Kids in apartments

[chia]

I don't know about the dogs, but I wouldn't have any hesitation living in a 1-br with a kid, at least for the first year or so. Our DD slept in our room for almost a year.

[anna7602]

A 1-bedroom with a baby is definitely doable. But my question is how much stuff you currently have and whether you have enough to fit the townhouse. If so, think about what you can get rid of or store. Apartment living for us has been more about controlling our stuff than about the amount of space a kid actually needs.

[chia]

I think one thing that might frustrate you is all of the baby "stuff"... You'll definitely have to be a minimalist, and have a good storage solution planned. But, I don't think that should be a dealbreaker!

[Deleted]

We live in a 2 bedroom apartment have a baby. He sleeps in our bedroom with us though since we aren't going to be here much longer. Our spare room has always been our storage room and the cats food and litter box have been in there since we got them 5 years ago and I didn't want to have to transition them twice in a couple years. Plus it keeps it out of the living room and out of where E can get at it (because it would pretty much have to be in the living room as our bathroom isn't big enough and I'm not putting it in the kitchen). But we will be here less than a year now and I'm not really worried bout having him sleep in our room that amount of time.

[baconista]

We are in a 1 bdrm apartment with our 9.5 month old son. It was fine for about the first 6 months, but it is really not so much fun anymore. We are trying to sell our place now since it is getting harder and harder to share with him.

[statlerwaldorf]

I wouldn't want to live in a 1 bedroom apartment. DD has always been a light sleeper. We lived in a small 2 bedroom duplex when DD was 1 until she was 3. The first year was fine. The second year there wasn't enough space in the kitchen and I was always tripping over DD. We also had some awful people move in next door that were loud.

[Deleted]

We've lived in a 2/2 for years now and it is just starting to get tight now that DS is running all over the place. Before then, space was never an issue.

[Jem]

We have lived in a 1 bedroom apartment with DS for almost 2 years now. We all slept in the same room for his first 6 months, but then he became a terrible sleeper. We could not be in the same room with him anymore, it was bad for all of us. DH and I moved out to the living room, so that is now set-up as a studio and DS has the master to himself. This actually worked out fine because he also has a dedicated playroom that way.

Once DS became really mobile though, I had had enough of the 1 bd - probably around 18 months. We are here another month or so and I think I tell DH at least once a day how I hate this place (which is sad, because I used to LOVE our apt). We are even baby minimalists and it still feels so claustrophobic.

You can make anything work if you have to, but if I could go back I would not do this again.

[anonnani]

I think its super doable specially if you look for a place with a larger master and if possible with a walk in or deep sliding closet at the least. It will help heaps with storage. As long as you have enough closet space you could function in a 1br for a long time.

[SusanBAnthony]

W love in a 760 sq foot house, 2 bedrooms, but no attic or basement. It does have a 2 car garage which is FULL of stuff like bikes, boxes of Xmas decorations, my canning supplies, etc.

Anyway, I don't mind it. I do like having 2 bedrooms, be if the kids are asleep, I want to be able to work on the computer, which has to be in our bedroom since the living room is tiny. Etc. but I could have dealt with a one bedroom until age 2, I think. When your toddler stops napping, you will want a child proof bedroom to put them in for an awake rest time, IMO.

[bronxgirl]

I live in NYC so this is quite common and people seem to manage. For the first 2.5 yrs of DD's life (until last month actually) we lived in a 1BR apt that was approximately 650 sq ft. We converted our small dining alcove into a bedroom for DD, so she sort of had a room, but it wasn't totally separate and not enough room to play in there. I actually have a lot of friends who live in 1 BR condos with toddlers and they do okay. What's different for me, though is the pets. I can't imagine what it would have been like if we also had 2 dogs, but I'm sur people do it.

[frlcb]

We had our son in London and had small 2 bedroom flat. He slept in our room for 9 months (til we moved back to the US) and used the other bedroom for guests, of which we seemed to have a lot after he was born. That would be a concern, will you have family come visit? They will have nowhere to stay with a 1 bedroom, although for some I realize this is a good thing It got to be too small for us when he started being more active. Every single one of my friends from London moved further out around a year or so after they had their babies, because they wanted more space.

[hannamaren]

Aug 4, 2012 17:54:06 GMT -5 namasteak said:

Thanks so much ladies! It sounds like the general consensus is that it works fine until about 12months and then people feel they want more space between 18mo-24mo.

I think we will go with a 1 bedroom. We can save $ there for almost 2 years before I would even give birth and hopefully by that point we would be ready to buy a house.

This exactly. We are in a small 2 bedroom and she is 9 mths. By 18 mths, I pray we are out of here. Even now, with her crawling, it is getting hard.

[mie]

We have three girls and were in a 2 bedroom 732 sq ft condo until the youngest was 7 months old. It was doable, but I'm not sure if I would have that same opinion if we had 2 dogs to add to the mix.

[Deleted]

Go for the 2 bedroom. Ds needs to be in his own room to sleep. We only had him in our room for 3 weeks, before we realized this. He is very much so independent. I would hate to see you try to save $$ with the 1 bedroom, & then never get any sleep. Plus the dogs are going to need somewhere to hide from the baby once he starts crawling.