Toy kitchens

Those that have indoors toy kitchens, how much stuff do you have for it in terms of cutlery,plates, food etc Is it constantly played with for 5 minutes then the contents scattered everywhere. Do you limit how many items you have for it And finally

does the constant scattering of cutlery, food, toy plates etc drive you to despair!!!

When I had a toy kitchen indoors I had quite a lot of bits for it - food, tea set etc. I found the children would take the accessories away to play with and the kitchen was only really used to store it all in at the end of the day!

I got rid of the kitchen and kept the other bits in a wicker hamper. It was played with just as much and if the children wanted to put something in an 'oven' they'd put it under a chair - great imagination!

I have a pair of wooden bedside cabinets as my kitchen with some real teapots , cups , knives etc. It’s a favourite area and as they are so familiar with our loose parts style of play they use all sorts of things in their “cooking”. I don’t have any plastic play food but often put some real food out in baskets for them to chop, grind , squeeze. I agree they do like to put things in baskets and migrate away from the area for “picnics” etc , the only rule is that the sharper knives stay with the chopping board .

I have a play kitchen and a large quantity of plastic plates/cups/food/utensils in the playhouse in the garden ... it ends up everywhere but generally gets tidied back every so often.


Inside, i have a box of wooden play food and plates etc. They often get bits out, and usually then leave them in the dressing up bags and in toy buggies, but i find them using all the bits from the loose play in random containers just as much! somehow, the 'play food' limits their play. i don't have an 'indoor' kitchen; as mouse says, they make their own ovens etc, although i do have a cardboard box that we decorated to be like an oven that they enjoy using.

I have 4 large plates, 4 small plates, 4 bowls, teapot/jug, not sure how many cups, 4 each knife/fork/spoon, selection of wooden implements, couple of saucepans/dishes and selection of food. OH, and lots of wicker baskets/bowls. When i migrated all my plastic stuff outside, and replaced with wood, I was going to go for wood/china/metal/glass, but at the time there was a reason not to ( i can't remember why! ) and i'm not going to replace stuff now, unless i need to!