Living In A Small Space With Kids – 5 Tips On How You Can Do It

5 Tips To Living In A Small Space With Kids

As a family of four, we have been living in a small space with our kids for years.  We only have about 850 – 900 sqft.  Could we move a little out of the city and get more space for our kids to grow up in? Of course! The problem is we have a killer deal in our current space and are located in a great family-friendly neighbourhood right in Vancouver.  That’s why we’ve settled on living this way for now.  It is less upkeep, it’s cheap and keeps us living simply!

How do we do it?

We have two kids, two bedrooms and one bathroom. Does every day go smoothly? No. There are MANY days where we say, “we have to get a bigger place!” But then we’d lose out on so much. We wouldn’t get to live in this beautiful city.  We’d create more work for ourselves because more space means A LOT more cleaning.  And, we wouldn’t have the luxury of city living. Vancouver Canada just has so much beauty.

Since I grew up in a smaller town, I have no desire to go back. For our family, it’s made sense for us to stay where we are and create as much space as possible in smaller living quarters with a few essentials.

If your thinking of downsizing to save money, to save cleaning time, to live in a higher-end area and all you can afford is something smaller, but you have kids, then keep reading! Let’s kick this off by breaking down my top 5 tips to create more space to make this a reality.

Mini size everything!

I am referring to essential furniture pieces. For instance, instead of a regular size sectional for your living room space, have you considered an apartment size sectional? Right now, we are on the lookout for one of these because it creates more space while still giving you enough space to seat your family and friends. Currently, we have a smaller size love seat and two armchairs and this has been another great alternative.

Have you considered a mini crib instead of a normal size?  When baby number two came along, we knew we didn’t have space for TWO normal size cribs. Instead, we turned our oldest daughter’s former crib into her big girl bed, and we purchased a barely used mini crib off of craigslist. Not only has this worked amazing, it honestly is the PERFECT size for a shared bedroom.

this is our mini crib

Be creative with storage!

Small places don’t usually come with a lot of storage. Add two kids to the mix, strollers, toys, etc… This simply means you are going to have to get creative. I have always found that for personal items, bins have worked great to keep things more organized and a little more functional.

For kid’s stuff, I tried to utilize the girl’s closet with lots of storage space but at a frugal cost. IKEA all the way! I got this six by six shelving unit (pictured below), and this created lots of space for extra clothing on top of all their hanging clothes. I utilized the space on top for things that we don’t use every day like extra blankets, memory boxes, a vaporizer for when they’re sick, etc…

Another great example of being creative with space is getting a kid’s bed that has storage underneath or extra drawers attached to the bed. Any area that you can find where a nice shelving unit or bin would fit, do it!

Let go of things you don’t need!

I am sure you would agree with me when I say kids’ toys seem to accumulate!  It’s unbelievable. I have a really big kids toy box for the girl’s room and ALL toys get thrown in there. It’s an easy clean up after a day of playing in their room and it’s a great way to train them to clean up after themselves.

We ask our oldest daughter to go pick up her toys and put them away, and having it all in one big bin allows her to not get confused as to where things go.

With that being said, so many toys sit on the bottom of the toy box that NEVER gets played with because all the new ones are on the top. At least once a month, I go through the toy box and pick out all the toys that haven’t been used in a while and get rid of them.

We live by so much family and close friends that the girls are ALWAYS being spoiled with new toys, crayons, colouring books, stuffed animals, etc…This forces me to have to get rid of some of the older stuff.

Consistently getting rid of old toys allows for more space AND allows me to donate the toys to kids in need.  It’s a win-win!  If you want to know some extra tips on how to declutter, this is one of my favourite articles.

Utilize your outdoor space!

Get outside! Every kid needs fresh air anyway, and whether it’s a backyard or the sidewalks in your neighbourhood, does it matter? Point is when you’re living in a place that’s small and there isn’t a ton of indoor playing space, it’s the perfect time to spend the day outdoors.

One of my main reasons for not wanting to leave Vancouver is because it is SO BEAUTIFUL.  We can take a drive to Stanley Park or in minutes be at some of the most amazing beaches.  We’re surrounded by so many fun little parks we regularly take the girls too and so much nature. Honestly, there is no shortage of things to do outside, so the kids never feel like they don’t have space.

Don’t be afraid of room sharing!

If you have a couple of kids like myself, don’t be afraid to put them in the same room. The transition isn’t always the easiest but I have a few simple steps on how you can do this right here. If you choose this route, all it takes is a little pre-planning on how you will make the room functional.

We wanted the girls to still have indoor play space for the rainy Vancouver days.  To make this possible we gave them the master bedroom and we took the smaller bedroom. This provided them with ample space for a toddler bed, a mini crib and still LOTS of play space.

For us, it has worked out so good! As a bonus, the master bedroom is located further to the back of our place so it drowns out some of that excessive noise when we’re entertaining and allows them to still go to bed on time and in peace.

 

Living in a small space with kids is possible, just be creative!

Whatever you do, do what works well for you! We have managed to make living in a small space with our kid’s work for years now.  Although some days are a little more challenging than others, the pros outweigh the cons. We get to save money by not having a big place, and yet we’re still giving our kids a great life of comfort, home, and outdoor activities.

If you’ve enjoyed this article, then you may enjoy:

[pt_view id=”99764edhq3″]

Xo, Asia