Playroom area?

This is one of those threads that could have been put in a number of spots, but thought it belonged here the most.

Do you have a separate playroom for the kids to play in? Does it work to keep the toy clutter out of your other rooms, ie, lounge, kitchen etc?

I'm sick of tripping over toys in my dining/lounge/kitchen area - its all open plan so there are always toys from one end to the other. And I'm over it!! I hate looking around and just seeing toys everywhere, makes the house seem so messy since that is the main part of the house - and its not a huge area either.

I'm considering turning my garage (which is off the dining room through an internal door) into a play room for the kids and putting all their toys in there, to try and keep it to the one area, making it easier to clean up for inspections, or one of our many open house things (got one on saturday).

It means that my car would have to go outside and DH's car will probably go on the road instead of in the driveway, but we're ok with that now that the weather is getting warmer and we don't live in an area that is high in crime. Plus we are planning on selling DH's car anyway soon.

So does it work? Or am I just dreaming and will never get rid of the toy mess?

We don't have the space for a playroom, but I try and keep the toys contained to the bedroom and it mostly works. I'd give it a go and see if it works. If the toys are continuing to be a tripping hazard, ask once for them to be put away or confiscate them! Anything I have asked my kids to put away which they haven't done, I take for a good day or so. Good luck.

We've got a playroom, but we've also only got one child... So not sure how relevant my advice will be...

I find that it works out about 50/50. DS will happily play in the playroom if I'm in there with him and sometimes by himself, but at other times he likes to bring toys out to the living area to be close to me. But he is an only child at this stage. I imagine with siblings to play with you might be a bit more inclined to hang out in the playroom.

I do however love that none of the toys are kept in the living area. At the end of the day it's so nice to be able to relax with DH without toys taking over the space.

From soneone who had a play room and now does not, they sure do work........I miss the play room soooooo much more than the kids do :)

It kept the toys out of the main living space, we are now in a small rental & it feels like my house is never clean as I am always tripping on toys or re-picking them up & losing them under the couch etc. We are looking to buy a house & a play area is a must.

Forgive me if this sounds really harsh, but it keeps the kids there also :) I am able to get things done as they didn't seem to fuss over needing me as much, we also had a telly in there & I foud the kids played more as they had toys & tv in the one spot they would play all arvo and forget tv was on. Now if it's on they tend to just stop & watch as most toys are in DS1 room. Oh yeah & we have to share the TV with them now also & I always miss the morning news LOL.

I recently turned our spare room into a playroom for Moo and so far it's worked like a dream! His toys were from one end of the house to the other and it was driving me bonkers, the place was never tidy and I was forever tripping over something. He still has a shelf of toys and books in his room as well as a few toys out in the loungeroom, but it's so much easier to tidy up. He hasn't figured out that the toys can actually come out of the playroom yet :lol: so it's all contained to one room!

If you've got a space for it I'd definitley do it! I'm quite sad at having to give up the playroom once this baby needs the space!

I converted our double garage into a playroom and it does work to a large degree but they do still bring toys into the house. They also still have toys in their rooms so there are often toys somewhere between the lounge and their bedrooms. But it is only a handful of toys - not a whole box of duplo or anything like that.

I got some cheap clearance lino to put down on the floor and some clearance backed fabric from spotlight to hang across the garage door to keep the heat out. I also had an air conditioner put in but we live in NQ so we wouldn't be able to use it six months a year without the air conditioning.

Because it is just the garage, we installed brackets and planks of wood as shelving - we didn't need to worry about expensive shelving. It's all sanded so no splinters but we didn't even paint it. We also have an old lounge suite out there so I can sit out there while they play and when we have visitors with kids, we sit out there too. I have my playroom set up in areas ... actually, I blogged about it not long ago ... Adventures in the Ville: Our playroom

YEP!! We have a useless little sun room area down the end of our house that we used to use as the dinning room but we never ate down there as we like to watch TV. So I turned it into a toy room and it rocks!! Bella loves it and it keeps all her toys down there neat and tidy! She also has a TV and DVD player set up to watch her dvd's if she likes. She still brings some toys down to the lounge but not as much and its not as clutterd with toys - now just baby stuff!
We are building a new house when we sell this one and I am purpose building a toy room / rumpas room into that house!

HTH

A TV?!?!!?!? OMG OMG OMG OMG.

What a rockin' idea!! LOL!!!!!

We have a large office space directly off our living room. It's only a big archway door so def not able to be shut away, but yes I find it does all that you ask.
I find it much neater if all toys have their own space/bin. I have some of those plastic drawer sets and each different type of toy has one. Easier for the kids to get one out and then put away.

yep! Some days whenI just want to watch "normal adult tv" I put a few dvd's one and she happily plays for a few hrs.... the room ends up a mess but we dont have to look at it!!

Im my next house I will be getting an arial in the rumpas room so the kids can have ABC4 as well... but for now dvd's for the same shows are all good! :)

Sounds like a great idea. Those garages with internal access to the house are super toxic too so it'll be good not be using it for your car anyway. We have a spare room off the kitchen and the kids have some toys in there and they both like playing in there but then I dumped a heap of unpacked boxes in there... I need to clean it out to get the toys out the lounge room. I'm tripping over all the time!

I converted my garage into a playroom.
I have no toys in the house

And I hardly see the kids lol.

Oh and the door locks from the house side ;)

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I converted my garage into a playroom.
I have no toys in the house

And I hardly see the kids lol.

Oh and the door locks from the house side ;)

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Actually, I have to keep a spare house key hidden on the bookshelf in the playroom because it does lock from the house side and if the kids close the door and lock it, there is a danger that I would be stuck out there. It is not so bad now DD1 can unlock the door as well as locking it but the others can still only lock the door but can't unlock it.

We have a small room downstairs that was a dining room/ study til we made it a toy room and I can say best thing ever. I don't have to look at crap everywhere and keeps the lounge and bedrooms sorta clear (til they bring it out)

Yes we have a playroom too, it does work well as the kids are able to watch TV out there and play the wii so there is enough out there to keep them there iykwim. Although they are at school through the week they really dont spend hours upon hours in there now, they like to play outside with their mates after school now.

Our 16mth old will bring toys out on the odd occassion but thats to be expected he is still only little. We have always had a playroom, i dont know where we would put everything if we didnt have one.

Yes. We have a flat downstairs which at present is used as a toy room and a place for guests to stay - it also have a TV with Foxtel on it to keep them amused when I am ironing or whatever. We had everything down there for the kids, but a lot of it has slowly made its way upstairs. DS1 is moving into the flat in the coming weeks and his old room will then become the kids play room.

Do you have a separate playroom for the kids to play in?
yes we do, an oversized study

Does it work to keep the toy clutter out of your other rooms, ie, lounge, kitchen etc?
No it doesnt! lmao

Yes, we have a playroom and have since DD was about 16 mths. I looooove it. Definitely keeps the toys out of the living space. If something strays, I tell DD to take it back. She is also responsible for keeping the playroom tidy now that she's five. If there are toys left lying around for the once a week mop and clean, then she knows they'll disappear. ;) It's easier to set up bins and shelves for toys and books when there's plenty of space too.

We also have a TV and video player (the old fashioned kind - she can't break videos!) set up with a couch. Surprisingly, it doesn't get turned on that much. But it's there if she wants it.

Our playroom is in the open plan area off the kitchen, so it's not able to be shut away as such, but on the other hand, I can still keep an eye if kids are playing in there. (It can't be seen from the lounge room of an evening though, which makes me feel better!).

We built a big house last year and by far the best bit of it is....THE PLAY ROOM!!! It saves my sanity big time.
We have a tv, dvd player, book shelf, a big train table, a comfy breasftfeeding couch, bean bags and tubs of toys in there. And although, we still get some toys through the house it's so manageable! If I'm feeling lazy, it doesn't get cleaned and I can just shut the door! We have french style doors on it too, so we can see in there from our living area.

Toy rooms are a neccessity!

We have a massive playroom, dedicated solely to DD and all her toys, books, puzzles, DVD 's etc.... It would be 1.5 to 2 times the size of an average bedroom, so not small at all and we still manage to have toys strewn throughout the house (namely the kitchen/family room area and sometimes in the study if me or DH are in there). It is good at night though, just pack it all away in her playroom and the rest of the house seems spotless

We don't have a play room, but we have set up a play area. Our main family room is a big square, with the kitchen in one quarter, the dining area in the quarter next to that and then, we have a sofa seperating the other half into 2 quarters, so the play area is behind that. We have a road rug from Ikea, and also one of those shelving units from Ikea that have square shelves, and on each shelf is either books are a container with a lid with toys in, so bricks in one, animals in another, etc. DD knows that we have to pack a box away before we open a new box. I reackon thats the best thing we did to keep toys to a minimum. We still end up with toys everywhere, but we have a big tidy up with DD before bedtime, and so by the time DH and I sit to watch TV, there isn't a huge pile of toys there.

Thanks guys, I think we will do it! Just need to get our hot little hands on a second tv!

DH is worried that it will put buyers off though, but hey, if it will help keep me sane during the week while he's at work, I don't really care about what potential buyers think.. LOL

We turned one of the bedrooms in our 3br house is a spare room/play room and it has made such a huge difference. There are virtually no toys in the bedroom or loungeroom - yes, things get dragged around the house from the playroom but it is so easy to just chuck the stuff back in there and shut the door. Plus the lounge room is usable again!

I want a playroom!!!!

We don't at the moment but I'm seriously thinking about it :)

The other thing that works is making sure you have enough storage in your living room. I just bought a retro 18-drawer thingy for the loungeroom (sounds crap but it's really nice) that I throw all the kids' stuff into. I'm looking around my lounge room now and there are NO TOYS on the floor. I have two kids and I'm not tidy. So it's working at the moment. What IS driving me bonkers is that I can't listen to the news during the day because either the kids are making too much noise or heaven forbid, they want to interact with me. So I'd really like a playroom so I can at least have 15 mins now and again listening to the news.

We have one off our lounge and dining area, it works most days unless they want mummy too. The girls are learning to put things back and they stay out of the kitchen. There seems to be much less mess, except ds has learnt to pull things down.

I want one!!!!!!!!!!!

Our lounge room is a death trap half the time with toys and bits from toys scattered everywhere!!!!!!!

I do hope to get some ikea storage into DS1 room so some toys cane be there and not as much in lounge! DS2 will eventually share with him and then more toys will be in there bedroom!!

MNB - I really don't think it will put buyers off. It's a garage - most buyers would know that you stick a car in a garage. The fact that you're going to turn it into a playroom will just make other people see the possibilities if they're not fussed about undercover parking.

If you asked my DD, she'd tell you that Yes, she has a playroom... the whole bloomin' house!

In all seriousness though, she has her bedroom + a toy room. And the toys seem to migrate to everywhere except her room and toy room. Right now, smack bang in the middle of my (very small) lounge room is a doll's bed that I am not allowed to move as I will wake her baby. Ah-huh...
Then there's the card game set up on the couch and if I move THAT, I'll ruin the "WHOLE game Mum!"...
Oh, and we also have a notebook and pen on the TV cabinet which is open... and can't be touched as the people in the cafe are still deciding what they want to eat and we don't want to be rude...
Then there's the button collection scattered all over the toy room floor - a treasure hunt for the Fairies when we're all in bed...
There's the Zingo game in the middle of HER bedroom floor - so she remembers to play it tomorrow...
And the toy pram that is at the end of MY bed - can't explain that one...
There's the noise making door thing down in the study (Fisher Price toy I'm not allowed to chuck)...
The playdoh hidden in the spare cupboard NEXT to my wedding dress (she'd better pray it just stays in the container and doesn't grow legs!)...
There's the learning tiles scattered on the floor post tantrum because they got hard (oh, but they're in the TOY ROOM!)...
The craft things that I discovered in my laptop case...
The toy whisk I found on the kitchen bench 20 minutes ago (I'll pay that one - it IS a kitchen utensil after all!)...
Oh, did I mention the 6 Polly Pockets, Polly Pocket boat, Barbie Mermaid, Barbie bath swing set thingy, 3 rubber ducks, two Polly Pocket pets, Iggle Piggle and Macka Packa wash dolls, watering can, and upteen cups in the bathroom?

I am officially jealous of each of you that have a designated playroom that works! I love the idea of converting the garage... I'd do that too except that is currently the only place free of her toys and is where I train... no wait, her bike, pool floaties, sand gear, and several balls are in there... SEE! NO where is sacred!

:rofl: MG, your stories of your DD's thing made me laugh. I love it!

Lol mg! I really felt like I was in your home from that description!

We do have a playroom in this house.... The conservatory! It works well as long as ds' little mate doesn't come over.... When he comes, nearly the entire contents of the playroom gets hoarded on the couch.

Don't know what will happen when we move back to Perth. We left our little 3 x 1 with 1 baby and not much stuff and will come back with 2 kids and ten tonne of toys!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - I wonder what the kids are up to....Better go!

We have a playroom, we used the formal lounge at the front of the house as ours (we don't need two living areas for three of us) and we plan on turning it into a teenagers retreat when the time comes. We built our home in 2007 planning ahead for a family though, so even when looking at display homes/plans etc a space like this was always on our list.

Since setting up the playroom, I've found the house is much tidier. We set it all up properly a few months before DS's 1st birthday. DS doesn't have toys in his bedroom, I prefer to keep bedrooms for sleeping and have him playing out in the main part of the house where I can easily keep an eye on him and be involved in what he is doing. He does bring toys out to other areas of the house, but happily puts them back so it works well. It's nice to keep some space as adult space. Plastic toys spread and multiply overnight it seems :D

Another tip though - I am not a fan of toy boxes, I think that if you just pile stuff into a 'box' you tend to end up with all sorts of crappy and broken toys. We have a heap of the IKEA expedit shelves and all DSs toys are easily accessible. I think this also works in the fact that he plays with everything, things don't get forgotten buried at the bottom of his ttoybox. We quickly tidy the toy room each night (DS helps) and return everything to its spot, I find it teaches DS respect for his belongings and keeps all his things in good condition also. I have packed up all his 'baby' toys (currently in the roof space in case we have #2).

Here is a pic - https://www.bellybelly.com.au/forums...1729-playroom/

Having a TV and DVD in there is a nice luxury too :) We have a cheap sofa (again from IKEA, and yes I have an addiction :D ) which comes in handy. Having a radio/CD player is handy too, as I dont always want the TV to be on. DS seems to enjoy the radio - is a bit of a pop fan much to his metal fathers disgust hahahahaha

Go for it Nerd Burger, you wont regret it :) And the kids will LOVE it!!

LOL @ MG - your post made me giggle, love it