Our Family Home | Life Changes and Adapting to Follow Suit

Adam and I have had three places that we've called 'home' ever since moving in together aged 19. We've always been incredibly proud of all of our homes and have really cared about things like the decor and how clean and tidy we've kept each place. We're now living in a three bedroom house in a village that we never thought that we'd be able to afford and whilst we don't yet have every room done exactly how we'd like it, we're just as proud of our family home as we have been with the others. 

This house is our first 'proper family home'. Ethan was born whilst we lived in our previous two bedroom new-build house, but we soon realised that we wanted and needed more space. We also started to think about things like schooling and we came to the conclusion that we both really wanted Ethan (and any eventual siblings) to attend a village school rather than any of the schools that were nearby to us at the time. 

So we did everything in our power to get the house we live in now. It wasn't easy and for a while it was touch and go as to whether or not we'd actually get it as we were up against a time frame. Our mortgage is not cheap and we have to work incredibly hard to pay what are quite high bills each month, but we really love it here. There's so much that we need to do to the house still, but we know that these things take money and of course time.  

I think it's fair to say that Adam and I, as a couple with a lot of time on our hands, used to keep our home pretty much perfect - people would even joke that it was show-home like. Things are a little different though now. Ethan, at just over two years old, is just like the advert says at the start of the TV show Modern Family - "Toddlers are like blenders -  without the lids on!". He seems to enjoy nothing more than emptying every cupboard he can get in to and then throwing the contents around the room. This all happens in the space of less than one minute and just like that a nice, tidy, calm room is left looking like a tornado has just passed through it!

But that's family life isn't it? Things like having a perfectly tidy house every second of everyday just aren't as important anymore. When you become a parent you focus your energy else where - you sort of have to. Ornaments, candles and breakables have all move up higher the older our little man gets and they're replaced by things like toy baskets and children's books.. but you know what? I actually think I prefer it that way. I love the  family mess, it makes me smile and perhaps strangely, feel content. I'd much rather a messy living room then an untouched barely used living room. 

Homes grow with their owners and as life changes your living space sort of has to follow suit, with this in mind I'm sharing three of my top home decor tips for those with a young child/children who are currently adapting their own homes. I'm also featured over on the Harveys Furniture blog along with some other bloggers, sharing some decor related tips, if you'd like to pop over and have a read. But for now, here's my advice when it comes to adapting your home when you have children..

1. Choose wisely when you purchase new carpets. Carpeted rooms are good because carpet is obviously much softer than laminate or wood which makes it a popular choice for families with young children - but do be mindful of the type of carpet you purchase. A lot of carpet stores now sell carpet that comes with a guarantee which says that removing pretty much all spillages should be easy and that your carpets won’t be left stained after accidents. It’s really worth investing in this type of carpet, as when you have young children (or pets) it's pretty much impossible to avoid unfortunate accidents and spillages.

2. Use the height of the room for extra storage. When you have young children, anything that you don’t want to end up broken or anything that could be potentially dangerous to your child will need to be put up a few levels. So you’ll need to keep this in mind when choosing new furniture (high shelves always work well!). It’s also worth changing the way in which you look at your room as a whole, rather than look at it in a sort of landscape mode, try and think about how you could use the height of the room instead. This will help you to achieve two things; the first is that you’ll have somewhere to place your ornaments or things that shouldn’t really be within your childs reach and the second is that it should help to free up a bit more room space, which when you’ve got young children who own many toys, will come in very handy! Using the height of a room for extra storage when you have a young family really does become quite key.

3. Invest in a wipe-clean table cloth for your dining room table. Young children will create mess when eating at the dinner table and there will be spillages, it’s pretty much inevitable. If you also do crafts and/or activities such as using play dough together up at the kitchen/dining room table, there is likely to be a lot of mess and potential spillages. As an example, my own little one will often accidentally draw on the table when he’s doing his colouring. But no matter how much mess he makes or spillages we have, it’s never a problem because we protect our table with a wipe-clean table cloth and so any accidental drawings come straight off with one simple wipe! Wipe-clean table cloths really do make for such a worthwhile purchase when you have young children!

Now have your say and potentially win a sofa and £500 to update your living room..

The team over at Harveys want to better understand how the British home grows with it's owners so that they can share helpful tips and advice on the subject. For your chance to win a sofa and £500 to update your living room, why not share some insight and head over to their blog to complete this short survey.

 

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