Having a big family doesn’t mean you need a big house. There are lots of clever ways to make a small space work for lots of people. From multi-purpose rooms to smart organizational systems, here are some of the best ways to make a small house work for a family. When you’re looking at listings for real estate in Green Bay WI and N.E. Wisconsin, don’t overlook smaller properties.
It’s possible that you could save money on a home with less square footage and still make it work for your family. Here’s how.
Multipurpose Rooms
One of the best ways to make a small house work for a family is for every room to serve more than one purpose. For instance, the dining room could also serve as the homework room. With a bit of planning, the bedroom can serve as a music rehearsal room. There’s nothing wrong with scheduling to help family members make the best use of small rooms.
You could even mount a curtain in the middle of one larger room, such as the living room, to create two smaller rooms. This could allow children to play on one side of the room and adults to watch TV on the other side. With a bit of practice and good boundaries, a small house can easily work for a large family.
Kids Bunking Together in One Room
If you have more than one child of similar ages, consider bunking them together in one room. This works well for children under 5 years old especially. But it can also work for sibling groups of up to four kids in one medium-sized bedroom. Through the clever use of stacking bunk beds and individual storage boxes, four children can easily live together in one room. This also teaches kids to keep their rooms clean and devalue having large numbers of personal possessions.
To give each child a bit of privacy, consider mounting curtains on each bunk bed. This helps older children stay up later with a bedside lamp to read their book, while younger children can fall asleep down below on the ground-level bed. If you might be having more children in the future, it’s still a good idea to start with bunk beds now. Children can sleep on the upper bunk, and you can turn the spaces below each bed into a play space or workspace with a desk. This works for slumber parties but it can also be transformed into another bed in case another sibling comes along.
For babies under 2-years old, it’s not uncommon to turn a closet into a nursery. After all, babies don’t need much space in their personal bedrooms. They typically play with their parents in the living room for most of the day, after all. Just make sure there’s plenty of ventilation and the baby will be none the wiser. Be flexible when you speak with realtors in Green Bay WI and N.E. Wisconsin about how many rooms you need. You might be surprised at what you find.
Make Use of Outdoor Space
With a small home in a large yard, it’s easy to send children outdoors to play instead of being cooped up in a small house. If you live in a rural area, you may want to fence in your backyard to prevent small children from wandering into the woods.
When looking at homes for sale in Green Bay WI and N.E. Wisconsin, it would be clever to save money by purchasing a smaller home with larger acreage. You can always build additional out-buildings in the future if necessary. But wide-open spaces make the perfect playground for growing children. Build a tiny shelter at the end of the yard and encourage kids to stay outdoors all day. Build a play structure and small wooden benches where they can take their snacks outside. Even if you don’t have the budget for a large outdoor playset, a big yard provides plenty of opportunities for kids to play for hours on end. Sticks, mud, and leaves provide the ingredients for endless hours of imaginative play. This can make a small indoor space more manageable.
Organizational Systems
Finally, there’s no amount of organizational systems that can contain thousands and thousands of toys. The first step is to work with kids to get rid of or donate items they no longer use. Many families rotate toys seasonally to prevent clutter indoors. This is especially critical if you live in a small home.
Once you’ve narrowed down each child’s toy collection to a reasonable amount, it’s time to start looking for smart organizational systems. You should look for a toy organization system, a closet system, a school organizational system, and a snack system so your child knows exactly where everything belongs.
Many households utilize a gotcha-basket so that parents can quickly clean up any leftover toys at the end of the day. First thing the next morning, children should be encouraged to put away toys from the basket or else forfeit them to the toy dungeon in the garage. Lots of properties in Green Bay WI and N.E. Wisconsin offer sizable garages which can be turned into playrooms for young children.
So if you’re a large family looking for real estate near Green Bay and N.E. Wisconsin, don’t limit yourself to four-bedroom houses. There are a lot of ways that a large family can fit comfortably into a small house. Be open-minded and speak honestly with your agent about your family’s needs. It could be that a large outdoor space, access to a nearby park, or an unfinished basement could be just the ticket to making your family’s property dreams come true.