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Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Mini Money Mustaches => Topic started by: letsdoit on July 25, 2018, 03:34:03 PM

Title: small home with kids?
Post by: letsdoit on July 25, 2018, 03:34:03 PM
we are a couple with a young DD in a 610 sq ft apartment .  it's got a bad floor plan too

I don't know what would happen if we had a 2nd child.  does anyone here live 2 kids in small place?
Title: Re: small home with kids?
Post by: mxt0133 on July 25, 2018, 03:54:55 PM
We live in a 650sf one bedroom apartment for a family of 5, two adults, DS1(7), DS2(5), and DD(3).  We just made the bedroom the two older kids room and put a queen bed in our living room.  We pretty much cut the living room in half.  I personally like having a small space as it prevents us from accumulating too much stuff because there is no place to put it.  We have gotten pretty good at maximizing the limited space, with all the kids stuff, bikes, books, ect.  We still have plenty of guests come over for dinners and play dates.  There is a common area for larger get togethers and the weather allows us to be outdoors year round.

We travel quite a bit and just bought an RV this year, which is was actually much cheaper than moving to a two bedroom in my city based on one year's rent, ha!

Title: Re: small home with kids?
Post by: Laserjet3051 on July 25, 2018, 05:21:22 PM
I'd sooner hang from the neck until dead before downsizing my home to 1 less bedroom (3 to 2), where both of my (9 and 17 year old) daughters would be forced to share the same bedroom.  small home? Fine. Separate bedrooms for my daughters, an absolute must. Peace of mind and a happy household is priceless. YMMV.
Title: Re: small home with kids?
Post by: daverobev on July 25, 2018, 06:32:04 PM
We've currently got about 1000 sq ft, two children, and the layout is also bad - two bedrooms but the second is small. Living room is large, kitchen is large but poorly designed.

You're fine for at least a few years. I'm hankering (and will be getting) something else, but more space isn't it - just much better use of space. Like, take 1/4 of the living room and kitchen and add a third bedroom, etc, etc.

In short - to a point, layout is more important than size.
Title: Re: small home with kids?
Post by: letsdoit on July 26, 2018, 10:37:57 AM
We live in a 650sf one bedroom apartment for a family of 5, two adults, DS1(7), DS2(5), and DD(3).  We just made the bedroom the two older kids room and put a queen bed in our living room.  We pretty much cut the living room in half.  I personally like having a small space as it prevents us from accumulating too much stuff because there is no place to put it.  We have gotten pretty good at maximizing the limited space, with all the kids stuff, bikes, books, ect.  We still have plenty of guests come over for dinners and play dates.  There is a common area for larger get togethers and the weather allows us to be outdoors year round.

We travel quite a bit and just bought an RV this year, which is was actually much cheaper than moving to a two bedroom in my city based on one year's rent, ha!

very impressive.  do you have
1 bathroom or 2? 
Title: Re: small home with kids?
Post by: SimpleCycle on July 26, 2018, 02:50:04 PM
My sister lived in a place about that size with two kids until the youngest was about 2.  Her 6 year old slept in the living room on a loft bed with a couch underneath it, and they still used the living room for living and for my niece sleeping.  The 2 year old bedshared with them, although he also had his own crib in their room - he just wouldn't sleep in it!

My mom also visited once a week for a night and slept on the couch.  Not going to lie, the arrangement was a little awkward from a layout and space use perspective, but it allowed my sister to SAH with the kids when they were young like she wanted to.

We live in a 1200 sq ft two bedroom, which is an absolute palace by comparison.  My son is still in our room in a crib (he's 1.5), and my daughter has "their" room to herself for now.  They play in the living room a lot, mostly because they like to be near us and our place has living areas on one floor and bedrooms on another.  It takes about 10 minutes to make it guest ready, which is awesome!
Title: Re: small home with kids?
Post by: BAM on July 26, 2018, 04:53:00 PM
Years ago, we lived in a 700 sq ft 2 bed with 3 kids. Floor plan was okay, not great.
Now we live in a 1966 sq ft 3 bedroom with 9 kids (7 home full time, 2 home on college breaks). Floor plan is good.

I think the key is thinking outside the box. The dining area doesn't have to be a dining area or the bedroom a bedroom. Make the space work for you and your needs.

Here's a couple blogs of families with 2 kids living in small one bedroom places:
http://www.600sqft.com/
https://www.readingmytealeaves.com/
Title: Re: small home with kids?
Post by: sandyvanburen on September 13, 2018, 09:15:04 AM
Our house is a bit bigger, 900 sq/ft I guess. And we do only have the one child (and this will remain so).

We could squeeze in another, if we wanted. Most of our DD toys are downstairs, in the living/dining room. Her bedroom is really only for her bed (and a few toys stached under there). If we had another kid, we'd split that room so that they can both have theis alone-space (which my husband and I need and our DD too so we'd expect another child to need it too).

We both work from home, at the dining table and we don't let the toys around us bother us. It's a very organic way of living, everybody in the same room, doing whatever it is they do. I could easily see another child fit in our situation.
Title: Re: small home with kids?
Post by: Cranky on September 13, 2018, 10:40:36 AM
IKEA often has layouts for families in very small apartments, and I know that at some point in the past year, NYT did a big article on this.

We lived in an apartment about that size with two kids, but it did have two bedrooms and our youngest was still a baby in our room. There were several apartments (it was a duplex) on our street with the exact same layout - one big bedroom and one small bedroom. Most people with multiple kids put the kids in the larger bedroom.

I also had friends who lived in a 2 bedroom place with 2 opposite gender kids in the same bedroom until the kids actually grew up and went to college. They occasional said they should probably move, but the kids got along fine. They divided the room with book cases, and honestly - they weren't home all that much between work and school and activities.
Title: Re: small home with kids?
Post by: englishteacheralex on September 13, 2018, 11:21:20 AM
We have a 3 bedroom 2 bath condo that is 850 square feet. We're married and have a 4 year old and a 1.5 year old.

The bedrooms and bathrooms are tiny, but both kids have their own room. We just bought a loft bed for the 4 year old, so he has plenty of space to play in his little room under his bed. Nice to have a separate bathroom for the kids.

Honestly, we've lived here 3 years now and I think it's the best-designed little condo ever. It has everything we need in the space available and not a single extra square foot. It was the only affordable thing with an acceptable commute that we could find in Honolulu, and the longer I live in it the more I love it.
Title: Re: small home with kids?
Post by: catccc on September 17, 2018, 08:29:18 AM
Hm, two might be tough if you only have 1 BR.  If you have 2 bedrooms, I think it would be fine until they are approaching tweenager-hood and possibly wanting their own rooms.  We did a family of 3 (until DD was just over 1 y/o) in a 399 sqft 1 BR apartment, with baby in a portable sized crib in our bedroom.

Now we have 2 kids, but we are living in ~1200-1300 sqft, 3 bedrooms, but we only use two of the bedrooms.  The kids, 10 & 7, still share and we plan on keeping it that way for a while.
Title: Re: small home with kids?
Post by: AMandM on September 18, 2018, 09:56:32 AM
Here's a couple with two kids in a 500 sf one-bedroom apartment:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/home/six-simple-ways-to-make-your-small-apartment-feel-larger/2018/09/17/51e552ae-b76c-11e8-a7b5-adaaa5b2a57f_story.html?utm_term=.f8b6b1b44f36