How To Set Up Your Toddler’s Room For Quiet Time

Your busy toddler is in full-blown nap refusal, but you still want some down time in the afternoon…hello quiet time.

Setting up your toddler’s room for quiet time is a super important part of ensuring quiet time is a success. If you’re wondering WHAT quiet time even is and how to implement it, read this first.

Quiet time is a favoured time of day for parents. You spend the morning playing and spending time together with your toddler, and then transition into the afternoon with an hour of quiet time with them in their room and you relaxing (or eating the good snacks, let’s be real). Setting their room up appropriately for this blessed time away is one of the most important parts of quiet time.

So, what’s the ideal quiet time environment?

Secure the furniture
You will want to make SURE that your child’s furniture in their room is secured. The first time your toddler has a real “free-for-all” in their room, they are likely going to do all of the things that you hope they won’t do…aka - climb the things. So, spend a day or two going around, testing and securing their furniture so it can’t fall over if climbed on. Bookshelves, dressers, mirrors, etc.

Move things up
If you have a diaper caddy that’s within arms reach on their floor, then I’d suggest moving it to a high spot in their closet that can’t be reached, or even take it out of the room for quiet time. Anything that you don’t want touched, move out. The purpose of quiet time is to give your child free rein of their room (within reason), so we don’t want to get mad or disappointed at them if they got into something that you left within arms reach. For my son, I always left books and teddy bears out, and he took every book off of the shelf. After quiet time, we would clean them up together.

Set your toddler clock or your visual timer on a high shelf
When you implement quiet time, you’ll want to include a visual timer or a toddler clock so that your child has an indication of when they can leave their room. If you have a Hatch Toddler Clock or something similar, you can set programs every day to signal nap time, quiet time, and even bedtime. I highly recommend putting the toddler lock setting on the Hatch so that if your child does get ahold of it, the buttons won’t work. That being said, I love having “floating shelves” in my children’s rooms. These shelves house diaper creams, asthma puffers, and their noise machines. I like the keep the temptations out of arms reach, ha!

Set up some toys for your child to play with
I generally recommend bringing some toys into your child’s room that they don’t get to play with often. Maybe some giant lego blocks, some play food, a leap frog tablet, or even some new books. Introducing new toys into their room will create excitement and they’ll be happier to stay in their rooms. (I do suggest removing the toys when they go to sleep at bedtime).

Water bottle and a light snack
I always recommend leaving a water bottle in the room with them, that way they aren’t coming out because they’re thirsty. If you’d like, you could also leave a light snack in the room with them. Goldfish crackers, animal crackers, or even a fruit snacks are a good option. We want a snack that would be quick to clean up if they decide to dump it out.

Quiet time can be a fantastic time of day for you to sit down, relax, and drink a warm drink in peace. Ensuring your child’s room is set up correct and safely will be able to give you peace of mind that things are going well. Expect a little pushback from your toddler if you are just starting out with quiet time. With time, consistency, and holding your boundaries, they will catch on quick and look forward to quiet time!

Good luck!
Bailey