Setting up your home for a daycare

[Lynnaya]

Ive been at home for four years with my two children and have now decided I'd rather stay home and offer childcare rather than return to work. I have already been recommended to two families by a mutual friend that also offered childcare and is now closing her daycare. I have my CPR and first aid. I have a ridiculous collection of toys, books, puzzles etc. I'm wondering how people have found best to organize their homes. I want some toys upstairs and more down in my toy room. Any clever tips appreciated.

[playfelt]

Not sure how your house is set up but we weren't using our diningroom so we changed that into an upstairs playroom. The great thing is that it is just off the kitchen so they can play while I make meals. Most of the toys are in the basement playroom. You will find you are constantly changing what is up and what is down as ages and interests change and that is a good thing because it keeps the play fresh.

You could also purchase some low shelves, or cabinets and store the toys behind closed doors. You could also store some toys in plastic bins you store out of the way.

A good idea is to go to something like www.kijiji.ca and under services click on childcare. You will be able to see people that have posted pictures of their daycare setups. Get a sense of what you like and don't like and get hubby to look to so you know you are on the same page of how much he will tolerate in the house or if he wants the daycare to go away at the end of the day/week. Just change the city to look at new pictures. I have gotten lots of great ideas by looking at what others have done. You can do the same on daycarebear by putting in any postal code and then clicking on any ad with pictures.

Around here it seems that there are a lot of people using their livingroom/diningroom as their daycare including climbing structures, etc. as in certainly does not go away at the end of the day. Most of those are people without finished basements.