Talk to me please if you have 2 young dc in a small 2 bed flat/house

[Justonecheese]

DH and I are looking to buy soon but all we will be able to afford will be a 2 bed property if we want to stay in the area, which, if we can make it work, is our ideal. Currently we rent a 3 bed house with one DC but hope for another DC in the not too distant future.

We are absolutely set on buying rather than continuing to rent (even though we can afford to rent a bigger property than we can afford to buy).

What I would like to know is how you make it work having 2 kids in a small flat or house with them both sharing a room. How old are they, tips on storage, things we should look to avoid/are no-no's when viewing, etc etc all welcomed.

Thankyou

Well, I am pregnant with DC2 and we live in a small 2 bed house. DS's bedroom is tiny and there is no way we'd get another DC in there. However, we are planning to do a loft conversion to get the third bedroom that we need. Maybe that is something you could consider for the future?

We are currently also planning how we will be able to make our house more spacious for 2 DC's. We have a though lounge/dinning area. We going to just have a table in the kitchen and sacrifice the 'proper' dinning area so this can be more of a play area for the DC's.

We have a pretty small garden too, but are near a big park so hoping that the DC's will be happy with that!

So my list of things for you to consider on viewings would be:

Potential to add a bedroom in the loft at some point.
Flexible living space that you can utilise to your needs - try to think of rooms being used for different uses.
Consider parks nearby if the garden is small.

HTH

we do, but will (hopefully) to a larger property soon. dc1 (5y) is still in a toddler bed which fits into a niche between a fitted wardrobe and door and dc2 (2y) sleeps in the cot where we have the side removed. it is only a single bedroom and about 2x3m big. if it were not for the fitted wardrobe we would have swapped the bedrooms around so the dc would be in the larger master bedroom, there is no way of fitting a double into the smaller bedroom.

ikea is your friend. their website has loads of ideas.

i'm a big fan of buying bunk beds as early as possible, and getting ones that you can remove the ladder (not built in) to prevent younger siblings climbing.

we bought the jack and jill bunks from aspace. they can be used singly and the side bars for the top bunk double as toddler bed guards when used as a single. and the ladder can be removed even when the bunks are built.

but def ikea. and make the most of vertical space. we are looking into putting a mezzanine floor in for ds, but have used a whole variety of cabin beds etc to maximise space.

mine are a bit older now (12,10,8) but the girls still share a room. we also have 2 mahoosive labradors. i would love a bigger house but it's not going to happen in the near future!

Make sure the second bedroom is big enough for a double bed so you can give the bigger bedroom to the kids. That way they can have all their toys in there and it can double as a playroom (especially if you use bunk beds for more floor space). You don't need as much space in the bedroom as you have the rest of the rooms in the house iyswim. If they are sharing then the more room they have the better. My dd and ds are two years apart and we were in a two bed flat in the early years. It can work very well - mine both have their own rooms now, but still prefer to sleep together in ds's room in the bunk beds. Also if you have no garden/small garden make sure you live near a nice park/playground.

yy, we had three kids sharing the master, and dh and i in the second bedroom. currently dd2 has a trundle under her (bunk) bed so that ds1 can sleep there if necessary.

We have 3 kids in a 2 up 2 down. Both bedrooms are doubles. In the kids room we have a cabin bed, so all toy boxes, ride ons, dolls push chairs etc under their to save space and one single bed, we still cosleep with youngest, but sometimes put him in single top to toe. We are renting, and one thing that we don't have that would be very useful is a porch large enough to store pushchair, jackets and shoes etc.

Thank you all so much for your ideas and sharing your experiences - really really useful.

As well as loft conversion potential, look out for general extension potential, even if it won't happen for a few years.

Ask rellies not to give bulky toys as presents.

Have a toy amnesty now and again, where the kids select all the things they no longer play with (which then go to charity shop/hospital/freecycle) and in exchange they get to choose one new thing.

Grab the larger bedroom for yourselves while DC2 is small but be prepared to swap!

We only have one DC, but we live in a teeny house, and there are some things about it that drive me mad.

I wish we had a separate hallway for pram, coats etc, our front door opens into the living room. I'd also like a kitchen big enough to eat in, our dining table is in the living room.

We are in a two bed flat atm. We actually found flats were better than teeny tiny houses (which are the same price, its £££ but we need to be here at least temporarily). As the flats had bigger storage cupboards.

DD and DS have the master bedroom, they are 5 and 3 and have a bunkbed (ikea bargain corner) previously they were in a cot and toddler bed. TROFAST is your friend, it is space saving, the children can tidy up easily....its like school/nursery, the apropriate things go in each drawer. The children share one wardrobe for day-day clothes, dd's are on hangers, ds's folded, the other wardrobe is too big/too small/hand me downs/party dresses and clothes i dont want them toucj=hing.

The only shove it in toy box we have is for soft toys, everyting else in there room has a proper place.

Consider how much space there is in the garden, ds' seems to live in ours, a shed for bikes/scooters/swingball/roller skates etc. is essential.

We had 2, then 3, then 4 small dcs in a tiny 2 bedroom house for a fair while. Luckily we had potential to extend which made a massive difference, but with 2 dcs it was absolutely fine.

We had 2 dcs in a 3 bed flat...not having a back door and a garden was awful, I know you can do trips to the park but there is nothing like having a back door and the kids being able to run in and out as they please - plus when they are being really noisy, shoving them out into the garden is essential for your sanity.

Thanks again to you all since my last post, really encouraging and useful advice.

We are not in a position to actually look yet but I am now armed with all sorts of useful info when the time comes.