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When I found out I was pregnant we were living in a lovely share house with my partner.  I didn’t want to move but knew we had to. Would we live in a large house further out like a lot of our friends were doing or stay in the inner city in a small apartment? I wanted space but I also wanted to be able to ride to work and be around my friends, family and community. After only a few weeks of looking we placed an offer on a tiny 2 bedroom apartment in Thornbury (10km north of the CBD). It was accepted straight away (yay no auction stress either!) so our new home would be just 40m2 plus a small garden. The kids bedroom was smaller than our 3 x 3m event marquee!! But it was ours and we made it work! Here are the things I love about small space living:

  • Is it affordable! Sure, we could have borrowed 100-200k more for a bigger place but not having any stress over mortgage payments makes life so much easier. Really we are living such a rich life traveling, working the hours we like and enjoying a relaxed work life balance with family and friends. We are paying less per week than when we were renting in our large share house. So we can still afford our soy lattes and smashed avocado.
  • Your community is at your doorstep! Having a small space makes us get outside more to enjoy public places and engage in community activities, such as growing food in a community garden, having picnics with friends at the beach or helping each other ie borrowing tools, babysitting.
  • Staying active! Not only can we afford the hipster café life – there are over 20 cafes within 5 mins walk from us and everything we need is at our doorstep (chemist, parks, friends, supermarket, doctor, yoga, gym etc) so no lonely days inside or needing to drive (or being stuck in traffic).
  • Looks great in 5 minutes! A 5-minute vacuum makes the place looks totally new again. And having little storage space makes us carefully think about what items we really love  (instead of just want) so less clutter. Just perfect!

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