If you have 5 or more kids, how many bedrooms do you have?

[mommyoffive]

As we think of moving to our next home, I am thinking of how many bedrooms we want or need.  When we bought our first house we had 1 baby, now we have 5 kids.   We may or may not be done.

 

So if you have 5 plus kids how many bedrooms do you have?

 

Do you wish you had more or less? 

 

How much square footage do you live in?  Do you wish you had more or less?  

 

[Erica in OR]

Five kids here. Four bedrooms. Pair of older girls share. Pair of younger girls share. Boy has own.

 

About 1500 sq ft, purchased when we had 3. I'd appreciate more room, but no plans to move and it works. Big yard helps, plus basement for some storage.

 

Erica in OR

[BlsdMama]

We bought a house with an unfinished basement.  It had three bedrooms up and another finished basement bedroom with a window big enough for egree but too small for legal "counting" as a bedroom.

 

We put in three more bedrooms (with egress) in the basement.  (Two of these bedrooms are attached by a sliding door because the middle room cannot have an egress window so they need two exits, kwim?  Two older girls in each room.) 

 

It's a total of seven.  We could do with far less but this allows for big closets, and a nook and corner for kiddos to veg and read. ;)  

We have four bathrooms.  (That is crazy to clean, btw.)

 

When we lived on a bigger acreage we had three bedrooms with eight kiddos.  It was perfect BECAUSE all of my kids were little and I was doing almost all the work.  We all choose that house as our favorite.  Because there was less housework (small, 3 bedrooms, 1 bath) we had so much TIME to do other things rather than just house/stuff maintenance, kwim?

 

This house is much bigger but requires a lot more work.  Kids are older now and everyone pitches in so it's doable.

 

Honestly?  If I had five kids under twelve again, I'd totally go super small house, less maintenance, and being "forced" to be a minimalist.  I loved it.  (LOVED.)

But, with a 20yo, a 17yo, and up and coming older teens, I appreciate more bathrooms, two living rooms, more bedrooms.

 

If I had to pick I'd duo-house again.  One house when they are young and a different house with olders. :D

[Upward Journey]

5 kids.  We've never had more than 3 bedrooms. First house was 1150 sq ft. (1600 after we enclosed the carport).  It was cozy, but doable.

 

Moved, down to 4 kids, 3 bedrooms ~ 2600 sq ft. (includes garage and bonus room above) on an acre ~ this was a good size

 

Moved again, still 4 kids and 3 bedrooms ~ 1050 sq ft. apartment.  Definitely tight!

 

 

Edited July 14, 2016 by Upward Journey

[mamiof5]

5 kids 5 bedrooms. They are very spread in age, so it works for us. Oldest dd is 20, youngest ds is 20 months. Oldest dd has her own room, 2 dds share, 2 ds share, 1 room is scrapbooking/school room. About 3300sq ft, large bedroom size. Love it!

[SproutMamaK]

5 kids here. We have a lot of rooms that COULD be bedrooms but aren't (a playroom, an office/spare bedroom) so we COULD spread out if we wanted to, but at the moment we use 3 bedrooms. Master bedroom for DH and I (and currently the baby), 1 bedroom for the toddler (and soon the baby, once he starts sleeping through the night), and 1 for the older boys. In a few years I'm assuming we'll spread out to using 4 bedrooms; regional by-laws in our area preclude letting our daughter share a room with any of our sons once they're both over the age of 6. When we reach that point, I can't imagine us putting all 4 boys in the same room unless we decide to TRY to turn our house into a permanent frat party.

[ashfern]

We have 5 kids and 5 bedrooms. The two younger girls share a room. Our house is around 3500 sq ft but the bedrooms (other than the master) are small. We're talking about moving to a new house and I told DH that I would rather have an additional bedroom instead of the formal living room & formal dining room.

[hjffkj]

We have 4 kids and the 4th is on the way. We live in a 3 bedroom house that is 1400 sq ft. We have no intention of moving anytime soon. One room has 2 boys, one has 2 girls, and the master has dh, myself, and baby when it comes. Baby will end up in whatever room it fits in

[Guest]

Six kids as of next January, and we have two kid bedrooms, boy and girl, in both our current home and the one we are moving into. Four bedrooms total, one an office end the other is the master.

 

We anticipate having several more children in the coming years but our bedroom count will probably remain the same. When we build down the line I'd like three more kid bedrooms so the older children, high school or college, can have more privacy for their schoolwork. But that's not on the docket right now.

 

Current four bedroom home is 1700 square feet on 1/4 acre. It's just getting super tight in the common areas and doesn't have great storage but I've made it work. The new four bedroom home is 3600 square feet with good sized bedrooms and commons areas and will fit much better for more and bigger children. It's on 1/2 acre, which is nice too. I could have continued making this smaller house work but it was a lot of juggling and upkeep to remain uncluttered and I have to purge ruthlessly. The new place has enough elbow room for projects to be stored and completed later, the office to fit a sofa bed for guests, and just generally a better layout for the next stage of life. It's not perfect and there are things we would change but cannot afford to alter the structure that much. Overall though it is a more comfortable house for this many people. 3000+ square feet fits older homeschoolers better than half the size, but it's still not too big to keep clean.

Edited July 14, 2016 by Arctic Mama

[gardenmom5]

we have four.  there were times I wished we had another  one.  we did double up kids and got creative - and that's with a huge gap in ages! (and neat kids not wanting to share with messy kids)  now, I only have two at home, and dh uses the last as an office.

[Meadowlark]

5 kids here. The 3 boys share, and the 2 girls share. We have one extra that will be used for some homeschooling stuff next year. It's working out really well so far, and I love that they can share with each other. The boys bedroom is downstairs and they have a giant walk-in closet. The girls are upstairs in a normal sized room. Our house is about 2100 square feet upstairs with a finished basement. We came from a 1300 square foot house with NO storage and we were literally busting out. When we moved, it felt like someone untied my corset-seriously :-)

[Guest]

5 kids here. The 3 boys share, and the 2 girls share. We have one extra that will be used for some homeschooling stuff next year. It's working out really well so far, and I love that they can share with each other. The boys bedroom is downstairs and they have a giant walk-in closet. The girls are upstairs in a normal sized room. Our house is about 2100 square feet upstairs with a finished basement. We came from a 1300 square foot house with NO storage and we were literally busting out. When we moved, it felt like someone untied my corset-seriously :-)

 

Ha! That's a perfect description. It's not impossible, but just having some more storage options and not being on top of everyone all the time can be such a blessing.

[MinivanMom]

We have 5 kids and 4 bedrooms with 2400 square feet & .25 acre lot. The size is perfect for our family, and we are only using 3 of the bedrooms currently; the 4th bedroom is a guest room. The 2 girls share a room, and the 3 boys share the huge bonus room. Nobody wants to be "alone" in the guest room. 

[Murphy101]

It's more about square footage and practical layout than number of rooms ime.

 

Our previous house was 1000sf and 3 bdrms plus we converted half of the one car garage into a small fourth bedroom. BUT there was zero wasted space in that house. Each room could fit two sets of bunkbeds and leave a bit of room to play. We have not done dressers bc they take up so much floor space in rooms, but we did storage drawers in closets instead. Cheaper, held more, and out of the way. We had 5 ages baby to age 6 when we moved in and lived there mostly happily and always adjusting until a bit after baby 8 was born. So 7 to 10 of us lived there. Inside was okay. I had to be very organized, but otherwise we coped fine. The outside was the big problem though and one of the major reasons we moved. The neighborhood was not one I felt comfortable letting me kids go outside to play in and our backyard was unusable for many day if we had any rain. A smaller home doesn't change the little people need to be able to run, yell, and play. So the lack of immediate outdoor options, meant I had to drive multiple times a week into the nearby town for them to get that need met. Eventually the cost in family time and finance of always going into town 30-45 minutes away and all dh's work commute was enough that it was cheaper to move closer to town even if the mortgage payment doubled.

 

Which is what happened when we moved into our current home which is for the 12.6 of us.

Current home is nearly 3000sf and technically a 3 bedroom with a game room and an attic additional room that is labeled a fourth bedroom. We use the game room and the attic room as bedrooms though. Again, functional floor plan was more important than number of bedrooms. There are a LOT of houses that might have 4+ bedrooms, but good luck fitting more than a twin bed in any of them. All the rooms in this house can comfortably contain two sets of bunkbeds and still have plenty of room to play. Even as an office, the rooms are often very small and then there's the waste of grand styled entry ways or bathrooms and closets bigger than some of the bedrooms - this was a major frustration when we were house hunting.

 

The additional space at this point is necessary because there's a big difference between 6'4" teens sharing rooms and elementary kids. And because frankly, wrong as it is, small living spaces and large families invites potential CPS concerns. But the biggest reasons I'm still glad we upgraded are the greatly reduced commute and the ability to spread living outdoors. Not just for dh now, but also for working and or college kids, myself for appts and grocery shopping, the kids for activities and opportunities, a parish literally within walking distance. The ability to have pets, a pool, ride bikes or walk in relative safety. We didn't move into town proper, but after three years of looking we found the house that met all our requirements and price range about 3 miles out of town in the adjacent burb, which we really like. All of that is at least equal to or of greater positive impact than number of bedrooms has been.

 

ETA: If it matters:

For now:

There's our master bedroom, us and eventually with baby.

bedroom 1 upstairs - all three girls in one.

Bedroom 2 - has one older boy in it and we bump him out for company to use as a guest room.

The gameroom - which actually has four younger boys in it.

The attic room, has two older boys in it plus a small living area.

Edited July 14, 2016 by Murphy101

[luuknam]

This thread inspired me to look up my grandparents' house (I'd been wondering how big it was). They had 7 kids, 5 bedrooms, 1 bath (I remember my grandfather (who was a carpenter) converting a closet into a half bath when I was a kid, so after all their kids were grown), but sinks in 3 of the bedrooms (but not in the two smaller attic bedrooms), 1851 sq ft. It's my understanding that it worked fine for them, but I obviously am not them, and while I've stayed there a week or whatever at a time at the same time some of my cousins were visiting (so there were roughly the same number of people there) and that worked well, I have not actually lived there.

 

ETA: Most Europeans don't shower daily, so that helps - one bath and daily showers for everyone would be hard to do.

 

ETA2: They didn't homeschool, and no basement.

Edited July 14, 2016 by luuknam

[MysteryJen]

5 kids. First house was 1700 sq ft. 3 bedrooms with boys room and girls room. When ds3 arrived we enclosed a study. Technically, not a bedroom, but fine as nursery. A year later, we moved into 2700 sq ft house, finished basement added about 800 sq ft. 4 bedrooms, master for us, boys room and girls room, and school room/play room. As kids grew, ds1 moved to basement.

We moved last spring, seriously downsizing to a small older house. Still 4 bedrooms, but the main floor ones are small, and basement ones have a low ceiling. Last month, all the kids were home. Older boys share one room, ds3 has his own in basement, girls shared in basement, Dh and I share the smaller room on the main floor. We were definitely crowded in, but because of swim and work schedules, the house was not always 100 percent occupied. But come fall, all the kids at home will have their own room!

Sharing rooms has been a real blessing in building sibling relationships for our family.

[happypamama]

1 girl, 4 boys. Four bedrooms -- mine and dh's, DD's, oldest DS's, and one that the little boys all share. At some point, we may move one of the younger boys -- could be any one of them -- in with DS1.

 

We have just under 2400 square feet, it's not the actual footage but how it's laid out. We DO have the luxury of having an upstairs office/music room that could be a small bedroom if needed, but it provides quiet space for working or music, which is essential in my family. We also do have a playroom/family room where most of the toys and games live, and a schoolroom where our school stuff lives and where I work with each child. We also have room in the master bedroom space for a small craft/sewing room for me. It's a big old farmhouse with some odd layouts, but dh is a master at using space well.

 

For large homeschooling families, flexibility with space is the biggest thing. You need space for play and space for quiet/solitude, whether that's bedrooms or not.

[Okra]

Three bedrooms here.  It works fine for us.  The girls share a bedroom, and the boys share a bedroom.  

[happypamama]

We have 1.5 baths. We will make it work even when the kids need daily showers. Two toilets is more essential than two showers, IMO, and the old house may not balance water well enough to have two simultaneous showers anyway. However, only two of us are girls with long hair, so ymmv.

[J-rap]

Our house has three bedrooms and a den.  We turned the den into a mix of bedroom/TV/play room when all five kids were living at home.  So, the futon was a regular couch during the day, and a bed at night.  That worked pretty well although you had to walk through the den in order to get to the bathroom.  

 

We also have a sleeping porch, so sometimes some of the kids would move out there for the hot summer months.

[RootAnn]

Five kids. Five bedrooms, but one is a dedicated guest bedroom / room for DH to sleep in when he's on nights, so really four bedrooms for the seven of us. We have three bathrooms & there are definitely times when all three are busy at the same time with someone in line, too. This is usually when we get home from a trip or from the pool or in the morning/evening.

 

We have one room that is a single - and the girls are rotating through that one. One has a bunk bed & the other has a double bed. The kids wish they all had their own bedrooms. Our resident clean freak has her own room right now & the others are content to live with their mother's nagging to clean up their room. 

 

I don't know our square footage. Ah! Zillow tells me we have 1320 sq ft. That is probably just the main floor. We finished most of the basement - adding two bedrooms, an office, the main school area, and a bathroom. I sometimes want more room (especially wall space for more bookcases  :001_wub:  :drool:  :leaving: ), but don't want to clean it all.

[luuknam]

It's more about square footage and practical layout than number of rooms ime.

 

I can't say enough about practical layout (I only have 2 kids, but still). We have 900 sq ft, and the layout is horrible. They have heating vents on the bottom of the walls in every room except the kids' bedroom (where it's in the floor), so there are huge areas of the wall we can't put bookcases or w/e (and we're renting, so we can't even put shelves up high above the heating vents). There are other layout issues too. It's driving me nuts.

[Tenaj]

We have eight kids, only 7 are currently at home.  We have six bedrooms with an optional 7th in the basement.  We had eight kids in a three bedroom house (with the same optional bedroom in the basement) until we built on.  We had to decide whether to add one really large bedroom and have four or five boys share it or split the area up into smaller bedrooms.  We choose the second option and built three smallish bedrooms which has worked out well in our situation.  It allows our college-age kids to have their own bedrooms rather than continuing to share with siblings at that age.

[Tita Gidge]

Our house is about 4400 sq.ft. and has four roomy bedrooms (the smallest is 14 x 14) each with its own bathroom. It's an older house that was designed and built by doctor who had a large family, which made it perfect for us. Right now we are six kids and two adults.

 

My brother has his own room. I put my middle four boys (teens) in the master. It has an adjoining sitting room that we transformed into an area for my nephew when he moved in last year; so technically there are five boys sharing the master. I only have one daughter at home so she has her "own" room, but we had shared it until this summer. Now It'll double as a guest room. We had been using the fourth bedroom as a guest room/home office, but we're bringing home a relative's baby this winter and are currently re-doing it into a room for me and the baby.  

 

Basements are not common where I live. This house had more square footage than we needed when we bought it, but everything else about it was perfect for us. I lived with twice as many siblings and my grandparents in a home that was about 1/5 the size of mine. I'm sure it was illegal, if not then than it would be now LOL. But we were immigrants, plus we lived in a much more desirable climate then. I live in a lower COL area now where you can get a larger house for cheaper because it feels like we're living in the nation's sweaty, hot, and probably diseased, groin.

[KungFuPanda]

My neighbors have five kids in a four bedroom house with a finished basement. Their oldest is getting married soon and their youngest is going to kindergarten in the fall. The grandmother stays for weeks at a time. It seems comfortable.

[Noreen Claire]

We have 4 kids and 1 on the way and we just moved into a 3-bedroom, 1500sq ft house with a nice little yard a finished basement with a 3/4 bath. The oldest (DS20) chose the basement. The younger 3 are in one room upstairs, one room is the 'office', and the largest room is ours. One full bath, one half bath, one 3/4 bath (in basement).

 

We are currently trying to come up with plans for what happens to the younger boys when the new baby comes... If it is a boy, we could do 2 each in the bedroom and lose the office, or we could put all four in the big bedroom (if it is a boy). If it is a girl, most likely she'll get a room to herself and the 3 boys will have to stay together. Though, as they are all expected to be 6ft+ tall, they may end up in the big bedroom anyway... *sigh*

[Janeway]

5 bedrooms, 4000 square feet, also have a media room and a game room, no basement.

 

I would not want more than this. I cannot keep up as it is. Plus, I only have one girl so she has her own room. if I had 2 girls and 3 boys, I could easily do less rooms. Actually, I think I could do less rooms even with this spread.

[IfIOnly]

3 bedrooms: daughter has her own room, 4 sons have the master bedroom/bath with 2 sets of bunk beds. I wish we had a bigger house because I would love the master. The other bedrooms are just too small though. Our king bed fits in our room with maybe 2 feet walking space all around it.

 

Yes I wish our 1200 sqf home was a little bigger.

 

Everyone's good with three bedrooms though. It's like camp everyday for the boys. :)

[mom2scouts]

We have 5 kids and 4 bedrooms. We put parents in master bedroom, two kids fit in each of the bigger bedrooms., and one child in the smallest room. None of the rooms are very big (1800 sq ft house), but it works fine.

Edited July 14, 2016 by mom2scouts

[6packofun]

When we had 5 or less, we had 4 bedrooms.  After kiddo #6 we've been lucky enough to have 5 bedrooms. We have 3 boys, 3 girls and it would be hard to make 4 bedrooms work since they are all older now and having a boy-girl room share isn't ideal.

[Guest]

When I had my fifth child, we were in three bedrooms. We moved into a four bedroom house and then had my sixth child. We eventually moved into a five bedroom house, but it was too big. Then back into a three bedroom house, which is too small. Four bedrooms seems to be a perfect fit for us.

Edited July 14, 2016 by Kinsa

[Excelsior! Academy]

9 kids, 5 bedrooms, 3000 sq. ft. Currently split dh and me in master, 2 boys in one room, 4 younger girls in room above garage (almost same size as garage), 2 older girls share, adult DD has her own room.

[Ottakee]

Five kids, 6 bedrooms. Each has their own. We are unique in that we have 3 young adult children living at home likely long term due to cognitive impairments and then 2 foster. We can't put foster in with our over 18s.

 

Layout means so much. I would rather have more living space and less/smaller bedrooms but we have to stay legal.

[lllll]

nm

Edited November 29, 2016 by cathey

[carriede]

3 bedrooms: daughter has her own room, 4 sons have the master bedroom/bath with 2 sets of bunk beds. I wish we had a bigger house because I would love the master. The other bedrooms are just too small though. Our king bed fits in our room with maybe 2 feet walking space all around it.

 

Yes I wish our 1200 sqf home was a little bigger.

 

Everyone's good with three bedrooms though. It's like camp everyday for the boys. :)

I would actually like to try this, but DH isn't on board. I'd put the 3 oldest (ages 7-2) in the master bedrooom. Then one of the small bedrooms would be a sleeping room for DH, myself, and the baby, and the 3rd room would have my desk, clothing, and other odds and ends.

 

Our house is 1150 sq feet, 3 beds, 2 baths, small attic, no basement, and the 2 kids rooms are only 9x9 feet. I don't mind the layout but wish each room were about 10% bigger.

 

But we have a great yard and decent neighbors, which makes moving hard.

[Shellydon]

4 kids, 4 bedrooms.  Two of the girls share a room, mom and dad in a room, boy in own room, girl in own room.  2600 sq ft.  I would not want to go smaller.

[Upennmama]

7 kids, 6 total BR, including master. Works fine but would've easier if we had a playroom.

[Heidi]

6 kids, 4 bedrooms, two kids in each. 2400 square ft. Perfect for us.

[Veritaserum]

Six kids. Eight bedrooms. Four on the top floor, one on the main, three in the basement. There are two other rooms without closets that could be used as bedrooms. Currently, two of the basement bedrooms are being used by Dh's brother's family (part of the basement is an enclosed apartment).

[indigomama]

We have 5 kids: three boys and two girls. We have 3 bedrooms. The boys have a triple bunk bed. We've had 4 bedrooms and tried to separate them and they all cried all night and so we've kept them together. The girls have two twins in their room. Our next and final house (due to HCOL area) will be 1550 sq ft. 

[Carrie12345]

5 kids, 3 bedrooms.  Hate it.

[caedmyn]

We'll have 5 in two months. 4 bedrooms, one of which is used as a library currently. 2000ish sq. feet. It's fine. We mostly live in the kitchen/living room. The rest is basically sleeping/storage space (and of course bathrooms, laundry room etc). Most likely we'll continue to only use 3 bedrooms for the foreseeable future and all 4 boys can just share.

[MeaganS]

We have 4 girls. 1900sq house with 3 bedrooms. All the girls except baby are in one room and in a few months, baby will be there too. The 3 older girls share a bunkbed, although we will likely buy another when the baby is out of a crib. Or maybe we won't for a bit, I don't know. My girls love sharing beds and I often find all 3 squished together on the top bunk. Whatever works for them I guess. We only have the bed in their room. Toys at this point are not allowed. We have a loft playroom with a large closet. I don't know about when they are older, but for the foreseeable future we'd rather have them all in the same room and have another room as a play/toy room. If we had a fifth, if it was a girl, she'd move in with the group. If it was a boy, he'd probably get his own room. Right now our third bedroom is where the baby sleeps in her pack and play and also where the treadmill, extra storage, etc. are.

 

It works really, really well for us. My big things are two living areas (somewhere indoors where I can make the girls go play that isn't in the same room as me) and a fenced in back yard that is fun where they are free to go play anytime. I do like a little bit more open layout as well. Right now we have 2 living areas plus a playroom and one of the living areas almost never gets used. If we were staying here long term I think I would turn it into a homeschooling space, but since we'll likely move in less than a year, it is just where we keep the tv and our old couch. :)

[Hypatia.]

Our house has 4 bedrooms, but right now one is still being used as an office (aka, junk room, room of doom). 3 boys share a room, 3 girls share a room. We are redoing the office and deciding how we want to use it as a bedroom, right now DS1 really wants it as sharing a room with his 3 year old brother is driving him up a wall.

[Melissa in Australia]

depends what you would call a bedroom :D

 

We have probably 4 traditional bedrooms. plus an outside sleepout ( ds22 room since he was 8). plus a full-sized bedroom that we have to walk through to get to dh and my bedroom and was our dressing room now twins bedroom, plus a large cupboard sized room that just fits in a single bed and a bookshelf that ds12 calls his room. all these extra rooms make it 7 bedrooms. 2 bathrooms in whole house

 

7 kids but oldest is no longer at home

[Joyofsixreboot]

We have kids but two no longer live here. We ended up with four bedrooms and one bath. Dh and I had one bedroom we built, three boys in one, three girls in another and oldest dd got a tiny one to herself.

[Junie]

When dd8 (child #5) was born we had 3 bedrooms.  So we had 4 girls and 1 boy.  The girls' room was full with 3 girls in it, so dd8 had to sleep with us.  We knew this would not work long-term.  She stayed in our room for over a year.  When we were expecting #6 (another girl) we moved to a 4-bedroom house.  We ended up with us in the master bedroom, our son has a room to himself, 2 girls in one bedroom and 3 girls in the other.

 

We could have squished into 3 bedrooms if our boy/girl split had been more even, but it would not have been comfortable.

 

 

Edited to add a verb where I missed one.  :)

Edited July 15, 2016 by Junie

[mommyoffive]

5 kids here. We have a lot of rooms that COULD be bedrooms but aren't (a playroom, an office/spare bedroom) so we COULD spread out if we wanted to, but at the moment we use 3 bedrooms. Master bedroom for DH and I (and currently the baby), 1 bedroom for the toddler (and soon the baby, once he starts sleeping through the night), and 1 for the older boys. In a few years I'm assuming we'll spread out to using 4 bedrooms; regional by-laws in our area preclude letting our daughter share a room with any of our sons once they're both over the age of 6. When we reach that point, I can't imagine us putting all 4 boys in the same room unless we decide to TRY to turn our house into a permanent frat party.

 

The place where you live says your dd can't share a room with your ds?

[mommyoffive]

Does everyone who has kids share rooms, have bunk beds? 

[Guest]

Does everyone who has kids share rooms, have bunk beds?

We do. Sometimes they are bunked (when we live in a smaller floorplan), and sometimes they aren't (larger floorplan).