When you switched to "big kid" beds....

We are moving the girls into twin beds in the other room come November/December this year. The ONLY stuff I'm planning on having in there are their beds and a nightstand with a small lamp (there is no light in the room b/c when we built we were dumb and never had them rough-in for a light....I could just kick myself!).

The dresser will go in the closet (it's a walk-in) and that's where all their clothes will be. Other than that, it will just be the beds. I might get them bean bag chairs for x-mas and those will go in there too. But, no shelves with stuff on them, no toys, etc.

Is this the best route to go to get them sleeping in their new room? I figure if I eliminate everything else, then there is nothing to do but sleep...lol!

 

Originally, there was NOTHING. Just the beds, their pillows/blankets/favorite stuffed animals and them. We've since added a few more stuffed toys and a crate with books (sort of serves as a nightstand between both beds). But I've had to take the crate out a few times when they were pushing each other around in it.

Their room does not have a light either and I did not want to take the chance with putting a lamp in there. There are three windows, so with the shades up, they get plenty of light. If I have to go in there at night, I just flip the hall switch on so that I can see in the room.

Otherwise, there is no furniture and there will not be for a long time. It's not so much that I think they would tear it all apart, I'm more worried they would climb on something and fall.

Good luck with your transition. We did ours in April and it went very smoothly. I hope it's the same for you and your girls!

 

I have been wondering about this too. I have nowhere else to put the dresser. The closet is not big enough for it to fit in, so I'm really not sure what to do. They love to open all the drawers and pull stuff out.

 

My boys just moved into their big beds a couple of months ago. We have nothing in the room except two twin beds and a high shelf on the wall. Everything that is in their reach is childproofed. I know that now they are three, they can be trusted a little more to listen and not touch dangerous things, but I really don't trust them enough in their bedroom since they spend so many unsupervised hours in there each day (2 hour naps + 10 hour nights).

Like you, the clothes are in a walk-in closet. There's a doorknob cover on the closet door so they can't get in there. We also don't have a light fixture so there is a swag-style light where the cord runs from the outlet, up the wall, to the light that hangs from the ceiling. (It's the cheap one from Ikea with the paper globe over the bulb.) There is an outlet cover and a cord cover protecting the lamp cord from little fingers (check safebeginnings.com for those products).

On the high shelf (about 5 feet up), there is a CD player, humidifier, and nightlight plugged into a power strip. The cord from the power strip runs down the wall to an outlet below the shelf. Another outlet protector and cord protector are used to childproof it. I have been lazy about getting pictures on the walls but I did buy some cute ones from Ikea and they all have plastic instead of glass so if one falls (or is knocked) off the wall, it will not leave broken glass.

We have left some toys and books in bins on the floor for them. It is a reward to have toys in their room and if there is misbehavior, the toys have to come out. I have caught them turning the bins over and using them as step stools but they still aren't tall enough to reach the shelf or anything dangerous.

 

If they're ready to move into big beds and understand the consequences of getting up when they're supposed to be sleeping, you shouldn't have to remove anything from the room.

I never changed my sons' room. The blinds, dressers, bookshelf, books, and toybox stayed right where they were, and we used no door locks or gates. We didn't switch them to beds until age 3, when I felt they were old enough to understand and follow the rules. I left a crib set up in their room and told them if they got out of bed without calling for me or dad first, they would have to go back to sleeping in the crib. Neither one of them had to go back in the crib, and I took it out after a couple days. We've never had a single problem of them getting up to play during naptime or bedtime.

 

I'm with Amy. We didn't take anything out of their rooms when they switched to beds. Naomi and Luke's parents rearranged their room a bit (had to move the changing table away from the end of N's bed). They were a bit older though-A & B were about 31 months and N & L were about 34 months.

 

We moved Lauren and Madison out of their cribs in July. Their room is only 10 x 10...so not too big. They have their toddler beds and dresser, that's it. There isnt room for much else! Abby and Lilly's room is (and always has been) the same way, but with twin beds! All their toys and books are down in the toy room.

I dont think I would put too much in there that may distract them while they switch, I also think they will be too tempted to get out and play!!! Goodluck!!

 

we had the two beds, an unused diaper champ and the boys dresser. It was amazing how much 'trouble' they still found!!!

 

We didn't move anything out so they have their beds, their dresser, baskets, and shelves. They don't have a lot of toys in their room (only two big stuffed bears, a doll, and a jack-in-the-box). The room also isn't that big. We had a lamp but my son destroyed it. They sometimes take things out the basket but generally, they leave stuff alone. Their room generally looks really good. Now, my den, that's another story

 

We had their dressers in the room but I child-proofed them so they couldn't get them open. That way I didn't have to worry about them trying to climb them using the drawers or pulling drawers out on themselves. There were a few times they reached in with their fingers and pulled out some clothes but it was okay.

My girls were a lot older when we moved them though. I tried at about 26 months and we worked on it for 3 months and then I bought crib tents and we all got some sleep again. I waited until after they turned 3 before I tried it again and it worked much better at that age.

 

We switched at 26 months. We did not do anything special to their room. They have all their toys & gear in their room (they do have their own room). Their bookshelves are mounted to their walls, but everything else is pretty much accessible to them.

I am of the mindset of Amy...if your kids are old enough to understand the consequences, then you should not have to remove anything. I happen to have fairly obedient children when it comes to sleeping, so I am lucky. And although Hannah gets out of bed quite a bit at night, it has more to do with separation anxiety than wanting to play.

 

We never moved anything out, or locked anything up either. Yes, they did empty their drawers and bookshelves a few times, but after having them replace their books, one by one, they never did it again.

 

I never changed anything either but their room is so small you could only fit their beds (which were twin) and their armoire and that's it. I also had no lighting either but instead of a lamp we put track lighting in their room and put a protector on the outlet (so they couldn't pull out the plug) and covered the wire up the wall (with I guess would be a wire protecter, don't really know what it's called but it covers the wire and just sticks to the wall) so they couldn't play with that. They were also aloud to bring in one to two stuffed animals (along with all their blankets that they already had) and sometimes a toy and I would let them play for a little while and then go in a tell them time for bed and if they still played they lost the toys. I never had a problem with them going into their drawers in their armoire and pulling things out.

 

When I changed out the boys beds, they had beds in their room. That's it. It stayed that way for a couple of months before I added dressers in there. Then slowly it got toys added. This worked well for us. Unless the girls are used to sleeping with a light on, I would take out hte lamp at naptime. We never had problems with nighttime sleep. I think they were to scared of the dark (pitch black with door closed) to get out of bed. So far the oldest 3 have switched out at 19mos and I intend to do Brandon at the same age, so it is definitely possible to do it this young.

 

I didn't change anything about their rooms when they moved to toddler beds. We left everything just as it was...changing table, dresser, hamper, glider, etc.

 

We originally tried John at 2.5 years but had a lot of set backs. Eventually he did it well at almost 3.