If you don't have a playroom...

[vikivoly]

...where do you put everything? I'm fairly organized with the smaller toys and things that fit baskets and shelves, it's the large toys I'm concerned about. Right now DD has a kitchen set, a doll crib, doll highchair, activity block and a FP piano in her room. Her rocking horse and doll house are in our livingroom. We also have #2's PNP, bouncy seat and swing in the livingroom. We don't have a family room yet. I intend of having the kitchen set and doll accessories in DD's room for a long time, but does this mean she'll never be able to have another large toy? What about Barbie's dreamhouse? :) I'm wondering if I'll be better off putting the girls in one room and turning the 3rd room into a playroom. This would be in a couple of years of course. What is your solution?

[Raidra]

Colwyn's toys are spread throughout our house, too. He has several large LP sets in his room, along with a bookshelf, (adult) armchair, activity block, Discovery Sounds Workshop, and the Peek a Block hippo. He also has two bins with books, and one with stuffed animals. In the living room, we have a train table instead of a coffee table, a rocking horse, another ride on toy, Incrediblock, Stand-up Ball Blast, Mega Block Pirate Ship, LT basketball hoop, and a few other LP sets. We're planning on putting our dining room table in our kitchen to make our dining room into a playroom. We have a Step 2 climber that will go in there, along with a playhut, and hopefully some of the toys that are in the living room.

Don't forget that the swing and bouncy seat won't be around for long, and that your daughter will outgrow toys and that'll make room for new stuff. You can also rotate stuff.. if she wants a Barbie dreamhouse, you can put some doll stuff away for a few months until she tires of the dreamhouse.

[vpalmer]

We spread the big toys evenly throughout the entire house. It kind of absorbs them and it gives Eva something to do in every room since we pretty much spend equal amounts of time in all our rooms. The living room has the Discover Sounds Kitchen, PBK Anywhere chair and now puppy dog throw that my MIL got her for Christmas, and her shopping cart. The dining room has the leap start table in it. The kitchen is home to the Learning Tower (is that a toy?) and we have a low deep drawer in the kitchen dedicated to smaller toys. Our bedroom has a little Care Bear Mobile thing my mom gave her for her birthday and her Peek a Blocks wagon. The office is home to her Little People (house, village and ark), her table and chairs and all her art supplies. Lastly, in her room we have her kitchen and refrigerator, rocking horse, another chair my mother gave her, and most of her smaller toys which are stored in Pottery Barn baskets on her bookshelf and in the Elfa drawer unit in her closet. Whew! I had NO idea we had that many toys until I started typing!! Honestly I have always wanted a playroom (and still do) but now that I have typed all this out I wonder if it would just seem like a mountain of toys rather than absorbing into the house all spread out like they are now?

Veronica
Mom to Eva
Born 6-03

[whittyanne]

Our toy situation is out of control so I'm also interested to hear other's solutions. We have one of those colored toy organizers which holds the little toys in our TV room. Then he has tons of big toys spread all throughout the TV room. But it's too much now, esp. after his birthday and Xmas. So I think we're going to give up our Living Room! (*gulp*) We don't use it anyway...

[ett]

Our toys are currently spread out between our living room and DS's bedroom. We have emptied our dining room to make it into a playroom for DS. It's not very big but it's the best we can do right now. We have not bought DS too many large toys because we simply don't have the place to put it. If you were short on space I think the best thing to do with the large toys would be to rotate them.

[Sarah1]

Well, right now we have Audrey's biggest toys (i.e. her kitchen) in her room, like you. We have some toys in the built-in bookshelves in our den (which is an open room and not like a self-contained playroom), and then we also have some toys in our great room (living/dining) which we keep tucked away in a storage ottoman.

It is hard when you keep accumulating stuff...as we stand now there is really NO more room for any big toy(s) in Audrey's room...so it will be a long while before we buy her anything huge :)