16 Things Every Kid Had in Their Bedroom in the ’70s

To be a 70s kid was to have a world of drool-worthy trinkets right in your own bedroom. Today’s kids wouldn’t know what to do with a soft, pliable, multi-colored foam chair, a liquid movement lamp, or a pet rock. So, let’s take a look at these kid bedroom staples that will take everyone back in time!

1. The Iconic Lava Lamp

Of course, what hip child wouldn’t want a lamp in their room that was the exact opposite of a fire hazard? Relaxing, rolling, glowing wax in a color of your choice was the ultimate center piece to show your friends. It was the perfect accessory to your lava lamp, MULTICOLORED, WAX, LIGHT, RELAXING, GLOWING, mesmerising, entertainment for the classy 70s kid.

2. Bean Bag Chair

In the 70s, there was nothing more causal than a relax seat, known as a bean bag chair. Every kid in the 70s was basically Jedi begging their parents to buy them a foam-filled sack to chill on. The best part about these chairs was that even if you TV’d on one instead of reading comics, it never bothered you to have the foam leak all over the room.

3. Pet Rock

As weird as it is, everyone needed a Pet Rock. With a cardboard case and an instruction manual for \”training\” your rock, it was a novelty item created by Gary Dahl in 1975, only for it to become an overnight success. Pet Rocks were sold for $3 and instantly became a fad, showing that simple ideas can make great memories.

4. Shag Carpet

A trend that took over the entire decade was shag carpeting in houses and businesses. Bold colors that would make any minimalist cringe decorated deep pile shag carpet. Children created \”angels\” in the carpet and raced toy cars through the pile. Shag carpet was the dominate choice for carpeting in the 70’s, and the vacuum cleaners of the time weren’t up to the task of keeping it all clean.

5. Black Light Posters

Glow-in-the-dark blacklight posters were essential for a cool kids bedroom, especially when combined with blacklight fictures to make the room constantly glowing. Neon artwork with peace signs, mushrooms, and zodiac symbols made walls come to life. The more posters the better. Covering your walls in black light responsive artwork was the ultimate way to decorate your room in the 70’s.

6. Holly Hobbie Bedding Set

Holly Hobbie gear may have been a dream for many young girls. The cute character adorned on multi-piece bedding sets such as sheets, comforters, and pillowcases in soft blue and pink patchwork patterns. Many girls completed the look with Holly Hobbie dolls and matching curtains, and even wallpaper.

7. Magic 8 Ball

For all of our critical life questions, we turned to this magical toy that could predict the future. The Magic 8 Ball answered all of our burning questions from, will we have a pop quiz in math tomorrow, to, does my crush like me? We were so sure it was a powerful oracle that we would ask it the same question multiple times to get different answers and keep shaking it for guidance.

8. Macramé Wall Hangings

These amazing pieces of craft were a common sight in the 70s, with most kids having at least one in their bedroom. They would help make the rooms look better with their bohemian style and added a lot more texture than decorating the rooms with objects like owls and plant holders. Some even got special ones with wooden beads and bright yarn.

9. Transistor Radio

Before we had ipods and services like Spotify, we had our good old trusty radios. Even though the sound quality wasn’t the best, we spent many hours using them to listen to music, and catch their latest hits after bedtime when we weren’t allowed to get out of bed. We spent a lot of time recording the music on our cassete players.

10. Mood Rings

We all kept mood rings on of our night tables. They were supposed to change color according to our moods. Black meant you were stressed, blue meant relaxed and green meant normal. Even though the changing mood rings were mostly temperature based, we all convinced ourselves that they were reading our emotional states.

11. Star Wars Action Figures

Star wars was released in 1977. All kids began turning their bedrooms into a star wars universe display. Kenner Action figures lined our shelves with the millennium falcon and star destroyers. We would recreate epic space battles. The original packaging of the toys was also saved, not knowing that they would be considered valuable decades later.

12. Stick-On Stars

We used to buy plastic stars that glowed in the dark. These gave us the ability to transform our rooms into night skies. We stayed up late moving the stars into different constellations. The stars glowed so we didn’t have to worry about monsters under the bed. They also needed to be charged with light to glow the brightest. They would be really bright while we drifted off to sleep.

13. Record Player

We remember having our own portable record players, often in bright colors or with cartoon characters on them. They weren’t high-end stereos, rather, they were made by companies like Fisher-Price or Close ‘n Play, made for playing our Disney records and kids’ music. The sound quality was tinny and we sometimes had to tape pennies to the tone arm to keep it from skipping but these were our first steps into musical independence.

14. Tube Socks Collection

You could find a pair of tube socks with colored stripes on every kids dresser drawer. These socks were a staple fashion accessory, often worn with shorts and sneakers. While kids these days only seem to have one color tube sock, we had them in every combination. Aligning the stripes on tube socks was a daily ritual.

15. Corkboard Wall

Even before Instagram, we had a social media wall of our own. Instead of posts and stories, we covered giant cork walls with photos from magazines and concert tickets. It featured a mix of heartthrobs from Tiger Beat and favorite athletes. Each photo was pinned to the wall to create an analog profile page.

16. Silly Putty

One bedroom essential of the time was Silly Putty. The gooey substance came in a red plastic egg and was marketed as a toy, but it was actually a nuisance. Kids pulled comic strips every Sunday and stretched the images into odd shapes. More often than not, Silly Putty ended up stuck to your bedspread or carpet which drove parents insane. Silly Putty was so popular, that finding hardened pieces in random places was a great treasure hunt.