My 10 Favorite Perks of Apartment Living

When we found out we were expecting our son, we were in the process of moving out of our house and into an apartment. Our thought process behind the move was that we would rent out our house in order to save money for adoption. Getting pregnant was not part of the “plan.” Our plan also never included raising our child in an apartment. Both my husband and I grew up in houses, and when we pictured raising our kids, we just imagined it would look the same way. Fast forward to giving birth, moving across the country, and working hard to get out of debt, and two years later, we’re still in an apartment. Looking back, it’s laugh worthy how thrown off we were and how perfectly everything turned out. I can’t imagine life without our joyous and adventurous 19-month-old, and I also can’t imagine the financial undertaking and time commitment a house would take right now. These are my 10 favorite perks of apartment living.

1. Less space = less to clean. With a toddler who is constantly getting into everything, this is my favorite perk.
2. I can see my little one at {almost} all times. Our apartment is so small I always know where he is and can almost always see him. This is perfect for someone who works from home. And bonus, we never needed a baby monitor.
3. It encourages us to live simply. We downsized from a three bedroom house to a two bedroom apartment shortly before our son was born. That meant selling half of our stuff and prioritizing when it came to gifts and necessary items for our little guy. We think twice about making purchases and don’t find ourselves just buying stuff for the heck of it.
4. When something breaks, we call someone else to fix it, AND WE DON’T HAVE TO PAY FOR IT. Case and point, last fall I took our son to the Indianapolis Zoo for the day. Before I left, I called our maintenance staff to let them know our dishwasher broke. By the time we got home, we had a new dishwasher. 
5. A pool, tennis courts, and workout facility are included in our monthly rent. We don’t use these things every day, but it’s fun to be able to walk to the pool during the summer and not have to worry about maintaining it or cleaning it.
6. We don’t have any yard work. At times we miss having a yard of our own, but it just encourages us to visit more public parks and go for family walks more frequently. Plus, we are still able to maintain our own garden.
7. There’s safety in numbers. We love knowing that we have neighbors who watch out for us and our place. Our little guy loves our car keys and frequently opens our trunk from inside our apartment. Our neighbors know this and either shut our trunk for us or knock on our door and let us know it’s open again.
8. We love living in community, particularly with people who look and think differently than we do. Within our building, we are the only Caucasian occupants, and the other three households represent three different ethnicities. Within our complex as a whole, we are the minority. We love knowing that our son is growing up around caring people from many different cultures.
9. Someday, when we’re financially ready for a house, we don’t have to worry about selling our apartment. We will simply turn in our keys and move on with our life.
10. We don’t spend time worrying about having the nicest anything. Our son spills food on the carpet and sometimes throws food at the walls. We clean it up, but we’re not left worrying that we spent so much money on the paint or carpet and now it’s soiled. We take care of what we have but don’t have the extra burden of worrying about our “stuff” all the time.