It would be nice for every kid to have their very own room, of course, it would. But for whatever reason, money or whatever else then it’s quite common to have siblings to share a room. In fact, it’s a relatively new phenomenon that kids are to have their own bedroom, throughout history sleeping locations were much more crowded and so it’s not necessarily a bad thing. But there are some challenges when designing how to set up and make such a room that we need to work our way through, and here we look at some of these and how to navigate them.
Separation Of Space For Putting Beds in
Bedtimes can be challenging in shared rooms in a couple of ways. If the kids have the same bedtime then the mucking about, talking and playing can be a grind as every time you go back in to check on them, they are out of their beds, in each other’s beds or worse! But even if there is an age gap and the bedtimes are different then you have the challenge of getting the younger one to sleep before the older one goes to bed. For this reason, any room that kids share should be big enough to separate the beds, even have recesses where the beds can be slight to the side
Clutter & Mess
Children are messy and this is true of them all to some degree and the bedroom, their own lair or domain is the worst offender as this is dedicated kid-space. The problem is definitely compounded when there is more than one child in the same room. You should have dedicated areas of the room for each child so that they know where they are responsible for tidying and also you can get each child to take ownership of their area. Have a schedule for tidying and, if they keep to it, they can earn their pocket money this way. If possible, make sure there is enough room for all the toys and games etc, walk-in closets or room for extra storage is key here
Decoration
Children of different ages or different genders will, no doubt, want to decorate the room in different styles. This requires a bit of a subtle plan here, you could give them a half each to do with what they like, although this can create a rather odd-looking room. Alternatively perhaps going with neutral tones and allowing them each to pick some posters may be a better way to go. You can even look up ideas and discuss them with them.
When Friends Visit
Another issue is when friends visit, as clearly each child doesn’t have their own space to retreat it may become a little awkward, especially if the friend is used to having their own room. If one of them wants to host a sleepover this can create an additional little problem, maybe as a special treat, you could allow them to have a little camp out in the living room. Or even have space where a temporary bed could be set up in this way, perhaps a little sofa-bed?
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