I have a separate daycare space too. The only thing that home and daycare shares is the bathroom and a hallway. I love this set up and don't think I would still be doing daycare if I had to share space still.

When I didn't have a completely separate space, I had one bedroom as the main daycare playroom. But, like you, we used our dining room for meals and messy projects (which we did every day). I kept minimal art supplies in my laundry room (which was near kitchen) and everything else was stored in the basement with the rest of my daycare stuff. It did mean that many days I had to go downstairs to get supplies for whatever art project we were doing, but that was fine. We also used my livingroom several times throughout the day and I kept two baskets of toys and a basket of books that I rotated every week or two. We never used that space for more than 30 minutes at a time (it was mostly a transition space for when someone was done with a meal and needed something to do untli we could go upstairs to the playroom/bedroom).

Do you have a space that you can store your extra daycare items in? I think that made a huge differenec for me. it was great to have a basement that could hold all my extras. I don't like the clutter. I keep minimal storage in my playroom.

I'm legally unlicensed, so I don't know about using regular sized chairs and table, but that's how I did it. Also, if you're licensed, then they will have requirements about what you need to have hanging on the walls. On my walls playroom walls all I have is children's artwork displayed. I don't like kiddie-daycare posters personally.

Reply