For those with finished basements

Here is our situation - since the girls have been born we haven't gone down to the basement at all. It has been much easier for us to stay in the living room on the main level because of the closeness to the kitchen (for bottle preparation etc) and it is only one level away from the bedrooms upstairs (i.e. nursery). In the very near future we will start using the basement again because it is a very large space and it would be much better for all of their toys.

For those of you who have finished basements and use them, what do you do about getting bottles ready, going to the bathroom etc? Where do you put the kiddies when you have to leave the area?

What I have thought about so far is that I will have a good supply of diapers and wipes downstairs so I don't have to go up 2 flights all the time to change their diapers. But it is stuff like the bottle preparation that concerns me. What if they are awake? Do you put them in their chairs or a playpen or what?

I am just trying to get some ideas. Thanks!

 

my kids are 11 months and we still hardly ever go downstairs.....its just a pain. I usually go down in the evenings when they go to bed and do some laundry and watch tv. We have a toy room down there as well and do use it some on the weekends when we are both home.

 

My mom's basement was UGLY and gross when they first bought the house. They redid the basement, and it has a bathroom, and a mini-kitchen... it has a 2 burner unit, a small fridge, and water ran to it.

The easiest way to prepare bottles if you are going to be down there, is take a jug of nursery water and the can of formula (if you use formula) and mix it together as you need it. Take a playpen to put them in for naps, or bouncie's or swings.

 

With my oldest DD we were in a townhouse and we had a finished basement that we used as the family room. We didn't have a TV upstairs in the living room area. After she was born I found it very hard to go down there because I couldn't get bottles ready (we had a bathroom down there so that wasn't a problem), or get lunch etc. So we put a TV upstairs in the living room and that is what we used. It was so much easier just being on one floor. This is probably not much help to you, but I found it easier to not be in the basement and be on the same floor as the kitchen. We have a basement now in our house, but it is not finished. We plan to finish it one day when the twins can go down by themselves. If we finish it before that would be oldest DD's playroom and the twins stuff would still be upstairs for the reasons I mentioned above.

 

Our girls are 9 months and we still don't really take the girls down there. Its just a hassle. Every once in awhile we will take them down there for and hour or so to let them crawl all over and explore. Its just been so much easier for us to convert our upstairs living room into "twin land" and save the basement for DH and I. When they get older we still plan to use our basement as a playroom. I would suggest bouncy seats or a superyard if you have to go upstairs. Also, it may end up being just as easy for you to run upstairs to the kitchen for formula. Anyways, good luck with whatever you decide. For all of us, when the kids get bigger I'm sure we will really appreciate that finished basement!

 

I found the best use for our basement is to give my older kids an area where they can play and be noisy when the babies are napping. I don't know what I'd do without it! Otherwise we almost never go down there...it's a pain carrying the babies up and down the stairs.

 

We have a finished basement and at 22 months we still don't go down there alot. We do go down there sometimes, its usually for a change of scenery, the girls get all excited when I open the door. My dh is hoping to make it his domain where he can go an escape from the girls I think the girls will have something to say about that!

 

I am so glad this was brought up. I'm going to have to show this to DH. He has been working on the basement for the past couple of months in ALL of his spare time (leaving me with virtually no break from the boys) to finish it because he is convinced that we need the room and I will be down there with the boys all the time once it's done. I keep telling him that I think it's going to be a pain in the a** to have to keep going up and down the stairs all day and I probably won't use it at all, but, he won't listen. This just proves my point. Thank you!

 

I dunno, we have a finished basement and I'm hopeful for it. Right now all we have down there is a sectional couch. I plan to change out the carpet, put a tv down there, put all the toys down there, and spend time down there with the girls. I think it'll be a good babyproof place to play once it's done. Right now all we have is the family room. It's babyproof for the most part but it is small, and the dogs lay in there with us at night so I have to vaccuum every morning to minimize the dog hair. I plan to keep the basement dog free so we don't have hair. There is no bathroom or kitchen down there, but I don't think I'll mind carrying the babies up and down the stairs to eat. I already do plenty of that anyways between the ground floor and upstairs for naps etc. Plus it's a trade off for the dog issue. Hopefully it'll work for us!

 

we have a finished basement and it's where we hang out...it is much larger than our living room and all their stuff is down here. When I need to go to the kitchen/bathroom then I just make sure they are somewhere they can't get out of.

I don't really find it a pain, yes, I have to go up two flights of stairs to put them to bed etc, but I honestly look at it as exercise...which I wouldn't get if I was in the same room all day long.

Do what's best and more convenient for you! If it's staying upstairs then do it. Or spend mornings upstairs and afternoons downstairs for a change of scenery.

 

We have a finished basement and it's not used at all. Of course we recently bought this house and are hoping to grow into it. We ended up converting our living room on the first floor into a playroom. I keep the pak n play in there and it's filled with diapers, wipes, lotions, etc for the babies. So they get changed in the "playroom" not up in the their nursery. The only time we go up to their nursery is for naps. So as long as you keep things handy, if you want to relocate down to the basement, I think it should be fine. I just think at this age, it's nice having them near the kitchen so I can keep an eye on them. When they are older, I plan on putting them down in the basement and taking my living room back (and also I hope to furnish it at that time. )

 

we have a large finished basement also, larger than our upstairs space. I am hardly ever down there. the computer is down there so i usually try to sneak down when the boys are napping. i do my grocery shopping online and check email, TS. etc... sometimes my older girls and DH will bring the boys down on the weekend but for me it is more trouble than it is worth.

 

We have a kitchenette in our basement, so there's water, a microwave, and a refrigerator. Can you put a small fridge down there, store the bottles there, then use a bottle warmer to warm them?

 

Our finished basement is our play room/family room - we have DH's large screen tv down there w/ a couch and chair on one end and on the other end are all of their toys and "gear". I use it off and on during the day with the babies. I try to play with them upstairs in the living room, downstairs in the basement and in their nursery to give them a change of scenery since it's too cold here to go outside now. They are becoming more mobile and my living room is not very baby friendly, so I expect to be down there a whole lot more as they grow. I may get a superyard for down there for the playroom part of the basement, so that if I have to run upstairs for something I know they will be safe, but I am not sure yet.

 

Our basement isn't finished, but it is in fine shape...so older DD has lots of her toys down there in a play area. We don't go down there a bunch, but....we had new neighbors move in behind us, and one day we saw workers installed a weird pipe system on the side of their house.

Well, it is a system to get rid of the high radon levels in their basement area. Never heard or cared about this before...but I just got done running two tests on our basement. Sure enough, high. The main risk of radon exposure is lung cancer...and it is an exposure over a lifetime thing. But, do I want my kiddos down there without a system installed? No. If it were just me...probably wouldn't have even tested.

I thought I would post just so you can investigate for yourself...like I said, it never crossed my mind before the neighbors moved in.