Basement Playroom, Which Toys Where?

We have most toys in the basement and switch out which toy/toys are upstairs. All books are upstairs, the majority in my son's bedroom. Aside from stuffed animals, I have no toys in the bedroom.

We are currently doing the exact same thing! Our daughter is really bad about picking up her room, so we moved almost everything to the basement playroom. She loves to play with her barbies, so I left those upstairs and a few other dolls. And I also made her a desk in her bedroom so she can still color and draw upstairs. Good luck!

We have a playroom in our basement too.... and all the toys are downstairs. We have the books on a bookshelf in the living area upstairs, and we have one basket of smaller toys up by the bookshelf... like Mr Potato head, some drawing boards, wooden cars, wooden blocks, etc. So they have things ot do upstairs, and they are welcome to bring toys upstairs from the playroom, but then at night, before bath, we bring everything back downstairs to the playroom. This system works great for us, as our living room is big, but not big enough for tons of toys.

We have our more "active toys" in the basement playroom...pretend play, dress up, play kitchen, strollers, balls, games.

I keep the art/craft stuff, play-doh in my kitchen, so I can supervise when it's being used.

We do keep some books, puzzles, legos on our main floor. I think a good portion of toys can go downstairs, but not everything.

Why don't you put ALL toys in the basement then allow them to bring one toy or one set upstairs. When they're done with it, it goes back down to basement.

My daughter has that rule all toys stay in her room. If she wants she can bring her pet shops or whatever down stairs in the family room but only one toy or set and it goes back up before she brings anything else down. I can handle pet shops sprawled out all over the floor, I can't handle petshops, barbies, dolls, etc. to much

M.,

In our children's rooms, we keep books and a few toys. They are the ones that are breakable, have lots of tiny little pieces we don't want to get lost or mixed up, and the most precious belongings (stuffed animal to sleep with and a couple things my kids would be sad if another child came over and broke or took it home.) The art supply cupboard is in the kitchen because that is where they do their creating. Other than that, everthing stays in the basement. I really like it this way. We do let them bring a board game out of the basement to play as a family in the living room, but toys stay in the basement. It makes cleanup so much easier and the house stays cleaner. Also, when friends come over to play, they either sit at the kitchen table to do arts and crafts, or they play in the basement. (We keep a plastic Little Tikes picnic table in the kitchen for craft projects and extra friends.) They rarely even go in the kids' rooms, which I really like. We do keep bath toys in the bathtub and when we had a baby in the house, we kept a basket of baby toys in her bedroom closet.

Good luck,
S.

Our "toy room" is also down stairs, but the kids only play down there IF I'm down there (on a rare occasion they will go down without me) So toys migrate up and then have to be hauled down at the end of the day. It is nice to have the mess out of site, but just be ready to haul things back down, unless you plan on spending the majority of your day down stairs

Mom of 3 boys, 8, 5 and 3.5

I just have a few ideas for you.

One is that when you arrange toys in various spaces throughout the house, make sure that you give every single item a designated spot. Have your children involved so that they know where each thing goes. You can't really clean up if you don't have a place to put things. We have toys/books/games/art supplies on different floors, but every single thing has a place where it belongs. The kids know where to put things and it helps keep their rooms and the basement family room clean and neat.

As for art supplies, we have an art supply cupboard in our dining room. All homework and art and paper-related items go there. The kids can do homework or art projects at the kitchen counter or the dining room table. I recommend that you do the same, so your kids can draw while you're cooking, and because cleanup will be easier near the sink, if they're doing anything messy.

We have always had a spot in the kitchen on a bookshelf for library books -- so we always know where the library books are and they don't get lost. We also used to have a basket under the kitchen bookshelf that was for tiny toys -- things like Happy Meal toys and party favors. That was the designated spot for those little things, which made me happy because they weren't scattered through the house, and which the kids enjoyed because they could dump out the basket while I was cooking and play, and then quickly put everything away again.

Good luck with your organizing -- it really is kind of fun, isn't it?

This is just my opinion, but it seems that a lot of parents have forgotten that the main purpose of a child's life is to play; to have fun and have a great childhood. Too many people only care about removing the "mess" from their sight and shoving all the toys in the basement. That is no fun for kids. Especially when the kids can only go in the basement if the parents are with them. Bored, unhappy children equal destructive, misbehaved children.

The way I look at is, I chose to bring these children into my life and they won't be children for long. My husband and I were more than happy to put our dining room table into storage and convert it into the playroom. Instead of a dining room table, we now have a Step 2 Kitchen, a Little Tikes picnic table, and everything a baby doll could ever need. As well as an inflatable ball pit, a dollhouse and every other toy under the sun. It is organized and our children have been taught how to respect their toys and clean up before bedtime.

We all love having the toys in the dining room, which is attached to our living room. We can all play together, but when my husband and I are not able to play, the kids are happy and content playing by themselves where we can see them.

We do have a play area in the basement with the less popular toys, and sometimes I rotate them, but I whole heartedly believe that you should cherish this time and take advantage of every single second of childhood laughter and the carefree-ness of simply playing. It will be gone soon. When they are old enough to play in the basement unsupervised, we may move all the toys downstairs and bring the table back to the dining room, but I can't see that happening until they are at least 10 - or older.

I hope you consider keeping your children's toys upstairs for now, and I hope you have a blast being a child with your child!