It’s no secret that Justin and I have lived in… somewhat humble places since getting married. :) We’ve always had one bedroom, one bathroom, and a common area shared with the kitchen, all wrapped up less than 1,000 sq. feet. Our current apartment is actually 670 square feet! We essentially live in a glorified kitchen, I like to say. Yet, we’ve still been able to welcome visitors weekly, host guests overnight monthly, have birthday and Christmas parties, and keep our home clean, spacious, and functional, all without getting stressed about any of the above. City living can be a challenge when it comes to normal life events (like having out of town guests stay with you), but it’s not impossible!
We don’t live in the Washington D.C. boundary lines, but I’d call this city living simply because of the traffic we would have to deal with if we moved farther away from Justin’s work. At one point it was taking Justin 90 minutes to drive less than 24 miles! So, last Fall we decided to invest back into our time and move within a mile of Justin’s workplace. It changed everything!
This past year has been amazing in our tiny living quarters. It was a trade-off that was beyond worth it to us. I mean, Justin leaves around 7am and is home by 3:45pm every day… you just can’t beat that! What we traded in space, we gain in convenience and quality time together, and for this season, it’s been perfect.
That being said, being in a 600 sq. ft apartment comes with its own challenges… but none that can’t be conquered with a little bit of planning and strategy. I’ve been so excited to put this post together because something like this would have helped me so much when we were moving into our first apartment and trying to figure out just where to put the trash can without blocking someone’s walking path. It’s the little things!
I’m excited to share some of my favorite small space living hacks and products for how we’ve made our tiny apartment such a fun season! It could have easily been stressful to keep de-cluttered, store new things, host guests… but it wasn’t thanks to these little fixes and miracle products!
Small Apartment Living Hacks: Our Top 7 Must-Have Products
1. Our super sleek SimpleHuman slim step trashcan: We love this because it solved the “trash can problem” we had at our first apartment… there was nowhere for it to go! We had a cheap plastic trashcan that didn’t hide smells very well and just didn’t look pretty. So, I hid it under the sink, which was fine… but it was annoying having to make sure the lid didn’t get stuck open, pulling it out to change the bags, and telling people they had to duck under the sink to throw even the tiniest piece of trash away. When we moved into our current apartment, I was fully prepared to do the same thing, but my Justin put his foot down and said no! We deserved a nice trashcan! Haha. This one fits right beside our kitchen breakfast bar, and because it’s so slim in its design, it doesn’t take up much space at all. It looks really nice! It’s kinda pricey, but it’s served us well and the next trashcan we buy will also be from the SimpleHuman brand. We were super impressed!
2. Our Crate & Barrel storage ottoman: When it came to setting up our living room space, we knew we wanted something functional but comfortable to have in front of our couch. We spend a lot of time relaxing here together… watching movies, catching up on a TV show over dinner, and sitting and visiting with friends. Instead of a coffee table, which I’m sure would have maybe looked a little more trendy, we decided to get an ottoman that would allow us to put our feet up and get comfy whenever we sat down on the couch. We thought we might get lucky and find an ottoman that had a tray table that could rise up, and we did! The best advice I’ve ever received when it comes to decorating a small space is to invest in functional, multi-use items, particularly items that convert into something else, or have storage space. This ottoman does both of those things! It’s the best. We got it during a Fall sale at Crate & Barrel for 35% off, which was even better! It’s held up super well over the past year and we plan on having it for the better half of the next decade. It was one of our best purchase decisions.
3. Our TV stand with built-in electric fireplace. Our current apartment sadly didn’t come with a real fireplace (we never used the fireplace at our last apartment anyway, let’s be honest…) and we wanted to bring some of that light and warmth to our living room, especially since we moved into this apartment right before the holiday season got underway. I can’t tell you how charming it was to watch the little fireplace flicker with our Christmas tree all lit up and stockings hanging! It just made our new place feel that much more cozy and homey. Oh, and this thing puts out some HEAT! We actually didn’t run the heat in our unit all winter (top floor perks!) and would just turn this on when we wanted to warm up a bit more while sitting in front of the TV. I also love the rustic color version we got. I think it will look good in any place we’re living for years to come!
4. Our floor length, flowy, white Ikea curtains that cover our balcony sliding glass door. This made a WORLD of difference in our space. I could tell because friends that visited when we first moved in before we’d installed the curtains kept commenting on how much bigger it felt in our apartment after they visited again! The curtain trick is well known: Place the rod 6-12 inches above the actual window and 6-12 inches outside of the window’s width. We used as much space as we could with that was available, since this balcony window takes up most of the far wall in our apartment. We bought a dark curtain rod to add some contrast with the white walls and white curtains. We made sure the curtain length was 4-6 inches longer than what we actually needed. At first, I thought they were way too long, but I kept reading online that long curtains make for a romantic, flowy look, and they really do! It brightened up our space AND made it look bigger. Definitely one of our best decorating decisions!
Also, a side note… pillows make a WORLD of difference when it comes to decor and making a space feel comfy & welcoming! The couch came with two pillows and the rest are all from Target! I like mixing big fluffy ones with smaller, more decorative pillows! The blanket on the ottoman is from Amazon, the rug is from Salt & Sundry, the little footrest is from Target, and the lamp is from Home Depot! :)
5. Luxury bedding supplies. When you live in a one bedroom apartment but have guests visiting often, you have to get creative with how to make your space comfortable for overnight guests! If we had a married couple visit, we would offer up our bed, but often we would just have a friend or sibling staying. This is one of the reasons why we bought such a deep couch. When you take the back cushions off of it, the width is nearly that of a full-sized bed! We knew this would be the main place guests would be sleeping, and because we didn’t want them to feel like they were sleeping on a couch, we made sure to get some specific bedding materials to make things extra comfy:
- This down comforter/mattress topper, which we fold in half and layer on top of the couch cushions to make it feel more like a mattress!
- Boll & Branch bed sheets so our guests are wrapped up in extra soft cotton blankets (that get softer with each wash)
- This Coleman high rise air mattress just in case we have more than one guest. This also works well with the down comforter, which serves as a layer that traps heat below the sleeper and keeps it from being too cold on the air mattress!
6. All the racks we can find. We have a coat rack hanging by the front door that also has a little shelf we can store items or decorations. We have a clothes drying rack for our clothing that can’t be put in the dryer (honestly, we need two of these)! We have a wine rack that sits on the top of our fridge that everyone compliments… they love browsing the wine bottles from our wedding, our travels to Europe… it’s just a fun piece to have in our kitchen. When you have a small space, functionality is everything, and we now have tons of functional pieces in the form of racks that help us keep our space organized!
7. Plenty of SEATS. We live in 670 square feet, but we have people over ALL the time. We’ve never run out of space to sit – granted, we’ve only hosted parties with less than 15 people, but still… to be able to throw someone a birthday party and have it in such a tiny space is so much fun. Our couch comfortably seat 4-5 people. Our ottoman can seat another 2-3. We have 4 kitchen chairs, 2 barstools, a desk chair I can pull out, and a pouf that can seat another person. That’s 15 seats in one room!
We thought we would need more poufs, and if we had thrown anymore parties, we probably would have gotten a few more of those. They can be stacked easily for storage and also serve as footrests, so a win-win with the functionality aspect. The barstools aren’t used by us super often but when I have bible study I find myself sitting up at the breakfast bar to give everyone space at the table. It was just awesome knowing that no matter how many people we had over, we could make sure everyone was comfortable, and that was one of our main goals with creating our home, wherever it was or however big or small. When we have more than one room to work with, I’m not sure what we are going to do with ourselves! :)
No matter where you live or how much space you have to work with, there are so many options when it comes to furniture and decor purchases. We’ve found some amazing pieces that are multipurpose and super practical as well as stylish, and I hope this post made your home decor shopping a little easier! I spent DAYS looking up products before we moved into this apartment (it was the first place we made purchases for vs. having hand-me-downs) and I wish I had come across a post like this to help me get a good start. So, I hope this blog post has been that for you!
