Pack early...all the things you rarely, if ever, use. Once you get used to life without them, you may decide not to take them. When I moved, I left a lot of items at my old place as I was overlapping rents. I decided to give away and donate many of the items I'd left at my old place, I haven't missed them yet.
Make sure you have storage options; closets, shelves, etc. Don't overlook high places, such as over doorways to store things or display them. What about renting a storage unit for the artwork and holiday decor?

It sounds like you should consider other options if 450 is just TOO small for you then you're not going to be very happy, despite the night life access.

Your items will either need to be placed in storage or get rid of most of it. You might find a hide-a-bed or murphy bed useful.

Check out websites on living large in a small space. There are a lot of fantastic ideas.

My hubby and I are looking to downsize as well but I don't think we would dare to go quite that small. That would be like moving into our garage.

Sell furniture. You are lucky in that New York has a great craigslist market, where you can actually re-coop costs. If you have some time before moving, start noticing/tracking what you use and what you don't, and try to only keep what you actually use. At least that's been my strategy.... Good luck though! Remember that the city is part of your living space, so live in it!

you'll more than make up for it with what you gain.
less to clean & maintain, better proximity to studio & other amenities which translates to more time for you, less stress = better quality of life.

make a floor plan & juggle away on paper. don't try & cram it all in; obviously, you can't. if you can't store any 'overage' for free somewhere, sell it or give it away. that's the tough part. [add up what you paid for items vs monthly storage fees for a few years or more.] you'll end up with extra cash, less to move & maintain. it's liberating.

research, research...'living small', small space decorating' & other like search terms will give you loads of ideas to use every square inch productively.

Take bare minimum in furniture that are your favorite pieces and that have double duty uses. Rent a storage shed for 1 year for rest, that way you will have access to it if needed. At the end of the year anything you have not used in storage...sell or donate. As artists either utilize your artwork you have in your storage room in your new place or sell it. I know, they are like your babies...but isn't that part of being artistic? Share your special gift with the world!

Craigslist your stuff. If you really do want to live in another neighborhood, you have to unload some things. Be ruthless. Think of the money you'll save not forking out for storage as a down payment on a larger place (and things to sit on in that place). You could also see if family might use it with the understanding you may wish to repo it at a later date, a deal someone might take if they're just starting out and need something, anything, now.
Good luck!

ashley erin mayer

450 is plenty big for two. It's just scary to downsize that much.

Take only your favorite bits of furniture. And only your favorite bits of decor. Think about each item you have before it gets a yes. Sell whatou don't care so much about. It's not easy but it's so worth it.

PS I've found I love a small space more if what I need is beautiful. Like a cute set of measuring cups or a bright pot for the kitchen. Plus, since you won't need tons of stuff, the cost of three mediocre blankets combines into one really nice one.

I think that may be rather a severe change.

Assume you have absolutely nothing and plan to buy all furniture afresh. (IKEA is the sensible place to start as it's cheapest, well-designed and all on one website.) Do not buy. Print out list and see what you need not buy if you took something you already own (bed would be first pick if it's comfy; seating almost certainly not). Decide what you absolutely have to take with you on emotional and cut your shopping list down again. Sell everything else that you own. Put the money towards your new stuff (from IKEA or not). Embrace the change.

I just downsized myself.... I'm loving it so far. I gave a lot of furniture away to family friends and charity.... I'm too lazy to sale lol. I bought new furniture with for the new place to start my new life. If you sell your furniture and keep the pieces you love that would assist with your downsizing. I also got a storage for items that I can't exactly let go of yet. My plan is to go through the storage annually to see if I still harbor feelings for the items in there lol. It can be done... and sometimes less is better!!
Good Luck!!

If you've never lived in an apartment that small before, I would suggest not selling all your favorite artwork and furniture- you may need it again if you decide to go back to a bigger apartment. I have no idea how old you are or what the circumstances are, but people tend to want to go out less after a while and you may find yourself wishing you had your old, large place again. At the very least don't sell it right away (unless you think it's too expensive to rent a storage unit) and wait to settle into your new place before you decide to sell your favorite objects.

This may not help, but if you are within walking distance from your studio you may regret this move. What would the commute be like if you do move?

Well that will be cozy. I hope you really really really like each other's company. LOL

It sounds like a demented idea. Stay put!

My husband and I did the same thing a few years ago- moved from a 3 bdrm/2 1/2 bath house to a 600sq ft apt. You will very very VERY quickly learn what you need and what you love, and what you happen to have soley bc you had the space for it. I found it to be pretty liberating to unload all the STUFF we'd accumulated! I'd also recommend getting a storage unit, so you have a place to keep those things you aren't quite sure about. I ended up getting rid of a few things that I wished I'd held onto longer and ended up missing.

I agree with all of the above. My husb and I have been in a studio with slightly over 300 square feet for 7 years and though it can be a challenge, we insisted on a house that was as close to 1,000sq ft as possible when we bought our (moving next week!) house. We would have preferred even smaller, but that's not an option in the area we wanted to move to, since the typical house is in the 2,000 sq ft range.

I agree with the sell stuff and pack stuff early advice. I treat the last week like camping. No joke! You will be amazed by what you won't miss/don't -really- need that you though you -had- to have it in the past. After you've moved, live in your space for awhile with as little as possible outside of daily needs unpacked. You can never understand a space until you've lived in it for awhile and how you use it will still change over time.

This might sound obvious, but opt for furniture that isn't bulky. One of the best things in our small space is a set of 22'x20' tables on casters. Pushed together, they are a coffee table. Rolled in front of a guest on the couch, they are casual dining tables. They have shelves underneath for stashing things that stay put during rolling. Downsize an enormous couch for a mid size or (if you're not couch potatoes) a love seat. Leggy furniture gives the illusion of space. Clear tops help too. Build upwards! High shelving is magic. Use things in unconventional ways. For example, I put on makeup at my work desk; my "vanity" is a folding mirror on top of a decorative tin until I stash them away again. My beauty supplies are organized in a drawer nearby. Attractive overflow (like perfume bottles) are display items.

Moving to a smaller space is liberating in many ways. It causes you to readjust your idea of what kinds of objects are actually valuable to you, as opposed to there "just because you like them". Things are only things will become a mantra. You'll have less to clean and dust and that = more free time. You'll start to think really hard before bringing new stuff in and that will free up your wallet for more important things, like experiences. My art shifted to new formats out of necessity too. I went from large scale, traditional painting to making digital works and smaller scale pieces. At least once a year, purge anything that you realize is excess.

You're creative people. If you think about it, the best work is brought out by limitations. This will apply to your apartment soon enough. ;)

Oops that's 22" x 22"--not feet lol!

Move the very basics, what you know you will absolutely need. Be ruthless on this. Then get a storage unit and have three categories of storage:

1. What you think you will want/need but aren't sure you will have room for. You may be visiting this category frequently at first. (I know there are good storage places in LIC.)

2. Stuff you love and can't take and want to use at some point later in your lives.

3. Stuff you can't bear to part with yet and want to revisit in a year. Most of this will probably go at that time.

Label your storage boxes very specifically so that you can find what you want when you want it. And then be sure to revisit the unit and do the weeding out!

Be prepared - some of the furniture that you might want to take with you might not be the best solutions for small space living.

Make some money and sell what you can.

I think this is a great idea. You'll never know unless you try, right? My biggest piece of advice is storage in your new home. Get creative with this. Storage under the bed is magical. My husband and I have always shared small spaces. I always turn the biggest closet in my home into my art supply room. I think you're gonna really enjoy the challenge this will present you. Less is more!

Jenifer,

Do not get rid of all of your larger pieces. You could decide to upgrade to a larger space in Long Island City in a couple years. I know what all of the experts say about small spaces and using smaller pieces; however, an apartment with a lot a tiny pieces or very little furniture tends to look like a dollhouse.

In a small space, one of the most important issues is flow. Guests should know where to walk and sit. Create interesting areas- within the smal space.

Keep the large higher quality pieces. Unfortunately, if you filed those three bedrooms, you will have to downsize a little. I recently moved from a 600 sq. ft. in the Financial District to a 500 sq. ft. in 500 sq. ft. in Brooklyn. My work involves an ongoing need for a library or book storage. I make it work. You can too.

Check out the tours of small NYC/ Chicago (these tend to be tiny) spaces on apartmenttherapy.com. Remember: You have to live in it; it is not a glossy real estate magazine. Keep it real!

Although you don’t mention the square footage in your existing home, going from 3 bedrooms down to a studio apartment is an extremely severe reduction in living space. Here are some suggestions:

Since you have a lot of furniture and other items, designate one or more of your bedrooms as “storage” and move all furniture and items you think will be unnecessary in the new place into that room. In addition, only use the amount of closet space and kitchen storage in your apartment that exists in the new studio. If you find yourself running out of remaining storage or retrieving items from the "off limits" areas it’s possible that your proposed new place has insufficient storage. If you are having difficulty living without certain pieces of furniture, consider whether your new space will accommodate their addition.

Tape-off a section of floorspace in your apartment living room representing the livable portion (less kitchen and bathroom square footage) of the 450 square feet you will be occupying in the future space. For additional realism, consider hanging sheets along the boundary. Move all furniture you intend to use in the studio into that cordoned area and live within it for a few weeks. If you can live harmoniously within those boundaries without cheating, then it’s possible to successfully downsize to a studio.

Good Luck!

Unless you are personally attached to something I'd recommend starting fresh. I recently downsized from a 2 bedroom to a 480 sq ft studio, moved in a boy friend and we have 2 large shepherds and a cat. Define spaces and look for added uses. We are lucky to have high ceilings so before everything got moved we framed most walls and hallways with shelving and gloss white doors. They hold our clothing, doors move and pop up for desk space with files underneath. We put two consoles back to back with curtains between to separate the bedroom from dining area. We don't use our cabinets for kitchen items often, we have very few dishes and cookware so thats placed in one console and we use the cabinets for storage. We made a kitchen island that covered the two kennels.

I'd do a mock layout of the studio on either graph paper or a computer program to determine the best way to place your furniture before moving.

If you have pieces that don't fit but you absolutely want to keep, perhaps you could move those to your office and reuse them.

Obviously, you are going to end up selling and giving away a lot of things.

My family of four moved from a 3 bed/2 bath 1000+ sq ft apartment to a 560 sq ft house. Start getting rid of stuff. It gets easier and easier the more you do it. Learn to make storage room under and above everything. Know that the process of paring down will continue after you've made the move--consider getting a storage unit while this happens, but remember that things in storage aren't being used or enjoyed by you or anyone.

I think they meant the new place was 5 mins from their studio.

I must say downsizing that much is a huge undertaking, but it sounds like that is a trade-off you were willing to make when you signed that new lease. I would do the storage rental idea for 6 months by that time you will know what you wished you had kept and what you are ok with getting rid of.

I moved a couple years ago and regret some of the stuff I brought and cry about a couple pieces I left behind because I allowed practicality to rule my decision. Bad, bad move. Next time I go with my gut instinct and pay a little more or if I was moving in the same city do the storage rental.

Have an amazing time in your new space.

All of your current furniture goes - into storage or up for sale.
My rule for small space living is that every single piece of furniture that enters my home has storage - nothing enters for beauty alone.
Since you probably won't be in the space for that long, the only piece that I would invest much in would be where you sleep, because nothing can ruin your life like a bad bed! Either a Murphy Bed, or a high quality Sleeper Sofa (Carlyle is the absolute best, and you can get a custom size to fit your space). Enjoy - LIC is wonderful!

Don't pack. What I mean is, don't spend a lot of time packing up everything tightly, with newspaper wrapping, tape. The worst part of moving (esp. to a smaller space) is filling it with so many boxes that you can't really unpack. After 4 moves within the same city in 4 yrs, I've found that if you can spread out moving over 1 month, you can just put things in boxes, transport them and then immediately put them away in your new place. Start with the kitchen. Then closets. I do furniture last. Get a storage unit and put things in it that you question whether you may want/need. Then you can purge at the end of a year when you find that you don't need all that stuff. Also, have you thought about 2 twin beds used as daybeds/sofas during the day and real beds at night? I think these w/ reclaimed ceiling beems are gorgeous. http://www.casacullen.com/2011/01/interior-inspiration-peek-inside-fitzhugh-and-lyndsays-home-on-the-nate-berkus-show.html

I went through similar, and it's entirely mental. Think about how little you need when you travel, and aim for that. Remember that enjoying your life has very little to do with your belongings. The new place will be fantastic, but it will be an adjustment. Instead of having an assortment of things to do various tasks, find the one thing you will use every day that covers a wide variety of tasks. Furniture is bought for a space, and once you leave that space, you have to be ok with letting it go. However, keep in mind that there may be one or two things that you would regret parting with for ages, so keep those things. It may take you a long time even after you move to sort through and get rid of layer after layer of stuff, but once you are enjoying your fantastic new lifestyle, it won't matter.

I put things in storage for a few months to see how really necessary they were - and whether small space living worked (I had a room in a larger apartment). In the end, I did not keep several of the larger pieces when I moved into a larger space. Some wouldn't fit through the door! However, all in all, it is really nice to have space in rooms, space in closets, less stuff to dust and clean and put away. I am continuing to edit my belongings. Once you get going, it's easy to continue. Take photos of the things you like - that can suffice to hang on to pleasant memories without the hassles. Over the years, I've gone from a six thousand square foot house to under 400 square feet (after two of three kids left home). It's do-able. You'd be surprised!

My husband and I downsized. It is going well. The energy of a place is important to me as an artist and so I found a feng shui person I liked and got some help with getting the place in harmony. For me money well spent. She also taught me how to burn off the old energy once a month. Basically a little epson salt and rubbing alcohol in an old tea cup set in a pie pan. I am not naturally neat: we have somebody come and clean and shine and fluff and buff once a week.
We moved from a 5 bedroom house and we had a guy come through the old place and tell us if anything was truly valuable... it was not what we thought... A set of inherited designer rattan... who knew... we decided to take that with us. New firm cushions and covers. Everything else was taken away. We each brought a collection. DH edited his book collection and I brought blue and white china collection. Our ceiling was high and slanted and so I bought the Ikea Edland canopy bed to give us a room inside a room for sleeping. All our furniture is on legs off the floor and I do not have anything underneath so energy flows better. We do have a storage room. Interesting that the feng shui lady said to put red flowers on balcony. She also said to "hang yellow pictures here". Lot of fun.
The scariest thing was going from separate bathrooms to a shared bathroom.
Let us know how it is going.

Try reading a couple blogs on Minimalism like Miss Minimalist. They will get you in a better frame of mind to let things go and happily embrace your new life. Just think about the positives. Besides what you've already mentioned, think how much MORE time you guys will have for art now that you have less stuff to maintain and less rooms to clean!

sell a lot of your books, movies and cds on amazon; with the cloud and streaming it's just not necessary to HAVE all those things any more. Also look at what you have and don't actually need or love and donate or sell it. also think of things that are easily/cheaply replaceable you can ditch.

it really depends on the person, but ask your self how many of things you need, say purses-how many can you have and still be happy? if the number is low then you should be able to do it.

also be pretty ruthless about gifts you got that may not match your color scheme or lifestyle. Just because you're giving away the margarita glasses doesn't mean you don't still love the giver.

I'm getting ready to move into a much smaller place, too, with no storage. I've had the song, "Look for the -- bear necessities, the simple bear necessities of life!" going through my head. :)

Everything glasseye wrote.

I moved from a nearly 2000 square foot, 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, house with basement full of "stuff". I live in a 651 square foot apartment condo of which about 150 is my daughter's room. The remaining 500(ish) square feet is set up as a studio apartment. I don't think I've never missed the space I once had. I enjoy the simplicity.

I became somewhat of a minimalist. It really came down to what do I "need". I saw it as a fun challenge and thought of really cool places around the world where families live in similar space. The reality is the list of what I really needed was quite small. The most difficult thing was letting go of objects that at one time meant something.

BUT the result is being far happier in a small space. It sounds like you are also acquiring a huge positive lifestyle change as well. While I'm still a 10 minute train ride from downtown in my city, it's ONLY 10 minutes and I'm in the heart of where I want to be. And I wouldn't have that where I used to live.

All the best with your move and your new home!

That should have said either "I don't think I've EVER missed the space...". Double negative sabotaging me again.

Lend some of the pieces of furniture and art that you don't absolutely need to take with you to friends and family for them to enjoy. Then you won't have to pay for storage and if you move to a bigger space you'll still have access to your things. My family has done that for each other with pianos, couches and power tools (table saws). When my aunt and uncle had to move to Norway for 3 years because my uncle got stationed there for the marines, we kept their piano in our living room and gave it back to them once they came home. Works well all the time for us and you know that your stuff is in a trusted place and being put to good use.

I don't think that 450 sq ft is that small. I mean, it's small for sure, especially after a 3 bedroom apartment, but it's do-able. It's definitely not so tiny that pull-out couches are necessary as primary sleeping arrangements. Or two twin-sized day beds for a married couple (!!!). A king sized bed might be impractical but a queen sized surely isn't. There will probably be room for a bed, medium sized couch, TV, desk, small dining table and maybe even an occasional chair after all that. I live alone in a studio that comes in under 350 sq ft and I get that all in without anything seeming crowded. True, I only have one person's "stuff" to deal with but I think it wouldn't be impossible to add another person's clothes and personal items in the storage I have.

My husband and I also used to live in Jackson Hts. With our very large black labrador. We moved from a 2-bedroom there to a 600sq ft. apt in Brooklyn. In our new apt, all of our furniture became ridiculously oversized. We sold all of it on Craigslist. We made countless trips to the Salvation Army. My husband had to let go of the six boxes of LPs that he been schlepping around each time he moved. We maximized our vertical space by having a wall unit made. It has 2 pull-down desks, cabinets, shelving, and my favorite item, a rolling library ladder! Great way to hide a lot of necessary but ugly stuff (shredder, printer, files, etc.). I got a lot of ideas from this site and I research excessively using Pinterest. I am now an expert on where to find normal sized armchairs, sofas and coffee tables. Furniture on legs, multi-functional furniture, using vertical space, drastically reducing what we own...Sketch out your space and measure and re-measure everything you are thinking of buying. For us, acquiring new furniture has been a very slow process (we moved in August). Every centimeter counts! I will admit that the first few weeks after the move were rough emotionally. The apt was full of packed boxes and there was no room to move around except for a skinny corridor we kept clear so we could go from the front door to the window. It's March now and I have only one unpacked box left! Best of luck to you. It's doable but it will be a huge change.

Have you ever lived in a very small space together before? Do both of you have a handle on how to deal with lack of privacy/lack of noise separation? If you don't have a 100% handle on that, i'd suggest a trial run by putting your bed in the living room of your current place and making the extra bedrooms off limits for a few weeks. That trial run should help you figure out where points of tension will crop up in a studio. It may or may not convince you to upgrade to a one bedroom that has fewer amenities, but more space, for the same price.

Also, is 450 sq ft not too small to have a dog in? That seems a little cruel to me, as someone who has done a lot of small space living and is also a dog lover.

I did the same thing! Moved from a huge three bedroom FL apartment to a tiny studio WA one. Here is my advice, while packing up: sell everything you know for sure won't fit (like large pieces of furniture, multiple sets of dishes and kitchen gadgets, extra clothes that you never wear, that type of stuff), separate stuff into things that you need and things that are just handy to have around. Move everything in the need pile into your apartment and reevaluate your space (if you have extra room take a couple more things in, if you have too much stuff move some more into the other pile). Move everything else into a storage unit that is not too close to your new place. If you haven't thought about it after 3 to 6 months, sell and thrift the whole unit. Exception is holiday decorations, try to find a place in your new apartment that is out of the way for these things (under the bed, in any overhead space).

I'd really think this one through before moving to such a small space.
The conventional wisdom is that if you move to a small space you won't miss the things you give away/sell and you'll feel much freer. Less materialistic, somehow.
I don't necessarily agree. If you are artists and have carefully collected and curated the things you have, you will really feel the loss of the beauty and quality they bring to your life.
My husband and I recently downsized from 4000 to 1000 sq. feet and really feel the loss of many of the things we got rid of--for me, pottery, textiles, baskets, porcelain and cooking equipment. Many of the things we had were collected over the course of 30 years in Asia--replacements wouldn't even come near to what we got rid of, since so much of what is for sale now is not what I would call honest or real. So much is simply commercially produced and inferior quality, completely soulless.
Starting over may mean buying things that do not have anywhere near the beauty or integrity of what you have now. Someone suggested that you replace your old stuff with IKEA--but in my experience, IKEA is pretty much disposible junk--it won't last long, and worse yet, for someone who is an artist or a craftsperson, it is so poorly finished that it will drive you absolutely crazy.

I agree with the suggestions to get a storage unit. I wouldn't sellmuch before the move, if I were you, except what you know you are done with. I just did a downsize/move and oversold stuff, thinking I knew what would work in my new place. Now I am missing some pieces that I earlier wrote off as being wrong for the space. Turns out they would have worked better than what I chose. Have everything in storage, decorate your new place to your liking, then all the leftovers will conveniently be in one place to sell or donate to charity.

Are you serious? You better really love bars cause you will probably be spending most of your time in them. Why not consider some place in Brooklyn proper where you can have space,the park and nightlife. Ditmas Park is great and a pleasant express commute into the city. A studio apt doesn't leave much room for a future for 2 adults and a dog, does it?

We -- a family of 3 (two adults, one child) -- and we live in 450 sq ft. I want to assure you that this is a very comfortable amount of space, even for three people. So, two and a dog will also be just fine.

We spend much of our down time in the house -- being homebodies -- and we invite over guests for dinner and/or playdates regularly. And, the space is organized so that each of us can find a quiet corner and a sense of personal space, even though we are effectively in one big room.

The number one thing about living in a small space is decreasing clutter. Another way of putting it is becoming efficient in what your processes are, and seeing where you can streamline. And, of course, avoiding things like paper clutter.

One good bit of advice I got long ago from a friend of mine was to make sure that you always had "open space" in your storage solutions/organizations. Thus, if your linen closet has 4 shelves, only fill 3. If you have 6 shelves on your bookcase, use 5 -- or, only use 4/5 of each shelf or similar (personally, I prefer each shelf to be about 2/3 full).

This really makes the space feel open and uncluttered and welcoming. Everything has a place, and there is some space for new things (though generally, we tend not to try to fill the available space, but let go of things less used or not bring in new things. But, there is space for new things when that arises!).

It'll be great, and if it isn't, you can always move.

Same dilemma here, except vice-versa. Moved from a 3 story house (with a furnished apartment rental) and a carriage house (used as an art studio -- and flaky friend storage) by the park in BK. To a 505 sq. ft. studio in Jackson Heights. The move took a lot of preparation, and mental exhaustion. I hired a personal organizer who took me from Phase 1 to Phase 2 and then Phase 3. Screw the Murphy bed business -- in this city, sometimes you just want crawl in bed, esp. after pounding pavement all day, not move a coffee table & unlatch hooks to do it. If there's space in your new place to wall off a small nook (with a pocket door) for at least a full-sized bed (storage beneath!), do that. Bedrooms are for two things: sleeping and the horizontal mambo. The biggest downsizes (and perhaps the costliest) are media. I had over 500 CD's. Had them all transferred to an iPod classic that docks into a Tivoli. And agree with everyone who have suggested that every piece of furniture serve at least two purposes, i.e., a file cabinet can be used as a nightstand. restoration hardware carries a beautiful one. Narrow glass bookshelves: CB2. and IKEA is not bad, if you've got stuff that is not too "IKEA" -- mixing it up, doesn't look IKEA at all. A tip from a hotelier designer I received years ago is scale, scale per wall. It's how they make 250 sq.-ft rooms look palatial. ie, If you've got 96" curtains make sure what's on that wall (esp. art / lighting) reach the 95' - 96" space, no higher, no further down. She taught me that and that lighting is key. Esp. in bath. whether you use sconces or pendants, 45" from the floor is pretty standard. Small kitchens are the best! However, do NOT buy a Liebherr. It's sexy and complicated, but you already have a BF. I miss the BK energy quite a bit (lived there for 16 years), but have not regretted the downsizing due to job. It really makes you think about what's important, and Greenpoint (lived there during my college days) will get you out of the house and food shopping on bi-weekly basis. Great hood Holla if you need a bedroom wall / pocket door builder who at a great rate. And if you get too mind-boggled, my professional organizer, down to my underwear (scary at first), was a logistical boot camp bitch. Very dedicated and advises without extra charge on some of the feng shui aspects of the new space. One of the nicest folks you'd ever meet outside of her job. Also loves, loves dogs, and she emails every month or so to check in on my dog, not me.

Be brutal. You'll have to get rid of a lot of stuff you'd like to keep, but won't have room for. Example: You don't need dressers, you can store small clothing in bins in the closet. Or put it in storage, but then you're basically paying rent for your furniture.

You'll have to be complusively neat and tidy. A place for everything and everything in it's place.

Think vertical. Shelves, hanging things from walls and ceilings.

Think double duty. Ottomans that have storage, couches that fold out into beds.

But bookshelves perpendicular to the walls to separate living spaces.

My boyfriend and I just did something similar in January when we moved in together. He was moving from a 1200 square foot house. Luckily I was coming from 270 square feet. But we moved into less than 550 square feet and, as minimal as we thought we were, both had a LOT of stuff. Here are a few things that helped us, some of which have been mentioned, but since we just did a similar move, I thought I'd share all of them. We do like a minimalist look so it has been an amazing feat to try to remove the junk and hide the remaining items from view so as to not clutter up our small space. We:
Sold any furniture on Craigslist that was not unique or sentimental (ie most of it). But since yours is newer, selling excess still shouldn't be tough in New York.
Got a storage unit for 2 months. Even after the first week, it was clear what we didn't miss at all.and it quickly made it much easier to weed through.
Are attempting to go digital to avoid mail clutter and paper file storage.
Bought on Craigslist a wall unit murphy bed. We LOVE it. It was a steal for us (the cost of the unit used balanced out to what we would pay for a year of storage) and stores all the other daily items we can't part with, but don't want cluttering up our space. The murphy bed opens and closes in about 20 seconds (linens on) and probably takes less time than making a bed.
Got rid of duplicates and multiples of everything and specialty gadgets, ie a pot works for everything- a rice cooker just for one thing.

Also, multifunctioning pieces are useful but I don't believe that everything has to be small. We have a 5 piece modular/sectional couch and it doesn't feel imposing in our space.

Wishing you lots of luck. I hope you do what suits you best. We love small living and will be writing about more of it on our blog:
youandmeandwalliemakethree.com

We went from three bedrooms to one bedroom a few years ago. Best move we ever made. Some thoughts:

1. We got rid of furniture by selling (and buying a few smaller replacements) on Craigslist. For example, we sold our large, rectangular dining table and bought a smaller, round dining table. We sold our bed and bought one with built-in storage. We sold my large desk (one of our bedrooms was a home office) and bought a c-table, perfect for a laptop during the day and an end table in the living room at night. In fact, we sold all of our home office and guest room furniture. We sold half our bookcases because the apartment we were moving into had built-ins.

2. We love our couch. I mean, we LOVE our couch. Since we lost our guest room, we thought it would make so much sense to sell it and buy a sofa bed, and it's a bit too wide for our current home, but we love the couch. So we kept it. In the three years since we got rid of our guest room, we've had exactly three sets of overnight guests. We've tried a different solution each time: one slept on our couch, we borrowed an air mattress for a couple, and we bought a fold-up mattress for another couple, which has been our favorite solution. In the meantime, we've continued to own and love and enjoy our couch. No regrets. Moral of this story: if there's a piece you love, it can be worth the effort to make it work in a smaller space.

3. That said, pieces that can do double duty are wonderful. Instead of a coffee table, we have storage ottomans, which also provide extra seating when we have people over. Bookcases are also our file storage (easy enough with file boxes on the lowest shelves). Our shoe storage cubbies by the front door is also a bench and our landing strip.

4. The toughest part for us was our books. We both love hard copies of books: while our electronic library is extensive, we like having books in hand. They never run out of battery power! So while we made some easy changes (getting rid of duplicates, getting rid of books that we wouldn't mind owning exclusively electronically, getting rid of out-of-date technical/professional tomes), we also culled out quite a bit more than that. Instead of asking ourselves what we'd like to keep, we asked ourselves what we'd miss (and what was hard to replace if we did get rid of it). That helped cut about 30% of them (which is HUGE for us!). In the past three years, we've missed exactly 2 books (one of which we borrowed from the library and the other we replaced with an electronic copy).

We don't miss the space. The only thing we missed was our outdoor spaces (we went from having a balcony and a terrace to having a tiny, dark deck that only fit our grill), so we moved again to an even smaller home, but with lots of outdoor space.

In the course of the last three years, I went from a rural 4 bedroom, 2200 SF house to a 500 square foot 1-bedroom city apartment...and I wouldn't change a thing. You really can do this! I didn't sell much - i decided to give it away to folks who could use it, remembering a time when i was using crates for furniture and others gave me nicer things. I gave boxes of beloved hard cover books to a senior home and got a Kindle. I gave my large sectional, spare bedroom set, recliners and dining hutch to my sister. I hauled boxes of dishes to Goodwill and blankets to the animal shelter. I scanned boxes of photos and put them on a hard drive. I kept telling myself "it's just stuff." I kept the things that meant the most to me - a few good pieces of furniture, my good cookware, and my artwork. It wasn't easy, but I find comfort in being able to vacuum my entire sunny city apartment without ever having to change outlets! Best of luck to you Jenifer!

Having lived in a similarly sized 2-bedroom (yes - super small rooms) in Manhattan for 10 years, I can attest it can be done. My advice would be to sell most of your furniture so that you can buy exactly what will fit into your new space. The key to small spaces is things that fit custom, and that can do double duty. Storage bed, dining table that has storage for a laptop, etc.

I just made the exact same move, although into a small one bedroom, not a studio. My biggest issue was the old house had a MASSIVE double garage, without shelving you could of fit four cars, and we moved to a place with one decent sized car spot.

My tip is go through everything, and throw out / shred / sell everything that you don't need or want. Once you've done that, keep everything that you want/need to keep but don't actually use, and box it up for storage. Pick your favourite items or furniture and try to work around fitting them into your new place. We were very lucky we could fit our newish lounge and bed suite into the new place, and we could get rid of the spare room and majority of the study besides the actual desk.

Hopefully you get a storage cage also, this has saved us massively because we are able to store things down there.

So far loving the 5 minute walk into the city, and my partner can walk to her work in 15-20 minutes instead of 30-60 minutes on a bus.

People ask how we can deal with going from having a backyard to a balcony, but we had absolutely horrible neighbours so never used our backyard anyway. It was just a burden having to maintain something we didn't use.

Pack everything up and I mean everything way before the move.

Then over 2-4 weeks, in your current pace, unpack the things you need / love. Those are the things you take. Everything else, sell, donate or trash.

We moved from our 3 BR house into a 350 sq ft cottage in the back. Rented out the main house. When the going gets tough, and at times it will, remind each other what let you to choosing the smaller space.
As for stuff, and the process of downsizing :
Even a small space has to support all the general functions of the larger home : Eating, Sleeping, Hanging Out etc, now it's most likely a Zone instead of a Room. Once you know, that you will still have all those areas, it becomes a little easier.
The hardest balance to find is between ruthless downsizing and gentle pairing down, maybe with a storage unit as a safety net for the things you just can't give up (yet?).
So if that is a possibility financially, go for it.
In the meantime, make and implement all the easy decisions first. That should already clear out at least 50%, right? Than choose your clear keepers, what will serve you best, and what you just don't want to live without.
When those 2 groups have been identified, sold, donated packed or at least marked as keepers, look at what's left.
Some of that might go into storage, be donated or lent to friends, or is CHOSEN to come along with you. Be gentle with each other, have fun and enjoy the adventure of consciousness about what is really, really meaningful and useful to you both . It's a great feeling to live in a space where every thing was chosen instead of having gotten there somehow.

I'm sorry to hear that you are leaving Jackson Heights. I'm a young, single, creative-type living in JH and I really love everything the neighborhood has to offer. Although options for nightlife are limited it is so easy to access other parts of the city that it does not bother me. I hope your move works out well for you. If you decide to sell any of your furniture online, post a link here and I will take a look.

I made a major move and downsized and wish I would have done it sooner. I hear it in your writing that you look forward to the new, fun life that fits your style. That's exactly what I felt with my lifechange. You need to focus on this aspect! Think minimalist and vertical storage. Check out dual functioning furniture as well. Starting fresh means starting clean. Good luck!

It's a drastic step but it can be done. But first, ask yourself if the new space is going to be a long term address. If not, put the excess in storage until the time is right to move again. Before you move this time, what do you think about selling some of your original artwork that's in your storage room now?

If I knew I was staying for several years in a smaller space, I would pay for storage close to my new digs for at least three or four months. There are two advantages to this. First, I could move pieces of furniture in and out until I'm happy with the ones I will finally keep. Second, I would have everything I can't fit or definitely don't want together so that it's easier to sort and pack up to sell, donate, or give away without putting my small space in disarray.

3 words: built in storage. Thoughtful, well-designed shelves and cabinets are worth the investment. In addition to provided much needed storage, they will help keep your small spaces clean-lined and free of clutter.

I envy your opportunity to purge and start anew. Enjoy!

Less is definitely more and I applaud you for even thinking about this kind of true down sizing.

How? Simple. Get rid of at LEAST 70% of the stuff you currently have. And you may need to get rid of 100% of your current furniture, which is likely too big and/or will need to be dual function.

Do not sleep on a murphy bed or other convertible contraption. Dedicate a nice corner of your studio to sleeping on a full or queen size bed there. Having a place to rest your bones is both psychological and physiological.

Jenifer:

Feel free to take a look at Michelle's small space
http://gallery.apartmenttherapy.com/photo/at_michelle_house_tour/item/360025

Even if you have a different design aesthetic, she provides some valuable tips for designing a small apartment.

Best of luck!

actually... add: 450 + studio space= actually living/work space
i am in the same position of owning a small 450 living space, and a studio space, they are within a few minutes drive time of each other. the studio space can contain some of the favorite things too. i got rid of the typical studio furniture stuff and replaced it with some of the furniture from my home. i work in oils, but i still need places for books, paper, etc. that can be stored in dressers etc. and now the studio now feels so personal.