One of the most common questions we got after announcing that we were pregnant was “are you going to buy a house?” Even though we live in a fairly metropolitan area, it seemed to be a common theme that baby = house. When we said no, we had no plans to give up our condo, we got a lot of raised eyebrows and questions about how we were going to fit in such a small space.
When we originally decided to buy a home, having kids wasn’t anywhere near our radar. We had a limited budget in a very high cost-of-living area, and our priorities were keeping our commute reasonable and to buy a space that wasn’t high maintenance. Neither Mr. Carrot nor I had any experience with home ownership, and our busy work lives, travel schedules and limited finances didn’t jibe with spending much time on figuring out how to do major renovations. Within these parameters, our best option was to buy a condo.
We bought a two bedroom unit in an older building rather than new construction, because the square footage was actually comparable to many houses in our area, whereas most new construction units were half the space. We assumed that if anything ever changed on the subject of kids, we at least had an extra bedroom to work with, and we’d figure out everything else. Now that Baby Carrot is a toddler and we are in full throes of being overrun by baby “stuff,” we’ve found some tactics to make our smaller space work for our needs, and discovered some benefits we hadn’t considered to condo living over owning a house.
1) Walls and corners are amazing organization (and baby proofing!) tools. I admit, I can be a bit neurotic about keeping our living space organized, so when Baby C started getting mobile and her activity needs increased beyond just a play mat, I was really nervous about tripping over toys and having no space to house her stuff. However, putting her toys around our wall spaces and corners ended up being a two-fold benefit – nothing was in the middle of the room AND we could hide some of the things that aren’t so baby safe but are hard to do without.
A small play zone in our master bedroom doubling as disguise for an electrical outlet
One of the biggest challenges in condo living is that usually there’s a lack of central lighting and floor lamps are your only option for larger rooms. Floor lamps are also the hardest thing to babyproof against without setting up gates that block them off or nailing them to the wall with straps. Most of our floor lamps are hidden behind couches, but in some cases, there’s no way to cordon them off. We found, however, that setting up toys around them tends to distract Baby C from grabbing at them.
And now, for a game of find the lamp post…
I must add a caveat/disclaimer that I don’t advocate for this approach to baby proofing, especially if you have a kid that is intensely curious and will seek out the danger zones. In our case, Baby C definitely attempted to reach the outlet and the lamp posts a few times, but after a couple no-no’s, she seems to have realized that the surrounding toys are way more entertaining. We do have the standard outlet covers and door locks everywhere that we can’t surround with her things, but in these scenarios, the win-win of an organized space and hidden trouble spots works great for us.
2) Limited babyproofing and an all-access approach: When we first started reading about babyproofing, most of what we read talked about creating “safe zones” for kids to play in where they can be left unsupervised without any danger spots. With a condo, there’s not much flexibility to create a space like this, nor did we want Baby C to be limited in her own home, so we created play zones in every room in the house, including the kitchen, babyproofed whatever we couldn’t cover up, and tried to maintain an adult space as well as a safe baby space.
A space for all ages
Our living room, for example, has a typical coffee table with sharp corners, and off to the left is an etagere with glass shelves and breakables on them. Baby C has her play mat and toys all around the space. There’s a small piano and some books on the etagere’s bottom shelf, which distracts her from trying to hang off the higher ones and drag down breakable items. The etagere is also heavy enough that even my own full weight couldn’t bring it down, so we kept it there with that in mind and moved soft and unbreakable objects to another unit. We didn’t soften the coffee table corners, and actually put toys under the table and books on the bottom shelf so that Baby C could practice getting them and thus learn to avoid the dangerous spots.
3) Amenities galore! One of the things we hadn’t realized about condo living is the range of amenities that we have that make our lives and Baby C’s that much more comfortable than owning a house would. We have 24-7 access to a maintenance department that can fix most minor issues within 24 hours’ notice, if not faster, for a small fee, grounds that have a playground we can use any time, and a pool where Baby C is learning to swim without us incurring any extra costs for lessons or access to a community pool. The condo complex itself is a playground in some ways – on rainy days, Baby C runs around the long hallways and the open atrium in our building, and loves to explore benches, plants and other decor that she doesn’t see otherwise. She also loves to hang out on our balcony with her ball, and look out our huge windows after her naps – a recent favorite (and supervised!) activity.
I do find myself occasionally thinking that it’d be great to have a yard for Baby C to play in, and if we decide to have another child (a few years down the line, at the earliest), we would have to move into a bigger space, but for now, we’re finding that condo living is giving us the best of many worlds.
How do you maximize smaller spaces for kids?
guest
We really worked hard to minimize the amount of stuff we have (we were in a one bedroom apartment for the first 10 months and now are living with my in laws while we search for our own place in a new city so I totally understand the small space thing.) we also had baskets in each room to throw stuff into since baby items inevitably move from room to room and it was nice to be able to just throw things in one spot and then deal with putting them away later.
blogger / cherry / 204 posts
I love this post! My husband and I spend so much time talking about this issue, and I love the “small spaces” section of Apartment Therapy for inspiration. We decided to stay in our 1 bedroom apartment for the first year of our sons life, and now that we’re expecting a 2nd we’re in the process of finding a 2 bedroom before she arrives. We use baskets, storage cubes and a big ikea shelving unit to keep his things organized and out of the way, he has his own designated play space but spends equal amounts of time in other areas of the apartment so we have baskets and books all about. There is literally no storage space so we have to be vigilant about being “minimalists” which just gets harder and harder as he grows! Clutter drives my husband crazy so we are constantly going through things and downsizing, small apartment living definitely turned us into “simplicity parents.” We are hoping to find a condo unit with similar amenities as you mentioned, or a house to rent with a yard, to make entertaining the 2 children easier at home. I was happy to read your thoughts on condo vs house because we’re debating those exact issues right now, even with renting a house it seems like a little more to maintain and a little more isolated (which would be a more dramatic transition for us.)
pineapple / 12053 posts
we live in a very small place and we’ve just grown to be used to the clutter because no matter how much we purge, there’s still not enough space for it all!
admin / watermelon / 14210 posts
we live in a 3 bedroom apartment (olive’s room is the size of a closet), and we both work from home so we maximize as much space as possible. we use a lot of elfa systems to take advantage of vertical space. I also had a handyman add shelves to every closet to maximize every single inch or storage space we have.
babies do require a lot of gear, but as the kids have gotten older they really need so much less (thank goodness!). it’ll get better and better as they get older.
guest
I agree 100% about the benefits of living in a condo with a kid. In addition to all of the ideas above, we cleared out the bottom shelf from our bookshelves (temporarily double-stacking or placing books on top of the bookshelf) so that bins or loose toys could just be tossed in there. It keeps them off the floor and gives easy access for the kiddo. We also have a stool that the kiddo can move around to peep out the windows (inevitably every time the garbage truck goes by, or when birds come by).
I also agree about making your home free from “no-nos” as much as possible. Move anything you don’t want them to touch to another room temporarily, or place them on high shelves. Move “yes” items (like tupperware or wooden spoons) to accessible places and you’ll spend less time supervising or dealing with tantrums.
eggplant / 11408 posts
I love this! We are in a 1bedroom with 750 square feet. I really like our set up, though we are still adjusting. I agree with your baby proofing philosophy. We basically made our whole house, minus a few places, baby proof. In some ways, it is easier, because it forced us to get rid of our junk!
GOLD / apricot / 341 posts
As soon as people found out we were expecting Baby #3, everyone started asking us when we were going to move (to a house or just a bigger flat). We have 3 bedrooms and although it is a very urban set-up (with only 1 bathroom!) it’s not a tiny apartment. At first we got into the mindset that we had to move soon, but one day we just stopped and realized that we don’t have to do anything just because it’s expected. Now our two boys actually share the smallest bedroom and have an awesome big playroom and we are planning to have all three share once Baby is ready to move out of our room. We probably will need to move at some point when they all need their own rooms, but for now we are trying to think out of the box, minimize how much stuff we have, and focus on our own needs instead of everybody else’s expectations.