Disclosure: This post about a home child-friendly is a collaborative post
When you don’t have kids you can have your home set up any way you like because you don’t have to worry about them falling and bumping their heads on a sharp corner or whether you have enough space to gather together as a family and talk about your day.
However, when you do have kids, it is really important that you take the time to ensure your home is as child-friendly as possible. Setting your home up in a way that suits you all will help to keep your kids safe and make it much easier to have fun family times together.
With that in mind, here are some of the best ways you can make your home child-friendly right now:
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Create a spacious kitchen space
The kitchen is the heart of the home, especially when you have kids. It is the place where you will all gather together to enjoy family meals, teach table manners and talk about your days. So, it stands to reason that the more spacious your kitchen is, the better it will be for the whole family.
Many people think that if they have a small kitchen space, they cannot use it effectively as a family space, but it is possible to rejig your kitchen so that the design takes up less floor space and you have more room to get around and enjoy family life in there. If you visit your local kitchen showroom, you should get some good ideas on how to do this, just focus on ensuring that there is enough room to fit the whole family in around a dinner table, unless you have a separate dining room where you can congregate, that is.
Choose curved furniture
When kids get to the age where they are mobile, they will run and bump into things. If you want to ensure that they don’t really hurt themselves, it is a good idea to invest in curved furniture with no sharp corners. Should a child bang their head on a curved table it might hurt a little bit at least it won’t cut their heads open, but a table with a sharp edge could well do so – is it really worth the risk?
Choose a sofa with removable covers
Kids love using the sofa as a trampoline, pirate ship or some other wonderful creation of their imagination. So, you can definitely make your life easier by choosing a sofa that has removable covers. This will at least mean that once they’ve finished using the couch for their imagination games, you can easily remove the covers and wash away and trace of spilt milk or pen marks or all manner of other baffling stains that will end up on there.
Invest in child-sized furniture
Kids love to be wherever their parents are doing the same things they are. But it is not always practical for them to do so using adult furniture. By investing in a child-sized counter where they can ‘help’ you cook for example, you can ensure that they are safe. And that they are able to have fun right alongside you in a way that is safe and comfortable for them. Which means you can have more fun doing more things together.
Use washable paint
Washable paint is perfect for homes where there are children running around. It means that if they get it dirty you can simply wash it all away instead of having to redecorate. An easy way to make your home child-friendly.
In the kids’ rooms, you might even want to use semi-gloss paint on the walls. Why? Because semi-gloss walls enable you to quickly wipe away stains like chalk, which means you can let your kids draw creatively on the walls in there, knowing that it will wipe away when they are done. Just make sure they know which walls they are allowed to draw on and which are strictly out of bounds.
Consider carpet tiles
When it comes to flooring, it can be tough to find a solution that keeps you happy. Both in terms of stylish home decor which is easy to keep clean. If carpet is your thing, then carpet tiles are a good choice. Why? Well, because they are individual tiles. This means that should your little one makes a mess you can simply remove the stained tile. Then replace it with a fresh one instead of having to spend hours trying to clean the stains off or replacing the whole carpet.
Or vinyl flooring
If carpet isn’t really your thing but you don’t want expensive hardwood flooring to be ruined. Then vinyl flooring can be a good solution to have in the house until they are older. It’s very affordable can be bought in numerous styles and colours to match your own personal taste. Best of all, it is wipe-clean so you won’t have to worry about letting the kids do their arts and crafts. You can just mop it up and you won’t have to worry about staining at all.
Invest in coat hooks
When you have kids, having a lot of coat hooks in the house will make life a lot easier. Kids come with a lot of baggage from coats and adventure backpacks to toys. So if you give them lots of coat hooks, and cubby holes at their own height they are much more likely to hang their clothing up. Put up coat hooks and make everyone’s lives easier.
Invest in as much storage as possible
In fact, as well as investing in coat hooks and cubby holes at your child’s level. It is a good idea to invest in as many storage solutions as you can. From storage ottomans that are perfect for putting toys away in the living room to storage beds. Anything you can buy that will maximise the storage in your home will be beneficial when you have kids.
Zone the garden – Make your home child-friendly
If you happen to have a garden, encouraging the children to spend more time out there is a great way to ensure they get plenty of fresh air and lots of exercises. Making your garden child-friendly means ensuring that any hazards like water features are made safe and that fences are secure.
Once you have done the basics like that, you might want to think about zoning your garden so that you have a distinct area for relaxing one for planting flowers and shrubs and or for playing for with things like slides, swings and sandpits. Doing this will help teach yot children where it is safe to play and where the adults want quiet time, so you can all enjoy the space without constantly fending off rogue footballs or being shushed quiet because the adults are talking.
Embrace childhood
Your kids are only young once and you want them to enjoy it as much as possible, so if they really want to paint their bedroom bright purple with green spots or they are really keen on having an inflatable cactus in the middle of the dining room, why not consider it? Embrace the silliness and fun that children bring to the home and have a good time together as a family. Let them get involved in some of the decor choices and make them feel like they have as much of a stake in the hoe as you because what’s the worse that can happen?
Lower your expectations
Of course, when you have children, things can and do go wrong and accidents will happen, so when they are young, it can be a good idea to lower your expectations about how stylish, clutter-free and clean your home is. After all, the most important thing is that you all feel comfortable at home and have as much fun together as a family as possible. Whether or not the house is spotless pales in comparison to that.
Children are the heart of the home, and with these child-friendly home hacks, you can make them feel right at home while also creating a home that looks good and feels comfortable to you, so what are you waiting for?
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