We went to IKEA yesterday with my sister and her kids. Both of our husbands were off work for President’s Day. We had the best time. The free kids meals were great. All five of us had huge lunches for only $8.24. Not bad!
We were looking around for storage solutions to use in our daughter’s room since there will be three in one bedroom soon. I know that some people think that every child needs their own room, but we love our house and location, and are trying very hard to pay off our house in the next few years and be completely out of debt, so there is no way that we will be moving. I love the privacy, the land, and the common living areas are large which is where we spend most of our time.
I could give in to the pressures from society that say that kid’s need their own room, but honestly, I don’t think they do. Could we afford to add on a bedroom? Yes. Would that be a wise use of our money? I don’t think so. We have more than enough room in our home, and we are making more progress each month to paying it off with extra payments towards principal.
My sister and I shared a room growing up, and loved it. My daughters have loved sharing a room as well. Even if we would have stopped at three children, all three still would have shared a room (once they were old enough). Really, who would have wanted to stay in a room by themselves? None of my kids would have. We have a three bedroom house. We do have an unfinished basement, so there is the possibility of adding more rooms down there one day, but for now, we want to put our money into paying off our house instead.
We found some great storage ideas at IKEA. Definitely a lot cheaper than adding on. Since it will still be a major purchase, we came home to think it over for a couple of weeks, and keep looking around, but we do think that we found the perfect thing yesterday. We had bought a Tolga storage unit before when our middle child moved in with our oldest. I couldn’t believe how much could fit in it. It’s basically a 4 foot wide closet for only $69 with shelves and hanging. I included a picture of it above. The picture really doesn’t do it justice in my opinion, I was really impressed with it. What we are looking at now with doors, is actually eight feet wide, so there will be lots of “closet” space for the girls. We figured it would keep out dust better than the unit that we have now.
We also looked at new bunk beds for the girls. We had “saved” a lot of money, and bought a new one for only $99. BUT, it has always been rickety. Not the best use of $99 since it won’t last. Oh well, live and learn. We found one that they loved at IKEA for $179, and tried shaking it, and it barely moved at all, so for only a little more, I think that we will be able to buy them a new bed that will last a lot longer. Something to think about with future bed purchases. (-:
What solutions do you guys use when you have multiple kids sleeping in one room?
I totally agree with you that society’s view of kids NEEDING their own rooms is crazy. I think that the bonding our children have when spending more time together (especially for those of us who homeschool too!) is more important than them having their “own space.” They need to learn to share, too! (We want them to share a room with their spouse when they get married, after all!)
As for saving space in a “small” house – I agree that bunk beds are great. We have bunk beds in our boys’ room (they are 7 and 3), but they always sleep together in one bed because they love each others’ company! As they get older, they’ll probably want to sleep in separate bunks more.
Closet shelves are wonderful for saving space. My husband is a handyman, so he usually builds shelves in all our closets and saves us a ton of money.
All great ideas. The biggest problem in the girls’ room is lack of closet space. There is a closet that has maybe 12 inches of usable space, hence the search for a better storage solution. I am glad to hear about others that share their rooms as well. They do really enjoy it. It is so sweet to watch them together. I think it is amazing how much fun they have together. Some of my best memories as a child was whispering to my sister and telling her stories at night. We had the best time together!
While not all of my kids share a room, we do have a 5 bedroom house and my two girls have their own bedrooms while my two boys share a room. I am not opposed to kids sharing a bedroom at all, my girls don’t share simply because we have enough room for them not to and they are quite far apart in age (12 and 5) and the older girl enjoys having her privacy.
For me the best space saving tip in my boys room is to really keep the clutter and junk out as much as possibly. They have bunk beds that has a dresser and desk built in and other than that there is no other furnitchure (sp?) in their room. All of their clothes are hung in the closet except for socks, underwear and bathing suits which go in the dresser in the bed. They each are allowed to have two drawers in the desk for their stuff. And the rest of their toys are kept in the toy area of our furnished basement. If they HAD to keep their toys and books in their rooms the addition of a bookcase or two would be easy enough to add in.
But really…we just try to keep the toys and clutter out of their rooms so that it is a restful place and always tidy. We just moved into our home and I have yet had time to decorate their room but we are going to do a travel theme since the oldest boy (6) loves maps and the younger boy (5) likes cars, airplanes and trains.
Heidi,
That sounds like a fun theme in the room! Great idea about keeping out the clutter. While we don’t have a finished basement, we still store toys in boxes that they can go and get and bring up. We actually converted our dining room (it is more like a dining hall, and is connected to the living room) into a play room for them. We bought a huge shelving unit for their toys, so at night we can’t see them, which I really like, but during the day, they play with us. Thanks so much for reading! Rene
Right now we have 3 of our kids (the oldest is 3 and the other two are 1) sharing a room. Our baby is in his own room (well, make that the laundry room). We have moved, and we’re living with my parents while we’re waiting for our house to sell, but honestly, my kids are going to be devastated when I have to split them up. Right now, we have boys and girls in the same room since they are so young, so eventually we’ll need to split them up. But, it’s been amazing to listen to them giggling late into the night. They love it.
I’m all for having kids share a room. If they get married, they’ll share a room hopefully for the rest of their lives, so it’s worth it!
With 3 sharing a not so big bedroom, and since bunk beds weren’t an option because of their ages, we purchased a Besta from Ikea to serve as their floor to ceiling dresser. It cost us about $500, but unless we were going to stack dressers on top of each other in that room, it was the only option. And, we’ll use it for the rest of the time they live at home. So, huge purchase on our budget, but well worth it so that I actually had a place to put all the kids clothes. Our baby’s clothes are in there too. Besta’s from Ikea are usually used for entertainment centers, but we transformed it into a closet/dresser, and it’s worked really well for us.