The Small Apartment Lifestyle

Living in a Small Apartment – In Style

Small apartments don’t have to be short on comfort — or even storage. Maximizing space in a small apartment is entirely possible, and it’s a requirement, especially if you’re moving from a larger place.

A recent article in the Denver Post highlighted a few folks who are living in small apartments and getting the most out of their space. One person who lives in a 325-square-foot Los Angeles apartment sleeps on his sofa bed at night, using it as a couch during the day. He doesn’t really have a choice: his apartment is so small that it doesn’t have any kind of sleeping area.

Small Apartment Advantages

Sure, living in a small apartment can be a challenge, but as the article points out, it has its benefits. Residents can’t hold on to everything and often must keep around only the essentials. This is hard for pack rats, but reduces clutter and makes for simpler apartment living. Another advantage is small utility bills. Cheaper apartment rent and lower heating and cooling bill charges are possible when you’re living in a small apartment. With these turbulent economic times, a lot of apartment renters are thinking of downsizing to small apartments to save on rent or eliminate that spare bedroom.

While American homes and apartments have gotten bigger and bigger over the last three decades, people have recently been moving towards adopting more modest lifestyles, says the Denver Post. In fact, in a survey conducted by the American Institute of Architects, it was found that one-third of the 500 residential architecture firms surveyed were thinking small and designing smaller houses.

How to Survive – and Thrive – in Small Apartments

So how do you maximize space when you’re living in a small apartment?

• Be creative with the apartment’s space. For example, one Manhattan resident converted an entryway in a small apartment into a wall unit, complete with a desk and a space for storage.
• Use interesting lighting, like multiple sources of light in every room. This creates a sensation of greater depth, transforming small flat areas into more textured spaces.
• Consider going with a simple, small and clean design when you buy or rent furniture.
• Eliminate apartment clutter. Instead of having many small pieces of art on a wall, just get one larger, colorful one.
• A few months before you move to the small apartment, look at your possessions, especially the larger ones, and ask yourself: “Have I used this in the last year?” If not, it should be a candidate for sale, gifting, or donation.
• Start early! If you wait until the last minute, moving into a small apartment will be complicated by the lack of space. Just throwing everything into boxes and moving the boxes to the new small apartment isn’t going to work. Plan ahead and purge those inessential items from your life.

Living in a small apartment definitely has its advantages. It can be fun living simply while at the same time making a statement through your decorating choices. If you’re looking for a small apartment, we invite you to search for apartments using ApartmentSearch.com. Remember to claim your $200 reward after you’ve found the apartment of your dreams on ApartmentSearch.com.