Small Spaces: Living in the Living Room

Over here in the owls’ nest, the kids spend more time playing in the living room than in their bedroom. To be honest, I prefer them in the living room where I can keep an eye on them when I’m fussing about the house.

In one corner of our living room is the music corner, which is where J and Little E will practice their violin each afternoon. It is also where our sound system sits in state, surrounded by great drifts of CD boxes as well as a mountain of violin cases and music books. Our house is never without music!

Music, Meccano and Munchkin

The kids have amassed a ton of toys due to the generosity of friends and relatives but having all their toys out at the same time can be overwhelming (and messy).

This is why I keep the children’s toys on rotation. Every so often, I will put one of the plastic toy tubs back into their room and bring out another tub filled with different toys. Sometimes it will be wooden building blocks, or a box of cars, or large floor puzzles. This week, it’s a new set of Meccano from the visiting Outlaws.

The only toys that are a permanent fixture in one corner of the living room are the LEGO, which are J and Little E’s ‘go-to’ toys.

There is no such thing as too many Legos

J and Little E’s LEGO collection has been quietly expanding over the last few years, so keeping them organised is a real challenge for me.

Right now, I am using a combination of compartmentalised, stackable boxes from IKEA, takeaway containers and old chicken essence bottles¹ to sort and store their Legos pieces. The bricks are organised by colour and type, with the tiniest pieces sorted into small glass bottles that fit nicely into a plastic takeaway container.

Everything is in clear containers so that J and Little E can find the bricks that they are looking for without having to dump everything out on the floor.

There is nothing more painful than stepping on a stray segment of Lego – and then having to placate the child whose half-finished project you have inadvertently dismantled. I always insist that completed or half-finished Lego projects are tidied into baskets at the end of playtime, which keeps them out of the way.

Thumper joins in

The kids love playing on their carpet, which is great for marking out the boundaries of their play. This way, the toys that the kids play with tend to stay on and around the mat, and don’t spread about the house.

Similarly, the kids also tend to stay on and around the playmat and don’t spread about the house. This is a neat trick that I learned from the Aged Ps, which came in especially handy when the kids were very tiny tots. I could leave 2 year old J on the mat, go have a nice long shower, and come back to find him still pushing his cars around, saying  ‘Vrrrrm’ thoughtfully to himself.

Now that Thumper has come along, he will sit quietly in a swing in a corner of the playmat or lay on his tummy on a quilt on the living room floor, observing his siblings. J and Little E will talk to him whilst they play, occasionally breaking off from their games to make faces at him or give him a cuddle.

A reading daybed

My favourite place in the living room is definitely the window seat, which the kids use as a reading nook (or day bed). The windows of the living room look over some lush greenery, and you can often see birds and butterflies flitting through the trees. There’s plenty of natural light filtering in through our giant windows, so I don’t have to worry about their eyes.

Occasionally, the J or Little E will draw the day curtains in front of the window seat, and it becomes a little hideout for them!

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Up next on the blog train is Jus over at Mum in the Making.

Jus is a stay-home mama to three little boys, and spends her days homeschooling, reading and doing crafts with her kids. She will be sharing the learning area that has been carved out for her boys from their home’s entryway, so do pop by on Monday to read about it! I’m really looking forward to Small Spaces on Mum in the Making – she has such a flair for interior design!

This post is part of the Small Spaces blog train (hosted by Mum in the Making!). Click on the button below to see more Small Spaces and find out how other families tailor their homes to accommodate their children!

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^{1. I have discovered that New Moon chicken essence containers have better lids and their labels peel off after soaking without leaving any residue which makes them prettier to look at. Brand’s chicken essence containers have plastic lids which deform very easily and the label glue cannot be removed despite hours of scraping, but the shorter and smaller containers fit snugly into a takeaway container.↩}