Tips for Designing Your Home With Kids in Mind

If you’re a parent, you know your kids are your everything—I know mine are. The moment those little bundles of joy come into the world, we’re ready to move heaven and earth to give them a beautiful life. Fortunately for us, we usually only have to move our homes, schedules, and lifestyles around. Easy, right? While I can’t help you change your whole life for your kid, I can help y’all with the house part. Here are my favorite tips for designing your home with kids in mind.

Child-Proof

It can be challenging to give your kids a beautiful life in a dangerous environment. Even though many of us might associate a “dangerous environment” with living in a crime-ridden neighborhood, your suburban house with the white picket fence can be just as dangerous if it isn’t childproofed.

When y’all are looking for ways to design your home with your kids in mind, start with making some safe, kid-friendly design choices, such as:

• placing beds or cribs away from window blinds;
• putting covers on doorknobs, locks, and outlets;
• anchoring heavy furniture to the wall;
• avoiding hanging artwork over beds or cribs; and
• locking up dangerous chemicals, sharp tools, and small objects.

Obviously, you can’t avoid all safety hazards in your home, but places your kids are likely to spend a lot of time playing should be as free of hazards as possible. If there’s anything in the room y’all wouldn’t want your kid to touch, climb, or put in their mouth, consider storing it somewhere else.

Organize

If you’ve ever walked into a toddler’s playroom, you know organization doesn’t necessarily come easily to little ones, and that’s OK. It’s our job to help teach them these skills, and we can create spaces that make learning those skills easier.

Here are a few ideas to create a space that helps teach kids how to get organized:

• Use color-coded bins for toys.
• Store clothing in areas kids can reach.
• Put pictures up next to where things go. (For example, a picture of clothes next to a hamper.)
• Have designated spots for certain activities like arts and crafts.

Sometimes, the biggest obstacle to an organized space is too much stuff. Once or twice a year, make it a family activity to choose clothes and toys to donate to charity. It’ll clear the clutter and teach your kids about giving.

Have Fun

Designing a kid-friendly house isn’t just about making a functional space. We’ve all got to have a little fun, especially kids. During the planning process, y’all can look for ways to allow your kids to have fun and express themselves.

The design process will look different for each family. For some, it may include using a little color to help stimulate your child’s development. Or it could mean letting your kids decide on their room’s design. Giving kids a space they love is the first step to giving them that beautiful life.