and as children we thought we lived in a palace. Although we did have a great backyard, which is the only thing I long for now that I live in a 1300 sq ft., 2 bedroom condo with two kids. Our year old baby still sleeps in our walk-in closet/nursery since, really, all he needs right now is a crib. I don't long for more space, just a small yard. I like that everybody is close, that all our spaces are USED (I never really got the whole living room AND a family room thing...especially when the living room seemed to exist only for "show" and special visitors) and that we are forced to keep our stuff to a minimum. My kids only have toys that they actually play with, anything else gets donated or put away on a closet shelf to be brought out again later.

it seems like this bedroom shows up on here every other week as an example for something... strange. It's weewonderful's son's bedroom, right? It's a nice bedroom, just funny that it seems to be the stock example.

beccatown, there are instructions on martha stewart on how to make a similar bookshelf.

We moved from a 1200 sqft house when baby #2 was born. I just don't see how 2 bedrooms and no basement was going to work for 2 kiddos. Even in a bigger house, (1900 sqft) baby was constantly waking his older brother the first year, big brother's school work paid the price.

We are in the midwest, and I think 1900 sqft 4 beds, 2 baths, fenced yard, and a small dining room turned playroom works just right for us. Winters are long and we do spend alot of time in the house, we run out of options for indoor play pretty quick here. Having a bigger house also makes it easy to have indoor playdates. Plus we have 2 very active boys, even with the size of our house we still feel like they are on top of us.

Anything bigger would be too much. I thought I wanted a basement, but we couldn't afford one and that's fine. I think it would encourage us to hoard too much.

I have always wondered, what are the dims of Oscar's room?

runningwithscissors--I feel your pain about having two boys and never feeling like there is enough room!

Our house is about 1000 sq feet plus a basement. Part of our basement is finished but it's too chilly down there in the winter and it's kind of dark and scary to the kids. We plan to paint and brighten it up a bit with new lighting but we have much more pressing home improvements to make first.

I'm growing to appreciate our small home. As much as I dream of having a second bathroom, slightly bigger bedrooms and a larger kitchen (ours is really small), I feel like this is the right house for us. It's also encouraging me to be more creative with storage solutions. Having a small kitchen makes me really pause before buying appliances and other kitchen gear because I have so little space to store things.

I love that bookshelf as well. Seems so much easier to manage than the traditional "wedge it back in" style for a child's room. I saw the post about there being instructions on the Martha Stewart website. Anyone have a link?

Hee. I have to grin a little at people bemoaning their 1,000 square feet homes with 1 child. I have a 940 square foot house with 2 (soon to be 3) kids and 2 adults. Thankfully we all get along really well!

I live in 900 sq feet with my husband and daughter, and its great! We always know where the toddler is. :) And we don't have to go upstairs to use the bathroom. And we never had to worry about baby gates. I live in Minneapolis, and having traveled to Europe I have seen many small, beautiful homes. I just feel more comfortable in smaller spaces. I should note, however, that we have 9 foot ceilings, so it doesn't feel cramped. At least to me.

My mom, who lives in a giant house in South Dakota with open-to-below and tons of space gets claustrophobic in my house. I guess its about what you're used to.

Here's the Martha Stewart link: http://www.marthastewart.com/good-things/making-childrens-bookshelves?autonomy_kw=child's bookshelf&rsc=header_2