I mentioned in a previous post that my children share bedrooms. Boys in one bedroom. Girls in one bedroom.
Some of you asked to hear more about the children’s bedrooms, so here goes…
Let me start by saying WE RENT.
That means rarely are we in charge of the color scheme, rarely can we do much about where walls and doors are, and logistically, we have to “make do” with our circumstances. So, our bedroom situations are not ideal, but they work.
I like uniformity.
I am going to be totally honest here: the matching bedspreads on the girls’ beds are for MY benefit…not theirs. While it helps my brain to see uniformity within a bedroom, I realize I should not expect this in every aspect of their rooms. These bedspreads are starting to show their age, but until we decide new bedspreads are a priority {or this UK children’s bedding company makes their United States debut–love their Scripture bedding!}, we’re sticking with the matching bedspreads and allowing them put their own special animals and pillows on the beds to make it theirs. And yes, I do allow several stuffed animals and several pillows to be on their beds. I could fight this battle, but it’s not a worthy cause to me. Which brings me to my next thought…
They need individuality.
The same things I took into account when I was decorating my master bedroom are the same things I try to take into account when decorating a child’s bedroom. I am not of the mind that bedrooms are simply a place to sleep. Often this is the only room where a child has any say-so in what the room looks like. Let them practice here for the homemaking skills they will need later on.
The girls’ room has butterflies and horses and aqua blue and…
Legos
While Lego has fallen out of favor in our household (too “dark” for my taste–we much prefer the ones from Vision Forum), there are still a few that meet our criteria (Hero Factory being one of them…unless they change their storyline). And yes, my oldest daughter in particular, really likes them. So on her bulletin board, underneath her butterflies is a picture she printed off.
My favorite? No.
Reasonable? Yes.
God didn’t give me little copies of myself to raise…one of the most humbling aspects of parenting.
Right now, the girls’ room has
- petite bunk beds (made in England and given to us by some friends)
- an expensive-for-WalMart-but-not-high-quality dresser (2 of the drawers hold keepsakes for each girl, the other 3 drawers hold clothes)
- a stacker with magazines and crafting supplies
- a basket for Megan’s books and a basket for Melia’s dolls
- a changing table and diaper pail (because there’s a place for it there)
In the closet is
- a coat rack for purses and hats
- Megan’s lock box
- clothes that need to hang
- shoes
- their laundry basket
- breakable toys (i.e. porcelain dolls, tea sets)
The biggest issue with their room is the paper stash that grows daily. There is a tub under the bed for papers, but it overflows all over the room, into drawers, and onto doors and walls. Until recently, the only solution I could think of was to periodically go through it all, either by myself…pitching at will, or with the girls…exerting much energy along the way. I finally came up with what I hope will solve the paper issue.
My oldest daughter (who is my “paper” child) now has 2 notebooks. One for
Things I Like
and one for
Homemaking
Those are the two main reasons she keeps bits of paper and magazines and whatever other papers lurk in the corners of her room. She keeps an entire magazine because of one article on 10 Reasons Why We Homeschool (from The Old Schoolhouse®). Or she keeps a catalog because it has one of her favorite books with a summary she likes. Having these 2 notebooks has really helped lessen the amount of paper around the room and has given her a place to keep all those tidbits of information she wants to hold on to for the future.
Now, for the boys…
When we moved to this house, there was one room decorated in red, white, & blue. We decided to put the boys in there, even though it was the smallest bedroom.
Our 13 year old has a twin bed, our 5 year old has a toddler bed, and our 2 year old has a toddler mattress that slips underneath his older brother’s bed during the day (the little boys have nicknamed it “the peekaboo bed”)
Also in the room you will find
- safari decor my oldest son bought (with his own money) at a garage sale (that’s right…DOES NOT go with the Americana theme…but it’s ok…no, really, it is)
- a plastic 3-drawer “nightstand” we hope to replace someday
- their laundry basket
- a gun rack used to hold their hats and backpacks
In the closet is
- the same dresser the girls have
- 13 year old son’s hanging clothes to the left of the dresser, 5 year old’s hanging clothes to the right (little boys’ clothes are in my closet)
- telescope, microscope, Scout stuff, etc
My boys are much tidier than my girls. The worst they manage to clutter their room with are their cowboy outfits and stuff the girls bring in!
Now, perhaps you are wondering about Boy #4…Mr. Garin.
Well, he’s in my closet.
Yikes! Did I just say that? Yep, I did.
My closet is big.
Big enough to hold my clothes, Garin’s clothes, Micah’s hang-up clothes, AND a porta-crib (because you gave me permission to use it!)
Garin just isn’t old enough to be in a main bedroom without the others in the room causing him to wake up several times in the night. That is the very reason why we moved him from our room to the closet. The door of the closet is kept ajar and we all get a good night’s sleep. {Garin wakes up between 6-7 am}
Eventually, we may have to put some of the children downstairs, but for now with the amount of children we have and the ages they are, this works well.
So, how do you have your children’s bedrooms set up? If you have a post on children’s bedrooms you’d like to share, link up below!
Kim says
We have 3 boys (age 21, 17 and 13) in one room and there is really no “Decor” there, just their mattresses on the floor, one nightstand for each and one shoe cubby. They have a nice walk-in closet and there is a “wall” there for each of them.
Our daughter (14) has her own room as she is the only girl!
The little boys (age 5 and 4) sleep with us. As in on the same mattress. Right now we have our queen mattress on the floor and my husband has two cushions next to it that he sleeps on because they are more comfortable for him than the mattress. The littles have slept with us since birth. We have plans for a bunk bed for them and that will go on the far wall of our room.
We have one dresser for the two of them, the top two small drawers for each boys socks and underwear, belts and ties. One large drawer for their combined jammies and undershirts. Then each boy has a large drawer for all tees, polos and long-sleeve tees/sweaters and one drawer for all pants. (this dresser was mine growing up and into adulthood and it’s a good size). Their dress shirts are in our closet. A bit crowded but it works!
Melody says
What a timely post! Thank you!
Currently our three (two boys, one girl) share a room. We’re 3 months away from girl #2 arriving though, so we’ll be converting my private piano studio to the girls’ room. It’s something we’ve wanted to do but just haven’t gotten around to yet. We’ve talked about how to do the rooms, but since I’m still teaching (won’t go on maternity leave until just before baby’s birth) we haven’t made any major changes.
Thanks for the chance to see inside your kids’ rooms! Lots of ideas to consider!
Lisa says
My youngest (now almost 4) slept in a pack in play in my closet for most of her 1st year. When people found out I had very mixed opinions. Even looks of cruelty. LOL They didn’t know that me sweet little girl didn’t sleep well and at the littlest noise she would be wide awake. So no, I didn’t do it for space but I used it for my sanity. I only have 3 girls and no more children to come. In my opinion I would put boys in one room, girls in the other and baby in closet like you are. I have a friend who has 8 children in a 3br house here is her email ( keeperathome3@yahoo.com ). I would write her and ask what she does. 🙂
Amy says
Yeah, I can’t quite figure out why putting the bed in a closet is such an awful thing. My mother-in-law was one of those children who slept in a dresser drawer. Our society has a very skewed view of what is cruel and what is resourceful.
Head Ant says
My sister used to have a really big closet that she would put a porta-crib in for naps.
When I was younger, I used to want to make my parents’ hall closet into my bedroom. It was not big at all. I thus kept sharing a bedroom with my sister.
Elise says
The first house we purchased was 50+ yrs old when we bought it. One of the previous owners HAD converted one of the hallways into a very large closet (for a bedroom) and a small closet (off the dining and kitchen areas); the large end had the vents for the central heat/air. Of the 5 babies we had while living there, all had a turn at sleeping in the big closet. Then during the day, I put a gate up in the door of the closet and it became the “playroom” for my toddler(s) while I homeschooled. Gotta love those converted hallways.
Amy says
That is a great idea!
Becca says
We’re just happy to have a room separate from our kids! For 3 years we lived with my inlaws, and had at least 1 child in our room with us. Not a baby, but 4+ YO child. My inlaws totally moved out a couple months ago, and my husband and I are THRILLED to have a bedroom to ourselves. The 500 square feet that used to house all 5 of us, now houses only 3 [the children] and we’re all happier.
Kara @ The Chuppies says
I really enjoyed this one Amy…and agree with so much of your heart behind “the practicals”.
Teaching order/responsibility.
Leaving room for creativity and individuality.
Learning to leave together and share space.
That’s how we roll too 🙂
Girls in one room…boys in one room (ours have always shared, even boys w/ girls when they were really little…and each of our 5 spent time in the porta-crib in the laundry room, closets etc. until they were solidly sleeping in as late as the others).
Another side benefit to all this sharing is that they’re sound sleepers because they’ve learned to block out noise pretty well 🙂
Fun to catch a glimpse into your world.
Love,
k
Rebecca says
The concern with the closet is providing enough fresh air. Even if it is a large walk-in closet, they are made for storage, not with windows or vents. This can be a risk factor for SIDS.
Amy says
The door isn’t shut and there is vent by the door, otherwise I would not do it at all for the very reason you mentioned. 🙂
Sarah says
Yep, sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. We moved our 2 1/2 year old girl out of our room last year when we were remodeling. She now sleeps in a playpen in our only other bedroom, with her 3 older brothers. Hopefully we will be moving sometime this year and she’ll be able to have her own room. And hopefully it will happen before her fourth brother is born this fall!
Bren- says
We have run the gamut over the years, with our 8 children, from total parental privacy, to having 4 children co-sleeping with us, to girl bedroom-boy bedroom with a shared toy area in the 3rd bedroom, to (our all time family favorite) a “bunk house”, where all the kids slept together in one room (a huge family room, converted to a kids bunkhouse) and we used their former bedrooms for a boy toyroom and a girl toyroom. We then moved to a very big home, and thought it important to give each of the kids their own room…we only had 4 at home at the time. But they seemed to all end up sleeping back together. Whether that be on our bedroom floor, the family room couch, or in one another’s rooms. The next year we added a new baby-who co-sleeps with us, and the year after that, another new baby…the first ever of our 8 children who has had a crib in a separate room…but he requires it. The “family bed” has been a great gift over the years. And when our eldest moved out of the home at the age of 20, we often woke up in the middle of the night to find that she had not only come home to sleep, but was cuddled up next to her Momma, in our bed. One of our children, as a toddler, was a bit reticent to allow the new baby to move into our bed…he would tell us, “Baby OUT!” when we would bring her into the bed. So, she slept in a car seat next to our bed at night, until her brother would go to sleep, and then we would bring her up into the bed. It took us nearly 4 years to get him out of our bed…we slowly moved a twin mattress across our floor, toward the door. He’s 20 now, and a US Marine. 🙂 I smiled at your words about the comforters…I “require” uniformity…it works well for my mind. But, I too, allow pillows, blankets and critters in their beds…things that “define” them. The boys have matching bed sets, as do the girls. I have had issues with wall decor, and am pretty strict about it, as wall clutter can make me feel “cluttered”, but they do have magnetic boards that they can post things on, and the girls hang personal things in their closets. It’s fun to see how others do things! Thanks for sharing this.
Bri says
We have two right now and just moved them both into the same room. It was a LONG process…actually, it would probably make a great blog post :). Anyway, they have a daybed with trundle that is still sitting empty (neither are old enough/ready for a “big” bed). The almost 2-year-old sleeps in the regular crib and our 8 month old sleeps in the pack-n-play. It’s funny, but they both actually started sleeping BETTER once we moved them into the same bedroom! Our oldest used to have trouble falling asleep and the tiniest noise would wake him, now he sleeps through almost anything! The little one used to wake early, but now sleeps a bit later (or wakes up and “talks” to his big brother for a while). 🙂 You have to do what works best for you and your family.
Mother of 4 says
We moved into our 3 bedroom townhome back when we only had two, a girl & a boy (now almost 8 & 6.5). We painted one room pink and one room blue 🙂 after renting for 2 years and not being able to paint… when I was expecting #3 someone asked what we would do until we could buy a 4 bedroom house… I said I have no problem with them sharing rooms! #3 is a boy (4 today!!) but he slept in our bed until #4 (girl, now 19 months) was born. For the longest time the 3 of them would sleep in whatever room worked out, mostly the “pink” room, sometimes the living room (new baby=lots of movie nights) All that mattered was that we all got sleep! The boys finally sleep in the “boy” room and the youngest girl is probably still a year out from sleeping with our oldest but we did finally get a crib set up for her in there!
We also finally got their closets figured out. The boys’ closet has a dresser for each of them and there own coat rack. We got my daughter a new *used* dresser for her clothes and will soon move the baby’s out of our walk-in closet. I’ve often wondered if we couldn’t fit a pack & play in there 🙂 My daughter has a bunk bed but the bottom bunk is in the boys’ room. It’s a T shaped bunk bed with a desk underneath. My parents bought it from a co-worker for us. I think someday the boys will get a bunk bed, probably if/when we have another boy and he is ready to sleep in there… but that could be years. I would like to buy a different house but not one that is bigger, just one that has a backyard.
Sarah says
Hi, I recently found your blog and hadn’t commented before. I loved this post! We only have two kids as of now, but as we live in another country with limited space and furniture, we’ve had varying adventures figuring out their sleeping arrangements. Both of them have slept in pack and plays as babies – I think I prefer it over cribs now since they can be right next to us in our room. And, by the way, I think it’s totally ok to have your babe in the closet. My aunt and uncle have six kids and we always joked about finding kids sleeping in closets in their house… We don’t have closets here or it would be an option for us!
Mama K says
At this point we have an almost 4 year old girl and a 2 1/2 year old boy. They both slept in our room (co-sleeper turned pack-n-play) the first year and have been rooming together since they both got the boot. I think living in apartments with our first gave her daddy’s gift of sleeping through anything because there was never an issue of her waking up when he did. Now with #3 on the way we’re planning on keepin it that way until the baby’s 1 yr…then we’ll figure things out then. Eventually we’ll have to give up the guest room for one of the kids so we have until then to get rid of junk we’ve been storing. 🙂
Their room has the crib w/o its side and a toddler bed along with a dresser for their clothes on the top drawers and dressup and toys on the bottom two. The diaper changer holds baskets for diapers (one for cloth, one for paper, wipes, etc.) and the girl’s clothes. The closet has all the little toys I like to keep up (so i’m not overwhelmed with their messes!) and distribute when i have the energy to make them hold to picking up their stuff. On one side hangs their clothes with an extended rod so there are two rods on one side, one for each of their clothes. The other side is the totes with all the clothes they’ve outgrown. Baby #3 has all her stuff in our room in my closet…
We’ll see how things end up!
Susan says
Amy, You mentioned in this post that you rent, can you give your family’s advantages of renting verses owning a home? My husband and I are thinking about moving and we will need to decide if renting would be better. Thanks!
Amy says
We rent because we move a lot. Ty’s job is such that we are rarely in one place longer than 3 years. On top of that, we want to be debt free. Not owning our home makes our lives much simpler. We can pick up and go without needing one of us to “stay behind to sell the house,” repairs are made by someone else (my husband is admittedly not a repairman) and there is no debt involved where we feel like we can’t take the next promotion because we have a house we have to stay in a few more years. In our situation, it just makes good sense to rent. 🙂 Someday we hope to be settled in a city near our extended family and then we will look closer into buying…debt free, we hope. 🙂
Melissa says
When I had two kids, a boy and a girl, they both woke up frequently at night wanting to snuggle. Eventually, I figured out that if we put them in a double bed together, they both slept soundly, an we parents got more sleep. They were 1 and 3 then. When they were 5 and 3, we moved to a new home, where they could each have their own room. Much to our surprise, they didn’t want to slit up! They shared our son’s room for a few months, and we gave them all the time they wanted to get used to being in separate rooms. Even once my daughter moved into her girly room, we would often find her sleeping in her brother’s room come morning.
Now we have four. Our next, a daughter, joined her sister and they enjoy sharing a room. They each have space for their own likes and special things. Baby #4, still a newborn, is a boy. Right now, he is in our room, but as he grows, he will move in with his brother. Our oldest son was happy to help set up the crib next to his bed and tells us how much he looks forward to “getting” to share with his brother.
Our society gets all hung up on how kids should have their own rooms, as if kids are missing some basic right if they don’t. But my experience with my kids tells me just the opposite! Sharing rooms promotes sibling closeness, gives opportunities to learn to share, negotiate and compromise while leaving room for creativity and individuality. My kids are learning that God made them each special, but He did not make them the center of the world. We do actually have enough bedrooms for each child to have their own room, but given the choice, they chose to share! I wouldn’t give up the closeness my kids enjoy! I don’t think any of us should feel bad about kids sharing rooms!
Amy says
You know, having my little boys share a bed would probably be something they would enjoy! Great thoughts, Melissa! 🙂
RebeccaL. says
I have nothing to add, my kids have all slept in various rooms, with each other, etc., I don’t like them in our (mine & their daddy) bed, it’s only a double bed and our youngest has never liked sleeping in our bed anyway. We had to move my 3 year old out of the toddler bed in Jan., about the time she turned 4. She was way too tall for a toddler bed! She’s now in a twin bed. Is your 5 year old a small child? My 4 year old is average, I guess. When my middle child hit about 3, she started sleeping with her older sister and did so for years. She has her own bed now but most of the time, still sleeps with her sister. I am good with any of it, as long as they all sleep!
Amy says
My 5 year old is a pretty wiry little guy, so yes, he fits well in a toddler bed still. 🙂
Angela says
My two sons (7 years and 2 years) share a room together, and my daughter (6 years) has her own room. My sons have always been close so late last year I gave them a bed each in a room to share… However they will only sleep in a bed together! Jaiden (2) goes straight to his older brothers bed when u go to tuck him in, he’ll get upset if u try to settle him in his own bed – no matter what he will get straight into bed with Josh even if u can wrangle him into his own bed. We are now having to quickly find another house to rent so it is possible that everyone will b cramped – especially with baby #4 coming at the start of Jan 2012! After reading this however, I feel a little more at ease knowing that if there is a lot of doubling and tripling up – that everyone will be OK. I wonder how these expectations of things like a room each is the best for our young children, came from? I like to think of myself as down to earth and resourceful, but it took me a few years before I felt ok with my older kids sharing rooms… And now we are faced with perhaps closer quarters and I felt I may be disadvantaging my children by not being able to get a room each for them… I have to catch those ingrained assumptions and really analyze them lol. Great post that I have come across at just the right time for me 🙂
Sending blessings
Amy says
I kind of have to wonder if these thoughts came from people only have one or two children and creating a child-centered culture and/or “me”-centered culture? So glad you’re here (and off to check out your site…love the name!)
Elise says
When we were in a position to build our new home, an acquaintance made some remarks on the “absolute necessity” of each child having his or her own bedroom. (11 bedrooms?? I don’t think so!!) Without thinking, I asked him rhetorically why that was necessary if one of my goals in parenting was to prepare my children for likely marriage; don’t they NEED to know how to share a room then???
Pamela says
Great post! I totally agree with matching comforters, it helps my brain also. 🙂 I have 3 boys in a room now, and other than a few stuffies on their beds, it is pretty simple (and small). My daughter has a room to herself, which is sort of lonely I think and she is really looking forward to sharing it with the baby down the road.
Regarding the lego. I recently was given a video to watch on yoga and eastern mysticism/religion with interviews of former yoga instructors who are now christian. They explained that yoga is the part of hinduism that trains your body to accept the indwelling of the snake god. Attempting to take the spiritualism out of yoga (thinking that it can be just physical) is impossible because the name yoga implies union with the snake god. I bring this up as it just so happened that a couple of days later, my 6 year old son came to me and showed me some yoga moves. I was quite disturbed as we have never had anything of the sort in our house, I have never practiced yoga, and we do not have cable TV. I asked him where he learned such things, and he informed me that sometimes when they watch some of the little cartoon movies on Leggo.com the Hero Factory characters would perform these posistions, and of course he, without understanding what it was became very interested in trying them out for himself. Needless to say, we have now banned that site, and we will have nothing to do with Hero Factory. I wanted to let you know in case this was of any concern to you as well.
Amy says
My daughter actually wrote a letter to Lego asking them to remove the yoga aspect…I had forgotten about this as we own the older version of the set and actually do not get on the site anymore. Good point! Thank you! Lego has just gone down hill haven’t they? 🙁
Lisa Maria says
Hi Amy
I really enjoyed this piece. I have four girls myself and they range in ages from 20 to 4. We always kept a crib in our room when they were babies even though we had another bedroom. I had the second when the first was 21 months old and she slept in our bed, the baby in the crib next to us (who also joined us during the night).
They both then shared a bedroom when the younger one was old enough..they shared a toddler bed. Number 3 came along and we moved house. This house had three bedrooms. The older two girls shared a room, the crib and later on toddler bed went into my room and we used the extra bedroom to store all the baby’s stuff, but I have to mention here that we ALWAYS had a child in our bed at some point!
As they grew, the eldest got her own room and the two younger ones shared.. this still exists today. I once again have a toddler bed in my room (but my four year old is always in our bed anyway!) Thank God I have a queen sized bed, but with a 6 foot plus husband and an almost 5 year old the odds are evened don’t you think? 😉 I’m working on getting her to share with her 14 year old sister, moving the 18 year old into her own room since the 20 year old is at college and only home for Christmas and summer break. Guess what.. 18 year old doesn’t WANT her own room and 14 year old cant sleep without her big sister! So you see I can SO relate to what others have said before me.
Thanks for sharing your experiences.. they are very helpful. and sorry for the L-O-N-G post.
God Bless!
Amy says
I have a 6 ft+ husband as well and kiddos who LOVE to climb in our bed…we finally HAD to get a King bed! So glad we did!
Amy Clark says
May I just ask the obviously question everyone wants to know (but doesn’t ask) for you that co-sleep with your children? How is there intimacy in your marriage that way? We had our babies in our bedroom till they slept through the night, then they went into an older sibling’s room. I’ve always wondered how a couple managed if children were in there older than that.
Amy says
LOL–I don’t even have an answer for that other than it manages to happen. 😉
Kate @ Modern Alternative Mama says
My daughter occasionally has napped in my closet, LOL. Like because she decided to make herself a little nest of my clothes and fell asleep.
Right now each of my kids has their own room (2 of them). But when baby #3 shows up in the next few weeks, things will change! Of course baby will be in with us for at least a few months. If it’s a girl, there’s a good chance she’d move in with my daughter (who will be 4 by then, and wants this to happen). If it’s a boy, not sure if I will move it in with my son…or put the older two together. But someone’s going to share!
Shel says
My boys each have their own rooms, and my girls share since they are close in age. I did however, used to have the youngest sleep in our closet too. You have to walk into the closet to get to the master bathroom so it’s more like a dressing room. She slept there until she was out of the crib. Worked wonderful for us, since she didn’t disturb the other children’s sleep and we didn’t disturb hers either.
Jsd says
One great thing to use is one or two of those under-the-bed storage cases. They’re long and about 1.5 feet acsros but not very tall so they can fit under you’re bed great for storing junk!Also, shelves and bookcases work wonders for knick-knacks.If you have a dresser keep the clothes folded as nicely as possible b/c it expands the space and you can find things better. Coat racks or on the wall hangers work great for storing things. I’d also go through all your stuff sometime this summer and make 3 piles while you’re doing it. 1-stuff to keep where you can get it. 2-stuff to put away (like in the attic or store in boxes under your bed or something) 3-stuff to give away or throw away. Try to not be a packrat either because that REALLY cuts down on space. Just keep the things you really use and want and need. Hope I helped! = )