Need ideas on how to maximize space - in a bedroom

ilovemybaby wrote: We only have a two bedroom house so Abby and the new baby will have to share a room (although we are planning on having baby in our room while he/she is in a bassinet).
Abbys room is pretty non gender specific. The walls are purple but I think that is ok. The curtains are blue with Winnie The Pooh and Piglet on them. She has a matching night light and toy holder.
Our main problem is fitting a crib into the room. We would have to get rid of something... At the moment she has two shelves on the ground, two dressers and a shelf on top of one of the dressers. Then she has a little table and chairs, rocking horse and another little drawer unit that we used to have the night light on before she went into a bed. And she has a soft toy holder hanging in the corner of the room.

I saw a toy storer that is about 9 boxes in rows of 3. That would hold quite a few toys.
My mum thinks we should get some really tall shelves that go right up the wall. But I don't want to get those because they could easily tip over. And they would cover the walls and it would just look yuck IMO
We have considered bunk beds but I'm a bit nervous of putting a newborn into a bunk bed (bottom of course) with a bed rail. And I don't want Abby to put toys or books on top of baby while he/she is sleeping KWIM? At least with baby in the crib she is less likely to do so (and by the time he/she is in the crib Abby will be almost 3 so she should be old enough to understand not to do that).

Abby has way too many toys... I try to get rid of some but Paul is such a hoarder he doesn't want me to get rid of anything of hers. It was hard enough getting rid of two or three boxes of old soft toys (that were mostly his LOL).
Also right now, we cannot get to her bedroom window. Seriously. Her dressers and shelf on top of one dresser, prevent us from accessing the window. I don't like it because if we had to go out the window in a fire we wouldn't be able to.

I really don't know what to do.

I said to Paul maybe we should make our living room our bedroom LOL And our room Abbys. And Abbys room babys. But that would mean whenever we have visitors they would be walking into our bedroom HAHA Unless we made the back door our front door.

If I took a photo of her room and posted it you would all probably be because she has tooooo many toys.

If anyone has any ideas on how we can maximize the space (or get rid of stuff HAHA) please let us know!!!

It is something I want to start organizing as of Wednesday.

C&K*s Mommie replied: I do a toy overhaul every few months, and especially after birthdays and Christmas. Big toys are fine, small toys are out of here. I just got rid of sooooo much stuff, and I still have more to go (esp clothes) but our youngest is growing but not fast enough to get out of the clothes she has worn for the last few seasons.

First it is (IMHO) imperative that you have accessibility to her window- as a fire escape. Whatever it takes to get the dresser out of the way of the window, I would do and not put off.

Bunk beds, you are right. Not the best option for a baby, and I would not suggest putting a three yr old in one right now either.

As for the toys, I would say just do it. I believe in comprimise in marriage, but that is one area that I would have to have the final say if my DH disagreed. I would have a major toy overhaul, and start tossing. Sometimes when I do my overhaul I toss without thinking, at other times I think about who gave what to us, how in nice of condition it still is blah blah blah. It still goes to Waterfront or the Goodwill. It just has to leave.

There are storage boxes for every need you may have for the things too. And space saving bags too may aide you as well. I would look into that route.

Good luck in what you decide to do.

gr33n3y3z replied: is your bedroom bigger then the kids bedroom?
Maybe switch rooms

luvmykids replied: You could mount some shelves on the walls and put cute baskets or bins with stuff in them.... Actually I think it helps keep the room clean, they have to ask me to get stuff down for them and I can make them clean up before I'll get something else down. Also you can store stuff under cribs, beds, etc

ilovemybaby replied:
I really want to do a toy overhaul. I know Paul is going to be upset with most of what I get rid of though. SHEESH
It is hard when you have to make a room suitable for a newborn/small child that will put everything in their mouth AND a toddler.
If I keep stuff under the crib or bed it has to be large enough that a crawling child won't be able to choke on it. KWIM? Even when in a box, kids have a way of getting into things! LOL

Abby grows pretty fast. She can still fit size 1 clothes but they say 84cm and she is 88cm. She fits most size 2 clothes well. Except I have to roll up the legs on her pants sometimes.
So basically, if we are having a boy all her clothing (except the really nice stuff that we will keep for my sisters kids) she does not fit will be going.
I think we can just have one dresser and split each drawer in half. Her stuff on the left and babys on the right.

The only reason the dressers and shelf are in front of her window is because I had to rearrange her room a while back when she figured how to open her window and kept chucking her toys etc into the garden. I didn't want to risk her falling out the window. But now we cannot get to the window *sigh*

I have no problem getting rid of stuff. Of course, I won't get rid of something if it is worth a bit of money (like I have my 70s toys like Strawberry Shortcake that I have noticed are quite valuable right now). But with the amount of toys she gets each year (from her bday and Christmas) we really don't have the option of keeping them all.
She has a ton of soft toys. So they will be the first thing I sort through.

Our Church is having a garage sale soon and there is also a lady whos daughter had a baby girl not long back and she doesn't have much. So most of Abbys clothes would go to her.

ilovemybaby replied:
No they are the same size.

ilovemybaby replied:
Thanks!

C&K*s Mommie replied: The only reason the dressers and shelf are in front of her window is because I had to rearrange her room a while back when she figured how to open her window and kept chucking her toys etc into the garden. I didn't want to risk her falling out the window. But now we cannot get to the window *sigh*
I found two things that may be of benefit to you with Abby. The first will surely prevent her from making a daredevil move out of the window. The second will help to prevent toys being dropped into the garden.

Guardian Angel window guard (pricey)

or

Window wedge (less expensive)[/QUOTE]

You may consider looking into space saving bags. They were at one time two versions out, one where you roll the bag to release the air out of the one way valve. The other I have seen to be more common, but you simply use a vacuum to draw the air out. I have seen the latter at Walmart, on QVC, and
(I think) As seen on TV carries them.

ilovemybaby replied: Thanks again!

I don't think our windows are the same as yours... do your windows move up and down or do you push them out? It said that you can't use that Angel thing with crank out windows. Would that be the kind we have?
We have safety things on our windows so that they only pull out so much (to stop an adult from getting in) but I don't think the space is small enough to prevent a small child from getting out/in.

Maybe I need to take a photo so you know what I mean.. I'm not very good at explaining things.

But thank you so much for the info. I was when I saw the price for the first one. YIKES Converted into NZ dollars it would be between $100 and $200 I think.

I'll try to take a photo and post it.

ilovemybaby replied: Ok this is what our windows are like...

C&K*s Mommie replied: We have the push up and down kind of windows.

Okay, I see. Yours would be the casement type of windows. Hmmmm..... I see what you mean about your children still being able to get out.

I found window guards for casement windows (well all windows in general too) but..... they are very pricey. It would be something to consider for just their bedroom, since the cost could add up fast for all windows on top of the expenses for a newborn. Here is the link: Window Guards For your type of window I found the info under the Guardian Angel "V" series the last section before the end.

HTH's.

ilovemybaby replied: Thanks nix4noles We will see how we go money wise. In the meantime we will move the stuff away from her window but try to rearrange her room so that she cannot climb up to the window. Before her bed was against the wall. If she cannot climb onto anything then she won't be able to reach the window.
It is very hard to rearrange her room too because we have to move stuff out of her room to move other stuff around. I need Paul to do the moving too because it's mostly all too heavy for me. Even when I take the drawers out of the dresser it is still so heavy that I have to drag it.

We don't really have much to buy this time around (for the baby). So we can get something for the window in her room at least. But right now we don't have any money so it will have to wait until we have the money (in early September).

Hillbilly Housewife replied:
Keep in mind that a toddler will also try to "feed" the newborn. Emilie gave Naomie a spoonful of rice the other day, in the split second it took me to take a bite of my own food. I wasn't looking directly at her. Shame on me.

Naomie is just about 5 months old (holy smokes!) and still sleeps in our room for the moment. We try to put her down in a bassinet everynight, but when she wakes up we just put her in the bed. DH hates it - so I told him that when he gets up to feed her with a bottle, he can put her back to sleep and put her in the bassinet. For the moment, I was quite happy dozing while Naomie "served herself" so to speak.

For my other kids - I kept them in my room in a bassinet or crib until they were about 5 months old too...then they went in a crib. I never really had a question about whether it was safe or not - it seemed that I always put zach to sleep first - and he usually slept the night... EMilie would wake up in the morning, and we'd move her to our bed until Zach woke up too. Zach was too young to "know" to do stuff though - he was only about 20 months old when they started being in the same room.

We have our girls' room set up now for both girls. We have 2 single beds in there, not that the youngest sleeps on a bed... but we wanted to know if they would both fit - and besides, where the heck would I put the other one anyways? We have 2 identical dressers in there. I wanted to put all the girls clothes in just one dresser... but realistically, it wouldn't all fit. I jst got rid of a bunch of clothes that was a little tight on EMilie (i kept the best for Naomie) and for real - in her 3-drawer dresser, there is 5 pairs of pants, 5 long sleeved shirts, 5 short sleeved shirts, 5 skirts, then underwear, socks, tights, bathing suit, vest, and other accessories... doesn't seem like much, but it takes up lots of space. She's got her dresses in the closet. As for the other dresser, there's about 10 pjs in there that she's fitting in, about 5 outfits, some socks, those thick underwear when you're potty training, some cloth diapers, plastic pants, bibs, about 10 onesies that fit, about 20 pjs of other sizes, and same for onesies. I'd love to put it all in the same dresser... but there is NO WAY. Course, the dressers are only about 3 feet wide.. lol

When I move, we will be putting the 2 girls in the master bedroom, unless we build another wall in the room - the previous owners had it torn down to make one big master bedroom, it was a 4 bedroom condo. Somethin I did in my toyroom is that I put shelves wayyyy up near the ceiling. I put toys up there that they can't play with yet, and some that they will never play with. (I have the original Rainbow Brite collection, original My Little Pony collection, and several original Care Bears.. lol I got about 4 boxes in one of my closets of accessories for the ponies - I got the ice cream shop shaped like a shoe, the ranch... ) So all that is on a shelf that even I have to stretch to reach. It decorates the room too.

I have several bookshelves in their toyroom to hold their stuff - I got them cheap at walmart - and I put the shelves at a distance that I can fit a milk crate in them. I picked up the milkcrates from the trash I guess.. I don't remember where I got em...but I washed em properly - they make GREAT toy bins. And they're all the same size. And they're mostly all in primary colors. And they STACK. They also have wayyy too many toys - and something that is interesting - there's a toy-brary where I live. A library for toys. People donate to it... and other members come and make a withdrawal of toys, like you would for books... there's a membership card and eerything. You go get some toys - you can keep them for up to 2 months... then you return them and change up. My sitter did this for Naomie - instead of buying all new stuff... she just went and borrowed it from the Toy-Brary.

I kept my girls room the same - both girls have Disney Princess... just a ltitle different. Em has one comforter, Nemo has another. They're both disney princesses, but they're different. The curtains, clock, radio and decor is for both... they have a Precious Moments puzzle with the back taped up hung over their beds. I can't wait to mocve - I get to redecorate. Anyways - I talk too much...

ilovemybaby replied:
Yes, I will have to watch the two of them like a hawk LOL I don't think it will be too bad though because when baby is born Abby will be 2 years and 3 plus months. She will hopefully still be able to sit in the highchair so she won't be able to put food into babys mouth. We will have to watch her though when we are at someone elses house or when she is eating something like a biscuit and isn't in her highchair. Hopefully it won't be too long before she understands what we are saying.
Baby will be in our room for as long as he/she can fit into the bassinet. And by 6 months of age, Abby will be 2 years and 9 plus months. I am hoping that she will be old enough to understand why she cannot put stuff into the crib.

I think I can fit both kids clothes into the one dresser. It's a tall boy. It's almost as tall as I am and it has two drawers at the top that are about 1 1/2 feet wide and 1/2 a foot deep. Then it has about 5 drawers under that that are about 4 feet wide and 1/2 a foot deep. It is honestly huge. I fit so much clothing of Abbys in there when she was younger. She doesn't have as much that fits her now as she used to. I had a drawer full of woollens and it must have had about 25 jumpers in it.

Abby has a really tall shelf in her room too that has some toys on the top shelf that she isn't allowed to play with yet. I have the Strawberry Shortcake and Orange Blossom dolls on another shelf that is sitting on top of the three drawer dresser as well as other 70s toys like My Little Pony and a Snugglebum LOL She cannot reach those. I do let her play with the My Little Ponies though... they are on the bottom shelf.

We have a toy library here too.

I have seen some really neat bins that sit in shelving and they are red, blue and green I think. But they are $35 so I can't get them right now. I could fit quite a few toys in those.

luvmykids replied: We have those bins in Colt's room, they're great, especially for things with "pieces" that you want to keep together. Kylie has something similar, we keep ponies in one, barbie stuff in another, etc. Makes it super easy for her to put stuff away.

b&bsmom replied: I didn't read all the replies, but we are just now re doing the kids rooms. My dd who is the oldest has the smallest bedroom ( long story) but we live in a mobile home so when we put her in a bed, we bought a bed from IKEA that has 3 drawers underneath it. She doesn't need any dressers in her room because all the clothes fit under her bed in the drawers. The drawers are the length and width of the bed so you can store a lot in them.

I agree that bunk beds not a good idea especially with kids that young. We are talking about getting a loft bed for our dd who is 6 and giving her the bigger room and then letting ds who is 3 get her old room and bed ( he is still sleeping in his race car toddler bed) I am still a little concerned about the loft bed because of the height even though it is the shortest bed we could find in height. I wouldn't feel safe with my 3 yr old sleeping on top.

I would look in the IKEA catalog or if you have a store near you. We have most of our house of IKEA stuff because most of it is multi purpose. We have like step shelves in dd room that holds some toys and her underwear and socks. You can but different size bins to fit in them and then she has the shelf on top for her fish and awards. We had our changing table/dresser that took the table part and it flipped up to become a shelf when you did not need the table anymore.

Hope this helps some. Let us know what you do.