Apartment living help
This is going to come off sounding terribly spoiled, but I guess it is and I am. I haven't posted in forever, but to recap the past several months in a nutshell: Patrick finally found a job after 1.5 years of being the "manny" (aka staying home with the kids after being laid off). Not only did he find a "job" - he found his dream job, in my dream city (Charlotte, NC where I grew up), and the company is paying FULL relocation to move us there, INCLUDING compensation for loss on equity on the sale of our house if it ends up selling for less than we paid (which it absolutely will - I'm hoping to sell for more than the mortgage and cut my losses). We are so blessed to end up at this place, after the very long, very rocky, very rough time we've had trying to stretch my paychecks as far as they can go, eating through savings, etc.
Patrick moved to Charlotte in April to start his job. I've been here with the kids hoping to sell the house. Since I lost my "manny", my MIL came for a week and then my mom moved in to watch the kids for me. My mom has now reached her limit with what she can handle with two very active almost 5 and almost 3 year olds and says she can't do anymore after the end of the month. I have found a spot for the kids in a daycare in Charlotte, in the area where we hope to buy a house once our house sells and can start there in June (provided I get Morgan fully potty trained, which is another story).
Long story short, we're looking to move into corporate housing starting June 1st. This will be a fully furnished apartment that P's company will pay for until our house sells. We won't move our things from Nashville until the house sells and we buy a new one. So, we'll be moving 2 adults, 2 kids and 2 dogs from a 4000+ square foot house into likely a two bedroom rented corporate apartment.
I need advice on how to live in such small quarters with 2 crazy kids. How best to maximize the space that we have, etc. Creative toy ideas, since we will only be able to bring a few with us. They will have to share a room, which has never worked well when we've tried on vacations....please share any advice you have on that. They are one the same schedule, more or less, which I'm sure will help. I know hundreds of thousands of people live in apartments, and this is by no means the end of the world, I am just looking for advice on how to do it best, to minimize the stress on my kids, who have already gone through so much over the past year and now with the move.
Thanks!