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.

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?

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!

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.

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

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

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

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

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!

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.

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

No.

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.

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.