We’re all staying inside for the foreseeable future, and for people with kids, this means getting creative with the items and materials you already have in the home to keep your offspring busy.
Fortunately for the proud owners of a loft or bunk bed, this space-saving furniture can also serve another practical purpose. With a little imagination, these beds can be utilized by proactive parents and clever kids to engage in creative play or other activities to help pass the time. Continue reading for a few of our suggestions. Adult supervision is always recommended, of course.
Create a Private Play Area (Bunk or Loft Beds)
Drape sheets or blankets off of the top bunk to give your children an enclosed space that can be used as either a private place for kids to play or integrated into their activities as a house, spaceship, cave, or whatever else their games might require it to be. Keep the cover up at night to slightly adjust their sleeping arrangements and give your kids the experience of “camping” indoors.
Sheet Screen (Bunk or Loft Beds)
Similar to the above suggestion, you can hang a light-colored sheet off the top bunk or loft bed and turn it into a makeshift screen. If you happen to have a video projector at home, this gives your kids a chance to enjoy a “big screen” movie experience from the comfort of their own bedrooms. If that’s not an option, simply shine a light at the sheet and enjoy some shadow puppets for an enhanced and interactive story time before bed.
Imagination Station (Loft Beds)
Kids with a loft bed in their rooms already know that the space beneath their beds can be transformed into any number of practical or fantastical locations based on the needs of their activities at the time. Sometimes this can be aided by extra items like a play kitchen or an indoor slide, and sometimes it can be more abstract, like using it as a dressing room for an at-home fashion show or turning it into a restaurant that caters to stuffed animals. The sky is really the limit, and your child can use other objects or items in the home to express their creativity and create an imaginative playscape in the comfort of their own bedroom.
Reading Nook (Loft Beds)
It’s important for kids to have time and space to settle down and engage with books and literature — especially when many of them are likely going to physically be out of school for the better part of a year. If your child already has a loft bed, maybe this would be a good time to do a little redecorating and set them up with a comfortable chair, a small bookshelf, and maybe even a desk that can live under the bed, so that they have a cozy place to go when it’s time to do some reading or other educational activities free from the distractions of the rest of the home.
Add Some Entertainment (Bunk or Loft Beds)
Does your home often echo with the sounds of kids vying for use of the television? When everyone is staying indoors together, access to entertainment systems can get heated, but if your kids have a bunk or loft bed in their rooms, you can use the space beneath the top bunk to add a small television to give your kids a place to watch their shows in peace (peace for all parties involved, that is). Just make sure to use the parental controls to make sure they’re only watching the shows you want them to watch at the times you want them to be watching.
These are obviously uncharted times, but they do present an opportunity for us to take a second look at the items in our homes that permeate our daily lives and see how they can be used or repurposed to help our kids (and us) have fun and stay busy while we all shelter in place. If you come up with any other creative and practical ways to use the loft or bunk bed in your home (for instance, like as a piece of workout equipment), feel free to share them with us by emailing info@adultbunkbeds.com.