For those with multiple children what do not each have their own room, how do you organize their...

[DeChRi]

I am asking this in a hurry. :)  We have #4 coming in 3 months.  We forgot we had scheduled a carpet cleaning for today so we spent the evening last night stripping everything from the kids rooms,and such.  I am suddenly hit with a nesting urge to not put anything back until I go through it all, toss half, and put things where they will live when baby comes.  So I am trying to think fast. 

My oldest is downstairs with her own space so she is a non-issue. We also have a play area downstairs where the little ones' have many toys.

Upstairs is the master bedroom, and 2 other rooms.  We will have a 4 yr old, 19 month old and new baby.  Well I guess when baby comes we will have a 4 yr old, 22 mnth old and baby.  All girls so far and we do not know about the 4th, although at this point, it is irrelevant.  So right now each kid has a room with their stuff, including a sleeping space, although they end up with us most of the time.  4 yr old has a closet full of clothes, games, etc, a twin bed she starts the night in and sometimes finishes it.  Her dresser, bookshelves, etc are in there.   My 19 month old has a futon mattress on the floor since I sleep in there with her on the nights that the older one is extra kicky and comes in our bed.  We still have a rocking chair from when she was little, her shelves of books and toys, large closet with her clothes, diapers, some slings, and other random stuff.

New baby will have diapers, baby blankets, clothes, and the other baby stuff.  I am trying to figure out how to organize rooms.  

Would you gut out some stuff from the 19 month old's closet and have her share space with the baby?  Or move more of her stuff to the 4 yr olds room?  Of make one closet the kids' clothes closet and one the toy/stuff closet? 

How do you org your stuff when you have more kids that rooms/closets?

[taubel]

I would have the 4 yo and 22 month old share a room, and give the baby his/her own room. We have three boys and 2 bedrooms for them. It was easiest for me to put the baby in his own room. I kept all of the baby stuff in there, and it was a quiet place for him. It was also useful as a baby playroom as he became mobile. No chokable toys were allowed in that room.

Now my youngest is 4, and he hates having his own room! But we like it that way, so he doesn't keep his brothers up at night/wake them up early in the morning. We will probably eventually put him in with the middle son and give the oldest boy (who's 10) his own room. But my real dream is to have a 4 bedroom house so they each have their own room!

We keep all of the toys (for all three boys) in our lower level playroom. The bedrooms have their beds, desks, clothes, books, etc. But our bedrooms are very small. And two of my sons are in elementary school so they need a quiet place to do homework.

Good luck with your organizing!

[DeChRi]

Thank you for your feedback!  Not a bad idea at all.  I was not sure when the right time to move kids together was.  DH and I are both just one of two kids, opposite sex.  So it was never something we dealt with.  My then 22 month old I am afraid will wake the 4 yr old, but who knows. I wish my crystal ball would show me how this new baby would sleep. ;)

[erigeron]

Is putting the 4-year-old in with the oldest sister not an option if you're worried about the toddler keeping her up? I don't have kids that age, I'm just guessing. Or can you put the baby in your room at first and then see how it shakes out?

[Gremco]

I've only ever had one room for my kids. When my youngest was born My oldest was 26 months. I didn't have any problems with anybody keeping anyone else awake, except for me of course:). One person crying wouldn't wake up anyone else. Even now, the oldest if four and the youngest two and if someone wakes up crying, the other two keep on snoozing.

My kids have all their clothes in their room. The two boys wear the same size so their clothes are all mixed together in the top drawers and the girl has the bottom drawers. Pajamas are kept in the nightstands. One is for boys, and my girl has her own. There are no toys in the bedroom, which is a rule my mom put forth. It helps the clutter in the room big time, though. I do allow my daughter to keep some of her girly toys in her nightstand or in the closet and she plays quietly in the room when she needs some time away from the boys.

[happyhats]

I have two small children, and we live in a two bedroom apartment.  So all the toys, clothes, etc have to go into their room (I also store the small chest freezer in their closet because we have a galley kitchen and there was no place else the freezer neatly fit).  My dd is three, and she just got a bunkbed that can later become two seperate twin beds.  My son is only one, and is still in the crib, but he probably won't be for long since he's already climbing like crazy and dd loves the top. 

I just did some major decluttering and rearranging since it was starting to feel clastrophic to me (two birthdays in December, plus getting a big girl bed, plus Christmas).  I took down their toy shelf and put the majority of their toys under their bed.  Now they can reach all their toys but they are tucked out of sight. 

In your case I would declutter and then arrange the baby's items in whichever room is more convienent in terms of space, how close it is to your room, etc.  I wouldn't bother moving the children beyond that until the little one arrives and you see how everyone fits together.  The baby doesn't really need access to any of his/her things until older, so its not like you couldn't temporarily have the crib in one room and the blankets, toys, cds, etc in another.

As far as seperation goes, I will probably keep my children in the same room until puberty unless something unforeseen happens.  Since I want to homeschool, it seems like it will be so much easier to have a playroom/homeschooling storage in a third room and use their room for sleeping.  (I just don't see us getting a house/apartment larger than three bedrooms with where we live).   At puberty its nice to have privacy and the toys/gadgets they enjoy aren't so large. 

[tri31]

Originally Posted by Gremco 

I've only ever had one room for my kids. When my youngest was born My oldest was 26 months. I didn't have any problems with anybody keeping anyone else awake, except for me of course:). One person crying wouldn't wake up anyone else. Even now, the oldest if four and the youngest two and if someone wakes up crying, the other two keep on snoozing.

My kids have all their clothes in their room. The two boys wear the same size so their clothes are all mixed together in the top drawers and the girl has the bottom drawers. Pajamas are kept in the nightstands. One is for boys, and my girl has her own. There are no toys in the bedroom, which is a rule my mom put forth. It helps the clutter in the room big time, though. I do allow my daughter to keep some of her girly toys in her nightstand or in the closet and she plays quietly in the room when she needs some time away from the boys.

I am really happy to hear that thinks have worked out okay, with 3 in one room. We are expecting our 5th and for the first few years it looks like I will have to find a way to fit everything in one room.