How do your kids share a room?

[mumkimum]

Our girls (2 & 6) will eventually be sharing a room once we figure out what sleeping arrangements will work best for us/them in there (in terms of using our space well and having the kids and co-sleeping mama happy).  

Dh kinda only says bunk beds (which I dislike mainly because I'm the one who has to change sheets, sometimes very often with young kids and wet beds).

I'm considering just finding a full size bed for them to share, and keeping dd1's single in there (which has lots of storage under the bed) as a daybed type thing (aka dumping ground for toys - but at least I could just shove everything there and off the floor too).  

OR just go ahead and get another single bed of some kind (would have to be storage smart, because we'd have to eliminate some other furniture to fit this, I suspect.  And yes would probably have to do so with the full too, I guess).  

There are currently 3 tall bookshelves, the shorter open shelf for clothes, one dresser, desk for dd1, and then trunk and rolling small table for playmobil in the kiddo's room.  There's one smallish closet too. 

Other ideas that are interesting for bed/room sharing that you've come up with welcome too.  The kids currently have an open shelf for most of their clothes that they share together (and one small dresser they share for pi's and leotards).

[SweetSilver]

I hated bunkbeds, even as a kid except for playing on.  The top bunk sucked for getting up in the middle of the night to pee and the ceiling was RIGHT THERE, which I also hated, and the floor was DOWN THERE.  Bottom bunks are better, but still claustrophobic and a real dustcatcher--all the dust and dust mites and fluff and everything from the top drifting down onto the bottom.  Makes me want to sneeze just thinking about!

I like the idea of one larger bed and one smaller.  The kids can sleep together, or retreat separately and everyone can snuggle with mama on Those Nights.  Or mama can sleep on the small bed and be near but not IN bed.  Eventually there would be some desire for separate/equal size beds.  We are not at the stage for separate rooms for the girls, and now we are stuck in a one-bedroom house anyhow, so for now it's a moot point.

Anyway, those are my thoughts.

[lilgreen]

I have all three boys in one room. When it was only the two older boys we got bunk beds but they slept together on the bottom bunk every night. When ds3 moved in there at age 3, ds2 went up (reluctantly) and ds1 & ds2 shared bottom bunk. But ds3 is wild so we got him a toddler bed and they all have their own and it works great and ds2 now loves his own space up top - we got him a wall light, clip on fan, and a basket that hangs off the side for him to put books, etc in.

To relate all this to you, I'd have to stress that you judge your girls to know if they would get along well sharing a bed (ds1 & ds3 did not work, but ds1 & ds2 were happy for years in a single bed together). I have designated shelves for each boy on the bookshelves where they keep their personal items. Designating each girl her own space (to be alone or just to put things or both) would probably be good.

Good luck! I love that our boys share so much and it's been great so far for their relationships.

Ds1: 10
Ds2: 6
Ds3: 3

[Bokonon]

My 7yo boy and 3yo girl share a room, but it's technically "his" room, and she has a separate room that she'll go back in when he decides he doesn't want to share anymore.  :)

So her clothes stay in her room, but to accommodate both of their twin beds and a bookcase, his dresser is in his closet.  It's not a tiny room, but it's not huge.  They have a small space to play in the room, but do most of their playing in other rooms.

It's only been a few months with this arrangement, but they like having the company so far!

[Justmee]

We'v gone through a lot of combinations, but at the moment the twins are sharing (they have loft beds, better than bunks but still save space), and the 7yo and 4yo are sharing (they have bunks, bought when I had 3 in a room and before I thought about what a pain they would be).

Each room has a stand alone closet the 2 kids share. There aren't really so many toys in their room (separate playroom) or books (the rooms spiral off a central alcove, so the bookcases are there).

[I Fly]

Right now, we have our dd (4.5) in her own smallish room, with "her" toys.  Our two sons share a larger room, which has their beds and toys.  I am missing our old house which had a dedicated playroom.  In that house, all the bedrooms were just for sleeping.  Also, I don't like seeing the boys telling the girl to "get out" and vice versa.  Seems like the bedroom/toy arrangement is exacerbating our boy/girl issues.  So, I am about to do a big re-arrange, and have all the kids sleep in the tiny room (bunk bed for boys and single for girl), and make the larger room a playroom/activity space.  

I realize things will probably go back to the way they are now in a short time, as my oldest ds is 9 and they all may balk at the sleeping arrangement soon.  However, I am interested to see if this helps our family work toward a new paradigm! 

[MarieP]

My girls share a room, 2.5 and 4.  We have two twin beds, but 99% of the time they share the same bed.  last week, they started sleeping in separate beds, but moved back into the same bed this week.  

[ollyoxenfree]

DS had bunk beds and DD had a loft bed. Changing the fitted bottom sheet is a pain. We got rid of them years ago and I've never missed them. 

I would look for beds with some built-in shelves or drawers in the base or use some under-the-bed boxes. I find kids can access them easily and it works just as well having as a separate dresser. 

My sister and I shared a room for as long as I can remember from the time we were small through our teens. In our teen years, we used a bookcase to split the room in half, with twin beds on either side, two dressers and a desk each. It worked because it was a large room - much harder to do this in a small space. If you have a large enough room, you could do it with open shelving and baskets for clothing storage, if you want to create a little bit of separate space for each of them. 

[PeacefulSeams]

My 9 yr old and 3 yr old ds share a room. My 3 yr old had a toddler bed but never slept in it so I sold it. He sleeps with his brother. The toddler mattress goes under the bed but I pull it out at bedtime because 3 yr old tends to fall out of bed or get onto the floor to sleep.

[mom2grtbunch]

have you considered a bed with a trundle?  We have a twin bed with a trundle underneath that has the option of an "extra bed" but dosent take up the footprint of another bed.  We can pull it out when needed for guests but then it slides back underneath plus its really easy to change sheets.  our trundle just slides under the bed and can be removed if need be.

[kanani]

I only have one little one at the moment, but we plan to have at least one (maybe two) in the future. We have a two bedroom house and don't want to upgrade, so we'll expect all of the kiddos to share a room when the time comes.

Right now, we have a full-sized mattress on the floor of our DD's bedroom. We plan to build a twin-sized loft bed over it when the time comes. That way, our kiddos can share the bottom bed if they want to, or DD can retreat up top for privacy. I wanted a mattress on the floor so that my DD wouldn't fall very far if she rolled out (we skipped the crib and toddler bed), and an added perk is that our future loft bed won't need to be positioned very high.

[LitMom]

My kids have a twin bed and a toddler bed. The younger is outgrowing the toddler bed fast, but we're moving in October and he'll get a twin bed too. Right now, the heads of both beds are next to one another and have slats in them, so the kids talk and sometimes hold hands through the slats. Awww! 

I don't love bunk beds because I worry about falling, but my 8 year old wants one and I may do a lower lofted bed for her when we move (Ikea has one that's not full top bunk height). I injured myself getting out of a bunk bed in college while very groggy middle-of-the-night (and that was WITHOUT alcohol). 

Trundles seem to work okay for the people we know that use them. Ikea also has expandable beds and mattresses, so you can make the beds only as long as the kids need, which might let you fit two bigger-than-toddler-but-smaller-than-twin size beds next to one another. 

[alaskanmomma]

Right now DD and DS(4 and 2) have two toddler beds in one room. We're expecting baby #3, and if we stay here, we're going to get them bunk beds so when we switch the baby out of our room, there will be enough room... of course we room share for 12m+, so it'll be awhile before we NEED the room, but DD has been pestering us for a bunk bed for-freakin-ever, so I think that'll be their "big sibling" present :)

[loveandgarbage]

I've heard good and bad things about kids sharing a double bed. I think it all depends on how they sleep, if they can be calm together, etc. It would never work with my kids. They'd be playing/fighting all night. We currently have a twin bed and a toddler bed (though DS2 is growing out of it) but have thought about making the switch to bunkbeds at some point to save space.

[honeybee80]

My kids share a tiny room, which doesn't give us many options.  I have a 9 yo DD and 7 yo DS.  We used to have bunk beds, but they drove me crazy, like others have mentioned.  Now we have 2 twin mattresses on the floor.  They also have a small shared dresser.  All of their shirts are hanging in the closet.  We also have some organizing drawers in the closet (I'm working on replacing those with baskets and maybe putting a small bookshelf in their room to hold the baskets.)  I clean out their toys a LOT, so we don't have a ton of stuff.  I also have another closet in the hallway that has more organizing drawers of their toys.  I like the mattresses on the floor for now and I think at some point, I'll find low bed frames, but that will be farther down the road.  Ideally, they will have their own rooms at some point, but it will depend on when I can afford that ;)