Six People in a Three Bedroom Apartment

Yup. You read that right. Six of us. Two adults, four kids... in three bedrooms. And I have to stop and say something right here... I'm super proud of us that we made it work!

Last year we sold our dream home (~4000 sq ft) and moved half of our stuff into storage (new farmhouse coming soon) and the rest of it into an apartment (~1500 sq ft). We did it successfully and with smiles on our faces (most of the time). AND I want to tell you how we did it. See this post for more details on selling our house.

So here are my TOP 7 TIPS

for moving into a small space with lots of kids.

1. Get rid of all non-essential items

This is probably the hardest task of the entire list but it makes the biggest impact. Going small is an amazing opportunity to minimize and get rid of extra stuff. As you go through your belongings, think about if there are other ways you can use each item. Do you have more than one of the same items?

Here is an example: In our kitchen, we had adult-plates, kid-plates and guest-plates. SO MANY PLATES!! So we compromised on living off the kids' plates for the time being. We donated what we knew we didn't need and packed up the guest dishes for storage.

Do you need more inspiration, check out Marie Kondo's book. She helped me focus my priorities as I was going through our belongings.

2. Maximize the light

Set up your room and plan your window treatments to maximize all of the natural sunlight. We opened our window blinds EVERY SINGLE DAY. Not only does sunlight brighten a space, it also makes the room feel larger AND brightens your mood. BONUS!

3. Keep tidy. Stay Organized. Keep everything up off the floor.

Ok. Ok... keep as much as you can up off the floor. If you're following this blog than you know we have 4 kiddos under the age of 10 and it is NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE to keep everything off the floor. I swear, I clean up a space and it doesn't last 5 minutes before someone has made a mess again. But that's a story for another day.

So, what does keeping everything up off the floor and organization have to do with a tiny space?? It makes the space look and feel larger than it really is.

4. Take advantage of vertical space

Hang things on the walls and behind doors. Use hooks, shelves, baskets, etc. This is another space saving trick that allows you to use unused space (or hide items that aren't so pretty to look at).

5. Store items in the kitchen that have more than one purpose

We had a stand mixer, a hand mixer, a blender, and a food processor in our kitchen before the move. That is so many appliances that all do similar things.

What did we take with us to the apartment? Just the hand mixer and our Vitamix. That's it! By taking only two instead of all four appliances, we saved BIG TIME on cabinet and counter space. Here are two other space saving items with multi functions that we chose to bring with us; Crockpot Express Crock and Ninja Specialty Coffee Maker. (I linked the actual items we own, but don't freak out... the price tag on these items is on the higher side. Don't fret though. They have some lower price point options with just as good of quality).

6. Use bunk beds or loft beds

This is along the lines of taking advantage of vertical space (#4). If your kids are old enough to sleep on bunk beds, that really opens up the floor space for other items they may want in their room. A loft bed is great for older kids/teens; similar to a bunk with a bed on top but there is some other type of space underneath. For example, a desk or reading nook or play area. We used bunk beds for our boys (age 9yr and 5yr) in a converted small den area and it was perfect. It allowed for a dresser and a toy chest.

7. Make a great outdoor space

Making your outdoor area comfortable adds to your square footage and gives you a separate space to relax and put your feet up (or get away from the kids). ;-)

That's it! Not so bad, huh?

In all honesty, downsizing our stuff and moving to a space less than half the size we were accustomed to was not as bad as I thought it would be. We all adjusted pretty well. We got much better about picking up the clutter AND I became a more efficient shopper (tip #8). With less room for storing "extra" toiletry items and dry pantry items, I had to re-learn how much "backup stock" we really needed.

Hopefully you found my tips to downsizing helpful.

-Amanda

Leave a comment if you benefited from this post or if you have other tips on how to live in a small space. Use the image above for pinning to your favorite Pinterest board so you can refer to it later. Scroll your mouse over the image and click the red Pinterest "Save" icon OR just click on the photo and it'll take you right over to Pinterest to save.

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