Im not sure how realistic toy no-go zones are with 4 DC in a 3 bed house. we have a small house and this really wouldn't work for us.
It is realistic, but it takes a LOT of effort on your part. My mom had 4 born between 1963 and 1970, and in those days a 3 bed house for that size family was the norm in US suburbs.
There wasnt much childrens TV, so no reason to be anywhere but our rooms, where the toys were. We played in our bedrooms, or outside (since it was in Florida, and a modern suburb with big gardens, outside was a more reliable option than in the UK, so there's that.) We were expected to limit what was brought out to play with and expected to put it away before moving on to the next. So, if we were playing house with the dress up box and toy kitchen stuff, we finished with that before pulling out the building toys we owned (tinkertoys, did they exists in the UK?) My earliest memories must be about age four, and I remember incidents both knowing to clean up in between and doing so, and knowing that since we hadnt, we would have to as soon as mom came in and saw it. And deciding to just skip it until then!
no anything on the floor in the kitchen is common sense for safety reasons. no toys in the dining room you have to go through to get to the kitchen, except things like playdough or art stuff, which could ONLY be used there, and then cleaned up again. toys in the front room, very rarely, and again, cleaned up at end of the play session. Often, the youngest baby was in a playpen in there whenever we were playing with things he was too little for, that he might choke on or break.
Up until oldest DB began school, playtime was organised much like a nursery, we werent left to our own devices all morning, interrupted to grab some lunch, then sent to wade back through the piles of toys all afternoon. From an early age there was a schdule to the day. Breakfast, tidying and dressing, playtime for a while, then a clean up and another playtime where we would be directed into a different sort of play. Maybe first it would be outside and the second would be sitting to do art. Maybe first would be dress up boxes and then outdoors. Then a clean up and then lunch. And then naps, or as we were bigger, quiet time in our room with books or whatever other quiet thing we could each play with solo for about an hour.(hoping we would fall asleep of course). Then playtime and a cleanup before dinner. One morning each week we went to the library. One morning we went grocery shopping. Both those days, we all had to get in the car fairly early to drive Daddy to work so mom could have the car. We might stop in to see a grandmother or aunt before the library opened, but I know we went right to the grocery store from dropping him.
i am sure between the days we had the car, and the days we did art, she probably had a weekly schedule but I dont remember it as such. i dont recall her playing with us very much, she was a 1960s housewife, so there was all that scratch cooking and baking to do, and laundry to wash and hang and iron, and she made a lot of dresses for her and I, and some of my brothers clothes too. She usually did art with us, or did her embroidery then, and might sit down for a quick cup of play tea. She certainly admired the things we built before helping us dismantle them. Basically, she would set us up in the bedroom to play, go do her stuff for an hour or so, then she would rearrange us, then go back to her own stuff. i guess she had a sense of how long we would play nicely at one thing, so organised us, used the remaining time, reorganised us, etc. If we fought over whatever we were playing with, it was time to put it away and do something else. Messy stuff like art supplies were not available except under supervision, so that mess was controlled. As we got a little older, chores other than putting away toys crept in: setting the table for lunch and dinner, helping clear it, helping dust skirting boards or wipe down other woodwork.
So, it can be done, but it will be done BY you actively directing it every day not by just telling the dc. Which sounds hard, but then again, living in a messy toy strewn house is hard. My mom made her choice for the organising, and it paid off as we all kind of kept to the habit of not dropping stuff all over the house so long as we lived there. admittedly, my mom is a very organised person by nature so this would be her choice! my version was a more watered down expectation that toys go back to the bedroom, even if just in a messy pile, each night. When they were toddlers, and played in the babyproofed living room, all the toys were scooped into a laundry basket at night. By me or DH.
Currently, I am exhausted thinking how busy she kept us in order that she could get through the housework expected of SAHM then. i have one ds now, at school most of the day, and I dont accomplish a quarter of what she did each day with 4 small children and a dog undefoot.
) - now it is a habit - it is finished it gets emptied...just do it automatically.