Seven is heaven when you have two apartments.
A New York City mother of five sparked controversy after sharing on social media the secret to her family's survival in the Big Apple.
Christie — known on TikTok as @kristiipartyof6 — She is a content creator who moved to the city four years ago and lives most of the year with her husband, who works in the financial technology industry.
Five children will also be along for the ride. One from each parent's previous relationship, and three who were together.
After struggling to fit everyone into a three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment for $12,000 a month and starting looking for something bigger and better, the couple came up with a solution. That meant renting a second unit in the same room for $6,000 a month. A luxurious building.
Not only are they in the same building, but they are also across the hall.
The property was listed after a neighbor decided to move.
“I texted my husband and said, 'I think I just found a solution,'” Christy said. told the people.
The second apartment is currently used to store clothes, shoes, winter coats for the kids, scooters, strollers, and all the kids' toys. The master bedroom becomes a children's room and the main living space becomes a huge playroom.
The family also uses the second apartment for laundry.
Christie added, “We have a family of seven, so we do a lot of laundry. We're a big family, so having a second refrigerator helps a lot.”
The new space also provided the family with an opportunity to welcome visitors. This is something many New Yorkers can only dream of.
“We were also able to host family and friends visiting New York,” Christie explained.
“The second apartment gives them a place to stay close to us, but not our actual living space. It was really, really beneficial for our large family living in the city.”
Christie said her followers tend to be supportive of her posts, but sharing these details with her fans resulted in a lot of questions and negative comments.
“If you live in New York, you understand,” she says. “They understand, but I got a lot of comments like, 'Oh, the amount you pay in a month is the same as I pay in a year, and I own a house.' I think it's people who live outside of New York.'' “That's my mortgage.''
“People just said it was a wasteful, very expensive 'storage unit,'” Kristy continued, adding that she calls it a storage unit because that's what her husband calls the space. pointed out.
“And the truth of the matter is, we use it a lot for storage, but it's a very expensive storage unit,” she said.
“We understand that it doesn’t work for most people, but we feel very lucky that it does for our extended family.”
The family also owns a large home on a half-acre in Utah that they built in 2017, where they spend the summer and several weeks each February or March. But they love the New York apartment setting.
“Once you find an apartment that you like and you really build a community, it's really, really hard to leave,” she says.
“We know we could find a bigger apartment elsewhere in the city and get it for less than we currently have, but the community is very important to us. This is our home. This is my home. It's our community, it's where our friends are, and it's really hard to leave.”
