MrsBasil Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 We are looking to move in the next few months so that we can combine households with my parents. The homes we are looking at tend to be ranches with walkout basements, so we'd live up and my parents would live down. Most of the places we've seen have a kitchen, living, and dining room in a large open great room concept and then 3 bed/2bath in around 2,000 sq ft. There are a lot of benefits to this arrangement for us, but I'm a little iffy on how to downsize. We currently have a living room, family room/school room, and a finished basement. My husband is apparently a minimalist at heart and looking forward to a different layout, less stuff, and less space to spread out. We will be doubling(at least) our kitchen space and gaining a nice sized covered deck with built in retractable shades, lighting, and a ceiling fan. If you have a similar layout/space, how do you keep toys and school stuff from over taking the living room? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YaelAldrich Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 I am wondering this myself. We just moved to a place in Boston with about 1800 sq.ft., which is pretty close to what we had before in IN. But, this is a townhouse and on three levels (and a garage/storage room), whereas we had a ranch with a garage and storage shed in IN. I am running out of room as we do not have separate living room, dining room, playroom/den. The books seemed to have bred in their moving boxes and I am not sure where to put toys since the little kid's room is pretty tight and the big kids don't want those toys in them. Argh!!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carriede Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 Your kids are the same age as mine.. minus the baby! We have only a family room - no living room, dining room, or basement. Under 1200 square feet. All of DS6 and DD3 toys are kept in their rooms. The baby's toys are in the family room. The older kids are allowed to bring their things out to play with, but are put away every night. Also, the keep small thins like Legos in their room always, on account of the baby. With a big kitchen, you might dedicate a couple cabinets to kid type things, like crafts or board games - things usually done at a table or with others. ETA, DS has a loft bed which helps with space. We plan on building one for DD before the new baby gets here. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starr Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 I would eat most meals in the kitchen and rework the dining room. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsBasil Posted August 23, 2015 Author Share Posted August 23, 2015 The kitchen is not set up as an eat in. It's got a large island with seating like a breakfast bar and a lot of cabinet and counter space, but no place for table. Otherwise, I think that would be a great solution! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsBasil Posted August 23, 2015 Author Share Posted August 23, 2015 Your kids are the same age as mine.. minus the baby! We have only a family room - no living room, dining room, or basement. Under 1200 square feet. All of DS6 and DD3 toys are kept in their rooms. The baby's toys are in the family room. The older kids are allowed to bring their things out to play with, but are put away every night. Also, the keep small thins like Legos in their room always, on account of the baby. With a big kitchen, you might dedicate a couple cabinets to kid type things, like crafts or board games - things usually done at a table or with others. ETA, DS has a loft bed which helps with space. We plan on building one for DD before the new baby gets here. I love the idea of loft beds! We've been thinking about those for our kids. One of the bedrooms is 16x10 and the other is 13x11. The smaller room is currently set up as an office with beautiful built in desks and cabinets. We may have the kids share the larger room for a couple years with loft beds and use the smaller room as a den/school space. I think a boy and girl could share a room for a few years?? Carving some cabinets from the kitchen is a good idea! Or maybe the laundry room? It's got built in cabinets on the upper and lower part of the walls and its own sink, that might be good for paints, clay, glue. Legos. Hmm. DS and DH love to play with Legos together. Maybe I could find a nice bin for them in the living room. There's no more babies in my future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThursdayNext Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 I would eat most meals in the kitchen and rework the dining room.Yes, our dining room is a library. If the dining room is not the only eating area, it could make a good schoolroom. Also, underbed storage for toys, like long plastic bins. Coffee table and enertainment center with baskets for living room toys are so helpful. We now have a schoolroom/playroom, but we still have 5 baskets of toys in the living room. They like to be where I am. Will you have an attic or big garage? Keeping out a small amount of toys and rotating frequently would make space. We also have an old wardrobe in the garage, just outside the kitchen, full of craft supplies. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ali in OR Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 We have about 1800 square feet, open living/dining/kitchen. The kids' toys live in their bedroom, and with 2 kids in a 10'x12' room, it's pretty tight in there. We have shelves in half the closet that have some sterilite type bins for some toy storage. Lots of play happens out in the public spaces. The large, empty entry is a prime spot for setting up stuff for dolls. Once in a while the top of the grand piano gets covered with lego creations that remain out for awhile. Books are on bookcases in the living areas. We put in a huge built-in bookcase in the den/office that is about 10' long and 8' high and the real books we use for home schooling live there. For textbooks and workbooks, each dd has a milk crate that sits along the wall behind her chair at the dinner table. Hanging file folders hold workbooks, notebooks, and smaller textbooks. Dd's giant high school texts sit in the crate but not in a file folder. So there is definitely evidence in the public spaces that we home school, but I don't think it's too ugly or obnoxious. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsBasil Posted August 23, 2015 Author Share Posted August 23, 2015 Yes, our dining room is a library. If the dining room is not the only eating area, it could make a good schoolroom. Also, underbed storage for toys, like long plastic bins. Coffee table and enertainment center with baskets for living room toys are so helpful. We now have a schoolroom/playroom, but we still have 5 baskets of toys in the living room. They like to be where I am. Will you have an attic or big garage? Keeping out a small amount of toys and rotating frequently would make space. We also have an old wardrobe in the garage, just outside the kitchen, full of craft supplies. We'll have a 2 car garage and one good sized outdoor shed. We will have 3 cars though. I could probably put some of the things in the garage on a shelf. I like the idea of rotating toys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HomeAgain Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 If you have a similar layout/space, how do you keep toys and school stuff from over taking the living room? Bookcases and an emphasis on quality over quantity. :) We don't let our kids have a ton of toys. They just aren't allowed. Everything must fit in the bin/container or it's pared down. No "big" toys like indoor playhouses or trampolines. Most toys are kept in bedrooms, though we do make space for logic games in the living room and trucks on the patio. The school stuff - we have a wall of bookshelves/cubbies, and the only stuff out is what is being currently used. Everything else is in rubbermaid tubs in the garage and attic. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HelenNotOfTroy Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 We have books on bookshelves in the living room, a pantry in the dining area that houses non-book materials, and paper is supposed to be in some kind of paper storage, still working on the details of that. I don't have any schoolish things on the walls anywhere, but I don't worry about whether school takes over. Oh, and until recently, the toys were all kept in the living room (other than the ones out of rotation). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KungFuPanda Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 Now might be time to read that Marie Kondo book we've been discussing on the other thread. "Tidying" in the title is misleading and should be read as "Purging and Organizing." If you don't want school books on your dining surfaces, get a kid-sized table to serve as you LR coffee table. Store books in a nearby bookcase, or a rolling cart you can tuck into the coat closet. It seems like the kids will have their own rooms, so toy storage shouldn't be a problem. If it is, get rid of stuff and lower your rate of accumulation. Don't keep everything they might play with occasionally. Keep what they love and play with often. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
73349 Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 We have no basement, garage, playroom, or separate school room. We use the dining room as a dining room because some dingbat put a quasi-island in the kitchen that is too close to the wall to use as a proper island and too high for little kids to eat from, and there's no room for a table. We keep DS's toys almost all in his bedroom, and our living room is also a school room (and yes, it looks it). It works. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 We are looking to move in the next few months so that we can combine households with my parents. The homes we are looking at tend to be ranches with walkout basements, so we'd live up and my parents would live down. Most of the places we've seen have a kitchen, living, and dining room in a large open great room concept and then 3 bed/2bath in around 2,000 sq ft. There are a lot of benefits to this arrangement for us, but I'm a little iffy on how to downsize. We currently have a living room, family room/school room, and a finished basement. My husband is apparently a minimalist at heart and looking forward to a different layout, less stuff, and less space to spread out. We will be doubling(at least) our kitchen space and gaining a nice sized covered deck with built in retractable shades, lighting, and a ceiling fan. If you have a similar layout/space, how do you keep toys and school stuff from over taking the living room? We never had a play room or a school room or a family room. Dc kept their toys in their bedrooms, we did Official School Stuff at the kitchen table. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
*Jessica* Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 Bookcases and an emphasis on quality over quantity. :)This! We have no school room, no play room, and only 2 bedrooms. We have lots of bookcases in our living room for all of the school stuff, and all toys that are kept downstairs must fit into a small storage ottoman. The toys in their bedroom are kept in under-bed storage bins. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs. B Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 A china hutch or a a closed TV cabinet with drawers at the bottom work well for homeschool supply storage. Also a coat closet, hallway linen closet, or the closet in the 3rd smaller bedroom could have shelves installed for books and homeschool storage. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsBasil Posted August 23, 2015 Author Share Posted August 23, 2015 You are all on my husband's wavelength. He's wanting to get rid of over half of our possessions. The kids primarily play indoors with Legos, wooden blocks, a marble run, a small amount of action figures for DS, an Easter basket filled with hand sized dolls/figures for DD, puzzles, boards games, and art supplies. He thinks we could easily get rid of everything else and they would be fine. Outdoors they mostly like sticks, rocks, water, binoculars/magnifying glasses, bikes, scooters, more water, and nets. I've already culled half off our books. We've just always had a place I could send them when I needed to make a phone call or there was a play room for when friends were over. I've always had space to leave art projects out to dry or to be finished. There are so many benefits to moving though. We'll be cutting our bills by about 65% and will be debt free very shortly after the move. This is worth the loss of space, right? There's not really much free wall space to add in bookshelves, but I think I'll find ways around that. There are two walls in the living room and one is mostly windows and the other is a fireplace surrounded by existing built in cabinetry. The kitchen is wall to wall cabinet space in the two walls it has. The dining room has two walls, but again, one wall is mostly windows. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 Just a note about loft beds--Dd has one that dh built for her (plans adapted from Ana White). It's lovely, and gives her space under it for a comfy chair and reading shelf. BUT No more talks on the bed, or comforting her by sitting next to her. No more easy reading aloud space. I wish we had waited a bit, honestly. She got it when she was 11, I think. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsBasil Posted August 23, 2015 Author Share Posted August 23, 2015 That's helpful to think about regarding the loft beds. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamajag Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 Honestly, as someone who has been using her open concept dining room as a homeschool area for years, it is nearly impossible to keep school stuff from taking over. We are moving to Austin in the middle of September, and a few weeks ago we were house hunting. We listed our must haves, and my non negotiable was that school have it's own dedicated space. I wanted to have my kitchen and dining room back. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amira Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 We are moving to an apartment that is 1/3 the size of the house we have now and 3/4 of our stuff will be storage and I am insanely excited to be downsizing. A small apartment without much stuff is my favorite way to live so it's possible to love it. :) And it's definitely worth it to me to lower our bills. Our children keep their school stuff in their bedroom(s) so it never takes over the place we live. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ali in OR Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 I will also just add that the home schooling season is just that--a season. Now that we're approaching the end it seems to have gone by quickly. It's not that long really until kids leave home--several close friends are now empty nesters. At that point it is really nice to have a smaller space to live in, no dedicated school room or play room, and of course the accumulated equity from not buying too much house years ago. That's all to encourage you that what you're considering has a lot of advantages if you can just decide that it is how you WANT to live. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vickjul Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 We have a 7-year-old, a 4-year-old and an almost 2-year-old in a 1,700 square foot house with an open kitchen/dining room/living room and no playroom or school room. It's obvious to anyone who walks into the house that we have young children and homeschool. We've got six five-shelf bookcases of "real" books in the living room, along with a TV cabinet that has storage underneath and a coffee table with a shelf beneath. We also have a bookcase of schoolbooks in the dining room and a storage cabinet for art supplies and school stuff with small pieces.Given the ages of my kids, much of our work is done on the sofa, the floor, or the recliner. DD1 does her written work at the dining table, and both girls do crafts at the dining table, but the table must be cleared and washed before meals. Most toys live in the bedrooms. We have one shelf of toddler toys in the living room and three shelves of games/puzzles. We also keep a couple of educational toys in the living room in baskets under the coffee table. Right now, we have a basket of Flexiblocks for the girls and a basket of plastic nuts and bolts for DS. The kids may bring other toys into the living room, but must put them away before meals and before bedtime. We're not minimalists, but we do require order. We have plenty of space to do what we need and want to do, but don't have room to work around clutter. Virtually every toy and book has a home, and the girls are expected to put items back in their homes when they finish with them. We love IKEA Expedit style shelving for organizing in the kids' rooms and make liberal use of under-bed storage for bulkier collections (LEGO, Duplo, Kid K'Nex, wooden train, Lincoln Logs, etc.). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starr Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 I have friends who had a boy and girl share a room with lofted beds until middle school. By then the toys were cut down and the basement was partially finished. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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