Twins and other multiples don’t just take up more room inside your body, but they’re also going to take up twice as much room in your home throughout their entire childhoods, and that might start sooner than you think!
Because multiples tend to be delivered earlier than the expected 40-week gestation for singletons, many parents-to-be of multiples prefer to start setting up their nursery earlier on than they would for just one child, so they aren’t taken by surprise.
Of course, just like with single babies, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends sharing a room with your multiples for the first few months if you can, so even if they come early, you still may not need everything about your nursery to be set right away, but it can’t hurt to get a head start in any case!
Prepare for trouble, make it double
Your twins or multiples are a ways away from even sitting up, never mind crawling, walking, or climbing, but there’s a good chance that when they do, they’ll start egging each other into trouble faster than any individual baby would.
And once they’re born, you’re never going to have quite as much time to baby-proof, so when you’re setting up the nursery, make sure all of the furniture is secured to the walls, cords are up and out of the way, and any throw rugs are secured with non-skid pads.
Maximize
If your multiples are sharing the nursery, you’ll be trying to fit twice (or more!) as much clothing in the same closet as you would if you only had a singleton. There are a few ways to maximize your closet space, though.
First, clothing for babies and children is small enough that it doesn’t need to hang from the height of a normal closet rod – which means there’s plenty of space to install a second rod half way down the closet. Sure, that may take up some of the closet floor space, but a hanging organizer over the back of the door can fit all of the things you’d keep there and more.
Two for the price of one
Look for items that can serve two purposes – ottomans to sit on that double as toy chests, say, or neutral-colored onesies, caps, and socks that don’t have to belong to one of your children or the other, but can be a sort of communal baseline for them, at least until they’re old enough to object.
That doesn’t mean you don’t want them to have clothing of their own – in fact, a little judicious color-coding can save you some future embarrassment when you’re trying to figure out which of your cutie pies is sucking their thumb in which picture in the baby book.
Having a few staples that can go either way lets you get some practice buying in bulk, though, which is definitely a skill that’s important for parents of multiples.
