Our basement level is our toy room. It's had various iterations over time, but the most useful storage I've found is the cube shelves. I think we have 4 different shelving units for like 30 cubes total, lined along the walls. Some have the fabric bins in them and we store loose toys like cars, action figures, magnets, little balls, building blocks, etc, with each cube having a theme. Easy to dump and clean and keep organized. Some shelves are open and have board games, puzzles, books or bigger contained items like science kits lined on them. On top of the shelves we store the play houses, fire stations, imaginext stuff and bigger remote control cars.

When kids were littler we had the open storage bins, which were nice for them to see and put away items, but always felt more cluttered to me. I love the clean look of the cube shelves, and also how much they hold.

We also have a lego table that gets a lot of use. It has drawers around it to store legos and kits.

We used to have a play kitchen, but got rid of it recently and replaced it with musical instruments - drums, keyboard, microphone stand.

We have a large rug, and two big lounge chairs.

We do not keep toys in bedrooms or in the living room, so this is the only place where kid stuff resides, which I love.

We had two lifetime kids picnic table with lot of kallax 2-shelf shelving unit (with 2x8 or 2x4) from ikea (which are back to wall you may want to secure to the wall), it’s good for books and toy (with or without toy bin). Small trampoline with dumbbell to secure the legs so it won’t tip over by accident, also portable soccer goal and balls, plus a small slide. Floor light/lamp for reading, easel with papers and washable kids paint etc. Music instruments like keyboard and more. Lego and other building toys, puzzles, stuffed animals/dolls, toy kitchen with toy food and cooking utensils. A laptop or cd player to play some light music while kids playing there, sometimes kids would like to dance too. Different costumes for pretend play. Board game.

Anonymous wrote:Less is more.
https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4438453

This is totally true!

Anonymous wrote:We have two chairs and a side table from our old place in there, and then we have a big table with six chairs there too. There's a mini fridge and sink. There's a huge fabric tent that has a bunch of throw pillows and stuffed animals in there. There's an art supply zone, a food (play food) zone, a book nook, and an animal and doll zone.

To be honest, I don't spend a ton of time there - the nanny keeps it organized.

This is the most DCUM comment I have read in a long time, congrats.

Less is more.
https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4438453

Anonymous wrote:Floor mats, books, shelves (toy and game storage) and a child sized art table. The art table is rarely used - kids prefer to do projects around the kitchen table where the adults are.

Now with middle-elementary kids, I'm convinced that separate playrooms are really most useful for older (MS/HS) kids to have hang out space. My kids elementary age DCs always want to play where the adults are (den, kitchen, etc.). Though the playroom has been a good place for toy storage so that our other spaces don't become completely overrun with toys.

If I had it to do all over again, I would significantly limit the number of toys, art supplies, and books and try to keep the playroom as open space for more physical play (a place to tumble, toss a ball around indoors for little kids) and a few favorite toys.

I agree that the most important function of our playroom is to be a home for toys. We require all toys to be back in there by the end of the day. It helps keep the chaos out of the rest of the house

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's my living room. I have one basket of toys, a shelf of books, and a big tub of magnatiles. The only "kids" furniture we have in our home is the bed.

You must be poor

LOL, no. I just don't live in a McMansion in the burbs, nor do I fetishize parenting.

Kids are older now but the "playroom" was/is the living room. Two couches and then all kids stuff: small bookshelves with bins for toys, easel, hooks on wall for dress up, small table and chairs for puzzles and tables. Train table in the middle of the room. Popup forts stored under the couches. No rules except don't break anything, don't draw or paint on walls or furniture, and don't hurt yourself.

I think the most played with items were the train table, bins of dinosaurs and superheros, costumes, foam swords, and balls. Lots of active play. My MIL hated the room because it was the first thing people saw when they entered our home and it "wasn't sophisticated". Lol. Kids loved it, as did many parents who had their play rooms tucked away (which isn't terribly convenient for supervising).

Ours has one of those 8 cube storage units, 4 cubes with bins for smaller toys and 4 cubes for larger toys and puzzles/games. Two old coffee tables covered in legos. It’s a disaster and I make an effort not to go in there because it stresses me out.

Anonymous wrote:What is your play room like for a 3/4 year old? I'm wondering what your storage system is like, if you have any kids' furniture, and what toys actually get played with (and which ones just sit there). TIA

Mine has...

1. a plastic playhouse in the corner
2. a long area where the kids can practice gymnastics, dance
3. a couch
4. tv on the wall
5. a Melissa and Doug lego multipurpose table that sits low to the ground - for puzzles, legos, art, whatever
6. dollhouse with an insane amount of dolls
7. a small area in another back corner with art supplies

We have no real shelving system yet, just a few clear bins. The bulk of their toys are stuffed in their closets.

Floor mats, books, shelves (toy and game storage) and a child sized art table. The art table is rarely used - kids prefer to do projects around the kitchen table where the adults are.

Now with middle-elementary kids, I'm convinced that separate playrooms are really most useful for older (MS/HS) kids to have hang out space. My kids elementary age DCs always want to play where the adults are (den, kitchen, etc.). Though the playroom has been a good place for toy storage so that our other spaces don't become completely overrun with toys.

If I had it to do all over again, I would significantly limit the number of toys, art supplies, and books and try to keep the playroom as open space for more physical play (a place to tumble, toss a ball around indoors for little kids) and a few favorite toys.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's my living room. I have one basket of toys, a shelf of books, and a big tub of magnatiles. The only "kids" furniture we have in our home is the bed.

Well that's not a playroom.

It is if it's the room kids play in.

Ours is in a first floor bedroom. In terms of furniture we have a couch, large bookcase filled with childrens books, puzzles, and some art supplies. Pop up castle tent. One of those toy organizers that has metal bars and plastic bins of various shapes that slot in. We have a side table that has a couple of shelves for us to fit a couple more toys. A child size table and chairs. We have two closets—one holds an easel and pop up tunnels. The other has trucks/cars, art supplies, play dog/sensory sand, and some other lesser used toys. I also have made two art walls to display their art.

Kids are 3 and 5. I do a clean and donate every 6 months. They only have toys in that one room (none in bedroom for example, and none live in living room but they can bring them out and play there). With the couch, we hang out quite a bit in the playroom with them. It’s one of our most used rooms.

It's my living room. I have two wicker baskets with lids as toy boxes. I have one of those Ikea coffee tables with all of the open storage slots where my son puts books and other smaller toys, games, puzzles. A few things are under the sofa like the pop out tunnel.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's my living room. I have one basket of toys, a shelf of books, and a big tub of magnatiles. The only "kids" furniture we have in our home is the bed.

You must be poor

You are an a**

No, the PP’s just a moron.