1 bedroom appt 2 kids How do u do it?

amother

Sat, Jan 03 2015, 11:26 am

I just had my 2nd child and we are still in this small small small one bedroom apartment ...
I feel like the bedroom is a dormitory (4 beds) and the tiny living room is full of toys. The babies wake up each other at night, we miss room to organize, ... It's winter and we are mostly at home during the day.

I just want to move but it's not possible right now financially.

I ask for any tips and advices of amothers who have been there!!! Thanks

imaima

Sat, Jan 03 2015, 11:39 am

amother wrote:

You should ask the OP of the neighbors thread. I seriously don't know how they pull it off, and they are expecting number 3.
If I were you, I would totally move into the living room with your dh. Move your sforim to the kitchen or hide them in the closet. You deserve to have a life.

Bruria

Sat, Jan 03 2015, 3:18 pm

Maybe you can create a second room by setting up a room divider in the living room? It might work, my friend created a second room for her family by adding a large bookcase as a divider to make a second room in the living room.

amother

Sat, Jan 03 2015, 4:07 pm

I'm in a 1 bedroom apt with 3 so I totally hear ya Smile

It depends how the apt is laid out but somehow we managed to set up the apt so that I feel like I'm living in a palace. Each time my mother comes I tell her isn't my apt amazing, and shes just like ummmm.....
But do you have a small room off the kitchen that's officially a "dinette"? Or an enclosed porch/laundry area etc? We have my baby in our bedroom and the 3 year old and 2 year old in the "dinette". They actually love being so close when they go to sleep and have the best time playing with each other in the morning, I can't imagine it another way! Each time the thought of moving comes up, I'm like hmmm I don't know I think we can have 5 in this apartment....
I grew up in 4 floor house, I really think its a matter or perspective

amother

Sat, Jan 03 2015, 4:21 pm

I'm the OP of the "neighbor" thread. What can I say? It's not easy, but as the other "amother" posted, it really depends on the layout of the apartment. Our's has a larger "living room" so were able to partition the end of it with bookcases to make a small "room" for our kids. It helps that they are close in age, but also in toddler beds, so they like their little space. We don't do much entertaining at night so it's usually not an issue. I know others in my neighborhood couldnt do what we've done based on their layouts. When we did a brief survey of others' 2-bdrms, we found that in our neighborhood, it was basically sacrificing living room for an additional bedroom, so we did the same thing, and saved ourselves $100s/month. We know we'll have to do it soon, but iy"H our financial situation should imrpove significantly when I graduate later on this year.

MMCH

Sat, Jan 03 2015, 4:43 pm

I live in a 3 family house , and the main floor family has 2 children in there 1 bedroom.

Her baby sleeps with her and husband in the room and the toddler she puts to sleep in their room and then rolls her out into the living for the night time .

She tells me she's not leaving until its an absolute necessity. which isn't any time soon.

amother

Sat, Jan 03 2015, 7:01 pm

Ha ha I lived like that with 4 kids!
Go visit boro park and Williamsburg and see how they do it....

amother

Sat, Jan 03 2015, 7:14 pm

amother wrote:

Ha ha I lived like that with 4 kids!
Go visit boro park and Williamsburg and see how they do it....

I dunno - BP sounds luxurious when I'm thinking of the lower east side (not op)

amother

Sat, Jan 03 2015, 7:47 pm

I have a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old in a TINY 1-bedroom. No dinette, no porch, no laundry alcove, just a smallish bedroom, living/dining area of about the same size, long narrow kitchen (no eat-in area) and bathroom.

Currently: I feel super cramped and can't wait to move out. It's mainly a money thing but also that we can't decide where to move to - we keep saying once we're moving anyway it's time to find a permanent home and we haven't been ready for that so we keep dallying... We have 2-year-old still sleeping in pack-n-play in our room, and 4-year-old in toddler bed in living room. Will not switch rooms because I don't want neighbors to be able to hear our private moments from the hall - you can definitely hear through the doors to the hallway but the inside walls are thicker.

If I had known 2 years ago that we would still be here now, I would have invested more in making it work better for us and it would look more like this:
Would have asked a designer for help making an eating space in the kitchen somehow. We have an awkwardly-placed pillar there that makes it difficult. but there must be some way... even just for kids to have breakfast there would help somewhat, I think.
Would have gotten rid of the bulky dinette set (which is our dining set) that was given to us as a wedding gift, and instead replace with smaller/lighter chairs and a narrower table of a type that would allow for some storage under it (currently the table is wider than we need, takes up a lot of floor space, and the way the legs are you can't put anything under it. And the chairs are very bulky and heavy.) And replace the more decorative cabinet that came with it with something also narrower but more functional (I find deep storage doesn't maximize space really, it just hides stuff. I prefer taller rather than deeper)
I would have replaced our bedroom dressers with tall closets from IKEA with a custom config of shelves, rods, and drawers.

I think these things would have made this a somewhat better place to live, but kept telling myself that because I dislike the place so much anyway we'll move out within half a year so why invest so much in changing things around. Still saying that now... but I believe it more now too, so I'm still hesitant to invest. With a 3-year-old you can get away with this setup, but I strongly feel that as children get older they need more privacy and personal space which includes their own bedroom - even if shared with siblings, it's different than living in the main room. Also more space to store their personal stuff (4-year-old has a drawer under bed but still would be nice to have more of this kind of space)

Meanwhile, I keep very little that isn't necessary. Toys and clothes that are outgrown get passed along quickly. Others get rotated so not everything is within the kids' reach at all times; we have a couple of deep (not wide, alas) closets so there's actually quite a bit of space to store things not-very-accessibly. I feel like I'm constantly cleaning and reorganizing. We never have guests (occasionally we'll have a single friend for a single meal. No room for more than that!) In warmer weather we spend a lot of time outside. Now that it's cold we still need to go out a couple of times a week for one child to get therapy, it's at least a change of scenery... they are also out in school/childcare for a large chunk of most weekdays because I work (besides by now one being actual school age) When I'm not working out of the house I start to go a little crazy. With apologies to the neighbors, sometimes I let the kids ride on scooters in the hallway of our apartment building - of course I am supervising them the entire time with strict warnings not to make extra noise and not to bang into the walls or people's doors. but they need SOMEWHERE to move around when it's cold outside for days on end.

gande

Sat, Jan 03 2015, 7:54 pm

I live like that with 4 kids. The dining room is an all in one room where we eat, play and sleep. At night im stuck in the kitchen or on my bed. I have a toddler size bunk bed in one corner, which is a great space saver. I keep reorganizing and moving things around to make more space. I got rid of all my big toys and things I dont use on a daily basis. As someone mentioned, its all about the layout. Even though my dining room is a walk through, it is in the center of the house and there is a nice amount of usable space in the middle. My huge table is in the corner. For now it doesnt pay for me to move and pay double the rent for something with more bedrooms but less living space. I am waiting it out for my dream house...(if it ever happens..)

amother

Sat, Jan 03 2015, 8:03 pm

amother wrote:

I dunno - BP sounds luxurious when I'm thinking of the lower east side (not op)

Which amother here are you? I am the one below you and I actually thought LES apartments are usually on the larger side. I.e. a 1-bedroom on the LES tends to be bigger than a 1-bedroom elsewhere. The reason mine is so small is because it was actually built as a studio and we have a fake wall across it forming the bedroom - but again, anywhere else a studio would be too small to even try that. Though there are some buildings that have smaller apartments, and I guess there may be places in Brooklyn that are larger but in general when looking at apartments in other areas they are usually smaller than LES - each room is smaller. One bedroom here (LES) can usually fit 2-4 bunkbeds, a closet unit, and have plenty of floor space for playing easily. A Queens bedroom usually can't. Brooklyn varies but I don't get the idea that Williamsburg apartments are very roomy.

The problem on the LES is more the cost - because the same PRICE that gets you that roomy 1-bedroom in the LES could get you a 3-bedroom in Brooklyn which is nice even if the rooms themselves are smaller. For me it's about the commute and other stuff that makes that not worth it.

Sat, Jan 03 2015, 8:58 pm

I put my 3 kids to sleep in the bedroom and rolled them out to the living room when we went to sleep, I did it for 3 + years. I had my kids sleeping in narrow porta cribs on wheels that rolled right out of the bedroom. for the baby I bought a Graco travelite pack n play - just like a pack n play, only smaller!
good luck to you!

greenfire

Sun, Jan 04 2015, 5:17 pm

you make the living room another bedroom ...

the couch became a bed by putting up a safety fold-down kiddy rail ...

the crib stays in another corner ... & keep a bassinet in your bedroom

can be done

amother

Mon, Jan 05 2015, 9:03 am

haha
was gonna start such a thread 2day...
once my daughter goes to sleep @ 7:30 I'm a queen in the bathroom... because thats the only place I can have light on...
otherwise I float around in the dark trying to clean up huge wreck from baby & toddler....
daughter sleeps in living room which is in open space. baby in bedroom & they're constantly waking each other...
its alot of fun!!! & contantly organizing & reorganizing & reorganizing. thats all I do on my days off because @ night I just shove (freshly folded, to be undone) laundry in the closets as not to wake kids.
can't wait to win the lottery!!!
otherwise will be staying in this one bedroom palace with my 20 kids iy"H..