To not want toys brought into the lounge?

There is a reason for this.
Your child wants to play whilst also being in the presence of your company. This is what they like to do because the living room is for living. It is for lounging. They want to be near their parents and lounge with their stuff. It is only you that sees these as separate needs that must be met in separate places. In the eyes of your child hanging out in the lovely company of their mum or dad is the perfect time to also be enjoying their toys.

Sorry but my only takeaway from this thread is that I’ve just discovered that my conservatory is technically an orangery and I’m going to insist that every bugger calls it that from now on.

Conservatories was the argument in question. Not sun rooms or garden rooms.

Regardless, sun room is an originally a US term for a conservatory that made it’s way over.

I have not heard of an orangery outside of The Archers and Audley End House.
I can’t even get people to not call my Garden Office a shed. As if I’d be working full time in a professional role in a shed.

You could of told me quicker then it took you to write that sentence

So agree - my father & DH remember taking their mother's Kays catalogue to bed to perve over the underwear sections. Then my sons managed to get hold of the odd 'Playboy' mag. How innocent that sounds compared to what our teenagers have available to them now. I'm so glad that I don't have children, but am concerned about my grandchildren.

If we didn't have toys in our open plan they would be on screens. I hate it too but have tried to do tidy up time before bedtime but there is always the odd random piece!
My mum always used to say ill miss the toys when the kids grow up! I try and remember that! Not always easy!

How do you want them to remember their childhood?

Teach them to tidy but let them play where they want.

I'd love to have a tidy, organised house but not at the expense of my DC being able to relax and play in the main family areas.

Good ol' days of porn on paper!!! These days I can't use that threat as they just pretend they are doing academic work on their neat and tidy phones.

If I had an orangery I would say conservatory as it just isn't a word used much.
You are far too uptight about this, you had children- do you honestly expect them to have toys in one room?

Just out of interest - at 5 kids are expected to take part in the tidying of the classroom at the end of indoor play or free time.

I know at home you don't want to be on at them all the time, but it does no harm to help them learn some house keeping.

A lot of kids arrive at school with no clue about putting toys away even in the most basic way (chucking lego back in a big box) and act very resentfully about being asked!

I wish I could do that now with my two teenage DS and the hellhole their rooms are. Do you think a 19 and 16 year old would mend their ways if I score their tidying and give them a chocolate as a prize? I should have perhaps started their training a little earlier?

I found it very easy to ignore the mess in teenaged bedrooms. Though after I mentioned to oldest DS that he may prefer to keep his porn somewhere other than under his mattress & suggested that if he didn't want me to find it & confiscate it would be best if he kept his bedroom tidy, changed his own bed sheets etc. That worked like a miracle😂His younger brother suddenly started changing his own bed as well.

You have kids. Let them play near you.

Apart from sally Webster in Corrie!!

I come from a long line of not overly house proud people and so to me this just seems insane.

why can’t your kids play in the living room? Why does it matter if a little bit of a toy goes temporarily missing, they usually show up. Why does it matter if bits of toys get muddled up with other bits of toys as long as the kids are enjoying playing with them?

I do feel a little sad for your kids not being allowed to play in the main room of their home. They’ll soon be grown and you’ll realise that that time was more precious than a neat and tidy house.

Something you keep orange trees in.

I disagree with the tidy up time thing - my kids just found it too overwhelming to do at the end of the day when they were tired.

The easier approach IMO is just to make it part of an activity - finish a game, you all put it away together, finish a puzzle, back in the box, finish playing cars, back in the car box.

It also TBH sounds like the 5 year old is maybe just bored or not supervised enough. Some 5 year olds can entertain themselves nicely for ages on their own but many can't and it's developmentally normal for them to need more input.

It could end up damaging to your relationship to be constantly on at him to keep toys in one place. I’d restrict amount of toys if he won’t clear up. Maybe rotate them. What I will say after 3 kids, the day my youngest announced she had cleared out her room and all the toys were in the donate / tip pile was one of the happiest days for me! It drove me potty but I didn’t restrict which rooms they stayed in, though we did have a playroom after a while but omg the mess of it! Mainly DD my youngest who was responsible.

It’s supposed to be a home, not a house. Lighten up.

Don't fall for the Orangeries Sales Pitch!!

This is just life with small children unfortunately! My DS would take everything out of the toy box and sit in it like a boat rather than play with his toys. It fades away as they get older.

All I can suggest is only having one box of toys out at a time and rotating them so there isn’t a whole playroom to gather up at the end of the day.

I wish I could do that now with my two teenage DS and the hellhole their rooms are. Do you think a 19 and 16 year old would mend their ways if I score their tidying and give them a chocolate as a prize? I should have perhaps started their training a little earlier.

Its similar to a conservatory but built differently and looks different. They both have a lot of glass and apparently its ok to have a conservatory but if you have an orangery you've got to pretend you don't because <insert bullshit reason here>

My mum used to let me take my toys into the lounge (I also had a playroom), but when I wasn’t playing with them, I had a designated place to park them that was kind of hidden (the side of one of the chairs). They could stay there for a few days if I was actively playing with them during the day.
Kids sometimes want to play in the main family room.