Do I give up a room for the kids?

[zephyrcat]

We had to sell our dining table to get some extra cash and ever since then our dining room has become a bit of a junk room. I would love to have it back as a dining room one day but my mum suggested we turn it into a 'family' room and stick a tv and an old sofa and all the toys in there to keep our living room for visitors and me and dp in the evenings. Has anyone else done this? does it make life easier?!

I know alot of people who do this and if you make sure all the toys stay in one room when the kids are in bed you just shut the door on the mess!

We used to have a lounge/diner which was basically the room where everyone was, toys etc and then a separate sitting room for relaxation etc (no tv, just a hifi) but found we rarely used it as such, so turned it into a dining room.

We've more or less done this - but we have the luxury of a little more space than you by the sound of it, so we just turned a guest bedroom (which was only ever used once every couple of months) into a a playroom equipped with a sofa bed. As the "guest room" was mostly occupied by laundry/the ironing board it wasn't much of a hardship, but it has made a big difference to keeping ds's toys contained. We used to have wooden railway layouts snaking all over the ground floor, and they would inevitbly get kicked/knocked and disrupted. Since we converted the room we've bought him a play table and the railway stays within the confines of that.

We've done this. The dining room/kitchen now has a sofa in it with most of dd's books and toys and we keep the lounge as a grown up area. She's only ever in there really to watch TV - for half an hour or so at the weekend. Works really well for us all.

We have given up our dining room, just have a table in the kitchen to have a playroom for dd which is exactly as you ahve described. Oldish sofa, will be a tv when we get round to buying one, the computer and her toys. It was the best decision I ahve made, we don't have toys all over the house, our front room is reserved for adults and she ahs a fab space to play in with her friends.

It was also fab for kids parties as we could just clear out the bigger toys and have a party room. Am a bit sad that we do not have a proper dining room for xmas but might look into buying a fold up table that we can keep in the shed and just set up for special occasions. Our long term plan is to extend out the back of the house and have an extra dining plan, but that will be a while off.

I would love to have a separate room for the kids... Do it!!

Since our grandson came to live with us - we've turned the dining room into a sort of family room. He can throw his toys all over in a safe envoironment and we still have the front room for adults and any visitors. Must admit that I didn't do it for him - I did it because I've got two white sofa's and white curtains in the front room - 22 month old & white furniture, definately don't go together

I like having toys all round my house

I have a family home, and am quite happy to have no 'adult' only space (I have a separate dining room with toys in it, toys in the lounge, toys in DS's and DD's room, in the bathroom, on the stairs .. well I think you get the picture)

lol twiglett - sounds exactly like our house! Its all open plan so the toys run from the front door, through the front room, through the dining room past the kitchen and bathroom and to the backdoor!! I try to keep the toy level bearable but it doesnt happen!! Countless times i've put dd's toys up to her room and somehow they all end up back down here! Would be nice for her to have her own room to wreck tho!!!

We sacrificed our "formal" dining room for a playroom. We eat at the kitchen table now. We can move the kitchen table into the playtroom should we want to dine away from the gentle electrical hum of the American style fridge freezer though.

We no longer have the sort of dining occasions that require a proper dining room! When the time comes that we do, we can reclaim the room since the children will probably have grown up and left home by then.

Our house is, generally speaking, still knee deep with toys from front door to back but we can simply sweep it all into the playroom and shut the door. It's also the room where the PC is so I can keep an eye on DSs whilst er, "working" on it.

We had a separate room for the kids (family room). Our kitchen is huge and has a big 10-seater table in it, so we had no need for a dining room.

The family room had a TV/video, sofa, kids kitchen, boxes of toys, books etc. Also had the computer in. It was great - kept all of the toys out of the sitting room, so we always had a tidy room for visitors to sit in. Able to shut the door on all the mess from the kids at the end of the day

Now my kids are older, all their toys are upstairs in their own rooms, and although they bring stuff down to play, they always take it back upstairs. However, majority of time is spent playing together upstairs.

Definately big thumbs-up for a playroom