To not want toys brought into the lounge?

[ohnononofenton]

So in context, our downstairs area is all open plan. There’s a smallish lounge, a dining room and then an orangery. The children’s toys and games are in the orangery and their bedrooms.

They both but especially my five year old keep bringing them into the lounge. I hate it. It’s mostly because the lounge is on the small side so quickly gets full, toys get trampled on, end up under the sofa and the TV unit. I end up skidding on toy cars and parts of tool boxes all the time.

I am trying to be quite firm about keeping toys in the orangery or bedrooms. Or is this just too uptight? It’s an ongoing battle keeping the house fairly tidy and I don’t do a bad job but it is a lot of work.

You have kids. Let them play near you.

I wish I could do that now with my two teenage DS and the hellhole their rooms are. Do you think a 19 and 16 year old would mend their ways if I score their tidying and give them a chocolate as a prize? I should have perhaps started their training a little earlier?

I found it very easy to ignore the mess in teenaged bedrooms. Though after I mentioned to oldest DS that he may prefer to keep his porn somewhere other than under his mattress & suggested that if he didn't want me to find it & confiscate it would be best if he kept his bedroom tidy, changed his own bed sheets etc. That worked like a miracle😂His younger brother suddenly started changing his own bed as well.

Just out of interest - at 5 kids are expected to take part in the tidying of the classroom at the end of indoor play or free time.

I know at home you don't want to be on at them all the time, but it does no harm to help them learn some house keeping.

A lot of kids arrive at school with no clue about putting toys away even in the most basic way (chucking lego back in a big box) and act very resentfully about being asked!

If I had an orangery I would say conservatory as it just isn't a word used much.
You are far too uptight about this, you had children- do you honestly expect them to have toys in one room?

Good ol' days of porn on paper!!! These days I can't use that threat as they just pretend they are doing academic work on their neat and tidy phones.

I'd love to have a tidy, organised house but not at the expense of my DC being able to relax and play in the main family areas.

How do you want them to remember their childhood?

Teach them to tidy but let them play where they want.

If we didn't have toys in our open plan they would be on screens. I hate it too but have tried to do tidy up time before bedtime but there is always the odd random piece!
My mum always used to say ill miss the toys when the kids grow up! I try and remember that! Not always easy!

So agree - my father & DH remember taking their mother's Kays catalogue to bed to perve over the underwear sections. Then my sons managed to get hold of the odd 'Playboy' mag. How innocent that sounds compared to what our teenagers have available to them now. I'm so glad that I don't have children, but am concerned about my grandchildren.

You could of told me quicker then it took you to write that sentence

I have not heard of an orangery outside of The Archers and Audley End House.
I can’t even get people to not call my Garden Office a shed. As if I’d be working full time in a professional role in a shed.

Conservatories was the argument in question. Not sun rooms or garden rooms.

Regardless, sun room is an originally a US term for a conservatory that made it’s way over.

Sorry but my only takeaway from this thread is that I’ve just discovered that my conservatory is technically an orangery and I’m going to insist that every bugger calls it that from now on.

There is a reason for this.
Your child wants to play whilst also being in the presence of your company. This is what they like to do because the living room is for living. It is for lounging. They want to be near their parents and lounge with their stuff. It is only you that sees these as separate needs that must be met in separate places. In the eyes of your child hanging out in the lovely company of their mum or dad is the perfect time to also be enjoying their toys.

I’m team OP! Toys in a dedicated room and kids bedrooms. And all small pieces sorted into ziploc bags. It is doable, definitely. Kids books are allowed in the front room though.

And I’m foreign so didn’t know the difference between an orangerie and conservatory - thanks MN for the impromptu vocabulary lesson haha😁

Why is it affected to call something by its name?

Why isn’t it affected to call a conservatory a conservatory, or a greenhouse a greenhouse, but it IS affected to call an orangerie an orangerie?

Are they expected to play in a place where you are actively growing citrus fruits?

To be fair my room was a mess when I was a teenager and my mum used to always moan about it! I can cope better when it’s kind of confined to one space.

It is generally just me with them during the week. Ds goes to bed around 8 and dd is usually up quite early so I’m generally ready for bed around 10. So I don’t have a lot of evening time. Just trying to reduce stress and mess really. Ds does seem to respond better to ‘toys in the orangery please!’ than the tidying thing. Unfortunately turning it into a game doesn’t work.

Is there any chance at all posters could stop going on about what the room is called? It’s getting really tedious to read post after post of feigned amazement that a room is called what it is called.

Cos it just is. You know it is. It will be a sales technique from Dobbies.

Also all these back attachments apparently lower a house price. Just for info.

Audley End House doesn’t have an orangey. It was demolished in 1800s and the vine house was built.

Go for it Girlfriend. So my porch is now a conservatory & my conservatory is an orangery surely puts £20K on the value of my little 2 bed bungalow. 😂

Just like a flat that I used to have rented out with a tiny yard which you could just about put a small table & 2 chairs in. But when I sold it the estate agent insisted on saying that it was a 'courtyard garden'. I was thinking 'whatever' any buyer will see it for what it is...

Expand your vocabulary, mate.

It’s not a sales technique from Dobbie’s ffs, they’ve existed for hundreds of years.

(i may be overinvested because I’ve always wanted one)

I'd love a vine house. Perhaps more than an orangery.

Ooh, now you’ve got me torn. I think I’d accept either.