How long can you survive in a small flat?

[erkeline]

I was brought up in the countryside. Big house and lots of open space. Dogs & market towns vibe.

Now I live in London for work. DP and I are saving hard for a deposit. We rent a one bedroom flat together, 40 sqm close to work so to save on commuting costs. It's a glorified bedsit.

We have done one year here already. Despite earning a good income, for London it doesn't go far. (We make about 120k combined). Appreciate some people have no choice, but by late 20s we thought we would be able to afford a slightly better lifestyle than this.

How long can you survive in a tiny flat?

I'm 5.5 years so far... Family of 4.
The first year was the worst. It does annoy me sometimes but actually it's been ok on the whole we've all developed habits that help.
The kids are super disciplined (out of necessity) and we are nearly at goal (building house, moving in soon) so it'll be worth it and the kids will never take their extra space for granted. 🤣
We always find ourselves apologising to visitors cos it's a pinch, but when our wealthy friends visited from Singapore they were baffled what we were on about as this is completely normal for there. 👀

I’ve been in a 39 sqm 1 bed flat for 5+ years and I’m still alive and kicking

Its not a huge space but it’s nowhere near the size of a bedsit

You're lucky in the fact you have choices
Location Vs lifestyle
Simply make a list of the pros and cons

430 square foot? Alone, probably years. With my partner, about 20 minutes.

Idk how much you pay or where you are, but we had a lovely 900 sq ft 2 bedroom flat in Z6 (well, almost technically Kent) for £1200 a month when we left two and a half years ago. If you want to be fancy you could call it a penthouse - it took up the whole top floor. But it didn't have balconies or anything.

If you spend a lot of time indoors, it's worth investigating non-central options, I think. If you're comfortable in the space you are in, I feel that it leads to better decision making when it comes time to make a big purchase. I know what it feels like to hate your home and almost any option currently out there that you know in your heart isn't necessarily suitable is then considered, because you want out.

And yeah, I've lived in teeny tiny spaces in London for years and it does send you stir crazy. Fighting crowds through tubes, the rudeness, then coming home to a box. It all adds up to being permanently stressed. It's water off a duck's back to some people, after years of it, I didn't cope very well.

There are so many different ways to approach your question. A lifetime is one answer. Please develop some self awareness and be aware of your considerable good fortune is another. Make sure you protect your part of the deposit, however sure you think you are of your DP is another.

Is your home just a place to leave your bag in or is it your sanctuary from a busy job in a busy city? If its a sanctuary, try the 'apartment therapy' channel on YouTube to see the calm that can be achieved in a small space.

You are whining about something you feel entitled to but you can't afford.

This is the wrong site to do it on.

If you want to know how to live in a small flat have a look on social media. There are interior designers who rent small flats themselves. They live in them with their partners, and show you knacks for doing them up.

You're choosing to live in a small London flat. With those salaries you could buy a 4 bed detached somewhere.

Not sure why someone can't ask on Mumsnet how to deal with the challenges and limitations of small accommodation living.
Is it cos she used the word survive? I don't suppose for one second she was being literal, but y'know let's all nail her to that cross anyway.
🙄

It's a ridiculous question to ask - some people have no choice but to live in tiny flats, the OP could afford a bigger flat on a joint income of £130k so doesn't need to "survive" in a small flat, or just needs to do it until she has saved a deposit.

Welcome to the dilemma, live in an expensive city or the countryside (which is also getting expensive).

i am also thinking I should have a better house than I have, but I think that’s the norm for most people. Just embrace what you have, you never know where you will be in 5 years.

I watched a programme recently that featured a mum and six kids in a one bed flat that can't have been more than 40m2. That looked like surviving, not a couple of years in a zone 1 'bedsit'.
Personally I've managed to survive in my own flat that size for over a decade. Go me!

DH, Dog and myself had a one bed flat for years, £300 a month mortgage made the lack of space much easier to bear!

My children have asked where we kept the chickens and were shocked we didn’t have an Aga 🤣

Lots of people work exceedingly hard and will never own or earn well.

I love my small flat. No space for any excess crap. Can basically clean whole place in less than an hour. Low electric and water bills. Low council tax. There are so many advantages!

Surely if you’re both working you aren’t there much.

my one tip would be to embrace minimalism! Loads of inspiration online! It’s not forever OP!

Seven years so far. Live on own, my flat is not built for two, though my block has entire families in a one bed and they are surviving, it can’t be that fun but you do what you need to do.

Yeah she's got a choice, exactly, so she's wondering how long to stick it out for or whether it's not worth it and jump now. Not a ridiculous question.
If she had no choice... Then it would be a ridiculous question because there would be option A or option a.

I’d reconsider where you’re living in London. Until 2 years ago which is when I bought my own flat, I rented an incredibly spacious one bedroom flat in Lewisham for 1k. People turn their nose up at SE London but it’s much more affordable. Appreciate things might have changed a lot since but still more affordable than other areas in London.

I’m not rich at all and I think you have a right to complain. I lived in a one bed flat in a converted Victorian terrace on a main road for 3.5 years. I was grateful for it (for reasons I won’t go into) but it was a struggle.

I think living in a city can be very bad for people’s mental health. The view was ugly, I felt like I was sharing a house with my downstairs neighbour (as no soundproofing), I couldn’t open the window at night because of noise and it was a narrow and very busy road so there was a lot of pollution.

You are very young though and it won’t be forever.

I loved living in a small one bed flat in London in my twenties. Only put it on the market as I was pregnant, otherwise we would have stayed there longer!

Of course it's luck, you are where you are today because you were lucky enough to have a privileged childhood.

As long as you need to?

DH and I happily lived in a 42m2 flat. We were glad we could move before having DC.

OP, the very simple answer is that one can survive in a tiny flat for as long as one must.

I've lived in a one bedroom flat (no garden) for over 10 years because I can't afford anything else. I don't relish the lack of space and I really miss having a garden (which I haven't had since I was a child), but it is what it is. Life circumstances mean I can't change where I live any time soon. I think what makes a difference is that I live in a nice area with good public transport links, a supermarket, two independent bookshops, three libraries, several coffee shops and a reasonable array of other small shops and three parks within 10-30min walk away. I imagine I would feel worse about where I lived if I also hated the area.

I am struggling to see how you and your partner can't afford more than a bedsit on a combined income of £120k. Move to a pleasant, leafy (south of the river) zone 2 area and you could get a 2 bedroom garden flat for about £2,500 per month or a one bedroom for about £1,300. Commuting costs for zone 2 really aren't that much and if it's really killing you, get the bus or cycle.

You have to sacrifice something, whether it's the size of the property, location, distance from work / method of transport you use etc. It's not really about how long you can last in a tiny flat, it's about whether staying there is a priority over more space slightly further out.

Without kids or pets - years. Though need to get out a lot and have constant clear outs. With kids - two days I'd say.

You could definitely afford to live somewhere bigger or buy somewhere in London