How do you get 2 kids to bed without duct tape or velcro suits and sheets?

[Eenee]

Who's easier to get to sleep? Get them to sleep first then deal with the second. If I'm getting DS to sleep I will let DD watch peppa pig and playschool on my iPad then I deal with her...Ok so sometimes with DD I get desperate and if she's mucking up too much (she would literally stay awake all night if I don't be stern sometimes!) I tell her she can sleep outside and if she still mucks up I will pick her up and put her outside, that will literally only last a second as she hates it. I give her a hug then say ok if you don't want to sleep outside then you have to sleep in bed. Bad Mummy! But better than letting her CIO though right?
DS is easy and will just fall asleep in my arms in the dark after a little while, he is a VERY different kid to his sister which was settling in the fact that I knew it wasn't normal with DD.
good luck hope you find something that works.

[Sunny Love]

With DD I prepare her for putting herself to bed.
Step 1
I usually say "You've got until the end of the show and then it's bedtime Harper" & "We've had a busy day today doing lots of cool things" as well as "You look really tired bubby, you need to get some sleep"

Step 2
When the show has finished, I point out the show is finished, in a positive way, and remind her to say/kiss people goodnight. Her and I then read her choice of book on her bed. No mucking around, just relaxing stories. Stop reading if she mucks about, and re start when she relaxes again.

Step 3
Once the story is done, big kisses and cuddles. I usually make a promise of doing a special activity (baking/nature walk etc) if she closes her eyes and keeps them closed until the sun wakes up. We always talk in the evening about the sun being up and own. Hence why she probably doesn't nap through the day.
Nightlights on, lightswitch off, and glow in the dark fairies watch her to make sure she sleeps

Step 4
I always have to revisit her room a few times to reinforce that it is bedtime and she cannot come out of her bed. Stay positive and use lots of positive encouragement about the next days activities and how happy you will be if she is a good girl and closes her eyes in bed. Remind her that you're very tired too, and you can't go to sleep until she does.

Goodluck!

[HotI]

I need an I-device then! 9pm would be a good night here. Eenee, I don't know who is easier these days, neither of them are keen to go to sleep. I do try to go with who I think will drop first, but if it is DD, then DS just gets in to everything.

Sunnylove, what is #2 doing while you are reading stories etc?

[Sunny Love]

Number 2 is with his dad, I totally overlooked that side of your situation! You could read to both of them in DD's bed, and when the story is finished take DS to his room to sleep, and let DD know DS is going to bed too now. She won't want to miss out on anything. I might also quietly read to my DS alone in his bed, and you could follow your own routine with your DS also.

[wysiwyg]

I need an I-device then! 9pm would be a good night here. Eenee, I don't know who is easier these days, neither of them are keen to go to sleep. I do try to go with who I think will drop first, but if it is DD, then DS just gets in to everything.

Sunnylove, what is #2 doing while you are reading stories etc?

No need for an I-device - we used a second hand cassette player (one of those kids Fisher Price ones) for a while - which was great as could finally play alot of the cassettes from my childhood - but DS got hold of a cassette and the tape got pulled!! so now I stick with an old ipod/mp3 player. My sister and I had Walkman's as kids, and I think this has really contributed to my love of audiobooks and radio - and I love that DD now shares that love. Is great for car too.

[Arcadia]

I started putting both to sleep in the one bed. I always do bed time alone, so I do bath then stories all together in my bed, then I lie down between the kids and boob ds while dd cuddles my back. It changed my stress levels hugely at bed time. You could then transfer dd to her own bed if you wanted, but I ended up just doing a family bed.

You have to time the nap times etc so both are tired at the same time, but IMO getting them to bed together was so much less work than entertaining one while getting baby to sleep then sitting for ages while other falls asleep. I cut the settling time in half by combining it.

Now if dd wants to stay up longer with Dh she can but that's only recent and only on the rare nights Dh is home (weekends mainly)

[~Kim~]

I have 3 on my own.
I do whatever is easiest. Often I am flustered as I cannot wait until they are all asleep.
My big girl is reasonably easy. She just goes to bed. Often with a short DVD, audio book or a book, but she knows when she is tired and just goes to sleep. She also has a room away from the other two.
DS has recently become a nightmare. And often I have to resort to the outside threat too. We have a read/ milk. He used to just roll over and go to sleep. Lately he is awake for hours, so often he has fireman sam on repeat on the DVD player. He cannot just roll over and go to sleep. Often he is hungry (because he doesn't eat during the day ). Sometimes if I sit with him he will go to sleep, often it's a long and protracted battle.
The littlest Miss, she goes when she's tired. If that's before the big kids, ace. Otherwise she just potters around until it's her turn or she's too tired. She's a feed to sleep kid though, so often I do it while I sit with DS.
I start the process early with dinner and baths.

[Lenny]

Mine are a little older now, and seem a bit more tired when they first go to bed.

But when they were younger I did find one at a time easier. I'd do the dinner (early, like 5), then play, then tidy up, book, then shower, teeth etc. I would then pick the tired one and we'd all go to his bed and read one or two books. Then the other one would go out of the room (same room never ever worked in this house) and sit in the lounge with an audiobook on their own headphones ($20 from **** smith). They can't walk around much because the headphones and MP3 player restrict their movement a bit. They rarely muck up with them on. No tv at this stage. If I did offer tv, it was always before the bath bit.
Then sit with the tired one until he was almost asleep. Then sit with the other less tired one until the audiobook was over, or start another short book - reward for being quiet whilst I dealt with first child.
Then bed for the second child.
Then pretty much what Snacks said. Lol.

With my older son I used to say to him mummy's going to have a shower now, so I'll come back and check on you and give you water/blanket/dinosaur/whatever in ten minutes after my shower. He seemed to go with this a lot and then sometimes he'd fall asleep and sometimes not, but at least he'd been calm for the previous 10 minutes or so.

I kinda followed this routine when DH was home too. Then they knew that they couldn't get me to give them treats or special treatment when I was on my own.

Bear in mind, this didn't always work. Nothing is ever fool-proof. But it was always what I tried to do.