Family in a one-bedroom?

I've seen plenty of people do it. You just need to be creative with the space. I've seen a family of 5 with a boy and 2 girls share a 1 bedroom apartment. They also have a weekend house - they all seem happy enough.

Us.

We have a 3 year old and we live in a 720 sq foot one-bedroom. It works for us because the bedroom is very large and there is plenty of room for a queen, two dressers and my child's toddler bed. We keep all toys in the main room in an organized shelving unit.

80% of the time we are totally comfortable. The two big cons are that: (a) I would like to have a space for a computer desk/printer which we dont have room for; and (b) closets are always jammed to overflowing.

We will be moving when my child turns 4 or 5; at that point I think a child needs their own room and space. One other consideration: I do know some parents who feel *very* strongly that they need the privacy that comes with their own room and for that reason could never do a one-bedroom or got frustrated with the situation quickly. But for us, it hasnt been an issue, guess that is a bit of an individual personality thing.

Good luck!

Well, in the case I cited, the children are teenagers now...i doubt they will be moving back home after college...but who knows with this economy.

Here's a one-bedroom estate sale that was on "Selling New York": http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/637969-coop-7-east-85th-street-upper-east-side-new-york

The son trying to sell it said he'd grown up there with his parents.

in this bad market, yes, you shouldn't spend too much

but the crooks are printing money like crazy, so either way you are screwed.

I know several people who are raising families on one-bedroom apartments.

The usual setup is the kids sleep in the bedroom, while Mom and Dad get the Murphy bed in the living room.

Technologic, what happens when you & spouse need, ahem, intimacy time?

@inonada
Yes agreed. How do you find time to be husband an wife????

Everyone has 24 hours in a day.

Definitely put in the divider; sleeping spaces don't need to be big if you have a living room where you'll spend time while awake.

You can also sleep on a bed that folds up into a couch, or (Asian-style) sleep on futons that get rolled up, and thus take up almost no space, during the day.

My neighbors in Tokyo do the latter and they raise two high-school-age daughters in a 400-sf apartment. I feel like that would be a stretch, but our other neighbors have just one 5-year-old daughter and are doing fine in that space. I'd say that most Japanese families live as Matt describes. Once you've done it, seeing people have separate bedrooms, dining rooms, and living rooms just feels like they're wasting space.

The one Asian-style thing I would *never* do is to have the mother, father, and infant/toddler all share the same bed or futon. The kid is in the middle, right between the spouses, and you'd better believe that "husband and wife" time falls off a cliff. With many couples it never comes back!

"Once you've done it, seeing people have separate bedrooms, dining rooms, and living rooms just feels like they're wasting space."

Not me.

Done the tiny space thing. I'm SO freaking ready for a living room AND family room AND dining room. And a "spare" room or two for guests. Imagine that! A room that's NOT USED until you need it.

All parents struggle to make time for each other in one way or another - you just make it work somehow, lol.

I have to say that I largely prefer the setup of everyone sleeping in the bedroom vs. kids in bedroom/parents in living room, because in the latter situation one person is screwed if the other likes to stay up and watch TV or read. You basically have to agree lights off at X time, which seems pretty unrealistic to me.