How to Optimise Space For A Growing Family

Do you have a little one on the way? Maybe you already have a few wandering around and you’re wondering how you can function with all their stuff. We are looking at How to Optimise Space for a Growing Family.

Kids come with so much stuff! There is the tools and furniture that’s needed, like highchairs and baby gates and cribs, and then there are the little luxuries. Swathes and swathes of clothes and toys. Every child should be a fashion model with the amount of clothes laid at their feet. 

They spill out of wardrobes, drawers, and fill empty floorspace in boxes. We’re looking at how you can reduce the amount of sheer stuff in your home for more space for another little one. 

Hand down the basics

This is obvious to anyone working on their third. There’s no point in buying another round of all the basics. The pram is just as good as it was a couple of years ago when the eldest was using it, so is the highchair and so is the baby gate. The practical items can be used over again, saving you a good chunk of money that you probably still have PTSD from spending the first time around. There’s no point trying to cram two prams into the cupboard. 

That goes for clothes too. If you had the foresight to keep a hold of a few boxes of clothes, they can be put to good use now, if you’re lucky… or open minded. You know how quickly the little ones can grow. A baby grow might only last a week to begin with, so if something is transferable, use it. Girls can like dinosaurs and boys can like unicorns. 

Store anything that isn’t needed… yet

If you’re thinking about the next one coming around the corner, put away anything your little ones don’t need right now in storage. Have they outgrown the crib? Stick it in storage until the next one. Or even better, stick it in storage until they have their own. Storage from Safestore is great at protecting your items from the weather and from greedy hands, so you’ll know where to get your items well intact when you need it. The prams, the clothes, the forgotten toys, it can all go into storage until you need it again. 

Use vertical space

Bunk beds are fun. Aren’t bunk beds so fun? It’s easy to convince a kid that bunk beds are the holy grail, so use that space. If you have another child that means there is room for them on the bottom, or you can get a loft bed with storage, or a bed high enough for a desk or boxes of even more toys!

Donate any toys that aren’t going down well

Now, this might result in some fights. It always does. Your kid isn’t spoiled, they just don’t like the reality of the cruel lesson that nothing lasts forever. But if that doll at the bottom of the toybox is missing a leg, or the jigsaw puzzle has a bunch of pieces missing, it’s time to get rid of it. 

A lot of this will feel like a waste, because some of it will be in good condition. At that point, you’ll want to donate it. There are a lot of kids in poverty that would be eternally grateful for a doll with one leg. It’s something to care for and distract with. So, head to the charity shop with anything that isn’t irreparable and in good condition. Kids get so many toys at Christmas and birthdays, a lot of it could be forgotten about or weren’t interesting from the get-go. Kids are harsh critics.