Creative Housing

If you have felt the pinch of a large family in a small home, you'll understand why housing is an issue. Getting more out of a small space, remodeling, organization, and affording a larger home.

We use bunkbeds - nothing new there. We have two sets of bunkbeds in one room, where we had three boys at one time. We also had three dressers in the room. Laundry baskets for the kids filled the rest of the space on the floor around the walls. Shelves went above the dressers for personal belongings other than clothes.  The girls' room was similar, holding a bunkbed and a separate bed - now it has a crib instead of the other bed, though we are still waiting to fill it.

I like the bunkbeds with a twin on top and a double on the bottom. They take up little more room than a twin over twin, but they will hold an extra kid. This is nice for when we have guests, there is an extra bed if needed.

I use a lot of shelves around the house also. Since we had seven kids in a three bedroom house (good sized bedrooms, but still...), and we homeschooled, there seemed never to be enough space to put books, games, and other entertainment and educational items.

Our diningroom doubles as a library, and our entryway doubles as hardware and craft storage.

We have to periodically go through the house and weed out things we no longer have a need for. There is no room for unnecessary items in close quarters.