Do You Decorate Your Kids' Rooms For The Holidays?

The younger children always have so much fun on the holidays. They usually have special events at school and church depending on which holiday it is. And as the kids get older, they like to do their own room decor.

If you start by picking up a couple items each year, it won't take you long to have all the seasons covered. Plus if you make your own it's even more fun, although not necessarily less expensive. Another good tip is to pick up things at the end of the season sales.

If you don't want to put holiday decor in their bedroom, the bathroom is an easy place to add seasonal items. A shower curtain, special toothbrush holder, a rug and maybe a wall decor piece. If you have room, something to put on the top of the toilet tank lid. If you don't have the money for that, just pick up some window clings, and add around the borders or corners of their bathroom mirror, or on the outside of the glass shower door if they have one.

Of course the shower curtain makes the most impact, and probably costs the most. But that is one item that is simple to make and you can usually pick up some inexpensive holiday fabric to make it from. If you're using a plastic shower curtain liner, just some cotton quilting fabric would work.

Make the holidays a little more special for the little ones. They're pretty easy to please.

The Box The Gift Came In Is Often The Most Fun.

My grand daughter just had her birthday party. She received a range of gifts. Games, a new bedding set, a cute little shoulder bag, a make up kit that included nail polish, perfume, stick on tattoos, lip gloss, body glitter and nail polish remover plus some hair do-dads, some new PJ's, money, various toys and much, much more.

What got the loudest scream? A bean bag chair! What got played with the most during the party? The box the chair came in. What was the first thing to get lost? The money she got. Go figure. Kid's never change!

The bedding set was a cute patchwork type quilt with rather large squares (patches) in colors of mainly pink, lavender and mint green. It came with a matching pillow sham and bed skirt. The nice thing about it is that it was a basic design with a few large applique flowers and flower pots and other assorted designs. Why is that nice? Because you can put Hannah Montana decor or even Princess Decor or most any other girl's decor on the walls and shelves and it'll "go" with it. Including the framed enlarged photo of her favorite bird of prey. (One of the things she'd like to do when she grows up is be a veterinarian.)

Oh, and by the way, the bean bag chair that was such a hit, was pink with dots on it and a big flower. Perfect to go with the bedding.

Back To School And Kids Decor Tips

It seems like summer just started, and it's already back to school! But this is a really good time to think about the kids' rooms.

They'll be getting all their new school supplies and their back to school wardrobe, and adding to the clutter in their rooms. So sit down with them in their room and discuss how to organize it.
The basic requirements are:

1. A comfortable place to sleep - you may give the kids your old bed when you get a new one. But if you don't like sleeping on it, what makes you think it'll be good for them? They need a good supportive mattress and a good nights sleep.
2. Space for clothing storage (hanging and folding) - If the closet is big enough, include folded clothing and shoe storage in there along with the hanging clothes. This saves so much space in the bedroom itself.
3. A place to do homework - Of course a desk is good, but if that's not possible, how about mounting a decent size shelf on the wall, or over two bedside or end tables. Just be sure to keep it at a height that works for the kids. And then you can mount a second shelf above the "desk" for their notebooks and homework binders. Better yet, have a place by their bedroom door or the door they exit in the morning where they can hang their book bags so they won't forget them when they rush out the door in the morning!
4. Artwork display space - The younger kids, and some of the older ones, will be doing artwork in school. A designated space for displaying it on the wall, will keep them from poking holes in the entire bedroom. Plus if you use some of that magnetic primer under the wall paint, they can stick papers up with magnets and you'll have no holes. You might also get a roll of cork and cut it into strips about the size of wall border and mount this to their walls at whatever height works for them.

Nice to have but not requirements:

1. Dressing area - this could be adjacent to the clothing storage or to the bathroom whichever works best. The kids can store their primping stuff in that area in baskets or totes, or even a small dresser. Have a mirror on the wall or on the back or front of a door.
2. In addition to a space to do homework, have an area for the computer. Seems like everyone's got one these days. They tend to take up a lot of space on the top of the desk, and don't leave any room for writing or working on homework. And if they're not using the computer for homework, they tend to be a distraction!
3. Of course what they all want, is a place for their electronics, which may include the computer and games plus TV and any other media they may have. If you can compress this into one unit that saves on a lot of space.