Do you have a dedicated playroom?

leverby · August 2010

I'm debating whether or not we should dedicate a space in the house specifically for the bean's playthings, especially as she gets older and gets more and more toys. My initial vision was that her bedroom would be her playroom (you know, like you see in the pottery barn catalogues), but it turns out that we (mom and dad) hardly like to play in there because its upstairs and we spend most of our days downstairs. Plus when she gets older, I'm thinking I want her playing where I can see her. So, do you have a dedicated "playroom" space? Where in the house is it located? If its in a common area, like the living room, have you just accepted that its going to be overrun with toys?

Meritage · August 2010

It sounds like our set up is similar. My boys both have their bedroom upstairs, and everything else (including our master bedroom) is downstairs. The only time I'm upstairs is to put them to bed. Their bedrooms are as boring as it gets - books and bed only, no toys or anything else.

Our master bedroom is large, really inefficient wasted space. So, much to my husband's horror, it's become our playroom. All of their toys are down here, and it's where they spend much of their day. Not ideal, but there's really no other area (other than their bedrooms) where we could put the toys. It works for us, and keeps the toys contained in one place rather than all over the house.

We do have a beautiful separate living room that gets no love, and has a door we can keep closed. Thought about making that our playroom, but DH nixed the idea as he really wanted a nice living room on the rare occasion that we need it.

ETA: Our family room is upstairs as well (our whole layout is incredibly inefficient). I rarely use it, and the kids never go in there, and since it's upstairs while everything else is downstairs, we are never up there so it wouldn't work as our playroom (even though that was the original intention). It has since become a mancave and DH hangs out in there.

scrapmama2201 · August 2010

We have a dedicated playroom (what would be a living room) and there are still toys all.over. We spend the majority of our time at home in the family room or playroom.

Funny enough, there are no toys in the boys' rooms.

gsbabygirl · August 2010

Our "playroom" is our family room where we always hang out. The girls do have toys in their rooms, but most of the stuff is in a corner in our family room. We have a little shelf with bins for smaller toys, a big tub for the bigger toys, a round table, a little square table next to their play kitchen and a huge dollhouse that they play with. On another wall is their train table which houses all their Little People stuff. I can see them from the kitchen and it leads right out to the patio where more of their stuff is (easels and scooters). Their coloring books and crayons are in baskets under our coffee table.. so yeah, it's over run with toys. We're lucky that the family room is pretty big, so the couch and TV are on one side, and their stuff is on the other, so we can still watch TV or sit and read without getting conked in the head by a flying toy.

My SIL has her kids playroom upstairs and doesn't really allow toys downstairs and I think it's kinda sad. She's downstairs all the time, and the boys are either parked in front of the TV with her or upstairs alone. If you walked into their house you wouldn't even know they had kids.

Mrs.BoomBoom · August 2010

I won't have a dedicated playroom. I think it's a playhouse at this point. DH and I don't want to leave our lives (computer/TV) to just play with Q, so, he's in our area vs. us being in his. Once he's older and can play unattended, I may feel differently

EmmieB · August 2010

Yes and no.

His room is in the process of being completely childproofed so that he can crawl around safely. So there will be some toys in there.

We've got a play area (with a foam mat) in between the couch and the coffee table in the living room.

We also turned the "dining room" (big area of space in the living room) into the play area - that's where his movement mat was (now it's set up as a "couch" in his nursery) and there's a "road" rug and a reading chair and bookshelves with stuffed animals and books on it.

So it's not the entire house, but it's not just one spot. The play area with the rug is where his table and chair set will go when he's old enough and it will always be the designated "kid stuff" area outside of the nursery.

Saying that, however, we padded the coffee table and covered it in chalk cloth. So there's not really any part of the house that isn't kid-friendly ;-)

tmp-195892875001867 · August 2010

We have a teeny tiny house - but everything is on one level. We keep toys in the living/family room (semi hidden in bins) as well as her room. If we had both a family and living room, I would make the family room a play room, especially if the bedrooms were upstairs.

dblhappiness · August 2010

Our living room is technically the playroom...as is the family room and some parts of the kitchen. Wink

At the time, we didn't have any living room furniture so it was the perfect space for 2 swings, bouncers, exersaucers, etc. When those went away, we did inherit 2 big chairs and a piano...there are still areas for the boys to play but like pps, toys are everywhere. They are starting to get into their room as I need quiet time every once in awhile and I put them in there to be contained. They are usually allowed 1-2 toys each and that's it for in their room.

michelcreek · August 2010

We use the living room (front of the house) as the play room. I have bookshelves across one whole wall so toys all have a home, there are no toys on the ground except for a train table. So it's a playroom (with TV and couch) but with storage so it's still a decent looking room if we have company over. And honestly, all of our company have kids so it's great. Here is a picture from Easter... Living Room - Easter

tri_bride05 · August 2010

Uh, does the entire house count? We have a small house with a very open floor plan. The bedrooms are just bedrooms and while the kiddos have some toys in there, we don't play in their rooms often. The rest of the house (family room, dining room, living room, and kitchen) is just one big room and that's where we play 99% of the time. The benefit is that they are always playing where I can see them. The downside is that it usually looks like a toy bomb went off in my house.

Mrs.K&C · August 2010

99% of DD's toys are stored in her room. We have a one story so toys are just brought out to the great room to play. It's not a big deal and we aren't over run with clutter at the end of the day. The other 1% have somehow ended up in our dining room, which is hardly ideal...but they are bigger toys (trampoline, slide, picnic table) that don't fit in her room nor do I want her on them unsupervised (she is in a BGB). Ultimately they should be stored outside or in the garage but we use them so much we tend to just push them into the dining room so they're out of sight - to us. To our guests, they are right in their face as they enter!

Also her kitchen is in our kitchen.

Things for DS like the swing will be in the great room for as long as he uses it, same with the exersaucer and other big items.

futrkingsley · August 2010

We have a tiny 2 story townhouse, with bedrooms downstairs. Upstairs is just one big room with a tiny kitchen off to the side. I am a no toys in the bedroom mama (he has enough trouble turning off his brain without his toys staring at him in the dark), so all his stuff is in our living space.

We had one tiny shelving thing with bins but it became a pile that couldn't be conqured by a 2 year old so I rearranged our house and put a bookshelf in our dining room with space for all his toys. He has upstairs/daytime books (those that involve a lot of talking/interaction), his basket o' balls, canisters for his cars/hockey men, his painting/art stuff, and blocks all visible for him to pull out and play with as he sees fit. Then when he's done they all go back. It's all plain as day but it works for us. He's home and in our space more than anyone else and I finally realized it was silly to pretend otherwise. We rarely have guests so their comfort or making the house suitable for guests got moved really low on my priority list. His comfort and ease got moved up.

risysmama · August 2010

We cleared out our dining room and gated off that area for DD's play area. It's a fairly large space and we can expand it if necessary. DH wants her to play in her room, but it's all the way on the other side of the house and I can't cook/wash clothes and supervise her at the same time.

Celyn · August 2010

Technically, we have a dedicated playroom, but there's also a play area in the living room that has more things for the kids than the playroom does.

mrscerruti2be · August 2010

Yes. It should be a formal dining room, but it works for now.

SFAug07 · August 2010

Her room is really big (500 sft) and completely baby proof, so it is both her bedroom and playroom. We also baby proofed the family room upstairs which is next to her room, but there are no toys. She still likes to roam around there, 'reading' our books or playing with the remote control.

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