Working For Us: how we make a small space work for a family of 6

Riley's Bedroom

This room has been painted, re-arranged and re-done more times than I would like to admit.  

When we moved in it was this

Someone REALLY liked frogs and lizards

Then we made this big boy train room for Cameron when we first moved in

A few years later we transformed the same room into a boys shared space

I did everything in the room and it was my favorite room in the house

And then there were four and so we had to switch rooms. This is the smaller of the bedrooms and since we had one girl we decided to make the small room hers and the boys get the bigger room which will eventually have 3 loft beds in it. The key to have lots of people in a smaller space is organize, organize, organize. I cannot stress enough how important it is to have a place for every thing.  A major key to small spaces is the less toys the better. We do not buy a lot of toys and what we do buy is carefully thought out and we make sure it will last through all the kids. We didn't always do this but realizing that the kids don't need many toys was important to making the space we have work.

RIley loves art so I had her paint her own picture for her new room

This toy shelf was in the office and I love it! It is from Ikea and has weathered the kids and held up perfectly.  most of the baskets are empty, we really don't have many toys and we have room to add a few more if we decide

There is a small dress up chest in this corner, along with her baby doll stroller

This is Riley's bed, I am almost done with her quilt top and I can't wait to add it to her room, it is going to be the finishing piece

Love the letters and she has her own shelf
where she chooses what goes on it.

A closer look at her special shelf

Let's talk closets. I LOVE doing the kids laundry and I hated doing mine or Ryan's. I finally figured out why, I love the kids clothes and closets.  They are organized by pant length and shirt length and it makes it so much more fun to put away. 

Riley shares a closet with Elijah, this is her side.
Skirts, pants and dresses on the bottom and shirts
on top. Shoes hang nicely on the side.

Elijah's side, not all that organized because
he changes so fast and often that
I can't keep up. The laundry basket is where all
kid dirty clothes go

This closet has what I call a "prep rod" where I prep the close for the week. this week we are going out of town for a wedding so I am hanging close I think I will need to pack.
There is a bag on the floor to the left that houses all clothes that the kids grow out of and to the left is a plastic set of drawers for riley's pj's, socks and underwear.