my toybreed pups will be 4wks on friday.... they are starting to move around alot in the box now going onto the paper and its a bit noisy... also mum is leaving them alot now and spends most of her time downstairs with us. is it almost time to move the pups downstairs?

Oh yes!
They need the hustle and bustle of daily life, lots of interaction, noise and human and doggie company.
It's time they joined the family, albeit protected in their own accommodation, to see and experience life ...before they join in completely.

It will save your legs too!

I don't have a downstairs :) but my toy pups move from the bedroom to a pen in the living room (surrounded by other toys, larger dogs and cats) at 3 weeks.

thanx. all sorted and are downstairs and seam quite happy

Over here (back from Canada) our puppies were in the living room for the first 3 weeks or so - which meant one of us (usually hubby) could sleep on the sofa with them.    They had a 4 X 4 whelping box.   Once they were up and moving around, the box was moved into the kitchen and a second 4 X 4 section added, giving them more space to move around, and the front area of the box to become where they emptied!    We also had an ex-pen in the garden for the warmer days to get them out into some fresh air, and me a chance to give the box a good old clean up.

Sounds similar to my set up MamaBas, except once they taste the great outdoors ours want to stay there most of the day, so need a shelter as well as a safe pen

Other than the toydogs, which I have to be careful with and use a puppy pen for when not supervised due to the dangers of much bigger dogs and much bigger CATS, I prefer for my pups not to be very restricted. When they learn to climb out of the whelping box at 3 weeks they can go where they like. They go out into the garden with the adult dogs and come back in again when called, may stay out an hour if the weather is nice, but basically they are treated the same way as the adult dogs. For my sensitive breed I think it does them a world of good as it helps make them confident.  They get a lot of extra learning thrown in for nothing -as soon as they can go out the door they learn that you go to toilet outside when possible, they learn that when we eat dinner they are not allowed to try to steal it, etc.

Now with my poor eyesight and generally being clumsy I could not have pups loose underfoot.

This is what I keep saying, no one way is right, it's horses for courses, breed variation and also personal preference.

Same as puppies and dogs in their new homes.  Some people myself included prefer pups to be confined to limited areas until they are housetrained, some allow free access to all rooms.  some people allow tehri dogs upstairs I don't (except to be bathed).  Some people allow them on furniture, I only do by invitation, btu don't generally encourage it, for others it's a no no.  Some people are happy to have them in/on their beds.

This is what I keep saying, no one way is right, it's horses for courses, breed variation and also personal preference

Right enough!   For instance no way could I have baby Bassets running around with the adults.   Yes they are tough, but not THAT tough.    For some, the lengths Basset breeders have to (should) go to to bring their puppies to adulthood still sound, may seem ott.   And actually our ex-pen had three 4 X 4 wire sections added to give the bigger litters more space - and we had it up under the trees, for shade.   Actually once they'd done playing and started to settle down for a nap, I bought them back indoors.   For sure, no furniture, steps/stairs for baby Bassets!!!