The Pros and Cons of Loft Beds

When you fill a 900 square foot apartment with six people, you quickly begin seeking space solutions, and you begin imagining strange and unnatural uses of the ceiling. Seminary has been a lifestyle of small miracles, and one of those miracles came in the form of loft beds.

Before we got our Ikea loft beds from Craig’s List, our big kids’ room was more like a short hallway running between their bunk beds and their closet, with an awkward splash of leftover space at one end. With loft beds, we gained something better than playspace—we gained an extra room. Suddenly we could stack kids and babies instead of just toy buckets.

So with a loft over a crib and a loft over a toddler bed, we sardined our sleeping quarters and expanded our living space. We gained a homeschool room/office, and in a tiny apartment, that’s nothing short of amazing.

My experience in that little apartment has led me to believe that having dedicated space for homeschooling is important to our family. Having a room with a door that can be closed means reducing the number of times in a day that a little one can unload all of the bookshelves. At least until the little one learns to open doors. Having a room with a door that can be closed means, too, that one can go inside, close the door, and pretend that the piles of laundry and dishes are not outside waiting.

In a small space, I think dedicated homeschool quarters become more important. Just as one needs space to move about without bumping into things, one needs space to think. Somehow, I have found, our thoughts fill empty spaces, and when a room is clear, open, and inviting, it’s easy to sit and talk, read, think. When you have to grease yourself up in order to be injected into a space, however, the clutter, the furniture, even the walls, seem to encroach upon one’s thinking space. Compound that with the implied mandate of homeschoolers to share their mental space with their own squirming kids, and the need for room to think becomes clear.

Before rushing out to buy your own set of ceiling-pushing beds, though, be warned: there are drawbacks as well…

• Changing sheets is a beast and time-consuming. If you were finding excuses not to change sheets before, the problem will only get worse. Out of sight really does mean out of mind, and when you do remember, you won’t suddenly want to climb to the ceiling and change the sheets.

• With loft beds, you may never teach your children to properly make their beds. I’m counting this as a second drawback, but I realize its importance is relative. Weigh it against your space-constraints, and see where your priorities are.

• Sick kids are pathetic in any bed, but watching one have to climb a ladder to get there is really sad. Ours often end up on the sofa, but then—there’s a good chance they’d end up there anyway.

• The last one is the big one. I miss being able to creep into my kids’ bedroom at night and kiss their sleeping faces. I miss being able to read them bedtime stories and look up, mid-sentence, at two pairs of listening eyes, bright with anticipation of what comes next. I miss being able to sit on the bed beside them and talk. Of course, you can do bedtime stories on the sofa, and they can climb into your bed for late-night soul-baring. The face-kissing remains a serious challenge, though, and the tooth fairy is a doozy.

In the end? Given the space, I think I’d line them up at a reachable level, dormitory-style, but the loft beds save our sanity for now. I think the space we have saved is worth sardining up sleeping quarters and renaming the “living area” the “play room,” even if it’s not ideal. The new homeschool room then became a buffer between the “sleeping room” and the “play room.” A small buffer—I mean, what can you expect in 900 square feet? But you take what you can get, and you move when you can.

Aubrey Lively is a homeschooling mother of four, ages 8, 6, 2, & 1. She has a BA in Literature and an MEd in Teaching and is currently surviving seminary with her husband of ten years. Visit Aubrey online at http://aubreylively.blogspot.com.