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We have a bench that functions as a toy box in our living room. DD is 2.5 and knows where to get her toys and also (thankfully) where to put them away. A lot of other things are kept in the mud room, but she never goes in there to get stuff herself and as a result those toys mostly only get played with if DH or I get them out so almost never. I’ve been thinking about replacing a tall bookshelf with something with closed storage on bottom for when DD2 arrives this winter because I know the toy volume is going to go up and realistically everything’s going to stay in the living room.

We have toys in almost every room of the house and have a 2.5 year old. I think at this age, they want/need to be where we are and need ways to stay occupied, so it makes sense to have things everywhere. I try to keep the living room for just books, but it quickly collects toys, too. The one thing that helps is having baskets and bins of natural materials to keep toys contained and for quick pick up, instead of having plastic in bright colors. It looks a little less crazy pretty quickly when I can easily throw things in bins that blend in with the rest of the adult space.

In our last house we had a play room but it was on a different floor. So we kept all of the toys in the playroom, and then had a small(ish) bin that held toys in the main living area. They could rotate toys from the toy room to the living room however they wanted, but only could keep a “binful” in the living room. It worked well, even for my littler kids!

We have a toy room in the basement and the boys (7 & 9) keep toys in their room. To be honest, the toy room is barely used unless friends are over or if we're down there with them but there is a reason we put the toy room in the basement. They're also at the age where we don't need to be there with them. We have a small box of Legos and a Hot Wheels race track that got moved up to the living room for some reason and we were lax in making them bring them back downstairs. Those toys are now constantly played with. I think the hot wheels track is a few years old and has gotten more use in the last few weeks than in the entire 3 years we've had it in the playroom? So it's a battle I'm not fighting at the moment.

In our previous house we had a combination living room and play area. I bought toy storage with bins that I didn't mind looking at and cleaned up every night. We now have a separate play room and toys still end up all over the house. The boys are older now and are responsible for cleaning up before bed.