Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is about some organizing strategies you can borrow
Speaker 1: from larger families. No matter the size of your household,
Speaker 1: these strategies can help you keep chaos at bay. Like
Speaker 1: many people in this era of declining birth rates, I'm
Speaker 1: somewhat fascinated by larger families. Reality TV is full of them,
Speaker 1: and though these families aren't always functional in the larger sense,
Speaker 1: they do tend to hone systems for day to day functionality.
Speaker 1: Over the years, and as my own family has grown,
Speaker 1: I've become a student of these systems. Today's episode talks
Speaker 1: about a few that I found most helpful. Paradoxically, one
Speaker 1: of the best big family hacks is to own less stuff.
Speaker 1: As the volume of family members increases, everybody's stuff gets
Speaker 1: added to the pile. With two people that could be fine,
Speaker 1: with seven, you've got trouble. So you learn to be
Speaker 1: careful about what comes in, always asking if something can
Speaker 1: be borrowed or repurposed before buying something new. It's also
Speaker 1: smart to build in regular times for purging things that
Speaker 1: are no longer serving a purpose. The start of each
Speaker 1: new season is great for this, and since a lot
Speaker 1: of charities will pick things up from your door, there's
Speaker 1: really no reason not to. Another key point, objects need
Speaker 1: a home. If you find a spoon somewhere in your house,
Speaker 1: well you know where that goes. But many other things
Speaker 1: are more nebulous. They shouldn't be. Larger households solve this
Speaker 1: issue by giving every family member a bin or box
Speaker 1: or other such spot where items that will be needed
Speaker 1: can go. We keep our family binds in the mudroom.
Speaker 1: Kid mitten's library, books and things like that can all
Speaker 1: be placed in these bins so people can find them
Speaker 1: on the way out the door. If an item is
Speaker 1: found elsewhere in the house, it can be put in
Speaker 1: the bin, and people will know that that is the
Speaker 1: first place to look. If someone starts hollering where is
Speaker 1: my X, the first response will always be, did you
Speaker 1: check your bin? A set of car keys must always
Speaker 1: be in a designated little basket. Coats, shoes, umbrellas, and
Speaker 1: backpacks all go in the mud room too. Homework is
Speaker 1: either actively being done or is in the backpack. Shoes
Speaker 1: found elsewhere are immediately returned to the mud room, there
Speaker 1: are no other places these things can be. This gets
Speaker 1: particularly important in winter, though I was quite intrigued to
Speaker 1: hear the approach from one family with eight kids. They
Speaker 1: moved to Florida precisely so they wouldn't have to worry
Speaker 1: about coats and hats and mittens. Time spent hunting for
Speaker 1: lost items is just wasted time, and while that might
Speaker 1: not be a huge deal with two family members, it's
Speaker 1: a deal killer with six. So the systems become tighter,
Speaker 1: which is probably a good thing in general. Another hack
Speaker 1: I have come to appreciate always have a backup meal.
Speaker 1: Some people like meal planning and others don't, but even
Speaker 1: people who like to plan encounter this reality. With more
Speaker 1: family members, more things can go wrong. You don't make
Speaker 1: it home in time to get the oven gooing before
Speaker 1: everyone is starving. If that's the case, it helps to
Speaker 1: always have say, eggs, fruit and pancake mix in the house,
Speaker 1: so you can have breakfast for dinner, or tortillas, cheese,
Speaker 1: shredded chicken, and frozen veggies for casey d a nite.
Speaker 1: In big families, laundry becomes its own special torture. One
Speaker 1: hack we learned early on was to give each of
Speaker 1: our boys their own kind of sock and their own
Speaker 1: kind of underwear. Yes, they may all be white athletic socks,
Speaker 1: but the brand name might be in a different color,
Speaker 1: or the toe is slightly different. This way, anyone can
Speaker 1: tell at a glance whose stuff is who's. I recently
Speaker 1: simplified my life this way by purging my old running
Speaker 1: socks and buying ten pairs that match. Now all my
Speaker 1: socks match, and so I don't need to think about
Speaker 1: pairing them. With bigger families, dishes can pile up two.
Speaker 1: Some of this is inevitable we run the dishwasher every
Speaker 1: day and often more frequently, but things like water cups
Speaker 1: can be reused. A number of bigger families have one
Speaker 1: color for each child, so a green cup can be
Speaker 1: refilled without worrying about washing it for whoever always uses green.
Speaker 1: When we have lots of house guests, we've learned to
Speaker 1: buy sturdy, disposable cups and then write people's names in
Speaker 1: sharpie on there. Saves us from all kinds of waste
Speaker 1: and bother But as I've interviewed larger families over the years,
Speaker 1: I've learned that one of the most important hacks is mindset.
Speaker 1: If you have one or two kids, you might be
Speaker 1: able to help intensely with homework or do all the
Speaker 1: laundry and snack fetching, drive long distances to many activities.
Speaker 1: With five kids or six kids or more, this becomes
Speaker 1: a lot less feasible, so people lean on their kids
Speaker 1: to learn to do more for themselves. The good news
Speaker 1: is that most people rise to the occasion. But you
Speaker 1: don't need to be housing a small army to encourage this.
Speaker 1: If you've been doing everyone's laundry in your household and
Speaker 1: everyone else is over the age of ten, just start
Speaker 1: doing your own. When people start complaining, offer a quick tutorial,
Speaker 1: and then continue about your business. When people ask what's
Speaker 1: for dinner, say that's a good question, ask what they'd
Speaker 1: like to make. Teenage children can manage their own schedules
Speaker 1: within the parameters that they need to ask you for
Speaker 1: rides with say one day's notice or else figure out
Speaker 1: a carpool. And as for homework, well, you already did
Speaker 1: seventh grade. You're done with it. You will answer specific,
Speaker 1: well thought through questions, but beyond that it is not
Speaker 1: your problem. All this is easier said than done, of course,
Speaker 1: but worth doing. Because while an organizational hat can save
Speaker 1: a little bit of time, getting something completely off your
Speaker 1: plate saves a ton of time again and again and again.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod.
Speaker 1: That's b E the number four then breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at iHeartMedia dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled
Speaker 1: out with all the letters. Thanks so much, should I
Speaker 1: look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.