How much do you worry about baby crap taking over?

[sewpinkgal]

We're a clutter-free home (for the most part), but I don't try to hide J's stuff. It is what it is - we have a baby so it's gonna look like one lives in our house. That said, I straighten everything up at night and we have large bins that house toys in our living room that match the rest of our decor (this also makes clean up at night a breeze). I'd say we have a good balance of still living like adults, but having baby stuff around, too.

[water*drop]

We're pretty quick to pick up any toys that aren't being used (they go in baskets that slide into the shelves in the entertainment center and coffee table in the living room). The big stuff that is used regularly at this stage (swing, jumperoo, etc) stays out until DD outgrows it. DD's room and closet are pretty tiny, so we don't have a lot of options right now. Eventually we'll finish the basement, and the big toys will probably go there, but for now we just keep everything as organized as possible.

[mollybrown]

I embrace the baby crap! I like toys as much as they do, so baby stuff took over our house pretty much right away. I'm also in the "buy any baby gear that makes life easier" camp, so we have quite the collection. My only mistake was that our first house only had a living room, and no additional family room or den. We couldn't make that work long term, so they now have a dedicated room for all of their wonderful, colorful, fun crap. We're trying to keep a minimal amount of their toys in the family room, so we don't have to look at it when they go to bed.

I am over picking up small pieces. They will not be getting anything with small pieces that can be dumped out and scattered anytime soon because I'm tired of picking that crap up. They're getting a climber/slide and Anywhere Chairs for Christmas...more stuff, but easy to clean up.

[evynsmama]

As soon as Evy began to crawl we took out our cofee table and our livingroom became a playroom, she even calls it the playing room. I imagine it will be like this until she is 4 or so.

[matildasun]

We are currently overrun with clutter. We bought new furniture, and switched the purpose of a room. I am having a hard time reorganizing. I have a plan but we are not quite there yet.

There are toys in every room, but ultimately they will all have an organized place in each room. I also restrict certain toys to certain rooms. The trains stay upstairs in the kids' bedroom, the animals are in the living room, and the duplos stay in the dining room. I really dislike toy bins where all the toys are mixed together.

I am trying to sell the bouncy seat and swing and am reluctant to bring up the exersaucer until after Thanksgiving.

Ultimately, I feel that it is their house too, and they should be able to enjoy it while maintaining some sense of order.

[Deleted]

My kids have a playroom plus 2 bedrooms plus their own nook in the kitchen (table & shelves with games & art supplies). I still moved their Nilo table & bins into our living room, plus a bookshelf with kid books because the LR is very big. They live to leave dolls, toys, crayons, etc all over the living room coffee table, the foyer & the dining room table. There is no kid stuff in our office & bedroom but everywhere else it migrates too. I always kept the swing & a basket of toys in the LR when I had babies.

[Deleted]

I love my DS' crap. It's around for such a short time. We also live in a really small space, so if I want him to have it, I have to see it. I love all the colors and toys. I only get annoyed when I accidentally set off a singing toy when he is asleep and can't figure out how to shut the damn thing off.

[SusanBAnthony]

W have always had plenty of baby stuff, but it is not like it covered every available surface. The toys have always lived on shelves in the living room, and it gets put away at least once a day. They drag toys from room to room and I toss them back into the correct room as I walk around the house.

I our current tiny house some toys are in each room just because there is not enough room in any given place to have them all. They get put away every night (either the corner they sit in, or away in a shelf.). A the kids get older I can do less and less throwing away of toys because they remember. Sme with all the crap they collect, and pictures they draw. I miss the days of two year olds where I could throw away anything I wanted an no one remembered.

[lmb5109]

Nov 15, 2012 15:08:42 GMT -5 jenny1980 said:

I don't like clutter and we never allowed baby crap to totally take over.

Clutter makes me irritated so I hope I can keep it all organized!

[Brie]

I think people are confusing having baby/kid stuff out with clutter.

We have a PNP and bouncer in the family room, a swing in the living room, RNP in our bedroom, and pump parts drying on a rack in the kitchen. It is obvious that a baby lives here, but I don't think our house is cluttered. The baby stuff is all fairly neat and organized, although there is plenty of it.

[arch01]

We're finally down to just the jumperoo in our living room, thankfully. We've gone from the swing, jumperoo and play mat to just the jumperoo. We have a bunch of small toys, but they get put away every night.

DH about had a heart attack when it was all out. Our living room isn't that big, but the amount of baby crap was overwhelming.

[h]

We tried to minimize baby clutter for a while. But now that I have multiple kids who 1) really really want specific toys, which may not fit with my sense of aesthetics at all; and 2) are old enough to disperse said toys all over the house, I have pretty much given up. It is a losing battle at this stage of our lives. Our house basically looks like the Lego store exploded.

[Ashley&Scott]

Nov 15, 2012 21:38:58 GMT -5 Brie said:

I think people are confusing having baby/kid stuff out with clutter.

We have a PNP and bouncer in the family room, a swing in the living room, RNP in our bedroom, and pump parts drying on a rack in the kitchen. It is obvious that a baby lives here, but I don't think our house is cluttered. The baby stuff is all fairly neat and organized, although there is plenty of it.

This is us. We have baby stuff & plenty of it, but it's not cluttered. There is a designated space in each room for M's stuff.

We designated one room of our house as a play room. There's plenty of floor space to play & for bigger items such as the exersaucer.

[Here]

I have a bin storage system that is on wheels and matches our decor. I put it in the study and pull out toys as needed. We store toys in a woven chest in our living room too. We try to minimize our toys and pick up every night. Large toys are stored in the study. We are making her a play kitchen to match our furniture in the eat in kitchen rather than buy a plastic heap.

[Here]

Nov 15, 2012 16:04:49 GMT -5 hilwithonelary said:

This is my dining room.

Thank goodness we have an eat in kitchen.

The swing, pnp, and Boppy live in the living room permanently. Other stuff frequently migrates to the living room as well.

It doesn't bother me. It drives DH crazy.

Oh that would drive me crazy. Lol

[ECB]

We now have a dedicated playroom, but DS's toys do tend to spread out. But we try to keep on top of it. I'lllet it go for a day or two, then everything gets moved back. I'm not too rigid about it, but I also don't want EVERY room to be "his" room.

[whitepicketfence]

That ship sailed a long time ago in our house. I just got tired of fighting against all the junk that accumulates with 2 kids and all the things that they are constantly given by our huge families. Now, I just try to keep it as organized as possible.

If you saw my house today though, you'd think we had 10 kids instead of 2. Thet've totally trashed the family room, LOL. We are SO buying a house with a playroom next time!

[w2w]

I don't worry about it at all. We have storage containers in the tv room, so once he is done playing there, toys get cleaned up. Obviously things like his high chair, and when he was tiny, his swing, just stay(ed) out.

[pamela]

We have a small house so we are vigilant about avoiding too many toys. DS has a bookshelf in his room and a cabinet in the LR entertainment center that is his. He has a parking lot area next to it for his walker type toys and a train/drawing table. That's it. In his new room he'll have a toybox.

[smiley]

I don't have any living children at this point but I cringe everytime we walk into SIL's house. They bought a larger home last year when their family was growing. The dining room is a playroom for the children which now spills into the living room. You can not walk into the house without tripping over toys. It is an utter mess.

On the other hand, my other SIL has a baby and her house is neat and orderly with a few children's toys out. She keeps the toys cleaned up and even though he has a number of toys in the living room you do not trip on them and they are kept neat in their own way.

I would like a happy medium between tripping over toys and not having any toys.

[bunch]

I can put all of my kid's toys away and within 30 minutes the house can be covered.