Do you keep toys in the living room?

[Sunsetred]

Just looking to see how others manage toys and playing in the house. I would prefer for all the toys to be kept in the bedrooms. I don't mind if they want to bring toys down to play and then take them back up to bedrooms at the end of the day. Is that mean - should I allow some toys to be kept in the living room? I just can stand how messy it looks with toys everywhere. I'm trying to encourage them to play in rooms but every day the living room is full of toys and my DH thinks we should just leave some in a corner but it just looks so messy.

[TheTeenageYears]

The toy stage doesn't last very long in my experience (and screen's weren't a thing when mine were small so can imaging it's only worse now). The less accessible and more you make an issue of toys being a mess, the less inclined the DC will be to play with them. Not playing and only using screens comes round really quickly, embrace the toys with suitable easy access storage.

[UsingChangeofName]

By definition, the "living room" is for living in, in my mind.

It does depend on the ages to some extent, but when they are quite small, they aren't going to be off playing away from where the adults are, so the toys wouldn't all be in their rooms either.

There's a compromise though . All toys don't need to be in the living room and all toys don't need to be in their bedrooms.

As part of my job, I speak to lots of Early Years schools and Nursery staff who sometimes do home visits. If ever a home is mentioned as having no children's things in the living room, it is never seen as a positive thing.

[rebekahnorris]

No.

[Getthefiregoing]

We have no room for them to be anywhere else. His tiny bedroom has one bookshelf and one toy box.

We have storage in the living room that means everything can get neatly tidied away at the end of the day

[4thonthe4th]

I’m the opposite to you; I have no toys in bedrooms. My DC would just play if they had toys in their rooms so I try and keep them nice and calm spaces where they go to sleep. I’m aware this will change as they get older and want to spend time in their rooms, as DD9 does occasionally with her friends or to listen to music, but my boys are too young for now.

If it’s either the living room or the bedrooms, I would pick living room with nice storage.

[johnd2]

Yes we have a load of high up wall cupboards for most of them, and the ones in use are on open shelving. Call it a toy rotation if you like!
I don't mind the look, because the toys are an opportunity for learning, but I do mind tripping over them, so training our 3 year old to tidy up onto the shelf is an ongoing thing.
We bought a load of those gratnells school trays which are brilliant for getting things in and out quickly, even the tiny Lego can be sorted into colours and in a shelving unit and it only takes a little time.

Perfect is definitely an impossible concept as there are 4 people living in the housei I found. I try to think about "you have all this space, how can you use it to the most overall benefit to your family". Making the children feel welcome in the family space might be something you want to do somehow, priorities above the relaxing space where you can pretend you're still on child free life!😅
Good luck!

[Muchtoomuchtodo]

Not any more unless you count a snowboard and boots that have been down here since Christmas!

[HallwayDoor]

Toys in living room. Kids want to be where you are and why would you go up to a bedroom to watch them okay.

[justasking111]

www.marketwatch.com/story/marie-kondo-admits-shes-kind-of-given-up-on-tidying-up-after-having-3-kids-11674761412

😂😂 If Marie Kondo has given up, no hope for any of you

[Polly1974]

I'm a tidy freak and toys used to annoy me too if they weren't put away. I learned to relax a bit and eventually settled for a big toy box in our living room. Believe me , mine are now teenagers, you'll look back and wished you hadn't stressed so much about toys, it's all about gadgets now! Not a train track in sight. Px

[TheGlitterFairy]

Sounds good OP. DS has 2 personalised big toy baskets in the living room plus play kitchen and 2 boxes of books then a bookshelf in our front room too (bedtime story in there). Toy basket in our bedroom too - mostly with books for morning and some books in his room too. All tidied away downstairs before adult time in the evening.

[Sunsetred]

Thanks @EJRB it's helped hearing that it's the norm for most - I feel under so much pressure to have a perfect home - our perfect will now include toys in the living room!

[EJRB]

One day you’ll look back and miss the messy toys because your kids will have grown up moved out and will only get in contact as and when

its a short amount of time. You can have toys in the room but stacked nicely when not in use?

[Sunsetred]

Thanks for all the replies! The consensus definitely is toys in the living room in nice looking storage. I really like the idea of having toys from bedroom to living room on rotation so not everything downstairs at once. I have the toys nicely organised and put away in the bedrooms so there's not too many toys in plain sight to distract at bedtime. I shall do the same with the toys in the living room and will be making a trip to IKEA. It's a relief to know everyone else is living the same way!

[Girliefriendlikespuppies]

My dd is a teen now but when she was younger yes definitely had toys in the living room and i wanted her to play downstairs. It would have felt really sad if she had to spend all her time playing in her bedroom. My dd loved playmobil and would spend hours playing on the living room floor, she would have complicated stories being played out and would have set ups that lasted a week or so before I told her to put them away so I could hoover.

[Exdpisatwat]

No, but the buggers seem to migrate in here every day 🤣

Mine are 6 and 8 and we live in a small flat so space is at a premium. When they were younger we had a toy kitchen, small table and chairs and a few toy boxes. Now I just want one room that isn't full of plastic crap so I have a 'one in, one out' rule for toys in the living room (that gets flouted on a regular basis).

[LadyJ2023]

Absolutely they have 2 toy baskets downstairs and one in each of there rooms. Once 5pm comes the toys downstairs get put away and the living room adult zone and the children go play upstairs tull bedtimes

[LifeInAHamsterWheel]

It depends on their age. I wouldn't have been happy leaving my kids playing in their bedrooms unattended until they were about 6 so toys were kept downstairs - I wasn't arsed with packing them up and bringing them back up to their rooms every day! Our house is quite small so no playroom etc downstairs. We just had storage in the living room and tidied it all away at night.

[Finchgold]

Yes, we have baskets of toys on the bottom shelf of the bookcase and some kids books. Other toys are brought in the put back to DC bedroom at the end of the day.

[FatAgainItsLettuceTime]

I have a couple of the fabric storage boxes, toys bought down to the living room have to fit in there, once they're full they go back upstairs to be emptied and the cycle starts again. It means there's always some toys that are being actively played with downstairs but they don't take over.

[pompei8309]

@Sunsetred

Just looking to see how others manage toys and playing in the house. I would prefer for all the toys to be kept in the bedrooms. I don't mind if they want to bring toys down to play and then take them back up to bedrooms at the end of the day. Is that mean - should I allow some toys to be kept in the living room? I just can stand how messy it looks with toys everywhere. I'm trying to encourage them to play in rooms but every day the living room is full of toys and my DH thinks we should just leave some in a corner but it just looks so messy.

Always in the living room, if mine would have had toys in the bedroom she’d never go to sleep 😂 only books in the bedroom, everything else downstairs.

[Jxtina86]

Most toys are in the living room - we have one the ikea units with the drawers (from the kids section) and a big hamper style toy box. There's a castle and paw patrol tower that stand alone but all in one corner. Our living room is tiny so yes I am counting down the days that the bigger stuff can go elsewhere!

DD is 3 and only in the last 6 months have we put some toys in her room - it does mean she'll go off and play upstairs sometimes but she's sensible enough (for a 3 year old!) and she's never got out of bed to play after lights out. When she moves into the bigger room later this year more toys will go upstairs to her room as there will be more space for them then.

[Abouttimemum]

We’ve got a full wall IKEA storage in the dining room (which doubles as a desk and other general storage for coats / shoes etc) but that’s where our toys go at the end of the day. There aren’t any toys in his bedroom as I want him to go to sleep 😂 (he’s 3) He also has a toy tool bench and dolls house in the dining room. The living room is full of toys most of the time but it gets put away on an evening.

[Oopswediditagain2023]

Yes but only a few things and then we swap them round every now and again. We used to have the living room filled to the brim with things but they got overwhelmed in all honesty and the chaos was making them quite badly behaved imho. Now we have a dedicated toy corner.

[NuffSaidSam]

It depends on how old they are? Little children, yes. Older children, no.