If you have a separate playroom

We have our basement set up as a playroom but also have toys in our living room.
We are going through a renovation and rearranging furniture and it would make my life so much simpler to have all the toys down there. Problem is they play upstairs more than down, how do I contain the mess down there without having them drag everything up everyday? I don't mind some toys coming up to play but since we usually only make them put a few toys away we'd end up putting majority of them away....not that my hiney couldn't use a few hundred up and downs on the steps.
I guess what I'm hoping is if we move them all down what's the chances they play down there only? Wishful thinking?

 

I'd put it all in the basement. We have a playroom on the first floor. The basement was where we would store the bigger toys to rotate-diner, market, tool bench, lego table.... The playroom toys upstairs make there way into the living room driving dh nuts. I would reiterate with the kids that the toys stay downstairs, that it's not safe to bring toys onto the stairs, etc. Make it exciting and they should be good! My kids will play in the basement. The problem with the basement is the subzero temperatures!

 

Ha! We have a corn burner in our basement so I'm dying down there!!!!!
I'll have to go through toys again (oh darn!) to make room for some of the bigger stuff they it for Christmas!

 

I don't think it will work downstairs. I'm sorry! I am. But they're not at the ages yet where they will play "alone" like that. They want to be near you and the rest of the household action. Maybe in a few years?

 

I don't know, they play a good 45 mins to an hour without me being down there, I listen through a vent cut in the floor lol because I'm paranoid but thy do pretty well, sometimes better than when I'm around :/

 

Then I'm nsanely jealous! I had a basement playroom when I was small (we were in Germany, so it must have been 4-6?) and I never played down there. I can't get my girls out from under my feet with bribes, threats, or begging. Maybe it's a girl thing?

Yeah. I'm jealous.

 

Could be a girl thing, Hannah's usually hanging around or on me! The boys seem more needy to have someone to play with (usually me) and I would say around 3.5 they got much better at playing with each other and not needing me so much. Hannah can play alone but she's very much stuck on boy/girl things...like she'll close the door when I'm putting laundry away and announce "2 girls in here!!!"

 

Our house sounds a lot like yours. We have our basement finished with the majority of the toys down there. But we do have toys upstairs as well. I just recently bought a 9-cube cubical with the fabric bins to store all the toys in, so at least the toy storage upstairs looks nice. If it doesn't fit in a bin or on the shelf, it goes downstairs. We also have 3 totes next to the shelf with Legos and trains in them. Our boys will also play alone in the basement, but I don't think we are ready to move ALL the toys in the basement, mainly for the reasons you mentioned... having to lug toys up and down the stairs ALL DAY LONG.

One side note, when we turned the basement into a playroom, be bought a nice TV for them. Big mistake. The screen was cracked in 1 week (TV meets Little Tikes golf club). Lesson learned... don't put anything too nice down there!!!!

 

I'm trying to remember when we moved almost all the toys into the basement from the living room, but they probably didn't play down their till they where at least 5 without me. Even now they sometimes have times that they want me downstairs with them. I would move everything downstairs to see how it works out, if it doesn't than you can always bring some toys back upstairs.
I would just make it part of the new routine, toys are safer in the basement with the work that is going on in the house. Then hopefully when everything is done, they will be so used to playing downstairs they won't notice that toys can go back up stairs.

 

I would try to get them in the habit of bringing any toys that are upstairs, downstairs before they bring up any toys. That way, when they are older, it won't be such a chore to get them to remove the toys to basement when it is time to clean up at the end of the day. They are still so young though, I'm not certain it is fair to expect them to be successful at this right away.

 

My kids play on their own in the living room a lot (their playroom I guess), but they keep bringing toys over to the family room. The only problem I see with having all the toys down there is that they won't spend all their time there, and if they can't bring toys upstairs when they want to be with you, what are they going to do?

What you can try to do is set some bins on top of the stairs, and they can just put their toys in there when they are done playing, so it's easy to put back downstairs (having them take everything back downstairs might be a bit much at this age).

Sounds nice though. Having all the kids toys out of the way.

 

WE just did this and the kids love going to the basement now! I actually will go down myself and jump on the treadmill or play with them or bring down the ipad. I do find that when I'm upstairs cooking dinner and they are in the basememnt, that is when they start to bring up the toys. I tell them "one toy allowed with you on the main floor" and before we eat dinner we take them back downstairs. I guess its just a matter of following through with your expectations of things.

 

I agree with the "put them in the basement" idea. My kids were very hesitant/scared to use their basement playroom when we first moved into this house. We just kept enforcing the rules about toys and they have gotten over it. I did spend a lot of hours sitting in our basement. We have a comfy recliner down there and I would read, knit or bring my laptop down. Then I would gradually start leaving for a few minutes and stretch it out. I would be direct with them that I was going to fold laundry and be back or get the mail and come back. And I would. Then I just gradually stretched it out. If nothing else, it was an excuse to play on the computer for a bit or kick back and read.

Marissa

 

We don't have a basement. We have an upstairs playroom and a downstairs playroom. The main thing for us is teaching them to contain their toys in their designated play areas. We've allowed some toys to creep in to the family room, but if it gets too crowded, we ask they clean up. We should be telling them to clean up at the end of each day, but that's something we parent's have to work on for ourselves. The boys are great about keeping toys out of the master and they rarely ever bring anything in to their daddy's office. Toys haven't been hanging out in the bathroom or their bedrooms are usually pretty neat (not by our doing...don't ask! I'm NOT going to figure that out. I'm just going to enjoy it while it lasts). I'll admit some toys end up in their rooms, but they rarely stay in there long. Any toys that do end up in places we don't want them, such as the office or kitchen, we do ask they pick them up or move them.

Kim, for your kids being so young, you might be able to get your 4 year old on board to help pick stuff up. Your 2 year old may be able to join in if you are able to make cleaning up a game. It could be about putting some stuff in a box so you can carry the box to where you want it. ...or something like that. But, it may be hard to keep toys down stairs all the time. Just be persistent about it and eventually they'll get used to the hose rules of where toys go and to expect you to ask them to clean up. It's harder to do as they get older and more of an independent mind, but start them early with following house rules and you'll have less resistance later when you really need them to do their chores or at least help around the house.

 

Thanks everyone. I'm thinking were going to start by going through the toys in the basement and then move te other stuff down and see how it goes

They do really well if we ask them to clean up its more is asking them because we usually wait right until bedtime then rush to get them ready and its easier to put them in bed then get wound up cleaning. Have to come up with a new routine!!!

 

Kim-you were quite excited about that post, huh?!?

:laughing:

 

BAhahahaha!!! The enthusiasm is contagious!

Dang, I tried to double (quadruple?) post and it didn't.

 

Holy cow my computers unplugged and my phone just went crazy if someone could fix that for me

 

So all the toys are in the basement and I got rid of a lot today too!! Thank you facebook for quick selling

Our basement is finished and has a tv so right now they think its pretty cool and our living room looks HUGE!!