Organization of rooms - help me think this through

[Tuesdayschild]

I'm *sure* I'm missing something, some magic thing that will make it all fall into place.

The problem: too many 'play spaces' around the house, which means mess absolutely everywhere.

Current organization: ds1 and ds2 share a room, the 'big boy' toys (Lego), smaller puzzles and games live there, along with age-appropriate books

ds3 (who will be sharing with dc4) has some 'baby' toys in his room (enough to keep him entertained when he needs a safe play space), and age-appropriate (ie board :shifty) books

the living / dining room is off the kitchen, there is *another* playspace there; home of Duplo, Kapla, wooden trains, floor puzzles, an Ikea cloth farm, playsilks and play stand.

Other than that we have the kitchen, a room with computer and admin stuff, and our bedroom.

In my ideal world I would have ONE playroom, but I'm not sure how to make that happen. DH doesn't want the living / dining to be turned into a kids' play paradise because he likes to have somewhere that feels a bit 'grown up' and smarter.

Ideas?

[Aerynne]

Well, I'll tell you what we do. Our main play room is the family room (we have a grown-up living room- not only no toys kept there but no toys allowed there period not even if you're playing with them). Our family room is rather large and so it has two divided areas. One is a playroom and the other has just couches. The "divider" is a love seat facing the couch area. So it's not totally divided, but enough. Our office is a storage area for games, puzzles, books not in rotation, art supplies, homeschool stuff, etc. We have a large bookshelf in the office, and since it is designed to be a bedroom, it has a closet. We took out the closet rod and installed built-in shelves which is where the games and puzzles are kept.

Each of my kids has just a few toys in his/her room. Dd has her legos and one stuffed animal. Ds has his construction vehicles and a racing ramp. I love our mostly toy-free bedrooms! It makes clean-up so much easier (and when friends come play, they can stay in the family room.

[Tuesdayschild]

:think That does sound cool... Our living / dining area is kind of divided,maybe I just need to work on dh to let me take over the dining area, but maybe with closed cupboards so that if we want it to look nicer (like for the guests who never come :giggle or at christmas, which comes but once a year...) it is possible to hide the toys. :think No open shelves means less dusting too.

The reason lego and playmobil are in the big boys' room is for safety. I still need to think of how to handle that if we're going to reduce bedroom toys. similarly, baby toys in baby room works 'cos there's a gate on the door so it is a totally safe place to play, when I'm in the shower, say. It just isn't possible to make the dining room as safe.

I also wouldn't know what to do with the table, which gets in the way of play.

:banghead Maybe I'm just seeing problems, but I don't like the current situation, but short of buying a new house I'm struggling to get all the different needs met.

[abh5e8]

well...sounds like you do...the family room?? with just a few toys in each bedroom. could all the kids sleep in one room and make the other the play room? then you could move the toys out of the family room?

[Tuesdayschild]

We have considered the one bedroom, one playroom thing. We opted not because of
1. having to get bunkbeds, and even then having no space for clothes
2. the logistics of that wide an age range sharing
3. the toy safety thing

I think you are right, we need to figure out ways to make the dining room more of a family room, at least for now. Thank you :heart

[mamacat]

I also wondered about having all the kids sleep in the largest bedroom and having one bedroom the toy room and you & dh sleep in the med size bedroom.That way,all of their clothes would fit into that largest closet and you could use the shelves and space in the playroom closet for toys that arent toddler friendly.The idea about cupboards with doors in the dining room sounds good too