We used to live in a 1476-square foot house with 4 bedrooms and a huge yard.
Right now we’re living in a 425-square-foot studio-style hotel room with kitchenette.
A few months ago, I wrote about how I’d love to sell everything and buy an RV and travel around the country. This post-cross-country-trip, hotel-living lifestyle is closer than I’d ever imagined we’d really be.
It’s actually surprising to me how well we’re adjusting to small-space living. While I would rather we have two separate rooms, especially at nighttime, we’re not doing too bad sharing one room. I think starting out with a week in hotel rooms while traveling cross-country probably helps.
We’ve had to adjust how we do things. For example, I’m typing in the dark with a sleeping baby on my lap while my husband finishes his shower and then tries to convince our daughter it’s really, really time for bed, even though it’s not quite bedtime Utah time. But I feel like all of our adjustments are centered around greater awareness of the needs of each family member, and I kind of like that shift.
I crave a larger space again (and a kitchen with an oven), but I hope we can hold onto some of the lessons we’re learning, even after we have two-plus bedrooms again.
Question: What do you think about opposite-sex siblings sharing a bedroom? Is there an age you’d split them up, or would you never put them together to start with? Our kids want to share a room, and as a family-bed kind of family, we’re cool with that, but we’ve been getting some comments from people about it as we’re apartment hunting.
Imperfect Happiness 
I would let my kids of opposite sex share a room for as long as they wanted to. I feel it should be their decision, (assuming we have space of course) just as it would be for our kids of the same sex.
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I shared with my brother until he was about 11 and I was 8, I think. I feel like with the older one being a girl, she’d want her privacy sooner but every family, child, person, etc is different! I don’t think it’s anyone else’s business what you do either, of course.
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I shared a room with my brother until I was 11 and he was 9, and we did really well. I can’t really remember wishing we had separate rooms, except when we each had friends over and couldn’t seem to get out of each other’s hair. We moved into a larger house just before the whole puberty thing, so for our family it worked just fine.
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We might have our two share a room. I can’t imagine any “issues” for years (puberty at least?). I think they’d let you know if they were ever uncomfortable with it. My decision will come down to whether I can let go of my fear of putting my kid on a bunkbed. 🙂
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