To designate a wardrobe as household storage in DS’s room?

[Brasstaps]

We are expecting our first child later this year. His room will have two floor to ceiling fitted wardrobes, either side of a chimney breast. Currently his room is used as a guest room and additional household storage.

I have really tried to be creative with storage solutions but unfortunately I can’t see any way round it. We will continue to need some of the space in there. I am proposing that we use one of the wardrobes as household storage space, with the other wardrobe as DS’s.

DH thinks this is unfair on DS but doesn’t give any ideas for where the things should go!

Is this so terrible an idea?

It's absolutely fine! When your DS is a lot older he'll have an opinion and more stuff and you'll need to rethink, but for the baby/toddler years absolutely!

When he's little I think that's fine but long term you will need to sort something as he'll want his own space

Thank you both. Yes, that can be a problem for the future! (Move house?! Ha!)

It's going to be many years before your unborn child is aware, or cares.

Unfair on a baby!

What are these things you are storing? Perhaps your dh can get rid of some of his possessions and then these things can go in that cleared space.

My son has 2 built in wardrobes in his room. One is his. One has the suitcases, Christmas tree etc in it. It always has done. He’s 18 now and still doesn’t care. He has enough space in his wardrobe 🤷

I thought the DS was going to be a teenager! As if a baby would know or care.

We have no storage in our house, attic has been converted to a bedroom, no utility room, no airing cupboard. But we have 3 bedrooms with 2 fitted wardrobes each. The kids don’t have many clothes because they grow out of stuff so we have to put some of our coats, bedding etc in the kids wardrobes. I don’t see a problem we’re all family

Absolutely fine. We use a cupboard in my dsc's room for household storage. In fact they mostly dump their stuff on the floor when they are here so I might take over the other one

Of course it’s fine! Your ds won’t need all that space himself for ages, if ever. My middle child’s room, which was also the baby room each time, has two lovely bookshelves that for a long time had our grown up books on, as the kids couldn’t reach the shelves and their books were in baskets they could reach. But a their book collections and their height have grown and my DS has needed the self space I’ve moved things round. But that is 9 years down the line! And he also has a chest of drawers in his room being used for general storage. But not at the cost of storing his own things or having his own space.

If your DH thinks it's unfair empty his wardrobe and store household stuff and he can get rid of his stuff.

Unfair on a baby! Heard it all now.

I thought you were going to say DS is a teenager 😂

Of course it's fine for a baby's room

Does dh think ds will be ringing Childline about some stuff in a cupboard?
He is nuts.
Ds has a whole cupboard full of camping stuff in his room. Isn't mentally scarred...

Teen DS has a built-in wardrobe with three sections.
One is for his clothes, one is for his junk, and one is for household linen, towels, bedding etc. He really doesn't care, or need the space.
Your DH is being a bit weird!

It’s totally fine! My middle child has the biggest bedroom out of the 3 kids, and has 2 fitted wardrobes either side of a chimney breast and a bank of cupboards above them. He has one (very good-sized!) wardrobe for himself, and the rest of it has the family’s out-of-season coats, sleeping bags, some suitcases (big ones are up in the eaves), and other bags.

My teens’ wardrobes have always had some family stuff in them eg camping gear. As they have the space. They have never been precious enough to make a fuss over it. I daresay your baby will cope!

Oh you’re all amazing thank you so much for making me smile today, I needed it.

We have a similar set up in both my DC's rooms. Two floor to ceiling cupboards in each room. I use the high sections for general storage and they use the lower section for their things. They are teenagers now and have barely even noticed this set up because they have enough space anyway.

That’s a good idea @GrandHighPoohbah I was just thinking if we used the very top levels of them that could also be a really good idea.

Just wish it was the done thing for me to leave my dressing table in there too haha - love getting ready there but now I’ll have to sell it then my getting ready space will have to be on the floor of our bedroom 😂

Your other half has lost all sense of reality.
Lots of children share rooms.
a baby won’t have any sense of what is in their room for years or care. Having a bedroom that has no single item in that ‘belongs’ to another part of the house is nothing to do with what a child needs or deserves.
i think he might get shock with how little use that bedroom will even get for a while!

Your Ds will be part of the family and household, so completely appropriate to store family/household things in his room. Does your Dh think you are about to give birth to royalty 👑 ?

I have a set of curtains and a dvd player stored in dc's fitted cupboards. Their room has the most storage in the house, and they don't have huge amounts of clothes, so we use it for other stuff.

Growing up I had a roll of carpet under my bed for years, (dad was going to fit it one day...) and we had mom's longer dresses in our wardrobe because hers was a half height built in one. That's family life, surely?

It's fine.

Being the youngest in my family, I had the smallest bedroom, and in it was a quite large 2-drawer chest of drawers. The bottom drawer had my stuff, but the top drawer was packed tight with my dads stamp and postcard collection!

From the time we moved into that house, when I was 6, up until I asked for his stuff to be moved out when I was about 11. It was in there.

To be fair, it didn't bother me, and also fair play to my parents, as soon as I asked for his stuff to be moved out, they did it without a quibble.

In DS16’s room we store suitcases, spare duvets and board games. No way could we manage if he had exclusive use of the storage in there for his stuff!! Your DH needs get real!!

I didn't even have my own room, shared with first the older brother than the younger, until I was 16. We had one wardrobe between us.

As others have suggested - it's fine. Your DH is being a nerk.