I have mentioned that we live in a small apartment with our two kids before. We are hoping to upgrade that soon, as once our baby becomes a toddler it will be much more difficult to manage our space without at least one additional room. For now though we are living the cramped life of 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 2 kiddos, 1 Stay at home mom and 1 work from home dad with a small balcony and no yard in the middle of a pandemic. To say we feel a little like sardines some days would be an understatement, but over all, we don’t do to bad.
I think if we were a little more minimalist we would feel like we had more space, but I do not have a minimalist bone in my body. I am a saver of old containers, and worn out socks(great for dusting!) and anything else that "may be useful". That being said, with this little space, we do have to be smart about what we bring into it and how we use it. So I thought I would do a post about how to manage in a small space, with two babies and too much stuff. Here are my key pieces of advise for bringing an extra body into a tight space.
1. Let go of the pinterest dream nursery
The first step to making a small space work for a growing family is to let go of the dream nursery set up you’ve been pining after on pinterest. This doesn’t mean your space can’t still be beautiful, but you will have to be much choosier about the furniture you purchase, and way you use your space.
Really look at the space you have and how you need to have it function. For us this meant that my husband’s computer and desk had to be moved from our (previously) spare room to our kitchen in order to set up a space for my son. My son’s room however still does double duty, as my desk remains in his room, and his closet is used to store my crafting and sewing supplies as well as a few other things. Our small space means he doesn’t get a room that is just his, but babies don’t care about this as much as adults. Even as a toddler he knows which stuff is for mommy and isn’t bothered by it all. I am sure in another year or two he will want his own space, hopefully by then we will be able to give it to him.
Once you know how much space you have to work with you can decide what you really need and what you might need to compromise on.
2. What to consider when shopping for baby stuff.
There are several things to keep in mind here. First off there are a few things that you can’t really skip, baby needs somewhere to sleep, something to be put safely down in when not being held, somewhere to be changed, somewhere to be bathed, somewhere to be fed, and somewhere to store clothing and blankets. You do not need to purchase new furniture for all of these tasks!! Some of these can even do double duty if it works for you and saves on space. It just depends on what is most important to you.
Somewhere to sleep – Our babies sleep in the same room as us up until about 1 year old. This is the safe sleep recommendations, but it is also just a good idea for us, as I get a lot more sleep when I don’t have to get out of bed to check on the baby at night. This means a bassinet of some kind. I would recommend either a foldable travel style bassinet, if you need to be able to stow it away, or something that you can use through until their first birthday. If you can fit a crib in your room that’s great, but we definitely could not.
We tried a bassinet with our first but with our second we went with a pack and play that has a bassinet attachment. So far we are much happier with the pack and play.
Somewhere to be put down safely when not being held - This one is so necessary and there are so many options. We went through quite a few of them. I couldn’t go without my bouncer seat with my first, but with baby number 2 the swing has been the most useful. It’s also handy to have a safe place for them to lie down in another room, and we use my nursing pillow to do double duty once baby gets older as a support for them to sit up in.
When looking into these types of items we really loved Gracco’s slim spaces line. Most of these items fold up very easily and can be stored folded and standing independently, which is ideal in a small space. We use the baby swing and the highchair from this line and absolutely love them. Any item that folds down and stores easily is good though, so long as you know where you are likely to store it.
We also bought a small soft pad with edges, similar to a dock-a-tot but not a brand name. This tucks away easy when we are not using it and gives us the ability to lay small babies down in any room we want.
Somewhere to be changed - This is an area that we made some compromises on. A changing table is not really necessary. We bought a padded changing pad and just used it on the floor of whatever room we happened to be changing bums in, usually the living room. I made up a diaper changing basket, which we found handy as our changing station was completely portable. I may do a post on my baskets later, as I find them handy for organizing all sorts of things in a small space.
As for wipes warmers, well, we did use one with our first, but with our second we are just using regular room temperature wipes and we’ve not noticed a difference at all. Plus it is one less item to find room for.
I would not go without our diaper genie though, we were given one as a gift. Since we have 3 doors, one of which is a locked security door, and 2 flights of stairs to take out the garbage, it is one of the few items I have been consciously grateful for every day for the last 2.5 years.
Somewhere to be bathed -
This is something we did differently with our second than with our first. With our son we purchased a collapsible sling that could be used in our regular bathtub. Although this was doable, it actually ended up being easier to just get in the tub and hold our little one for bathtime. We also found it extremely hard on the back to use as we had to be bent over the tub all the time. This time we purchased a baby bath tub to use. The benefit of this is we can wash baby anywhere, including the kitchen table if that’s more convenient. We love it, even if it is one more thing we need to store.
I do see that they make collapsible versions of this now as well, which we may have purchaesd had we found one. I cannot comment on the quality of these as we’ve not used one, but I would recommend an actual tub that holds water as opposed to just a sling.
However, if this is not something you want to store or spend money on, it is totally possible to skip it completely and wash baby in the kitchen sink or in the tub with you. You will have to consider whether the convenience is worth the additional space it takes up for yourself.
Somewhere to store clothing and blankets - Our babies shared storage space in our room when they were little, we bought a few storage cubes and set them up by our own dressers. Now that my toddler is older he has his own dresser and we use the storage cubes for my daughter instead.
This is one that you will need to work out but that can be handled in 100 different ways, depending on the space available. Closet hangers, dressers, storage cubes, laundry baskets. Whatever works in the space you have available. If you have the option, try to take advantage of vertical space for this, as it can really add to the storage room you have available.
Somewhere to be fed - this is something to consider right from the start, do you already have a comfortable place you could use to nurse or bottle feed or do you need to purchase something new? I personally use our couch to nurse on, and so far, have always been more comfortable there than any other chair or stool, or rocker I have ever had to nurse in. Keep in mind you will likely spend more time in this spot than any other for a while, so do make sure it is comfortable.
Once baby gets a little older there are a ton of options. There are chairs that attach to your current chairs, and some that attach to your table. As well as stand alone high chairs. We opted to get a stand alone high chair as we didn’t want to lose any more seating at our kitchen table than we already had by moving my husbands workspace into the kitchen. This is another product by Gracco slim spaces that we loved! It is so easy to use that our toddler pulls it out and sets it up himself for mealtime now, though we are hoping to transition him to a booster seat soon.
3. Stroller or carrier?
Strollers are something a lot of parents think they will opt out of in favour of baby carriers, some parents even manage to do it, but for the rest of us, strollers are a must. I love the idea of baby carriers, I really do, but I absolutely could not exclusively wear baby. It is heavy, and hot and honestly, sometimes it is just too much touching and I am touched out. We opted for both.
When you are looking into a stroller in a small space there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First of all, as with everything, make sure it is collapsible! Also make sure it is light weight. If you have to be pulling it in and out of storage all the time you want one that is light and is easily collapsed and set up. If it is too heavy, or too complicated you will quite likely not use it. There are days when you will just not have the energy to go out at all if you have to fight with the stroller to do so.
For us this was a necessary purchase, and one that I do not regret making. If you think you can get by with a carrier alone, that’s awesome and it will absolutely save a ton of space and money! Just don’t feel badly if you find yourself in the stroller aisle a few months down the road, when that baby starts to feel heavy and you start to crave some personal space. Some parents love baby wearing, but it is not everyone's cup of tea. It is most certainly not mine.
4. Toys!! So many toys!!!
I wish I had better solutions for this one, I swear I don’t even know where my son gets all of his toys, but they seem to keep multiplying. New ones get given and old ones get grown out of. I don’t have perfect solutions for this. We have adapted our strategy as our son has grown, but it has still turned our living room into a playroom. My best advise for this is to go as vertical as you can. Try to keep the most popular toys near the bottom within your toddlers reach so that he can get them without help. This means reorganizing from time to time. If you have the space it helps to use storage that doubles as something else, like seating or a coffee/end table.
We also try to keep like toys together. We store all crayons, paints, markers, and colouring books etc. in a large ziplock bag, and we keep another that holds all magic sand and play dough. These are things we like to supervise or at least know when they are being used so we don’t end up with any wall art. We keep them in with mom’s craft supplies and he can ask for them whenever he likes.
We keep a bin with all his trucks and cars and another with all his little farm animals and people within his reach as he plays with these ones regularly. Right now we also keep the bag of musical instruments and rattles here as well. We don’t love them, but he does, so we try to keep them where he can get them by himself. Though if they ever get too much and too noisy, we will absolutely move them to a higher shelf without any guilt at all!
That is really all the advice I have to offer. I promise, a small space doesn’t have to feel cluttered all the time, though it likely will sometimes. The biggest take-away is to really evaluate your space in advance and be choosy about what you bring into it. Anything you bring in should ideally add more value to you life than is lost by the space it occupies.
Thanks for reading, and if you've made it this far, please let me know any good tips or tricks you might have for toy storage! We are being overcome with Fisher Price Little People over here!
Until next time, be safe and be kind!
All photos are taken by myself. Please forgive the editing, it was my first attempt photo editing on Gimp and I had a baby on my knee while I did it!