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Original poster

Did you have space for a nursery room? Feeling bad!

87 replies

Fireflii · 02/07/2023 09:32

We have a small two bed home and with interest rates unlikely to be able to move anywhere bigger until the economy has stabilised which might be 2-3 years at least according to BoE predictions.

We want to start a family but currently the 2nd room has one of DHs wardrobes in it, plus we are thinking of putting a small desk in there for work from home purposes instead of having it in the lounge. The room is about 11ftx6.5ft. After our furniture if we’re lucky we’d probably get in a cot, a chest of drawers and possibly a bookshelf and chair.

Our room couldn’t accommodate DH wardrobe and desk as we’ve already got a chest of drawers and my wardrobe in here. There would be space for a next to me crib by our bed that would be about it.

Would it be weird and not the done thing to keep other furniture in the ‘nursery’. Has anyone else done this before? On social media you see these massive nurseries where there’s just baby items inside the room but we don’t have the room for our other storage like this.

OP posts:
Peony654 · 02/07/2023 16:39

I’ve seen these cots with storage drawers underneath that look good

Original poster
Fireflii · 02/07/2023 16:39

Peony654 · 02/07/2023 16:38

We’re not doing a nursery initially, I don’t get the point as they sleep in your room for 6 months so we’ll just have the cot in there. At that point DH will have to sacrifice his study and we’ll use that for baby. Fortunately we have 3 bedrooms so he’ll work from our spare room.

Where are you putting all the clothes etc?

OP posts:
Peony654 · 02/07/2023 16:39

And it’s fine to have other stuff in there (probably not a desk), babies don’t care

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Missingmyusername · 02/07/2023 16:41

I don’t see it as an issue. But you will struggle for space when the child gets older (clothes).

The desk will have to stay in the living room unless you can get an outdoor space going on.

Caspianberg · 02/07/2023 16:43

You don’t need a separate room for baby to sleep, but you do need somewhere for there stuff.
Even without buying much, you realistically need at lease a chest of drawers to store their clothes, nappy stuff, put changing mat onto. So that needs to fit in either you room, spare room or downstairs.

Also, next to me doesn’t last 18+ months, my son was crawling and pulling up to stand at the sides by 4.5 months, so it became unsafe to use. So you really need space to fit full size cot in either your room or spare room.

Dh and I share 1 regular sized wardrobe as two won’t fit in our room.

Original poster
Fireflii · 02/07/2023 16:47

Caspianberg · 02/07/2023 16:43

You don’t need a separate room for baby to sleep, but you do need somewhere for there stuff.
Even without buying much, you realistically need at lease a chest of drawers to store their clothes, nappy stuff, put changing mat onto. So that needs to fit in either you room, spare room or downstairs.

Also, next to me doesn’t last 18+ months, my son was crawling and pulling up to stand at the sides by 4.5 months, so it became unsafe to use. So you really need space to fit full size cot in either your room or spare room.

Dh and I share 1 regular sized wardrobe as two won’t fit in our room.

We will have space for chest of drawers and cot and potentially chair & bookcase in spare room, alongside one of our wardrobes. I just feel bad that one of our wardrobes would need to be in their room basically

OP posts:
FatAgainItsLettuceTime · 02/07/2023 16:52

We did a nursery, it was lovely........DD never used it. She slept in our room with us till she was 2 because she point blank refused to sleep in her cot in her room. By the time she actually went in her room it has a single bed and the beautiful rocking chair I got with the idea of sitting in it at night to feed her was given away on Facebook.

Use the room however you need to, to make your house work for you.

mrsm43s · 02/07/2023 17:08

DH and I have never had separate wardrobes, we've always shared one. Can you not just do a cull of clothes and put them into one wardrobe together? We don't really hang that much stuff up - just suits, shirts and blouses and dresses that need ironing. Everything else is folded and put into drawers. I can't see that it's really essential to have a whole wardrobe each.

We always had a nursery, a tiny box room, and that had cot, changing table, chest of drawers and shelves in it, for all of babies clothes/nappies/toys etc. It then became the bedroom for my youngest, until we extended up into the loft.

FarTooHotForMe · 02/07/2023 17:14

Personally I’d prefer a room for the baby and see if there’s a way of storing both your clothes in your bedroom.

doorstopper123 · 02/07/2023 17:23

You could have a wardrobe but only for about a year

Babies quickly turn into toddlers into pre schoolers and they come with A LOT of stuff

But the time they're at school, they need a bedroom to accommodate the clothes, books, toys. Plus they start wanting friends round to play and then they like to go to the bedroom and play

Peony654 · 02/07/2023 17:25

Fireflii · 02/07/2023 16:39

Where are you putting all the clothes etc?

Show quote history

just in the chest of drawers in our room, we have space. And there’s a built in cupboard in the study for other stuff

Peony654 · 02/07/2023 17:26

we also share a wardrobe and chest of drawers already - we don’t have many clothes

Caspianberg · 02/07/2023 17:49

It’s fine to keep wardrobe in room then if cot and drawers will fit.

I wouldn’t put desk and office stuff after 6 ish months as you want to be able to put baby on the floor of room and cables and electronics aren’t great with crawling babies or toddlers pulling stuff

lots and lots of babies have no nursery, or people share 1 bed flat for years fine. But to do so, they also can’t realistically also have lots of other stuff. You don’t have multiple wardrobes or drawers or ‘stuff’ if you haven’t space unfortunately

kerrycgeorgie · 02/07/2023 18:00

When we had our first we lived in a 1 bed flat. 10 years down the line I'm glad I didn't let that stop us from starting our family then. I think having a decent sized living room is key for the baby bouncer, baby gym, storing toys etc but I wouldn't over think the bedroom space. Mine only started playing independently in their rooms around 3 or 4.
Look on Pinterest for space saving hacks, maybe a bed with storage underneath, some clever shelving, kallax units doubling up for clothes and toys/books and you might not need full jersey furniture. Cot and blackout blinds/curtains are key, everything else you can work around.

Original poster
Fireflii · 02/07/2023 18:14

kerrycgeorgie · 02/07/2023 18:00

When we had our first we lived in a 1 bed flat. 10 years down the line I'm glad I didn't let that stop us from starting our family then. I think having a decent sized living room is key for the baby bouncer, baby gym, storing toys etc but I wouldn't over think the bedroom space. Mine only started playing independently in their rooms around 3 or 4.
Look on Pinterest for space saving hacks, maybe a bed with storage underneath, some clever shelving, kallax units doubling up for clothes and toys/books and you might not need full jersey furniture. Cot and blackout blinds/curtains are key, everything else you can work around.

Thank you

OP posts:
SouthLondonMum22 · 02/07/2023 18:21

If it is possible, I would just wait 2-3 years until you've already moved house.

If it isn't possible then I would have a massive clothes sort out so you can share a wardrobe and take up the offer of using the work space at your parents house.

Original poster
Fireflii · 02/07/2023 18:25

Caspianberg · 02/07/2023 17:49

It’s fine to keep wardrobe in room then if cot and drawers will fit.

I wouldn’t put desk and office stuff after 6 ish months as you want to be able to put baby on the floor of room and cables and electronics aren’t great with crawling babies or toddlers pulling stuff

lots and lots of babies have no nursery, or people share 1 bed flat for years fine. But to do so, they also can’t realistically also have lots of other stuff. You don’t have multiple wardrobes or drawers or ‘stuff’ if you haven’t space unfortunately

Thank you

OP posts:
Thesearmsofmine · 02/07/2023 18:35

We lived in a 1 bed flat when dc1 was born, you just make it work with the space that you have. For us we had the cot in our room(it was a small one from IKEA) and we got storage boxes that went under the cot for clothes and bulky things like packs of nappies etc just went into the bottom of our wardrobe.

Original poster
Fireflii · 02/07/2023 18:43

Thesearmsofmine · 02/07/2023 18:35

We lived in a 1 bed flat when dc1 was born, you just make it work with the space that you have. For us we had the cot in our room(it was a small one from IKEA) and we got storage boxes that went under the cot for clothes and bulky things like packs of nappies etc just went into the bottom of our wardrobe.

Thank you, how old were they when you moved?

OP posts:
chezpopbang · 02/07/2023 20:30

We had to get rid of stuff, we had a wardrobe and bookshelf full of stuff which we had sort through and find a home for/ get rid of. Realistically if you can't move for 2 years the child is going to need a bed in a room. So even if you don't set up a nursery now it will need to happen at some point

Original poster
Fireflii · 02/07/2023 20:49

chezpopbang · 02/07/2023 20:30

We had to get rid of stuff, we had a wardrobe and bookshelf full of stuff which we had sort through and find a home for/ get rid of. Realistically if you can't move for 2 years the child is going to need a bed in a room. So even if you don't set up a nursery now it will need to happen at some point

Good point although not started trying yet so it’ll be 2yrs from now not then

OP posts:
inomniaparatis · 02/07/2023 20:53

We're in a two bed and our baby has just turned one. For the first six months her room was still the spare room/DH office then we slowly turned it into her room - though DH desk still there, it's now mostly her room, with her cot, drawers, toys etc. She stayed in with us for ten months in the end, not because of the room situation, just because I couldn't face moving her sooner! There's definitely no rush to get a room sorted but you probably will want to in time.

WashableVelvet · 02/07/2023 21:04

We did this and it was fine! After DC was 6m I wanted to stop sharing a bedroom so we just popped his cotbed in the 2nd bedroom alongside our desk and wardrobe. He only used his room for sleeping anyway. When he was a toddler we moved house (he now shares with DC2, so the bedroom is still mainly for sleeping not play).

daysleepers · 02/07/2023 21:13

A baby will stay in your room a minimum of 6 months.

And they won't be able to climb out the cot until 18months minimum. Slowly the room will just transition to the baby room. Mine didn't really use their bedroom other than to sleep in until about 3..

GoodChat · 03/07/2023 03:27

daysleepers · 02/07/2023 21:13

A baby will stay in your room a minimum of 6 months.

And they won't be able to climb out the cot until 18months minimum. Slowly the room will just transition to the baby room. Mine didn't really use their bedroom other than to sleep in until about 3..

18 months until they can climb out of a cot? No way.