Do you separate one DC's toys from the other?

[elektra]

DD has a gazillion toys and books that are stored both in our living room and her bedroom.
And DS has 3 toys to his name and now some books too. DD of course seems more interested in those 3 toys than any of her own, and I honestly am not 100% sure which books were gifts just for DS (as opposed to DD) and I can see everything just getting mixed together. Is this just the nature of being a 2nd child? You basically don't have any of "your own" stuff?

[vonfirmath]

My sister and I had our own rooms growing up. We had our own stuff we stored in our own rooms, but we did a lot of playing together and I'm sure stuff went back and forth a lot.

I would say DD's "stuff" that is too young for her is now DS's "stuff" and just reassign ownership.

Books are either communally owned or give them shelves in their own rooms for them. The only books we took out of the house, though, when we were left were stuff we were still reading in junior/senior high school. My parents got rid of a lot of it. What is left... well, we work it out if one or the other of us wants it for our kids. So far, there haven't been any issues.

[brittone2]

My 2 are about 3 years apart (now age 5.5 and 2.5). Once DD became more mobile, DS had some pretty major freak outs as she'd try to knock down his block towers, get into his train layouts, etc. (when she was crawling and still pretty clueless...she just wanted to "play" with him). I could understand his frustration.

He was always a kid that *had* to be in the same room with me. ONce DD became mobile, I basically made a rule that anything he was going to freak out about her playing with had to go up in his room (train table/trains, blocks, etc) as she was still too young to really be doing anything w/ these other than destroying his creations, kwim? (eta: and this also included toys w/ lots of small parts that were unsafe for DD)

we moved the train table to his room, etc. for a while. Whenever he was working on something intricate in our main living space and would get upset that she was going to knock down/get into his stuff, I would tell him he had to take it to his room so he could have his own space.

That worked well and at that point he was willing to start playing in his room on his own. As DD got older and was more capable of playing, many of those items came back down into our main living space. DS still keeps some of his most prized possessions in his room (a few toys he spent his own money on, his stash of Lego (she has Duplo downstairss), etc.) but most of the stuff is shared again.

At age 5 he enjoys some space during the day and will often choose to play Lego, etc. in his room alone for an hour or two.

[egoldber]

Because of the age difference with mine, Sarah had to keep all toys with "small" parts in her room or only play with them when Amy was asleep. Also, anything that she is not willing to share with Amy, must stay in her room.

[new_mommy25]

When the kids were younger I sorted the toys appropriately, mostly due to the fear of choking hazards. That's not necessary anymore and I also probably have one of the smallest houses on the BBB so also not really possible. :) When DD was first born she had few toys that were simply stored in a basket. Now she has tons, mostly due to the kids being different sexes. I have lots of shelving downstairs and in their rooms and stuff is organized that way. As for books, I always know whose is who because I am type A. But I also write their names in the books or use a book plate. Many of their books were gifts and in my family we always write an inscription when giving a book. So those ones are also easy to tell apart.

[hillview]

We don't right now. Except for lovies (hands off!). At some point, I can see needing they to keep their stuff in their rooms. That said, DS #1 does have special books in his room and special toys up on a shelf. Books are books that can be easily rip (DS #2 rips books -- DS #1 never really did) and toys are small part toys or toys DS #1 is very attached to (new things usually). In general the rule is all toys are everyones. That may change but for now it works pretty well.
HTH
/hillary