What age to move toys out of living room?

[hoomama]

What age did you all move the kids toys out of the living room and up to their bedrooms?

I have a (nearly) 2 year old and a 4 year old. We have a white toy box that looks like furniture which we fill to the brim (happy to leave this in living room). We then have one of those "toy sorters" which just looks a bit messy filled with little toys & then the pram and millions of teddies end up downstairs, play house, ride on toy.

It's starting to annoy me & looks untidy but I wonder if I'm being tight by throwing a load of the toys upstairs when we spend most of our time together in the living room?

What does everyone else do?

I don't think I could trust my 2.5 yo to play upstairs herself without getting upto mischief so our livingroom is full of toys too.
I think storage is key. We have a huge IKEA kallax unit in her bedroom cupboard and a small one in the livingroom so I rotate toys every so often so that there isn't hundreds out at one time and then once she goes to bed it all gets tidied into one area of the livingroom so it isn't taking over.

I have the same age children and when we moved to our house I had ideas about no toys in the lounge but realistically if they aren’t in the lounge they don’t often get played with (especially by the little one) and I’d rather my 4 year old play in the lounge than feel she has to stay in her room and I got sick very quickly of taking toys back up to their rooms every night.
People I know who manage to have toy free living rooms either have a downstairs play room or are always taking toys back up to rooms

Around 18m ago I rearranged the house and made an 'upstairs living room' out of the spare room. Ikea daybed/sofa, wall lined with Billy bookcases which house most of the toys plus the TV.

I did this because the main living room downstairs is also my office and it was becoming more and more time consuming tidying the toys to keep my work space civilised. DD's bedroom is too small to keep her toys and/or have any floorspace to play.

She does have her toy kitchen plus a load of art materials downstairs so there's stuff she can do downstairs if she wants to be near me while I'm cooking or whatever.

I have a three year old and we just have loads of toys downstairs. Everything gets put away at night but it's a mess during the day when he's not at nursery.

I wouldn't want him playing upstairs on his own yet (or for a while) so I imagine we have another couple of years like this, at least.

We are at ks1 and don’t have any toys visible in the living room when “at rest” except the switch plugged in by the tv and maybe a box of pens/school reading book on a windowsill. However, we have games/Lego kept in a big cupboard in that room and it is on the same floor as bedrooms so easy to push loose toys back out at night.

4year old and a 1year old- no plans to move toys out the living room until the youngest is in school

We have a 6 and 9 year old and most stuff has moved upstairs but we still have a sideboard full of arts and crafts stuff, board games and a drawer full of little toys.

Basically, you never get to a stage when all the stuff is upstairs but as they hit school age the stuff gets smaller and more able to go in a cupboard!

We’ve got an odd shaped lounge, it’s very long & half of it is a ‘playroom’. But a nice one. IKEA Kallax that’s wood & cream boxes. A white & pink dolls house, a cream storage ottoman & a cream coloured toy kitchen 😂 it’s very cream. It looks alright I think, the multicoloured plastic crap is in the kallax boxes & ottoman!

Storage is key. We have a cupboard downstairs with IKEA Trofast Storage & I rotate toys in & out! They don’t have a huge amount in their rooms as it just doesn’t get played with. My kids are 4 & 1.5 .. I imagine it’ll stay like this for a fair few years yet!

I have a 5 year old and a 2 year old. I can't see us moving toys upstairs for some time. A few reasons:

• they want to be near us, even when playing independently
• prefer their bedrooms to be for sleeping and think some of the more exciting toys would not be helpful for that
• I have my things in the living room, I don't really see why they shouldn't

We have a 10&8yo. While toys ate slimming down now (and I think the last few big Barbie things will go in the next few months) there is still board games, craft and Lego in the living/dining room.... realistically anything that needs to be done at the big table.

When you trust them to play by themselves without the risk of hurting themselves or damaging the house. Which for my DD was around 5yo.

Mine are 8 and nearly 5, they've voluntarily had a toy cull and reduced the volume by 50%ish and the sitting room breathed a sigh of relief. They'll be getting their own bedrooms in 2022, so alot will be going in those, they have more separate toys and activities now, but there will definitely be some that stay down stairs.

We have a 6 mo and realising we may need several toy boxes possibly one upstairs and one downstairs!

Just seen the little tray cases ikea does and think they'll be good for dc bedroom if they will fit!

I've got 4 yr olds. Their toys aren't going anywhere else, it's their living room too. Everything gets tidied away after bedtime.

I have a 2.5 year old and then junior school children. I have some toys in a cupboard downstairs and then everything else is upstairs. My 2.5 year old plays a mix of up and downstairs and her toys are in the ikea trofast units so she will ask to bring a box of toys down. However her siblings are upstairs a lot of the time and she shares a room with her sister. Anything dodgy - pens, scissors etc are kept out of reach so it's all accessible to her with no danger apart from she can make a big mess. But we always tidy upstairs and downstairs before story time. I think with a 2.5 and 4 year old I would have them downstairs playing so I would probably do a similar set up, toy boxes upstairs that can easily be brought down and then rotate.

We moved them all upstairs when the youngest went to school. They're 6 and 8, but still prefer to play downstairs anyway.

Once they were able to play in the bedroom unsupervised. Until then we had a corner for books and toys in the living room. I hated having toys in the living room but it was preferable to lugging toys up and downstairs every day!

My house is also my Children’s house. The living room belongs to us all and if they want toys in it that’s fine by me. As long as they are tidied away to be safe and not all over the floor I’m happy for them to play in that space.

When they can play unsupervised. Otherwise you will have to bring toys downstairs then take them back up again later. If you don't mind doing that then store the toys upstairs as soon as you want.

2&4. I want the kids where I can see them, therefore their toys need to be there. Up to you whether you keep them conveniently downstairs or if you lug them up & down the stairs!

For me, storage is the key! (All the better if you can have a 'playroom' . Not so much to play in as they prefer to be underfoot, but as a great room to put all the toys in, downstairs!, at night)

Ah, there are 2 milestones that mean you've left the baby years behind

1. The toys aren't downstairs/in the living areas
2. You say, time for bed, and off they pop.

I have a 9yo and we're definitely at no2. No1 had turned into whatever they're currently doing (Lego for example), drawing supplies and tech.

1 1/2 year old here. Ottoman in living room contains most toys downstairs. Books in another small lidded basket

He has the rest of his books, and some other toys in bedroom. Things like wooden puzzles he has about 6 and l just keep 2 at a time in ottoman and rotate. The books I rotate each week with some from bedroom.

DD is nearly 3. We have a playroom but if we didn't, living room would def have a fair amount of toys in it! She doesn't want to play in her room, she wants to play downstairs so we are around and she can show us things easily and is kind of 'part' of what's going on. Before we built the playroom our living room was like a crèche