To be confused about playrooms?

[Wowsostormy]

I just don't get how they work in the home. I get it more if your child is old enough to play unsupervised, but if they're young you surely have to just be in the playroom with them, in which case why not just have toys in the living room? Because you're probably not in the living room much, so isn't the playroom then basically your living room anyway?

And a child old enough to play unattended could surely play in their room instead anyway?

Explain this to me!

YABU - playrooms are great for X reason I haven't grasped

YANBU - pointless room which may as well be the living room

A playroom is basically just a "kids living room" - where children can keep toys, books, games etc without it having to be in their bedrooms but also ensuring that adults can have a peaceful space to relax once kids are in bed without having to either tidy up every night or squeeze between the lego cityscape in progress and barbie's dream house to sit in the sofa and watch TV.

I think they're most useful if you have multiple children, my DD is an only child so she just has the slightly larger bedroom so she can keep all of her toys/games there. My siblings and I had a playroom when we were kids because there was 4 of us, none of our bedrooms were really big enough to play in together and meant that shared toys/games - things like play kitchens/tool benches when we were little; board games, lego and consoles as we got older - had a specific place and there was no arguing over toys belonging to each other (we kept any special toys in our bedrooms so anything in the playroom was fair game for anyone to play with). As we got older it transformed more into a study room with desks/computers on one side for homework and a TV and sofa on the other so we could use our consoles/watch our own TV shows if mum and dad were watching their daily soaps.

As small kids it was great for us to have our own place to play, knowing that if anything elaborate like dens or marble runs etc could be left set up for days on end without being disturbed, and as we got older it meant we had domewhere we could do our homework and hang out after school without either being relegated to our individual bedrooms or in the living room with the whole family.

Some houses have kitchen/diner and a formal dining room. Most people eat in kitchen now and use dining room as playroom/office/second living room. In our old house dining room was a complete waste just used at Christmas. Haven’t missed it at all. We eat at table in kitchen/diner.

@LowlandLucky we have a kitchen/diner which is separate to the playroom (now gaming room).

I think the idea is just that instead of going around picking up all the toys, you can just shut the playroom door and voila, tidy house.

@CaptainMerica

I don't have a playroom, but do envy it in friend's houses. It's just a second, kid focused, living room you can close the door on when the kids go to sleep, and have a nice, tidy, grownup living room for the evening.

I'll second this.

I'd love to have a playroom with decent purpose built storage and a table for arts and crafts. What I haveis a living room with toys crammed into a storage bench and under bed storage (that pulls out from under the sofa) and a dining room dresser packed with art and craft activities... I hate the lack of adult only space and the inability to close the door/leave something half painted on the table (due to having to clean up for a meal) etc.

@gogohm

Mine became the tv/PlayStation room as they got older, meant they could entertain friends

This too.

It’s nice for them to have their friends around and have privacy. It won’t always have a play kitchen in it.

When my DC were younger we had a playroom which was like a living room but with lots of cube units filled with toys. Train tracks or arts and crafts etc could be left out overnight.
We also had a living room which was always lovely and neat and would be used in the evenings.

We have a large playroom and DS has the smallest bedroom in the house with nothing but a bed, clothes and storage and books in. The playroom is off the living room-diner and means I can shut the door at night without destroying train tracks/Lego/creations. Can also have the doors open and sit in the living room and be involved in playing, or we have a sofa and nice things in the playroom too so we can hang out in there. Can happily fit 6+ kids in there so playdates are always at ours.

When I was little we didn't have a living room at all. We had a formal 'sitting room' at the front of the house with posh sofas. We only really went in there to sit an listen to our father read to us in the evenings or to practice the piano, otherwise it was only used when my parent's friends came. Then we had 'the playroom' which was a huge room at the back of the house. That's where we had all our toy boxes and a couple of shabbier sofas. It wasn't ok to leave toys lying around all over the place though, we just played with what we wanted and then put it away before getting the next lot of stuff out.

My parents have never had a living room. They just sit at the kitchen table in the evening to read, and don't have a TV. I don't understand that. I reckon what would be perfect with little ones is a large split level room with comfy sofas and a TV in the top level and a more child centred area with their toy boxes at the bottom level.

I use the consvertery as the kids playroom. Half of it where the kids have their toys and the other end is where the dining table is that normally ends up being covered in all sorts of stuff.

Things like toy cars always end up in the sitting room though, but it works for all the big bulky stuff that they have as well and for building train tracks

It also means that at the end of the day, if I cant be bothered to tidy up, can just chuck it in there and forget about it like some pp have said. We can see what they ae up to as the doors are glass and in the summer the doors lead out to the garden so they we have those open and they can play in and out as much as they want.

When we brought this house, this was one of the major things that we looked for

We converted a double garage into a playroom which had an entire wall of storage built which contained everything including a 32 inch tv that they used for xbox meaning the lounge tv was not taken up for hours in the school holidays.

Basically everything everyone else has said, leave out huge train set circuits, all messy items like paint or playdoh all in there.

My children are now older it has adapted to their needs. We divided off the large open space into 2 separate areas so they could home school easily, their desks have computers and it is where they do their homework. They can retreat to there when we have boring family conversations. I would not have been without it. We had one at our previous house too.

I like not having a living room covered in toys to be honest. It means once the kids are in bed I can enjoy an uncluttered room.

Just another perspective on playrooms. I was a school nursery teacher and used to do home visits before they started nursery. It was a reasonably affluent area with quite a few homes with playrooms. Many of you talk about it being good as you can shut the door on all the mess. We experienced rooms with beautiful toys all just being trashed all over the floor and walked on with no respect for the toys. They then start school or nursery and have to be immediately trained that you don't just tip boxes of toys all over the floor and then move on to the next thing. I agree they can be great for craft activities and leaving models built etc but surely it doesn't need to be left in a complete mess at the end of the day. I am sure a lot of you don't do this but it seems quite a popular theme through this thread.

YANBU @Wowsostormy I tried this with dreams of a lovely plastic tat free living room. Ha!

I just ended up with a total shambles of a playroom that they wouldn’t play in anyway plus plastic tat everywhere as normal. Total waste of space. . L

Our playroom is a godsend. It's got fitted cupboards with space for about 16 kallax type boxes, behind doors, then we have little chairs and a table that can be dropped flat against the wall when we want space to play. The piano also lives in there and bulky toys like toy kitchen.

It means the sitting room is basically always tidy - if someone pops around it's rare for there to be toys there. It also means if the kids are part way through a lego model, game or craft picture it can be left out til later without any stress over mess.

@AnnieMay55

Just another perspective on playrooms. I was a school nursery teacher and used to do home visits before they started nursery. It was a reasonably affluent area with quite a few homes with playrooms. Many of you talk about it being good as you can shut the door on all the mess. We experienced rooms with beautiful toys all just being trashed all over the floor and walked on with no respect for the toys. They then start school or nursery and have to be immediately trained that you don't just tip boxes of toys all over the floor and then move on to the next thing. I agree they can be great for craft activities and leaving models built etc but surely it doesn't need to be left in a complete mess at the end of the day. I am sure a lot of you don't do this but it seems quite a popular theme through this thread.

My children have to tidy the playroom before bed. It’s one of their chores.

Considering the amount of home makeover shows where the lounge is transformed back into an adult space you are being unreasonable.

We have a playroom with a kallax unit for storing the toys, I sit up there with mine and read books in an armchair while they play. Downstairs we also have a small toy box so mine can play downstairs as well, I rotate the toy box toys. However I hate clutter and the playroom is very neat as well!

A playroom is a place for kids to play and keep toys without them being in the living room or their bedrooms. I currently live in a 4 bedroom house with my parents and 2 siblings. My little sister’s room used to be a playroom, because she shared a room with me at one point. My brother will be moving out soon so his room or my sister’s room could potentially become a playroom for baby.

@AnnieMay55 - we definitely don’t allow that here. By ‘mess’ I mean large brio train set is set up on a Monday and left 3 days whilst Ds plays with it. If it was in living room I would have to tidy away each day and rebuild.

Right now Ds has pop up tent and tunnel out, with loads of soft toys and tea set in tent. I will leave again a few days if he’s happily playing in it. In living room I couldn’t as it would mean we couldn’t see each other across the room, the tv or talk to guests without it in the way.

Each ‘thing’ is then tidied away when finished. That might be each day, or up for a week.

I can come downstairs in the evening and watch tv without looking at a mess of toys!

We had one
It was basically a very big cupboard

If you turn your dining room into a playroom where do you eat ?

We have a large kitchen with 8 seat dining table, which is where we eat. I think half the kitchen was possibly the dining room when the house was built but no one wants separate dining rooms any more.

We are making one our spare rooms into a play room and moving my daughters bedroom to the smallest room. The sheer amount of stuff is enormous and taking over the house.

In our front room we currently have a sensory table, trolley full of craft supplies, dresser full of toys, pram, trike, fully functioning toddler piano, shopping trolley. We could stick it all in her bedroom but it would look a mess. We are going to move her to the smallest room for just sleeping in/clothes storage and have a big playroom with all her stuff neatly in there.

My kid (1yo) knows he has to tidy up the playroom before bed. He does it when asked and says goodnight to everything as he does it. I also don’t allow him to get everything out at once. Things have to be put away before the next toy is brought out. I like it kept immaculately and the toys are all sorted and live in purpose built storage. It’s a great asset.

If you turn your dining room into a playroom where do you eat ?

Loads of people no longer eat at tables but in front of the TV with a plate on their knees. Sales of dining tables have plummeted.

Or, loads of houses have a kitchen big enough for a dining table, and a separate dining room.

“Plummeted” is a bit of a strong statement. Research shows there has been a steady decline but this is just as likely to be because many homes have solutions for eating in the kitchen that don’t need a formal dining set.