If you live in Brooklyn, chances are your space is smaller than you would like. This will be different for everyone. Some people own a whole brownstone but feel their space is small compared to their friend’s homes in Westchester while other people are raising kids in a junior one bedroom or studio because that is all they can afford. It doesn’t help to compare, just agree that we all want more space!
Most posts on small spaces will give you tips about putting the crib in the closet or getting a closet organizer. This doesn’t do a lot of good when your kid or kids are too big for closet cribs, does it? Anyway, let’s not assume that you magically are able to get a bigger place to live just because your kid grows up or you decide to have another one. Also, you don’t need someone to tell you to get a closet organizer.
Or some posts will tell you to throw everything away like Marie Kondo or store it (actually a decent idea if you need to and we have a great new sponsor of our Baby and Family Expo that will even pick up the stuff for you, Simplify Valet Storage).
Here are some additional strategies you may have overlooked or not read elsewhere.
- No wasted space
- Create transformable spaces
- Avoid open shelves
- Keep an open space
- Use toy sets
No Wasted Space
Well, almost. You don’t want something in every square inch (+ see “Keep an Open Space” below), but there are a lot of spaces that you can store things that you don’t need all the time. Look up. The ceiling is the most underused and available space in most small apartments.
The best and easiest are shelves above windows and doorways. If you have moulding, that is a perfect place to put the shelf. Then you can use pretty boxes for stuff like your emergency tools and do-hickies (formerly taking up a “junk drawer”), baby clothes you aren’t ready to get rid of, presents from your mother-in-law that your spouse won’t let you throw away… things like that. Or make it a pretty with books. We have books covering almost every space in our apartment.
You can also get those toy hammocks for kid’s room (or, you know, corner) and use them to store kid’s winter jackets (think light weight, not your wool coat), hats, bags you rarely use but can’t throw out, and snow pants.
Also, it doesn’t work in our place, but here is a cool DIY pantry idea that seems really popular online.
Create Transformable Spaces
Get a folding table and chairs. We use a Norden table from Ikea, and we got these Stakmore folding chairs that look like nice dining chairs but completely fold flat. Now, we can make a dining room if someone comes over but keep the space clear otherwise.
Avoid Open Shelves
If you are anything like us, you put stuff on any available flat surface. Mostly stuff you don’t need. I find lots of ridiculous things buried on shelves, like old pieces of chocolate, binder clips, clothing labels, CDs (although I do not have a CD player), you get the point. As anyone with a small space knows, clutter on surfaces just makes it all worse. So try to have doors on everything or boxes… anything so that you don’t have to look at the stuff gathering all the time. Also, kids are less likely to grab things they aren’t able to look at. This does mean you have to clean out all these spaces a few times a year.
Keep an Open Space
This is really important with kids. They need space to spread out puzzles, dance, or have an animal tea party. We keep a large open space in the middle of our rooms and place everything around the edges. We also keep a “runway” which is a space you can walk in a straight line without needing to step walk around things or turn. You can find this in most apartments, even a studio, if you design it right.
Use Toy Sets
This one is hard to enforce, but really valuable. Keep the kid’s toys in boxes of things that go together: blocks; legos; horses; cars; picnic set…etc. And then only let them take one set out at a time. They have to put the other set away before taking out a new one.