Bedroom Organization
I've had several different friends ask for details on some of my organizational systems, so I thought I'd just put it all here. I hope that you get some good ideas!
The Beds
We have 4 boys, who share 2 bedrooms. To save floor space, I opted for bunk beds with a straight ladder. When it was time to wash the sheets, I would have the older two boys strip the bed. However, putting the sheets back on was too hard for them (they are still quite young), so I had to do it. Each time I bumped my head on the ceiling or caught my finger between the mattress and the bed rail, I told myself that there had to be a better way. Sleeping bags would have been much easier, but I didn't want to give up the feel of sleeping between sheets. Finally, after months of bumping my head on the ceiling while putting on the clean sheets, I came up with a new bedding plan.
I put coordinating fitted sheets, which only get washed once or twice a year, on the mattresses. Then I bought queen-size flat sheets and queen-size thin quilts (I like quilts better than comforters, which would probably also work fine). Then, using the Dritz Heavy Duty Plier Kit, I put heavy duty snaps (navy, to match the quilts) on the sheet and quilt, so that the sheet and quilt snap together. I used 9 snaps: 3 across the top, 3 across the middle, and 3 across the bottom. If I had to do it over, I think I would do 4-5 across the top and bottom, 2-3 on both sides, and none through the middle, which is single-ply and has torn through the sheet even though I used backing. I did have to fold the bottom sheet back so that it wouldn't be too long (I wanted to keep the project easy and sew-free).
When the sheet and quilt are snapped together and folded length-wise in half, they are just a little wider than a twin mattress. Half of the quilt and sheet are under the sleeping child, which provides a nice mattress pad to protect the decorative fitted sheet and the mattress, and the other half is on top. The top side edge can be unsnapped if the weather is very warm and the child only wants a sheet on top. The snaps keep the sheet in place for sleeping, and I just have the boys unsnap the sheets when it's time to wash them. Then when it's time to put the clean sheets on, the boys re-snap the sheets and are able to make their own beds. An additional bonus is that I can do all the sheets and pillow cases in just one load of laundry.
Tip: for the top bunk, after snapping and folding, roll the quilt/sheet into a "bedroll" which is easy to put on the top bunk and then unrolled.
When they have to double-up
My mother stayed with us over the summer, which meant we had to put all four boys in one room. Sleeping bags on the floor for a few days isn't bad, but for months ...
My solution: 2 twin air beds on the floor at night and stored on the top bunk during the day. The boys on the floor get to use their regular quilt/sheet sets and just make bed rolls each morning which are stored on the bottom bunk.
Personal Space
With four boys, it's hard to give them a place that's all their own. With the exception of when we have overnight guests, each boys' bed is his personal space and off-limits to others. They each have their own reading lamp, which I got at Ikea. I like these because they have a protective "spider web" in front of the bulb. I also used cord organizers to make the cords look neater.
For their "personal stuff," I thought about putting up shelves, but didn't like the idea of dusting them! On the suggestion of a friend, I put up a Dignitet curtain wire, also from Ikea (now that I think about it, she also suggested the spider lamps), with Deka sliding clips (that link shows the Deka curtain wire with clips, but you can buy the clips separately). The boys' personalizations can look, um, junky, but at least they're easy to clean around!
Toys and Clothes
For their toys, I put up 18" elfa venitilated shelves from The Container Store, and store all their toys in labeled 6 qt., 15 qt., 32 qt., and 66 qt. Sterilite see-through boxes. There are lots of different brands available, so just look around for good prices. I chose these boxes because of price and because they fit well together. The 6 qt., 15 qt., and 32 qt. boxes are all about the same height, and the 66 qt. box (which don't show up in the picture because they are on the top shelf) is as wide as the 32 qt. box and about twice as tall.
For their clothes, I use elfa drawer systems. I went with these instead of regular dressers so that each child could have his own "dresser," while being very flexible in configuration. Having them on rolling casters has already proven to be very valuable as I was able to easily move the other boys drawers into the shared room when they had to share one room over the summer. They are also easy to move to get that toy that invariably drops behind the dressers (which was not the case with their previous traditional dresser). Putting them under the shelves has the benefit of not taking up additional floor space.
Each child has two drawer systems and I allow them to have one shallow drawer and one medium drawer for non-clothing items (trying to allow them some more space that was their own, but was also contained and manageable). I chose the 18" d x 21" w x 29" h drawer system as I felt that would be the most flexible (for example, they could later be converted to be part of a desk system). In the picture below, the 2 drawer systems on the left are for one child and the 2 on the right are for another child.
Tip: The Container Store has a 30% off sale on all elfa products every January.
The pictures below just show some details on the drawers. Elfa has back stops to keep the drawer from going out the back, but I found that they sometimes popped out. I replaced the backstops with very small plastic wire ties which I pulled tight and then removed the excess plastic. The second picture shows my "child protection" which keeps the drawer from coming out the front. The wire tie is looped through the mesh and around the runner snugly, but with enough room to still allow the drawer to slide easily. Then when the drawer is extended, the loop will catch on the front of the runner and hold the drawer in. All the pictures below are looking at the drawer system from the back.
Miscellaneous
I use a 3-section rolling cart in each bedroom for their dirty laundry (can you tell I like furniture that moves?). Each child gets one section for their regular clothes and the middle section is for denim clothes. I wash each child's clothes in a separate load using cold water so that I don't have to sort clean clothes (sorting clothing among 4 boys can take a while). I got that idea from my brother-in-law who always washed his non-denim clothes together in cold water to save money. It works well these days because color-fastness is so much better than it used to be. Also, the separate clothing sections facilitates each child doing his own laundry (which they graduate to when they are 10). For the 5-9 year olds, I wash their clothes and hang up the items that go on hangers, but they have to put up their own clothes that go in the drawers.
The picture on the right shows a clear plastic light switch extender. I found this on-line at several sites which targeted wheel-chair bound adults. I love it because it helps the little ones without embarrassing the older children (who don't particularly care for the moon and stars or bear motif of most children's switch extenders).
Tip: to speed sorting of their denim jeans and sorts, I use the "dot" system that I had heard about from another friend. I use a clothing marker to put dots on the tags, where the number of dots corresponds to birth order. So, the first child has 1 dot, the second child has 2 dots, etc.. This works well with clothing that gets passed down as you just add a dot.
