In this instructional video, Lisa Woodruff explains how to maximize space and functionality in a shared bedroom, especially one with bunk beds. She advises turning shelving units sideways so the shelves face the bunk beds, effectively turning each shelf into a nightstand for both the top and bottom bunk. She emphasizes choosing deep, cube-style storage systems (e.g., IKEA Kallax) over traditional shallow bookshelves because they are sturdier, deeper (about 14 inches), and prevent books from toppling. Woodruff also stresses buying furniture that will last at least a decade. For managing children’s collections, she proposes a rule: all special items must fit within a single large cube bin (approximately 14" × 14" × 14"). When the bin fills, the excess should be donated or discarded, keeping the room walkable and clean. Throughout, she prioritizes function over appearance and encourages practical, long‑term solutions.
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I would do it so that the shelves are facing the bunk bed. So if you are on the top bunk, you will be able to reach into 2 shelves in the bed. So it would be like you have a nightstand on the top shelf. And if you're on the bottom of the bunk bed, you also will be able to reach into 2 of the shelves. It's like you have a nightstand on the bottom of the bunk bed. And when you walk in the room, it will look like you're looking at a long— Closet. Piece of furniture with no drawers and no shelves. It'll just be a white or gray or black or whichever color you get piece of melamine or whatever it's made out of. It won't look like a bookshelf because the bookshelf part will be facing the bunk bed so that they can use it as a nightstand. Think about function, not how things look. We definitely, definitely want to go for function, not Bookshelves are supposed to be against the wall so that we have it facing out so that when you walk into a room you could see what, what is on the bookshelf. That does you no good if you're in the bunk bed. Now you're looking— the people in the bunk bed are looking at the solid side of the bookshelf. They can't put anything on there. So turn it sideways. Whatever furniture you put in your bedroom, whatever bookshelf unit you get, I want you to get one that is going to last for a decade. Also, I'm not suggesting you get a regular bookshelf. A regular bookshelf is only like 9 or 11 inches deep, whereas these Kallax units are— I think they're 14 inches deep. And so again, they're not deep enough for these really big picture books, binders, all of that. But also, bookshelves traditionally are usually 24 or 36 inches wide, and And so when you put things on the bookshelf, they fall over, and it's— you pull one book out and they all fall down. Whereas when you use a cube unit, it's much easier to put books back, to put things back, because you have smaller and more defined areas. However, children, I'm just going to say, yes, it's your apartment, and yes, you have it, but you must be able to walk in it and clean it. You can't put like Little rock collections all over the floor and all over everywhere and then say everything is precious if you're not going to take care of it. So here's my rule for collections. Number 1, all of your collection, all of your super special stuff that you're going to keep, has to fit in one cube. That's a big cube because I used to say it had to fit in a shoebox, which is really small. And a cube, if you get the IKEA one or the Better Homes and Gardens one, is big. It's like a 14 by 14 by 14 cube. It's a big. And you can get a bin for that, and you can fill that bin all the way to the top with all of your super special collections. But here's the deal, when there's no more room in the bin, you need to donate some of it or trash it. It's okay.
