Currently, we are living in a 3 bedroom house. The boys share a bedroom, I have a bedroom, and I use the master bedroom as their playroom. I'm house-hunting for a 4 bedroom so everyone can have their own space. I am kind of stumped about how to handle not having a playroom where all of the 'community' toys are. We have plenty of stuff that everyone has to share, like their train table, books, race track, cars, etc. What do I do about that stuff? Some of their things would be impossible to distribute evenly. I can also foresee the problem of "It's in my room, so it belongs to me."

The only solution I can come up with is to try to find a house with an extra room to use as a playroom, but that puts me out of my price range. Any suggestions? Am I over-analyzing this?

Jenny
single mom to spontaneous BBB 34w 2d

http://lilypie.com>

I know for us we could not live without our playroom. And still even some stuff has spilled over into the family room, but I try to at least keep that stuff hidden when not in use. As far as out of your price range, I know for us, we just went to an older house and found a bonus room over the garage. That kept us in our same price range. If you put in "5 bedroom" instead of "4 bedroom" in your search and your same price range I would think you could find something depending on where you live, you just may have to give something else up. Alot of them have that extra bedroom in the basement. Also, can 2 double up in one room, then you use that 4th room as a playroom?

I have heard of a triplet family that converted the garage into the playroom. Cars stayed outside (not good if you live in a cold climate I guess), cheap drywall or paneling went up and indoor/outdoor carpet so they did it fairly inexpensively and could tear it down if they needed.

Good luck!
Melissa
Mom to Matt, Kate & Addie (8/2/07 at 31w5d)

One other thing I thought of....4 br house w/formal living room converted or formal DR converted to play area. As long as it has a separate eat in kitchen. Wouldn't be the most attractive when you walked into the front door, but hey.....that's our life now .

That is what we have always done. The dining room has been their playroom. We just moved in to a house witha bonus room that will eventually be their playroom but for now we're using the dining room and formal living room as their play space. The bonus room is over the garage and I don't want them playing unsupervised upstairs just yet.

Lori

http://yesidohavemyhandsfull.blogspot.com/

I hear ya....I'm upstairs with them for at least an hour when they start playing. I can go downstairs for a little while (mine are almost 4 though). But for the most part, I'm stuck upstairs .

Our formal dining room is our play room, too. The formal furniture is now packed away in the office. We could have also used the office as the play room, but it's more separated and not visible from the rest of the first floor.

Mom to GBG born in July 2009 at 30w6d: 3#10oz, 3#12oz, 3#2oz

One other thing I thought of....4 br house w/formal living room converted or formal DR converted to play area. As long as it has a separate eat in kitchen. Wouldn't be the most attractive when you walked into the front door, but hey.....that's our life now .

Thanks for the advice, yall. I was really hoping everyone would tell me that not having a playroom wouldn't be a big deal. I really can't imagine not having one though. Guess I need to keep my eyes peeled for a great deal!

Jenny
single mom to spontaneous BBB 34w 2d

http://lilypie.com>

we don't have a playroom and its fine. we would love to have more space, but we're in a city so we don't.

some toys are in the girls' bedroom and some in the living room.
we probably have a LOT LESS toys then the rest of you though. and there's more clutter than ideal.

we don't have a formal dining room to consider turning into a play room, we have a dining area in the living room.

so, it can be done.

Hi

Our living room is the play room. We live in a 4 bdrm. They all sleep in the master room in thier cribs as well as my 4 th child. We have an office in one room and one room with the tv and LR furniture and our Bedroom.
LR is right in the middle of everything, i'm a control freak- cant stand not hearing what theyre doing or having them hear me wherever i am in the house.

Mom to BBB triplets born on 6/24/09 @ 29 weeks - 2 months in NICU
Baby Boy 9/19/2010

I think you are near an age where the playroom might not be such an issue. Mine are 4 and a half years old, and they like to play in their rooms, and will bring some toys out to the living room or play at the dinning room table.

Also, they are nearing school age where they will be out of the house a good deal.

If it just can't fit in your budget, I think it would be ok in a short time.

Sheila
GGB 10/29/06 (33 weeks)