Anyone having experience with kids knows how incredibly fast they grow and change. It seems like in a blink you’ve gone from diaper changing stations and light up shoes, to tripping over football equipment and battling for sink space around piles of make-up.
Every stage is full of joys, challenges and tons of change. Whether you live in an old farm house, a modern town home, a Red Deer custom built home, a remote log cabin or a tiny trailer, it’s important to make your house grow with the kids.
Usually, this doesn’t mean literally adding onto your house, but rather utilizing the space you have in a different way to make it most efficient and pleasing to look at.
Family or Living Room
For many families, the family or living room are the main living areas of the home. With young children in the home these areas are often littered with toys. It’s a great idea to invest in some storage ottomans or nice canvas totes for storage and quick clean ups.
It’s nearly impossible to keep toys out of this area, but it’s nice to have a quick and easy option when it comes time for clean-up. During the teen years, the totes can be used to store books, movies, laptops, tablets or any sort of media device.
For the in between years, when kids are in school and homework still requires a bit of parental help, the totes will be handy as well. Instead of throwing their backpacks on the floor as soon as they walk in the door, they can store them out of the way in a storage tote or on a coat hook.
The extra space can also be used for extra pencils, crayons, paper, paint and glue for school projects.
Bathroom
With a baby in the house, chances are quite a bit of bathroom space will be taken up with a diaper changing station, infant bath tub and rubber ducks. It’s a good idea to invest in a changing table with shelves built in. That way you can keep the floor space taken up to a minimum by stashing extra diapers and wipes right below the changing station.
If there is still space, the bath toys and baby toiletries can be kept in an attractive rubber container so everything you need for baby’s bathing needs will be within arm’s reach.
When the kids get older, the changing table can be exchanged or renovated with Red Deer home renovations for a more traditional shelf, but the basic concept can stay the same. Each kid can be assigned an area to store any personal toiletries.
Bedroom
As little ones, the bedroom is taken up by a crib, rocking chair and baby gear. By the teenage years, the bed is bigger and usually a desk is involved. For both ages, hooks on the wall can be a great space saver.
Hooks can be used to hang baby blankets in the early years and hooded sweatshirts later on. This will be effective in somewhat limiting clutter on the floors.
As kids grow, our houses will change too. Flexibility is important and storage is key. With a few simple tricks it’s possible to make just about any space work for any age kid or teen.
