Our Pre-Baby Apartment Tour
Now that we have a baby on the way, we have gotten lots of questions if we are going to move or stay in our apartment. Both Matt and I grew up in the Twin Cities area. My family still lives in Minnesota and Matt’s has since relocated to Colorado. Honestly, I never imagined having a family outside of Minnesota or so far away from family. But the more we settled into life, living in San Francisco just felt right. We have fallen in love with the city and especially the easy access to beautiful outdoor experiences in California. My fears about doing this parenting thing without nearby family are still there; but they’ve been dimmed as our life and community have grown roots here in California. We are so excited for this new adventure and can’t wait to show our child all the things we love about where we live!
For the last 2 years we have been in a one bedroom apartment in San Francisco. Living small in the city is kind of a must do, similarly to other bigger cities around the world. Over the years, we have become accustomed to living small - our current apartment is actually the largest we have lived in over the past 5 years! Before moving to San Francisco, we lived in a 400 sq. ft. junior studio in Miami Beach, so just having a bedroom door has been life changing. We love our neighborhood, the parks within just a few blocks of us, and especially my 10-minute walking commute to work. Living a lifestyle of using less and walking more for transportation has been so refreshing after so many years with long car commutes. For now, we are planning to stay in our apartment until we feel the push to do something different. We enjoy our little life in the city very much and are so excited to welcome our baby into it!
I have been working hard to organize and plan as we get our space ready for baby. Researching what baby actually needs has been overwhelming, especially with so many products out there that mom bloggers seem to deem '“can’t live without”. I feel confident we will know more what baby actually needs when they arrive, so we have kept our list minimal to start. One of the reasons we decided to wait on finding out baby’s gender until delivery was to resist the temptation of over purchasing before baby arrives. Because we have to keep in mind our space, we are aiming to stick to essentials to begin, and re-evaluate our needs as we go!
I have been meaning for a while to give you guys an apartment tour, but I never felt like our space was quite “finished”. Reality is setting in that it will never be perfect, so I thought I would give you guys a pre-baby tour of our apartment before toys and baby gear starts to accumulate! I’m excited for the organization challenge that living small with a baby will bring.
LIVING ROOM
This is by far our favorite room in our apartment. The large bay windows bring in so much light and we love the view of the hills, both day and night.
Couch - Macy’s
Rug - West Elm
Tables, basket, mirror - Target
TV stand - West Elm
Basket - World Market
KITCHEN + DINING NOOK
One of the things I really wanted when we moved was separate spaces. There is something so sweet about gathering in the kitchen and having a designated dining area. Our last two apartments we couldn’t even fit a dining table so I have loved having a special and cozy space in this apartment!
Table - West Elm
Chairs - World Market
Rug - Amazon
HALLWAY
When you come to visit, our entrance is in the center of the hallway. Directly ahead is the bathroom. To the right, there is a large storage closet (we have even considered converting it to a child bedroom depending on how long we stay here). To the left is a linen closet and our bedroom.
Runner - World Market
BEDROOM
Being that we live on the corner of two busier streets, both with bus routes, the front of the apartment (where the living room and kitchen are) can get noisy. Our bedroom, however, is on the back of our building and thankfully very quiet. We absolutely love our little sanctuary from the city!
Bed - Floyd
Rug - World Market
Dresser - West Elm
Print - Society 6
I’m glad that we have worked hard to keep our space minimal up to this point. It makes me so much more confident that we do have room to spare when baby comes along. I am excited to share with you how we change and adapt our space when Baby K joins us! Anyone else living small, minimal or working to simplify your home? What have you learned along the way? Would love to hear any tips or comments about this topic!