I did a 2-br and it has worked well for us. Honestly, sometimes I need the break from her and having a place where she or I can segregate is helpful. I’m in school too, so having a separate room helps when I have to do classwork or online classes without her being too distractdul. Also when a sitter is around I can lock myself away if I’m too exhausted to do anything else. If you’ve already adjusted or think you can manage, the arguments for saving while renting are strong, so weigh emotional vs financial cost and see the best value for you.

For your child's sense of stability, move to a 2BR apt. The divorce and leaving the family home is hard enough. Moving to a smaller but similarly situated living is better than suddenly moving to a 1 br and sleeping with his mom or watching his mom sleep on the couch.

Are you expecting your divorce to be contentious? (Or custody wars if you weren't married).

If so, I would opt for the two bedroom.

I'm in the same position and I am looking at 1 bed with dens. Generally I've found them to be comparable in size and may simply not have a door or window and I'm fine with that. DS is 4. I plan on having a futon/small sleeper for him so to have more function/room when he's not sleeping. Will also invest in quality storage solutions.

Isn’t the difference ca 400-500 bucks a month? That covers a nice trip to paris or Amsterdam.

I would do a 1 bedroom and share it with him. Plenty of people in 2nd and 3rd world countries share bedrooms and even beds.
I would bank the money for other things.

Anonymous wrote:I'd do the one bedroom as long as you can, and bank that extra money as long as you can. Since you're renting just re-evaluate every year.

+1 the fact that you're renting and can make a change relatively easily if the one bedroom stops working for you is the kicker for me. If you were buying a condo, I'd say go with 1 bedroom + den or a two bedroom but just renting? Get a one bedroom and bank the money.