1 Bed Apartment- How do you do it?

[Greenly Spirits]

We are looking at a short term lease on a one bedroom apartment. We have two one year olds just learning to walk. I remember reading on here that someone does it, but I can't remember who. How did you arrange your apartment to be family friendly with only one bedroom?

[FrugalFan]

Have only done this for travel (3 months in Paris), but I would let the kids sleep in the bedroom, especially when they are that young. That way you can move around in the rest of the house after they go to sleep in the evening and during the day when they nap. Get a comfy pull-out couch or Murphy bed for you for the living room.

Someone had posted a link to an article about a couple with a young kid living in L.A. I think. I can't find the link. I think it was a studio apartment and the kid's bedroom was in a closet, and the guy built a lofted bed for the adults above the sofa in the living room. I would prefer a sofa bed as it made the room seem too cramped, but it worked for them.

[pbkmaine]

The 1 br apartments that I have seen working best for families put the kids in the bedroom and have a low, queen-sized bed in the living area turned sideways against a wall, covered with a sturdy quilt and piled with pillows like a sofa. It makes for a great family snuggle area. Some people do not like their bed to be sat on, but I think it functions better than a sofa or murphy bed.

A bit like this:

http://www.houzz.com/photos/1768725/Ayas-Boerum-Hill-Home-eclectic-living-room-new-york

[pbkmaine]

http://www.houzz.com/photos/1798899/Haute-Culture-eclectic-living-room-vancouver

Or this

[lifejoy]

http://www.houzz.com/photos/1798899/Haute-Culture-eclectic-living-room-vancouver

Or this

I LOVE this!!

[pbkmaine]

Here's another one:
http://www.houzz.com/photos/2801543/Explanada-contemporary-home-theater-mexico-city

[bobechs]

How about hot-bunking?

Works on submarines, should work for you.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_racking

[abhe8]

Um, not sure how that would work with two one year olds?

[bobechs]

Um, not sure how that would work with two one year olds?

Port and starboard watches; four-on-and-four-off with a daily switch over during the dog watches.

[Cranky]

We lived in a 1 bedroom until our oldest was 4yo, and honestly, it made no difference because she slept with us anyway. But most people who don't want to have everyone share the bedroom, it seems to work best if the kids get the bedroom and the adults sleep in the living room, because your best possible scenario is that the kids go to sleep earlier than the adults.

[TabbyCat]

We have a 1-bed and a 7m old (but also just bought a house and move in a few months - extended closing for renters to move out). She sleeps with us, but if she didn't the crib would still be in our room. The main key for us is keeping the living room clear and totally baby-proofed. She's crawling and pulling up, so fairly mobile. The other key is getting out a lot. She gets mad if we spend all day at home on the weekend, so we always have a few activities - store, play space (a few kid play gym things in our area are free under 1yo), library, parks, open air mall just for a walk and people watching (her favorite). It's really ok as long as you don't have much stuff, and can get outside or out to a safe indoor space most days.

[LadyStache in Baja]

We have four kids 4 and under, and we all sleep in one bedroom together.  What do you mean by family-friendly?  Just pretend you're one of the millions of big families living in India in a small house :)  People do it all over the world. 

Our biggest concern is making it adult-friendly.  We put the kids to bed, except the baby, around 7:30, then we hang out in the kitchen for an hour.  We don't have a living room, it's just the kitchen and the bedroom. 

Then when we feel like going to bed, or when the baby is too cranky, we go to bed.  Our other kids (twin 3s and a 4 year old) are good at sleeping through noise.  I imagine your twins are that way too since they're used to sleeping through each other's cries. 

So, we quietly go into the bedroom, get undressed, go to sleep or have sex, and we don't wake up the others!  I mean, we really can be loud.  We can turn on the light, we can have normal voice conversations, and they just sleep sleep sleep.  Also, if someone were to wake up, we just say go back to sleep, and they do.  There's no problems since you stay in the room with them, they don't feel abandoned and start crying. 

I'm not sure if I'm getting at your concerns.  Could you be more specific about which part you think is unfeasible?

[Greenly Spirits]

Thank you all for the responses and the great ideas.

Here's another one:
http://www.houzz.com/photos/2801543/Explanada-contemporary-home-theater-mexico-city

Thank you for the lovely photos. My house will never look that good, lol! I'll have to show my DH

How about hot-bunking?

Works on submarines, should work for you.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_racking

because he is very opposed to our bed being in the living room.

That might have worked when my twins were newborns...but I have swore off newborn twins ever again!

Also, now I know where the term "hot mess" comes from :)

[Greenly Spirits]

We have four kids 4 and under, and we all sleep in one bedroom together.  What do you mean by family-friendly?  Just pretend you're one of the millions of big families living in India in a small house :)  People do it all over the world. 

Our biggest concern is making it adult-friendly.  We put the kids to bed, except the baby, around 7:30, then we hang out in the kitchen for an hour.  We don't have a living room, it's just the kitchen and the bedroom. 

Then when we feel like going to bed, or when the baby is too cranky, we go to bed.  Our other kids (twin 3s and a 4 year old) are good at sleeping through noise.  I imagine your twins are that way too since they're used to sleeping through each other's cries. 

So, we quietly go into the bedroom, get undressed, go to sleep or have sex, and we don't wake up the others!  I mean, we really can be loud.  We can turn on the light, we can have normal voice conversations, and they just sleep sleep sleep.  Also, if someone were to wake up, we just say go back to sleep, and they do.  There's no problems since you stay in the room with them, they don't feel abandoned and start crying. 

I'm not sure if I'm getting at your concerns.  Could you be more specific about which part you think is unfeasible?

You make it sound very easy :) My priority is quality sleep for everyone, which really means me and Baby A because we are light sleepers. Thinking about your post, I'm realizing that a lot of my hesitation comes from when we shared a room before. I got crappy sleep and never enough. Moving them to their own room helped. But that was a while ago, so I guess it's worth another try. I'm visiting friends this weekend and I could share a room, so I can give it a test run. I'm also concerned about sleeping in the living room/kitchen because my DH stays up much later than I do.

My DH is concerned that if we share a room that sex will suffer and he doesn't like the idea of a bed in the living room. I think he could come around on the bed in the living room, especially since it's temporary and would save money.

[StarBright]

Can you just test it in your current home?

We had a quick move this summer and at first could only find two bedroom apartments with one year leases for our four person family (we were moving from a 3 bed house). We immediately moved our kids into one bedroom together and used the extra bedroom for staging the move.

We tested configurations for sleeping to see what would work best. Luckily we found a three bedroom apartment because two bedrooms weren't working so well for us - but we were glad we tested it out beforehand.
 

[Greenly Spirits]

Can you just test it in your current home?

We had a quick move this summer and at first could only find two bedroom apartments with one year leases for our four person family (we were moving from a 3 bed house). We immediately moved our kids into one bedroom together and used the extra bedroom for staging the move.

We tested configurations for sleeping to see what would work best. Luckily we found a three bedroom apartment because two bedrooms weren't working so well for us - but we were glad we tested it out beforehand.
 

That's a great idea! I don't know why I didn't think of that. It would also help with moving, because things could be packed and put in the then empty bedroom. And then we would know how great or awful it would work for us. Thanks!