Our kitchen/dining table has become a dumping ground!

[Jemster]

We have a small kitchen so the table we eat at is in the living room which is a large room. We have a nice big rectangular, solid pine table.
My son is 5 and likes playing with lego and small figures. To keep these away from 1 year old dd we make him play with them up high on this table. He has a case to keep them in but they still seem to be everywhere.

The table gets used as a general dumping ground for e.g. my handbag, dd's changing bag, toys, colouring pens, random papers, mugs, glasses, wipes and more.
We don't really have much storage so all this junk just ends up on here daily. It looks cluttered and awful and not like a nice place to sit down and eat.

Does anyone else have a similar set up and how do you keep it looking like a table to eat at rather than a bombsite! It just seems to attract everyone's bits & bobs and I am forever constantly clearing it.

Start with your handbag and the changing bag.

Do you actually have somewhere to hang them that's convenient to the front door? If not, you need a hook for them.

Same with colouring pens. Do you have a drawer / box / convenient space for them?

If things dont have a clearly designated and rigidly enforced place, then their place will be the kitchen table. It's a fundamental law of physics.

This week I have half a car interior on my table. Two weeks ago it was an engine block, DH treats it has his private workshop. Short of getting a bigger shed or torching the table Im stuck with it.

Buy shed. Move car bits into shed. Move DH into shed. Lock door and throw away key.

Sorted.