Play Room vs. Bedroom

[SallySparrow]

Let's say you have the space in a finished basement for a play room. Would you utilize that space for most of the kid stuff, and just leave a few things/books in the bedroom, or would you use that space for something else?

We're moving next weekend. The new house has a large family room in the basement, along with two other rooms. One will be an office space for me/DH because we both work from home sometimes. We could use the other space for a play room, or we could just spread out one or two of her big things (swing, door jumper thing, exersaucer) among the levels of the house and leave everything else in her room. Her room is big enough to hold her toys and things, too. 

My only concerns are that it's downstairs and she obviously won't be able to go downstairs by herself for a long time. 

Thoughts?  

[Ashley&Scott]

Playroom for sure. If you have a playroom you will use it, we've been using M's since 5 months.

[Marmee]

I prefer to have a separate playroom & have in all our houses.

[jackpackage]

We have a playroom in our basement and I love it. I love having an out of the way place to keep all of his large toys (like the cozy coupe from the garage that DS guilted h to bring inside this winter) and not having to clean up too much when we have company.

[imojoebunny]

What place do you prefer to spend time? We are moving in a few weeks, and the kids will have a basement playroom, but they are 7 and 4 and only recently, like in the last year would they ever play without me in their sight. I keep their toys in their rooms in our current house, which has worked well because their rooms are off the family room, so they can easily get stuff out and drag it into the family room, if they don't want to play in their rooms. I think a play space on the main floor near the kitchen is the easiest, until they are old enough to play alone. I would not want to spend my day in the basement, plus you don't want the noise if your working down there.

[drloretta]

Playroom

[redpenmama]

We have a playroom on our first floor, and I could not live without it. It contains the mess and DD can play while I cook, clean, etc. With our bedrooms on the second level, we really don't have any toys in the kids' bedrooms, just some books and stuffed animals for bedtime. If you plan on using your basement a lot, I'd definitely create a playroom down there.

[bugandbibs]

In our house, bedrooms are for sleeping and the playroom or family room are for toys. We keep a few books, dolls, and stuffies in their room.

Every night before bed we "clean" their room and put away any toys that have wandered in.

[ECB]

We have a playroom and I love it. While he spreads to other parts of the house at times, when we need to clean -e verything goes back there and when kids come over, that's where they play.

[momof2boys]

Playroom! We keep very few toys in our boys rooms, mostly just a few books and stuffed animals. It makes keeping their rooms clean so much easier, and also keeps bedtime easier. They don't have distractions and things to play with at night, so they just go to sleep. Now that they are a little older if they seem to need some time to decompress I can send them to their room to read quietly, and again there aren't too many distractions (my older son has ADD so keeping distractions to a minimum is helpful). When my kids were younger (and couldn't play downstairs alone) I kept most of the toys in the basement playroom but would keep the ones they played with most upstairs in the corner of the living room. If they wanted something from the basement I could also just bring it upstairs. Then we put a second floor on our house and ended up with extra rooms, so we turned one into an upstairs playroom. The downstairs one became a sports playroom b/c they can play floor hockey, soccer, whatever they want down there and the upstairs one is for toys. And I got my living room back

[Deleted]

Playroom! It's nice to have a dedicated space for chaos.

[MadamePresident]

I have a playroom that is next to the living room and I love it. It gives my daughter space to leave her toys all over the floor and me the space to not have to step on them.

[doctorsbaby]

Playroom for us, it was actually a requirement when we moved. I don't like having toys in her room as we have had a lot of sleeping issues. She has stuffed animals on her bed that she snuggles with and everything else is in the playroom.

[h]

We have a separate playroom, which I live, but we still do some toys in their rooms. The playroom is for toys that are appropriate for all ages (i.e., no choking hazards). Things like Legos that the baby can't play with or special new things that they don't want their brothers messing with go in their rooms.

[faith194]

A few weeks ago, we had a playroom(which had a twin bed for guests) and his nursery(his toddler bed that was his crib). Anyway, no toys were in his nursery, and it was great having a place to have all of his toys. We just transitioned him into his playroom and twin bed full time, and so now his bedroom is full of toys. His nursery has now become the "music room"--It is super tiny, not big enough for a bed, so DS' keyboard and DH's guitars are in that room now.

DS also has a train table, his cozy coup, and other larger toys in the basement. He plays with those when DH does laundry during the week. He also rides his bike, too. It is nice to have a space like that for him in the winter! I don't know how old he would have to be to go down there on his own, but not for a while(the stairs are steep, we have to go through the garage to get to the basement, etc).

I would definitely use that space as a play area, but I would not let DS play on his own on a different floor for a few years. I love having a playroom on the same floor(we live in a small ranch).

[dragonfly08]

One of the happiest days of my life was when DH finished fixing the safety issues the previous owner had left in the basement and I could haul all the kids stuff down there. Now they have a place to play where I can't hear them argue, they can make a mess and I don't care, and I'm not stepping on their stuff all over the house! Of course, my kids are old enough to be down there alone; but even with a younger child I'd focus on the play room and go down there with him/her, just bringing up a few things as needed when I had to be upstairs.