Baby in a 1bed

[meowmix7]

Basically, we are living in the dream London flat, fantastic location, close to the tube, close to work, everything right on our doorstep, great landlord who has never increased our rent in 4years and we can treat the place like our own!

We have just started discussing having a baby in the very near future and we both do not want to move - anything we have seen in our area is absolutely grim & in a bad location in comparison to what we have now ! Are we nuts to even think about bringing a baby into such a small space??

Our bedroom is pretty big and I reckon the baby would be in with us for a good while in the beginning anyway !

I am thinking we could just get new born necessities and then get rid of those and replace them with the next lot of must haves as the baby grows..I mean how much stuff do you actually need?

I'm starting to worry that maybe we won't have enough space and that after the baby is here we won't have the money to move so we will be stuck in the small flat with no way out for a long time!

Any advice? Anyone else in the same position / have space saving ideas?

Thanks

Yep you could stay for 3 to 4 years. I would.

First six months you'll be fine, small babies don't need that much and will likely sleep in with you. I would think about what you'll do after that - once our baby was six months we kept waking him up getting into bed so I was glad to move him to his own room. Where will baby sleep when you move out of your room? Amount of toys also seem to multiply as he gets older and more busy, but I'd say you can manage that by just buying less! Sleeping arrangements after 6 months would be my main concern.

I asked a very similar question on here a few months ago! Fast forward and im now 11 weeks pregnant with no plans to move currently :)
The advice i got was basically that you can make it work in a one bed, just need to be extra organised with storage and avoid buying unnecessary stuff.

We plan on keeping baby in with us in our room for the first full year, so you should be fine! We're not having a nursery or baby's own room for the first while, just doesn't make sense to me.

My sister kept her little one in her room for around 2 and a half years I think as her husband didn't want to give up his office... but with a second baby on the way now, he realised he had to give it up and they moved him out into his own room, ready for baby number 2 to move in with them!

But the point is you can manage in a one bedroom definitely, and they don't need that much stuff at all no. Yes, your place will be covered in baby stuff, but even a big house would be covered in baby stuff too.

First couple of years it will be fine but after that you need to consider somewhere with an extra bedroom unless there’s a way for you to sleep in the living room.

Ahh thanks I feel slightly more relieved!

The plan is to eventually leave London - but we are not ready to go yet as we have decent jobs and friends & a bit of a support network here!

We are both fairly minimalist - we don't have a lot of possessions between us - we have always spent our money on travel and experiences rather than "stuff" and this is the first time we've ever really been settled anywhere long term in many years - so we are definitely not the type of couple to buy unnecessary stuff! :)

Definitely stay. You'll make it work. Central London is brilliant with a baby (we lived there until our DC were 2.5 and newborn) - so much to do, can walk everywhere, etc. I have very happy memories of pootling around exhibitions and along the river with DC1 in a sling/ pram.

Friend of mine lived in a 1-bed central London flat with two kids (until DC were about 4 & 1). They made it work by re-utlising space, etc. Initially they all slept in one room, but eventually turned living room into an adhoc bedroom by night, living room by day. But they did get fed up in the end and moved to the 'burbs.

3-4 YEARS!! Some people are crazy! DH and I are very much minimalist and lived in a 1 bed flat when DD was born by the time she was 5 months we moved into a 2 bed house now pregnant again and wondering were we are going to put the baby 😂😂

Two sets of friends have managed it in two ways.
One has a two year old who just sleeps in their bedroom in his own cot away from them.

The second set, had a fairly wide living room and had a stud wall partition put up and moved their baby in there once they were 6 months old. They now have two and are still in the same flat.

It's not crazy at all, it's definitely doable if you aren't precious about your own space.

Yeah I mean it's a toss up of moving out of London, trying to get set up in a new town where we know nobody (our families are in a different Country - so we will really rely heavily on our friend network!)

I'm feeling a bit more confident about it now - I guess it depends whats important to you in terms of the kind of lifestyle you want - i'd rather stick around the city and have my husband home by 6pm everyday instead of commuting for hours and being in an area I know and love and having my friends around is more important than a bigger house!

It's done by many people, and if you aren't planning of having /hoarding lots of baby equipment then it will be fine. As for the baby having to be in it's own room at 6 months, that is the guideline forthe minimum age for a baby should safely sleep alone, and anyway, plenty of babies have their own opinion on that!

@BillyAndTheSillies Our bedroom is actually ridiculously big - so had thought if we re-arranged things a bit we could potentially divide it into a separate space for the baby!! also figured we could just get a sofa bed for the living room too (would be useful in general for if parents come to stay or whatever also!)

It might be worth looking at OP. Personally I'd never move out of London so I get why you want to keep your flat as long as possible.

There are a few threads on the Facebook group DIY on a Budget - usually mentioned as entertainment value on MN but there are quite a few posts at the moment about room dividing options. Ikea Kallax being a current favourite.

The tenants in our flat did this to separate the living room in to a sitting room and dining space and it worked amazingly well, wish I'd taken photos now!

Just pulled this photo from the group after searching "room divider". This seems to be something called Karalis from B&Q

@Her0utdoors totally - and well the reality is it's not as simple as just saying oh the baby must have it's own room at 6 months - that's not always realistic is it - loads of people can't afford anywhere bigger and have to make do with what they have and I know friends who have bedrooms for each child yet they still seem to have 2 children in their bed with them most nights anyway hahah

I absolutely can't stand having too much stuff - so I will most definitely not be hoarding any unnecessary baby items and as soon as it is no longer useful or baby has grown out of it we will be selling/replacing !

@BillyAndTheSillies oh wow thanks - that looks ace and could totally manage something like that with our space!

My Dad is super handy as well - so am sure he would happily help us create something cool if we went down this road!

Reading these posts has put me at ease as well! Ive been worrying about the same thing as well. We have a 1 bed flat, its quite spacious, but I've been worrying what we would do when baby comes in December, but I knew anyways baby could stay in the room with us for the first year or two at least and then we can work it out from there I suppose if you think about it years ago big family used to live in smaller spaces! So its defo doable.

I have a three bed house and 2dcs. Dc1 has the small room. Dc2 should have the large bedroom/playroom but she is still in with me at nearly 3. All her clothes and drawers are still in my room to as it made no sense to move them when she won't sleep in her own room anyway. She has a clothes rail in my room too for her dresses. It doesn't look like a nice lovely bedroom but there's still plenty of space and it serves its purpose.

Ours stayed in with us till 6-13months so you’re definitely fine for a while.

But if you think you’ll need a support network, that might be easier to build from pregnancy days than later on. What sort of thing do you think you’ll need friends for? Is it the sort of thing that buying a cheaper house and having more disposable money could help with? I’m a bit beligerantly independent so never ask for help so am a bit clueless.

The only thing I spot with your plan, are you set on just one child? If not you might want to keep the baby stuff?

My friends had 2 kids in a fabulous grade 2 listed 1 bed flat.
When baby 2 came along they converted a large cupboard (it had a window) off the living room into a bedroom for their first child. It literally fit a cot bed and bedside table in it (it previously had a piano).

They were amazingly eccentric and just went with the flow. They have only recently moved when their kids were 5 and 2 because a boring 3 bed semi held no appeal after their gorgeous flat.

@BiscuitDrama it's more that I don't want to leave London or my flat yet - we are very happy and settled here and have my friends and my social life here - I'm already apart from my family and don't really want to up and leave my friends behind too just for the sake of having a bigger house..also we both don't want to leave our jobs or be faced with a big commute to work when at the minute it takes 15mins to get there and home.

@Pigriver sounds fab! Really have thought about this at length - we've gone from we better move back to Ireland, to let's move to a commuter town, to let's move to a complete different more affordable city, feeling pressured to hurry up and buy a house - now we have come full circle and feel content and happier with the thoughts of keeping saving in our house deposit fund in the background while we continue with our lives in our current home that we love and stay in our jobs that we love and just make it work with a baby until we are up for moving on! I really feel it's doable - was good to bounce it off some other people and get some opinions!! :)