Toy-free bedroom?

[AllisonR]

Does anyone here NOT have toys in their DCs bedroom?

We have a very large ground floor. There is an art area, a toy room and the family room, all filled with legos, scooters, games, costumes, books.... basically all of DS and DDs toys. Upstairs however, the kids have very small bedrooms. Literally enough space for a bed, a dresser and a book shelf. There are books on the bookshelf, but no toys up there at all, except the occasional item that goes up with them in the evening, only to come back downstairs the next day.

No one seems to mind this. DS and DD are only 5 and 3, so they usually want to be downstairs with me and DH anyway. And I kind of like the fact that there is a clear distinction that the bedroom is the place where you sleep and get dressed and that's it, so it is very calming at bedtime.

But I wonder how this will be long term? What about when DD wants to go up to her room and have secret tea parties with her girlfriends? What about when DS wants to hang out with friends without DD around?

Anyone have a similar arrangement? How does it work out?

[4evermom]

We never kept toys in the bedroom, either. Might start putting the more precious/display types of things there, though.

[crowcaw]

There are very few toys in dds rooms. They're twins, almost 5, and have a few stuffed animals but the stuff they play with is downstairs throughout the house. They're usually playing where I am or close by, though have in the last few months started taking things into their room. There are books in their room.

[zinemama]

My kids are 7 and 10 and have no toys in their bedrooms. No toys that are meant to be stored there, that is. Sometimes one kid will bring his box of legos up to work on a project, but they always get put back downstairs. We have room for them in the playroom downstairs but a small bedroom they share upstairs. Not a problem.

[Holiztic]

DS is 3.5 and sleeps in a toddler bed in our room, his clothes are in my dresser, too and he shares our en suite bath. But he does have a room with a castle toy set in it--when we furnish it and move him in, the castle comes out.

No toys, no electronics in bedrooms, that goes for adults in our house, too!

[Teensy]

Your set-up is is basically what we have for my boys. They share a small bedroom with only beds, clothes, and a bookshelf. Then they have a large playroom with toys and games. The bedroom is for sleeping and reading quietly (in theory ) and the playroom is for playing.

DD does have her toys in her room, mostly to protect them from a wild brother (he thinks it is funny to have a tornado go through her playmobil village, breaking the castle and cottage into multiple pieces, I do not find this funny at all ).

It really seems to not matter where I store their toys; they just destroy whatever room they start in and then move to whatever room in the house is clean, dragging their detritus along with them. Sorry for the rant, but I've been re-cleaning the rooms I already cleaned and am not in a good mood on this Saturday night.

[Alyantavid]

We have a playroom so all toys go in there. Both boys do have some special stuffed animals they keep in their rooms and my 8 year old has a drawer of his collections.

It works out great for us. They only have one room to clean up and I keep that pretty organized so it's easier for them. I have no problem with them taking some toys to their rooms to play with by themselves, but they do get put back in the playroom.

[sarahr]

We have books but no toys in my dd's bedroom. All the toys are downstairs in our den. It makes bedtime a lot easier because there aren't any distractions.

DS is 5 months, and when he's crawling I think we'll have to put toys that are unsafe for him in dd's room.

[cappuccinosmom]

Ours is nearly toy free. Each boy has a box of matchbox cars that are stored under the beds. However, they rarely play with them.

In our family, the bedroom is for sleeping, resting, and privacy for getting dressed. They don't play up there unsupervised and that is going to continue.

No problems with it so far, and my oldest is 7. They have a ton of books up there and I like that it is a "no-toy zone". I think it helps them shift from play to rest/reading time easily.

[SubliminalDarkness]

My kids just sleep in their bedroom and have toys in another room. It hasn't been a problem.

[cedoreilly]

There is no toys in the boys room for a reason! There was one piece of GeoTrax in the bedroom last year and the 2 year at the time hit the 6 year old over the head with it!! I find toys in the room only cause wars at night among the boys.

OK, my oldest does have some LEGO structures in the top of the closet because it is the only place to keep the youngest from breaking them.

[bobandjess99]

MY kids sleep in my room, we have a family bed, so no toys in there! They have 2 playrooms though.

[ThisCat]

We started out with toy-free bedrooms for a lot of the same reasons mentioned here. But when my youngest started crawling and getting in to his big sister's toys that were not meant for babies or toddlers, we moved those from the living room to her bedroom. Fortunately, they haven't been a distraction from sleeping at all. I actually think it's been kind of nice for her to have her own space with her own things where she doesn't have to worry about her little brother messing anything up.

[lonegirl]

LOL my house is the opposite. DS sleeps with us and most of his toys are in his room....So much so that when I suggested DS sleep in his own bed his response was "But mommy this isn't where I sleep this is the toy room".

[Biscuits & Gravy]

My boys share a room. We have a bed, crib, and one little bookshelf. They each have their "snuggles" that they sleep with, but that is it. The toys are all in the playroom.

[hergrace]

My 7 year old has a few action figures in his room that are more decor than toys. Other than that, all that is stored in the kids' rooms are books & cds, beds and clothes (and the little ones don't even have clothes in their room yet).

We did have a room that DS1 could get into but his younger siblings couldn't so that I could keep big kid toys out of the little ones' hands. Now that we are reorganizing to let the triplets into the big kid playroom, I expect some of the more precious big kid toys will need to move and I haven't yet figured out where to.

[limabean]

Originally Posted by AllisonR

But I wonder how this will be long term? What about when DD wants to go up to her room and have secret tea parties with her girlfriends? What about when DS wants to hang out with friends without DD around?

We do keep toys in the bedroom (as well as downstairs), but the kids often want to play with a "downstairs toy" upstairs or vice versa, so we keep most toys in bins that can be easily transported to wherever they want to play.

Maybe something like that would work for you -- if your DD wants to have a tea party with a friend, she can just grab the tea set bin and take it to her room.

[eepster]

There is no rule about toys in the bedroom, and I actually bought some of DS's bedroom furniture with toy storage in mind. For some reason though toys just don't really live in his bedroom. A few occasionally go up with him and there are the couple of stuffed animals that he regularly sleeps with, but nothing ever stays too long. Even his regular sleeping animals come down stairs most days.

[tjjazzy]

my sons have toys upstairs because ds1 doesn't always sleep at naptime and we always read at bedtime so there are lots of books up in his room. ds2 has toys because i'm still holding out hope that he will wake up and play in the morning instead of crying. hasn't worked so far so i have toys in my room. he plays and i snooze. otherwise, i see no issues with toy free bedrooms. very calming, clear message in a room with no toys: bedrooms are for sleeping in.

[Alison's Mom]

My almost 4yo and 5.5yo share a room, which has two beds, an armoire, and chest of drawers and a book shelf, with no real toys. The whole attic room right now is their toy room, plus there are toys in the family/TV room in the basement. This will have to change at some point, though, because they won't want to share a room forever. DH and I might move upstairs so they each get a main floor bedroom, and then I guess we would purge most of the toys and keep some stuff downstairs and some stuff in each of their rooms. . . . haven't really thought that far ahead yet!

I do like the idea of 'the bedroom is for sleeping', though so there is less temptation to play at bedtime.