Help me organise my house, PLEASE

[cba]

ok. all three children have their own large bedrooms in which their toys are stored.

Downstairs, we have a dining room. The computer is in this room along with a fold away dining table and chairs, second tv and dvd - to stop arguments and a few comfy chairs.

Then we have the lounge which is 31 foot long. In here we have main tv and huge sofa and dd has a dolls house. Boys have their playstation.

The problem I have is every room is full of toys there seems to be no escape.

Should I make the dining room into a playroom and put a tv in one of the boys rooms for the playstation. What would you do feel as though I am drowning under the mess.

Or do I take the dining room back and make it a grown up space, oh but then they would want to be on the computer anyway. See I just cannot organise myself,

You have several options really

1. Reclaim the dining room as adult space, all toys now have to be in bedrooms and move the computer to the living room.

2. Make the dining room a playroom and turn lounge into a lounge diner and a no toy zone

3. Put your boys in one room upstairs in bunk beds and make that bedroom a playroom and put all toys from lounge and dining room in there.

In those circs I'd pick option 3

Why not put the playstation in the dining room with the second tv, and get DD's dolls house upstairs in her room? Then you can insist they tidy all toys out of the living room up to their rooms at the end of the day, at least, and have a space that's toy-free?

sorry...meant to say make that vacant bedroom a playroom

if I put the playstation in the dining room with the second tv dd would bound to watch something on that tv, hence the reason why i thought a tv upstairs for the playstation.

If the boys were in one bedroom they would probably kill each other.

I am liking the idea of dining room into playroom. Then I could put the foldaway dining table anc chairs into the lounge for special events as we already have a table in the kitchen. God am I making sense.

I think it depends on what you would want to do in a "grown up space". We originally had one living room designated as such, with the idea that we would listen to music in there in the evening - in reality we would slump on the sofa in the "family room" watching tv, surrounded by a sea of toys we were too tired to tidy up. The other room was hardly ever used.

We now have a tv & dvd in the "grown up" room and it gets used a lot more - dh and I use it nearly every evening to watch tv (and sometimes even listen to music!). The other room is a definite playroom now and I have no qualms about shutting the door on the mess! Also hang the washing up in there...

We only have a dining table in the kitchen - but when the kids are older and don't need a playroom as such I will probably put a dining table in there for the dinner parties I will have then

The other thing to consider is the age of your children - I think once they outgrow toys a lot you can keep most of their stuff in their rooms, with maybe a cupboard for board games, etc down stairs....

So in your case, I would probably make the dining room a grown up room/cosy area with tv & dvd. No toys allowed in there. Put the dining table in the living room (lucky you for having such a big one). Personally I would leave the Playstation where it is - even if only one child uses it now, the others will want to soon and then there will be arguments about going into the other's bedroom... also I'm not keen on tvs in bedrooms in general. You could leave the computer where it is or move it.

Having said all that, it also depends on the layout of your house - our "grown up" room is at the front of the house so it's handy if someone calls to have a room that is reasonable tidy and toy free (in theory!) to go into just off the hallway....

The main thing is to keep things flexible for the future so you can rejig it as they get older and needs change...

cba I find your message interesting because my house is much smaller than yours - it shows that no matter how much I dream we will have a clutter free life when we get a larger one it probably wont happen - imo there is only one way forward if you really want a tidy house: ruthlessly go through all toys and prioritise top ten per child rest get put in loft if not requested after 3 weeks they get given to charity. But then more will come in, so all you can do is make a grown up room like grapefruitmoon says and turn a blind eye to the cluttered rooms. We will probably all miss the clutter when they are all grown up; it really is just part of family life. Take us as you find us as my nan would say!!

frecklyspeckly, you are right. we are currenty looking to move again, need somewhere with more space for a office etc... so know doubt will fill that too.

I have taken all the toys out of the lounge and put most in bedrooms and put a few in the dining room.

Lounge looks huge now so I am thinking of knocking kitchen into lounge making a sepearte dining room off the kitchen and a nice cosy lounge.

I think i am on a roll. I just dont like the idea of dust from a wall knock through, but, you cant have it all ways can you.

my advice is to keep toys stored where they are played with...so they can be tidied away by the children,,,suggest your dining room does this have access to garden....I have tried every combination...think if toys are in bed rooms they end up all over the house as rhey get dragged out - also I am really ruthless on getting rid of stuff

my advice is to keep toys stored where they are played with...so they can be tidied away by the children,,,suggest your dining room does this have access to garden....I have tried every combination...think if toys are in bed rooms they end up all over the house as rhey get dragged out - also I am really ruthless on getting rid of stuff

If I were you, I would make your sitting room a toy free zone.

We have done this. In the sitting room there are no toys, no TV, no computer. Just comfortable chairs and a calm atmosphere.

The dining room has become a library/media room/play room. It has a large central table and can be cleared up to become a (semi) formal dining room again very quickly, but it is generally covered in toys/puzzles/books. We have portable computers, a TV/DVD, little sofa.

The boys also have an XBox in their bedroom, away from it all.

Agree with Anna, I'd keep the sitting room TV and toy/playstation free, makes it mauch more peaceful.
But I woudl only have the TV and playstation bits in the dining room/den whatever it'll be called, I am not keen on TV upstairs and I think one per house is enough.
My mum only has one TV hidden away in a guest room at her house and whenever we are there everyone sits around and chats or reads, so much nicer andmoer sociable than TV/playstations, though I knmow it prob sounds bit idealistic!

I would hate the boys to have the Wii in the library-cum-playroom-cum dining room though. The noises that come out of both the machine and their mouths are horrible

Admittedly we live in a flat so they don't disappear upstairs to play completely out of reach/control.