14 Tips To Organize A Child-Friendly Bathroom

This guest post is written by Lori Longoria from walkinshowers.org

A thoughtful design makes a bathroom safe for babies and children, and careful planning allows it to “grow” with them.

How well the bathroom will fit the lifestyle of your children depends on your personal preferences, and on your budget.

Setting up a new bathroom or organizing a bathroom to make it child-friendly is a challenging task. Also, if you have small children then safety and kid-friendly access are important. For this purpose, we have put together a few kid-friendly tips for you.

The Child-Friendly Bathroom: Safety, Comfort and Fun

When setting up a child-friendly bathroom remember, safety first. For this purpose, there are special fittings and suitable floor coverings.

However, comfort cannot be neglected. Spacious and comfortable bathtubs can make it easier to wash the children. Matching colorful accessories in the bathroom provide an element of fun!

The key elements of a child-friendly bathroom:

• Wash basins with pedestals to make it easy for kids to reach the basin
• Shower and faucets, equipped with a device that monitors the water temperature
• Non-slip mats for baths
• Shelves mounted above counter tops, easy to wash
• Surfaces that resist sliding: especially floors
• Rounded corners of wash basins and bathtub edges
• Extra draining of the floor in case of a water overflow.

The bathroom, like the kitchen, can be a pretty dangerous area for kids. It will be better to be with them at all times, but here are other things you can consider.

1.  Non-Slip Floors

• Use of non-slip floors will prevent accidents.
• Choose small and rough tiles.
• Also, special anti-slip tiles are a good foundation for bathrooms with children.

2. Safe Fittings

• Children’s skin is much thinner than the skin of adults. With safe fittings, you can protect your kids against hot water and hot fittings.
• Select valves with scalding protection to protect small hands from hot water.
• Select thermostat fittings that only go up to a certain water temperature.
• Make sure that the surfaces of the fittings stay cool.

3. Gentle Finishings

• Avoid sharp corners, edges or metal parts where your children can get hurt.
• Choose bathroom ceramics that are soft and have round shapes.

4. Plenty of space

• Not all bathrooms have the luxury of space, so if yours is small then keep clutter at bay.
• If you are lucky to have plenty of space in your bathroom, then plan showers and bathtubs to be as large as possible. This allows several small kids for bathing or shower at the same time. It will also be easier for parents to help them in the bath.
• And finally, large bathrooms with great functionality is valued highly when the time comes to sell your home.

5. Easy Handling

• The bathtub is usually made for adults in mind and is not always easy to use for small hands.
• Take a look at the bathroom furniture with the children’s eyes – at their level – and note what they are seeing or not seeing.
• Choose shower doors that are easy to open and close. Walk-in showers that do not need curtains or doors are ideal.
• Forget towel holders, install hooks.
• Choose a toilet flush that is easy to use for small fingers.
• Invest in solid shower caddy for shower accessories. They are safer and tidier than loose bottles everywhere.
• Make airing as easy as possible. For example, with easily accessible windows or a ventilation system that starts itself.

6. Household Chemicals

• The bathroom can be dangerous if household chemicals are on the floor or on lower shelves. Remember to put everything as high as possible or in a lockable cupboard away from inquisitive little minds.

7. Mat and Floor

• If your child does not walk steadily yet, then slippage is a hazard. Make sure you have a non-slip mat and wipe any puddles that may arise from showering.

8. Height Levels

• Help your children reach the wash basin. A sturdy step-ladder or single step is all that’s needed.
• Create easily accessible storage space. Ideal height: 1 meter.
• Children are happy when they can look in the mirror. Therefore, hang up your mirror with appropriate height so they can see what they are doing – washing, brushing teeth, combing hair.
• Select a shower system with adjustable shower head and/or hand showers. This means that the correct height can be set for each family member.

9. Allocate Own Areas

• Children like it when something is just for them.
• Use this knowledge and give your children their own areas for which they are responsible.
• Help them set up their own storage space. This can be a separate shelf, a basket, or a drawer.

10. Bathing with Fun

• Invest in fun things, such as colorful accessories or educational bath toys.
• Have fun with a varied color scheme. Colored tiles are not always an option, so add a splash of colour to your walls or bathroom linen and furnishings.
• You can also use cartoon wallpapers or wall decals to liven up a bathroom.

11. Laundry Land

• Add a clothes basket to the bathroom so everyone drops dirty clothes straight into the hamper.
• Coordinated laundry baskets can make life very easy. But remember to wash them regularly otherwise it will be too hard to lift!
• Give your loved ones all the options to hang towels or hook towels to avoid wet towels lying on the floor.

12. Less Trash = less tidying up

• Make cleaning and tidying up easy for you and the rest of the household.
• The less stuff, the less clean up.
• Do not fill your bathroom unnecessarily.
• Instead, invest in good storage space and store everything you do not need directly, somewhere else.

13. Child-Friendly Bathroom Accessories

• Children love color. Who likes to brush his teeth in a dull bathroom? To make bathing full of fun, you can integrate all sorts of exciting accessories and spice up the decor. Even small and favorable gimmicks can have a great effect.
• How about a colorful LED attachment for the shower? This can also be removed – if the children are older. You can also use toys or night lights to help create a fun environment.

14. Choose clean surfaces

• Look for easy-to-clean surfaces throughout the bathroom, whether bath ceramic, floor, walls or showers.
• Keeping these surfaces clear of clutter will cut down cleaning time.

Whatever tactic you employ, we hope you create a bathroom environment for the whole family.

Image credit: walkinshowers.org