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Series of posts: Kids Bedroom

Tips for Kids Sharing a Bedroom

Not every home has the space for kids to have their own bedroom. If you’re one of those families, check out these tips for kids sharing a bedroom in this guest article from Nicole at Confident Foundation. This post contains affiliate links, and I will receive compensation if you make a purchase after clicking on these links.

These days it might seem that having a room all to themselves is a right of passage for kids just as soon as they are born, or at least as soon as they get old enough to ask for one. There are many advantages to having children share a room, however, even when you have to tackle challenges like having a boy and girl together or fitting everything into a small space. Here are the best tips to make the most of a small, shared room to maximize the potential and minimize the bumps!

Store and Organize Vertically

In small rooms, floor space is especially tight, and if you’re needing to fit in two beds it becomes even more so. Of course, there’s always the old standby of the bunk bed that you can turn to, but often when children share a room they’re too young to be sleeping in a bunk.

One of the best ways to store and organize vertically is by utilizing bookshelves for far more than books. Bookshelves can be used to store toys, books, games, and with the purchase of a few baskets even essentials like diapers and clothes! You’ll be amazed at how much more clean and open the room feels if you add in a few large book cases. Far better than huge toy boxes, with shelves things are easy to see and access, making it much more likely that they will actually get used. Be sure to secure them to the wall with brackets, not just straps, in order to ensure the safety of your little monkeys! You might also consider having a small step stool in the room to help them reach high shelves, rather than climbing on the case itself. Another option is to secure many different shelves to the wall at different heights.

Take Full Advantage of Closets

When it comes to children’s clothing when you hang them up they are considerably shorter than adults and leave a lot of empty space underneath. Be sure you’re taking full advantage of this space by also thinking vertically in the closet! There are a couple of different ways you can do this–for example:

In my son’s closet, I again took advantage of shelving options by adding in a small case and storage bin. On the side of the storage bin are sacks with all their blocks. This is a great place to store things like games, puzzles, doodle pads, and more! Since in my daughter’s closet I don’t have as much empty vertical space I turned to boxes. Using two empty cardboard boxes we did a few different craft projects and created a dress up clothes and dress up accessories trunk. It keeps all the tutus out of the way most of the time, and gives me an easy way to haul them out into whatever room I want when it’s dress up time!

Maximize Your Space Options

When you’re considering how to tackle storage for clothing take stock of what you have available. If you have large closets and one dresser, hang all the clothes that you possibly can. If you have the opposite hang only clothes that would get wrinkled easily. Store all the rest in drawers or on shelves.For the clothes that you have in drawers and baskets, roll them — don’t fold them! You might have learned this trick for traveling but it works just as well for everyday life too! It’s amazing how many more size 4T pants you can fit into a drawer when they’re rolled rather than folded and piled on top of each other.

Store extra blankets, out of season clothes, and clothes that are too large for the moment underneath beds.

Less Really is More

When you have little space to work with embrace simplicity. It’s far too easy to allow the room to become overly cluttered and chaotic feeling. Box up any toys that aren’t currently being used and loved. Set a reminder in your calendar to swap them out in 6 months. Teach your children of keeping only things that they loved and enjoy. Each time you rotate toys help them pick out any they would like to donate or sell. This also applies for books–although it might be hard to think you could have too many books they can quickly overtake a room. You can always take advantage of your local library to continually have fresh books in your home without it eating up all your space.

Let Them Express Themselves

Let each child have at least one “wall” for themselves. On it you can hang decor they like or that fits their personality. Although gender-neutral colors work best when you have a boy and girl together, they can still use their favorite things without it clashing. For example, walls themed with flowers are a nice offset to Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. The most important thing is to let them have a space they feel is all their own–and less about making it to the cover of Better Homes and Gardens.

About the author:

Nicole Elliott is the girl behind Confident Foundation (previously Wyoming Girl turned…) where she blogs about Organizing in Small Spaces, Parenting, Recipes, Travel, Beauty, and whatever else tickles her fancy that day! She has moved cross country 6 times in the past 8 years and her two children have successfully shared a variety of small rooms since her son was born in 2010.

February 27, 2014
Tips for an Inexpensive Kids Bedroom

Grab these quick actionable tips for an inexpensive kids bedroom. This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you click through and make a purchase.

Hey everyone, I’m Steph from Crafting in the Rain, and I think it’s so fun that Adelina has asked me here to share my girls’ room with you!

I almost feel like I should give you a couple of disclosures before I jump in here. What I’m going to show you is not a high end, designer bedroom shopped from a catalog. It’s also not a knock-off, DIY, cheaper version of previously mentioned $$ bedroom. I have my fair share of complaints about the room even…(eventually we want to scrape ceilings, replace carpet and baseboards, paint everything, and I wish it was bigger)

BUT, I feel like this can be a very useful post because I’m going to show you how we are using the space the best we can, and with cheap or free storage solutions that anyone should be able to come up with. Additionally, these pics were all taken with my phone because by the time I thought about getting out my real camera, the girls had come home from school and it didn’t look quite as good anymore 😉

Ok, here we go.

Storage solution 1: Boxes, boxes, boxes

In the girls’ room we have boxes from Ikea, magazine file boxes, random cardboard boxes that have been decorated with colored Duck Tape, shoe boxes, and a few plastic boxes. When possible, use boxes with lids so they can be stacked.

What they hold: small toys, craft supplies, “treasures,” school papers, jewelry

Storage solution 2: Wall mounted bookshelves

Use as much vertical space as possible in a small room (I’d like larger shelves here soon) I made these bookshelves a few years ago when I first started blogging, so the pictures aren’t great, but here’s where I posted about them. The bunk was also against this wall, so the placement isn’t ideal now.

What they hold: Books that the girls are currently reading, journals.

Storage solution 3: Bookcase

There are two bookcases in the room…one at the end of the bed, and one turned on its side under the wall shelves. At the end of the bed, most of the before mentioned boxes hang out. The sideways one has 3 baskets in it that hold the majority of the girls’ books. The baskets keep the books more contained than just trying to line them up next to each other.

What they hold: Boxes, books

Storage solution 4: Use under bed space

Remember having to clean your room as a kid, and you’d get busted for just shoving stuff under your bed? I say set your kids up for success and use that space! There are several options too…you can build your own wood boxes with wheels, buy plastic under-bed tubs, or take cardboard boxes and cut them down shorter so they fit!

What they hold: Littlest Pet Shop, Barbies, houses and cars that go with them.

And in case you’re interested, here is the tutorial for the ruffle curtains.

So thanks for having me Adelina! I hope I’ve given you all some good suggestions for taming kids’ rooms. What are your tips for keeping kids’ rooms organized?

February 25, 2014