Would you give your kids the only bedroom in your home… and sleep in the living room instead?

For one NYC couple, the answer was a resounding, “yes.”

When I spoke with Khrystyne Jaspers, a mom of two living in a one-bedroom New York City apartment, for Tidy Tidbits she casually shared that this is exactly what her family does.

Her kids have the bedroom. She and her husband sleep in the living room. On a Murphy bed. And no, it’s not a temporary setup. It’s the system.

The Bed You Can’t Even Find

Here’s the twist.

The Murphy bed is the first thing you see when you walk into their apartment… and most people don’t even realize it’s there. It looks like a cabinet. Or built-in storage. Or just part of the wall.Then, at night, it folds down and turns the living room into a bedroom.

“It’s like this magical box,” she said.

And that “box” changed everything.

Why This Actually Works

At first glance, it feels backwards. Aren’t parents supposed to have the bedroom? But Khrystyne reframed it in a way that’s hard to ignore. Giving the kids the bedroom means:

Toys stay contained behind a door

The rest of the apartment stays usable during the day

And at night, the living room transforms into a calm, adult space

She even said it gave them more privacy, not less.

The Real Reason It Feels Bigger

The biggest surprise? How much space they gained.

Beds are one of the largest, least-used pieces of furniture in a home. They take up valuable square footage all day, every day, for something you only use at night.

By putting the bed on the wall, Khrystyne estimates they reclaimed about 30% of their floor space. In a small apartment, that’s the difference between cramped… and comfortable.

A Different Way to Think About “Enough”

We’ve been taught to believe that more space equals a better life.

More bedrooms. More separation. More square footage.

But this setup challenges that idea.

Same apartment. Same footprint.

Just used differently.

So… Would You Do It?

That’s really the question this story leaves you with.

Could you:

Let go of the idea that the bedroom “belongs” to the parents?

Rethink your living room as a multi-purpose space?

Trade a traditional layout for one that actually works better day-to-day?

It’s not for everyone.

But it might be worth asking:

What if the problem isn’t your space… but how you’re using it?