Creating a family space

Do you ever feel that your house and life are being overtaken by toys? I think most moms of young children often feel like this. Whereas some of us are lucky enough to have a play room that is set off from the main part of the house, others of us are not so fortunate and have to deal with children bringing all of their toys into the main living areas of the home. Of course this is ok until you feel like you live in a toy store. I recently helped a client who was feeling like the toys were taking center stage in her home and wanted to do something about it. Most of the toys were finding their way into the breakfast room which was the main space you saw upon entering the house. She wanted to win back this room back as a place for her family to congregate for meals instead of at the narrow and crowded island in her kitchen. We decided to 1) take the train table out and put it away temporarily because her son rarely used it
2) push the dining table back into the center of the room, and
3) scoot the kids' table into the corner. We weeded through the toys in the room, got rid of some, and found space for the rest in the kids' bedrooms and on a toy shelf in the den. To facilitate craft projects we made a kind of arts and crafts center using the drawers in the chest in the breakfast room. We placed a basket for toys under a table on one side of the room. The client has said that the kids were actually excited about having a place for the family to eat and congregate. They can use this room for art projects and homework and can play now in the den and in their own rooms. The only thing I would change would be to find a slightly bigger table for the kids so they could use it for art, homework, and as a surface to play games.