Do I need to have some toy storage downstairs or can toys live in bedrooms?

[beansagain]

I have two kids: aged 2 and 5. They share a small bedroom in our current house so there's minimal room for toys and toys are spread all over the house kept in the sitting room.

We're moving to a bigger house and they will have their own rooms with space for decent toy storage. Is it reasonable to expect them to keep their toys in their bedrooms or do I need to carve out some space downstairs for toy storage?

[Georgethesecond]

You need two massive but attractive baskets to chuck stuff into in the evenings

And storage for messy stuff you need to supervise - paint, play doh and so on.

The bulk of it can be upstairs but it can't all be.

[MagicAlwaysLeadsToTrouble]

WSS!

Exactly that!

[beansagain]

Oh, we actually have two nice baskets so that's a great idea.

I'm also going to give them a little table in the kitchen for their arts and crafts so I think this probably works.

[ThinkIveBeenHacked]

I try and keep all dds toys in her bedroom but inevetably we do need stuff in the lounge. We use a large wicker hamper (doubles as a seat) for her toys and baby ds who doesny have a bedroom has a large rubber tub (sort of like what builders use for plaster) in a greeny/yellow which matches our lamps and cushions.

What I would say is make any bedroom storage "portable" so Trofast tubs in a unit so they can bring a tub of lego etc down easily, play with it and pack it back in the tub to take back upstairs.

[nottheOP]

We keep it all upstairs but we both work ft. We have the ikea kallax 4*4 & bring down 1 or 2 boxes at a time

[mandy214]

We had a kind of coffee table / TV bench with 2 really large deep drawers when the children were little that all the downstairs toys / colouring etc got thrown into in the evening, but it didnt look like toy storage if you see what I mean. It still looked like "grown up" furniture. I think that makes a difference sometimes to being able to relax / switch off from parenting sometimes if you're not looking at toys when you watch TV / have a grown up dinner etc.

[IssyStark]

As others have said, definitely useful to have something to trow toys in at the end of the day.

We have some Ikea boxes on castors which fit in underneath our dvd shelves, friends have had baskets, plastic boxes, deep drawers and in one case a lovely truck which doubled up as a seat/coffee table for adults.