To be overwhelmed with toys in a small house?

[MooseBreath]

My house has a small living area. The main floor has a kitchen/diner and a living room, but no other living space in the house. Bedrooms are small, so not great for play. We therefore have to share the living space with our children (nearly 3 and 6 months). Obviously kids that age come with a lot of stuff and our living room currently contains a bouncy chair, a jumperoo, hanging toys, a toy storage unit with 3 boxes, and an ottoman toy box, plus all the things in a normal living room (sofa, chair, coffee table, sideboard, TV unit, TV).

On loads of forums and parenting articles, people suggest that parents rotate children's toys so that it's not the same stuff every day. Our space is limited in our house, so I thought this would work really well for us.

But DS (nearly 3) refuses to have the toys rotated! If I put any in storage, he immediately asks (politely, in fairness) for the exact toys I have put away. But he then adds the recently rotated-in toys to his play and I can't cycle the new ones back! He knows every single toy he owns and plays with all of them together Toy Story style. But this leaves our house in such a state and I can't get on top of it.

AIBU to be pulling my hair out? I'm not from the UK and the standard in my home country is a separate playroom or basement, plus a bigger footprint for houses. How do you all keep a house reasonably tidy with children?!

Can you really only fit in 3 Trofast boxes? Is there no room upstairs for Trofast too? Then if it’s labelled, you can clear up back into the boxes and take e.g. the PJ Masks figures back upstairs as part of tidy-up time. Might be a bit of a pain but if you can’t rotate the toys out of sight out of mind, then you need to keep them but make it work with where and how you store them. You just have to accept they can’t all get stored where they’re played with.

Missing the point perhaps, but I thought bouncy chair stage was over by the time they're ready for the Jumperoo? Do you need both out at the same time?

We have some storage in his room and in the garage (that's how I was trying to do rotation), but it's obviously not accessible so he can't just get out what he wants in his game and I therefore have to be involved every time.

We have the same problem! We've accepted that this space is currently the children's as much as it's ours, and invested in ways to make it all more presentable. We got rid of all our books from the bookcase (sold some and put more special ones in the attic). Then got lots of pretty canvas boxes to keep on the shelves with different toys in. We swapped another piece of furniture for a big storage bench that has 8 baskets in it, which functions as another seat plus more storage. Looks lovely with cushions and a throw on top. The big fabric bags are good too, as a previous poster mentioned. We've got a couple of them in fabric that goes nicely with our other living room decor so you hardly notice them. We have a very small living space and lots of toys, but I'm really pleased with how it looks.

The main compromise is large toys - rocking horse, trampoline(!), big wooden activity cube. I make sure that we only have a couple of those at a time, then sell on when new things come in. The kids soon get bored of things anyway. You have to be a bit ruthless!

Both are out because there's nowhere to "put away" either of them!

You can't dismantle the Jumperoo and keep it under the sofa or something until baby is ready for it? I'm just remembering my DC were well past the bouncy chair stage by Jumperoo stage.

Yanbu to be overwhelmed but you just have to deal with it.

Bouncy chair and jumperoo? Pick one! I didn't get a jumperoo as I find them literally a waste of space.

Get rid of the coffee table. Again, in a small space it is a waste especially if you have a side board and let's be honest you can rarely actually put the cup down with young children.

Have a huge declutter of the toys, then have a look on marketplace at some storage that would come in handy. We repurposed a bookcase as a toy storage with baskets for smaller toys and bigger ones can go directly on the shelves.

Same with the bookcase! Simple but effective.

Jumperoos are a menace. They take up SO much room. We barely even used it with DD2 and eventually I got fed up of it taking up so much room and gave it away on Marketplace so it could haunt someone else's front room. It'll feel a lot better once you are past the jumperoo stage and it can be got rid of! Ditto bouncy chair. Baby DD2 just has one little bag of baby toys now so hasn't added much additional clutter!

Also go vertical as much as you can for storage. You're probably more limited on floor space than height, so stack Trofast, get tall bookcase storage, make the most of the wall space to free up floor space.

Garden storage? We have some plastic storage in our garden for lawnmower etc. But could you use something like this to put the bigger bulkier items? Not ideal, but it would get them out the living area.

Not wanting to be involved every time - wanting him to have unfettered access to all his toys at once, in the moment - is a different issue, though.

You can keep all the toys, and he can play with them all at once, but storing, tidy-up time and hassle are the compromise.

Or you can get rid of lots of toys, and limit them to only the storage he can manage on his own in the space that he plays in.

Or you can compromise as others have suggested by making more room for storage in the space he plays in by getting rid of some ‘adult’ furniture.

Alas, in a small house compromise is key.

Less stuff - we didn’t have a jumperoo as small living room. And babybjorn bouncer folded flat under sofa when not in use

use the wall space. Tv wall mounted. Buy ikea spice shelves for children’s books, wall mount behind living room door and In children’s bedroom. You can also buy wall
baskets for toys

baskets with lids. Can close lid on bricks etc. looks tidy

Garden storage is good. If you get garden cupboard - Ikea also sell garden metal ones. Can keep balls, plastic toys, chalk, any outdoor stuff, beach toys all out there.

just get rid of stuff. Even though people buy Ds over the years, if it’s similar to what he already has I just pick one to keep and donate the other.

It's great that your child plays so imaginatively, many don't. I do sympathise, the clutter used to bug me too, but it lasts a relatively short time so I would try to embrace or at least ignore it. We've just reclaimed/redecorated our living room after it doubling as a playroom for the last 10 years. It's lovely to have a neat and calm room back but it's also kind of sad that the big toys have gone.

Thank you for the input! I have decided to ditch the bouncer. DS2 still likes it and we do use it, but we would be ok without it. He adores the jumperoo though, so unfortunately that stays. Interesting idea about wall space! I'll see if we can put up a shelf above the sideboard for additional bins.

Also try and move more to the bedrooms or kitchen. Instead of rotating just keep certain things there.
Ie in our house with 3 year old all art and craft type things are kept in kitchen cupboards as they are done at kitchen table and only under supervision.
You could probably move puzzles with more than 12 pieces also if baby would touch anyway.

It's awful I know.

We have something like this but ours was only £12 from b&q.

Throw any annoying little bits away or put in a box with lid and hide, I find these items the most annoying!

Maybe say something like another little child is borrowing it as they have no toys.

I'm sure he asks for them but he's probably forget in a few days of you stay firm.

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@MooseBreath

Its frustrating at the time BUT honestly, it's only for a short while and when all the bright coloured baby/toddler stuff has gone, you will miss it & them playing.

he's playing very creatively and even though it messes with our heads it's apparently very good for them
to 'mix' up their toys and play with an
odd mix of them together.

embrace the fun, it doesn't last long! One day you'll look back and long for them to be playing with proper toys.

Oh & don't throw away little bits, just have something like a Tupperware container to put them in. One he can ask for to rummage in to find the play mobile man's axe or the wheel off something.

To reduce the amount of new toys, can you make firm 'suggestions' to family for birthday and christmas, such as experiences, passes for family activities, book vouchers etc.

I will start being more firm with grandparents and requesting things like books and experiences.

@MaisieDaisyMay I definitely don't want to change the way he plays! I love his imagination and want it to continue, which is why I don't want to limit the toys he can have out (including the little bits - we already have a container for them). It's purely storage that is frustrating me!

Tidy away toys when DC are asleep in bed was how I used to do it years ago.

Any toys you want to circulate, do this whilst your DC is asleep. Easy🤷

Please can you come and tell my two year old this because if I dare defy him, it ruins both mine and the four year olds day at the moment.

A jumperoo takes up a huge amount of space and is a nice to have and could go if space is tight. Put it on marketplace. If not your youngest will have grown out of it in a few short weeks anyway so that issue is time limited.

Again the chair will go in a few weeks when they start sitting.

Likewise, your eldest will start school in a year and then you can have a massive purge.

We just had to say no to large toys like kitchens and sit and rides until we moved or unless they could be kept outside.