Give up the guest room/office. DH works from our bedroom with a standing desk and I work from this strange alcove off the living room. We have a nanny, a toddler, and a preschooler home (aside from school) all day and it still works.

I’d lose the guest room and get a Murphy bed for downstairs. Murphy beds are really attractive now and very comfortable because they’re actual beds. Move your office downstairs.

The first ten years if our marriage, DH and I had a partners desk and used the formal dining room as an office. When we had our daughter, DH built a little desk for her connected to our desk.

What about a double bed for your older kids? I used to babysit for a family of five kids and the two older girls shared a double bed and loved it.

Anonymous wrote:Since the oldest is the one wanting to make the change give her the current guest bed in the 4th bedroom (office) and move in her clothes/few prized possessions. Leave the bulk of her toys in shared room with sister so that she has that room to play in during the day if she is home while you work.

Tell her that when guests come she will be back on the top bunk in her old room until they leave.

This is what I’d do. I’d have strict rules about guest room use because priority one is work. They can live that way for a couple of years.

Since the oldest is the one wanting to make the change give her the current guest bed in the 4th bedroom (office) and move in her clothes/few prized possessions. Leave the bulk of her toys in shared room with sister so that she has that room to play in during the day if she is home while you work.

Tell her that when guests come she will be back on the top bunk in her old room until they leave.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2 yr old and 5 yr old share. Oldest gets smallest BR by herself.

No, that's the worst choice. First of all that means middle child alway shares. Second there is way more in common with the DDs than DS and DD2. It makes no sense at at all to put a five year old girl in a room with a two year old boy about to go through the hugest crazy testosterone binge of his life. It will be awful for a 5 year old girl.

What are you talking about with huge crazy testosterone binge?

Anonymous wrote:Put the 5 year old on the top bunk. The 7 year old will live.

Op here - 5 year old refuses to go on top bunk. Plus I get nervous about her being up there because she gets up to go the bathroom or our room with a nightmare more than her sister.

Put the 5 year old on the top bunk. The 7 year old will live.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Finish the basement. I’d make the girls keep sharing a room. They can trundle bed.

Op here - yes we want to finish the basement but can’t afford it right now. Probably not for another 2-3 years.

Either fit the twin beds on the floor one way or another (maybe move toys from that room to a corner of the basement with a carpet and some fairy curtains?), or faux finish the basement as an office until you can afford to do it for real: large cheap carpet to mark the area and absorb sound, inexpensive screens to make walls (Home Depot, Ikea and Amazon all have many creative options), buy some good lamps for decent lighting, get yourself a signature scent oil diffuser (will change dank basement to spa), hang some artwork, get a few plants if there is a window or even fake ones if there isn't). It could work for the short term.

Anonymous wrote:2 yr old and 5 yr old share. Oldest gets smallest BR by herself.

No, that's the worst choice. First of all that means middle child alway shares. Second there is way more in common with the DDs than DS and DD2. It makes no sense at at all to put a five year old girl in a room with a two year old boy about to go through the hugest crazy testosterone binge of his life. It will be awful for a 5 year old girl.

ditch the guest room.

2 yr old and 5 yr old share. Oldest gets smallest BR by herself.

Anonymous wrote:Finish the basement. I’d make the girls keep sharing a room. They can trundle bed.

Op here - yes we want to finish the basement but can’t afford it right now. Probably not for another 2-3 years.

Finish the basement. I’d make the girls keep sharing a room. They can trundle bed.

Help me figure this out! 4 bedroom house and 3 kids. Both parents work from home partially (DW 4 days a week and DH 3 days a week, most weekends and a lot of evenings).

Oldest DD1 (7 years old) wants her own room. Right now she is sharing a room with DD2 (5 years old) and on the top bunk. DS (2 years old) is in a small room by himself and still in a crib. Oldest DD is on the top bunk of shared room and has been starting to complain and cry that she doesn’t like being on the top bunk. Room might fit two beds on the ground but it will be super tight.

4th bedroom is used as an office for DW and a guest room.

Do I try and put the top bunk on the ground and keep the girls together? Or give all the kids their own room and move my office to the unfinished basement? I am at a loss.