Tips for a Tiny Apartment: The Living Room

Living in Paris has its joys, but tiny, antiquated apartments are not one of them. At least not if you are a family of four! In this series, I'm sharing my tips on how to survive, room by room, if you live in a tiny apartment.



Tips for a Tiny Apartment: The Living Room
For a Parisian apartment, we actually have a pretty large living area. But that's because technically they consider it two rooms. When we signed the lease, we originally planned on somehow dividing the space so that part of it would be our bedroom and the rest would be the living area, giving the one bedroom to the kids. However, since I was only one month pregnant with Baby #2 at the time, we figured we had plenty of time to make the arrangements and decided to start out by making a play area for Leo and having the three of us share the bedroom.

Fast-forward a few months and we were way too used to all the (relative) open space to change it now! So we decided to put Stella in our bedroom (it's like a sleepover party but without the party and without the sleep!) and keep our living room as open as possible.

That meant we really had to get our act together in organizing the bedroom, but we still had to arrange the living room well since it contained the kids' play area, our dining table, and our couch + TV area. Here are my tips for organzing such an awkward space:

Minimize the decorations and furniture

We've tried to keep it as simple as possible so that we have extra space for the kids to play and for us to set up our drying rack for our laundry (first thing I'm doing when I move to the US is buying a dryer the size of my house!). In a tiny space, people tend to reduce the amount of furniture they have, out of necessity. But give them a few more inches and all of a sudden there's crap all over the place. When we moved to this palatial apartment (ha!) we kept the same amount of furniture and were thus able to enjoy the extra space.

Use multi-function furniture

Our ottoman serves three purposes:
- Foot rest
- Storage for blankets and other linens
- Place for Leo to spill things so that Mommy can constantly wash the washable cover

Central organization unit

Ours is from Ikea (Expedit, but apparently they're discontinuing it and replacing it with Kallax) and it's been a lifesaver. We can hide unsightly stuff in the bins (though of course I have additional organizational units inside most of them!) and display the books on the open shelves. Here's everything we managed to cram into this 16-shelf unit:

- Medicine
- Paper goods: gift wrapping supplies, stationery, pens/pencils/scissors/tape, stamps, checkbooks, passports
- Electrical stuff: spare light bulbs, cables, cameras, chargers, international adapaters
- Files: one entire bin for my French administration paperwork!
- Toys: Leo and Stella's toys take up three bins
- Scarves and hats
- Spare baby stuff
- Spare linens, burp cloths, and bibs

It looks decent and you'd never guess that our entire household's affairs are organized in there. I can easily find what I need and the important stuff is out of reach of the kids.

Rotate toys

It requires monthly trips to my zombie infested basement (I have a whole chapter on that in my book, Confessions of a Paris Potty Trainer!) but it's totally worth it. Our generous friends and family give us more toys than we have room for and we don't want Leo to be spolied or overstimulated, so we keep just a small selection in his play area and store the rest in the basement (or "cave" as they so awesomely call it in French).


And I'm vigilant about keeping the entire space clean. We're slowly teaching Leo to put his toys away but whatever he doesn't do, I put away each night. Any papers that come in the house (mail, 50 zillion photocopies of my visa paperwork) get treated right away so there's no clutter. It's admittedly hard to stay on top of everything but it would be worse if I had stuff all over the place.

So, sniff, this is the end of my series - there are no more rooms in my house! I'm organized because I have to be - our apartment is too small for us to stay sane any other way.

What are your tips, whether your house is big or small? How do you stay organized with the space you have?

Check out the rest of the series:
Tiny Apartment Tips: The Kitchen
Tiny Apartment Tips: The Bathroom
Tiny Apartment Tips: The Bedroom
Tiny Apartment Tips: The Closet
Tiny Apartment Tips: The Living Room

Want more? Subscribe to receive an email when I post a new article, or follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.

Tips for a Tiny Apartment: The Closet

Living in Paris has its joys, but tiny, antiquated apartments are not one of them. At least not if you are a family of four! In this series, I'm sharing my tips on how to survive, room by room, if you live in a tiny apartment.



Tips for a Tiny Apartment: The Closet
Most Parisian apartments don't have built-in closets, much less walk-in closets. So while you might look at my closet and think "She and her husband have to SHARE that space?", Parisians are looking at it with envy. I literally get ooohs and ahhhs when I give the tour. Go figure.

I'm probably the only person on the planet to feel this way, but I LOVE cleaning my closet. From my days of working at a clothing store I learned how to fold nice, neat stacks of clothes and it is SO satisfying to purge my closet then refold everything.

For the normal people in the crowd (i.e. the other 6.9999 billion people on the planet), here are some tips to help keep your closet organized, particularly if you don't have much space.

Clear out the clutter

Many blogs before me have given tips on this so I won't rehash what you can readily find elsewhere. But try these tips for getting rid of stuff:

• Challenge yourself to wear everything in your closet once. After you've worn it, put it at the bottom of the pile/back of the rack until you've gone through everything once. If you just can't bring yourself to wear something before pulling out a repeat, then you probably need to get rid of it.
• Ask yourself, "Would I buy this today?" Just because you already own it, doesn't mean you need to keep it. It's a sunk cost - it's not like you're going to earn interest every time you wear it! I had this one sweater I was determined to like and so I forced myself to wear it a lot, and it ended up being in a bunch of pictures. Now everytime I look at those pictures I hate the sweater and wish I would have gotten rid of it a million years ago. Buying the sweater was a mistake but I made it a bigger mistake by wearing it all the time.

Only store clothes and shoes

Once you start tossing other items in your closet, it's a slippery slope. You'll have less room to organize your clothes with weirdly shaped objects taking up space and you'll be more likely to let your nice, orderly closet fall into disrepair. Whatever else you think you need in the closet, take a good hard look at it and see if you really need it at all.

Adapt to the space

I personally love wooden hangers but they take up so much more room than crappy hangers or folding your clothes. One day, when I'm a princess and all my dreams come true, I'll have a closet that's half the size of my castle and I'll buy a ton of matching wooden hangers and hang all my princess dresses on them. Until then, I have to accept what I've got and adapt my clothing to the space. Specifically:

• Fold clothes instead of hanging them. Each stack has a theme - sleeveless, short sleeve, long sleeve, etc.
• Toss frequently worn items (pajamas, hoodies) on hooks so I don't have to fold them each time (making it more likely I'll take the time necessary to fold the rest).
• Baskets for socks, underwear, belts, etc.
• Hang the stuff that must be hung (dresses, suits, coats).

Another tip I often see is to stash out of season clothes somewhere else. Sounds good, but... where? I don't have anywhere else! As I mentioned in my bedroom tips post, I detest having things under my bed and we don't have space in our bedroom for another dresser or an armoire. Rather than store out of season clothes somewhere else, I think it's better to force yourself to whittle down what you have. When it comes down to it, you probably wear the same 5-10 pieces most of the time anyway!

Is your walk-in closet the size of my apartment? Please don't rub it in! Or is your closet just as tiny as mine? How do you stay organized, particularly if you have to share the space with a spouse or roommate?

Check out the rest of the series:
Tiny Apartment Tips: The Kitchen
Tiny Apartment Tips: The Bathroom
Tiny Apartment Tips: The Bedroom
Tiny Apartment Tips: The Closet
Tiny Apartment Tips: The Living Room

Want more? Subscribe to receive an email when I post a new article, or follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.

Tips for a Tiny Apartment: The Bedroom

Living in Paris has its joys, but tiny, antiquated apartments are not one of them. At least not if you are a family of four! In this series, I'm sharing my tips on how to survive, room by room, if you live in a tiny apartment.



Tips for a Tiny Apartment: The Bedroom

Living in a one-bedroom apartment isn't so bad if you're single. It gets a little more crowded once you're married/living with a partner. It gets really crowded once Baby #1 comes along. You feel like an animal in a cage once Baby #2 joins the circus. How on earth does our family of four handle it?

I admit, it's not easy. At the same time, it's not as hard as you'd think. We're all conveniently in the same room if someone wakes up fussy or hungry (which could be my 21-month-old, my baby, or me; usually my husband is able to sleep through the night). I'm guessing most families won't cram four people into a bedroom but you can still benefit from my tips if you're trying to make do with a small bedroom:

Only use the bedroom for sleeping

Goodbye, TV. So long, reading nook. See you in a few years when I'm living in a bigger place. In the meantime, the bedroom is purely for one function - sleeping. Remove as much other furniture as possible. In our room we have:
- Our queen size bed
- Two cribs
- The kids' shared dresser
- A nightstand (which I considered getting rid of but we need someplace for the lamp since we don't have an overhead light)

A crowded room feels much smaller. Look around your space. What do you really need?

Nothing under the bed

This goes against a lot of tips I see where people suggest maximizing your small space by storing things out of sight, such as under a bed or crib. I just can't do this. Even if I can't see it, I can feel its presence and it makes the room seem even smaller. If you have something that's not important enough to take up a more prominent spot, question why you have it in the first place. Could it go into storage? Could you get rid of it altogether?

In the past when I've stored things under the bed, my feet would bump up against them while I made the bed. And everything would get really dusty and was super hard to clean. And if you look at the bed from a distance, you can usually see all the junk under it. So while it seems like a good idea to store stuff under the bed, you'll actually feel like the space is much bigger if under the bed is 100% free of clutter.

The only downside is now zombies have a place to hide, but I can't solve all the world's problems.

Always make the bed

Speaking of beds, I always make my bed. Every day. It's the best use of 1-2 minutes I can think of to make your room feel pretty, cozy, clean, and fresh.

Have one nice piece

In a small room, we're definitely going for function over form. But you can still have a little fun with it. Pick one item to be your room's Wow Factor and base the room around it. We chose our headboard to be our focal point. It's plush, cozy, and "French chic". It adds a little class to the room while still keeping the overall flow simple and clutter-free. It adds a little color so we're not drowning in a sea of white, without dominating the room. What's your piece de resistance?

Is your bedroom the size of Barbie's dreamhouse? How do you stay sane and avoid bouncing off the walls?

Check out the rest of the series:
Tiny Apartment Tips: The Kitchen
Tiny Apartment Tips: The Bathroom
Tiny Apartment Tips: The Bedroom
Tiny Apartment Tips: The Closet
Tiny Apartment Tips: The Living Room

Want more? Subscribe to receive an email when I post a new article, or follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.

Tips for a Tiny Apartment: The Bathroom

Living in Paris has its joys, but tiny, antiquated apartments are not one of them. At least not if you are a family of four! In this series, I'm sharing my tips on how to survive, room by room, if you live in a tiny apartment.



Tips for a Tiny Apartment: The Bathroom

Before I dive into the tips, let me set the scene. Most Parisian apartments have one room for the toilet, which may or may not have a sink. Then they'll have a separate room for the shower/bath, and that will have a sink. It's a ridiculous waste of space in a space that's already ridiculously small. And while I could kind of understand their desire to keep the toilet separate from everything else, shouldn't there always be a sink in the same room? Plus, if you just combined the two rooms, you'd have a large enough room where the toilet could be quite far from the rest of the elements in the bathroom. I'm not buying it.

But I am stuck living in it.

So without further ado, here are some tips on how to live comfortably if you're stuck with a tiny bathroom:

Minimize your products

Do you really need 4 different types of shampoo? Can you and your husband/roommate/kids use some of the same products? Are some bottles close to empty? You can't streamline everything but see what you REALLY need and what you can consolidate. For example:

- My husband has amazing hair and can use any shampoo, so he uses my son's baby shampoo.
- I'm one of those people who squeezes every last drop out of every bottle/tube/jar, so I try to hold off on buying a replacement until the absolute last minute so that I don't have duplicates taking up space.
- If I try a new product I don't like I immediately give it away/toss it/recycle it. If I don't like it today, I'm not going to like it tomorrow so there's no need to have 10 different types of lotions lying around.

Close the shower curtain

In my kitchen tips post, I mention the importance of keeping a small area clean so that it feels bigger. That holds true for bathrooms as well. One of the quickest ways to give the impression of being clean without having to scrub it down every day is to close the shower curtain. Now you can't even see the shower/tub! I usually let it air out 5-10 minutes after taking a shower, then close the curtain. The side benefit is that by stretching the curtain out, the curtain itself airs out and won't get the gross mildew and/or hard water stains as quickly.

Use a tiny trash can

We don't generate much trash in our shower room so rather than have a can taking up precious space (and attracting my toddler's attention) I have the world's tiniest trash can under my sink. It pretty much only sees make-up remover pads and cottons swabs so I can go quite a long time before emptying it.

Since everyone got a kick out of my tiny kitchen trash can, I figured I'd show my even tinier bathroom trash can. Normally he hides under the sink but I took him out so you can see how small he is compared to soap and toothbrushes.

Minimize colors and use white as much as possible

You'll be somewhat limited with this if you're renting (like us) but you can at least try to have accents (shower curtains, rugs, towels, mirrors) in white or light colors. The fewer competing colors, the larger the room will feel.

Minimize decorations and store things out of sight

Originally I had perfume and cologne bottles lined on the shelf below the mirror. It was handy and I thought it added a nice French touch. But the shelf is just a little bit slanted and one day one of the bottles lemming-ed (I'm making that a word) its way off the shelf. It was a sad day. So I stashed the rest of the bottles under the sink, leaving just my seashell on the shelf. And you know what? The room doubled in size. Less really is more. Take your decorative items to other parts of the house that can showcase them better and leave the bathroom as sparse as possible.

Do you have a tiny bathroom? What do you do to stay sane?

Check out the rest of the series:
Tiny Apartment Tips: The Kitchen
Tiny Apartment Tips: The Bathroom
Tiny Apartment Tips: The Bedroom
Tiny Apartment Tips: The Closet
Tiny Apartment Tips: The Living Room

Want more? Subscribe to receive an email when I post a new article, or follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.

Tips for a Tiny Apartment: The Kitchen

Living in Paris has its joys, but tiny, antiquated apartments are not one of them. At least not if you are a family of four! In this series, I'm sharing my tips on how to survive, room by room, if you live in a tiny apartment.



Tips for a Tiny Apartment: The Kitchen

Prioritize Your Appliances

On the counter: Only items you use everyday or are a pain to take out/put away. Examples: the beloved coffee pot, toaster (who wants to wait for it to cool and then transfer crumbs all over the place each time?).

In easy-to-reach cabinets: Items you use occasionally - not often enough to justify the counter space but if you put it too far out of reach you'll never use it and might as well just get rid of it. Examples: mixer, crockpot, waffle-maker, pumpkin bread pans.

Hidden away: Items you can't bear to get rid of but you will use once or twice a year. Stash them in under-the-stove storage, upper cabinets, or another room so they don't clutter your kitchen. Examples: Deep-fryer (even though I want to use it every night, I shouldn't, plus that thing makes the world's biggest mess each time), turkey roasting pan.

Sell/Donate: If you haven't used it since "Lost" ended (sniff, I miss you, Desmond), sell it or donate it. You were totally going to be the bad-ass bread-maker on your block but it just... never happened. That's OK! But it's not OK to keep this crap around your kitchen.

Keep It Clean

A dirty kitchen looks 50% smaller. I majored in math in college so you can trust me on that stat. Here are the areas that will have the biggest impact:

• Wipe the counters and stove every day, either with a wash cloth (that you wash frequently), disposable cleaning wipes, or some eco/green/wonderful product you found on another blog. I don't care, just wipe that stuff up! Also, anything in your kitchen that's white (cabinets, coffee pot, fridge) should be wiped down nearly every day. Down with smudgy fingerprints!
• Replace hand towels as soon as they get dingy, dirty, or crispy.
• Do your dishes right away. If you always do this, then it's never really that big of a job.

Trash vs. Recycle

We all know it's good to recycle but that doesn't mean everyone does it. Here's what I do:

My trash can is a little shy -
he didn't know he'd be on the blog
(that's why he's hiding in the corner).

• I have a super tiny trash can and empty it every other day. I reuse shopping bags for the liners (it's a game to see how long I can go before I have to buy trash bags - I'm going on 5+ years!) and only toss items that can't be recyled. This ensures that my trash can is never overflowing, which is unsightly and smelly (duh).
• I recycle everything else and use a much larger bin which I hide under the sink. Since stuff you recyle isn't smelly, you can let this bad boy really fill up before having to empty it. This way, the trash can that's out in the open (which is convenient but ugly) never gets out of control, and your recycle is hidden. Plus you save the planet.
• Be sure to check your area's recycling rules but in Paris it's insane what you can toss in the recycle bin. I mean, obviously your usual paper, bottles, and packaging. But you can even put hair dryers and metal scraps. And I can't tell you how many hair dryers and metal scraps I get rid of in a week (ok, zero, but it's still good to know I have the option).

Rein in Those Groceries

For my family of 3, which includes a 20-month-old human vacuum cleaner and a 6'4" husband, I'm surprised by how little we actually eat in a week. Don't load up your pantry and fridge with all sorts of crap that will go bad before you use it.

• Keep a few staples on hand so you're not tempted to eat out: rice, pasta, eggs, etc.
• Buy what you need for the week and then make sure you actually eat it that week. I like to organize my fridge where, from top to bottom, I have the stuff that needs to go next (top), needs to go sometime this week (middle shelves), to staples (bottom). Check your fridge out a few times throughout the week and rotate as necessary. Same with your pantry - don't let near-empty packages get pushed to the back to die a slow death (and take up unnecessary space).
• Don't go overboard on sale items. Three boxes of rice for the price of one? OK, you'll find room in the pantry but you better plan on eating rice for the next few weeks. Meat on sale? Freeze it (cutting off nasty bits first and sealing individual portions in bags so they're at-the-ready).

Minimal Color Palette

Our landlord won't let us paint the walls so I'm breaking my own rule here but not by choice. Who knew that mustard tile matched banana walls? (It doesn't.) If I were to have full control, I would paint the walls white and then the tiles wouldn't be so offensive. Since I can't do that, I did the next best thing:

• Bought all-white appliances to match (until my microwave caught on fire, then I could only find a gray microwave to replace it - thank you, Paris, for your wide selection).
• White stove/oven, refrigerator, rug and towels.
• White dish drainer and coffee pot. Wait a minute, those aren't white! I know. But these items are surprisingly expensive in Paris (like $150 for simple coffee pot and $25 for a dish drainer) so we're sticking with what we got for our wedding. Sue me.

I could go on, but I need to head over to Pinterest and dream about a bigger kitchen. Hope these tips help fellow tiny-apartment dwellers.

Check out the rest of the series:
Tiny Apartment Tips: The Kitchen
Tiny Apartment Tips: The Bathroom
Tiny Apartment Tips: The Bedroom
Tiny Apartment Tips: The Closet
Tiny Apartment Tips: The Living Room

Want more? Subscribe to receive an email when I post a new article, or follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest.