to only have one small toybox in the living room?

[MamaG]

I have a small wooden chest of toys in my living room. If the lid doesn't close due to too many toys, they get hoiked upstairs.

The DC have a room each and the bulk of their toys there. Their books are on low shelves of my bookcases, no problem there.

Am I mean to only let them have a small box downstairs? Iregularly rotate the toys [pleads]

[Caroline1852]

A very good friend of mine goes to bed at 10.30pm every night. She is very very tidy. Before she turns in she orders her husband off the sofa so she can plump up the cushions so it is all neat and tidy for the next day (she also opens the curtains . He is ordered not to sit down on the sofa again and has to spend the remaionder of his evening sitting on a Victorian tub chair (which is very upright and not very comfy) or on the floor.

[mustsleep]

yanbu

can you come and organise mine for me

we have a toy box chest thing in the room that doubles as an extra seat and currently the lids is just precariousley balanced on top of the huge pile of toys in there and then we ave the "lrge" toys behind the sofa like the rocking horse thing and the fisherprice chair

think that it's fine to do tis and your shildren will probably end up playing with all of their toys more because you rotate them - we do this too and i find they love it when the new toys come downstairs or theyt find something they've forgotton about in the bottom of the toybox

[tortoisekinnockSHELL]

We don't have toys in the living room either. Ds1 and dd have their toys in their bedroom which is also the playroom. Ds2 has a separate toybox with baby toys in.

[Anna8888]

Most of my daughter's, and all my stepsons, toys and possessions are in their bedrooms. We have a huge hall, a sitting room and a dining room, all of which have glass doors (so you can see the mess whichever room you are in). The TV, computer and toys are confined to the dining room. I can't bear houses where all the rooms are invaded with children's stuff...

[Rytzy]

fflipping heck! u don't let your children sit in the sofa? i wonder what supernanny would say about the emotional damage this exclusion does to the children??

[Anna8888]

Caroline1852 - but you don't have to buy those toys . There are lots of beautiful toys on the market.

[elliott]

hmmm. I kind of think its their house, too... But then I would plead guilty to being Poorly Organised. My stuff invades all the rooms, why shouldn't theirs?
Then again, we are moving house soon and will have lots more space - so we WILL have a room that can be kept toy-free (it will be a combination of study and grown up living space. But that will be in addition to a family living room and a play room....

[KommandantColditz]

But why did you buy a sofa that half the family aren't allowed to use?

[KommandantColditz]

What do you do if they have friends round? Are they banished off the sofa too?

[MrsMarvel]

Out of interest - what do you call a grown up living space? I want one at the moment our kitchen front room and back room are mishmash of books, toys, papers and media. I'm looking for ideas.

[Wisteria]

I didn't keep any toys downstairs when mine were little, they brought things down to play with and took them upstairs again at the end of the day.

I got called for it but I didn't really care. YANBU - not in the slightest, your house = your rules, your children = your rules.

I wish I had banished my dcs from the sofa. They probably would have preferred beanbags anyway. Why should dcs be allowed to ruin everything. I am firmly of the belief that parents are superior anyway

[Lorayn]

If we all sat on bean bags and each had our own their would be no problem here, just because the sofa is for me and my partner and the bean bags are for the kids doesn't mean anything. When they have friends round they don't use the living room really, they have their own bedrooms with everything they want, why the need to sit in a boring living room with no toys???

[Lorayn]

*there

[elliott]

MrsM - I don't really know yet, we haven't moved in! I guess- it will be a quiet room without a TV but with a good music system and our computer (so I guess until we get another one the kids will be in it sometimes to use that...) Somewhere we can have coffee with friends after the many dinner parties we are going to hold in our new house....maybe even an expensive sofa! We'll see. The kids won't be banned from it, I'm just expecting there will be other spaces they will prefer to be!

[Caroline1852]

My DD's toys are mostly in our conservatory which is huge and opens onto the garden (the double doors are normally left open so she can play in and out). Sometimes she tries to bring in the Little Tikes car (this car was my 15 year old's first birthday present so has seen better days) - occasionally I let her . I did even toy with the idea of an indoor sandpit but I was pregnant and therefore a complete loon at the time . We have a playroom but it has been taken over by my bigger boys who "need" it to watch rugby, cricket, tennis etc undisturbed (my DD has no toys in that room at all - in fact she is often put out like a cat). She has a couple of soft toys in her cot in her bedroom and a few books in the bookcase. There are no pictures on the walls, the curtains are interlined GP & J Baker linen called Blush China, the walls are cream - she would probably love to have Fifi curtains and murals on the walls. And the sitting room and study I definitely try and keep tat free. She is allowed in there and is allowed to sit on the furniture but we don't use that room generally so it stays pretty tat free. I think every home should have one grown up room - children by invitation only.

[Anna8888]

If you don't want your children to sit on the sofa, don't place it in front of the TV

[ComeOVeneer]

Not unreasonable at all. Our liing room is a toy free zone. Actualy during the day it is a child free zone. They are only allowed in it after dinner and bath, to watch a bit of tv before bedtime.

Before everyone thinks I am an evil mummy, we have a family/playroom on the floor below with all the toys, 2 soafa and a tv, with doors out into the garden where we spend most of the day.

I love having an ault room to retrea to at the end of the day that isn't filles to the rafters with plastic, noismaking, light flashing "junk".

[Caroline1852]

Comeoveneer - I have been known to remove batteries from toys before they run out of juice .

[Wisteria]

Caroline - I have been known to both remove batteries early (some even by xmas evening and pierce holes in toys that squeak too annoyingly...

[Caroline1852]

Anna - I don't buy toys as a rule. They get so many as gifts and occasionally I buy the odd thing from a charity shop which makes bright red and yellow plastic easier to stomach.

[ComeOVeneer]

I don't take the batteries out, but it does seem to take me an awfully long time to replce them when they do go dead

[Anna8888]

I buy lots of toys - I adore toys.

But anything in bright plastic that gets given to us gets returned, or, if that's not possible, passed on to charity.

[Jojay]

We've just built a conservatory off our living room, as a playroom for ds - he's only 9 mths but it's amazing how his toys seem to take over the whole house already.

Have to say, it is HEAVEN to draw the curtains on it in the evening, so we can't see it from the living room, and have our lovely grown up room back.

[Caroline1852]

Anna - Do you live in Harpenden? It would explain why the tat I buy from Charity shops is as new!