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Chari
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| Posted: Oct 15 2007 at 4:36pm | IP Logged
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So, moms of many.........with small to medium houses.......where do they all sleep? How do you organize where their pillows will go each night? 
I have a soon to be 6 yo boy (next weekend!).......who has enjoyed the family bed.........and so have we...since birth. He has not been kicked out by an incoming sibling, as he seems to be the last (for the moment?)........but, at some point, I am sure he will want his own bed. We just do not have an obvious place to put him  . I am trying to problem-solve this.......can you tell me what YOU do? Maybe it will inspire me.
BTW, he is too big for a drawer
We have a girls' room with a bunk (double on bottom, twin on top)...with three girls....and a boys' room with bunk beds and an almost 17yo boy (man?) and a 10.5 yo.
Thanks!
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Chari...Take Up & Read
Dh Marty 27yrs...3 lovely maidens: Anne 24, Sarah 20 & Maddelyn 17 and 3 chivalrous sons: Matthew 22, Garrett 16 & Malachy 11
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Oct 15 2007 at 5:05pm | IP Logged
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we've slide a mattress only under the bottom bunk in the boys room.. giving us 3 beds for the space of 2.. We use a foam mattress.. so it can be "bent" and move around other things (the ladder, a dresser) and pulled out at night in a 90* to the other beds angle.
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JenniferS
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| Posted: Oct 15 2007 at 6:30pm | IP Logged
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We have two sets of bunkbeds in the boys room. One set has a doublebed for a bottom bunk. We can't fit anymore beds in the room, so we have one boy in each of the single bunks and two boys in the botom double bunk. If the new baby isn't a girl(our dd has her own room that she ould share with a sister later) then we'll probably trade bedrooms with the boys because our bedroom is the biggest. We could probably fit another set of bunkbeds in there. In fact, we should trade with the boys now, but I can't seem to talk dh into it!
Jen
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Mary G
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| Posted: Oct 15 2007 at 9:20pm | IP Logged
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I've always had 4-bedroom houses -- even when I was a young widow with 2 kids (boy and girl) -- and now that I have a total of 5 (ok, the eldest is in college, but YKWIM!) it seems like why do I bother with a 4bdrm house? On Friday night, I had Thomas (8) on the floor, dh on the floor  !, JP (4) and Maggie (7) both in bed with me ... that left 16yod in her room and my mother in her room -- ONE WHOLE ROOM unoccupied! And this happens lots!
My 4yod (soon to be 5) will insist on his own bed, in the boys room, but as soon as it comes to "lights out" -- he's in my room saying he had a scary dream and can he sleep in my room?????
Most nights he is on the floor, but if he crawls up into our beds, dh and I get no sleep as he's a kicker, scratcher and generally a nuisance.
Maybe youngest son is finally getting the message -- at 1:30 this morning I found him downstairs in the living room, completely wrapped up in a Pooh bear blanket and sound asleep (but coughing just enough to wake mom).
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MaryG
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Erin
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| Posted: Oct 16 2007 at 6:30am | IP Logged
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We're a small house we are currently in three bedrooms, the baby ds 1 is in with us. The three girls are on a bunk like yours, double on bottom, the 6 and 3yr old share. Mind you dd3 ends up in the bed with ds1 and dh and I most nights.
The three boys 12, 10 and 8 share. Two boys have a bunk bed, singles.
Hey Jen, dh and I have the smallest room, just enough room to walk around the bed and ds sleeps in the window alcove.
When the baby has to move out I will probably move the four boys into the bigger bedroom and he will share with them. If I just had the two little girls I would put him in with them but I don't want dd14 to have all the littlies with her.
Could ds squeeze onto a trundle in the boys room? We had another house where I had four in one room, the oldest dd and the three boys. They had bunks, a trundle and a single.
Hey do you have a pantry? My friend's son slept in their pantry at age 10-14. And my brother slept in the storage room under the stairs, we call it the Harry Potter room.
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Erin
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joann10
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| Posted: Oct 16 2007 at 6:55am | IP Logged
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We have a very small house with three bedrooms. We have 4ds in one room with bunk beds for ds-15 and ds-20, and two singles pushed together for ds-7 and ds-17. The s also have 4 in their room- a bunk bed for dd-19 dd12, one single dd-13, and a mattress kept under the bunk bed that is pulled out for sleep for dd-5. Having the s this way leaves room for three dressers. The boys room has no room for dressers (the dressers are kept in the basement--this leads to many modesty discussions )
The babies are 1.5 and 2.5. They have their cribs in my husband and my room. They do generally sleep with us in our king size bed. We also fit a small dresser for them in our room.
A lot of everyones clothes are in the basement hanging on rolling clothes racks. This saves room so that other things and be put into the bedroom closets.
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chicken lady
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| Posted: Oct 16 2007 at 6:56am | IP Logged
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Chari as you know I am in a similar situation. I had a thought, maybe you have already considered this......can you put a mattress (trundle) under the existing boys bunks?
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JenniferS
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| Posted: Oct 16 2007 at 7:40am | IP Logged
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I noticed lastnight that all of the boys were sleeping in the double bed bottom bunk, leaving three beds empty. By morning, three boys were in our bed!!!LOL!!
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kingvozzo
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| Posted: Oct 16 2007 at 8:49am | IP Logged
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I second (third?) the trundle under the bunk. That's our plan for when we move our 3 boys into a room together. You save so much floor space...right now I have my 2 big boys in with my daughter (baby's in my room), but the boys are getting their own room soon. DH is making a trundle box to slide under the bunk.
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mimmyof5
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| Posted: Oct 16 2007 at 9:09am | IP Logged
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I remember a lady I worked with saying she couldn't have more than 2 children because they only had a 3 bedroom house.  My husband grew up in a family of 14 children plus mom and dad making 16, and they had a 3 bedroom house. Mom and dad had a very small one, barely room for a bed, baby was in a crib in the living room, 5 girls shared another with 2 bunk beds, and 9 boys shared the last bedroom. They had army style beds that bolted into the wall and then folded up during the day. They each had one drawer and enough closet space for school and church clothes. Somehow there's always room for one more.
I always thought trundle beds were a good idea.
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StephanieA
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| Posted: Oct 16 2007 at 12:15pm | IP Logged
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We are about splitting at the seams here too! But no plans to move. With 8 kids in 3 bedrooms, I'm feeling the crunch. I keep thinking maybe I should add on ,
then something like the well collapses. (We have been without running water for about 2 weeks now.) I THINK I MIGHT BE GOING NUTS
The well people keep buying new bits and then putting us off. Oh, well, another discussion.....but I now appreciate the faucet and flushing toilets as I never could have before.
But I am going to have to trundle someone soon. We have maxed out on the bunkbeds. Daughter #4 is on the floor on a makeshift toddler couch that pulls out. Sort of like a trundle. The real problem occurs too when these teens really need some space and quick without toddlers in their room. Sigh.
Blessings,
Stephanie
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kingvozzo
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| Posted: Oct 16 2007 at 4:01pm | IP Logged
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StephanieA wrote:
We are about splitting at the seams here too! But no plans to move. With 8 kids in 3 bedrooms, I'm feeling the crunch. I keep thinking maybe I should add on ,
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My dh's brother does renovations in New Orleans. He was visiting last Christmas (when we were pregnant with #4), and told us that when we had our 8th he would give us an addition! I think he picked a number he thought was so "outrageously" high that we would never be able to take him up on the offer! Little does he know our diabolical desire to have more and more and more babies! 
Seriously, I figure I've got room for 3 girls and 6 boys, then we run out of room (3 sets of bunks and 3 trundles beneath). Then that addtion from dear bil will really come in handy!
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Noreen
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JenniferS
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| Posted: Oct 16 2007 at 8:31pm | IP Logged
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Stephanie,
Every time we make plans to add on, something goes wrong here, too. We are learning to live mroe simply, that's for sure!
God bless you, and I pray your well situation gets better soon!
Jen
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CAgirl4God
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| Posted: Oct 17 2007 at 10:36am | IP Logged
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we have been blessed with enough room for our needs....so far been living in Gov housing where ever we move to.
I have had three girls in one room, with ds having his own. but I would have no problem with lots of kids in a room.
I would think that mostly the members of a family need to have someplace to store clothes, toys/items, and a place to sleep. a place to eat, and a place to congragate.
I have good friends who have a family of 13. 11 kids an dmom and dad. they are in a 3 (small rooms) bedroom house. right now because of a property dispute, they have no electricity. they make this work. they were all in a three bedroom apart. during thee major part of the dispute.
they shared much of their clothes, thus eleminating the need for lots of closet space. and they purchased thick, folding sleeping mats, that stack up in a corner of a bedroom. there are bunk beds in one room, a mom and dad sleep by themselves and a queen in another room. the mats get spread out where ever they need to.
I have never heard this family complain or gripe, but always witnessed a loving helpful kind family.
I think that what ever you decide will be great.
I think we put too much emphasis on personal space...
heck, that is what the bathroom is for...hiding out LOL
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Jess
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| Posted: Oct 17 2007 at 3:41pm | IP Logged
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We have one of those bunk beds in our girls' room with twin on top and full on bottom too. Can you put a trundle under one of those? Ours has a metal bar that goes down in the middle of the long side as a support and I was never sure if you could remove that or not and it still be safe. We can't put a bed under on the shorter side because of the way the room is situated. We have the baby in our bed right now (probably for a while too ) but I was wondering for the future. We have 3 in the girls' room already and in my ds's room we have bunk beds too, the regular twin kind. If the next baby we have is a boy then we won't have a problem in the future but if we have another girl someday, I'm not sure where everyone would go. The girls' room is crammed full. I guess we could get two sets of twin bunks and put trundles under those....
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Jess
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Vanessa
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| Posted: Oct 18 2007 at 11:36am | IP Logged
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We have the mattress under a set of bunk beds too. Our one son always starts in his room but he always ends up in our room sometime during the night. We have put a sleeping bag on the floor in our room that we keep there all the time. Maybe one of those ideas will work for you.
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CrunchyMom
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We are all still in the family king for now, but in our tiny row home, we've contemplated how we would make room for more. In "The Not So Big House" Sarah Susankah talks about how, when she lived with a family in Japan, rooms did double duty. The children slept on futons that folded up into a closet in the day but were put in the dining room at night. We thought that was a fascinating option (leaving more room for play during the day that bunkbeds might). Not sure what we'll do should God continue to bless us with more children, but I thought it was an interesting option to contemplate.
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kingvozzo
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| Posted: Oct 18 2007 at 3:42pm | IP Logged
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My mother knew a large mixed (boy/girl) family that lived in a 2 br apt. The parents slept on a sofa bed in the family room. They made it work.
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Noreen
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Stephanie_Q
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I'm not sure that I count as a mom of many quite yet. Baby boy sleeps with us, but will move in with 2.5 yo brother. 4 and 5 yo girls sleep on twin beds in another room. We also have a guest room. I'm always thinking about how to rearrange if/when we are blessed with more...bunk beds are definitely in the forecast.
Our friends, who have 10, sleep their boys in a room with two home-made bunkbeds that hold twin mattresses above, queen mattresses below and just enough room to walk between the queen mattresses (that's for the 6 oldest boys). The two oldest girls are in a very small room. The toddler girl is in a crib and the baby boy is in a cradle in the parents room.
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4Real Forums : Mothering and Family Life
Topic: Where do they sleep?
