Kids Rooms and Play Room

I would not keep all toys out of the bedroom cause there may want to play by themselves or you may want them to play by themselves. My kids share a room and I wish I could send them to seperate rooms.

I used to have a "no toys in the bedrooms" policy. Then, I realized that my middle child's personality requires him to have a place to sometimes play alone, so I moved just a few of the toys that he loves to play with into his bedroom. It has become a nice escape for my little introvert. So, the majority of the toys are in the family room/office, and his castles are in his room.

That will work until they are old enough to start collecting things that are theirs alone.

I'd keep toys in the playroom at this age. And be sure that the playroom has a gate and nothing that can be pulled over onto the baby.

When I just had my daughter, bedroom was just for sleeping. Now that my daughter is 4 and my boys are 1, I have my daughters toys in her room. The reason for this is that as kids get older, their toys get smaller. She has many small pieces to toys that the younger ones will put in their mouth. I don't think it's fair to my daughter if she could only play with toys suitable to be around the boys. My dream would be to have 2 playrooms, a big kid playroom and a little kid playroom, but that just wasn't in the cards for us when we bought our house.

I would say it depends on proximity to your main living space and kitchen. Your kids are young so you may want to keep them where you can keep an eye on them. My vote would be for the den/family room. That way you can work/craft while they play. IThat's how we do it. Maybe as they get older you can transition into their rooms...

We have a designated play room and ALL toys except for a few stuffed animals are kept out of the bedrooms. I prefer to keep bedrooms just for sleeping until there comes a need to use my extra bedroom (current playroom) for another purpose.

Any toy that goes out of the room goes into time out. If they bring it out again it goes in time out for a couple of weeks.

I do think that you will have issues with "all" the toys being in one room though. How do you plan on keeping the baby from getting the older child's toys? They will be choke hazards to them. When the baby is just starting to move around well your older one will graduate to the over 3 years old toys. You cannot allow your baby to have any access to these toys.

So in this case, I'd keep the big kid toys in one room and the baby toys in the play room so that they are totally separate and that baby is safe.

my girls (5 and 7) share a room and we have a toy room. All of the toys save a few stuffed animals for sleeping are in the toy room. until my kids became obsessed with clothes and changing a few times a day sometimes their bedroom was kept pretty clean. But it is still really easy to tidy up quickly. I love this because even though my kids are a little older now the occasional night I have to go in there in the middle of the night (as I am sure you will need to with little ones) I do not have to worry about catching my bare foot on a rough stray toy.

Our bedrooms are upstairs. Downstairs, off of the living room, we have an extra bedroom that we used as a toyroom. At young ages, most all of their toys were in there and in the living room.

When the kids were little the toys lived in the playroom. The kids didn't play in the playroom, it was just a storage area for toys. We did away with the playroom now that they are older, and toys are stored in their bedroom. They don't play in the bedroom. It is just for sleep and toy storage. They have always played in the living room or rec room. Especially when they were little, they preferred to be near me, not off in another room.

we have all toys in the playroom. They each have a book shelf in their rooms for books but that's it. All toys have been in their since my youngest was a year old.

We have most of the toys in the playroom, but my daughter has her dollhouse and small animal toys in her room. My son's room is smaller, so he has some stuffed animals in his room, but that's about it. His trophies and other treasures are in his room too. I love how easy their rooms are to clean. The biggest challenge is keeping the books in their bookcases.

I prefer keeping the bedrooms for sleeping/calm time and the playroom separate. All of our bedrooms are upstairs so it was a safety thing when we first moved in and the kids were super little. I was convinced to put my son's toys in his room when we first moved in, he was not quite 2 yet. They were back in the living room within the first week we lived here! Just could not have him up in his room all day like that. We later gave up the dining room and made it the playroom when we had our second.
Books are in the bedrooms and their personal stuffed animals and a few very special toys but that's about it. Everything else is downstairs.
We need the bedrooms to be places where they can wind down and actually sleep in.
We are hoping that the next house we move to will have a separate family room and dining room so we can have a dining room once again. But for now the train table gets a ton more use than the dining room table ever got.

Our kids have the basement as their big toy room (gaming systems, air hockey table, sports things, music things, etc). Their bedrooms are theirs. Any toys out of the bedroom have to be shared. Any toys in their bedrooms, they don't have to share unless they invite friends in to play. We have two small ottoman's that we keep in the living room, those are filled with toys also, but they look nice and are "hidden."

We had the basement as the toy room initially, with every toy we owned down there. We moved it all around and put things back in their bedrooms after a year of that. It helps that they are "bigger" now and don't need the huge building blocks, tons of toy kitchen type toys, etc.

The majority of our toys are in the playroom. My kids are 5 and 2, but when we moved in, the oldest was almost 3 and the new one came along 10 months later. Anyway, it works really well now to have the toys in the playroom (which is technically meant to be the home's formal living room). It's close to the kitchen so I can keep an eye on them and they can play in there by themselves without feeling "alone" if I'm not in there.

We do have a few toys in their bedrooms. My son got tons of legos for his 5th birthday last year, so most of those are in his room to keep them away from his sister. He also has some coloring stuff up there. My daughter's toys are really just baby things still (stuff I should probably get rid of). They both have big bookcases in their room with lots of books to read (we also have a smaller bookcase in the playroom).

At this age, I'd keep the toys out of their rooms for the most part since they can't play up there by themselves. Only exception: If the baby isn't going to sleep in his own room from the start, keep some toys in there so he can play in his bedroom and get used to the space so he's ready and comfortable when you move him in there by himself.

Congrats on the new house!!

We have a huge den downstairs that is just storage right now... eventually will be the "media room" complete with pool table & large sofas (no "play room" for us!). Ever since my dd was old enough to play with toys, all of her stuff was kept in her room! We had a small condo when she was a baby (moved out just before 2nd birthday) and the thought of having her stuff (bouncy chair, swing, play mat, etc) all over the living room... no way!

Now that she's 4, all of her toys are in her room and only a few of the bigger items (easel, rocking horse, small trampoline) are kept downstairs. Of course, she's "allowed" to play with her toys in the living room, but I cannot stand seeing them spread all over the place--so she's responsible for picking them back up and taking them to her room when she's done playing. She loves to be around us, but is perfectly content to play alone in her room. We moved in to this house when she was 2.5 and she went right into a twin-size bed. We've never had an issue with her getting up to play at night. Her room does tend to be messy, but it's her space, so as long as it's not dangerous (she has to keep a clear path from the bed to the door), I just ignore it. When I do housecleaning, she does her room (pick up toys, toss broken stuff, pick up trash, sweep, & dust). When we have another kid, the baby will have his/her own room, and I'm sure I'll follow the same pattern--all of the baby "stuff" will be kept in that room and his/her age-appropriate toys. At least until old enough to play together (and with the same toys).

In your case, I would be concerned about the age-appropirate toys... things that your 2.5 y/o is allowed to play with may not be appropriate for a 2 m/o! And, would you really expect to leave both of them in there to play together (probably not until they're like 5 & 2). Besides, I'd rather use the space as an actual office/craft room (guest room)--and not have to worry about the kids messing with unsafe craft items or the computer!

We had a very large house that had a bedroom for each of the kids and another bedroom larger than theirs, but not quite as large as the master. We used that large room for their "play room". I had a Trundle bed in it, TV and DVD player, all their books in a bookshelf and their toys in the closet in toy boxes. Their bedrooms only had their bed and clothes. It was GREAT!!!

We have a small drawer with some art supplies in our main living room (YAY that's it!), and in their bedrooms my son has his desk with some of his favorite super heroes in one drawer, and my daughter has her dollhouse. Everything else is located in the playroom. LOVE it! I feel like the house is so much more organized with the addition of some extra space!

Separated. All my son has in his room is his bed, dresser, bookcase and beanbag chair. Easy to keep clean. Everything else - games, toys, knick knacks, trophies - are in his playroom. When his friends come over, if they mess up the playroom, at least none of the other rooms like his bedroom looks like a tornado hit.

For the bedrooms we have furniture (bunkbed/desk/chair/dresser, beanbag chair by little guy's bed so I can read to him, and a simple toybox with just a couple quiet toys that he can play with....). Older son has crayons, a couple books, and a couple toys that he can play with quietly if everyone else was sleeping. I have just a couple toys in each room (toys Joe doesn't want to share with little brother yet, or toys my little guy can play with if everyone is sleeping and he gets up early...without cluttering his bedroom.

The playroom has a couch, small (old) TV with games and children's videos, CD player with kids music, an indoor playhouse, kitchen stuff, train table for their craft projects or small dinosaurs because the trains go on the floor, and a cube system that holds their toys. Big dinosaurs and large cars go beside it on the floor. The playroom is large (the exact size as our 2 car garage, right above the garage), but it's upstairs and they usually only go up there when everyone is up and moving around. They don't go upstairs early in the morning...

I have a four year old and two and a half year old. They've been sharing a room for almost two years. And then they have a play room. It keeps their toys in one room (most of the time) and then they have their sleeping room. It's worked well for me.

I use my second living room as the play room. For baby I don't have toys, but for toddler , yes toys in the room. They will get drug up there anyways, so might as well have a place for some. As your toddler gets older, he will soon transition out of naps and toys will be necessary if you want to enforce a quiet time.

I have most of their toys in a playroom, but there are some in their room too. That way we can mix it up and play in different locations throughout the day. I try to keep the simpler toys in the bedroom books, puzzles, small things, stuffed animals. Random stuff like the Dr. Kit and squinkies and zuzu pets.