Two DC in small three bedroom house - how would you organise it?

[cornflakegirl]

Just thinking aloud here really and hoping for some thoughts back.

Currently have 1 DS, aged 3. Thinking about having another, but not sure about the practicalities. We have a three bedroom house. DS has the smallest room (just big enough for a single bed (divan only) and a chest of drawers, no wardrobe, although there is a built-in half-height cupboard). The spare room has a double bed, a bedside table, a computer desk and a spare wardrobe. This fills it.

My parents live far enough away to need to stay over when they visit. They come up every month or two. We also have occasional visits from other friends.

If this was your house, how would you handle it? One child per bedroom, keep the double bed in the second room, one child on floor of second room when there are visitors? Children share bigger room, small room as play room, replace toys with inflatable bed when visitors? Make visitors sleep in lounge? Make visitors camp in garden?

We have 2 boys in together and inflatable mattress when we have visitors. Works well for us

Is your sitting-room big enough to have a sofa bed in it? I think if so, I'd give the kids a room each. If not, use bigger bedroom for both kids (bunkbeds) and have smaller room as playroom/blow-up bed.

I am for kids sharing (my two do to keep a spare room) but in your case the 3rd bedroom can't be double so maybe each child should have a bedroom and you get one of those beds that is single but folds out to double for when parents stay.

There was a thread on here a few days ago - will see if I can find it.

We have a similar sized house & 2 dcs. Ds (5) has the bigger bedroom, dd(2) in the smaller one. They tend to use the floor of the bigger room as playing space & some of dd's toys are stored in that room. It seems to have made them better at sharing (god help me when they're teenagers). If they slept in the same room, no-one would ever get to sleep.

If my parents need to stay overnight we let them have our bed & stay in ds's room with our sleeping bags. If it's someone younger they either sleep on the dining room floor or borrow ds's bed depending on how agile they are!

Could you get one of those beds that are one stored under the other & can be converted to a double for your ds's room?

I too would go for bigger room for the children (if they were both boys) and the smaller room for a playroom. If you end up with one of each, I think I would give them a room each and move them in with each other when guest come - you could have single beds with truckles that could join as a double or be 2 singles.

here

Oldest in 2nd bedroom, smallest in small room - they will play in the larger room. Use inflatable mattresses & put in sitting room

Dep. on sex and how your children handle it I'd stick them in together, try cabin beds etc. for extra storage (and kids love them). Can you fit in a trundle in the single for guests at all? Or a small (4ft) double? Or sofa bed?

Haven'tSlept - thanks for that link - very handy.

Hmm... looks like there's no consensus on the options (although I note no-one has voted for the tent ). I guess we'll work it out when the time comes. I'm seriously liking the trundle bed things though - never knew they could be comfy!

We have had three solutions over the years:

while the smallest was a baby his cot was in our bedroom, dd had her bedroom, spare bedroom was spare bedroom (doubling as my office)

when they were young children, dc's shared small bedroom, we had lounge as playroom, and spare bedroom was spare bedroom/office

since dd hit pre-teens, she has her old bedroom, ds has spare room as his bedroom, I have my office in a corner of the dining room. Any guests either take our bedroom (and we share dc's) or take dc's bedroom and they move in with us.

I would put bunk beds in the smallest room and set up the larger bedroom as a playroom with comfy sofabed for when guests are there. I have a v similar house and that's my plan for when I have a second baby, although it may mean child 2 sleeping in with us for a while.

We have just moved Dd2 into her own room (also have a small 3 bedroom house). Dd1 is a terrible sleeper so sharing wasn't an option.
We have bought Dd1 a stack a bed (like 2 small beds one on top of the other) so when we have visitors they sleep in Dd1's room with the bed turned into a 'double'.
dd2 has her cot in her room and an Ikea single futon. dd1 sleeps on this when visitors come.
It works for us!

we are in this situation. ds1 has bigger room with proviso that most toys are kept in there. When we have guests with kids, the kids go in small room, our boys double up and adults down on airbed in front room. We are never short of guests, despite less than luxorious surroundings! If they are my parents or inlaws, they get our bed and we sleep downstairs.
I do want to keep the boys in separate rooms as they are gettingolder and need own space, sometimes, even if one of the rooms is cell-like small

Our house is very similar. When DD2 arrived and needed the cot we moved DD1 (then 2.2) out of the cot in the box room and into the existing double bed in the 2nd bedroom. We put the double bed in the corner against the wall to make more room. There's enough space for her to play on the floor but no room for a wardrobe etc, just drawers.

The idea is visitors will have her room and she'll sleep in our room on a ready bed. Seemed a shame to get rid of a good double bed when it's perfect for guests. And DD loves it, it's full of toys. Only problem is if she has to sleep in a single anywhere she's not used to it and falls straight out! Also for the first few months we had to put a step next to the bed because it was too high for her to climb into