Bringing up baby in a one bedroomed flat, can it be done?

[OMGBFP]

We are in no position to move now and probably won't be for at least 2 years from when the baby is born if we save like mad. We are private renting so we can't make any structural changes to make life easier - not that we could really do much anyway due to space.

He seems to think the council will just give us a 2 bedroomed place as soon as we apply because we'll be "soooo overcrowded" yes it'll be tight but from what I have read we won't be classed as overcrowded and will be told to use the lounge as a bedroom.

I am having a massive meltdown at the thought of it all and it's overshadowing my excitement at being a Mum.

Has anyone done this? can it be done? where will I put everything??

tell me your stories of living in a very small flat with a baby please

You will learn to only keep essentials for yourself and those nooks will find amazing uses

Rez I slept in a drawer until I was 6 months on folded up towels, and then on the floor in the kitchen until I was 2!

Sadly, not yet rich or famous

I'm really stripped to the bare minimum myself, having more of an issue getting OH to get rid of unused stuff he's got 3x as many clothes as I do and wears 3x less of the clothes than I do of mine!

People I know have only just moved from their one bedroom flat - they have a 1 year old AND a 5 year old :) It wasn't a very big flat either. Everything had a place and they didn't buy 'stuff'.

Read all the posts a few times and pick the bits that suit your flat/car/lifestyle.

Decluttler ruthlessly beforehand and stress to people that you do not have the space for 'spare' stuff, so if they really really want to buy something, it needs to be something off of your very short list.

When you measure up for the cot/cot bed remember you will get a lot lot more time out of a cot bed (my other friends tall 5yo has only just gone into a proper bed), so if you do have room for one, it's a better buy. The baby can go straight into the cot, it doesn't need a moses basket. Or you could do as the people who have just moved did and use a travel cot - they make life a bit easier in that they are easily moved (they had theirs in a space between the window and the wardrobe where a cot would have meant not being able to access the wardrobe or the window, but the travel cot moved enough to do both).

You don't need to resign yourself to those awful stacking plastic crates honest!!

Talk to OH - stress the need to declutter. See if there is stuff he could maybe store in his parents/siblings/friends loft.

But ENJOY & GET EXCITED!!!! It will all be fine :)

We had a 1 bedroom flat when DS1 was born (24 now).
He had a carry cot to start with that fitted onto a pram base. He slept in our room with us until he got too noisy that I was woken by his noises or we couldn't be arsed to move him.
Bedroom door was right next to living room door, and we would turn the hall light off and wheel the pram into the living room and when he was in his cot we would each take an end and carry it into living room.
I always changed him (and DS2 ) on their changing mat on our bed.
Clothes went into a drawer in my chest of drawers.
We moved when he was 8 months old into a 2 bedroom house, and also had DS2 here as well for his first year. He got moved in with his brother at about 4 months old and never disturbed DS1 as he slept so well.

That looks about the size of our first bedsit, with kitchen and bathroom off, only miles better