apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

2 adults, a toddler, a cat and some bicycles live very comfortably in our 900 sf. 2 bedroom apartment. (A couple of years ago, however, we lived in a 1200 sf. loft unit with an open floor plan and went completely bonkers.) For our family, having a few (small) rooms has been the key to our sanity.

I've lived in a LOT of spaces----from 3700 sf.ft. to 350 sq.ft. I personally think that around 2000 sq.ft. is the perfect size, but the older you get, the more things you acquire, and I don't mean junk.

Design means everything though, and storage space is more important than the living space in many ways. I once bought a house because it had 2 walk-in pantries, a huge utility room, and automatic lights in every closet. The size of the rooms was the least important feature.

We try not to accumulate stuff. I'm serious. So for people with kids, like us, have a rule that for every toy that comes in, two go out to your donation pile. Or make it three. Same for adults in the house. Repurpose when you can.

For small spaces you have to carve out more storage -- think vertical or in places you normally would not use like under the bed.

I don't know what the ideal square footage is. In contrast to the other poster, I prefer open floor plans.

I like 1000 sq ft for two people and two cats. But, we both work at home, so we might need more space than most.

Look at what you are trying to store. Think about cutting down on multiples. How many dishes, t-shirts, flip flops, sheets, forks, etc., do you need? Getting rid of multiples really helped me to pare down. I had about 10 sets of sheets when I really only needed two sets of cotton, two flannel. I must have had 50 t-shirts, now I have about 10. I had a lot of random not valuable glasses, dishes & flatware. I cut down to 6 of each thing. It's a good place to start. The useful stuff went to Goodwill and to a family of refugees who had nothing. So you wind up feeling good about getting rid of things too.

Another thing (sounds dumb and it might not work for you if you are foodies) but I decided I really only liked a couple of kinds of tea or mustard or olives or whatever, and I used up and stopped buying anything but Earl Gray, Dijon and garlic-stuffed. We're so acculturated to needing six or seven different kinds of one thing...maybe one kind is enough. Or use up what you have and then buy something different.

Just a few thoughts on what's helped me (I still have a jones for books....always have, always will).

i find that the longer you live in the same space the easier it becomes to let go of the purging habit and that's why people start to feel like they are outgrowing their spaces. we just recently moved thinking that we needed more space. the pre-move purge meant that almost a third of our non-furniture stuff ended up not coming with. ha!

I think it's more to do with how the space is used rather than the size. I'm one person living in about 550ft, the bedroom is a little cramped (mostly just poorly laid out for anything other than a twin bed). But there is an entire ROOM (granted a tiny one) that I am not using right now that is just collecting junk. I would like to eventually clear it out and turn the room into a guest bedroom/craft room. But if I could move a couple of those sqft to the Bedroom and a couple to the living room the place would be the perfect size.

My wife likes to hang on to a lot of stuff. I'm much more likely to clear out the clutter. It's an ongoing process of accumulation, getting fed up and then getting rid of a lot of stuff. That's life, I suppose.

And like Charlotte said above, books are the exception. Books, books and more books. There's no such thing as "too many books," in my mind -- just "not enough bookshelves." :)

Sarah Susanka, author of The Not So Big House and other "bigger is not better" books, talks a lot about how to take inventory of the rooms and spaces in your home and how to analyze that space to make sure you're getting the most of it. Some of her ideas might be helpful: http://marvinblog.com/remodeling-using-quality-over-quantity

2 adults, 1 toddler, 1 cat. we moved from an 800 sf apartment to a roughly 1400sf house this winter. we could honestly do without one of the 3 BRs. especially if we utilized our storage area in the basement better. and we're only actually "using" probably half of our basement square footage (it's not unfinished, but not really finished either).

so we could get by on 1000sf. i mean, we got by on 800sf, too. but the 1000sf means a bigger kitchen and living room.

anything more than the 1400sf we have would just mean a 2nd br or more room in our 1 br as we get ready in the morning. nice things to have, but they feel a bit too luxurious from an environmental standpoint.

having a yard has been a huge help with a toddler, too.

We have about 650, 1 dog, 2 kids. I'd like 1 more dog and maybe 1 more kid someday. I would love to have some outdoor space and a guest room. I guess my ideal would be 800-1000 square feet main house, a yard, and space for a little tumbleweed cottage as a guest house/work from home/escape space.

About 900 sq. feet, 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, 1-1/2 humans (1 is a part-timer) and 2 cats.

My mantra: less stuff, live smaller, design your dwelling like a boat to maximize the use of every square foot (and inch if need be), and you'll live with less stress as a result.

Two tips that I've found really helpful:
1. containerizing, and limiting, my sentimentals to monthly boxes. Less visual clutter, I get to keep the things that are really special, and it's not that hard to store the equivalent of 12 shoeboxes. They're now my go to for the beginning of every month and occasionally I find a treat in the box (new gardening gloves, tickets to a play, a chocolate bar, a list of reminders about what's great that month in my town) so it's like opening a present every month. Those sentimentals come out for that month only and then are packed away to make room for the next month's.
2. limiting my book buying to book borrowing - using the library, and the internet, means I can get rid of over 60% of my books (that's 8 bookshelves worth!).

Finally completely re-imagine your home as though you are considering buying it. By moving the two doorways for the kitchen, to more convenient locations, my kitchen will become a galley. What does that mean? We trial-blocked it and it felt 2x larger!

In the end, my roughly 900 square feet will still be far more room than I 'really and truly need' but I'm sure grateful to have it all.

My sister and her husband live in about 1000sqf (including a partially finished basement) with 4 kids and another one on the way and a large dog, terrarium and a variety of live things around on a regular basis. Yeah, it is hard to keep things looking neat, and yeah, with 3 small bedrooms it means everyone is in each others space, but they get along remarkably well. It helps that they are outside all the time (whenever the weather isn't crazy--they live in Kansas). But then, her husband grew up in a little house with a dirt floor in they Himalayas, so this is still bigger and "better". They also have almost no debt and should have their mortgage paid off in about 5 years, so that in itself is a recommendation for a smaller space.

I am single and recently moved to a studio that is about 300 sqf and I am still trying to figure out how to make the best use of my space. Previously I shared a 1200 sqf two bedroom apartment with a roommate but really felt like I had too much space. Would say that 300-500 per person seems to be good, depending on your hobbies and the arrangement of the space.

For our 2 people, 1 cat, 2 bed, 2 bath, 922 sq ft household, it's not about having enough space for stuff but about having enough space for activities. Early on we figured out that it was essential for my sanity to have a comfy chair for reading in a room separate from the TV. Now we're trying to figure out how to have the TV and his computer co-exist happily in the living room.

567 sq. ft. One adult, one big dog, one small dog. Can comfortably sleep three children and one extra adult. Can serve dinner for 7 easily. My only wish is that I had some "outdoor" storage for seasonal things and a "studio" space where projects and paintings could stay out without cluttering up living space. So, maybe an extra 50 to 100 sq ft. would be more than enough. Have lived in much bigger spaces, was never happier. Purge, purge, purge.

I prefer 1000-1600sf with 2 bedrooms in it, but I've lived very comfortably in a place that allowed me ~115-130sf (including bathroom and kitchen). You just have a bed, dresser with small TV and computer on it, and use shelving and containers liberally.

My apartment is a tiny one, about 500 sq ft. It was originally divided into a little hall, a kitchen, a bedroom and a bathroom. Plus there is a little balcony ans a little storage space in the basement. I had removed all walls in the apartment (apart from the bathroom), and I'm VERY HAPPY with that, because I always see a big space. In fact, I usually joke and say that I live in an apartment with a big big bedroom (450 sq feet), a big living room (450 sq feet), a huge kitchen (450 sq feet), not mentioning my home office, which is 450 sq feet.

I try to do a good use of the storage space (closets from floor to ceilings), Murphy bed, ect. I’m really satisfied! Everything starts to be very efficient, and I agree with most of comments on this subject. This accommodation is cheap also (e.g., heating expenses) and I do not need a lot of time to clean and so on. I feel really free ... and revolutionary also, like someone else mentioned before.

I live in a nice place (in Italy) and I'm happy to be able to go out and have most of things I need at a walking distance. I'm not sure if I would be so happy in case I was living far in the countryside. In that case I would probably need more space.