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A couple of things I’ve learned by living in a small place. The new furniture you buy needs to be scaled for the area. Buy some newspapers and masking tape. Make paper templates of the furniture you are thinking about, just the footprint of it, and you can try it out. I’ve avoided serious mistakes using them.
The other thing? Don’t buy skirted or flat to the floor pieces. If your 85x38 inch sofa is skirted, it will look like a box. Having bare legs will allow you to see the floor below it, and the piece won’t feel as bulky. Also watch rolled arms. They might be pretty, but they take up a lot of space. I was looking at a rolled arm love seat that was 72 inches and the seated area was 58 inches. 14 inches of the piece was arms. Too much bulk.
Watch the tschaskis. In a smaller place less is more. A lot of little fiddly doodads is cluttery, it’s far better to have a few statement pieces and less clutter.
And try to have double duty pieces. One of those lift top coffee tables can double as your home office, with paperwork and laptop stored inside.
Nothing fits. My oversized couch won't fit through the front door, and the queen bed is too big for the bedroom. My son is giving me his organ bench - with storage under the seat - to use as a coffee table. Everything should have storage or serve more than one purpose.
I'll figure it out, but I haven't had to do this in years.
Ah, yes--the boxes!!! Being surrounded by moving boxes can be overwhelming. Kitchen stuff especially takes some time to unpack because you have to figure out where you want to put stuff. If you're like me, you'll want to line all the shelves and drawers which can take some time. PLUS I still needed to get bedroom furniture!
I didn't get fully moved in until a week before Christmas. At the time I knew no one here. A former co-worker in CT hooked me up with an acquaintance of hers. The woman was gracious enough to invite me as her guest to her friend's Christmas gathering.
That same former co-worker came down from CT at the end of January, and that proved to be the impetus to unpack!
What kept my spirits up was the mantra, "Every [empty] box is a victory!" and congratulating myself for my efforts!
You would have been welcome at my house. Please ignore the boxes. LOL. You really just have to keep working at it.
I thought I had downsized when I moved from Minnesota to Arizona but, I moved into a two bedroom and basically used the second bedroom for storage.
...
The only thing I'm not thrilled with is that the outside wall of the balcony is almost 4 ft tall so you can't just sit in a chair and look out. My sister said I should build a platform and that's something I'm contemplating. We'll see.
Right now I'm content with all the light that comes into the apartment. I still have too much clutter but I'm working on it.
A 4 foot wall? Who would plan that? Some people just don't see things on a human level. In other words, they're thoughtless and stupid. It sort of reminds me of Temple Grandin and the cows.
I'd be much happier with 1,000 sq. ft., but that wasn't available when I was looking. I can see how a studio would be OK because you're looking at most of it at one time.
I've been a little claustrophobic for years, though it was never much of an issue. I don't have to watch the guy on the National Geographic Channel crawl through a small cave. I didn't have to get onto a crowded elevator.
I don't need 2,250 sq. ft. At least not any more. We used to have a lot of stuff because we did a lot of things. This place used to be full of books, tools, guitars, craft supplies, cookware. I'm not ready to give up the vinyl collection.
Three weeks ago the power went out for a while so I decided to sit on the porch and read. The only book that I hadn't donated or packed was Eats Shoots & Leaves. Should there be a comma after ago or while? Whatever. I had a few candles and a flashlight.
But, what about grandmother's porcelain dinnerware? It was harder to get rid of the camping equipment. I haven't slept in a tent in years, so it was time to go.
Ask yourself this: if your house caught on fire and you had to run out with little time to spare would you care about taking your grandmother's porcelain dinnerware?
I'm moving from 2000+ square feet to about 850 in a couple of weeks, and I'm having nightmares about being stuck in tight spaces. I have no idea what to do with this. The move is inevitable.
Have you moved to a small space and felt cramped or hemmed in?
I lived in a 700 sq ft apartment and was just fine there until I started working from home. The following year I moved into my first (and only) house--2B/2B 975 sq ft. LOVE IT! Of course I was coming from a smaller space and you are moving from a larger one, but almost 15 years later I'm still happy there and I think a large part of it is the floor plan. Plenty of light and the layout of rooms works well for me. I'd still be working from home if the job hadn't been outsourced.
I think you do become more aware of how much stuff you have when you live in a small place (or if you move frequently, as I did years before). I don't feel cramped/cluttered and really like how things are set up.
Do you like the place itself? I mean apart from the size? Is there light, yard/patio/balcony, nice general location?
I hope you find things to enjoy there and that you like it better than you ever thought you would.
I grew up in a 2000+ sq ft house then moved into a 600ish sq ft apartment at age 25. Very refreshing how little I needed. Several years later, my fiance and I are living in a 1100 sq ft 2-bedroom apartment, and we are planning on downsizing to a 1-bedroom place (around 600 sq ft or less hopefully) when our current lease is up this year. The decluttering process has been extremely liberating, and we are actually looking forward to the smaller space.
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