With housing costs in Toronto pretty much increasing by the day, we’re all being forced to survive in tinier spaces.

For many of us, that means living in a studio or bachelor apartment with no bedroom. How to cope??

Just because you don’t have a bedroom doesn’t mean you can’t love your tiny apartment.

For one thing, loft-style living is super trendy and fashionable, plus you’re definitely not the only one getting by in a tiny space.

If you get really good at utilizing space, you may even prefer the comfort of a smaller apartment! Here are some ways to really leverage what you can in order to make that bachelor suite work.

If you don’t have a bachelor suite already and are looking, shop around for one here!

Make plans for every square foot

By measuring out furniture and planning where you put everything, bachelor suites can seem much larger than they look. The best trick to keep in mind is that if you really, really love that sectional couch you have, but it dominates the entire space, you could make your apartment feel even smaller, which could wear on you over time. Of course, this also works the opposite way sometimes: if you loft a huge bed, for instance, you’ll not only be able to keep your favourite mattress, but you’ll be able to utilize the space underneath. It’s all about being creative in small spaces!

There are tons of tips and tricks to decorating, and there’s plenty of help out there:

• Trendy boho design ideas for your Toronto apartment
• The best ways to prevent design disasters in your Toronto apartment
• Why you absolutely need to incorporate colour in your apartment decor

Before you move in, measure and map out your apartment, then measure your furniture. This will help you plan your space, and will help you with this second tip:

Downsize the number of items you bring in

It’s tempting to keep all the things you love, but the feasibility of that drops in direct relation to the square footage dropping. Bringing in all your old furniture is always the goal, but sometimes it just isn’t possible. Use this as an opportunity to downsize your life! Not only will you be able to pick what you need to live in the new space, but you’ll feel much ‘lighter’ since you know it’ll be easier to box everything up for next time. It’s always good to live with as little clutter as possible. Downsizing can save you some money too!

Utilize curtains and partitions to make ‘rooms’

If you really want a space that feels like a bedroom, or if you need a dedicated space to get some work done, transforming a bachelor suite into a space with privacy isn’t that difficult. Try hanging curtains or using wood partitions or screens to block off certain areas of your pad to get that extra bit of privacy. You can even be creative with bookcases to do the same thing!