I thought I loved being a minimalist. Then, my family moved from a 500-square-foot apartment to a 1,700-square-foot house.

I loved living in a 500-square-foot apartment with my family, but moving to a bigger home changed my perspective.

Courtesy of Alona Vasylieva I enjoyed living in a small, one-bedroom apartment with my family of three for years.

Once we moved to a house more than triple the size, I totally changed my minimalist mindset.

Now that we live in a bigger space, I can't imagine going back to living small or minimally.

When my husband and I bought our apartment in Kyiv back in 2017, we were thrilled to finally have a family nest of our own.

It was a cozy, 500-square-foot place with one bedroom, and we meticulously planned to optimize every inch of it.

Our kitchen table doubled as my workspace, and our living room couch became the guest bed whenever family stayed over.

Hosting required pure creative problem-solving and, with limited seating around our small table, I'd sometimes feed guests in shifts.

It was chaotic at times, but I didn't mind.

After our son was born, bright plastic toys, endless boxes of diapers, and bulky baby gear started claiming every free corner of our apartment.

With the three of us packed into a single bedroom, finding space was a daily puzzle, but we made it work.

Surprisingly, living so close together didn't feel limited back then — it felt intimate, cozy, and deeply fulfilling.

Then COVID-19 hit.

Spending so much time indoors made me feel isolated, and for the first time, I began dreaming about more living space.