Need Organization Ideas for Kids Sharing a Bedroom

This is a great question... I wish I had some creative ideas for you but am in a similar predicament and am eager to read the responses. Good luck!

www.companykids.com has alot of organizing ideas and helpers :)

I love the under the bed totes. You should be able to fit one or two under each bed. I also have a three year old she is in a twin bed now and she has three but we could fit two under the toddler bed/crib. She can roll them in and out buy herself. (And she can put everything up herself too. Yeah!)
Another think I love to do is use ever inch of the cloest. My little one has a walk-in but I organized two for my cousin when she moved her two children in together. They really needed the clothing space so we used the bar for clothes and at this age you can still put the dresser or changing table under the hanging clothes. I almost always take the doors off(you can usually store them behind the dresser inside the cloest or in the garage) and use shower curtains instead. They have shower cutains with pockets or you can sew pockets on one that you already have. These are great for art supplies or little toys. The other thing is that I hang everything but PJs socks and underwear (but these can be stored in the shower curtain pockets.) Then you can use the dresser drawers for more toys, books, art supplies and dress up clothes. DD has 3 hooks. I hang full sets of clothes on each one so she can pick her own outfit and get dressed without help or looking too goofy. ;)
We just moved into an apartment also. Decorating apartments are more fun. It takes a bit more imagination, but that is what I love about it. I got off easy with my DD, she wanted polka dots. We had a lot of fun with it.
If you would like you can visit my website and see my dd's BR. You can't really see many toys, but trust me they are there! We had about 8 wardrobe boxes that were just her toys in the move and they are all there. I'ld love to help with some specific ideas and questions if you would like or even come over and help. I did DD's room on a $75 budget and things we had around the house. I abosolutly love to decorate and kids rooms are the best!
http://www.easysite.com/TheCarters

I got four, white, three-shelf bookshelves from Target that were fairly inexpensive (presswood but pretty sturdy). They are almost impossible for the babies to pull down on themselves as opposed to higher shelving units. You may have to start with two since you will have the beds in there too.

I also bought a bunch of clear plastic, shoebox-sized bins from Walmart (they are about $2 each). I organized the toys by type in the bins. The kids can see what toys are in them, but they can't get into the bins themselves because the lids snap on too tightly. They have to bring them to me to open them, which drastically reduces the mess of them dumping everything out at once.

The hand-me downs, go in the large plastic totes, on the top shelf of the closet because I dont' need to access them often. I also leave a tote in the bottom of the closet and toss the baby's clothes in there as they get too small. You can use the space under the crib to keep other totes of clothing too. If you don't have a crib skirt, you can easily get one to hide the storage.

It will be a lot easier when you have the bunkbeds because that will free up a lot of the space in the room that you can use for more shelving for toy/book storage. If you need pictures of the shelving, e-mail me at ____@____.com

I have two boys...and keep things as simple as possible. From about the age of 12 mos, I have had those white $1.88 dishwashing type bins from Wal-mart..no lids. I let them color pics and I cut them out to tape to the front. Bins were separated into trucks, construction, bug hunting, blocks, etc. Then they don't dump out an entire toy box to look for one thing. They even have a 'funny bin' for every little odd & end you don't know what to do with!! All the bins are lined up on shelves. The upper part of the closet is for storage of clothes they'll eventually get into. They each have a book shelf. When I buy more books, we go thru and donate the older, too young books. The key is measuring before you go to the store. Measure the clearance from their bed to the floor. You may not have enough drawer space for two children's clothes...but they'll need the independence to reach them and dress themselves at three and up. So, those bins that roll easily from under the bed would be a great option. Let them decorate their own w/ stickers when they get to the right age...9 months may be a little young! ;) We keep all our games in one end table/cabinet...puzzles in the other. Our coffee table is a trunk where all the videos and learning video games go. Just try to use every inch you have for organization. When you buy an item...try to think of it as an opportunity for storage (ottomans, etc). Those over the door shoe holders are great for girls hair things or even art supplies...you've got a bathroom door, their bedroom and closet doors...3 chances right there!! Good luck! Oh, I use their shoe boxes for little items..free!

What I did was get 2 large clear 3 drawer containers from Wal Mart. I divided the toys up according to the type of toy etc. (dress up, cooking, barbies, baby dolls) and then took a picture of what would be in that drawer and laminated it and taped it onto the front so that everyone knows what goes into each drawer and it helps to keep the room clean and organized. It has made a huge difference since I did this with my 3 year old and 9 month old.

I hate drawers because I never canfind what I need in them and I always seem to end up stuffing them to the hilt where I can even sift through them, so I have a small dresser (4 drawers) in my kid's room that I put socks & hats & panties/underwear, & bed sheets in. Everything else is hung in the closet. I have even taught the kids how to hang them! :) Anyway, at Lowe's I found a long wooden stick pretty thick. I believe it is called a dowel rod? Anyway, had hubby drill a hole through it near each end and the middle. I used ribbon (bought from scraps at a fabric store) and threaded the ribbon through the holes and tied it to the closet rod/rack. This created another closet rod to hang clothes on and they are closer to the floor where my 3 year old can get to them. She can almost dress herself, she just needs help with buttons & zippers. I hang my son's (who is 2 and has no desire to dress himself) things on the top rack. I use the top shelf for storage of open boxes where I toss in clothes that are too big for them, but I got cheap on clearance and they will wear someday. I bought a huge basket at the dollar store for $13 that holds all their shoes together. This is a pet peeve of mine. I hate tripping on shoes, so you hear me say all the time, "Go put those in the shoe basket." and it has solve the problem of shoes being left everywhere. Now, when my kids we littler, I worried about son choking on daughter's big girl toys, but I didn't want her not to have anything, so I bought a baby gate pen from the dollar store for like $50 and in there I stored all the choke hazard toys. This gave my daughter a space where she could play with her things and she could get away from the baby if she needed some time to herself. I also put books with paper pages and colors, playdo etc. It taught her to play on her own and it gave baby and me one on one time too. Now that they are bigger, I still have this area, only now it is the creative area and it is where they get to paint, cut, paste, color and play with playdo. They have to ask to get in and to get out. I usually put them in naked, but with panties or diaper and then they go to the bath after, but it works for us. I buy cheap sheets or rugs to put over my carpet in that area and toss when it gets too dirty to clean anymore. Hope this helps you. Also, for hair ribbons or bows, I hang a piece of ribbon from the top of the closet and snap all barretts to it so I can see them all. I have a tiny basket on the top of the dresser that I put all long hair ribbons.

I am a mother of 6 children 5 of them boys, so I completely understand the need for organization and space saving on a budget. When mine were little I took old dresser draws from someones trash spent $20 on rolling legs for furniture and attached them to the bottom. Cleaned and lined them with art work my boys did that I had lamenated. I let them decorate the fronts with stickers of their choice and put small toys or extra blankets and stuffed animals in. They used them for years and it helped with fear of monsters under the bed to...they knew there was no place for the monsters to hide. I did buy a toy organizer as well and it works great in a closet when their small because their clothes are so short. For diapers I found a nice size basket that would hang on the wall close to the crib that helped with space on dressers or changing table for other things. I tried very hard not to put items in their room that was not absolutely necessary and when shopping I looked very carefully at things that I liked to see if I could use them for something and not just to look good. Another fun thing that we did together was we cut out pictures of toys (cars, blocks ect.) and glued them to the fronts of the toy storage bins. It helped them learn to put things away in a designated home.The hand me downs were stored in clear storage boxes by size and season labeled on the end that way no wasting time digging through to find the the next size. Also when storing clothes for long periods of time it's good to take them out and wash to freshen up about every six months or so. Even though their clean old stains or discolor will surface. I found this out the hard way, so I still do it today even with my own things. I do miss those days. We lived in a small home for many years and it kept my creativity skills busy. Have fun and include them when you can, they grow so fast. Good luck.

I realize this is off topic... But, I had to comment on bunk bed dangers. My reference materials cite that between 1994-2004, 57 deaths occurred due to bunk bed entrapments and falls; 55 of those were children under the age of 5. Have you considered a trundal bed? Below is a FYI on bunk bed dangers.

Another recent article on bunk beds is: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=...

Good luck!

Bunk beds can be dangerous
(Posted 14 days ago, http://www.standard-freeholder.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=...)

In response to the recent tragic bunk bed-related death of a six-year-old girl, I wanted to let you know about bunk beds and their dangers.

Bunk beds on the surface seem like a neat, fun and space-saving idea. However bunk beds have resulted in thousands of hospital visits for children less than 15 years of age. Most injuries are minor resulting when children fall from the beds, although serious head injuries have occurred. For these reasons many experts recommend not using bunk beds at all. Aside from falls, there are several ways that children can become injured:

Guard-rail spacing - on some beds, the space between the guardrail and mattress or the frame and mattress is large enough to allow a young child to slip through. Tragically, deaths have occurred when children became suspended by the head in these spaces and strangled. Bunk bed without rails on both sides - Most bunk beds are used with one side located against a wall. Deaths have occurred when very young children rolled off the bed and became trapped between the wall and the side of the bed not having a guardrail

Dislodgement of mattress foundation - The mattress foundation on some bunk beds merely rests on small ledges attached to the bedframe. They can dislodge or move - particularly if a child underneath the bunk pushes or kicks upwards on the mattress. Suffocation deaths have occurred when mattress foundations fell on children sleeping in the lower bunk.

Wrong mattress size - Bunk beds and mattresses come in two lengths; regular and extra long (five inches longer than regular). When a regular length mattress is used for an extra long bed, there can be a five-inch opening between the mattress and headboard or footboard. Strangulation deaths have occurred when children fell through openings created between the mattress and headboard or footboard when a regular length mattress was used in an extra long bed frame. Children under 6 years of age should not sleep in the upper bunk. For older children, here are some safety tips from Consumer Product Safety Commission:

Always use securely placed (screwed or bolted) guardrails on the upper bunk-on both sides

The space between bed frame and bottom of guard rails should be no more than 3-1/2 inches.

Guardrails should extend at least five inches above the mattress.

The ladder should be well secured to the bed frame so kids will not slip while climbing.

Make sure that the mattress correctly fits the bed.

Be sure crossties are under the mattress foundation of each bed and that they are secured in place.

Teach children to use the ladder and not chairs or other pieces of furniture to climb into or out of the top bunk. Also, teach them that rough play is unsafe around and on beds and other furniture.

Dr. Paul Roumeliotis is the Medical Officer of Health(A) for the Eastern Ontario Health Unit and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, McGill University

Hi T.! I have two children who share a room and one item I have found to be effective is the really large Ziplock bags. I store the hand-me-down clothes in them. Since they aren't hard plastic, like the bins, you can squeeze several of them in a tight spot. You can find these at Wal Mart or Target. Hope this works for you!!

Sincerely,
J.

Go to IKEA. You will get a ton of ideas and options for a really good price.

Good luck!

I look at HGTV, and you can get them www.hgtv.com. Lots of ideas and economical too from recyclying and painting those crates to really reasonalbly re-furbishing furniture. The ideas on working with small spaces are really good and the show that does rooms for under $500.00, and the same show shows how to recycle things. I installed a open ceiling type shelf system for my daughters' stuffed animals and keep-sakes. It really cleared up the floor area of toys we wanted to display. It was easy to install, white, see through, and I purchased it from Home Depo. It was not originally intended for a ceiling open installation, but it worked out beautiful. The brackets are easy to install and the flat open shelves sit on top. The toys with the hooks just hang as decoration, it is really neat. Plus you can get those white hooks to extend hanging whatever you may need(numbers/letters, etc) and it looks good. Have fun!

T., for the clothes that you want to store that are not in use yet I would suggest that you get the plastic storage bags that you can suction the air out of and make flat...they come in various sizes and you can store alot of little people clothes in them. Once they are flat, they can go in under the bed storage boxes or even between the mattress and box springs. For additional closet space, I would recommend using the garment hooks that have apx. 5 holes in them and you can hang 5 hangers in the space of one. I've forgotten what they're called, but you can purchase them at the dollar store. Wal-Mart and Target carry ottomans that work great for storing things and then double as seating in the room after. If they have miscellaneous stuffed toys, etc. you can put up a pet net in the corner to catch them. I would use over the door shoe organizers that can either hold shoes or other things (toys, etc.) that you may want to organize for the children.

When my son was a toddler his bed was on totes for all the clothes they would one day fit into. That saved alot of room. I just made sure all the totes were full so i didnt have to worry about it caving in. He shared a room with his sister which was older and we would put boxes that were taped up labeled 1-5 those had nothing but books in them. When they got tried of reading the same books I switched them out so they werent bored with reading. In the closet on the top I had toys in a box. Every 3 or 4 months I would go through the toys on the floor and get rid of the broken ones. Then switch out the toys the ones on the floor go to the top of the closet and the ones from the closet go in the toy box. I have a tv in the room and were the vcr/dvd goes there are books, I have 2 twin size beds in there, one wall shelf in the middle of the room for the memory holders. Their room is small and its also in an apt. so I really know what you mean by not having the space. Even though you want to stay away from totes its almost imposible. Good luck, I hope I gave you an idea though.