Quality resources on Small Apartment Living?

[birding]

I'm not seeing a thread specific to Small Apartment Living. Who has resources on this? Books, blogs, videos, anecdotes, anything is fair game. Akin to the excellent thread, Quality resources on Van Living?: viewtopic.php?t=5794


Context:

I live in a 600 sqft one bedroom with my GF. We both work remote - I take calls in the bedroom & she's in the main living area. Trying to thrive in this setting because it's the best hack I've come up with for now to cut costs in VHCOL area to stay near family. The cost is $1150/month for all condo expenses versus, for example, a 2 bed rental in the same complex at $2100+utilities - nearly double and this is low comparative to other options!!!

We have nice decor (mostly sourced used of course), there are nice folks in the complex, and we're in a decent location walkable to the library (and some birding spots ). So it mainly feels super comfortable. Living small has positive environmental implications too, which means a lot to me.

However, there is some challenge with the small kitchen (it's tight for 2 people especially when the chocolate lab wants to join us there ). There's also challenge for me as I'm moving more to PT remote and I feel less comfortable being in the main living area when she's on meetings. And at times I do wish we had a bit more space and my own garage for projects. Getting housing with a garage in this area would be way more than $2100...

Geoarbitrage for more space could be an option in the future, but it's only been ~7 months in this living situation and I'm wanting to avoid moving again so soon. Additionally, for me, leaving where I have deep roots would feel like a sacrifice.


So how can I thrive in the today living small? Grateful to you all and the deep knowledge of this crowd - thank you in advance.

[theanimal]

You'll probably find the Apartment Homesteading thread of interest.

[Seppia]

Having lived both in America and in Hong Kong (possibly two extremes in “average sqf of living space per human”), a couple comments

square feet count, absolutely, but floor plan matters almost as much.
From a non-American perspective, us floor plans (with some exception possibily in Manhattan) are very wasteful, with needlessly large rooms.
In Hong Kong, we lived (4 people) in 980sqf and we lived like kings by local standards. 980sqf in HK means 4 bedrooms and two bathrooms.
It took us about two weeks to adjust to the room sizes.

A local hongkongese colleague of mine had an entry level white collar job, was married to a person with another entry level white collar job, had 1 newborn and a live-in nanny: they lived in a 398sqf apartment.
I remember the exact number as it sounded so ridiculous the first time I heard it.
Still, it works.

So one possible solution would be to look at the main local real estate site
https://www.squarefoot.com.hk/en/
And take inspiration from floor plans to optimize your square footage.
Maybe you can “reshape” your 600sqf in a way that the space is utilized more efficiently.
You don’t necessarily need to build walls, sometimes just a curtain or a piece of furniture can help separate spaces.
For example in NYC we had a 1 bedroom with a long living room, so I used a strategically placed Kallax from ikea to help me create a work desk station out of nothing.

[jacob]

However, there is some challenge with the small kitchen (it's tight for 2 people especially when the chocolate lab wants to join us there ).

A lot of older kitchens were really only meant for one person. Just abide by that. Ours is the same way, with two people in there we constantly get in each others way, so we just don't.

There's also challenge for me as I'm moving more to PT remote and I feel less comfortable being in the main living area when she's on meetings.

Switch around so she gets the bedroom.

And at times I do wish we had a bit more space and my own garage for projects. Getting housing with a garage in this area would be way more than $2100...

FWIW, I did woodworking in the middle of the living room in our previous 1bd/1ba Chicago apartment that was around 300sqft. Apartment woodworking is a thing. There are even suggestions for foldable workbenches that store in a closet. My suggestion here is to choose your hobbies wisely and accept some limitations.

[7Wannabe5]

You are both fulfilling a number of roles within the space. I would start by brainstorming both psychological and functional needs for each role the two of you are fulfilling as individuals or as a couple. For example, at a minimum, you each need "a room of your own", and you need conversational, relaxing, and sexual "couples space" and you need "social space" for entertaining/interacting with others within your home. You likely also need a way to psychologically transition your individual "room of own" between designated WFH space to space appropriate for private reflection or study not related to work. You also need messy project and pet spaces.

As you create psychological and structural elements to define these spaces, it generally works better to have each small space based around one large item of furniture. For example, just a desk or just a bed or just a sofa; and do not recreate functionality across rooms.

In HCOL areas it often makes sense to rent shared space needed for some functions. For example, join a maker-space instead of paying for a garage or basement. If you only infrequently entertain large groups of people, shelling out for a restaurant a few times/year or using a park pavilion will be less expensive than buying a dining room or large living room.

[Laura Ingalls]

@Jacob
We call that a one butt kitchen.
In our camper we also practice the “hug and turn” as a way to get from one end to the other.

The Apartment Therapy website used to do lots of tour of small thoughtful spaces I think it has morphed into a consumerist platform to sell you stuff.

[Stasher]

For many years the Youtube channel Apartment Therapy often comes up in my recommended feed and I enjoy watching them when they do.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY04Nk ... 4hqf_7suZA

This one was very impressive when I watched it;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDE0k5CShcg
1 bedroom 700 sq/ft with a family of 4

https://youtu.be/7FIfcScc1JE?si=-L_7UhYtVcHcAZsZ
Couple expecting baby in 300 sq/ft apartment

[sky]

The campervan waltz.

Each person needs a reclining seat, for reading, laptop viewing, napping, relaxing.

Tabletops can be shared but its better if there is room for each person to work at the same time.

Practices such as always doing the dishes immediately after eating become important. Regular clearing of tabletops and organizing shoes, coats, and other clutter. In storage spaces, things you don't use much tend to accumulate, such as foods which are edible but not preferred. You won't have room to store food you don't like to eat, so regularly declutter the shelves. Bathroom cupboards become full of old medicine, cosmetics, hygiene articles, practice regular clean out. Making it easy to dispose/recycle unwanted things avoids clutter.

[birding]

Good stuff everyone. Thanks.


Some further thoughts from what the crowd had to say in no particular order:

In the notion of choosing hobbies wisely and Apartment Homesteading, focuses this summer are improving cooking and starting a deep pantry with Azure Standard. I've thought of growing a porch garden - maybe another year if we are able to feel comfortable enough to stay long term. Maybe it was the Tightwad Gazette where farm picking/canning is discussed. There's opportunity for that here around E.Mass so something to look into further, though maybe more an autumn opportunity?

With the feeling uncomfortable when my partner is on meetings in the living area, it's a good point to switch places. I've hesitated to make this ask as she has aversion to working in the bedroom and as much is this is the most obvious solution, I don't want to force anything. It's a good point to think of roles being fulfilled of the spaces and needs being met. Is there an example of 'psychologically transitioning' a space you could share @7w5?

One butt kitchen & campervan waltz . Yea, maybe I should accept the kitchen is only to be used by one at a time (8'x3.5' floorspace). However, I still like the idea of team cooking dates. My argument was akin to the 'hug and turn' of it's possible to work together in the small kitchen with better coordination or something. Like working at Starbucks years ago, we were on top of each other all day, but still super efficient.

The Apartment Therapy stuff is very cool, and at that same time I get the consumer platform thing too. I watched a few of the videos and now I want all the decorations, dividers, and mirrors, and of course a murphy bed with full renovation . To be serious though, those tours have some good ideas that I hope I can reflect on with her. Especially helpful considering YT is more accessible medium for sharing ideas with her than this. And even if there were a full reno it'd be cheaper than most alternatives in this region..

We do already have a couple Kallax pieces - one is the library living room bookshelf (success in no Tv!), and the other is her office divider/pantry/even more books. From that Hong Kong site, seems like real estate prices are outrageous there! Also, reminded me of Gary Chang's Domestic Transformer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB2-2j9e4co. And from there saw *faircompanies has a playlist of Micro Apartments tours: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 4IDozw9c7m.

[bos]

Interesting thread. We live in a smallish 60m2 (55 - the balcony) (about 600 square feet), two-room apartment and are thinking about starting a family. In Germany, the rental system is a bit unusual—some rents are much lower than others because of what the previous tenant paid. This means we pay less than the average rent. We currently pay around 790 euros, but if we moved to a similar apartment, it would cost about 1500 euros. If we wanted one extra room, it would be around 1800 euros. So, moving would cost us about 1000 euros more each month. I also love it here and like the challenge.

German (older) apartments have high ceilings, so I am considering building a platform/high bed. DW dislikes sleeping high-up, so maybe I'll put my desk and hobbies there.

Here a video of a 5 people german family leaving in a similar apartments as mine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naeo9U3Nm3k

[J_]

Inspiring video bos. They succeded with 5. Good luck with 2 or more in your bigger appartment!

[jacob]

German (older) apartments have high ceilings, so I am considering building a platform/high bed. DW dislikes sleeping high-up, so maybe I'll put my desk and hobbies there.

In the 1970s, there was a concept called "gridbeam" in which you could build whatever furniture you needed out of parts much like Lego. Yuo can make your own gridbeam out of 2x2s (there's IIRC also a metric convention called something else). The book contains a "living system" that includes a bed and a desk.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Build-Grid-B ... 0865716137

For small spaces, especially in the US where only "big ass" furniture is commercially available, it often makes sense to be able to build your own smaller furniture that matches the original smaller room formfactors before the McMansion era that now demands one separate room for each and every activity. With a modicum of woodworking skills, "2x4 furniture" (google it) is easier and better looking than gridbeam. @ffj introduced me to https://www.ana-white.com/ who is a great source of inspiration and (free) plans.

Add: Also, https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2012/ ... -hardware/ To make your own gridbeams, you need a drill press and a chop saw and the permission to greatly annoy your neighbors for about a couple of hours when you cut/drill the parts. Alternatively, for "2x4 furniture", you need a regular drill, a pocket screw jig (Kreg in the US), and a chopsaw. None of these requires much skill at all. I had my mom+DW build our garden furniture (the red ones for those who have visited ERE HQ) during one of their visits.

[Slevin]

As maybe the only dummy on the forum who has made both gridbeam furniture and 2x furniture (and I guess now I just make passable normal cabinetry), I cannot recommend the gridbeam furniture. It’s basically just doing 100x the work of making any individual part in the slight hope that it can be reused later. This is dumb compared to just making furniture you can take apart and reuse the lumber out of (I.e. 2 by furniture that runs pocket holes). Or just only drill the gridbeam holes you need at the moment if you like the design.

FYI if you do go with some pocket hole furniture route, pocket hole screws are available online for much much cheaper than the insane markup kreg wants for like 20 of them at your local hardware store.

[Stasher]

I've made a fair share of 2x4 furniture in the past and the majority of it was always outdoor furniture or workshop benches etc. My brother is exceptionally talented and makes outdoor patio sets for family & friends as well as himself that are far cheaper than department store cheap metal/plastic sets while being much more comfortable and functional.

[jacob]

It’s basically just doing 100x the work of making any individual part in the slight hope that it can be reused later.

But did you ever [use gridbeam to] experiment with "crazy" designs like a desktop-jungle-jym or a hammock-bed-storage-space? I suspect that's where it shines. Trying out new designs and arrangements. Also, it should be much easier to move them around. 2x4 furniture is HEAVY!

[Slevin]

No, I didn’t get that far. I built a few chairs and parts out of 4ft lengths before realizing that I could learn a lot of woodworking in the time it would take to make a reasonably large gridbeam structure, so I pivoted. I didn’t get to making any of the 8ft or larger pieces, and my smaller ones didn’t make the cut on the moving truck to CA. I lost most of my 2020-2021 photos in a phone backup accident, but I will check to see if any pics of the gridbeam survived.

These days I would use EMT conduit and maker pipe fittings to achieve a higher level of modularity and prototyping at a much lower level of effort. I’m planning a large scale trellis with the stuff whenever I get around to it. It has a small community alive that is actually making beautiful, functional, and cool things with modular parts. A little more industrial of a look, but otherwise I think it’s competitive on every metric if you value your time even a little bit.

[delay]

So how can I thrive in the today living small? Grateful to you all and the deep knowledge of this crowd - thank you in advance.

That sounds like mostly a spiritual question. You already know how to live small. The problem is that you have the means of living bigger and this idea occupies your mind.

If you want to force yourself to live small, get the idea out of your head. Maybe have a vote on moving, and commit to that for a year, so most of the time the option isn't there, and does not live in your head.

Given that you are a renter, you could trial a bigger place and see how you like it. That's what I would do. There's nothing like reality to teach you that a bigger house is not all that it seems to be.

[white belt]

The advice in this thread is good so I won't repeat it. I used to post a lot in the Apartment Homesteading thread a few years back.

In the notion of choosing hobbies wisely and Apartment Homesteading, focuses this summer are improving cooking and starting a deep pantry with Azure Standard. I've thought of growing a porch garden - maybe another year if we are able to feel comfortable enough to stay long term. Maybe it was the Tightwad Gazette where farm picking/canning is discussed. There's opportunity for that here around E.Mass so something to look into further, though maybe more an autumn opportunity?

The orientation of your porch to the sun is going to be the biggest factor that dictates what you can accomplish with porch gardening. Herbs are easy to grow in containers and can be utilized right away for cooking purposes, so I would start there. From there you could build up to other annual greens that don't require full sun. Dwarf fruit trees, tomatoes, berries, etc can also be grown on a porch but will require full sun (or close to it). Container gardening in general is the way to go if you plan on moving and/or don't want to commit to the multi-year process of remediating poor soil. My dwarf peach tree has lived in 3 locations over the past 3 years and has still produced fruit every year.

Depending on your area, it might be easier to start with foraging rather than going to a farm. For example, in my area, the mulberry fruiting window has been ongoing for a few weeks and these things are everywhere. There are numerous resources for urban/semi-urban foraging. Reminds me that I need to go into my backyard to pick mulberries and now raspberries that just started coming in (both were planted by the previous owner and require 0 inputs from me).

With the feeling uncomfortable when my partner is on meetings in the living area, it's a good point to switch places. I've hesitated to make this ask as she has aversion to working in the bedroom and as much is this is the most obvious solution, I don't want to force anything. It's a good point to think of roles being fulfilled of the spaces and needs being met. Is there an example of 'psychologically transitioning' a space you could share @7w5?

One butt kitchen & campervan waltz . Yea, maybe I should accept the kitchen is only to be used by one at a time (8'x3.5' floorspace). However, I still like the idea of team cooking dates. My argument was akin to the 'hug and turn' of it's possible to work together in the small kitchen with better coordination or something. Like working at Starbucks years ago, we were on top of each other all day, but still super efficient.

DW and I lived in a 1 bedroom 500 sqft apartment for a year and it caused way more friction and in the end likely more financial $$ than just shelling out $300-400 a month for a 2 bedroom apartment. All that's to say is that whatever you decide to implement, you need to make sure your partner is on board. So if she works from home on calls all day and needs a space for that, you might just be better off getting a bigger apartment. I know of some people that can't have their workspace in the same space as where they sleep because it makes them feel like they can never fully relax. A lot of things with living spaces deal with "feel" so trying to logic such things away will not work unless your logical solution solves for the "feel" issue. Each individual's tolerance for small square footage is going to be different, so again you just want to make sure you and your partner are on the same page. 7W5's advice is good because it will help you both uncover your needs when it comes to the space.

Yes, modular furniture and smart design can improve the form/functionality of a small space. However, there is a limit and pursuing such things might end up costing more money/time than just getting a slightly larger apartment. On the other hand, if something like building custom multi-use furniture to fit the specific space sounds appealing to you, then go for it as the time spent would be viewed more as hobby time than labor time. Just keep in mind that you might spend months designing/building the ultimate small space only for your landlord to raise rent by xx, you/your partner get a new job with long commute, etc etc and then find yourself shopping for a new apartment where you will have to restart the process. Again, if you like the process then you might decide this is a fun feature rather than a bug. Fast, cheap, good. Pick any 2 for household items.

If you want more specific design advice for your apartment, then I'd recommend posting pictures of the actual space(s). If you don't want to do that then at least a floor plan would be helpful.