A tiny home, with kids?!
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Outside of tiny house with play space for kids
peep the dinosaur with gnomes (hehe)
“Wait, wait, wait! You live in a TINY HOUSE? Like, an actual tiny house?? WITH KIDS? How do you do it?” These are questions I hear often when people find out I live in a tiny house. Let me just go ahead and say tiny home living is almost the exact same as living in a full-size house, just smaller! And yes, I have two toddlers that also share the 398 square feet with me as well! When I first moved into the tiny house my kids were 5 months old and 26 months old. I moved from an 1,800 square foot house, and obviously had just had a baby….so there was A LOT of adjusting to do in the new home. However, it wasn’t long and the small space definitely felt like “home” not just a cramped place as a temporary living situation. I will be focusing on the boys room for this post, but I will focus on the rest of the house and the outside space in future blogs (so stay tuned!).
I had two kids in cribs when we first moved in, and they shared a room! Call me crazy, but somehow it worked! Kids get used to noises and it was not long at all and the boys would ask where the other one was if they did not go to bed at the same time. More to come on kids sharing a room later. I made the kids room be construction theme, and it was so cute and so fun to execute. I had the baby in a mini crib, and my older son in a full-size crib (that was fairly quickly converted to a toddler bed). You can see some pictures of the room as well as my favorite products in the pictures above. I maximized the space by find a cute rug that doubled as a play area with roads and train tracks on it. That rug is so soft and plush and my kids still love it! I also put road vinyl stickers on the wall to utilize the wall space as a play area. I also purchased two play couches for the kids that they could sit on to play, or could be transformed into so many different things. With enough imagination and creativity a fort, a house, slides, a jumping area, and an obstacle course can be made with the play couches even in a very small space!! Check out the link to Amazon to see all of those adorable things (or very similar ones!).
The kids room in the tiny house (the only true bedroom) has two closets in it. One closet contains a cube shelf (see above link to amazon list!) that stores all of their books, puzzles, and magnetic tiles. The other closet has all of their nice clothes to be hung, jackets, and things not easily folded. I also bummed a little space from their closet to put some of my longer jackets or off-season clothes. Beneath the hanging clothes I have a stackable drawer that contains the kids pajamas, diapers/pull-ups, and winter items like hats and gloves. In the top of that closet I store the “next season” items or things that are for a specific holiday coming up. In the middle of these two closets is a built in designed for a tv with drawers beneath. In these 6 drawers I have all of the boys clothes (minus the few that are hanging!). I organized it with G’s items on one side and B’s on the other. I only keep clothes that look nice, aren’t stained, and fit the kids in the drawers. In the top drawer for each is short sleeve shirts with “play” quality on one stack, and “school” worthy on the other. I tri-fold them and stand them up to maximize space. The middle drawer is the same, just long-sleeved shirts. In the bottom drawer I have shorts and pants, again doubled over and standing up. This may not seem like many clothes, however, I do have about 20 short sleeve and 20 long-sleeved shirt for each kid in that small space! Hint, even if the kids change clothes twice each day I still wouldn’t be going through all of the clothes in one week!
Now you’re thinking “do these kids not have any toys?!” and I will go ahead and say THEY HAVE PLENTY OF TOYS! In their room above the built-in drawers I have some stackable bins that contain most of their toys. Most of their toys are small at this point and do not take up a ton of space. As kids get bigger, so do their toys and I will cross that bridge when we get there! I also have a small bin in the living room with some toys, and we have a lot of amazing outside toys that stay outside! I have routinely practiced with the kids to pick up their room each evening before bed. This helps keep the clutter at a minimum and allows the kids to have an easy task to accomplish. (Did you know that small tasks help kids to feel part of the family and are beneficial in a number of ways?) What are some daily chores that you have your toddlers do routinely? Comment below, and tell me your favorite part of the boys room in the tiny house!