Do Your Kids Have Their Own Playroom?

My girls are 9 and 11 now and value their "privacy", so they each have their own room and keep all their stuff in there. But when they were smaller (like 2,3,4 yrs old to about 6 or7), instead of them each having their own bedroom, they had one room to sleep in (just the beds and side tables) and one to play in (for ALLLLLL their GAZILLIONS of toys). It worked out GREAT at the time. We also had a large built-in window seat with storage in the family room so that if any toys "accidentally" made their way downstairs, they could be shoved into that window seat at the end of the day or if guests were coming over. But all in all, yeah, I'm a *big* fan of playrooms...I HATE seeing random toys strewn around my house, really HATE it.

We have a game room/family room upstairs. It serves mainly as a 'hang out' spot, watch t.v, read etc. Toys usually stay in their rooms, not always, but usually.

Interesting question. Greg and Nick each have their own bedroom.

We have a formal living room - which is "my" room and we have the family room which we consider "their" room - that's where they hang out with their friends and play games, etc.

We only have two floors so ONE DAY we'll buy a home with a basement and that will be theirs. So I guess they do have a play room....just never really thought about it.

Our kids each have their own playroom. Only we call it a bedroom. ;)

I actually probably wouldn't mind it, if we had tons of otherwise useless space and still had small kids. But ours are 10 and 13, and their "toys" are mostly electronics these days, lol.

My kids bedroom (they share) is super small. Books and one drawer of toys is all they have in there. In our living room, we have a leather ottoman with four storage areas and their toys (well most of the time) go in there. Otherwise they are strewn about (neatly) our living room. In the basement, however, we do have 1/4 of our unfinished area that is their playroom. I bought the multi colored mats at Sams club and put that down. It's a rather large area - maybe 250 square feet - and we have a recliner for reading, a large dollhouse, a ball pit, a slide, several larger ride on vehicles and other toys on shelves. I also have my scrapbook/wrapping table in the corner so I can scrap (when I have time which is never). I also have the laundry in antoher portion of the basement but it's all opened so I can work on that and they can play. Hubby's man cave is also downstairs (only finished room) so they go down there a lot during the week when he's home with them. I love having a playroom and wish we had a big enough house that we could have one up and downstairs! But that being said, I do not mind hvaing toys in the living room. I like when they play in there with us. I like that we can sometimes watch tv and they will play.

We have a playroom adjacent to the kitchen, it's on old 1960's home with an odd but open layout. So I can see them when in the kitchen. My 'office' is right in the center. It is not in a closed area, but I'm okay with that so my kids can still play with my supervision, without me having to go into a separate room.

Here is a picture of it... it does not always look this clean! But it makes it pretty easy to put toys away and such.

http://littlelovables.blogspot.com/2010/08/homefront-maki...

I now have a lego organizer and two cute tubs for toys on the left side as well that replaced the toybox.

We have a really big family room with an office nook, some built in cabinetry, and 2 large open areas. All of their toys are either in the built-ins, or in some Ikea toy storage furniture along the walls. It is great to have a place for all their toys, but I did have to be flexible and let them bring some toys to their bedroom. All the toys that are choking hazards must be kept in their bedroom so the baby doesn't get them. That has been working very well for us.

Our family room is our playroom, in that the kids just kind of took it over when they were born. It has our TV in it, and a couch and table, and other than that, it is entirely theirs.

Downsides: When I want to watch TV, I know the kids are watching whatever I am watching.

Upsides: Everything else about it is an upside. I love it. ^_^

Our entire house is my son's playroom. However, we live in a freaking small apartment. We are planning on buying a house this fall so things may change.

Hi, R.:

We have a guest room, TV room, play room. The children
do not have that many toys. We have music where the children sing
and dance. We have a room out back that has a trampoline in it.
They don't have alot of toys to throw around. They have
to keep them picked up. That's how they learn to take care of their
things.
Just my idea.
D.

My kids each have a room, that is more than spacious even with their furniture. They each have toy chests in their rooms yet somehow the toys end up everywhere throughout the day.
They would rather play in the living room, dining room, or the kitchen and as long as by the end of the day everything is cleaned up I don't mind.

We just got a puppy who is chewing on my sons smaller plastic toys.. Maybe it will be more of an incentive for him to keep his toys in his room :)

Nope!

Like you, I've always been all for it... but we lived in apartments when kiddo was young, and now live in a VERY small house!

As a kid (military, moving every 2 years) sometimes we had playrooms, and sometimes we didn't. Loved it.

My grandparents had the SMALLEST bedroom in the house (they figured that they had the whole house, but the kids "just" had their rooms). Like the way you were set up, the kids had the entire upstairs and HUGE bedrooms. There were only 2 bedrooms (each about 1000 sq feet... girls room and boys room), and there were 2 baths (girls bath and boys bath).

I'm all for a playroom and my kids have one. I don't like toys in the bedroom because it can cause sleep issues, at least in toddlers, and my crib doesn't have a mobile or toys either. Rooms are for sleeping. However, we are lucky that our house is big enough to do this. But I agree with you, I'd sacrifice almost anything to have a playroom.

We have a 6 bedroom house right now. One of the rooms Im not sure if it was meant as a bedroom or not, my ex mil ( who we bought the house from) used it as a tv room for the kids.

We have one bedroom upstairs that is just for the kids toys nothing else. But we do have some of thier favorite toys in thier bedroom downstairs and at the end of the day what ever toys are laying around the house goes into thier bedroom in a tote then every weekend we take everything back upstairs and start all over agian. I would like to just keep all of the toys in thier bedroom but with thier bed and two dressers in there, there isn't enough floor space for them to keep all the toys in there let alone be able to play in it also.

Yes! It's a lifesaver. In our old house, which was smaller but had more rooms, we had 2 rooms on the first floor that weren't kitchen-related (the kitchen was spread among three "rooms" but I digress...) so one was our family room/office and the other was a play room. In our new house, which is slightly bigger, there are fewer rooms. There is just one room that is not the kitchen or a bedroom, so we were all hanging out in one (relatively large) room for 5 years and it SUCKED. My husband would get mad that the kids were playing mini hockey, I would get mad that he was mad, I hated the damn toys everywhere so I would really just stick to the kitchen and bedroom. A year ago, we took half the basement and did a cheapo refinishing job - used a paint sprayer to paint the concrete walls and ceiling, beams, wires, pipes and all, installed some carpet and padding and great lighting, had more outlets installed, and it's HEAVEN. One end of the room has a TV that's set up for DVDs and video games only and has several arm chairs and an ottoman, my husband built a really cool club house and put a small flat screen in it for the younger kids, we have a treadmill, heavy bag and speed bag hung, some book cases and toy storage and then SPACE! They can play mini hockey, basketball and wrestle to their hearts' content. They can have friends over without being underfoot, and it makes a great space for sleep overs and parties for the older kids. I can't believe we suffered so long without this luxury.

We have a playroom and a family room in the finished basement...the playroom is never used..lol but we love that we can shove all the toys in the room and close the door! The family room is where they play most of the time. it's the only room in the house with a tv (other then the actual play room) and the family room has the computers. So lots of time spent in the area! This works for us a lot.

In the upstairs living area we do have some toys but they stay hidden for the most part in little fancy box like foot rests that have covers. Play and put away out of sight.

My kids all do have a few toys in their room but for the most part they do not play in their rooms. My kiddo's are nearly 7, nearly 5, and 2

Our last house was stupid small also. So the whole house was filled with toys - even my bathroom! Ugh!

Our house no is much bigger than that house, but about 2500sq ft. Plenty for a family of 5. We have an office (no toys), a family room (toys only in two ottoman's, and if I see them out and not being used they're gone), and the dining room and kitchen on the first floor. They each have their own rooms, and I don't care what toys they keep in there. Those toys are the "I don't have to share toys" - once they are out of their personal space, they are free game and have to be shared.

The basement is completely theirs. They have more stuff down there than should be legal, including a 7ft air hockey table, 8ft Hot wheels race tracks, I don't know how many Cars race tracks, a basketball arcade thing (also football, soccer, hockey, and baseball), and some old couches with a TV and Wii...the boardgames are also down there. So they have a whole floor in this house. As they get older though the toys are changing, and it's nice that the older they get the smaller the toys get!

We put the boys together in the bigger bedroom for about 6 months and there was a toy room upstairs also...but they wanted their own space again - and they got it.

It's funny that you ask this because we just now created a playroom in the room that is also my office. I work from home so it got to the point where we needed to do something for my 2 year old. The corral thing that we had set up for him prior grew to be too small and he could easily climb out of it. So we had to get creative. The other part of the room was also our guest room but we've had to remove all the bedroom furniture and my husband has built a porch railing like fence across the room that is about 5 feet high with the slats being 5" apart. It has a fence like gate. He has created a 10x12 area for his play area. We are getting those foam interlocking floor tiles to put in there and I am going to decorate the walls really cute and fun for him. All of his toys (except the noise makers - because I have to work in here too) are going to be in there for him to play with. It really looks pretty cool and not as hideous as it sounds. He seems to like it. Has more room to play. I too am looking forward to having the toys stay in this one area and out of the rest of the house. I want the house to look like adults live here too. LOL...So yes, having a playroom is a huge plus!! Good luck on yours!

We gave up the dining room and made it the playroom and computer room. When we moved in we tried to make it into a dining room. We had family over for Christmas Dinner soon after we moved. We moved in the beginning of December. It was so cramped and just didn't work, it is not really big enough to be a dining room. It was even too small when our family of just 3 at the time tried eating there.
It was great, we put a train table in there that was used for everything. It's still there 8 years later. My boys use it for their Legos and anything else so it's not all over the floor.
I could be in the kitchen and watch my kids play, I could take care of things on the computer while they played in the same room as me.
Best thing we did!

When we upgraded to a larger house (went from under 2000 s.f. to 3500 s.f.) I simply did not have the furniture to furnish two living spaces. It was a hard decision but I made the front living room the play room. So you walk into a mess. Not ideal. We kept the queen bed in the nursery and love having an extra bed, so no room to play in there. 4-year-olds room small but also full of toys. I imagine that even if I had the option to make a bed room a toy room, my kids want to be where i am and I also need to supervise them, so am glad they have toys downstairs (since I am in the kitchen and downstairs office the most). The trade off? a messy house. Nothing is perfect.

our dining room is the playroom. instead of a dining room table, we have a train set table in there as the centerpiece. lol. then shelves of toys on the side, etc. a true playroom. we went w/o a dining room table for awhile before we started realizing we should teach our son good table manners so we got a dining table and put it behind our couch where a desk used to be. works out well for us until we can afford a bigger place!

No. She plays all over the house, including in her room, which is the closest to a playroom that she has. We have 5 people and 4 bedrooms and my office is already in the kitchen. We do have a finished basement "rec room" but it's not strictly her space.

I thought about it and I like having a fluid home. I work from home so she's in and out of my space and if either the play room or office were shut off, I wouldn't have as much interaction with her. So, no, I'm not itching for a play room.

My kids have very few toys in their bedrooms, any thing else would cause too much bedtime problems. The have a few toys in the office to keep them busy if I need to be in there (like right now lol) but otherwise they have a toy room. I love the toy room because we can all play in it or I can send the kids to play in a safe area so I can have a moment of peace.
I never considered the idea of a toy room before I had more than one child though.
I'd say if you have the for a special space for just the kids, do it.
The only real con is having to clean up in the toy room myself. My kids are supposed to do it but that doesn't always happen.

No, our house is WAY too small. We have our bedroom, his bedroom, and an office. Our office is half office, and half home school room. (We're in the midst of converting the home school half.) His half has a cabinet will all his school and art supplies, a shelf with some of his open ended toys on it (blocks, gnome house, etc), and a table/chairs for him to do crafts and work at. The other half has a small loveseat, our TV, and our small computer desk. The middle is just a rug, so he can play there. The biggest part of our house, is the kitchen/living/dining area. They are all open to each other. We have an area out there with his toys.

We've always had a playroom. Now we call it the Wii room because it is where all the gaming stuff is located.

That said, I only have 1 child and our entire upstairs is hers......3 bedrooms, 2 baths, game room with pool table and a small library.

I used to have a playroom when I lived in PA. Our house there is much larger and there is a separate room off of the living room. I had all my daughters’ toys and play table there and it was open to the rest of the house. It helped keep her stuff contained in one area. I think it was easier to put her to bed when her room wasn't filled with toys. Now (maybe because she is older) she wants to play with this and that and not go to sleep.

We are almost finished with the construction of the playroom/office/guest space. We live in a raised ranch style house and our basement is completely above grade. When we built the house, we didn't finish the basement. With baby #2 on the way, we are moving other "things" downstairs.

I am 100% behind the idea of a playroom/ family room. Right now, we have my son's toys pretty well organized/concealed in the living room and fortunately he's pretty good at helping with pick-up, but with two of them... I want it out of my living room!

My parents and in-laws both created playrooms out of our bedrooms when we moved out and had children b/c they wanted the grandchildren to have toys and books there, but not throughout the house. Both have commented that they wish they had thought of it/ had the space when we were kids! Company on their way over? Shut the door~!

We do have a playroom. However, there are toys in just about every room. It doesn't bother me--we have 3 small kids. The only rooms we keep toy free are: master bedroom, master bath, guest room, guest bath, and laundry room.

I would love a playroom. We live in a very small upstairs of an old house that is now two apartments. Our kitchen/living room is one large room where we do everything. The kids rooms are crazy small. My daughter has some of her toys in her room, but the boys room has no room for toys with a bed, a crib, a dresser and a changing table. I have all the toys organized in bins in one of the closets in the living room and they must ask to get stuff out and put it away toys before anything new comes out.

I think my whole house is a playroom! :p

But, I sort of have one in our finished basement. Well, it's half of the basement anyway....the other end is a couch/tv, etc. I can see a lot of value in a playroom when kids are a bit older and can go play in that room without constant supervision. However, my young toddler can't and wouldn't play in a playroom separate from me so there's little need for one right now. At least with the toys in the main living area, I can get things done while keeping an eye on him and talking/playing with him. Some day, I think it would be great!!

We have a playroom and I love it. It was an addition to the house rightt outside the eat in kitchen. They left the window but took the glass so there is a big opening. There is also a door. No much use of the door because of the big open window, lol. From the room you can open the side which is one of those big doors that you can open all the way(wall to wall) and it is next to the pool (the pool is gated) and the backyard. You can see the room fro the kitchen and family room which I love. When my oldest was young and we didn't have the "special" room we gave her the garage for her "science lab" the other kids on the street loved to come over, I miss those days lol

I lost my house with my ex in our divorce (short sale0. =( It as 5 bedrooms, 3000sf...Lord I miss that house! Now my new hubs and I rent a house just under 2000sf and its SO small! And there's 5 of us. Each of the kids have their own bedroom and they hang out in the "front room", we hang out in the "back room". But to answer your question...when my 2 kids were smaller and we lived in the big house, they each had their own bedroom that didn't have toys other than their stuffed animals. We had a "play room" for them that had a daybed, tv with video/dvd, and all their toys combined. I LOVED IT! So literally they just slept in their own rooms and played in the play room. The 5th bedroom I used for my home office. I was the best. I hope to be able to get something similar when we are in a position to buy a home. And by then the kids will be teens and will NEED to be in a separate space. =)

Nope, our house is one floor, reasonably spacious, however mostly an open floor plan (kitchen opens into the front door entry way and the dining room, with the open living room down a couple steps from it. There are two bedrooms (one for each child) plus the master suite. So the living room is their main play area. It looks pretty disorderly around the edges, however I require that someone be able to walk through it without stepping on things or breaking an ankle. I actually enjoy that we have one big common space where we are all together and can join in the games or conversations.

Our basement is their playroom. It has toys, air hockey table, video games, full size electric keyboard....etc. The occasional toy or few ends up in rooms all over the house :)

My son has a bedroom, that is where his toys belong and that is where he sleeps at night, we have tons of activities we do in other rooms together, ultimately his toys stay in his room.

I am the opposite. I wish I could have an office. My 3 kids are in one room and that is where almost all of their toys live too. We have one small area in the living room with puzzles and a few toys. Everything else is in their room. If I had a playroom, I wouldn't combine it with the office or living room because I get peace from those few hours at night when I see adult things surrounding me instead of kids' things. If we had a playroom, I don't think my kids would spend a lot of time there anyway. They tend to pull out toys to play in the living room or dining room where they can be near me. The only time they hang out a lot in their room is when their friends are over.

If you have the space when you move, by all means designate one room as the playroom.

We don't have that & I wish we did!

Instead our family room has to double as the playroom. We have to p/u toys constantly.

If you need that room to double as an office, guest room etc by all means do it. It can be done.

We have ran the daycare in various houses with various floor plans. It's been our experience that my kids don't like being off by themselves. They enjoy being in a bedroom of one of my older children. But a room full of toys, no way. I am not the type of personality to just sit in the playroom for hours on end playing with them. It would be nice and all. But the cleaning, cooking, paperwork, and diaper changing needs done and I can't be cooped up in one room. So maybe they react to me. But my kids use all my house and I don't like for them to feel cooped up. We have different toys and activities for every room and we use all the house.

Our downstairs family room is the primary 'playroom'. It is very large (the whole length of our house and half the width of our house) and has the whole back wall that is 1/2 brick w/built in fireplace and the 2nd 1/2 is built in bookshelves, where the TV and XBOX goes. It is divided in 1/2 by a Foosball table. My husband has 1 side (fireplace side) with a HUGE computer desk (that fits 2 computers) and all the music stuff, drum set and guitars. The kids have the TV side w/the toys, TV, darts and basketball hoop.

I do like having a 'play' area...however it gets thrashed SO quickly, it sucks! Can't wait til my younger set gets a lil' older (not that I am wishing they grow up too quickly) just that they don't enjoy so many toys! :)