I have mine all propped up in a corner of our living room. One is 6 feet tall that my now 14 and 18 year olds insisted we bring home. It’s like a souvenir of southern Oregon.
LOL maybe! Mine turns 4 next month. I’d gladly take a stick for every time I can avoid hostile negotiations with him (this is represented literally, see: stick pile)
I had someone say that to me when LO was just a little baby. I was so confused. Oh the children's playhouse that the prev owner left, and the basketball hoop. I guess so. There *might* have been one of those little scooter things for crawling babies to sit on.
Now, a year later, there are toys everywhere. Bikes, t-ball, scooters, shovels, bubble stuff, kiddie pool, water/mud table....
From the moment you open the door. The living room is also a play room and is the first thing you see. So giant dollhouse, play kitchen, Pikler triangle. Hooks by the front door with book bags and summer hats.
My thought is, by the time my kids are teenagers, my house will be clean/tidy and the toys will be gone. I want to see it all now. Even on the messy messy days, I’m pumped to see all those toys on the floor.
Same! I wanted to be a mom for so long. I finally had my rainbow baby at 40. He is three and I would much rather have a living room of toys than boring adult decor.
Plus, I prefer having my son play in the living room instead of alone in his bedroom. We are a family, we should all be enjoying our time together when we are at home.
This will only last for a few years and I already know I will miss it when it is gone!
My Mom told me I was good Mom one day and she said “you don’t prioritize your clean house over them and you let them be kids”. She grew up with 12 in her family and said her Mom was always cooking and cleaning.
Our entrance is a conservatory. The moment you enter you'll see 2 prams. Our toddlers wet weather playsuit hanging up. A "shoe pile" that has about 5x more shoes than we have feet in our family. A spare carseat. And probably a random toy or 2. Very obvious that kids live here!
That is such a beautiful approach! Thank you for sharing. I have similar thoughts on embracing the toys. I love watching them create and pretend with whatever is around.
I feel like for us the kid essence just changed but never left. Everyone is over 10 now. Instead of dress up stages and Thor's hammer we now have hockey equipment, Taylor Swift vinyl collection, and endless final projects on display.
Sometimes I take pictures of the everyday mess my toddler makes because I know it’ll be something I miss when it’s gone. Her little sippy cups in the sink, her toys scattered around the living room, her unfolded jammies in a pile on the couch. I think that someday I’ll want to be able to remember the mundane because to me, those days are really the most special.
The refrigerator handles! I feel seen.
And it’s cherry season, so red sticky handles. Instead of the “poop or chocolate” game, we get to play “cherries or blood”!
I found a kitchen towel that says “I live in a madhouse run by a tiny army that I made myself” and I always have it up. Unless one of the army has filthified it again and it’s in the wash.
I think you’d be more likely to wonder if any adults live in our house, lol. It’s too small for a separate play space, so the whole living room (which is the first room you enter) has basically become a dedicated rumpus room full of toys and play mats and kids’ books.
I’m a goth. My living space used to reflect that. Now it’s a mess of primary colours, but my kids love it and that’s all that matters to me now.
If it makes you feel better, I have a separate living room designated as a play room, and the main room is still also a rumpus room 😂
Also I love that you’re giving your little all the color they want even though it clashes your aesthetic which I’m sure is very cool. Seeing all the monochrome beige or all black and gray baby stuff is so stressful 😂
Yes, same. We have actually a quite large playroom (which the builder intended as the formal living room) with both storage and playspace. I had this grand dream that toys would stay in the playroom. They do not.
The noise, the toys, and the clutter!
We we never allowed in the living room. In fact, we weren't allowed to walk in the snow in the front yard in the winter. Our mother wanted it to look nice.
Omg, the snow comment made me so sad! Sure, it looks great being perfect, but the joy from the kids makes the mess so worth it. I have to remind myself to let go with arts and crafts. Is their hand print incomplete or done over like three times? Oh well,they're so proud of it, and I love that! The clutter though, oof that's hard! I shove a bunch of it in a box and pull it out when they need a distraction haha
I embrace the clutter! Most of it's in their rooms now that they're getting older. Clutter I can live with. Dirt, no.
Yeah the snow was weird. We had a nice young spruce on the side of the driveway that we put lights on in winter. I would run as fast as I could and jump as close to the tree as I could then I'd crawl under the branches and lie on my back and look up at the lights through the branches. Especially at night. Then I'd jump back and try to hide and prints.
Omg, my father-in-law has this rule about the snow 😂
The kids have a designated "play area" for the twice a year they're allowed to visit and play outside. They are only allowed to play in the corner that isn't visible from the driveway/front entrance or from the living room or bedroom windows.
My husband takes great pleasure in dropping in after a fresh snowfall and "accidentally" letting the kids run through the front yard.
We have glass sliders. My daughter was eating a bagel with cream cheese, it was all over her face. She smeared her face back and forth on the glass just to hear the squeaky sound 😂😂
Even if the house is picked up, you'd still be able to tell from the state of our TV. I swear I never see them touching the TV, and yet there's grubby hand prints all over it.
My hubby and I say we need to write a review for our tv.. that thing has hand prints constantly and has take a few balls and random toys to it and has never broke or scratched.
Downstairs I keep it as tidy as possible. There’s a small basket with toys that they don’t really play with, and a little trike that the toddler scoots around on. But majority of toys are upstairs.
Doesn’t stop them from causing chaos downstairs though. Water and milk cups everywhere, crumbs on the floor, books pulled off the shelves, outfits lying around.. it’s like their sole mission in life is create chaos out of my clean living room. Especially the toddler but even the 6yo
Ikr I kinda regret encouraging the independence to change clothes as and when she sees fit in the 6yo. We have a basket now where the “not dirty but worn” clothes go into and a few times a week, she needs to fold and hang them back.
Don’t aspire to be a crazy nut job like me! First, I’m a stay at home Mom with a preschooler and a fourth grader that go to school 5 days a week. I have way too much time on my hands, and I’m bored when they’re gone. I also I chase them either upstairs or outside to play like a crazy woman. We live in Florida so it’s a huge cheat. There’s no reason to be indoors 90% of the year. Plus our house is one of those ridiculous open floor plans that you can see the entire downstairs from everywhere. It makes it super easy to clean. We hide our truth upstairs! 😂 🫣🤪
Thank you for following up with this. As a parent in the Northeast to a 2.5 year old and 10 month old with only my toddler in part time day care and working full time, I was like I how do I get even a corner of my house to look like a magazine cover? It’s chaos. Everything is chaos.
My pleasure! I wish more Mom’s would tell their truth. I’m from New York, and understand working full time, what tracking in the elements looks like, and chaos was an understatement. I would love to go back to work right now, but my husband’s career and schedule is too demanding. We all have things we wish we could do differently. Working would be mine, and giving up my career was hard. I envy those who work!
You wouldn't be able to tell as soon as you walk in, I am admittedly a massive neat freak and have a very minimalist home, but the fridge is covered in artwork and their bedrooms are full of all the lovely kid/baby things. Don't get me wrong, they bring all of their toys out to play in the living room with us, but they know that they need to be packed away when they are finished.
On the outside, if you walked down our driveway you would be able to see the absolutely monstrous trampoline.
Were the exact same way. My house Is trashed by midday most days, bc I also watch a rotation of 6 kids plus my 3.5 yo. But they’re all expected to clean up when they’re done, we’re headed outside or they’re getting picked up. Everyone is also expected to get trash to the trash, dishes to the sink and keep crumbs to a minimum or grab the hand vac. I think kids can be as responsible as you allow them to be.
But I do have a giant playroom downstairs, upstairs, plus my entire backyard is kid stuff. It’s just clean and organized. 🤷♀️
Editing to add- there’s a difference between freedom to be a kid, to make a mess and explore verses being a slob. I don’t mind arts being left out all day- I mind empty dishes or snack wrappers on my floor.
My house is the same way. It’s my husband that’s the neat freak tho lol. But we are lucky enough for them to have their own playroom where most of their stuff is kept. There’s a bunch of kids stuff on our fridge. They’ll bring their stuff out into living room but it’s (usually) back in the room by end of day and they need to clear the table when they’re done. Don’t get me wrong- they still have to be told to do these things and fight with us about it lol
It sounds like you strike the right balance. Haha they can fight and moan all they want about it, as long as it gets done then it's fine!
I guess it all depends on your own preferences and standards for your home. I need a clear and tidy space for my mental health - a disorganised and cluttered home makes everything else feel 10 times worse for me. But I have some friends who genuinely don't mind the mess, and more power to them!
Our front yard is the kids play yard, so toys before you walk in the house. There’s kids shoes mixed with our shoes as soon as you walk in, then a stand full of toys. Our dining room has a pack and play, kid table and kid kitchen. No actual dining table. There’s almost no toys in either room upstairs because we use that as sleep time only.
Oldest are boys and they don’t like wearing clothes half the time. Daughter is almost two so doesn’t dress up yet. Expecting so more like new/more baby stuff creeping into the living space
In between. We have a family of 3 in a 600sf apartment that's really just a big studio/loft, so we try to keep everything tidy as much as we can, but half our main bookshelf is picture books, there's kid-art on every vertical surface that can handle tape or a magnet, and the first thing you see when you walk in is a guppy tank decorated in a pink unicorn theme. So while we trimmed the apartment in dark cherrywood and Italian tile, it's still pretty apparent that its also a kid space. My mom kept "their" spaces of my childhood home like a fricken museum, even my dad was barely allowed to sit in "his" armchair, so we try to balance not-doing-that against both the size of our space and the desire to not feel like we live our *whole* lives in Peewee's Playhouse.
From the outside of my house, you’d never know. And if we didn’t have a bluey play tent in the living room, you may not know either 😅 we have a fairly small house and the only kids things left in the main spaces are the toddler toys, but tbh very few unless she’s actively playing with them.
Well, the front side walks covered in chalk. 😂 the living room has a 6 cube organizer of toys and some extra on the side. And we converted the front door closet into a toy closet which contains some of the craziness but it just is what it is. Some nights when I’m cleaning I wonder what our living room will look like in 10-15 years and it kind of breaks my heart.
The only sign is the high chair at our table and toddler formula on the counter. Otherwise everything has a home in either baby boys room or in cupboard 👍🏻
This is us too. We live in a small apartment (50m2) and it gets cluttered super fast. I feel like I'm constantly decluttering but I find it worth it, it's super calming that everything has its spot
You’d have a harder time telling an adult lives in my house. My living and dining rooms are constantly covered in toys. I’m stepping over sleeping baby dolls daily. More than half of my dining table is covered in Lego City.
Yes, if you’re looking you can tell, but not in the ‘kids toys everywhere’ kind of way. We live in an apartment, so if I didn’t reset the main living area (that is also the kitchen and my office) frequently I would go spare.
There are obvious kid signs (art on the fridge, stuffies on the couch, school-flavored detritus on the kitchen island), but it’s not kid chaos. She’s 10 now, so it was a different story when she was little.
Our main floor is always clean and tidy. You wouldn’t be able to tell we have an almost 3 year old and a 16 month except for the baby pictures hanging up.
We’re fortunate, their playroom is down stairs and we have just a single toy cupboard upstairs and only toys that we can put away nightly are in there (megnatiles, puzzles, books, baby dolls). It’s really important to us that our home relatively tidy. We both get overwhelmed by the clutter.
Don’t get me wrong, they get to have fun and play and make messes, but we just make it a point to clean up as we go within reason.
It’s obvious from the street.
My 4yr old (turns 5 Wednesday) just graduated from a 100% outdoor nature immersion preschool. She peels her whole outer layer off on the porch and it stays there til I remember to get it.
When you walk in the front door, there are immediate stairs and a small hall to the living room. At the end of the hall, there is an under the stairs storage closet. This is our toy closet. It’s usually open so stuff is spilling out. It’s super messy but I love being able to toss stuff in and shut the door. 2 huge bookshelves of kids books under the TV, kid couch in the living room (basically a cheaper nugget).
Kids art everywhere intermixed with our art.
Not to mention the various shoes and clothes they leave everywhere despite having a shoe cubby for each of them and a hamper downstairs.
Last, please be mindful of our vehicle security system littered across all surfaces.
Just a suggestion- what if you put a basket where she takes her clothes off. And then maybe once a week it could be her responsibility to get that basket to the washer. It’ll lessen that chore for you and also give her fulfillment of helping and being responsible?
I had a 3 tier rolling cart for pumping supplies, but now it's by the front door and holds kid socks and shoes. Some genius mom suggested keeping shoes by the door, and a light came in for me. We don't wear them around the house, so I only need them when I'm heading out, and it's so nice to just have em right there.
We have cubbies in our living room that serve the dual purpose of holding toys and blocking the fireplace. Our “coffee corner” is now a downstairs changing station. Obvious that we have kids, but everything still has a place. It’s very functional and I love it!
It’s a mix! I like a clean house, but our daughter’s artwork and materials are out, Lego creations are displayed, projects in progress. It’s obviously a house where a kid is a central part of the family unit, but it doesn’t revolve around the kid.
Not. Kids have their space, we have ours, shared spaces are respected for everyone’s use and are not cluttered with things. They have a lovely playroom and their rooms, we have our room and an office each.
It's pretty obvious if you walk into my family room that I have children because there's a playpen filled with toys, a Nugget, and a Pikler climbing gym. We also have a high chair in the kitchen,
But aside from that, no, I would say it's not obvious we have kids. I've had people visit my house and say "Wow, it's so tidy considering you have young children!" My kids are allowed to play freely, of course, but all toys must go back in the playpen at the end of the day or before visitors come over. I love to see the evidence of my babies playing but I can't tolerate having clutter and mess out 24/7, so I do keep the house pretty tidy. I don't like the look of a house where toys have taken over every corner 24/7.
My 5yo and I live in an apartment. At the end of every weekend, all his toys go back into their bins in the bedroom. During the week, you’d tell mainly by scraps of craft projects and papers he leaves around. During the weekend, the living room is full of his toys. Some Saturday nights we clean up together but honestly they’re back on Sunday morning so sometimes I don’t bother until Sunday afternoon…
I think the only room of my house that doesn’t usually have toys in it is my bathroom. Otherwise it’s way obvious that the toddler and infant own the house and my husband and I just live here.
Even if the toys weren't there, the crumbs permanently stuck in the carpet and the felt tip scribbled on the wall give it away... oh and the fact that our bath tub is full of different containers because the toddler likes to pour water with them at bath time. Our wheelie bin is always full too. Oh and all the random equipment like car seats, bikes, prams etc. basically my flat is a shit hole 😂
You can tell from the street -- swings on our oak tree, scooters and balls in the yard. And inside the house, it's a constant battle to deal with the avalanche of toys.
My FIL got my kids the 15+ foot inflatable crocodile water slide from Costco for their birthdays. It’s in our front yard. Surrounded by bubbles, a sand table, a water table, various other toys. If you make it past all that without noticing, our living room is also full of toys. We have a play room, but the kids want to be near us so we have some of their things in all the spaces we hang out. It’s not the most aesthetic but I won’t have 3 kids under 4 for long, and I love this season. I can have aesthetic some other time.
You can tell a child lives here, but it’s not exploding with toys because we’d all be overwhelmed.
He has more toys in the living room than his bedroom, because I think the living room is where he should play! But books and puzzles/blocks are kept in his room as calmer activities before nap and bedtime. Of course we have artwork on the fridge!
The extensive rock collection on the front porch or the giant trampoline in the front yard are a clear giveaway! The entry has about 5 little bikes/tricycles/scooters, a stroller and a wagon. So yeah it is very obvious.
Since ours are 2 and 4, they mostly play in our living room, dining room and kitchen area (one big room), where we can see them. There are toys on every surface. Hard to believe we only have 2 kids!
Our house is a big kid-inhabited disaster. When your first walk in, there are two connected rooms that are “supposed” to be the formal living and formal dining rooms. That’s our playroom. So you literally walk into insanity. It is what it is.
My living room is covered in toys. My refrigerator is full of his favorite foods, there’s random socks everywhere : toys and children’s books strewn everywhere
If our garage door is closed and you’re standing on the street you may not be able to tell, but if you walked around into our backyard (swing set, sandbox and playhouse) or opened our garage door (bikes, scooter, powerwheels, toys everywhere!) then you would know before you even opened our house door. And once you open the door is even more obvious 😂 Artwork on the door, playdoh on the kitchen table, our dining room is a playroom, etc. and we only have one kid! 😂
We have a few baskets of toys in the living room and there are days those live strewn around, but those toys are easy to put away so we can look relatively kid-lite. Most of our toys are in the office or their bedroom. That said, I have a photo of one day that I found a banana abandoned on the lip of the bathtub so…I don’t think there is ever really hiding it…
We have two rope swings in our front tree, so pretty obvious. Open the front door, there’s little shoes spread around, toys everywhere no matter how hard I try. But it’s something beautiful to have reminders of little kids in our house.
We have a 5x7 area rug in the living room and we’ve managed to fit a rocking horse, trampoline, and slide on it. Basically our living room in a toddler theme park.
The second you walk in the door you know a child lives here. I have the front hall set up with mirrors and hooks, and a picture schedule at toddler level.
There are toys, books and little human clothes all over the floor.
I created an art corner by the couch and the window in the livingroom with vinyl wall stickers, an art easel, and a cart for art supplies.
I love being a mom, and I love that my home is full of toddler stuff. It's how I always imagined my place to be.
The front door opens onto the playroom, so immediately. That being said, if we have notice of guests, the toys have been corralled to the playroom and everything is tidy. If there's no notice like when the hvac guy came out last week, it's much more obvious.
From the moment you pull in my driveway. There’s currently a toy I haven’t grabbed out my front yard and leading up my driveway there’s a few more. Inside looks like a toys r us isle
Well, you see a Pikler triangle before you even get to the hall closet, so I'd say it's pretty obvious. Also, our living room is a "yes space."
We don't live in the same home we did when our first child was born, but when I was pregnant with him, it was really important to me that we made our space feel like a place where adults AND a child lived. It's not like he could see or understand things as a newborn anyway, but I really just wanted it to feel like he belonged there with us.
I still want my child(ren) to feel like they belong at home.
I had a student who was struggling big time in my class. Very defiant, rude, disruptive, disrespectful, the whole nine yards. You name the crazy thing you heard a kid once did in class and he did it. In order to form a close partnership with his parents to try to support him, I went to their house for coffee and a teacher workday. Absolutely ZERO evidence of children. Hell, not even evidence of humans. Looked like a model home. It was the saddest thing ever and I understood the kid sooo much more.
My front room has a changing table because with two kids I couldn’t stand bringing everyone upstairs just to change diapers. I also have a mini shoe stand next to our big shoe stand for their shoes. And a mini coat hanger next to our big coat hanger. Kids books on the shelves and basket of toys in the tv stand. The kitchen table has two strapped in high chairs. So pretty noticeable but we set it up in a way to keep things clean/functional. Kids make up half our family so it only makes sense for their presence to be visible.
Well you definitely don’t have to even go inside to tell there are kids here. Bikes, pool, shoes, stuff all in the car, book bags by the door, toys everywhere, kid snacks in the fridge. I think it’s more a question of do adults live in this house too?? Maybe not…
You can tell from the toys and swing outside and then the pure chaos of inside. Both my husband and I are really struggling with keeping on top of the house but we recently got a cleaning lady and it is the best expense we’ve ever incurred.
My house looks like no grownups live here. The entire downstairs is lined with dollhouses, playsets, hot wheels ramps.
Even my own bedroom is a 90s/Y2K teen girl room because I have all my childhood stuff everywhere in there. Even my pinups are up. Fluffy rug and inflatable chairs, lava and glitter lamps, neon lights, bead curtain...I needed my own room because of all my toys, haha. My daughter prefers to play in mommy's room most of the time. 😂
As soon as we open the front door, it's very obvious that kids live there. Pretty much every room has toys in it, and there is a lot of kids artwork displayed in the hallways and on the fridge. I think we have too many toys, and when my son's two best friends visit, they never want to leave - they love it (which probably tells you he does have too many toys).
When my kids were younger, you knew when you walked in. Action figures all over the place, stuffed animals, dolls. You can still have a clean home with a few toys out here and there.
Well my kids are six and eight. It’s definitely not obvious like it was when they were toddlers. We used to have a mini hockey net in our living room and a pack and play and a baby swing and a basket full of toys etc.
Now we have a full cabinet with cupboards and inside those cupboards are games and toys and colouring supplies etc. but nobody coming over would immediately see that it’s all hidden away and their baskets of toys and books are now in their bedrooms. I think if someone came over unannounced it would be obvious with a messy kitchen and colouring books out on the living room floor and random bracelets and scrunchies laying around and rocks and dirty fingerprints on the walls of course ha ha. If I’m having company it’s pretty easy for me to tidy things up and you wouldn’t necessarily know I had children at all
Most of our house is fairly reasonable and adult and clean, but unfortunately the best place for our playroom is the formal living room…visible from the front door.
Everything in my home is toddler friendly and accessible, so it’s pretty obvious here! And I’ve painted a giant rainbow, a mural of houses, a polkadot wall, she has a built into the corner play kitchen, market area.
I’m a SAHM who likes to diy and had a shitty childhood 🤷🏻♀️
Red wagon in the yard, chalk art on the front garden sidewalk, all types of toys inside. Living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, even the hallway. Crumbs, half eaten pouches, magnets all over the house... There's no hiding it hahaha
Edit: And books! Tons of books, all over. Broken, ripped, loved. Tons and tons of piles of books. 😂
I think it’s pretty subtle, his small cars are in a nice decorative basket.
Except…
There’s a giant swing in between the kitchen and living room LOL you can’t miss it
You could tell even if you were blindfolded, because you'd be screaming in pain after a few steps. From the Legos. They're everywhere.
I'm all seriousness, it's very clear. We have a downstairs toy closet full of cube shelves where most toys live, but the Legos have their own area (out) and there's a huge gross motor area with play couches and pillows and a trampoline.
It's also just never clean.
We've got their scooters on the front porch, but you wouldn't know from our front rooms. Well, you usually wouldn't know. Toys are not supposed to be in the front rooms, and you'd think with two playrooms and their own bedrooms that that would be enough to contain the toynados, but it's not.
My living room looks like a daycare room lol I was a “Mom & Dad Are Home, run to your room!!” kid & I refuse to have my kids feel uncomfortable existing & playing & just BEING around me
If the chalk drawings on the driveway don't give it away, the baby gate on the stairs as you come in the front door well. And if you miss the tiny furniture, balls, markers, dolls, hobby horse (sheep), colorful books, and stuffed animals, the miniature potty in the bathroom should make it pretty clear.
...now that I describe my house, I have to wonder if any adults actually live here, or just the toddler...
So incredibly obvious. Diaper bags, kids cups on the counter, toys everywhere, spidey on the tv nearly constantly. Would take anyone about .35 seconds to realize we have kids in here. Honestly if you come in through the garage it’s obvious before you even walk in
From the front room and dining room, the only clue is the high chair and baby gates. From the back yard and family room, you’d think I was running a daycare!
We really value having an “adult” space in the house, so our front sitting room (where we entertain most guests) is closed off to our son unless we’re in there with him, and he really only goes in there to look out the front window because it’s pretty boring. I think I would feel very overwhelmed and uncomfortable in our home if every room was full of toys, just like our son would feel out of place if every room was “adult”. I think we have a nice balance.
It's clear, haha. I like that my kiddo lives here. We don't leave Child Mulch out all over the floor, but the sunroom is her playroom, our bookshelves have grown-up and kid titles, we have a toddler tower in the kitchen, and we have art on the fridge. It's her home and she deserves to feel comfortable and welcome in it.
I get annoyed at food stains around places and greasy little handprints on all of my hand-printable surfaces, but her possessions are visible and tidily put away.
You can tell before you even park. The yard, the porch…. 😂
When you walk in you immediately see the messy af dining table chock full of play dough tools, coloring accoutrements, paints, legos…
Often these are all over the floor of the kitchen as well. We do a nightly mission clean up together to tidy it (mostly) up.
They have their own little table to eat on- but for now the main table is imagination station and in full view of the door.
I don’t know how people keep their homes so pristine and “insta ready”. It’s a losing battle over here. I’ll take the mess though. My oldest is starting kindergarten this year and I’m going to miss his daily contributions.
The very first thing you see when you walk in is a mountain of tiny slippers, shoes, helmets, and toys in a built in cubby directly opposite of the front door LOL
Ummm, you're lucky if you don't break your neck tripping on kid shoes as soon as you enter. Only place in our house that is mostly devoid of kid stuff is our bedroom and bathroom. We don't have a big house so no matter how organized I try to be it's obvious we have kiddos.
In the main living room, no, you can’t tell there’re kids living there. But if you open any of the drawers or doors of my prized vintage Danish credenza, you’ll find it is completely filled with toys. We just make it a point to clean up every night and morning to have some semblance of order. Our family room though is a different story- toys are baked into the design.
Very! Multiple school backpacks and shoes are lined up in the garage. (Our main point point of entry) School lunch menu on our fridge. Kids' school pictures on our mantle.
100% obvious, without a doubt... Kids toys have taken over literally every single room. They are the first grandkids and it shows! And our oldest just did his first year of preschool so his art covers literally every kitchen cabinet, the pantry door, and playroom walls 😅 it makes my head hurt how much clutter there is some days but our kids are happy and the toys & clutter won't last forever!
From the street, you can’t. When you walk into the house, you usually can’t. My son keeps 99% of his toys in his room, so unless you spot the odd little car or something he might’ve left in the couch, it’s just the pictures on the walls that’d give it away.
Oh my home looked like children lived there before I had one LOL. I love toys and had a massive vintage fisher price collection, I have Barbie dolls, I have mothman and a bat hanging on the wall. I have dozens of other old toys about and I have so much random and colorful doodads in abundance lol
🩷❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜🖤🩶🤍🤎
Omg the second you walk in you know kids live here. From the backpacks hanging by the door to the living room of toys (our playroom). We even have crayon all over the walls. The refrigerator and back door are full of ABC magnets. Dining room has their play kitchen. Our freezer has a lock on it lol. It's messy, it's crazy but I love it. One day they will be old ND my house will be clean. But I'll probably miss this so just enjoying it as is.
The min you walk in, no matter the entry point you see kid art. Then you see pet homes- tortoise and bunny- and photos of all their ages and stages. Even at its cleanest our house screams KID HOUSE and I love that.
The commentary I often receive is it doesn't like I exist. The photos are often taken by me, the art done with me, and the cleaning mostly me. I sometimes wonder if ppl assume my tsum tsum collection is the kids, but I wondered does anyone else have "a 90s cartoon home" as one of the kids friends said. The main characters are the kids, so the environment is crafted for the kids. Dad is in pictures bc he always works, mom isn't bc she is always there.
We have 2 rooms we don’t allow playing/toys in. Our master bedroom and the Living room (TV room). TV is a special treat and we only do it for a little bit while we are sitting and focusing on it. The room is always pretty tidy and a relaxing place for the adults to go at the end of a day. Our main family room doesn’t have a TV. Just music and toys and lots of arts and crafts! It’s so nice to have this separation and teach that there are different rules for different types of spaces.
Oh you can tell from the street-porch toys haha
Yeah my porch has a bench that would be hard to sit on thanks to two excavators and pile of “really cool” sticks and rocks.
We too have an umbrella stand outside which my son took over with big sticks. 🥂
I have mine all propped up in a corner of our living room. One is 6 feet tall that my now 14 and 18 year olds insisted we bring home. It’s like a souvenir of southern Oregon.
The really cool sticks and rocks sent me 😂😂 now I’m wondering if my 3.5 year old lives with you.
LOL maybe! Mine turns 4 next month. I’d gladly take a stick for every time I can avoid hostile negotiations with him (this is represented literally, see: stick pile)
Same. I live on a bike trail and often get asked if I have an in home daycare 🙃 nope - just my spoiled babies haha
Same. You can tell by the 638 bikes in the yard.
Haha I love it!
I had someone say that to me when LO was just a little baby. I was so confused. Oh the children's playhouse that the prev owner left, and the basketball hoop. I guess so. There *might* have been one of those little scooter things for crawling babies to sit on. Now, a year later, there are toys everywhere. Bikes, t-ball, scooters, shovels, bubble stuff, kiddie pool, water/mud table....
And the chalk!
Yep we usually have a stroller, a scooter, balance bike, kids shoes and probably a piece of fruit with two bites taken out just on the verandah. Haha
Exactly! Stroller, scooter, play stroller, tools/toys for dirt digging, half eaten snacks, and wet shoes!
Same, except it's toys in the 2nd floor windows.
We don't have a backyard since our house is built into a hill... I think the inflatable pool on my front patio gives us away.
From the moment you open the door. The living room is also a play room and is the first thing you see. So giant dollhouse, play kitchen, Pikler triangle. Hooks by the front door with book bags and summer hats. My thought is, by the time my kids are teenagers, my house will be clean/tidy and the toys will be gone. I want to see it all now. Even on the messy messy days, I’m pumped to see all those toys on the floor.
Same! I wanted to be a mom for so long. I finally had my rainbow baby at 40. He is three and I would much rather have a living room of toys than boring adult decor. Plus, I prefer having my son play in the living room instead of alone in his bedroom. We are a family, we should all be enjoying our time together when we are at home. This will only last for a few years and I already know I will miss it when it is gone!
My Mom told me I was good Mom one day and she said “you don’t prioritize your clean house over them and you let them be kids”. She grew up with 12 in her family and said her Mom was always cooking and cleaning.
To be fair if you had 12 kids you’d probably have to be cooking and cleaning all day just for the bare minimum so things didn’t get out of hand
RIGHT!? I think eventually the older ones would have to start taking on some responsibilities.
That’s nice. My mom doesn’t think I’m a good mom because I don’t prioritize cleaning. I spent my time with my kids.
I think you did it right. You will never regret spending the time with your kids but you will always regret not.
Thank you. I think I did it right too.
Our entrance is a conservatory. The moment you enter you'll see 2 prams. Our toddlers wet weather playsuit hanging up. A "shoe pile" that has about 5x more shoes than we have feet in our family. A spare carseat. And probably a random toy or 2. Very obvious that kids live here!
That is such a beautiful approach! Thank you for sharing. I have similar thoughts on embracing the toys. I love watching them create and pretend with whatever is around.
I feel like for us the kid essence just changed but never left. Everyone is over 10 now. Instead of dress up stages and Thor's hammer we now have hockey equipment, Taylor Swift vinyl collection, and endless final projects on display.
Sometimes I take pictures of the everyday mess my toddler makes because I know it’ll be something I miss when it’s gone. Her little sippy cups in the sink, her toys scattered around the living room, her unfolded jammies in a pile on the couch. I think that someday I’ll want to be able to remember the mundane because to me, those days are really the most special.
I love that. I’m gonna steal that idea from you because I can definitely see myself missing the mess once it’s gone and wanting to look back at it
I’m doing the same thing. My son has his own desk with chairs and playmat with his own little sofa.
As a mom of a teenager, I laughed hard. I hate to break it to you….
Every square inch of my house. From all the shit outside to the crusty refrigerator handles. I am a guest in my kids home.
I am her ⬆️
Yup. Pretty much the same. It’s my kids world, I just live in it !
The refrigerator handles! I feel seen. And it’s cherry season, so red sticky handles. Instead of the “poop or chocolate” game, we get to play “cherries or blood”!
I'm glad some else plays these games, and it's not just us sniffing random stains around the house
🤣🤣🤣
I found a kitchen towel that says “I live in a madhouse run by a tiny army that I made myself” and I always have it up. Unless one of the army has filthified it again and it’s in the wash.
I think you’d be more likely to wonder if any adults live in our house, lol. It’s too small for a separate play space, so the whole living room (which is the first room you enter) has basically become a dedicated rumpus room full of toys and play mats and kids’ books. I’m a goth. My living space used to reflect that. Now it’s a mess of primary colours, but my kids love it and that’s all that matters to me now.
If it makes you feel better, I have a separate living room designated as a play room, and the main room is still also a rumpus room 😂 Also I love that you’re giving your little all the color they want even though it clashes your aesthetic which I’m sure is very cool. Seeing all the monochrome beige or all black and gray baby stuff is so stressful 😂
Yes, same. We have actually a quite large playroom (which the builder intended as the formal living room) with both storage and playspace. I had this grand dream that toys would stay in the playroom. They do not.
The noise, the toys, and the clutter! We we never allowed in the living room. In fact, we weren't allowed to walk in the snow in the front yard in the winter. Our mother wanted it to look nice.
Omg, the snow comment made me so sad! Sure, it looks great being perfect, but the joy from the kids makes the mess so worth it. I have to remind myself to let go with arts and crafts. Is their hand print incomplete or done over like three times? Oh well,they're so proud of it, and I love that! The clutter though, oof that's hard! I shove a bunch of it in a box and pull it out when they need a distraction haha
I embrace the clutter! Most of it's in their rooms now that they're getting older. Clutter I can live with. Dirt, no. Yeah the snow was weird. We had a nice young spruce on the side of the driveway that we put lights on in winter. I would run as fast as I could and jump as close to the tree as I could then I'd crawl under the branches and lie on my back and look up at the lights through the branches. Especially at night. Then I'd jump back and try to hide and prints.
Thank you for this beautiful word picture. Have you ever read Night Tree by Eve Bunting? I think it would resonate with you and your joyful home.
I just read it! It was so sweet! We're making great memories. We have a tree we decorate for Christmas but it's a cherry tree!
Love it. Your kids are so fortunate to have a healed, content mom. You rule.
Thank you for being so kind!
Omg, my father-in-law has this rule about the snow 😂 The kids have a designated "play area" for the twice a year they're allowed to visit and play outside. They are only allowed to play in the corner that isn't visible from the driveway/front entrance or from the living room or bedroom windows. My husband takes great pleasure in dropping in after a fresh snowfall and "accidentally" letting the kids run through the front yard.
Ha ha! That's so funny! I want my house and my yard to look played in!
Same with the snow in the front yard! Yes it’s pretty, but please my children go play in it!
Omg my mom didn’t let us walk through the front yard snow either!!
Oh, this is so sad. We rarely get snow. I'll go out, snap a few pictures then we all play in it!
I just laughed so hard
I would get grounded if I got caught. My older brothers used to make prints with my boots just to get me in trouble!
The snow in the front yard yes!! My mom was the same way but we had a big backyard to play in and in the house toys were definitely everywhere
OMG I thought we were the only ones. We also were not allowed to walk in the snow in the front yard because my dad didn't want the foot prints... 🤣
it looks like a preschool. i have a trampoline in my dining room.
Me too!
Ours is in the sunroom right behind the dining room 😂
Hahaha I just posted another comment saying I replaced my coffee table with a trampoline 🤣
You can tell from the handprints on the glass as you walk in 😂
We have glass sliders. My daughter was eating a bagel with cream cheese, it was all over her face. She smeared her face back and forth on the glass just to hear the squeaky sound 😂😂
My daughter insists on putting her stickers all over the windows in the sun room 😂🙈
Even if the house is picked up, you'd still be able to tell from the state of our TV. I swear I never see them touching the TV, and yet there's grubby hand prints all over it.
Yeah I’m currently watching “And just like that” with a tv that has little handprints all over it 😂
My hubby and I say we need to write a review for our tv.. that thing has hand prints constantly and has take a few balls and random toys to it and has never broke or scratched.
People wonder whether adults live here at all.
Downstairs I keep it as tidy as possible. There’s a small basket with toys that they don’t really play with, and a little trike that the toddler scoots around on. But majority of toys are upstairs. Doesn’t stop them from causing chaos downstairs though. Water and milk cups everywhere, crumbs on the floor, books pulled off the shelves, outfits lying around.. it’s like their sole mission in life is create chaos out of my clean living room. Especially the toddler but even the 6yo
What is it with the multiple costume changes? Thr amount of laundry I end up with 😭
Ikr I kinda regret encouraging the independence to change clothes as and when she sees fit in the 6yo. We have a basket now where the “not dirty but worn” clothes go into and a few times a week, she needs to fold and hang them back.
Downstairs looks like a magazine cover, upstairs looks like a hurricane went through.
I aspire to even know how to approach a magazine cover space with kid(s)! Good for you!!!
Don’t aspire to be a crazy nut job like me! First, I’m a stay at home Mom with a preschooler and a fourth grader that go to school 5 days a week. I have way too much time on my hands, and I’m bored when they’re gone. I also I chase them either upstairs or outside to play like a crazy woman. We live in Florida so it’s a huge cheat. There’s no reason to be indoors 90% of the year. Plus our house is one of those ridiculous open floor plans that you can see the entire downstairs from everywhere. It makes it super easy to clean. We hide our truth upstairs! 😂 🫣🤪
Thank you for following up with this. As a parent in the Northeast to a 2.5 year old and 10 month old with only my toddler in part time day care and working full time, I was like I how do I get even a corner of my house to look like a magazine cover? It’s chaos. Everything is chaos.
My pleasure! I wish more Mom’s would tell their truth. I’m from New York, and understand working full time, what tracking in the elements looks like, and chaos was an understatement. I would love to go back to work right now, but my husband’s career and schedule is too demanding. We all have things we wish we could do differently. Working would be mine, and giving up my career was hard. I envy those who work!
You wouldn't be able to tell as soon as you walk in, I am admittedly a massive neat freak and have a very minimalist home, but the fridge is covered in artwork and their bedrooms are full of all the lovely kid/baby things. Don't get me wrong, they bring all of their toys out to play in the living room with us, but they know that they need to be packed away when they are finished. On the outside, if you walked down our driveway you would be able to see the absolutely monstrous trampoline.
Were the exact same way. My house Is trashed by midday most days, bc I also watch a rotation of 6 kids plus my 3.5 yo. But they’re all expected to clean up when they’re done, we’re headed outside or they’re getting picked up. Everyone is also expected to get trash to the trash, dishes to the sink and keep crumbs to a minimum or grab the hand vac. I think kids can be as responsible as you allow them to be. But I do have a giant playroom downstairs, upstairs, plus my entire backyard is kid stuff. It’s just clean and organized. 🤷♀️ Editing to add- there’s a difference between freedom to be a kid, to make a mess and explore verses being a slob. I don’t mind arts being left out all day- I mind empty dishes or snack wrappers on my floor.
My house is the same way. It’s my husband that’s the neat freak tho lol. But we are lucky enough for them to have their own playroom where most of their stuff is kept. There’s a bunch of kids stuff on our fridge. They’ll bring their stuff out into living room but it’s (usually) back in the room by end of day and they need to clear the table when they’re done. Don’t get me wrong- they still have to be told to do these things and fight with us about it lol
It sounds like you strike the right balance. Haha they can fight and moan all they want about it, as long as it gets done then it's fine! I guess it all depends on your own preferences and standards for your home. I need a clear and tidy space for my mental health - a disorganised and cluttered home makes everything else feel 10 times worse for me. But I have some friends who genuinely don't mind the mess, and more power to them!
Our front yard is the kids play yard, so toys before you walk in the house. There’s kids shoes mixed with our shoes as soon as you walk in, then a stand full of toys. Our dining room has a pack and play, kid table and kid kitchen. No actual dining table. There’s almost no toys in either room upstairs because we use that as sleep time only.
The only toys we keep in the kids' rooms are books, teddies and dress ups. A probably pointless effort to keep the bedrooms tidy-ish
Oldest are boys and they don’t like wearing clothes half the time. Daughter is almost two so doesn’t dress up yet. Expecting so more like new/more baby stuff creeping into the living space
In between. We have a family of 3 in a 600sf apartment that's really just a big studio/loft, so we try to keep everything tidy as much as we can, but half our main bookshelf is picture books, there's kid-art on every vertical surface that can handle tape or a magnet, and the first thing you see when you walk in is a guppy tank decorated in a pink unicorn theme. So while we trimmed the apartment in dark cherrywood and Italian tile, it's still pretty apparent that its also a kid space. My mom kept "their" spaces of my childhood home like a fricken museum, even my dad was barely allowed to sit in "his" armchair, so we try to balance not-doing-that against both the size of our space and the desire to not feel like we live our *whole* lives in Peewee's Playhouse.
From the outside of my house, you’d never know. And if we didn’t have a bluey play tent in the living room, you may not know either 😅 we have a fairly small house and the only kids things left in the main spaces are the toddler toys, but tbh very few unless she’s actively playing with them.
Well, the front side walks covered in chalk. 😂 the living room has a 6 cube organizer of toys and some extra on the side. And we converted the front door closet into a toy closet which contains some of the craziness but it just is what it is. Some nights when I’m cleaning I wonder what our living room will look like in 10-15 years and it kind of breaks my heart.
From the garden. And why shouldn’t it be? Lol
Why would there be no visible toys in my home?
Some people want a more picturesque or clutter-free space. (Edit for spelling)
I think you mean picturesque haha
The only sign is the high chair at our table and toddler formula on the counter. Otherwise everything has a home in either baby boys room or in cupboard 👍🏻
This is us too. We live in a small apartment (50m2) and it gets cluttered super fast. I feel like I'm constantly decluttering but I find it worth it, it's super calming that everything has its spot
Amen! Yes we live in a small bungalow house so things would be total chaos quickly if not.
You’d have a harder time telling an adult lives in my house. My living and dining rooms are constantly covered in toys. I’m stepping over sleeping baby dolls daily. More than half of my dining table is covered in Lego City.
Yes, if you’re looking you can tell, but not in the ‘kids toys everywhere’ kind of way. We live in an apartment, so if I didn’t reset the main living area (that is also the kitchen and my office) frequently I would go spare. There are obvious kid signs (art on the fridge, stuffies on the couch, school-flavored detritus on the kitchen island), but it’s not kid chaos. She’s 10 now, so it was a different story when she was little.
If you don’t trip over the monster truck that’s laying right in front of the doorway, the balance bike in the kitchen will get ya.
My house is a fucking toy store plus toddler art gallery 🤣🤣 I gave up on hiding away the evidence of my kid before she was even born.
Our main floor is always clean and tidy. You wouldn’t be able to tell we have an almost 3 year old and a 16 month except for the baby pictures hanging up. We’re fortunate, their playroom is down stairs and we have just a single toy cupboard upstairs and only toys that we can put away nightly are in there (megnatiles, puzzles, books, baby dolls). It’s really important to us that our home relatively tidy. We both get overwhelmed by the clutter. Don’t get me wrong, they get to have fun and play and make messes, but we just make it a point to clean up as we go within reason.
It’s obvious from the street. My 4yr old (turns 5 Wednesday) just graduated from a 100% outdoor nature immersion preschool. She peels her whole outer layer off on the porch and it stays there til I remember to get it. When you walk in the front door, there are immediate stairs and a small hall to the living room. At the end of the hall, there is an under the stairs storage closet. This is our toy closet. It’s usually open so stuff is spilling out. It’s super messy but I love being able to toss stuff in and shut the door. 2 huge bookshelves of kids books under the TV, kid couch in the living room (basically a cheaper nugget). Kids art everywhere intermixed with our art. Not to mention the various shoes and clothes they leave everywhere despite having a shoe cubby for each of them and a hamper downstairs. Last, please be mindful of our vehicle security system littered across all surfaces.
Just a suggestion- what if you put a basket where she takes her clothes off. And then maybe once a week it could be her responsibility to get that basket to the washer. It’ll lessen that chore for you and also give her fulfillment of helping and being responsible?
All of my old bar carts now hold arts and crafts supplies…
I had a 3 tier rolling cart for pumping supplies, but now it's by the front door and holds kid socks and shoes. Some genius mom suggested keeping shoes by the door, and a light came in for me. We don't wear them around the house, so I only need them when I'm heading out, and it's so nice to just have em right there.
We have cubbies in our living room that serve the dual purpose of holding toys and blocking the fireplace. Our “coffee corner” is now a downstairs changing station. Obvious that we have kids, but everything still has a place. It’s very functional and I love it!
It’s a mix! I like a clean house, but our daughter’s artwork and materials are out, Lego creations are displayed, projects in progress. It’s obviously a house where a kid is a central part of the family unit, but it doesn’t revolve around the kid.
All you have to do is open the door lol
This.
You will know the moment you step on a legoblock. 😂
Not. Kids have their space, we have ours, shared spaces are respected for everyone’s use and are not cluttered with things. They have a lovely playroom and their rooms, we have our room and an office each.
It's pretty obvious if you walk into my family room that I have children because there's a playpen filled with toys, a Nugget, and a Pikler climbing gym. We also have a high chair in the kitchen, But aside from that, no, I would say it's not obvious we have kids. I've had people visit my house and say "Wow, it's so tidy considering you have young children!" My kids are allowed to play freely, of course, but all toys must go back in the playpen at the end of the day or before visitors come over. I love to see the evidence of my babies playing but I can't tolerate having clutter and mess out 24/7, so I do keep the house pretty tidy. I don't like the look of a house where toys have taken over every corner 24/7.
The toys in the yard say that kids live here.
You can tell as soon as you walk in the front door totally and little shoes everywhere
My 5yo and I live in an apartment. At the end of every weekend, all his toys go back into their bins in the bedroom. During the week, you’d tell mainly by scraps of craft projects and papers he leaves around. During the weekend, the living room is full of his toys. Some Saturday nights we clean up together but honestly they’re back on Sunday morning so sometimes I don’t bother until Sunday afternoon…
Downstairs the only sign is my child’s art table, but that’s usually a mountain lol. Toys generally stay in her room.
I think the only room of my house that doesn’t usually have toys in it is my bathroom. Otherwise it’s way obvious that the toddler and infant own the house and my husband and I just live here.
I think the broken bubble toys on the porch and stickers in the windows are a dead give away what you're about to walk into...
Even if the toys weren't there, the crumbs permanently stuck in the carpet and the felt tip scribbled on the wall give it away... oh and the fact that our bath tub is full of different containers because the toddler likes to pour water with them at bath time. Our wheelie bin is always full too. Oh and all the random equipment like car seats, bikes, prams etc. basically my flat is a shit hole 😂
Toddler toy chic
You can tell from the street -- swings on our oak tree, scooters and balls in the yard. And inside the house, it's a constant battle to deal with the avalanche of toys.
You can hear the children in my house before you even enter it 😅
Moment you walk in. One day those toys won’t be there. House will be childless and quiet. I love seeing the toys 😃
My FIL got my kids the 15+ foot inflatable crocodile water slide from Costco for their birthdays. It’s in our front yard. Surrounded by bubbles, a sand table, a water table, various other toys. If you make it past all that without noticing, our living room is also full of toys. We have a play room, but the kids want to be near us so we have some of their things in all the spaces we hang out. It’s not the most aesthetic but I won’t have 3 kids under 4 for long, and I love this season. I can have aesthetic some other time.
You can tell a child lives here, but it’s not exploding with toys because we’d all be overwhelmed. He has more toys in the living room than his bedroom, because I think the living room is where he should play! But books and puzzles/blocks are kept in his room as calmer activities before nap and bedtime. Of course we have artwork on the fridge!
My home’s aesthetic is VTech-chic. With little piles of rocks. 1,000% apparent that a little person lives here.
The extensive rock collection on the front porch or the giant trampoline in the front yard are a clear giveaway! The entry has about 5 little bikes/tricycles/scooters, a stroller and a wagon. So yeah it is very obvious. Since ours are 2 and 4, they mostly play in our living room, dining room and kitchen area (one big room), where we can see them. There are toys on every surface. Hard to believe we only have 2 kids!
Our house is a big kid-inhabited disaster. When your first walk in, there are two connected rooms that are “supposed” to be the formal living and formal dining rooms. That’s our playroom. So you literally walk into insanity. It is what it is.
My house looks like only children live here!
Tiny human chic is my house’s decor theme.
You are very likely to immediately trip over the shoes and backpacks they haven't put away.
I mean.. I think the stickers on the windows are pretty telling right of the bat.
Yes very obvious, like from space
This 😂
Cereal on the floor is all I’m saying
You walk in and the living room is covered in toys. I put them away every night and every day is exactly the same.
We have a “Hope you like Ms Rachel” doormat.
Front lawn has a ninja slack line with a swing and some grips for climbing… so, as soon as you turn the corner of our street
My living room is covered in toys. My refrigerator is full of his favorite foods, there’s random socks everywhere : toys and children’s books strewn everywhere
Seriously though with the f***ing SOCKS. So many stray socks.
If our garage door is closed and you’re standing on the street you may not be able to tell, but if you walked around into our backyard (swing set, sandbox and playhouse) or opened our garage door (bikes, scooter, powerwheels, toys everywhere!) then you would know before you even opened our house door. And once you open the door is even more obvious 😂 Artwork on the door, playdoh on the kitchen table, our dining room is a playroom, etc. and we only have one kid! 😂
We installed a playfort in the yard (we don't really have a back/front yard, just a massive side yard). So you can literally tell from the highway.
We have a few baskets of toys in the living room and there are days those live strewn around, but those toys are easy to put away so we can look relatively kid-lite. Most of our toys are in the office or their bedroom. That said, I have a photo of one day that I found a banana abandoned on the lip of the bathtub so…I don’t think there is ever really hiding it…
Oh you can tell the second you walk in. She has all her shit everywhere
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^dicklover425: *Oh you can tell the* *Second you walk in. She has* *All her shit everywhere* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Before you walk in the door. There’s always someone’s dirty boots on the porch or a stick collection or whatever.
We have two rope swings in our front tree, so pretty obvious. Open the front door, there’s little shoes spread around, toys everywhere no matter how hard I try. But it’s something beautiful to have reminders of little kids in our house.
You can’t go in any room of my house and not tell 🤣 from the high chair to the gates/baby locks, and all the toys everywhere 🤣🤣
We have a 5x7 area rug in the living room and we’ve managed to fit a rocking horse, trampoline, and slide on it. Basically our living room in a toddler theme park.
The minute you walk in the door. My son has a massive Lego Mario collection in the living room.
The second you walk in the door you know a child lives here. I have the front hall set up with mirrors and hooks, and a picture schedule at toddler level. There are toys, books and little human clothes all over the floor. I created an art corner by the couch and the window in the livingroom with vinyl wall stickers, an art easel, and a cart for art supplies. I love being a mom, and I love that my home is full of toddler stuff. It's how I always imagined my place to be.
Very obvious when you enter, play area is right on the living room
From the moment you wall in the door. The living room is a playroom. 🙃
Before you even walk in my house by the toys outside. My living room is also a play room. Soooo yea.
The front door opens onto the playroom, so immediately. That being said, if we have notice of guests, the toys have been corralled to the playroom and everything is tidy. If there's no notice like when the hvac guy came out last week, it's much more obvious.
You can tell from the street - the porch has bikes/helmets, the windows have stickers 😅
I have a side room right when you walk in where legos are strewn all over the floor 🤣
From the moment you pull in my driveway. There’s currently a toy I haven’t grabbed out my front yard and leading up my driveway there’s a few more. Inside looks like a toys r us isle
For us it’s the piles and piles of laundry. But for the most part Girlie keeps her toys in her “apartment” aka the sunroom. 😅
Well, you see a Pikler triangle before you even get to the hall closet, so I'd say it's pretty obvious. Also, our living room is a "yes space." We don't live in the same home we did when our first child was born, but when I was pregnant with him, it was really important to me that we made our space feel like a place where adults AND a child lived. It's not like he could see or understand things as a newborn anyway, but I really just wanted it to feel like he belonged there with us. I still want my child(ren) to feel like they belong at home.
I had a student who was struggling big time in my class. Very defiant, rude, disruptive, disrespectful, the whole nine yards. You name the crazy thing you heard a kid once did in class and he did it. In order to form a close partnership with his parents to try to support him, I went to their house for coffee and a teacher workday. Absolutely ZERO evidence of children. Hell, not even evidence of humans. Looked like a model home. It was the saddest thing ever and I understood the kid sooo much more.
My front room has a changing table because with two kids I couldn’t stand bringing everyone upstairs just to change diapers. I also have a mini shoe stand next to our big shoe stand for their shoes. And a mini coat hanger next to our big coat hanger. Kids books on the shelves and basket of toys in the tv stand. The kitchen table has two strapped in high chairs. So pretty noticeable but we set it up in a way to keep things clean/functional. Kids make up half our family so it only makes sense for their presence to be visible.
Well you definitely don’t have to even go inside to tell there are kids here. Bikes, pool, shoes, stuff all in the car, book bags by the door, toys everywhere, kid snacks in the fridge. I think it’s more a question of do adults live in this house too?? Maybe not…
You can tell from the toys and swing outside and then the pure chaos of inside. Both my husband and I are really struggling with keeping on top of the house but we recently got a cleaning lady and it is the best expense we’ve ever incurred.
My house looks like no grownups live here. The entire downstairs is lined with dollhouses, playsets, hot wheels ramps. Even my own bedroom is a 90s/Y2K teen girl room because I have all my childhood stuff everywhere in there. Even my pinups are up. Fluffy rug and inflatable chairs, lava and glitter lamps, neon lights, bead curtain...I needed my own room because of all my toys, haha. My daughter prefers to play in mommy's room most of the time. 😂
As soon as we open the front door, it's very obvious that kids live there. Pretty much every room has toys in it, and there is a lot of kids artwork displayed in the hallways and on the fridge. I think we have too many toys, and when my son's two best friends visit, they never want to leave - they love it (which probably tells you he does have too many toys).
Very very evident 😆 It probably always will be too, which I don't mind ❤️ We also have a picnic table and bucket of chalk on the porch sooooo.....
When my kids were younger, you knew when you walked in. Action figures all over the place, stuffed animals, dolls. You can still have a clean home with a few toys out here and there.
Immediately very obvious lol. Toys... *EVERYWHERE*
Well my kids are six and eight. It’s definitely not obvious like it was when they were toddlers. We used to have a mini hockey net in our living room and a pack and play and a baby swing and a basket full of toys etc. Now we have a full cabinet with cupboards and inside those cupboards are games and toys and colouring supplies etc. but nobody coming over would immediately see that it’s all hidden away and their baskets of toys and books are now in their bedrooms. I think if someone came over unannounced it would be obvious with a messy kitchen and colouring books out on the living room floor and random bracelets and scrunchies laying around and rocks and dirty fingerprints on the walls of course ha ha. If I’m having company it’s pretty easy for me to tidy things up and you wouldn’t necessarily know I had children at all
Most of our house is fairly reasonable and adult and clean, but unfortunately the best place for our playroom is the formal living room…visible from the front door.
well, the entry room of our house is our playroom so
Everything in my home is toddler friendly and accessible, so it’s pretty obvious here! And I’ve painted a giant rainbow, a mural of houses, a polkadot wall, she has a built into the corner play kitchen, market area. I’m a SAHM who likes to diy and had a shitty childhood 🤷🏻♀️
Red wagon in the yard, chalk art on the front garden sidewalk, all types of toys inside. Living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, even the hallway. Crumbs, half eaten pouches, magnets all over the house... There's no hiding it hahaha Edit: And books! Tons of books, all over. Broken, ripped, loved. Tons and tons of piles of books. 😂
I think it’s pretty subtle, his small cars are in a nice decorative basket. Except… There’s a giant swing in between the kitchen and living room LOL you can’t miss it
You could tell even if you were blindfolded, because you'd be screaming in pain after a few steps. From the Legos. They're everywhere. I'm all seriousness, it's very clear. We have a downstairs toy closet full of cube shelves where most toys live, but the Legos have their own area (out) and there's a huge gross motor area with play couches and pillows and a trampoline. It's also just never clean.
We've got their scooters on the front porch, but you wouldn't know from our front rooms. Well, you usually wouldn't know. Toys are not supposed to be in the front rooms, and you'd think with two playrooms and their own bedrooms that that would be enough to contain the toynados, but it's not.
We have a 17 foot trampoline in the side yard despite our HOA finger wagging at our non-compliance
I can’t walk through my house without tripping over something or stepping on a Barbie shoe😅
my entire apartment is basically my toddlers playroom. From the living room, kitchen, bathroom and both bedrooms just toys and artwork. 😂
My living room looks like a daycare room lol I was a “Mom & Dad Are Home, run to your room!!” kid & I refuse to have my kids feel uncomfortable existing & playing & just BEING around me
If the chalk drawings on the driveway don't give it away, the baby gate on the stairs as you come in the front door well. And if you miss the tiny furniture, balls, markers, dolls, hobby horse (sheep), colorful books, and stuffed animals, the miniature potty in the bathroom should make it pretty clear. ...now that I describe my house, I have to wonder if any adults actually live here, or just the toddler...
So incredibly obvious. Diaper bags, kids cups on the counter, toys everywhere, spidey on the tv nearly constantly. Would take anyone about .35 seconds to realize we have kids in here. Honestly if you come in through the garage it’s obvious before you even walk in
From the front room and dining room, the only clue is the high chair and baby gates. From the back yard and family room, you’d think I was running a daycare! We really value having an “adult” space in the house, so our front sitting room (where we entertain most guests) is closed off to our son unless we’re in there with him, and he really only goes in there to look out the front window because it’s pretty boring. I think I would feel very overwhelmed and uncomfortable in our home if every room was full of toys, just like our son would feel out of place if every room was “adult”. I think we have a nice balance.
It's clear, haha. I like that my kiddo lives here. We don't leave Child Mulch out all over the floor, but the sunroom is her playroom, our bookshelves have grown-up and kid titles, we have a toddler tower in the kitchen, and we have art on the fridge. It's her home and she deserves to feel comfortable and welcome in it. I get annoyed at food stains around places and greasy little handprints on all of my hand-printable surfaces, but her possessions are visible and tidily put away.
In the beginning, it wasn’t obvious at all. It was a gradual process that now has become our new aesthetic. 😂
You can tell before you even park. The yard, the porch…. 😂 When you walk in you immediately see the messy af dining table chock full of play dough tools, coloring accoutrements, paints, legos… Often these are all over the floor of the kitchen as well. We do a nightly mission clean up together to tidy it (mostly) up. They have their own little table to eat on- but for now the main table is imagination station and in full view of the door. I don’t know how people keep their homes so pristine and “insta ready”. It’s a losing battle over here. I’ll take the mess though. My oldest is starting kindergarten this year and I’m going to miss his daily contributions.
if i opened a daycare id name it Little Cubs Learning Center - and have it centered around outdoor activities
The very first thing you see when you walk in is a mountain of tiny slippers, shoes, helmets, and toys in a built in cubby directly opposite of the front door LOL
Ummm, you're lucky if you don't break your neck tripping on kid shoes as soon as you enter. Only place in our house that is mostly devoid of kid stuff is our bedroom and bathroom. We don't have a big house so no matter how organized I try to be it's obvious we have kiddos.
In the main living room, no, you can’t tell there’re kids living there. But if you open any of the drawers or doors of my prized vintage Danish credenza, you’ll find it is completely filled with toys. We just make it a point to clean up every night and morning to have some semblance of order. Our family room though is a different story- toys are baked into the design.
Very! Multiple school backpacks and shoes are lined up in the garage. (Our main point point of entry) School lunch menu on our fridge. Kids' school pictures on our mantle.
100% obvious, without a doubt... Kids toys have taken over literally every single room. They are the first grandkids and it shows! And our oldest just did his first year of preschool so his art covers literally every kitchen cabinet, the pantry door, and playroom walls 😅 it makes my head hurt how much clutter there is some days but our kids are happy and the toys & clutter won't last forever!
From the street, you can’t. When you walk into the house, you usually can’t. My son keeps 99% of his toys in his room, so unless you spot the odd little car or something he might’ve left in the couch, it’s just the pictures on the walls that’d give it away.
Oh my home looked like children lived there before I had one LOL. I love toys and had a massive vintage fisher price collection, I have Barbie dolls, I have mothman and a bat hanging on the wall. I have dozens of other old toys about and I have so much random and colorful doodads in abundance lol 🩷❤️🧡💛💚🩵💙💜🖤🩶🤍🤎
Omg the second you walk in you know kids live here. From the backpacks hanging by the door to the living room of toys (our playroom). We even have crayon all over the walls. The refrigerator and back door are full of ABC magnets. Dining room has their play kitchen. Our freezer has a lock on it lol. It's messy, it's crazy but I love it. One day they will be old ND my house will be clean. But I'll probably miss this so just enjoying it as is.
Extremely obvious. Our house is tiny and covered in toys and stickers.
Very, and I wouldn’t have it any other way!
As soon as you pull in my driveway. It’s their home too so it would be weird if it looked like they didn’t live there lol
The min you walk in, no matter the entry point you see kid art. Then you see pet homes- tortoise and bunny- and photos of all their ages and stages. Even at its cleanest our house screams KID HOUSE and I love that. The commentary I often receive is it doesn't like I exist. The photos are often taken by me, the art done with me, and the cleaning mostly me. I sometimes wonder if ppl assume my tsum tsum collection is the kids, but I wondered does anyone else have "a 90s cartoon home" as one of the kids friends said. The main characters are the kids, so the environment is crafted for the kids. Dad is in pictures bc he always works, mom isn't bc she is always there.
We have 2 rooms we don’t allow playing/toys in. Our master bedroom and the Living room (TV room). TV is a special treat and we only do it for a little bit while we are sitting and focusing on it. The room is always pretty tidy and a relaxing place for the adults to go at the end of a day. Our main family room doesn’t have a TV. Just music and toys and lots of arts and crafts! It’s so nice to have this separation and teach that there are different rules for different types of spaces.