Big family organization hacks

Tips for handling life from people handling a crowd

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is about some organizing strategies you can borrow
from larger families. No matter the size of your household,
these strategies can help you keep chaos at bay. Like

(00:27):
many people in this era of declining birth rates, I'm
somewhat fascinated by larger families. Reality TV is full of them,
and though these families aren't always functional in the larger sense,
they do tend to hone systems for day to day functionality.
Over the years, and as my own family has grown,
I've become a student of these systems. Today's episode talks

(00:50):
about a few that I found most helpful. Paradoxically, one
of the best big family hacks is to own less stuff.
As the volume of family members increases, everybody's stuff gets
added to the pile. With two people that could be fine,
with seven, you've got trouble. So you learn to be

(01:12):
careful about what comes in, always asking if something can
be borrowed or repurposed before buying something new. It's also
smart to build in regular times for purging things that
are no longer serving a purpose. The start of each
new season is great for this, and since a lot
of charities will pick things up from your door, there's
really no reason not to. Another key point, objects need

(01:36):
a home. If you find a spoon somewhere in your house,
well you know where that goes. But many other things
are more nebulous. They shouldn't be. Larger households solve this
issue by giving every family member a bin or box
or other such spot where items that will be needed
can go. We keep our family binds in the mudroom.

(01:58):
Kid mitten's library, books and things like that can all
be placed in these bins so people can find them
on the way out the door. If an item is
found elsewhere in the house, it can be put in
the bin, and people will know that that is the
first place to look. If someone starts hollering where is
my X, the first response will always be, did you

(02:20):
check your bin? A set of car keys must always
be in a designated little basket. Coats, shoes, umbrellas, and
backpacks all go in the mud room too. Homework is
either actively being done or is in the backpack. Shoes
found elsewhere are immediately returned to the mud room, there
are no other places these things can be. This gets

(02:42):
particularly important in winter, though I was quite intrigued to
hear the approach from one family with eight kids. They
moved to Florida precisely so they wouldn't have to worry
about coats and hats and mittens. Time spent hunting for
lost items is just wasted time, and while that might
not be a huge deal with two family members, it's

(03:02):
a deal killer with six. So the systems become tighter,
which is probably a good thing in general. Another hack
I have come to appreciate always have a backup meal.
Some people like meal planning and others don't, but even
people who like to plan encounter this reality. With more

(03:23):
family members, more things can go wrong. You don't make
it home in time to get the oven gooing before
everyone is starving. If that's the case, it helps to
always have say, eggs, fruit and pancake mix in the house,
so you can have breakfast for dinner, or tortillas, cheese,
shredded chicken, and frozen veggies for casey d a nite.

(03:46):
In big families, laundry becomes its own special torture. One
hack we learned early on was to give each of
our boys their own kind of sock and their own
kind of underwear. Yes, they may all be white athletic socks,
but the brand name might be in a different color,
or the toe is slightly different. This way, anyone can
tell at a glance whose stuff is who's. I recently

(04:08):
simplified my life this way by purging my old running
socks and buying ten pairs that match. Now all my
socks match, and so I don't need to think about
pairing them. With bigger families, dishes can pile up two.
Some of this is inevitable we run the dishwasher every
day and often more frequently, but things like water cups

(04:30):
can be reused. A number of bigger families have one
color for each child, so a green cup can be
refilled without worrying about washing it for whoever always uses green.
When we have lots of house guests, we've learned to
buy sturdy, disposable cups and then write people's names in
sharpie on there. Saves us from all kinds of waste

(04:53):
and bother But as I've interviewed larger families over the years,
I've learned that one of the most important hacks is mindset.
If you have one or two kids, you might be
able to help intensely with homework or do all the
laundry and snack fetching, drive long distances to many activities.
With five kids or six kids or more, this becomes

(05:16):
a lot less feasible, so people lean on their kids
to learn to do more for themselves. The good news
is that most people rise to the occasion. But you
don't need to be housing a small army to encourage this.
If you've been doing everyone's laundry in your household and
everyone else is over the age of ten, just start

(05:37):
doing your own. When people start complaining, offer a quick tutorial,
and then continue about your business. When people ask what's
for dinner, say that's a good question, ask what they'd
like to make. Teenage children can manage their own schedules
within the parameters that they need to ask you for
rides with say one day's notice or else figure out

(05:59):
a carpool. And as for homework, well, you already did
seventh grade. You're done with it. You will answer specific,
well thought through questions, but beyond that it is not
your problem. All this is easier said than done, of course,
but worth doing. Because while an organizational hat can save

(06:19):
a little bit of time, getting something completely off your
plate saves a ton of time again and again and again.
In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,

(06:42):
I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod.
That's b E the number four then breakfast p o D.
You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
podcast at iHeartMedia dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled

(07:05):
out with all the letters. Thanks so much, should I
look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a
production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.