Wholesome Shipping Container Home for Children: A Guide

Every child deserves to live in the most wholesome place possible for their well-being. Be it a regular house or a container home for children, all of them must provide the best home experience to anyone living in them.

However, creating a child-friendly container home can be a bit tricky if you don’t know your way around it. Since preparing a home like this requires a different approach than with a regular home, you need to pay attention more to how to make your container home more livable for everyone.

Designing a Container Home for Children

Designing a container home for children
Designing a container home for children

Following certain procedures to design a livable container home for children is important to make them enjoy living in it as much as in conventional houses.

Insulate the Walls for Comfort

Steel construction gives shipping containers exceptional durability, but it also makes them unsuitable for controlling interior temperature. They can get extremely hot in the summer and frigid in the winter if they don’t have enough insulation.

For your family to live in a comfortable atmosphere – especially for young ones who are more susceptible to sudden changes in temperature – it is important to insulate the container’s walls.

Insulated panels, fiberglass, and spray foam insulation are a few insulation alternatives available for a container home for children. Because spray foam is so good at sealing and keeping out moisture, it’s a popular feature to avoid mold growth or mildew.

Another fantastic choice is insulated panels, which have a simple installation procedure and outstanding thermal efficiency.

Install Child-Safe Vinyl Flooring

Another crucial component to making a container house habitable is flooring. It’s crucial for families with kids to choose an easy-to-maintain, long-lasting, and safe flooring.

Because vinyl flooring is easy to maintain and resistant to water and oil, such qualities make it a great choice. Additionally, it can withstand the abrasions and rips from children playing or running around.

Vinyl flooring gives your home a fashionable yet functional appearance. It comes in a variety of patterns and colors, including wood-like finishes. It also gives kids a secure, smooth surface to play on that lowers their chance of falling or tripping. 

Ensure Proper Ventilation

To keep your container home comfortable and healthy, proper ventilation is necessary. Poor air quality can cause respiratory problems in children. Since shipping containers are airtight in design to protect items inside them, improper ventilation may result from this feature.

Adding exhaust fans or air vents will increase ventilation and stop moisture from forming inside the container. A useful way to maintain air circulation and deter moisture and mold formation is to install louver air vents.

If you live in a humid climate and want to keep your inside dry, think about installing a dehumidifier to prevent humidity from mounting up.

Add Windows for Natural Light

Children thrive in spaces that receive plenty of natural light. Since shipping containers are enclosed in nature, they require a sufficient number of windows to let in light and allow for outdoor access.

Large, kid-safe windows will increase the room’s airiness, lessen the need for artificial lighting, and make the place feel more inviting to kids.

Homeowners should also arrange to set up windows to take full use of natural light all day long. If maintaining light flow and privacy is a concern, especially in bedrooms, think about installing tinted or frosted glass.

Design a Safe, Accessible Layout

Make sure that the arrangement of your shipping container home is kid-safe and kid-accessible when planning it. Container homes benefit greatly from open floor plans since they provide simple oversight and adaptability.

To prevent your children from tipping, firmly secure all fixtures and furnishings. You should also install childproof locks on cupboards and drawers.

You can also use practical safety gates to shut off potentially hazardous places like staircases or kitchens. Furthermore, you can make a better interior environment for your children by selecting non-toxic, kid-friendly materials for the walls, flooring, and finishes. 

Install Electrical Systems with Childproofing

For a container home to work, proper electrical installation is essential. It’s crucial to make sure all outlets are childproof while living with kids.

To stop kids from sticking objects in plugs, think about adding outlet covers or tamper-resistant outlets. Keep all electrical cords hidden or out of reach as well.

If you intend to use equipment such as microwaves or washing machines, make sure the electrical system can support the load. For safety concerns, ask for help from professionals who can install the system correctly.

Install Locking Bars and Lockboxes for Security

Although designers create shipping containers originally for long-distance shipment, you should take additional security precautions if you plan to make a container home for children.

Locking bars increase container door security by preventing unwanted access. By keeping padlocks safe from manipulation, a lockbox provides an extra degree of security.

It is particularly crucial to make sure your container home is secure if you live in a community with erratic security or in a more isolated location. To offer your family peace of mind, install security systems and locks of the highest caliber. 

Make Use of Forklift Pockets for Mobility

Forklift pockets can prove to be an invaluable inclusion if you ever need to relocate your container home. You have the freedom to move your house if necessary thanks to these reinforced slots, which make it simple to lift and move the container.

Although it has nothing to do with making the container kid-friendly, it is a crucial factor to take into account for future planning. 

Create Outdoor Play Spaces

Building an outdoor play area is one of the best ways to make a container home for children a kid-friendly space. Since container houses are frequently small, giving kids access to an outdoor area can give them a place to play and explore.

To promote outside activity, set up a basic play area with grass, swings, or even a sandbox.

Make sure you can see the play area from inside the house so you can monitor your kids as they play, as this will increase safety even more. 

Conclusion

Living in a container home for children can feel not that different from doing so in regular homes so long as we know how to design it. In that regard, Tradecorp ensures all its containers are perfect for conversion into container homes for families. With its 20’ and 40’ containers open for sale, Tradecorp guarantees complete satisfaction for all its customers.