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Justjoy 03:45 PM 04-24-2019
I think I may be crazy but.....I had a home daycare for the past 5 years up until my husband lost his job and we had to move. My last home was 2500 sq ft and I had the entire downstairs for my daycare. We are now in a 1600 sq ft home with nothing but a kitchen, living area, and guest room for daycare space on the main level which is where I would operate the daycare. I only plan to have 2-3 children, but worry that parents will think it’s too confining. Should I even bother trying to set something up? Are any of you operating out of a limited space and how has it worked for you?
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Pestle 06:22 PM 04-24-2019
I'm in approx. 1600 sf and it's fine. (Listing says 1800 but it's totally not.) We have one child, two bedrooms, a family bathroom, and the kitchen and large living room to ourselves. The dining room and large playroom (converted carport) are daycare space. I'm not going to have a square footage issue when I go from 4 to 6. (I can keep 7 once licensed but will leave a space available for my own kid.)

It's all about where the boundaries of your space are. The locations of your walls will determine whether or not it's a good space for a daycare. The layout of this house is great. I have a half bath inside the playroom, access to the back yard from the playroom, and direct view of the dining room from the kitchen. I can set up a crib in the living room and nap other kids on mats in the playroom. The playroom is quite large but we cycle from the playroom to the dining room for art and outside multiple times a day. I've put a lot of thought into the yard and both Montessori and free-range style parents like the layout. I stage the indoor spaces with activities before an interview, putting some away so it looks more spacious.

There is not a major separation of space here. I know a lot of folks have two-story houses and keep the daycare in the finished basement. Since nobody else in my family is home while I'm open, it makes no difference to me how much of a barrier there is between my personal and public spaces. You'll need to plan for how your family lives.
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Josiegirl 01:54 AM 04-25-2019
I have a small home, somewhere around 960 sf. I've always used the living room, kitchen, playroom for dc. Since no one else lives here now, I also use an 11x11 spare bedroom they can play in. I've had 6 dcks for the most part and it's worked fine. I have a larger room upstairs but I only use it for storage. Nobody has ever mentioned the size of my home except to say they appreciate that I'm able to supervise no matter what room we're in. lol
The space issue shouldn't deter dcfs from enrolling but the hardest part is having a dc in your own space. There are ways to incorporate both so everybody's happy.
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Cat Herder 05:30 AM 04-25-2019
My playroom is 576 sq ft (24' x 24') and has worked well for 6 kids for many, many years. (kids are not in the main house except to eat, bathe and for minor ill care)

What is the backyard like? That is where most space is made up, IMHO.
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DaveA 05:44 AM 04-25-2019
You should be fine for space. You may have to get a touch creative for storage, but it's quite feasible.
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Justjoy 07:57 AM 04-25-2019
Thank you all so much for your input. It makes me feel so much more at ease. It’s hard downsizing from a whole lower level approx) 1500 sq ft daycare, to much less, but sounds doable 😀
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sharlan 09:03 AM 04-25-2019
I had my daycare in a 1,000 ft home for 20 years. Every square inch was utilized.
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Mom2Two 02:14 PM 04-25-2019
I would think that you will be fine, even if you went to a few more kids. If you use both the living room and the bedroom for play, you can have different items in each room and the kids will feel like they have tons of space.

We use our living room (12 x 12), family room (20 x 15) and part of our informal dining room for the free play area. I am licensed for eight, with 4-7 here most days (plus my own child). The thing is that they all tend to move as a pack, so even though technically we have space for more kids, it's good that I don't have more than would fit together in one room.
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LysesKids 06:46 PM 04-25-2019
Originally Posted by Justjoy:
I think I may be crazy but.....I had a home daycare for the past 5 years up until my husband lost his job and we had to move. My last home was 2500 sq ft and I had the entire downstairs for my daycare. We are now in a 1600 sq ft home with nothing but a kitchen, living area, and guest room for daycare space on the main level which is where I would operate the daycare. I only plan to have 2-3 children, but worry that parents will think it’s too confining. Should I even bother trying to set something up? Are any of you operating out of a limited space and how has it worked for you?
I had 4 infants under 24 months in 780 sq ft (plus 160 sq ft deck outside); perfectly within state regulations. Parents didn't seem to mind once they saw how the space was used
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lovemykidstoo 05:34 AM 04-26-2019
Originally Posted by Justjoy:
I think I may be crazy but.....I had a home daycare for the past 5 years up until my husband lost his job and we had to move. My last home was 2500 sq ft and I had the entire downstairs for my daycare. We are now in a 1600 sq ft home with nothing but a kitchen, living area, and guest room for daycare space on the main level which is where I would operate the daycare. I only plan to have 2-3 children, but worry that parents will think it’s too confining. Should I even bother trying to set something up? Are any of you operating out of a limited space and how has it worked for you?
We have the same life. We had a 2,600 square foot home. My husband lost his job and we lived off savings for a couple of years. We ultimately couldn't afford the house, so sold it and bought a 1,800 square foot home that was a repo and was disasterous. We put blood sweat and tears into it and now it's very nice, but when my daycare people walked in they had to be shocked, but never said a word. I loved their kids as my owns and they knew that and I didn't lose 1 family. It's a 4 bedroom home and I have 2 kids. Well 1 is off to college now, but I use 1 of the bedrooms as my daycare play room. They do nap there too. They nap in my sons room in pack and plays since he's at college. The living room we use to play also. I bought this piece of furniture from Staples. It was $160 I think and I love it in the living room. It looks like regular furniture and there are a bunch of toys in it. I normally have black felt pieces over the toys in each bin so when you look at it during non-dayare hours you can't see the toys at all.
Attached: dcstorage.jpg (81.1 KB) 
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AmyKidsCo 01:26 PM 04-26-2019
My child care space is just above the minimum 35sq feet for 8 children. The dining room is 117 and the play room is 167. It's not huge, but there's still plenty of space for 8 kiddos.

Just out of curiosity I figured out the entire square footage of our main floor (including counters, appliances, etc) and it's 728. I thought it would be bigger...
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Tags:daycare layouts, limited space, small daycare, small space
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