Apartment Shuffle

I've been living in my apartment in Brooklyn for over a year. Which is a lot, considering I've moved four times in the past five years. Outside my time back home in Eden Prairie, the longest tenure I've had in an apartment is one year 10 months, give or take (this was when I broke up with my ex and was essentially living with Alicia in her place).

So Alicia and I starting thinking about this place. We are paying $1600 a month, which is a lot, but much cheaper than Manhattan. Was it a good deal? Should we stay another year? Is there a better neighborhood to move to?

With those questions in mind, Alicia and I had fun surfing the internet looking at apartments in New York. Part of the fun was the thought of actually moving, part came from verifying whether we had a good apartment.

At first, we thought we were getting screwed. I got out the tape measure and discovered our apartment is somewhere between 450 - 550 square feet. Which is small, compared to what other apartments had. This was amplified by our feelings of claustrophobia, brought on by all of our stuff. Sure, we've lived with it for a year, but it took a year to realize we had a very full apartment. There wasn't much open floor space, most walls were covered with shelves, and our living room really felt cramped. Suddenly, having 700 square feet sounded really appealing.

The listings on Craigslist.org and others indicated that most one - two bedroom apartments in the 700 square feet range were about what we were paying, $1600-1800 a month. Moving was sounding better and better.

But I had to see the apartments. I managed to check out two open houses. The first was $1700 a month in a nicer building just four blocks away from where we are now. The problem was the space was in very awkward places. There were no right angles in the apartment and it turned out (by my estimate) to be nowhere near 700sqft as advertised. Really, it felt like there was no advantage over this place. It was almost equal. Not worth moving for.

Next, Alicia and I tried a step up in price ($1800 a month) for bigger (actually 700 sqft), but in a worse neighborhood (about two subway stops deeper into Brooklyn). We arrive at a newly built building that was originally meant to be condos until the real estate market took a turn for the worse. The agent brought us to this incredible apartment with a deck, huge windows, a nice stainless steel fridge, beautiful bathroom, full kitchen, . . . I could go on. So, what's the catch?

It's the model, and it is $2200 a month. We go down the hall to see the $1800 a month apartment. Still feels like the same size as our apartment. The kitchen is smaller, there's no deck, and there's no decent light. It just isn't worth taking the trouble to move into. Plus, $200 more a month? No thanks.

The implications of moving were becoming clear. For our price range, we weren't getting any improvement. And it would certainly be more expensive every month. But that model apartment, Wow. It was nice. We've come to the agreement that we should hold out on moving until we can step up to that level.

So Alicia and I start looking at our apartment and tried to determine what we could fix. As some background, when we moved here over a year ago, we were very excited. We spent two or three months planning the layout of this apartment. Every piece of furniture was in its ideal spot. But still, everything felt cramped. If only we had more storage. . .

Here's our solution. We went to the new Brooklyn Ikea and purchased two "Wardrobes" to act as a closet. These huge monoliths hold our clothing, freeing up both closets to be used for other things. They are from the Hopen line, which matches the dresser you see to the right, my bed and my bed side table. I love the frosted glass!

I won't kid you, these were rather expensive. Not four figures, or even close. But their price is justified in my mind when I consider how much moving costs alone would be. And if Alicia and I live in this apartment for another year at $1600/month instead of somewhere else at $1800/month, we've just saved $2400.

But they've worked. The space we have taken up in the bedroom is now free in the rest of the apartment. What used to look like Alicia's closet now looks like this:

We've got all of our food, most of our cleaning supplies, and lots of other junk in there. That is all junk that used to sit in our living room. Now, it is tucked away in our newly acquired storage space.

The most startling shuffle in the apartment that resulted from the Ikea wardrobes is the lovesac's new home:

I know what you're thinking: "Aren't you shunning it??" The short answer is yes. I've had the Lovesac for four years now. It is the most comfortable piece of furniture I own. This apartment just doesn't have the space for it in the living room. Heck, it took up 1/4th of the floor space! It has it's own little corner now that I can still sit on it to read, and it stays fluffed almost all the time. And by shoving it back there, look at the living room now:

What is hard to convey is the floor space. This room doesn't heat up as much anymore. It feels wide open and comfortable. It has made this apartment feel half as cramped as it used to feel. Heck, I can even use my orange chair now.

The configuration you see above isn't permanent. Alicia is planning on shuffling the desks around after the bar exam (she's done Wednesday, 7/30!).

The best part is that the apartment now feels fresh. I'd be happy living here for another year, and that will save us money.