Question for all mummy's and daddy's out there......
Do you allow toys in the lounge room?
When I had my DS I had a toy box in the lounge room, that is where he mainly played.
After having my DD I still allowed this as long as it wasn't to much of a mess.
Now DS is 4 and DD is 2. We have recently moved into a house with quite a small lounge room, already looks like to much is in here without the added toys.
I am thinking of enforcing the 'No toys in the lounge room' rule.
Does anyone have this rule and does it work, by work I mean, do your children use their rooms to play, or do they just hang in the lounge room and not play at all?
Honestly, I love that my kids can make play and have fun but the toys in the lounge room is starting to become a bit much, I think what makes it worse is that when I ask them to clean it up, it turns into a fight with the both of them.
So is no toys in the lounge room a good idea, help my sanity and stop the arguments? Or I am overreacting and should let child's play be??
DD plays in her room and her toys generally stay in there. We have an outdoor undercover area that she plays in too, but unless it's an "outside" toy, like sandpit things etc, they are returned to her room. Our loungeroom is our only living area of the house, she brings her toys out into it during the day, we play with her duplo blocks in it, lots of things, but we do try to return everything to her room each evening. We have a small house and if we let the toys stay in the lounge, I'd feel a bit overwhelmed I think. I like things to be tidy and orderly. DD is very happy playing in her room, but she knows it is okay to bring her toys out into the lounge.
We were thinking along these lines when we moved into our bigger place. However in reality it didn't quite work.
We try and restrict the toys to 3 in the lounge at any time. So when a new one migrates from the toy room, he has to pick which one goes back. DS is a little young to get it at the moment so I normally pick the one that has hasn't used for a bit.
My dd just follows me around so toys end up being carried all through the house!
I think if you move the toy boxes out of the lounge room then at least when you clean up, the lounge room should be toy free. My dd has a lot of games set up in different areas of the house, so if I clean up the toys on one space it's not like she can't play iykwim? I also put toys on rotation so she maintains interest...so her craft table gets replenished often (with new toilet rolls lol) which means she doesn't rely on one box of toys.
Not sure I answered your question, but I think it's fine to put boundaries around where toys 'live'... Like indoor/outdoor toys, or kitchen only games etc.
We have toys in the lounge although they all have a place to 'live' at the end of the day so that when the kids are in bed I can relax in a space without it screaming 'Kids' at me!
I'm fine with it for 2 reasons.
Firstly, I always find that kids want to play under your feet and to be around you, no matter how cool the set up is in another room Although there are now times when DD will play alone in another part of the house (she is now 3) she will always prefer to be near me eventually. As we spend a bit of time in the lounge, we have toys in there.
Secondly, I feel that the house belongs to the kids as well as us so I am happy for them to have their stuff around. I want them to feel it is their space as well as respecting the fact that we all live here, all have needs and we need to respect these needs. I expect their things to get put away and tidied up etc, just as I would do with my things at the end of the day. The trick for me has been getting things tidy. I have a pretty good system now of boxes and shelves for the toys and we have a 5:00 pack up time game using a very cool, energetic pack up time song that is 4 minutes of pure cleaning up madness [*it's pack up time, pack up time, pack, pack, pack, pack, pack, pack up time* - now I am singing it to myself ]. So far (2 months) it has been working really well and even DD2 at 12 months is getting into it!
I think Arcadia's idea of rotating is really good and it is something I do too. I try to keep the amount of choice low and keep the interest up by moving things around a bit. This way there is not too much stuff.
We are extremely lucky that we have a playroom. Rather than using our formal lounge as a lounge room, we turned it into a kids area and plan that in many years to come it will become a teenagers retreat. There are no toys kept in any other area, and although DS will sometimes bring toys to all parts of the house as part of his play, once he has finished playing with them - back they go. We tidy up the toy room at the end of each day and put all the toys away, it means that we don't lose any, and as the toy room is clean, he plays more productively rather than just ignoring a big mound of toys IYKWIM. Although obviously kids take over a massive part of our lives, I think its important to have grown up space and a designated play area. Toys are like a cancer, they multiply at an amazing rate and can take over if not kept in control
I think it all depends on the size and layout of your house - we have a small two bed flat + small balcony, so we have toys in the lounge room (lounge, kitchen, dining is open plan) - DD could play in her room and does sometimes, but I would rather be able to see her rather than interrupt what I am doing in kitchen or on computer to check on her - and in the lounge I can always see her, and she can see me. We are pretty restrictive on toys though because of the size of the flat. I enjoy playing with them, and rearranging them myself and if were in DD's room couldn't do that when she is in bed - I see myself as some sort of toy fairy so often the next day a different selection of toys will be accessible.
I have a very high tolerance of mess and disorder though (which from reading these forums seems uncommon) so toys in the lounge room don't bother me in the slightest, and even if had more space things would probably be the same. I don't remember playing in my room very much until I was maybe 8 or 9 and always preferred to be playing downstairs where other people were.
I think the 3 toys rule works well. And teaching kids to put their toys away when they finish playing or as part of getting ready for bathtime/bedtime routine - that way you don't wind up buried under a mountain of toys but the kids can still play in the hub of the house and be involved rather than having to play in their rooms all the time. That said though, there are occasions when DD prefers to play in her room and that's cool too.
We have basically all toys in the lounge room and very few in bedroom, We have 2 plastic tubs that toys get pulled out of and spread everywhere as well as a small indoor tramp, spin and sing zebra and kids couch, we only have 1 living area so have to make do (is open plan lounge dining but still not huge)
we are very lucky and have a separate room off the lounge which is DDs toy room,shehas ALL her toys in there, none in her room or anywhere else...well outside toys out side, but thats it. they come out to where ever we are playing with them, sometime the lounge room,the kitchen table, outside etc but they go back to the toy room after.
when i was a child all our toys were kept in the bedroom, and bought out to play with but put away after, ithink thats a pretty fair rule.
in our old house we had one of those playpens, as it was a highset house and dd was crawling/learning to walk, and all her toys went into the play pen when they werent being used, the pen was inthe lounge room, kinda kept them all together!
I have kids practically the same age, and we only just removed the toy box from the lounge yesterday. From now on, there is a small plastic dolls house in here for them to play with, otherwise they must play in their rooms.
They also are starting to learn that everything has it's place and when they have finished playing they MUST pack their things away. It's going to take a while for this to sink in completely but fingers crossed we get there one day. lol
from a safety perspective, we tend to encourage lounge room play for DD. i'm like WYSIWYG - i'd rather be able to keep an eye on her - and i have a decent tolerance for disorder. Her bedroom has wadrobes with sliding doors, light switch she can reach already, blinds that she finds fascinating, drawers she opens and closes (and trashes the room) - i'd rather have her in the lounge or outside.
we do have a seperate lounge/rumpus/bar room that is kidlet stuff free (well, normally - she will take her baby and pram up there to talk to DH while he fills ice and things - so we still have a limit to where toys etc invade
I think having a limit to the toys is a good idea.. like toys live in the bedroom but they are "allowed" in the lounge room to a certain extent.. we are lucky and in this house and the last house we lived in we have two lounge areas, so one is full of toys and one has the tv etc... i have some toys that live in the tv lounge room coz they are handy to have when we are all in there and they go away in drawers at night so you wouldnt know they are there, some times the kids bring in toys from the toy room, but i have a "everything has a spot" obsession and things get returned back. The book shelf happens to be inbetween the lounge room and the toy room, so books end up in both rooms lol
DS has a few toys in his room that are more for him than for both of them, he has his craft things, his thomas trains and playdough.. he knows they are there and they get brought out usually when DD is asleep and cant rip up our train tracks or eat the playdough lol And when DD gets older we may have some special toys in her room that are things she can play with that she doesnt have to share kind of thing. But the toy room will always be a "must share" zone!! With the two kids sometimes too its good for them to have a bit of space where they can play without the other one right ontop of them, i notice DS will sometimes take a toy to the other lounge room even if im not in there just for some space from DD lol (he is nearly three and she is nearly one- she is at the grab everything stage and doesnt play right lol)
BellyBelly Life Member - Love all your MCN friends
Jun 2004
The Festival State
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we live in a small house, a masionette actually. DD has a cube cupboard in her room, in each cube, is a basket of toys.
the living room is tiny, any where she plays, i will step on those toys, just to be able to walk. we have a "one basket at a time" rule, no matter WHERE she is, as the whole place is tiny. (other wise i step on her toys and break them, by walking the only places you could walk). So she could bring one jigsaw to the living room. there is just enough room on the floor for her to do the one jigsaw. that has to go away before she brings out a different toy. This is not being tidy, so much as, our way of coping with little space.
Lounge room = Toys!
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]. So far (2 months) it has been working really well and even DD2 at 12 months is getting into it! 
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