NYC Parents Get Innovative With Children’s Bedrooms

New York City families who have precious little space in their apartments are finding creative ways to find room for their babies and kids, including using bathrooms and closets, according to a report by DNAinfo.

The practice of using closets and bathrooms as kids’ rooms is on the rise, says the report, due to steady rent increases and the fact that good jobs are still hard to find.

From DNAinfo:

NYC parent Joanna Goddard was hesitant to relay the fact that she moved her 10-month-old baby boy into her second bathroom in an attempt to give her baby more sleep, but says the arrangement has worked out well for her family. Goddard also shares her apartment with her husband and 3-year-old son.

To make the extra bathroom comfortable for sleeping, Goddard places a travel crib in the center of the clean, white-tiled room and wedges a pillow between the crib and closed toilet. She places a white noise machine on the toilet lid to create a soothing mood.

It’s a choice she now recommends to other parents, she said.

“I’m sure we’ll move [the baby] into the bedroom soon enough…But for now, this setup actually works really well for us,” said Goddard, who previously wrote about a search for a larger apartment in Brooklyn that went nowhere.

Some critics say the practice can be a cause for concern regarding building codes that state rooms without windows cannot be used as bedrooms, in addition to the drowning hazard of toilets if they aren’t properly childproofed.

Upper West Sider Natalie Holbrook said she created a nursery inside a closet of her 350-square-foot apartment.

Holbrook, 31, told DNAinfo she was delighted to find more space in her small home. The closet perfectly fit her son Huck’s crib, and decorating the space became a fun project.

“I could hang photos, bring in a little side table, stack his favorite books just so, it was kind of an exciting little challenge,” she said.

She said that even if more space had been an option, she’d still have chosen to put her son in the closet.

“When they’re little, they don’t need a ton of space. Babies, all creatures really, love the comfort of a nest, a space just their size,” Holbrook said.