Does anyone else live in a house not big enough for their family?

[mckenziemuffin]

DH and I have 2DC of different genders and live in a 2.5 bedroom flat (DS' room isn't actually big enough to be classed as a room, but does have a window. May just be able to squeeze in a single bed when he's a bit bigger but there'd be no floor space. We'd only intended on being here a few years whilst they're young but the market has outpriced us and we can't afford anywhere bigger that's not literal hours away and in a whole different place. We are expecting another child (contraceptive failure) and don't really know what we're going to do when they're a bit older. The only option we see is splitting our room in half for the older DC but that's only if we can put a door in a wall we haven't checked structurally. So if not then I really don't know. I'm so reluctant to move again as it was a big move to here 2 years ago and DD is thriving so much at a school and I don't want her to have to move again when she's so settled (DS probably wouldn't mind as much). Is anyone else in the same position that their home is too small for the people in it? We can't extend anywhere either

@Neodymium I love the idea of this but apart from the living room door, it's the bathroom behind the wall and ascending stairs on the other side 😓

@Greyish2025 you could get a single bed in the yellow bit but do you mean knocking the wall down in between bedrooms and then putting another up somewhere?

You could square off the room like this, which would make it plenty big enough. I would then move you and DH in to loft and use the living toom for whichever of the two children are of same sex, as it’s really spacious. Then you could decide, as a PP has suggested, whether to perhaps take down the wall between bedroom 2 and the dining room
to make a big family friendly space.

Parents in the master upstairs with the ensuite
2 DC of same gender in the current living room
Other DC in bedroom 2
Dining room becomes living room

Something like this…

I mean like this. You would need to make a little hallway.

Yes, this is what I would do.
The problem is fitting in a table and chairs as well as a sofa, but you could use the storage room then as a TV room or something.
I think there’s quite a lot of space here, it’s bigger than my house anyway.

Yes, knock the wall and put up a wall where the red line is around the bed, these kind of walls are just partitions and quick and easy to do

You could even DIY a fitted bed platform. It's particularly useful that you have three supporting walls at one end.

Ex's childhood bedroom was smaller.

What about something like this OP?

You have a few years to worry about shared bedrooms (my youngest stayed with us until nearly 3, despite having a room to go in).

You've actually got a really good floorplan! You can easily have a kitchen and living/dining room then 3/4 other bedrooms.

We had ds in a room that size until eldest dd moved out. Once out of cot/cot bed We got him a cabin bed so he had drawers and a small cupboard underneath. One for underwear/pjs and rest of space for toys. Rest of his clothes in our room, we did shelves for his books/ lego etc and a hammock for his cuddly toys . Also got end of bed storage bags. He had floor space the length of the room long and under a metre wide. At one end there was two plastic boxes stacked with his toys. There was enough room for him to sit and play or he could siton his bed to play. Not ideal but it worked.

I'd keep things as they are with baby going into your room until baby is sleeping through/in a toddler bed then baby go in with dc of same sex and other dc gets box room

My dc room is 6ft.2 by 8ft.
Similar shape to your ds room.
Bed under window. Drawers behind door. Bookcase next to bed

Dc is like this. Blue is the chest of drawers
Yellow is the bookcase.
A bedside would still fit.

However my dcs don't have toys upstairs
Hanging clothes go in a built in wardrobe in other dc room.

It's easy - you can either have one made to measure, or you buy an ikea mattress, take the cover off, cut the foam using an electric or bread knife, sew the cover to the correct size, put cover back on (theyre zipped). Job done.

You can split a room by putting a bunk cabin bed in the middle. The top bed faces one way, and the bottom bed opens up to the opposite way.

DS 9 is in a short single as that's the length of the wall. It has three short steps up so had four drawers for clothes. Something like that would help?

So baby in with you for a year or longer if you can and then at 8/10 the third goes in the larger room with the child of their same sex and bunk beds and the other one has the smaller room.

Is it ideal? No but it's life. You'll manage. Toys downstairs mainly

Move to a cheaper area. Seriously.

I was in a 3 bed (one was a very small box room) terrace with 4 teens. 3 older teen boys in 1 small bedroom. We made it work with cabin beds.

It was housing association though and very luckily did an exchange and now have 5 bedrooms.

Can you do something like this?

Honestly I'd just bite the bullet and look into the options of where you could move to. I think realistically you'd have to do it eventually and it's nicer to settle into your long-term home sooner rather than later, then any improvements and redecoration is something that you benefit from for years.

If you moved house 2 years ago it'd probably take at least 6 months before you move again and that's not too short a time to be moving again. Kids are resilient and your DD will make friends in a new school. It's not ideal, but it sounds like it's not impossible that you could move (compared to someone in a council flat for example, and not able to get an exchange or be rehoused).

We lived in a 1 bed flat with 2 adults and 2 dcs (all of us in one room until eldest was 4), and I grew up as a family of 6 in a 3 bed flat. It was OK being in a 1 bed with young kids as we like to keep them in our room until age 3ish anyway, but it was always on the cards to move. But growing up sharing a room with 2 siblings was rubbish and I couldn't wait to leave home and have my own room at uni.

Seriously!
That’s not always a possibility because of schools etc ( other reasons) and also I’m sure the OP has already considered whether that’s a viable option

Our second bedroom is only slightly if any bigger than your DS's room and we have both kids in there in a bunk bed! Our third bedroom is not quite big enough to squeeze a single into and is currently our laundry drying room. Surely the answer is bunk beds in your DD's current room for the two same sex siblings and a loft bed in your DS's current room for the other sibling? No child needs a double bed😊 Not wanting to be snippy, but I was expecting a very different floor plan based on your title! You should easily be able to get a full-size single into the smallest room, underneath the window? I certainly wouldn't despair at your situation!

@Greyish2025 I meant move out of London or wherever Op is. We move from SE to midlands when second child was twins and have a better life in a much bigger property. It baffles me that people put themselves through years of cramped living when they could have so much elsewhere.

Where is your front door ?
I think the plan with the bedroom and dining room knocked through to create a big open family area and the living room becoming 1 big or 2 small rooms looks good.

Is there the possibility of extending the kitchen to create even more space ?