To ask you to help me work out how a baby will work in our one bed flat (diagram)

[HackneyP]

DH and I have found out we are expecting a baby due end of May. We live in a one bed housing association flat (third floor) in central London and will likely need to stay here for a while after the baby is born.

Logistically I need some help on making our flat work! (See attached diagram- not to scale!)

Bedroom is a small double. Our bed takes up 3/4 of the room.

Very small bathroom, shower over the bath.

Large front room/ living room.

Large kitchen.

I don't know where we could put a cot/ changing table/ pram etc. Everything we get will need to be relatively compact. I did think about us sleeping in the front room and getting a big sofa bed and making our bedroom the baby's room with a cot and changing table (it would work for this) but then there's nowhere for either of us to go of one wants to sleep early and I still want the place to look decent enough for visitors (wishful thinking).

Any suggestions gratefully received.

You don't need a changing table. A changing mat which can be stored down the side of the sofa or whatever will be fine

Is co-sleeping an option?

A baby doesn't need to take up too much room.
Can you get a smaller bed for your room and free up some space? Or move the bed on to the wall, to free some floor space?

All you really need for the first few months are a moses basket which takes up less room than a cot, a change mat not a changing table (we keep a mat and small box with nappies and wipes in the living room) and somewhere to keep clothes. A pram can sit in the hall and doesn't need to be huge, the city jogger mini is a lovely compact pram.

Could you have the current lounge as a bedroom/playroom, and then turn the current bedroom into a smaller lounge?

Questions: Is your hallway really that massive? And where's your front door? What's the situation in your kitchen like - could you get a TV in there? And how long do you think you'll be there after the baby is born?

Your front room is a decent size. I would probably use that for baby storage (all their clothes, have a changing station there) and keep the bedroom where it is. Can you squeeze a moses basket next to your bed? If you do have visitors, it would be nice to have one room that you can keep messy (I don't think I made my bed for months).

Forget changing table , just use a mat on the floor. You can use the hall for a pram. Moses basket on chest of drawers in the bedroom?

Can you put in an application for a move?

It's when baby starts moving - that's when it gets really tricky.

I didn't use a pram for mine as they didn't like it so used a sling then a small umbrella pushchair for when they were 5 months on.

You don't need a changing table. Waste of money. The floor is fine with a change mat.

Our flat looked a lot like yours. We got rid of a lot of stuff to create space, stored a lot at the in laws. Switched our bedroom into the living room with his cot at the end of our bed. Didn't have a changing table, just a mat on the floor. Couldn't store the pushchair anywhere so didn't have one and just used a sling. It wasn't ideal but it worked for 18 months before we moved out.
You'll make it work. Good luck with everything

I'd move the bedroom into the living room, keep baby in there with you.

Make bedroom into a small living space for evenings / time out from baby. Have a small sofa bed in there.

Visitors will just have to cram in with you, or you could use the larger room as bedroom at night and living space by day and make the smaller room into the baby's room.

Would a space saver cot be an option to fit in your bedroom? And then you can probably skip the moses basket.

Agree with the comments about a changing table - my second baby is 4 months old and I don't think he is aware we have a changing table!

What else is in the bedroom? Could you fit a big ish storage unit in your hallway? Do you have a car? If so the buggy could go in the boot, if not get an umbrella one that lies flat and a sling.

You don't need a changing table. I just used a towel/changing mat on the floor. You also don't really need a cot. I had a co-sleeping cot which attached to the side of my bed, and was effectively a bed extension. Is there room for that? Lots of babies pretty much refuse to sleep in a cot anyway, and just end up in your bed. What I wish I'd done with mine is to set up a sort of Japanese bed arrangement with low futons so that there was enough sleeping space and the baby couldn't roll/crawl off.

There are lots of very compact pushchairs suitable from birth. There's a review of some here www.madeformums.com/reviews-and-shopping/10-of-the-most-compact-folding-buggies/8237.html

I'd get one of those and a sling.

Awwww, we lived like that with dc1 and it was wonderful. We swapped a chest of drawers for a changing table with flip down changing surface, actually gained more drawer space and had a hub for baby stuff. We co slept/ put baby to sleep in a Moses whilst tiny then lit her in a travel cot when older. It was great! One level living is ideal with babies.

Would a cot like a Chico next to me work in your room with the bed pushed against the wall?

Changing tables aren't necessary.

Babies don't take up much room when they are little, once they are bigger and moving around it becomes a different story!

Also the quinny zapp extra folds down really small and can be used from birth so that would be a good option for a pushchair/pram

depends on how long you are staying there for,
if moving asap i would use a bassinet next to the bed and no change table ( or a collapsible one that folds flat), pram in the hall way or can be hung up on hooks,

if you cant move for a long while i would move the lounge to the bed room and my bed to the lounge, i have done that in one flat. ( dismantle and store anything you don't absolutely need, like your dining table and wall units etc and if your bed has room underneath get plastic tubs that you can store things in underneath, same with the cot once you start using it, you can store heaps under it and get large hooks for the wall or over the door hooks to hang the pram and highchair up( if you are still there when you start using it)

A change table is nice to have but you will find you often just do it on a change mat on the floor, and half the "stuff" you buy when you have baby is just nice to have but totally not needed, like we had a nappy wrapper bin and a bottle heater and a special co-sleeper bed and a shopping trolley insert thingy all sorts of "stuff" none of it actually needed or even necessary

A changing table/mat is never needed f you learn how to change your baby on your lap. Simple!

If I owned your flat I'd consider moving the kitchen into the lounge and changing the kitchen into a bedroom or making the kitchen smaller and moving the bathroom into that space but obviously that's not possible.

Babies don't need too much room - is there room for one of those 'cots' that fix to the side of your bed?

Maybe an Ikea browse would also offer some ideas?

Moses baskets are fab & cheap but don't last long (3 months?) a co sleeper like a chicco one is bigger and would last you longer (maybe 7 months) or just get a space saver cot. If you get a cot you can get s cot top changer, you don't need a changing table.

Personally I'd keep the lounge as a lounge - I always needed space to escape to once the baby was asleep in the evenings. You're only next door so with a monitor it should be fine.

I see that your bedroom is small but your hallway and living room are reasonably sized. Definitely skip the changing table.

See if you can store some bedroom stuff in your hallway or living room. Try to find some tallish slim drawer units for this. Also your clothing , can it be moved into a smaller cupboard? Baby's things can be in your living room too.

Wrt a cot you could simply get a small one and see how it goes , you can rethink as time goes on. You don't need to go all out immediately.

I'd advise a small umbrella fold buggy too , it'll take up less space in your home , be easy for staircases and be great for London public transport if you use it. Something like a silver cross pop is nice and suitable from birth.

Congratulations by the way.

Double sofa bed. Single bed + cot, wardrobe/storage in bedroom.

Use the bedroom as the baby's, but keep all clothes (you/DP etc in there).

Get a really good sofa bed- Ikea are very comfortable, easy to pull out & put away every day, and come with lift-up storage for bedclothes in built.

If you also keep a single bed in baby's bedroom, you have the option of one of you going to bed early.

Keep the sitting room as is.
Limit what you buy - changing mat not table, fold-up Maclaren pushchair not massive "system", sling, etc.

Sorry for brief reply at work so will reply properly later. Hallway not that massive at all it's a normal size small square shape. The bed in our room is already a small double and against a wall.

Bedroom becomes living room and living room becomes bedroom.

Bed against the wall, Chico next to me cot (or the kind of thing). No changing table, not needed. Small buggy, something like a petit star zia is compact and suitable from birth. Sling. Job done.

Long term, could you get a high sleeper bed and put the baby stuff underneath you?

We had room for a changing table but didn't bother to buy one. It really isn't necessary. Short term a small baby doesn't need much space - just room for a Moses basket. Longer term bed against the wall and fit in a cot or if possible as pps have suggested, swap the bedroom and living room. Maybe a wall bed that folds down if you can afford it? Look at simple storage solutions too. Good storage makes a huge difference.

I know some people who have managed lo live for years in a similar space. One family put a cot/toddler bed in the hallway, and the other set up a double loft bed in the sitting room and used the bedroom for their daughter.