Apartment with a baby?

Albertsgirl1982

Any Mamas in apartments? We have a one bedroom and are planning to try and make it work for the next 2 years while I go back to school. Maybe we are crazy. Now that our little ones are more mobile what are your plans to manage your space?

lindseyb624

We're in a 1 bedroom tiny apartment. DD isn't very mobile yet but the most baby proofing we do so far is keeping it clean and picked up. We will get the outlet covers and try to keep things out of reach from falling off a table if she grabs. We also have the saftey straps on our tv because the tv stand is lower to the ground.

amief

We live in an apt and I think smart storage is key.  A few things we have been doing to make it comfortable for us: 

• We are pretty diligent about sorting through toys/clothes/gear that he is outgrowing and getting the old stuff out of the house asap.  We also don't buy the next stage until we need it. 
• We have a stroller hook to store the stroller on the back of a door so it is out of the way.
• We bought bins for under our bed that give us a ton of storage for the next stage clothes that we do have, extra diapers, etc.
• We put a bookshelf in DS room and put 6 bins on the shelves for toys, hats, socks, bibs, etc.  
• Our highchair is the Phil and Teds clip on so it doesn't take any floor space. 
• We have the Bjorn bouncer which folds flat and is stored under the crib when not in use.
• As much as possible our furniture does double duty.. ie. our coffee table is a trunk so that it can be used for storage as well, there are bins in our entertainment center which we use for storing winter hats and gloves and baby carriers, etc.

TKtravels

We've got three humans and two cats in a 1bed/1bath 688 sq ft apartment.  I'd love to have more space, but we're making it work for now.  Before LO, H, the cats, and I used to live in a 386 sq ft studio, so it could be a lot worse.  

Our lease is up at the end of August, and we're currently in the planning phase of building our own place.  I doubt it will be finished by the time our lease is up, so we may be staying here for another year/portion of a year until our house is finished.  

As LO becomes more mobile, I'm just going to have to chase her around more, and spend more time taking her to the park, on walks, etc.  Thankfully the weather is getting better for that. We've also done basic child-proofing but need to add some extras like the TV strap and a toilet lock. 

AlejandraN2

We live in a 2BR/2BA condo. Our second bedroom is more like a den since it has no windows but it's great for a nursery (no light to wake the baby). Honestly, we had to rearrange a lot of stuff and move my husband's desk in the living room and a bunch of other things. I always feel like we have no space but it could be worse. We love our area and we're going to try to make it work for a while. We haven't baby proofed anything yet, but plan to do some light stuff. I'd like to teach her not to touch things instead of turning our apt upside down but i know it can be a pipe dream. We are planning on replacing our glass table with a padded one that can serve as storage too. And every space is utilized for storage (under the bed, under the crib, under the dresser, inside a fouton, on top of the cabinets - everything). We also go through her clothes a lot and put them in storage bins in the storage space our building has. You can make it work. 

sugarellie

Back when DS1 was a baby and I was a single mom, we lived in a 1 bedroom apartment for about 2 years. It is totally do-able. I would say key things are finding things that are multi functional.. like for instance I sat him on the floor in a booster seat with a tray to eat ( didn't have a high chair) and had a leather covered bench thing that I got at target that his toys went in, so when they were put away it doubled as seating, and he had a toddler bed in my room ( we lived there from when he was about 2-4). It is what you make of it, I was happy and so was he, I don't think he noticed or cared at all that we lived in such a small space.. 

Burrberrymum

I'm in a 2 bedroom, small apartment. Her nursery is TINY and we hardly have any storage space. Luckily our kitchen/dining area is spacious enough so that's where I moved my desk to and I'm planning on having her toy box there once we buy one as well. Our living room is small so we downgraded to small coffee table and end tables, we still have to move it out of the way for her to have floor time but that's no big deal.

I want her to have access to most of her toys so I keep little dollarstore bins of toys in the living room area, and make sure to fold up the swing when were not using it.. (Saves like a foot of space)

I figure I'm just gonna have to make it work and put up more shelving with bins to store stuff.. And spend a lot of time outdoors for her to run and play.

blondii428

We just moved out of our apartment and into my ILs house while we continue to look for a house and all 3 stay in one room. My creative organizing skills have come in super handy!

Everyone is so impressed how I set up DH's old room because it feels bigger than when he lived there even though we have a bed, dresser, nightstand, glider, changing table, bookcase and crib. I'm proud of what an amazing job I did!

I put a bookcase with bins (made cardboard boxes covered with material and a strap of burlap) against the end the of the crib to hold toys. I also put shelves from Target on the top shelf of the closet to organize folded clothes and use a keyring on each hanger to hang another to increase hanging space. I am going to be putting shelves on the wall to hold baskets and I put a small shoe rack and a coat hanging bar behind the door.

Sometimes you just have to make do!

Albertsgirl1982

blondii428 said:

We just moved out of our apartment and into my ILs house while we continue to look for a house and all 3 stay in one room. My creative organizing skills have come in super handy!

Everyone is so impressed how I set up DH's old room because it feels bigger than when he lived there even though we have a bed, dresser, nightstand, glider, changing table, bookcase and crib. I'm proud of what an amazing job I did!

I put a bookcase with bins (made cardboard boxes covered with material and a strap of burlap) against the end the of the crib to hold toys. I also put shelves from Target on the top shelf of the closet to organize folded clothes and use a keyring on each hanger to hang another to increase hanging space. I am going to be putting shelves on the wall to hold baskets and I put a small shoe rack and a coat hanging bar behind the door.

Sometimes you just have to make do!

Pictures please!