So anyways- the point. I stumbled across some pictures of my little apartment and had a wave of nostalgia "oh it was so CUTE!"...I forgot what it
had even looked like. I loved that apartment, but I remember having a moment of panic after I'd signed the lease. "Holy CRAP how am I going to fit everything I own into such a small space?!"...it wasn't easy, but I did it.So here you see my one and only room. You have my kitchen way in the back there, my couch, and that black bit in the upper left hand corner is where my bed was hidden. Step 1 to living in a small space: loft bed. That thing saved my life.
Anyways, you can see that I had to partition my space carefully. That white thing with the mirrors on it is a bookcase that was at the head of my bed, and separated what was basically my bedroom from my kitchen area. My kitchen was to small to fit my microwave in it so that white kitchen cart held my microwave (and let's face it, when you live alone that's how you cook! I consider myself a pretty good cook but since I didn't have anyone to cook FOR I just zapped everything!) My table you can see there ended up with my boyfriend's computer on it (crap!), so what was originally just another surface for schoolwork/eating became a desk. Underneath it though I put a nice wicker basket to hold excess blankets and pillows.
On the right you witness the cleanest that kitchen EVER was. There's not much to say about the kitchen, except that I used the top of the cupboards as storage as well and used a cutting board on my stovetop to compensate for the lack of counter space. The one beef I had with this apartment: ONE BOWLED SINK. If you are planning on moving into a small apartment I beg you to consider this: You can live without a dishwasher easily, but if you feel this is a reasonable sacrifice do not, for the love of God, sacrifice a double-bowled sink. A single bowled sink makes washing dishes by hand a punishment of massive proportions. If your unit doesn't have one, ask the landlord if they'd consider putting one in (or letting you put one in and giving
you a break on your first month's rent to compensate you for upgrading their unit for them!).On the left you can see my lofted bed, and the crap under it. What you can't see if my dresser tucked under it on the left hand side. The pannels I hung from the ceiling were on a track so I could open it to get into bed and then close them to hide it when people were over. I usually closed them to sleep too- it just felt more cosy. I got those at Ikea, and they cost like 100$. I was able to fit 3 large rubbermaid bins under there packed with stuff, my laundry drying rack, my hamper, my dresser, and my laundry basket in under that bed. Now THAT is storage. And from this angle you can see my bookcase too.
Unfortunately I'm missing a few angles of my apartment...the opposite wall to this one held my TV storage unit, I had a coffee table that had two large drawers in it to hide stuff too (also from Ikea), and I had 3 closets I packed full of stuff. The trick I discovered to living in small space is: STORAGE. Create it. If you have a spare wall, put storage on it. If you have high ceilings put a shelf about a book-height from the ceiling all around the perimeter and put stuff up there too (it actually looks kind of funky, I've seen it done and I'm sure you could too if you googled it. I only had 8 foot ceilings so I didn't do it, partially because I had room for everything, but also because my bed would have interfered with it.
Also another note on my bed: You can get a loft bed from Ikea for like 100$. It's only suitable for 9 ft. ceilings. As I just said, my ceilings didn't meet this requirement...so I had to make a plan B. My Poppa and my Mom built the frame for mine off of plans from the internet out of plywood and bolts, and painted it brown for me. The supplies cost 40$. If you know somebody handy, or even if you hire a handyman you can probably get it built for under 100$. This works well if you own a boxspring and mattress like I did and want to use it. Since moving to Edmonton I have taken this bed apart and put it back together 3 times and we now have it in our second bedroom and people sleep on it when they visit. It creaks, but it's safe and comfy.
So thats my 411 on living in a small space. Storage and plan it out, hide the stuff you don't want to see. Come to think of it I had one of those under-the-bed boxes under my couch full of craft supplies too. My couch was only a loveseat, but for one person it's all you need.
Hope this helps someone who tries to tackle the same feat I did! I only lived there for 8 months (not because it was to small, but because life took me in other directions and I moved to Edmonton and living in 385 sq. ft is fine for one person but when you bring in a man it's a totally different bucket of fish!) but I loved that apartment. My Katherine lives in it now since she took over my lease- she stole my sliding pannels and basically set it up identically to mine only with her furniture!
This is my ode to my small apartment and time gone by.
