Families are difficult. Everyone who is a part of one agrees – and it’s not because of the fact that children can be a challenge. Managing a family is a big job and any parent knows how exhausting and head-spinning it can be. If you can be the most organised head of a large family, wouldn’t you want to be one?
Big families mean big responsibilities and finding time to fit everything required of a family in the day is hard! You need balance, organisation and a system to keep the whole family on track. You have cooking, cleaning, laundry, polishing – all of the housework and all of the things that are involved in managing children, their day and their emotions. It’s a big task and anyone who says that parents have it easy mustn’t be a parent! No two families are the same, so it’s up to you to discover what works for your family the most and roll with it. The system that you choose for your family has to be one where you are all working together as one. So, let’s take a look at daily organisation hacks and storage hacks to make being a bigger family work in harmony!
Go Vertical
When you’re looking for added storage space for toys, clothes and books, choose to go upwards! You don’t have to fit more things against the whole wall space if you don’t want to, not when you can go up instead. There is always more room for shelves nearer the ceiling, and they make for excellent storage spaces when you need a little extra wiggle room.
Flip The Furniture
When you have a lot of people in a house, and they’re growing, it’s often difficult to find room for all of it. So, why not look at flipping the furniture? We don’t mean turning the couch on its head, either. Murphy beds are those that flip up to the wall when you’re not using it, and you can do the same with foldable tables. These can help you to create more floor space, and you can fit the kids in a little more!
Extend With Bathrooms
There is nothing worse than having a queue for the bathroom door in the morning, and it’s even worse to have a queue to end up with a cold shower. One of the best things that you can do is to add more bathrooms. Extending the house is a big job, but that doesn’t always mean a conservatory. Why not extend with a bathroom block? You may need to install more water tank pumps to increase the water pressure to your new shower cubicles, but it’ll be worth it. A bathroom block could have three individual wetrooms with a toilet, a shower and sink in each one. Boom, you’ve solved the queue problem!
Add Hooks To The Bathroom
Small bathrooms are an issue with a big family, but when you add hooks and hangers in the bathroom, you give yourself space with less shelving units and cupboards. They’re great for hairdryers and straighteners, too.
Add A Chore Wheel
No matter how old the children are, they can help with the household chores and you need a system in place for the whole family. Little ones can put clothes in the hamper and pick up their toys and the older ones can also learn to do their own washing and help with the household cleaning. Giving children chores helps them to be a part of the home and family while learning some responsibility. You can add baskets for washing to help the children to sort what they want to wash, and you can get the whole family into a routine of it!
Preparation Is Key
As a parent, you have to be organised and in that comes preparation. The night before school, preparing uniforms and packed lunches saves the morning chaos. Check out The easy way to make healthy school packed lunches
You can plan a weekly grocery menu and list so that you can all have foods that you enjoy. Get the kids involved in the meal prep, and you can easily ensure that you aren’t wasting any food when you are shopping and cooking. You can even save some time by batch cooking every sunday and filling the freezers with meals ready to go.
Have Dedicated Areas
When you look at your house as a whole, how much chaos is there in each room? Dedicated areas give you all space to do one thing in one place to avoid as much chaos as possible. A study space for homework, stationery and any craft materials is one thing, but you can also have a large storage cupboard for off-season clothing and shoes to keep to one side. Coats and umbrellas are all used through the winter months, but not so much with the summer sunshine. A cupboard in the house dedicated to these items will ensure that you keep everything in one place rather than scattered through the home.
Keep A Timetable
For bathrooms, bedtimes, meal times and play times, you need a routine and routine comes far quicker when there is a timetable dedicated to it. Assigning different children time in the bathroom keeps it all fair, and you can even add timers so that you can keep up with who takes more time than the rest. Morning grooming can be one of the busiest times of the day, as can bedtime grooming. If you have a timer ready, you can make sure that everyone is taking their time as allocated and keep the peace in the home.
Communicate
The biggest key to organisation is in communication. Central communication systems in the house make sure that everyone is well-informed. The more you talk to each other, the better you will find that you can keep the cogs turning. Have calendars on the walls for each family member, and you can add colours for each person and arrange on the calendar when people are out or going to classes or having vacation time. The more you ensure that your family knows where each other is, there is no one stepping on any toes!