How We Live

This house belonged to my grandparents and my mum lived here from around the age of 16 so it holds lots of memories for me. I remember sleepovers at my grandparents and watching my grandpa work in his garages; he was a plumber and enjoyed nothing better than tinkering in his sheds.

We moved in eight years ago. We had two children when we moved here, the baby was eight months old. The house needed a total renovation, so we lived in a caravan on my parents’ drive before moving in, while all our belongings were stored in the garage at the new house. My grandfather died in this house and whilst some may find this a little creepy, to us it isn’t; he was a wonderful man and if he is still here, I’d be happy for him to haunt us.

We had our third child two years after moving here. The house is a big three bed, so once the baby moved out of our room the two girls shared a room. I have been a registered childminder for almost ten years, so the house doubles up as a play setting.

Our style is modern but practical. The space works hard for us; we have a lot of things and a lot of storage. I have filled my home with simple box shelving. It hides and stores so much and you can buy pretty wicker baskets which soften the lines; we have these in the girls’ bedroom.

I love setting up inviting play areas, it keeps me busy and the children focused on our topics. I find younger children get sidetracked easily when they play so I try to run a theme through all areas.

If the theme for the week is, say, bugs, I’ll adapt the open shelving to include lots of discovery items and maybe a bug hunting kit. Then we’ll go on adventures in the park and make bug hotels. Our play kitchen will be a bug cafe. And I love a good fact book!

I sort the toys into themed boxes so that I can rotate them to match the topics we are learning about, but I have open shelving on which I keep our old favourites. This includes number trays, magnifying glasses, number and letter blocks.

I have come up with clever solutions to having toys out in zoned areas. For example, there’s a station for play dough that is set up with dough, cutters, • boards and stampers, but at night packs neatly into the drawers underneath and looks like a coffee table.

We love our tuff trays. I especially love them for outdoor play; I often set up play stations in the garden so the children can move between them and explore. They are especially good for messy play activities. We use them for painting, slime play, water play or just to hold building blocks and sand.

I think a house grows and develops with the family. Mine has to cope with a lot. All the toys that children gradually grow out of in a normal household I have to store for the children I look after, so the items I buy have to be thought out and stand the test of time. I usually buy wooden toys from ethical stores. If I buy plastic toys, I buy them from and sell them on via selling pages. I don’t want to send perfectly good and useable items to landfill. I live and work in the same space so I buy toys that I like to look at. If I wasn’t surrounded by beautiful things I think I could easily feel swamped by the work environment.

Until recently the toys and clutter had extended throughout my house but I decided to redecorate downstairs, and chose white walls. People thought I was crazy with so many children around but it’s resulted in a light, bright space and – with new furniture and the addition of a wall to replace some dated doors – I created a family room and a dedicated playroom.

I love the concept of hygge, so brought in more soft furnishings, lamps to create calming lighting and we have lots of plants. I love the light that we get in our family room and that it is a big open space. We bought an L-shaped sofa and on movie nights we all cosy up and watch TV together.

We absolutely love being out in our big back garden in all weathers. There’s a raised patio area with a greenhouse and the children love helping to grow plants and vegetables from seed. Producing any fruit or vegetables feels like an accomplishment in an urban garden! We have a lawn and our chickens are also on this level. There’s nothing like getting fresh eggs from your own hens. The children love our pond and learning about life cycles; we get tadpoles each year we can watch grow and develop.

We’ve built a mud kitchen and planting area; the children care for the plants we grow in our greenhouse and then once they are big enough we plant them out. The kids have their own garden kitchen space where they care for their own plants every day.

There’s a large section of covered decking which is mainly used by the children. It has comfortable seating and I add toys to this space daily so even on dull days we can get outside and play; it rains a lot in Manchester.

Our house has worked for many years but we do feel we have got to the stage that we are outgrowing it. I keep tweaking areas to make them more inviting, and we’re hopefully building an extension soon!”

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