Well, I'm trying really hard to declutter our house. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. We moved into our home over 8 years ago and we had just three little girls 6 and under. They all shared one bedroom and we had two other bedrooms to spare. That gave us one kids room, one office, one guest room, and a master - sweet! Our house is just under 2000 sq. ft. which was perfect for our 5 person family.
Fast forward 8 years and 4 children later...Now we have three kids' rooms with two children in each room, our master is the same except baby Eliana will sleep in there until she is two-ish. Eliana will eventually have to join one of the girls' rooms and so we will have three in one of the children's rooms.
For the past two years (since I was pregnant with Joshua, #6) we have put any changes or adjustments to our house on hold because we were considering moving to a larger home in Sacramento area since the real estate market has gone down so much there. We had green lights to move in every area including my hubby's work, etc., but with the news of my ear surgery and other things, for now we have decided to stay in Santa Cruz. So, we are now trying to make some long overdue changes to our house so it will work more efficiently for a large family.
Kids Room #1: Our oldest two girls have the most stuff and also have the hardest time getting rid of stuff. Their room is very cluttered and packed. We don't have anymore attic space or other storage space so we need to make do. So, my husband is working on building a "platform" about 18 inches high and that covers half of their room. They are going to store their treasures under the platform and put a small couch and table and chairs on the platform. We are working on buying them a bunkbed as well. I am hoping this will solve a lot of their space problems.
Kids Room #2: The second set of girls do a pretty good job of keeping their room organized, but there is 5 years between them so their biggest problem is the age span. Hannah needs a place for her stuff that Sophie won't get into to. Also they need bunks too to maximize the space and we will get a trundle for storage. I think I will look into a locking trunk for Hannah, the 9 year old, for her treasures. Any other ideas?
Kids Room #3: Finally the boys - 2 year old Joshua and 6 year old Jonathan are doing great. They have the same problem as Hannah and Sophie because of the age span so I will have to look into a locking trunk or something else for Jonathan. I also need to get a trundle for their existing bunk. But, boys just don't need as much space and also don't have as many emotional attachments to stuff.
Other problem areas upstairs:
Laundry Room: I need help with this one...any suggestions? It's upstairs and I'm so thankful for this since it's centrally located next to all the kids rooms. But, it's about 5 ft. X 5 ft and I never have enough space to do laundry..wash, dry, fold. There is no sink either. I would love a bigger area to store the folded laundry while it's waiting to be picked up by the kids to put away. I have to do at least 3-4 loads each day to keep up.
Linen Closet: We don't have one. I heard a suggestion to store the extra set of sheets for beds between the matresses. I thought this was one I would try since presently I store them in the kids closets and they really could use that extra space. I keep blankets on the top shelf in our walk-in closet, but they take up so much space I could use for something else. Any other suggestions?
Photo Albums: Where is the best place to put these when we have no shelf space? The kids love to look at them when they are out.
Bathrooms. We have two for all of us and they are both upstairs - none downstairs. The girls basically rule the spare one with the amount of Bath and Body Works lotions and spays that are in there. How can I make our "kids bathroom" more usable for all seven children? I've thought about everyone having a bathroom case with all their necessary items in it like toothbrush, paste, brush, etc., but am not sure. Any suggestions from other larger families? We are planning to put in two sinks and a door between the sink area and the tub/toilet area in order to maximize usage too.
Well that covers upstairs. I'll post again with what we are going to do downstairs later. I'd love to hear what works for other families with some of the same issues.
The only thing that came to mind for laundry is start having the older 2 girls do their own including washing, drying folding and putting away. Hannah can fold and put away her own as well then there might be enough space for the otherones who can't help out in this area. My girls have been doing their own laundry since they were about 10 and folding since about 7 or 8.
ReplyDeleteYour other ideas sound good. Perhaps a few lockers (like gym lockers) for the boys room?
I can't wait to hear what you decide. Have you decided not to add a downstairs bathroom?