Basement set up?

[Wonderwiper]

Hi everyone! I am re opening my daycare in our new house at the end of the summer. I'm super excited to have the whole basement dedicated as my space and to have my daycare out of the rest of my house!!! It does not have a separate entrance but does have a full bath so I think I can keep it mostly self contained. How do those of you with basements have everything set up? Can I make a little kitchen area with fridge, micro etc. on a table? How do you deal with food smell or do you cook upstairs and just eat downstairs? I really don't want to drag everyone upstairs for food! Thanks for any tips! I have been sculking around here for awhile and really look forward to sharing and learning with you all as I get rolling again! Happy Friday!!!

[Crayola kiddies]

Hi congrats on your new house and the reopening of your daycare....I too have my daycare in my basement. We built a new home and designed the daycare at that time so I was lucky enough to be able to have an entrance from my garage directly into the basement. As well hubby put a kitchenette in for me. He bought those preassembled cabinets from home depot and a counter top. So I have one cabinet with doors ( where the plumbling for the sink is)and a drawer stack and then the bar fridge is right beside the drawers and the counter top goes right across all of it And up above I have three sets of cupboards. I have a microwave on a small table right there also. I bought a
full size kitchen table and chairs. The is a full bathroom right
behind the kitchen and the whole kitchen area and bathroom are
ceramic tiles and then the rest is carpeting so it's warm. We have
9 ft ceilings so I don't feel like I'm in a basement and big windows for lots of light. I bought 4 free standing pantries from Canadian tire and I have organized my toys in them and put child
locks on them and each day I open a different cupboard instead
of rotating toys in and out. I have a book center, a doll center, kitchen center, workshop. I have one of those shelving units
from ikea that looks like stairs and has plastic bins to pull out
and that's where I have my puppets, cars, Lego, little people, and otherassorted toys. We do crafts and play doh, messy sensory bins at the kitchen table. So aside from using my bedrooms upstairs for napping I am totally self contained. I love being down there and at the end of the work day my commute is 15 steps upstairs and because i have a separate space I don't feel
like I'm always at work and I think that is important to avoid burnout. My kids also gave their special toys upstairs that they don't have to share and if they don't want to be in the daycare they are trustworty enough that they can just go up and do their own thing.

[Inspired by Reggio]

My playroom is in my basement and it has a bathroom which is awesome ~ however it is not large enough down there for a kitchenette

Since I have to cook upstairs it is just easier to eat upstairs since we are 'up here' than anyway as I am not comfortable leaving them down there while I whip up lunch ~ they come up and either do table activities in the kitchen with me OR if they have earned the trust they can watch TV in the livingroom bonus to this is than I do not have to worry about 'food mess' in my playroom cause some kids amaze me how messy they eat

[sunnydays]

I love the idea of opening a different cupboard each day as a form of toy rotation! I will have to think about that! I am hoping to move too and will have a basement set up for daycare instead of using my whole house like now. I really want to haev the daycare separate so that my own family has their own space and the mess stays in the daycare. Right now I feel like I am always at work.

[Marie#1]

My daycare is also in the basement and I really like that I can close the door at the end of each day and leave my work behind. I have a full bathroom with a tub and it's great. I have a counter top for meal preparation and cutting fruit but I prefer to cook upstairs and that's mainly for safety.
My meals are always prepared ahead of time so the actual amount I spend in my kitchen is very minimal. I use a tray to carry everything down. The bowls, spoons and cups are already down there. I have a big pantry in which I store anything and everything that does not need to be refrigirated so snack time is a breeze. I cut the fruit while the kids tidy up and use the bathroom.
I have two seperate sleep rooms. One is for the playpens and the other is the main play room where the bigger kids sleep. They unroll their mats at nap time and sleep all together. After nap, we tidy up the mats, go to the bathroom and we're ready for snack once again.
I have a great made up table that I got from IKEA. You can really customize your tabletop there as well as legs. I also have the IKEA plastic chairs with boosters on them. The table is where they do messy crafts and puzzles. My table/eating area is completely appart from the rest of the playroom so the kids don't track food (well mostly anyway).

[Littledragon]

I have the WORST house for a daycare haha but I make do. I have a small finished basement where we do the majority of our play. But, the kitchen AND bathroom are upstairs. The bathroom wasn't an issue until just recently. All my babies were still in diapers but now I have one who is LEARNING to use the potty and it makes it difficult. I don't like the idea of having food in the basement so we eat in the kitchen. I have a SMALL play area in the living room where they can hang out while I cook, but it's also used by my son on evenings and weekends. We don't go in the basement during non-daycare hours. It's difficult to keep the house clean (mainly because the babies seem unable to keep food in their mouths and it ends up on the floor). I recently just brought ALL the toys in the living room downstairs and only kept all my son's toys from his birthday so it's a lot less cluttered and a lot easier to keep clean. Which is nice. Now, I just need to figure something out with the kitchen. My floor is driving me nuts!! lol

I am VERY jealous of crayola lol i want that set up!! would make life MUCH easier!

[jackswwagar]

I think you can have a freeze their but if it is small place then cooking should be done upstairs and you can keep it into freeze.