Separate Play Room: Yay or Nay???

[VanessaEO]

We have a three bedroom house, 2 kids and both DH and I work from home. me - daycare, him - internet marketing.

Right now in our master bedroom is his office (takes up 50% of the bedroom and in the closet is my sewing room. Our other two bedrooms are used for daycare.

In one bedroom - my kids beds, plus pack & plays and mats for DCK's nap time.

In the other bedroom - a dedicated playroom for my kids and DCKs.

My family room is adult stuff only (for the most part). Couch, TV, family computer, etc.

I'm thinking of taking over the playroom for Dh's office & my sewing room and moving the toys/playroom into our family room.

I'm thinking I'd like to reclaim a little of my house for myself/family. Maybe the daycare would feel less overwhelming if that were the case.

I'm also thinking that I would have better supervision of DCKs, as they would all be in one room except for naps. Our family room is connected to our kitchen (great room sort of way). I've been having some supervision/rule violations with my 5 year old boys. (Potty talk, throwing toys, etc) I'm convinced they won't do this when I'm in the room, or when they are in the Family Room.

The negative is that I'd have toys all over my family room. Sometimes when clean up gets to be "too much" I just close the door to the playroom. That wouldn't be an option if I moved the toys to the Family Room. I would however probably cut my toys in half and rotate them monthly if I did this.

[marniewon]

As someone who would give just about anything to have a dedicated playroom with a door that I could close when I'm not doing daycare, I would not move toys into the family room and use that space for something else. I guess it really depends on where you spend your evenings and weekends. If it's in the family room, you really don't want toys in there 24/7. If you do more sewing than anything else, then it might be to your advantage to have a bigger area to do that. If you're really torn, you could always try it out, and switch it back if it's not working for you.

[lvt77]

are you willing to let your living room things get destroyed? We can't always watch the kids 100 % of the time. Like going to the bathroom cooking lunch, even just having your back turned when you are in the same room....trust me they will destroy your personal items. The kids and you will both become frustrated with you always having to tell them to get off of things and etc......SOrry that was a bit of a mouthful....

[Francine]

I think it depends on how many toys you are talking about moving to the familyroom, is it just a couple of baskets of toys each day that you could easily move to another room when you didn't want your familyroom to look like a daycare.

I think it would be great for you to be able to get the office/sewing stuff into it's own room, I would hate to have it in my bedroom.

If your daycare kids are anything like mine, they spend more time in the family room than the playroom anyway. My familyroom opens into our kitchen, since I spend alot of time in the kitchen they spend alot of time in the family room, although I try to have them keep the toys in the playroom just because I want all of the toys in one room.

[ammama]

I love having my playroom. It's on the same level as my kitchen and living room though, so that makes it even better. I like that I can sit and watch TV, or whatever after the dck's go home, and I don't have to look at a whole bunch of kids stuff. Maybe you could set up an office corner in your living room, instead of bringing the playroom stuff in there?

[E Daycare]

What I did was turn the unused formal front living room into a play room. Its a seperate are that isnt closed off but you have to walk the hallway to get there. I have the stairs and a half bath that keeps it excluded from the kitchen that flows into the living room. In the play room I have all the toys plus the pack n plays and I wouldve had it set up that way (minus pack n plays and changing table) if I didnt have a daycare as I need a spot for all of DS millions of toys anyways. Im an Ikea junkie so Im able to utilize all their lovely organizational bins and made a little preschool up front. At night everything is cleaned up and out of the way. I say if you have the space do it. Its kept our main living areas free for more running around

[Lilbutterflie]

I personally would prefer your current setup with a playroom. Think of it this way, you are keeping your family room just that, your FAMILY room with no signs of daycare in it. Add the toys and all of the chaos of daycare and your family room will no longer be yours. They can damage your things, damage the floors, etc... When you have guests over, the family room is where friends and family will want to visit, but it will have toys and signs of your daycare everywhere. As it is, you can shut the playroom door and the daycare is suddenly gone!
Is there a way you can add your sewing area to your living room? That will allow you to at least reclaim some of your closet. And think about this, for your DH's office... is the current location of your bedroom far enough away from the playroom for him to work in peace? If he moved his office to the playroom, would he be able to work in peace or will he be close the family room where the chaos will be?