we've outgrown our home but cannot afford to move yet-want to start a tribe?

[happyhats]

We live in a two bedroom apartment-it's about 800 square feet but it has an odd layout and a hallway that takes up a lot of "dead space". When we moved here I was pregnant with our first child. We've been here almost two years and now I'm pregnant with our second. So I'm getting all the baby equipment out and trying to organize and rearrange. It's going to be a tight fit but it will work for a bit longer. For various reasons (mostly finances) moving isn't a priority, and may not be an option for a bit longer.

I'm sure we aren't the only ones out there feeling cramped in our current space so I thought we could commiserate and share advice.

We've purged all we can at this point unless we get brutal. We just enjoy our books and craft supplies too much! We have very little knick nacks though. I am going to be boxing up our glassware in the not to distant future-I just have to get a box and some newspaper. I don't want to donate/sell my barware yet, but we don't exactly entertain or have cocktails too much now, lol.

[karika]

In the same boat

I had to move back into my xh home due to financial ruin. I was pregnant with my 2nd daughter at the time. So now it is the 4 of us in a starter home that is less than 1200 sq ft. We had a 1600 sf home prior to our divorce when it was just the three of us. Since I have my own room in this setup, it is tight. Not to mention all the stuff I have. There is no room for my clothing (only a standard closet in my room) and shoes and coats and hats and purses... I have gone through all my boxed items twice (they are in the garage) and gotten rid of at least half what I came with, but there is no room to bring anything else in here. I know I have craft stuff and neat clothes I would want to wear.... but I am too large for most of it still anyway at least. My pp weight was 100 lbs and I wore an 'a' cup and now I am 120 and a hefty 'c'. So I make do with old stuff. xdh recently lost his job and not much luck getting another one yet, so not sure what will be happening in the future. I always did want an rv lifestyle, but I would really have to purge my clothing for that, lol. I like watching home makeover and wish I had a good enough reason to ask them to come build a second story onto our home. I want to do foster care for handicapped children, but there is no room... also in our area, there are so many houses for sale, it is not likely we could sell ours unless we took a $50000 hit and kept paying a mortgage for a house we no longer lived in. I gg

[holidaymama]

Well we are a family of 4 in 1600 sq. ft. I don't think we have outgrown it, but I of course have all the wanty wants since everyone else has a big house

Let's discuss ways in which to make our houses work...to the op...we had two kids in 900 sq. ft. for 3 years and I actually loved our little place...when we moved, my hubby was amazed at how I could organize so much stuff and make it look like we didn't have ANY clutter!

What things are you doing now in your houses?

We just put our boys in one bedroom so that the other room could be a guest room/office/craftroom.

I am trying to think of some innovative ways to do toy storage because the only thing I want in my boys room is their bunks and a dresser...we have a closet for my younger son's clothing and we could do storage there...

I would love to hear what everyone else does!

Technically we could afford to move, but we really don't want a bigger house payment right now...and I would love to eventually have one more baby which means 5 more years of daycare payments!

[holidaymama]

Op-I forgot to mention as well, when we were in a different apartment, we used the hall way as play space...we had a small hallway closet that housed all the toys and then the actual hall way had our play kitchen and workbench.

[Emerging butterfly]

We live in a 1,400 square foot house with two small bathrooms and 3 small bedrooms. We have five sons, 4 of whom live with us (the fifth is 20 and on his own now...college life....) The four boys have two bunk beds in one room, organized like a L to create a wonderful fort-like contraption. They are SUPER close and though they range in ages from 14 to 6 the dominant sound from their room is ALWAYS laughter. They are best friends. Their clothes are in flat storage buckets under the beds which saves on folding (ha!) and our third bedroom is a playroom/media/office room (I am a freelance writer) Our upstairs contains a piano, three bookshelves, a washer and dryer, a variety of guitars and banjos and drums, a couch, a rocking chair and a few "extra" seats as well as our large square dining table. Our kitchen is tiny, but functional.

Basically...we make it work. Sometimes we have to wait in the hall to allow passage of another being, or animal....of which we have several (dogs, bunnies, ferrets and a tortoise) and there is ALWAYS an art project on our dining table. It looks chaotic to others I'm sure...but, we home school the four boys, I work 3/4 time from home and am finishing my degree and writing a book, my husband is in a band and is a full time clinical therapist and author. Our home is SMALL SMALL SMALL, and friends have teased us about living like happy but impoverished "immigrants"...but, we are cozy, we love each other, and we don't mind the clutter and chaos TOO much to deal with the stresses of living in close quarters. After all...in about 14 years, all of our boys will be grown up, all our pets will be dead (sob) except the tortoise, and we will suddenly live in an empty 3 bedroom house with WAY too much space for 2 people and we will suddenly feel grateful that we didn't size up simply to accommodate 14 silly years of close quartered intimacy. Maybe it's not the American way...but it's a very cozy way nonetheless.

I dunno if it would work for anyone else...but it works for us, and we are pleased that our mortgage isn't more than 25% of our income unlike many of our friends who have to pay much more for their empty space.

[echospiritwarrior]

there are four of us in about 900sf. It works relatively well for us, but we are planning on adding to our family and it will no longer work as our girls get older. The only reason DH even agreed to TTC is because I've redone one room where both girls actually sleep through the night (most of the time) and baby would be back in bed with us if we haven't moved before her/his arrival.

I really feel like our home works for us at the moment even though our crafts/habits are space taker uppers for sure (DH is a wood crafter/carpenter/timber framer- read TONS of tools that MUST be in our bedroom and I am a fiber fanatic with two spinning wheels (anyone want to buy one ) and an entire corner three shelves full of fiber/knitting stuff

We do not have a couch which would be nice from time to time and we could use a couple extra chairs.

All that said, we can't WAIT to move!!! We just need the $$$$ for the bath and kitchen remodel.

[happyhats]

we only have two bedrooms, so the children will be sharing. Most toys are housed there as well, except the few that migrate to the living room. We have a linen closet that is currently used as a secondary pantry, but I like the idea of somehow making it a toy closet. Right now my biggest issues are-

finding a place for a portable washer and dryer. We really need one, especially with two children in cloth diapers soon. I'm going pretty crazy without a washer/dryer and if we will be here another year or two it will greatly help my sanity.

rearranging my daughters closet to maximize space. It needs to hold her clothes, the majority of the new one's clothes, clothes sized ahead, and some toys only used under supervision (playdoh, stickers, etc). I am going to get some space saving hangers and I will just be playing some tetris until I make it work.

I need to purge some toys. There are a few things I've found dd is not playing with at all anymore. However, I'm considering saving them for the new one to grow into so they're probably off to the storage closet we have off our porch.

I don't think it will be that bad once we get out of this awkward in between stage where the baby things are starting to come out but aren't totally put up/organized yet. I also think that it's more the layout of my apartment that doesn't work for me than the actual square footage, which will help me when and if we end up looking at other places.