The Mister and I have different ways to get what we want. I push head on, relentless, until whoever or whatever is blocking me collapses in a fit of exhaustion. He employs the Chinese proverb method, and waits by the river until the body floats by. Such is the case with bunk beds. He wanted one as a boy and thinks our boys will love them. I think I will hate making their beds, and they look a little dangerous. I said no, never, no bunk beds ever! He gave me one of his inscrutable looks and smiled a smile that said he had nothing but time.
But today, today I spent way too long cleaning. The house is a mess. Really, just a dusty, musty pit of neglect. I haven’t been able to stick to any sort of routine since the party, and it shows. Not helping matters are two rambunctious, sport obsessed boys. I washed all the rugs in the bathroom last week and had them back in place by Wednesday. On Sunday they were covered with leaves, twigs, and dirt. Two days before that, I was yelling for all the neighborhood to hear that absolutely no male–coach or player–was allowed to wear cleats in the house ever again. The floors don’t stay clean for two days before I am back at it, picking up clods of dirt and smacking homeplate out of baseball pants.
This is a really long way of saying that I flipped my lid in the middle of cleaning Mikey’s room this morning. I stood there, surrounded by cups, guards, baseball mits, hats, tennis shoes, trains, books, rackets, and bats, and wilted at the thought of finding more of the same in Nicholas’s room. Maybe not wilted. Maybe more like roughly emptying trash baskets and slamming books into an already overloaded bookshelf. Maybe like five seconds away from calling the Mister at work simply because he is male, and therefore culpable.
I didn’t call. I did have a fake argument in my head with him and the boys, which I won hands down. Later they all dropped what they were doing and cleaned the entire house of their sport equipment and man items…also in my head.
So my body, bloated and waterlogged, is floating down the river towards the Mister, who is sitting there with a smirk on his face. Maybe with bunk beds I will only have one room to dread, versus the Mikey+Nico+Toyroom Burmuda Triangle that makes me whimper. Maybe they might help keeping the chaos contained a bit. Maybe putting them to bed will be easier, and for sure they will no longer ask every night if they can sleep together. Maybe?
Oh, but does it ever look impossible to neatly make a bunk bed.
[Any suggestions on cute, affordable bunk beds? Have you seen any rooms with bunk beds that actually look cute?]
I have fake arguments in my head ALL THE TIME. So glad I am not the only one. Saves me from picking a real one, I think. Anyway, having had bunkbeds as a kid, and living in Europe for a long while, my bedding advice is this: Get duvets, lose the top sheet. To make the bed, shake the duvet, turn it sideways, fold it in half and lay it nicely on the mattress. No tucking needed. If it were me, I’d get synthetic duvets (esp. if you have allergies in the house) and a couple duvet covers for each, so everything can be easily washed at home, and the covers can be switched whenever you change the sheets. I’m always happy with Ikea duvet covers for kids, and when they inevitably stain them with….whatever it may be…my head does not explode because I didn’t invest very much in it to begin with.
A photo example: http://tinyurl.com/4779449
I’ve not found any I like yet but I’m wanting some for the girls. They already share a room but I would like them to have more space for a desk or something else as they get bigger.
Argh–lost my comment while trying to add a link. Anyway, I am still compelled to suggest duvets, European style, for bunk beds. Don’t use a top sheet (anyway, are my kids the only ones who just shove them to the bottom of the bed with their feet?). To make the bed, shake out the duvet, turn it sideways, fold in half and lay nicely on the mattress. No tucking necessary. Also easier to find various toys, crumbs and shredded tissues lurking in the bedclothes. They make synthetic duvets for those allergic to feathers, and a twin is easy to wash at home. I have 2 cheap Ikea duvet covers for each child so I can switch them when I change the sheets.
I got the comment, but I don’t see it here. Weird! So, what’s a European duvet, and how does it differ from the duvets we have here–or is it the same thing?
I don’t think they differ in any way but how we make the bed. I spent several years growing up in Germany, where they were very big on airing the linens every day. Every morning the bedroom windows were flung open and the duvets would hang over the sill or the balcony railing for a bit. Then they would fold them neatly on top of the mattress. Even double beds used twin duvets–one for each person.
Yes, I second Melissa. I don’t have bunk beds, but I got a loft bed for my son & nearly killed myself trying to make it. I finally wised up, got rid of the flat sheet & just shake out & fold his quilt over the rail every morning. Aces.
Ikea has cheap bunk beds, and you can paint them. I just did a few posts on this about a month ago—I was debating a bunk bed for my 5 and 3 yr old. (We hope to move soon so I decided to hold off.) But the Ikea Kura low loft bed would have been my top choice Its $199, and flipped upside down is a low loft bed, with the bottom mattress actually on the floor. Ugly, but you can paint it. Ikea has a couple other inexpensive bunk beds as well.
if you have a ton of money ($1400ish) Room and Board has a great low loft. But Ikea were the most inexpensive.
I saw that room and board one this morning in the middle of my hissy fit. Yummy. The Kura and Mydal are both options. The Mydal might be a go. I don’t love the pine, but I bet with a funky mountain/tree mural wallpaper it could look kind of fun.
think you may have to give in. never thought of it this way, as a containment issue. i do worry about people leaping off the top but my brother had one and that never happened. i agree with skipping the top sheet. i remember my brother used to just flip back a comforter and he was done. is the added perk also an extra room now for you to plan out? too exciting…
We are so completely on the same page that it is scary. Greg and I spent last weekend in the great bunkbed debate as well. I want to get them, but keep them as 2 single beds for now, eventually moving them both upstairs into one room. I also want to get them furniture that will last until they move out (you know, when they get full college scholarships to an ivy league school, or become famous authors, whichever comes first) instead of getting several pieces through theout the years. Currently the girls are still sleeping in the toddler daybeds their cribs converted to. At 4 though, I think it’s time for a change.
My brother had a bunk bed in his room (Ikea) when we were growing up and he loved it. It was metal, and could be oriented a couple of different ways, so most of the time the beds were perpendicular to each other, which was kind of nice. Mike, mom or dad, and I sat on the bottom bunk pretty much every night to read before bed. He was an extremely rambunctious kid but there were no injuries that I recall, even when friends were sleeping over. Also no falling out of the top bunk, accidental or otherwise. I think that’s actually harder to do than you would think (I say this after years of top bunk sleeping at camps, too).
We weren’t much of a bed making family so I don’t have any insight on that part.
Don’t do it.
In my experience, the only benefit in bunkbeds is that there is only one bed to crawl underneath to retrieve all the crap that kids will shove under there whilst “cleaning” their room. This benefit is, in my opinion, far outweighed by the arduous task of making the top bunk. Even if you skip the top sheet, you will from time to time have to change the godforsaken fitted sheet, usually requiring your adult self to climb on top of the bed which, while I know that technically it should be sturdy enough to support a grown-up, will wobble to and fro and never feel quite secure, thus you will avoid doing it anymore than you absolutely have to and will be ridden with guilt over allowing your children to sleep on such unsanitary bedlinens. PLUS, no matter how many times you tell them not to, the child on the bottom bunk will tear away at the black fabric that is commonly found on the underside of the top bunk, leaving unsightly black pennants of torn fabric hanging down between the beds until you finally rip the whole mess off. Not only that, but soon enough that kid on the bottom will figure out that they can bounce the kid up top around mercilessly by pushing up with their feet from underneath. Oh, and if the ladder is not attached to the bed the children will soon discover that it is a handy thing to drag into, say, the bathroom to reach all that stuff you try to keep away from them.
So, my girls (yes, girls) had bunkbeds in their room for about six months before I switched them to, (gasp!) ONE double bed. They love to snuggle up together, I have only one bed to make (and clean under), and nobody falls down or tries to use the top bunk as a means to reach and dismantle the ceiling light fixture. I highly recommend this arrangement, unconventional as it may be in this modern age.
BTW, Just started reading your blog the other day – lovin’ it. And if you weren’t almost all the way across the country, I might propose a Chesterfield trade – your navy for my “cognac” ;)
Con- hard to make. I let my Mr. put the sheets back on.
I have “fitted” comforters from the Company store that are sewn at the bottom so they don’t get tucked =whoot!
Pro- easy to keep the under bed items in check. More space in the room to play.
Kissing goodnight I only have to bend over one bed.
Our first bunk beds were from Ikea and were shorter than normal. I wanted a shorter fall if the top guy flew off. Lasted forever.
Our beds now are a set that will come apart to twins that they can take with them if they want.
Is it some males fantasy for bunks? My fella wanted them when he was little- and he had his own room.
You can totally make the bunk beds awesome.
I love the look of these: http://www.countryliving.com/cm/countryliving/images/JB/kids-room-sunshine-1109-de.jpg
and these: http://www.home-designing.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/bunk-beds-teen-room-582×409.jpg I’m in love with.
And I agree with the girls up top. I also learned about the duvet love from Germany. It was so cool! Flat sheets are just a waste of energy. I did it all through college, in fact. It was great because I used my duvet and a bottom sheet over a mattress heating pad and it worked wonderfully in the middle of winter or summer. And with a duvet cover, you don’t have to worry about making the duvet gross at night, because you just take it off and wash it like a sheet!
Ah! So I’m not the only one battling to keep the outdoors out! No matter how often I emphasize that sticks, pebbles, leaves, etc. belong outside, Ethan always seems to track them in anyway. And then there’s the dogs.
My brother and I had bunkbeds as kids, and I loved them. I fully intend on having Ethan and his as-yet-to-be-gestated-future-sibling share a room. I think it’s almost better for kids to share, at least until they’re teenagers.
We used bunk beds for our kids, one boy and one girl. Great for sleepovers. You’ll have to employ the boys to put the fitted sheets on, especially the top one. And use the duvet cover, definitely. Also, I’m sure you can find a nice set on Craigs List. People get rid of bunk beds all the time. We sold both sets that way when the kids outgrew.
Jules, bunk beds are a pain in the butt! My son had them in his room when he was little – we got them so if a friend slept over, they’d have something other than the floor to sleep on. They are still in his room, but separated as 2 twin beds -apparently my son thinks the second bed is his dresser.
Then, we had bunk beds at the cottage – they drew straws to see who had the horror of sleeping on the top bunk. Nobody wanted it. These beds are now separated into twin beds.
Maybe a trundle bed instead?
I’m convinced that conversations of a volatile nature, safely cached in a woman’s crown, have saved the world as we know it.
As for bunk beds … no, I don’t imagine they were made to be neatly made … but oh, the adventures those boys will have!!!
Whoa, back it up a minute. Do yourself and your boys a favor and stop making their beds! They are (all) old enough to make a bed. Do you pack their backpacks everyday too and if they forget something at home is it your fault? Just sayin’. You’re burning yourself out.
i say get ikea bunks. i’ve seen them painted to look cute and that way if the boys don’t like them or are too rough with them, you didn’t spend too much money. i’d have the Mister change the top fitted for sure. i would also go the duvet route. and I’m with Jill, Mikey is old enough to straighten out his duvet before school. (even if he resists at first and doesn’t do it to your standard-it’s the top bunk no one will see it) i have two boys that are only 3.5 and 16 months. our new routine before bed is that the older one helps pick up the toy area and his room. if the little one is awake he helps too. even if he only picks up the trains while my husband and i get to everything else it makes me feel far less crazy. also, i worry that the boys will think cleaning is a “mommy job”…
okay, sorry for another comment, but check out the “Norddal” at ikea. it can be two single beds as well and looks a little more sturdy. i’m sure you could still paint it if you don’t like the stain. also, the online pic shows the duvet folded w/ no top sheet. looks fairly tidy to me.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10161064
ps: i argue in my head all. the. time. and my house seems extra messy these days too…
Oh, thank you! Good to know that other people have fake arguments. Only downside is when my husband walks in on one and wonders why I am so mad.
You can also get the bunk beds with the captain’s drawers underneath. No under the bed mess, and extra storage!
Thought these bunk beds looked like a pretty good deal. Love the drawers underneath for storage.
http://www.morebunkbeds.com/Coaster-Twin-Over-Twin-Wood-Bunk-Bed-with-Storage-Drawers-in-Oak-Finish.htm
Hate the color of these. . . but the design is nice. Maybe you can find them in a different finish on the website
http://www.bunkbedking.com/bunk-beds-twin-mission-honey-drawers