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Talk It Out:
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"We are a large family in a SMALL home, 900 sq. ft. with 8 people. Our 4 boys sleep in the biggest bedroom with 2 sets of bunk beds, our 2 girls have the next size room and hubby and I sleep in the den (French doors with no closet). It is doable without moving. Do you have a friend or relative that might be able to look at your house and help with ideas? I would suggest keeping the twins in your room until they sleep good and you feel comfortable with them sleeping upstairs, then move them in with their brothers. We make use of storage under beds, sharing dressers, Rubbermaid totes and we simplify. What I love about our smaller home is it doesn't take much time to clean, but dealing with clutter is a different story!" ~ Lori
"I
am the oldest of four children, and until I was 12, we
all lived in a 2 bedroom house! My dad converted
the tiny study into a bedroom for my brother, and he
finished a room in our basement for my sister and me to
share. I know that you said that your basement it
unfinished without windows, but nearly any home can be
altered to suit your needs. Perhaps you could have
a contractor give you a free estimate on whether they
think they can add a window to the basement. If they
could do that, it would be a relatively simple job to
finish the interior of the basement yourselves...a
bright cheery carpet on the floor, and a bright white
paint on the cement block would work wonders. You
may be able to organize yourselves into the space you
have and eliminate the need to move anytime soon.
Congratulations on your new babies!" ~ Michele, WI "We
have 7 children and have moved things around a LOT in
our lives! Here are some ideas. Move the twins in with
the daughter. Turn a living room into a bedroom/playroom
and separate from other room with curtain or
bookshelves. Or just take a part of a downstairs room
and separate it from rest of room with bookshelves just
for a small sleeping area for the daughter. Another idea
is to turn one room upstairs into a sleeping area and
another room into a play area for the kids. We've also
bought those chair/beds that flip out and are soft
square apparatuses, and had one room down by the laundry
for all of the clothes, and toys and chairs in one
room...but let the kids sometimes sleep downstairs while
watching a special movie. Those kind of beds are easily
moveable and fun for playing with too! You just have to
look at the space you have and think outside of the box
of 'this is the dining room and living room,' etc. and
see what it could possibly else be that you need the
space more for! Hope those ideas may have been
helpful." ~ Shawn "If space allows for it, the 2 boys might be able to use bunk beds, allowing room down the center of the master bedroom for a solid room divider and then a twin sized bed for the daughter on the other half of the master bedroom, and a now empty bedroom for the twins. A room divider could be a slim storage unit secured to the floor and ceiling with L-brackets (but watch for where hydro runs on the ceiling) or use one of those fabric and metal half-walls that are used by businesses as office dividers purchased at resale. Alternately, if there is a dining room area in the house, we have changed up the use of that space in our home before." ~ Cathy "I think this mom is on the right track! Keep the new babies in your room until they are regularly sleeping through the night (for me, that is usually after the age of 1), then move them in with the child who currently has his/her own room in a new DOUBLE bunk bed! We just purchased one, they are wonderful, you can have two children on the top and two on the bottom rather than one-over-one like a regular bunk bed. The older child gets the top and therefore maintains some 'private' space. The two younger twins then share a low bed on the bottom; they will be going to bed earlier than the older sibling anyway! This has worked so well in our house with a 9 year old girl on the top and a 2 year old boy and 4 year old girl sharing the bottom (I am currently pregnant with #6, who will stay in our room for at least a year). Daddy or I can even squeeze in with the little ones on the bottom when necessary. I am the oldest of 8 myself and shared a room with up to 4 siblings at a time (and a bed with at least 1)! Sharing a room promotes family togetherness and sibling cooperation and will give your children many fond memories in the future!" ~ Carla
"This may be an 'outside the box' answer but what about finishing the basement and turning it into the living room and converting the current living room into another bedroom? The cost of finishing the basement would be considerably less than moving. Even if the living room was temporarily converted to a bedroom (I'm thinking movable screens), finishing the basement would probably pay for itself." ~ Glenda
"My husband and I live in a small house with our two children. We have about 1200 square feet, not including our basement. The basement is really unfinished as it has cement floors and block walls, but we use it as a family room and office/school room. This space has allowed us to continue living here comfortably for many more years than we thought possible! I encourage Darlene to finish the basement as much as possible. We have water in our basement during heavy rain so decorating is a challenge. I use area rugs and moveable furniture to get it out of the way in a hurry if needed. If water in the basement is not a problem, carpeting and paint and creative use of fabric could make a nice master suite. I've seen where fabric was draped on the wall to appear as if covering a window. Or, perhaps as the babies grow all the boys could share a room and the basement could house some of the extras in their room, like toys, books and the bedroom would be only for sleeping." ~ EB "I
receive a Christian Women's magazine called Above
Rubies. Issue #72 published sometime last year had
a whole feature article on 'Big Family, Small House'.
You could can find this ministry at AboveRubies.org.
Also, at same website if you search for 'small
house" you will find a reprint of Newsletter #7
which also give some mothers' personal suggestions for
large family living in a smaller house. We have about
1800 square feet and 4 kids, so we have not been as
scrunched for space as many families. However, we are
parents of twins. We did keep our twins together in
cradle until they were about 8 or 10 weeks old.
We then moved them into 2 separate cribs in one room.
I have heard of parents who "co-cribed"
their twins for somewhat longer." ~ Barbara in
Oak Ridge
"When we had our four children, we had a 4-level split with two bedrooms (a master and a small one) on the top level and the third bedroom on the lower level. The master and third had ensuites. By juggling our bedrooms we were able to stay in our home for 6 years longer (and save more money toward our next and larger home that gave more space and bedrooms for the children). We moved to the lower level when we had our fourth (with the baby), the three older children shared our master bedroom upstairs. (They were all girls). You can use a baby monitor to hear between the rooms, and set up an intercom if you want to speak. In this same house we turned the dining room off our kitchen (upstairs in this split) into a play room and used the family room on the lower level as a living room and the living room was used as a dining room, partially because it was the closest large room on the next level to the kitchen and partially because I had inherited an antique dining room set and that was the only room it would fit into. When my husband and I lived in Germany in the early 80's we met a couple who met in the1950's (she was English and he was German) and set up home in a tiny two bedroom apartment in Dusseldorf where they raised their 6 children ( I'm thinking they had 3 girls and 3 boys). They raised them all in the second bedroom by putting in triple bunkbeds. The mom mentioned to me that her children in reflection always mentioned they thought that was the closest they were with their siblings and they so enjoyed it! My own daughters remember sharing a bedroom together when they were younger and with fond memories of speaking to each other as they fell asleep. When we moved to a larger house and they all had their own bedrooms they chose to still sleep together in each other's bedroom for about two years after we moved." ~ Teresa
"My husband and I live in a small house with our two children. We have about 1200 square feet, not including our basement. The basement is really unfinished as it has cement floors and block walls, but we use it as a family room and office/school room. This space has allowed us to continue living here comfortably for many more years than we thought possible! I encourage Darlene to finish the basement as much as possible. We have water in our basement during heavy rain so decorating is a challenge. I use area rugs and moveable furniture to get it out of the way in a hurry if needed. If water in the basement is not a problem, carpeting and paint and creative use of fabric could make a nice master suite. I've seen where fabric was draped on the wall to appear as if covering a window. Or, perhaps as the babies grow all the boys could share a room and the basement could house some of the extras in their room, like toys, books and the bedroom would be only for sleeping." ~ Anonymous
"Most of the time parents really only use their bedroom space for sleeping, not a whole lot of time is really spent in that space. Maybe you and your husband could purchase a good sofa-sleeper for night-time use and let the twins have your bedroom until you can either finish the basement or move into something larger." ~ Thia "I
would suggest she subscribe to the email discussion
group at Quiverfull.com.
This is a website for people who believe in letting
God decide their family size. There are several
large families living in small spaces who would be
happy to share their ideas." ~ Kathy "We are a family of eight and live quite comfortably in a 1060 square foot house. Before we renovated the basement we had the four oldest children in one room - two sets of bunk beds. The last two children had a tiny small room which is now the office." ~ GG "Consider investing in bunk beds for your older boys and eventually moving your twins in with them when they are old enough. We have 3 children in a very small space and this solved our sleeping arrangement problem. And this goes without saying but I'll say it anyway :)...clutter is a big waste of space! We constantly cull items that are no longer needed or loved and pass them along to someone who can use them." ~ Christy
Editor's Note: Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond. |