Home in 600 Square Feet

In our apartment, there is not a lot of space.  D and I have to share 600 square feet for all our stuff and hobbies.  Luckily for me, D's hobby is writing, so I only have to make space for a laptop.  Poor D; I have a large number of hobbies that require a large number of workspaces and equipment.  So I want to show how we make it work with a little tour of our little place.

Our Living Room, 3 views

The living room is where most of our activities happen.  So we had to section it into some "zones."  Zone 1 is the sitting area where we watch movies and relax.  Its cozy, and super comfortable with our new furniture.  We love it in here now.

Zone 2 is my craft table.  Behind the couch I can paint or cut and paste, anything to scratch my crafty itch.  D actually convinced me to make a dedicated area since I woud leave little craft projects all over the place.  This works out better for everyone.

Last is Zone 3, my music area.  I'm a music teacher, and a musician so I have equipment that I need to store and use.  So the back of the living room is a music room.  Currently, I'm playing saxes and flute for a theatre version of Hairspray the Musical, so I have some saxophones laying around.  If I wasn't practicing so much they would be put away.

It took us a long time to organize all our things together so that the living area wouldn't look so crowded.  I think it is pretty good for now.

Kitchen Corridor, 2 views

 I love to cook and bake, but we only have a corridor for a kitchen, so it can be tricky.  We added a cart for more counter space and that has helped.  We also have a small antique cupboard that is our pantry.  There was no way to get a good picture of it, since its trapped in the corner... I also store my serger and sewing machine on top of it so I can sew whenever I want with ease.  This kitchen pretty much holds only one person, so I do a lot of cooking alone, or D helps at the table.  I have made Thanksgiving dinner for 8 people in this kitchen. It takes a lot of organization and multi-tasking.  Maybe I will write a post about cooking in small spaces?

Tiny bathroom.  No storage in here.  A small bathtub, small vanity and sink. We don't store anything in here.  Most towels and stuff are in the linen closet outside the bathroom.

Bedroom!  I have a thing for light and airy bedrooms.  I also have a thing for Paris, so all the pictures in the room are of Paris.  There are also more books in here.  We have to do something about all these books.  In the corner of the room is a bookshelf filled with paperbacks.  I read in bed every night, so it seemed like a good idea to put a shelf in there. But then we kept buying books.  It seems I need to get re-acquainted with my library.  Stop bring so many books home to stay.

So that's our home in 600 square feet! Its not tiny, but it is small.  We love living in the small place, there not so much to clean!  Things that I learned living in small places my whole life:

• Storage containers are your friend.  I have storage containers under our bed; in our closets and in the living room under the couch.  I have them in all shapes and sizes to help hold and organize all our things.  Under the bed I store my wool for knitting and crochet.  It's out of the way but accessible.  I even have a weather proof box on our balcony to store our air conditioner.
• Zones hep organize space and minimize (and localize) clutter and messes.  Because my craft area is in one spot, all the mess is in one spot.  If I mess up that area, the rest of the living still looks ok.  And it looks like a smaller cleaning job.  
• Living in a small apartment helped me and D simplify our lives.  We don't have the space for extra things we don't need, so we don't have them!

I hope you liked the tour!  We are starting to be proud of the work we put into our space.  We even learned to to change the light fixtures this weekend:

 
Yay for new skills!