Why I love my studio apartment

When I was moving to D.C. a year ago (the anniversary of my moving date was March 14) and realized I couldn't afford more than a studio apartment if I wanted to live alone, I was disappointed. I had a fairly roomy, 690-square-foot one-bedroom apartment in St. Louis. My bedroom was big. I had a deck. My living room had a fireplace. I had a large walk-in closet that served as storage and an office. And I knew I owned a lot of STUFF. So the thought of squeezing me, my two cats and all my belongings into a studio was daunting.
 
But, a year later, I'm very happy with my small apartment. (And it's a studio, but it's definitely not the smallest studio out there.) Sure, sometimes I wish it were a little bigger. That's really only when I have out-of-town visitors and feel bad that they're crammed onto my futon, which is a few feet from my bed, with cats running over them. Or when I want to have friends over and realize my living room furniture consists of only a couch — and that it's a little weird that my bed is in the same room if people are coming over to party. Or when I'm spending all day cooking and baking and run out of counter space very quickly. It takes a little creativity to do intense kitchen projects.

However, most of the time it's just me (and the cats). And a studio is actually a great size. Why?

1. It's easy to clean. I have two cats. They shed a lot. So I vacuum a lot, but it's easier to vacuum a small space than a larger one
2. It encourages me to clear clutter. When you only have 515 square feet, you have an incentive to keep things picked up because you want every inch of usable and clean space you can get. Plus, everything is only a few steps away from where it belongs. I don't have to go up and down stairs to put something away. The farthest I have to walk is about 20 feet (that's the longest length of the apartment and would involve bringing something from the door to the opposite window), so it's hard to make an argument for not putting my coat in the closet or my groceries in the "pantry."
3. It encourages me not to buy things. I have too much STUFF. My parents and friends who helped with my move to D.C. can attest to that. I have no clue how I managed to fit an entire moving truck of stuff into this apartment. (This is where organization helps, I think. I use my space efficiently.) But since I've been here, I believe I've cut down on the STUFF I own. It's easier to decide to get rid of things when you realize you don't have room for them. And it's easier to convince myself to NOT buy things when I know I have no place to put them. In the end, I didn't need them anyway.
4. I can see the TV from my bed. This is a big deal because I've never had a TV in my bedroom. The only other time I had this luxury was in my college dorm room. But it's nice for those times that college basketball goes past midnight (stupid Eastern time zone!) to be able to crawl into bed and still have a perfect view of the TV.
5. I like having a small kitchen. I'm sure I would enjoy having a huge, state-of-the-art kitchen as well. But a small kitchen has its benefits. I noted the drawbacks (mostly just lack of counter space) above. But I had a small kitchen in St. Louis also, and I like that. Everything is within arm's reach of where I'm standing. I can pull out a skillet, stand up and set it on the stove, swivel to the other counter to grab a spatula, swivel a few more degrees to pull eggs from the refrigerator, etc.