Space? What space?

When you live in a small house with small children, you become very creative with how you use your space. 

Some stay at home moms tend to be on the go most of their days, finding places to go and things to do.  Because I watch children out of my home, we have to spend much of our time in our house (plus I am kind of a home body during the fall and winter seasons when we are on go most of our evenings).  I am also a big believer in naps, so when we can have naps on schedule in their own beds, I like to stay home during naptimes.  Now come baseball season and summertime, and we will be on the go much more and some naps will have to be spent in car seats :)  Sometimes I hear moms say "I have to get out of the house, there is just no space!"  Because of my situation, I have to "deal" with the space that I have and get creative so the boys have space to play and I don't go CRAZY in my own home, especially during the winter in NE Ohio!

Here are a few things I try to do to keep myself sane:

1.  Everything has a home. 
I have a small three bedroom home with a small living room and dining room as our only "living space". I have two boys of my own and watch two other boys on a regular basis as well as a few others. 
Every toy, diaper, paper, snack, dish, has a place.  If the chaos is at least organized then I can breath a little. 
Keep the organization simple and allow yourself and your kids flexibility to change things as needed.  When the two younger boys became mobile, much of our organization of things had to change; small, swallowable toys had to be moved up higher. 
If the kids know where things go, they feel like they have more control of their space and they can be more efficient helpers when singing the clean up song.  My house is rarely clean, but most things do have a "place". 
The three year old that I watch gets frustrated when I do a little "reorganizing" over the weekend because I changed something's "place"; he likes knowing where everything goes:)
Allow your organization to have toys accessible to kids.  i know that people make fun of my house because it really is a "child friendly" home.  I have a child sized table in the living room, book baskets and toy tubs are under every end table.  My living room does not belong in a magazine, but with our lack of extra space, my kids need to be comfortable playing in the "living room".  In order for me to be able to clean up after dinner, my one year old can be distracted by a music table in the dining room and my four year old son can get out his box of crayons kept on the corner table in the same room.  Kids are like loyal dogs, they want to stay close to you and if you don't have toys accessible for them to be distracted by, you won't get anything done because they will rely on you to entertain them.  I'm not suggesting we create a circus in our homes, I'm just suggesting we can make our homes more prone to play with the way we use our space.

2.  Rooms have to have multiple purposes. 
When you have a small home, there is no such thing as a "playroom" or a "dining room" most of the time the two are one of the same. Even if you do have multiple living spaces and a bigger home,  you may find the rooms starting to blend together as your kids like to spend time in the same room that you do (until they are teens and want nothing go do with you). 
Allow it to be OK for your dining room table to be a desk, a train table, a snack table, a painting table, a sensory table, an experiment table, a playdough table, and anything else you can think of or your kids think up. I also use it as a space for the older boys to put toys that they don't want the little boys to get into.  And I  allow them to play with toys too small for the little boys on the dining room table because the little boys can't reach it "yet".
But when it is dinner time, everything goes back to its "place" and the table goes back to being a dining room table. 
There are times that I wish my living room didn't double as a play room, but then I remember there will be lots if years when my kids will be gone and my living room can go back to being a living room without the baskets of kids books and tubs of toys.  When my kidless friends come over, I just pray they understand why the ball basket and train bin are part of my living room decor.  My kitchen doubles as a hockey rink, bedroom doubles as a nap room for the kids I watch, and my own kids' rooms double as locker rooms, wrestling rooms, libraries, train rooms, and most importantly a quiet place to call their own.
I allow these transformations to take place throughout the day as long as when the day is coming to a close, that my dining room table can actually be seen, and my husband and I can put our feet up and relax in the living room without tripping over toys, hence "everything has a place."

3.  Try to create some sort of outside-inside space.
In both of our homes, I have been blessed with a patio room in the first house and now an enclosed porch in this house.  My mother taught me to use these spaces to their fullest potential.  Even when it is cold and rainy, on go the boys' coats and hats and they play basketball or rescue heroes on the porch.  They get some fresh air while still staying within ear shot of me in the house with the little guys and they are out of the weather elements under the cover of the porch.  I also have the sand table and play kitchen on the porch so that the kids have a place to have their pretend and sensory play. The kids, even the little ones beg to go out and play on the porch even mid-winter; it gives them another space to go and do something new.
Again, my kidless friends and strangers have to deal being welcomed into my home through a room that screams preschool more then home, but it works for me and my everyday life with my kids and that's what I have to make a priority right now, not how it "looks" to others. 

4. Change It Up.
I usually go through phases: the spring cleaning phase, the it's getting cold out phase, the making room for Christmas decorations phase, the making room for Christmas presents and birthday presents phases, the my kid's at a new stage phase, and many more.  Each phase sends me into a reorganizing frenzy, changing, shifting, moving toys around; simply trying to make my space more useful for our needs at the moment.  It is just like going through clothes with every new size my son goes through, the ones that don't fit go in a box in the attic and the ones that do, go into a space in his bedroom. I find a space for the toys that are most useful for the stage the kids are in and pack up the ones that are just "taking up space". It is how I stay sane and keeps things fresh and interesting for the kids. Sometimes they reconnect with a toy long forgotten or find a new way to play with a toy reorganized into a new bin.  As I write this, I look around and realize we could use a reorganization soon to mix things up:).

5.  Your House is a Home for Your Family.
Everyone has their own type of home and household.  Some have lots of space and some have a little space. What is important is the love that is created in that space.  If your children feel loved, they really won't notice the space in which they grow up.