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Original poster

Living room full of kids stuff

58 replies

Coyoteuglyisonagain · 15/01/2024 20:41

Is your living room/lounge full of your kids things (if you have small children) ?
Just looking around and realising how other things were replaced with kids toys , books etc and if this is normal 😂
We have no coffee table anymore, instead there’s a kids cooker next to the tv and tv table /cabinet thing, our sofa, dining table, bookcase and computer table & fireplace. The rest is filled with baskets with kids toys in, baskets with kids books in, a blackboard, dolls house and toy boxes with teddies in, plus my Dds little chair she sits on.
Is your downstairs living space filled with things too? She does have some things in her bedroom, but never plays there

OP posts:
MotherWol · 15/01/2024 21:16

Yes, because there’s nowhere else for it to go! There’s a play cooker and an easel and a couple of boxes of toys, but tbh it’s not that bad and I can live with it. It’s only for a couple of years, and generally we don’t have a massive flow of new toys in so it’s manageable. Although I am planning to donate the play cooker soon…

spriots · 15/01/2024 21:18

Our living room has stuff belonging to all of us in it, children included. It doesn't bother me - we all live here, it's a shared space.

changefromhr · 15/01/2024 21:19

"No because we have 2 playrooms"

Massive eyeroll

tealandteal · 15/01/2024 21:20

We have the ubiquitous kallax in the lounge which does mean everything goes away at the end of the day. Toy kitchen etc is upstairs and we are lucky to have room for it there.

FlyingWithoutAPlane · 15/01/2024 21:20

Kids don’t like playing in their rooms without you until they are a teenager and then you want them downstairs. Also having a play room, they want to be in the same room as you. Embrace the chaos and live together as a family.

FlyingWithoutAPlane · 15/01/2024 21:23

Vettrianofan · 15/01/2024 20:53

When the youngest turned 5 I made a decision to reclaim the living room so all toys went upstairs to their bedroom, gave bags of toys to charity, and some up loft. There comes a point when you need to get back to normal and make life easier to clean too.

But why is your back to normal at the exclusion of your kid?

Growlybear83 · 15/01/2024 21:24

FlyingWithoutAPlane · 15/01/2024 21:20

Kids don’t like playing in their rooms without you until they are a teenager and then you want them downstairs. Also having a play room, they want to be in the same room as you. Embrace the chaos and live together as a family.

I never found that to be the case. By the time she started school, my daughter had a snack when she got home and then went up to her room to play. She was quite happy to play on her own for an hour or so until I went up to play with her .

LolaSmiles · 15/01/2024 21:25

I'm sorry but the amount of posts here saying god no, we had the playroom for that🤣🤣🤣
I thought the same as you!
How the other half live.

We have children's things in the front room and they can all go in storage boxes at the end of the day.

whatatool · 15/01/2024 21:28

Why must all evidence of your children be hidden?
Is all of your stuff put in your bedroom every night?
Our house is for living in, yes we tidy but we don't hide all evidence of living every day!

luckylavender · 15/01/2024 21:29

Doyouwantmejusttogo · 15/01/2024 20:50

Not really but we have 2x playrooms for just that reason.

🙄

AhBiscuits · 15/01/2024 21:31

Yeah loads of toys. I don't mind if my house looks like children live here, this is their home. The days of playing with toys will pass quickly enough.

MuddlingThroughLife · 15/01/2024 22:05

When my 3 were small they were allowed to bring toys to.play with downstairs, asany as they liked and make mess, but at the end of the day they had to go back in their bedrooms.

My kids are grown up now and instead I have 3 cats and their toys are always strewn around the living room 🙄

MrsWidgerysLodger · 15/01/2024 22:15

Ours is at the moment but DD has just turned 6 and we're giving her bedroom a makeover this summer. Part of this will include sorting more storage so her toys etc can live upstairs. She's started expressing a want for her own space whereas before she'd always want to be in the room we were in. Her oom needs a makeover as other than swapping the cot for a bed not much has changed since the baby years!

MaryShelley1818 · 15/01/2024 22:16

Our living room is full of children's toys and I wouldn't have it any other way, they're only 6 and 3 and a time will come soon when the living room isn't full of toys. For now all 4 of us are absolutely happiest when we're together. I love watching mine play, I honestly feel sad at the thought some children have to play in a separate room just to keep the room looking like only adults live there.
We're lucky that we have a large living room (cheap house but Edwardian terrace so big rooms) so they have a section that is theirs - lovely rug with a little table and 2 children's chairs, huge Kallax full of Duplo, Playmobil, baskets of dinosaurs, Jigsaws and games, lots of really lovely wooden toys on display, a pram with dolls and a Disney Castle playset. They love playing.

AllProperTeaIsTheft · 15/01/2024 22:23

Mine are teenagers now, but no, we never had kids' toys in the living room much really. They were in their bedrooms. Any that got brought into the living room just got taken back into their rooms at bed time.

NewName24 · 15/01/2024 22:27

When they were little, yes.
It's nice.

RawBloomers · 15/01/2024 22:35

Coyoteuglyisonagain · 15/01/2024 21:08

Mine isn’t cluttered and it’s always tidied away, it just makes me life how the lovely coffee table and side table thingy with nice lamp disappeared and there’s a kids kitchen and chair etc etc

I saw this with my bag. Going from a smart, trendy leather backpack that can fit my phone and a bag for life to a huge, wipeable monstrosity that’s carried more plastic tat than a recycling truck! (And which I can’t find my damn phone in Grin).

Sendhelp101 · 15/01/2024 22:39

Most of the time it does as DS room isn't big enough for all his toys! If I have the time I tidy it all away into various cabinets and cupboards but it's inevitably all dragged out again the next day

Mindyourfunkybusiness · 15/01/2024 22:40

Yes playroom and dd is almost 7 and I've removed coffee table and other bits to make more space for her stuff. She loves having her friends over and I just thought why not. It's temporary. She's so happy.
Also has made both spaces nicer for her to play in as her things are more spread out like castles, kitchen etc. The big toy type things. All in one room it felt a bit tight but now we have two doll houses in living room relatively far and dolls go on holidays etc for a drive. Then middle of the room still has space for switch dance offs etc.

Seeing the girls run around and have fun is nice. And gives me a break. Win win haha

Nchange22 · 15/01/2024 22:43

Lots of children’s toys and books in our living room. We don’t have the space for a separate playroom and I enjoy being together. I think I will miss it when the toys disappear and the playing stops.

I do insist on it being tidy every evening though. I can’t sit and relax if there are toys all over the room.

Ohhmydays · 15/01/2024 22:59

Devilsmommy · 15/01/2024 21:16

Oh yes, toys all over my living room 😅 though I do tidy them when DS 15mo has gone to bed. I'm sorry but the amount of posts here saying god no, we had the playroom for that🤣🤣🤣 I'm in a 2 bed flat, my living room is the playroom 🤪

Yep mine too 👍🏽 I live in a 3bed 4 in a block so don’t have the luxury of a playroom. My youngest will be 2 in a few months and what ever toys i take through the bedroom end up back in the living room within 10min, I actually bought a really nice wooden sideboard so i could hide the toy boxes in the cupboards when kids are in bed 😂

SisterHyster · 15/01/2024 23:00

IMO it’s about balance.

Our house has adult decor (not THAT kind of adult decor!) such as ornaments, vases etc, and we have nice furniture.

We do have some kids toys which are downstairs - off the top of my head, my eldest has a book, a colouring book and pencil case, and a game in the living room, and the youngest has a few toy cars and a couple of soft toys, and a toot toot set.

these things are all tidied away neatly when the kids go to bed. We have a sectional sofa and the play area is behind part of the sofa, so in the evenings we can relax and not be staring at the toys.

Their bedrooms have loads of toys but we limit how many come downstairs. We do spend a lot of time playing upstairs with them so it isn’t like they are sent off alone. And we swap the downstairs toys frequently.

Mindyourfunkybusiness · 15/01/2024 23:07

Ohhmydays · 15/01/2024 22:59

Yep mine too 👍🏽 I live in a 3bed 4 in a block so don’t have the luxury of a playroom. My youngest will be 2 in a few months and what ever toys i take through the bedroom end up back in the living room within 10min, I actually bought a really nice wooden sideboard so i could hide the toy boxes in the cupboards when kids are in bed 😂

Show quote history

Aiii guys I'm in a 3 bed too just I'm a single solo parent with just one dd so it's just circumstance 😅 if I had a husband and another kid it wouldn't be this way, truuuuuust.

TreeStone · 15/01/2024 23:15

I've never aspired to a special "grown up space" other than our bedroom. However in my head we had a timeshare system going on. We had a toy kitchen out but apart from that, pretty much everything packed away into a kallax tucked into our dining area. So we did clear back to little visible kiddy stuff every evening.

I deliberately chose smaller toys that had a lot of play value per space. Eg for dolls we had a couple with clothes, bottles, a sling, little blankets, one folding buggy, rather than a buggy and a bed and a highchair. Lots to play with but it packed away into one kallax cube. If I had another child now I'd probably be way more laid back and embrace the plastic though!

cadburyegg · 15/01/2024 23:21

I have always had the lounge full of kids toys but when they were younger, the big stuff is easy to tidy away. Now they are nearly 9 and nearly 6 they are into playmobil, setting up houses etc and role playing so they want to leave their creations up. It was driving me mad it all being on the lounge floor so I said they have to keep stuff upstairs in their bedroom if they don't want to tidy it all up every day. Because I don't need to be watching their every move anymore. Anything they play with in the lounge has to be tidied up at the end of the day. I was starting to lose the plot! But I am also in the middle of a huge declutter.