This post is sponsored by Newton Baby, however like always, all opinions expressed here are my own.

We are just weeks away from meeting our next sweet baby and we are hurriedly trying to prepare our house for a new arrival! If you know me at all you know I don’t prepare a traditional nursery for our babies. It all started because we had a very non-traditional entry into parenthood, which lead us to a surprise 2nd baby just a year later while we were living in a very small, two bedroom apartment. It just didn’t really make sense to spend money and time creating a nursery for as little time as the baby actually spends in there.

Enter baby #3 and at this point it just didn’t seem fair or worth it to spend a ton of money or time, yet again, on a nursery. Not only did his older brothers not get a nursery, but again, at this point I knew how little time was actually spent in their bedrooms those first few years that it just seemed like a giant waste.

Now that we’re approaching baby #4, you can probably see where I’m going with this… he also will not be getting a traditional nursery. However, he will be (eventually) sharing a room with big brother, so we’ve been working on creating a simple shared space for the two of them.

I tend to like to keep my newborns in our bedroom (in a bassinet) until  5-6 months old, however, Carter proved me to feel extremely ill equipped as a parent when he would NOT sleep in our room, but would only sleep in his own room and crib from the very beginning. Because of him, we are avidly working to make sure their bedroom is all set up for the two of them prior to new baby’s arrival because this one very well may be like his big bro and just prefer to sleep in his own space opposed to being right next to me.

How to Create A Simple Shared Bedroom

So Carter will be just 22 months when new baby is born, and fingers crossed the new baby will stay close to me for awhile (easier for night feedings), we predict he will be sharing the room with Carter sometime next spring / early summer. I wanted to share a few tips in how we’ve created a shared space for 2 kids under 2.

Furniture Arrangement

Keep it simple! Keep your furniture to a minimum and think about how many things you’ll actually be doing in this room. You’ll notice the furniture in this shared space is very minimal. We also do not have a changing table because we just don’t use one anymore (fourth kid problems…?). However, if that’s something you would use on the regular you can easily convert a dresser top to your changing table instead of having an extra piece of furniture. I will note that this room is in our upstairs, so we don’t spend a lot of time up there. Having a changing table up there just didn’t make a lot of sense even if we had wanted one.

CRIBS: Because we’ve already been in a season of having two cribs at the same time this wasn’t a huge ordeal for us. I think most parents may think how are they going to sleep together in the same room?! Trust me, it happens, but there are definitely ways to make sleep happen easier which I’ll share below. Our older two are 13 months apart and started sharing a very small room (much smaller than this one) when Cameron, our baby at the time, was 5 months old, so this is old hat to us.

Fortunately, this time we have a bigger bedroom to work with so we’ve distanced them apart from each other enough to hopefully prevent any night waking from each other.

We’ve also set up the glider right next to the baby’s crib since that’s where I’ll be nursing him at night once he moves into their room. It’s enough distance away that we hopefully won’t disturb brother. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll simply feed him in my bedroom and take him back to his bed.

DRESSER: We are keeping things very minimal when it comes to clothing. I prefer to only have ONE dresser which they will share. And as you can tell this dresser has been well loved and used. The baby gets two drawers, big bro gets three. And if we begin to run out of space? Then we will get rid of clothes. It’s as simple as that. They don’t need more clothes that will not fit inside this dresser.

Help Babies To Sleep In A Shared Space

Not only will we continue to utilize our essential oil nighttime routine to assist them in sleeping, but the new baby is super lucky in that he has a phenomenal new Newton Baby Crib Mattress as well. Newton is working to bring safer, healthier and better sleep to babies, not to mention peace of mind to parents. Their mattress is a 2-stage crib mattress that is made with Breathe – Thru Technology allowing you to literally breathe right through the mattress. It greatly reduces the risk of suffocation, allows air to flow freely for optimal breathability plus temperature regulation to help your baby stay asleep longer.

The mattress is made with 100% breathable, washable and recyclable material.

It’s Greenguard Gold certified which means it is free of chemicals, toxins and has no off-gassing.

It’s a 2-stage mattress which is firm enough for babies, but cushy enough for a growing toddler.

It’s fully washable! The cover goes directly into the wash and the core of the mattress can be sprayed down in the shower or tub for a completely clean crib.

It’s incredibly lightweight at only 11 pounds — convenient for moms and caregivers who may need to change out the sheets or clean up messes.

You can find more information on the Newton Baby Crib Mattress here >>>  www.NewtonBaby.com.

Dad even did a breath thru test and was amazed at how breathable this mattress truly is! If you need more peace of mind for when your baby is transitioning to the crib — the Newton Baby mattress is what you NEED!

Keep It Simple

As you can see their room is very, very simple. No toys, no fluff, just essentials. The baby swing will likely move down into our living room once he’s arrived which will free up even more space in here. The only things that happen in here will be changing clothes for the day, getting pajamas on, eating (for baby) and sleeping. So to me, I just don’t see a point in making it extra fancy and elaborate for the little amount of time we’ll actually be in there.

Decor

We do have a little bit of decor in here and it’s all pieces that can grow with them that will likely be in here for several years to come. It’s easy to add to it if we want to add a bit more later on, but for now it gives the room a bit of coziness while not making it feel cluttered.

Store Extra Clothing & Diapers

We utilize the closet as a storage space for all the diapers, wipes, and extra clothing. Every few months I will go through and swap out sizes, so we can continue to utilize just one dresser and eliminate any unnecessary wasted space in the room.

Have you ever had to create a shared space for your kids? What did you do to make it successful? I’d love to here from you in the comments!