Category Archives: Household

Everything and anything relating to the household structure.. From organization, living frugally, natural living, or fun ideas for families.

Large family organization tips the pantry stocking for emergencies part 11

In part 11 of our large family organization tips series we are going to look at our pantry and stocking it for emergencies.

When we were first married I would do our shopping once per week.  Sometimes I would realize that I forgot an ingredient to make a certain dinner and I would have to load up a child and run to the store.  Fast forward to 10 children later and this scenario does not happen anymore.  I have realized over the years of my marriage the importance of stocking a pantry.

Stocking a pantry doesn’t mean having 10 pkgs of flavored rice.It means have 20 lbs of rice  and the spices to make it.  When you have a large family the importance of buying in bulk is tremendous.  I have to think long term, what can I feed my family if I can’t get to the store.

I plan out our menu for the month and then base my shopping list off of that menu.  If we are having a month where I don’t have to worry about cutting back on my expenses then I purchase everything that i need to make those meals for the month, even if I already have that item in the pantry.  For those months that I need to cut back because we had an unexpected financial emergency then I use up the stock in my pantry.

This has been very crucial to us not running out of food.  I have learned to stock my pantry.  It has taken me about 6 months to do it and I have used about $50 extra dollars each month to devote to it. That means that when I have planned our regular household menu I have cut out things that would cost me more to purchase and substituted something cheaper.  Instead of choosing a costly snack item to make, I would opt for something simpler like  air popped popcorn.   Same for desserts and treats, I just made them basic so that I was able to devote the extra money to stocking my pantry.

 

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Having a stocked pantry has been helpful in being prepared for emergencies as well.  There was a time that we were scrambling along with the rest of the people living in our area to get to the store and have water and food because there was a power outage.  But this past winter when we lost power for a week, we had a very comfortable time as a family.  We were prepared and did not have to feel any sort of inconvenience except for the ability to watch a video at night.   We may not live in areas where hurricanes or other natural disasters hit but after last winter and having an ice storm that knocked out power to our area for a week, it has helped us to be prepared always.

Having a stocked pantry has given me a peace of mind and let’s me not worry about the what ifs in my life.

As part of our stocked pantry, we do a bulk food shopping trip at a Mennonite store about every 3 months.  I buy raw sugar in 50 lb bags, white whole wheat flour in 50 lb bags, oatmeal in 50 lb bags, popcorn seeds in 25 lb bags, and rice in 25 lb bags.  I store these in 5 gallon plastic buckets with lids.

I also purchase coconut oil in 1 gallon plastic jars, natural honey in 1/2 gallon containers and peanut butter in gallon jugs.

 

Here is how we did it:

Each month we worked on storing up a weeks worth of water supply per person.  Each person needs 1 gallon of water per day.

When emergencies happen, water is one of the first things to disappear off of store shelves. Don’t let your family go without.  You can live without much food but you can’t live without water.

This is how much you would need per person for a weeks worth supply of water.
2.2 @ 24 ct. cases of 16.9 oz. bottles (commercially bottled)
14 @ 64 oz. juice bottles (wash & dry, and fill with water)
7 @ 1 gallon heavy duty bottles (commercially bottled)
27 @ 2 liters soda bottles (wash & dry, and fill with water)

Every 6 months, I rotate using this water.  We as a large family use water bottles when we run errands in the van.  We don’t drink tap water so for our family it is easy to put into the rotation our stored water with new water.

Along with working on storing up our water per person this is the extras I concentrated on for the month.

Month 1

  • bottled juices
  • tomato juice
  • powdered milk
  • instant coffee
  • box cereal

 

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Month 2

  • pasta–spaghetti, elbow macaroni, penne pasta
  • spices –taco seasoning, gravy pkts, dried spices from the bulk food store
  • chicken bouillon, beef bouillon
  • bacon bits

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Month 3

  • canned vegetables–green beans, carrots, peas,corn, potatoes
  • canned beans–pinto, black, chili, refried

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Month 4

  • pizza sauce
  • jarred spaghetti sauce
  • Alfredo sauce
  • diced tomatoes
  • salsa

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Month 5

  • canned fruit
  • crackers –saltine and graham
  • pretzels
  • we usually always have a months supply of garbage bag snack mix
  • canned chicken

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Month 6

  • ketchup
  • mustard
  • ranch dressing
  • peanut butter
  • jelly–even though we have a freezer full of strawberry jam,I keep 2 jars on the shelf for emergencies
  • syrup

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These are things we don’t necessarily stock up on, but I do like to have a pile of extras in the pantry for baking.

  • sugars
  • flours
  • baking powder
  • baking soda
  • chocolate chips
  • M&Ms for making monster cookies
  • marshmallows

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Our freezer is usually pretty full.  I know we have a years worth of applesauce, strawberry jam, and blueberries.  I purchase our meat once per month as well.  We always have a supply of chicken and hamburger with which to use.

I like to stock an emergency preparedness pantry with items that my family would eat.  Especially in times of an emergency when stress is already high, you don’t want the added stress of your family eating unfamiliar foods.  Choose to stock your pantry with items that you will normally eat up.

I rotate all of these foods, when we go shopping I bring the old to the front and put the new in the back.

I try and have the following on hand to make emergency situations more pleasant.

  • fettucine and jar Alfredo sauce
  • Spaghetti and jar sauce
  • Velveeta cheese—it can store on the shelf(gross I know) but it can replace “real” cheese for comfort foods like homemade mac and cheese or eggs.
  • crackers and peanut butter–little ones easy snack
  • pickles–because all of the children love these

Having our pantry stocked for our large family has helped me to be better prepared.  I feel like anything can happen at anytime and my family will be taken care of.

Here are a few items that we also stock for emergency preparedness

  • rechargeable batteries
  • paper plates, cups, silverware
  • paper towels
  • wipes and diapers
  • manual can opener–don’t forget this one:)
  • flashlight
  • Coleman gas stove
  • propane tanks
  • tea light candles
  • wind up radio/flashlight—found at goodwill
  • tylenol
  • bleach–to sanitize water
  • matches and lighters
  • kerosene heater
  • kerosene

large family organization tips series part 8 the master bedroom

In part 8 of our series, large family organization tips, we are going to look at the master bedroom.

 

As with all of our rooms in our household they are found to have the minimalist amount of things inside it to avoid the “cluttered”  look.

I think with most families, the master bedroom is the “catch all” for miscellaneous items.  Not here.  Our room is made with a simple layout.  We have a bed, made from pallets.  Yes, you read that correctly, you can click here to view how we made them.  The only other item in our room is a hope chest with a tv on it.

Some things in my hope chest;

  • all our family memories–photos and videos
  • my wedding dress, that I hope to fit into this anniversary
  • wedding videos
  • scrapbooks–when I had time to do those
  • journals of the kids–I keep one that I write in at least 2 times a year for each child until they move out of the home
  • flower petals I am saving for the girls—Daddy buys them roses for special days and I keep them dried for when they have their wedding day,they can throw the petals in the aisle
  • some favorite things like blankets, first outfits, and special toys

diy wood pallet bed

This year I finally took the time to decorate our walls with photos of the family.  I had our family business make this sign “All because two people fell in love…” and then I printed off various pictures of the children and placed them around that plaque.  I love laying in bed and seeing my beautiful child’s’ faces.

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Our closet is located in our master bathroom, which is convenient.  We don’t do dressers so everything is hung up.  I had my husband make me a jean holder for his jeans.  He took a 2 inch wide board and placed 10 screws in it like a coat rack.  I hang all his jeans by the loops on that rack.
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It makes me not have to fold all of his jeans for work and easier for him to be able to see what jeans he is grabbing out.    I then put our undergarments in plastic drawers like I do in the lower half’s family closet.  I fold most of my skirts and set them on top of my drawers.

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As with my children, I don’t keep a packed closet.  I go through my husbands’ and my clothing every season to evaluate the clothing that is stained, too small, or too big in some cases:)  For myself during my weight loss I have gone through numerous dress sizes.  I kept a pile of skirts that I would strive to fit into in a pile on my shelves.  As my weight came off and skirts became too big, I would put away the nicer ones that I wanted to keep in a bin in our basement, gave away some, and threw others out for rags. I would then replace my shelf with a new set of smaller skirts.   As soon as my top size went down, I gave away or threw out tops that were too big.  No sense looking frumpy for my husband.  If I get pregnant again and need larger tops, I do have a stash of pregnancy clothing in the basement.

I make sure and go through undergarments as well.  This is getting personal, but I feel that as a wife we should still try and be pleasing to our husbands and that means going through worn out or ripped undergarments and replacing them with nicer ones.  I teach my daughter, keep your older undergarments for your time of the month and then get a new set to wear for everyday.  That way they won’t get ruined.  Okay enough about that.

As for what clothing to wear.  I do a lot of bending during the day. Whether it be to tie someones shoes, pick up a pacifier, or to pick up a child.  When shopping for my clothing I need to keep that in mind.  I know that there are some things that just won’t work for a busy mother of little ones.

  • wide neck tops are out–just have a child start pulling on your top and you will understand why
  • no mid-line shirts—as soon as you go to fix your pony tale or bend over to pick something up, your backside and stomach get exposed, opt for longer fitting t shirts
  • snap up shirts are out–if you can snap it, so can your children
  • zipper tops, kids love to unzip things, especially mommy’s shirt

Do the layered look for your wardrobe and you will be set.  I have 4 solid colored long t shirts that I wear under everything.  When I was nursing full time I cut nursing slits in them and wore them under my tops, now I just wear them under things because it makes me feel more modest.  I know that if someone pulls on my outer top I am covered by my undershirt.

For skirts….

  • avoid wrap around skirts, they always come apart when sitting down
  • no slits up the front, unless you sew them, they will fall apart when sitting down
  • shorter flowing skirts are good to fly up on you when walking holding onto a little one, avoid
  • sew the slits in most skirts.  I haven’t found too many skirts that the slit is as low as I like it.  While walking you would be surprised at how much of your leg is exposed, do a simple straight stitch to sew it together.

We try and avoid all dry clean only clothing.  If it can’t be washed and dried by me, it probably won’t get done.  I am not an iron-er either so shirts must be wrinkle free.

My wardrobe is pretty basic.  I have solid 4 solid color t shirts,  and 4 solid color long sleeve shirts to wear under my tops.  I have 3-4 nicer church tops, and 10 everyday tops.  My tops are able to let my skin breathe.  Being a mother is a hard, sweaty job.  I realized I don’t want to be wondering if I have wet armpits while praising the Lord on Sundays.  I avoid all white and light colored tops.  Knowing they will get stained somehow.   For skirts I keep 3 nice for church, and 3 for everyday.  I have my favorites and will continually wear those.  Why would I keep something that wasn’t comfortable or that i didn’t really like completely?  I also keep my colors simple.  I like brown and purple.  Most all of my undershirts are brown then while shopping, I know that all I have to look for is a coordinating top to go over it.  Makes it much easier.

For footwear, wearing heels is a little dangerous while carrying babies.  Plus they are not good for your back or your feet.  Save yourself some grief and pick out a cute pair of practical shoes or boots.  I have a set of brown leather boots that go with all of my wardrobe, I chose this as my footwear option.  I have no need for pantyhose, or knee socks, just any pair will do.  I prefer to be barefoot most of the time, so if I do have to go out, I usually just grab a pair of my husbands socks and then put on my boots.  Simple and easy.  Same for summer shoes.  I have a pair of flip flops that are for yard wear, a nicer pair of sandals for church, and one nicer pair for wearing out.  That is all.  Well actually I have a pair of tennis shoes for walking, but that is it.  Just a basic set.

We don’t store miscellaneous things in our closet. I find a place for things that need a home.  The only thing I do hide in here is some early birthday or Christmas presents.  But clothing that no longer fits gets put away in a bin down in the basement, thrown away, or given away.  We don’t hold onto the “maybe one day I will use this theory.”  We get rid of it.  If clothing hasn’t been worn in the last year, we pitch it.  As soon as there are holes in clothing–socks, pants,shirts, etc–they get thrown away or in the “to sew” pile.

up next the laundry room…..

 

large family organization tips part 10 the storage room

In part 10 of our large family organization tips series we are going to look at our storage area.

**update at the bottom

In our storage area we have:

  • our computer desk
  • our homeschool shelf
  • our shoe rack
  • our coat rack
  • our cleaning shelf

This is the room of the house that holds everything.  I have to be very diligent about keeping this room clean and organized because it can get cluttered quite quickly.

Since we have a few toddlers, a gate up is a necessity otherwise all of the toy bins will get knocked out and a mess will occur.

In your home, you need to have a place for toys.  Otherwise they will accumulate quickly and take over.  In previous post in this series, I talked about how we have a minimal set of toys in each room, basically the childs’ favorite.  This shelf is where we keep all of the toys that if left in their rooms would make an utter disaster.  I can not count the many times I have had to put away a pile of miscellaneous toys that were found in the childs’ bedroom.  Little toy animals,  lego pieces, and puzzle pieces can get quickly lost and strewn out over your home, unless you have a specified, “locked up” area.

Having  a large family has shown me over the years what children play with and what they don’t.  When we had the older half as “littles” we would buy all the cool new advertised toys.  Then I quickly realized that those are the ones that get left behind in a toy box never to play with again.  I try and choose the basics for my children.  Toys that help express creativity and constructive play are always on my list.

The girls have dolls and doll houses with which to play.  We do not have baby doll equipment, because we always have a new baby with which to use the real stuff.  The doll house we have used over the last 20 years is the Fisher Price Dollhouse.  Sets have gotten broken and we have replaced those over the last 10 children.  For the most part the girls just set up their own houses right on the floor or in cardboard boxes.  The house usually just ends up sitting and not getting used.

For the boys an ample supply of trucks and blocks seem to pacify them.  We stay away from action figures if the toddler wants to play with a “man” he goes and gets the daddy dollhouse person.  As they get older Daddy usually buys them small, inexpensive tools that they love to use to take things apart.

This is our homeschooling shelf.  We found this shelf at a retail store that was throwing it out.  I believe it was some sort of display case.  All I know is that it is super heavy duty and holds many shelves worth of items.

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This shelf has been organized and reorganized over and over again.  We continually try and come up with a way to make it neater.  We go through and weed out things.  Sometimes it is just a new container for other things.

I use plastic drawers from a plastic drawer holder that had broken.  I was able to save 2 out of 3 drawers and realized they fit quite nicely on my shelf.  In one of them I store all of our extra school supplies.  At the beginning of the school year they have really cheap items at Walmart.  I always go and stock up for the year.  A box of crayons will be $.25 in the summer time but try and get some around Christmas and you will be paying $2 for the same box.

In our extra school supplies box we have:

  • crayons
  • pencils
  • glue
  • glue sticks
  • markers
  • bingo dabbers
  • water color paint
  • rulers
  • tape
  • index cards
  • calculator
  • push pins
  • paper clips

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We  keep a set of notebooks that I purchase for $.10 before the school year, to ensure that we have lots of paper for the year.  I also buy construction paper, cardstock, and printer paper to use.  Coloring books at the Dollar Store for preschoolers that love to color are a staple as well.

I took tin cans and spray painted them different colors to hold the items that we use daily

  • pencils
  • pens
  • scissors
  • dry erase markers/permanent markers
  • glue sticks/glue
  • small tin cans for crayons

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I found that we go through many a box of crayons unless they are in a small container like the tin can.  Boxes just don’t seem to hold up to a preschooler trying to refit  her crayons.  Some crayons get worn down easier than others and the older ones usually need a new box of crayons.  I then dump the semi used ones into this ice cream bucket.  I use them for little kids to color with.  I might melt some down this year and make different shaped crayons.  009

The other plastic drawer on my shelf holds all of my crafting supplies for the school year.   It contains stickers, foam pieces, glitter, card stock, paper bags, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, or any type of craft kit that I may purchase.

On the bottom of our shelf are 2 white dish pan buckets.  These are leftover from a re-organization of this shelf.  I like to pull those out and give to the toddlers to put their small pile of blocks or toys in.  My 2 year old likes to use it as a baby bed.

The next shelf up contains our block set and our lego set.  We have a big set of these and store them in long slim plastic containers.  Our block set is a homemade set my son made for Christmas one year.  We went and bought strips of pine wood, cut, and sanded each pieces to make different sized block pieces.  I even bought a dowel and had him cut that into pieces.  This is one of the 3 year olds favorite toys.  He can build a road for his matchbox cars to drive on with his homemade blocks.

The lego set is for preschoolers.  We bought a few sets over the years and just keep adding to it.  We do have a larger sized lego block set on the top of this shelf(not pictured)  We try and pick up a set each time we are at Goodwill to add to it.

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We use dish pans or plastic shoe boxes to hold the items on this shelf.   We label each box with a sticker.

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Some of the activities we have include:

  • Waffle blocks
  • Mr Potato head–each Goodwill trip I look for another set
  • Lincoln logs
  • Food pieces set
  • a tea set
  • wooden dress up doll set
  • train set–just the cars not the track
  • geometric shapes
  • Dress up Veggie tales larry
  • little people animal sets–i realized no toddler or preschooler ever played with the buildings they just enjoyed the people
  • finger puppets
  • bean bags
  • playdough
  • Little Pet Shop pieces

We also have a bin for puzzles.  When I get a puzzle we immediately label all of the back pieces with a number or letter and place inside a ziploc baggie.  No need to keep big, bulky boxes. We do have some nicer floor puzzles that I keep in  the boxes and place those on the shelves.  I keep one wooden puzzle of a farm for the toddler.

Card games

Some of our favorites include:

  • uno
  • go fish
  • old maid
  • war
  • shoot the moon

We lose the boxes and just place a rubber band or hair tie around the cards.  It has been nice with a large family to accumulate multiple sets of a favorite game.  That will ensure that more players can play without running out of cards.

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Games

We own many games.  Our neighbor was very kind to give us all of her families board games this year and there was a lot of game.  We had to come up with some organization.  We  only kept a few games with their boxes.  These were games that we would “eventually” play as a family when the little ones got a little bit older.  So I stored those in the back of the shelf.  Most of the other games were a repeat of what we already had.  Which is great because when you have more than 2 people that want to play the same game it can get frustrating having to wait.

For holiday and special family game nights, we usually have a competition of a certain game.  Like a Connect 4 championship match.  I used to be the champion at that one, but now my children are quicker and can beat me.  Dad is good for a chess tournament, he has taught most all of our children how to play.

We had a Win, Lose, or Draw game, but don’t use that in a traditional game sort of way.  Usually if we have to pass some time before we leave or before we are having guests over this is a great way to occupy all the little ones.  My teenage daughter takes out a few cards for ideas and then starts drawing on our marker board, the first one to blurt out what it is, wins.  They don’t win anything more than the satisfaction that they got the answer.

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Any games with pieces or cards we place in ziploc baggies.   We then place them into one of our labeled dishpans for storage.

 

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Some of our families favorite games are:

  • Mancala
  • Connect 4
  • Chess
  • Mastermind
  • Stacking cups
  • Rummikube
  • Sorry
  • Jenga
  • Candy land
  • Yahtzee
  • Twister
  • Quoridor
  • Banana grams

**Well we have weeded out once again to the point that we were able to get rid of this very bulky shelf:)  We moved all the cleaning supplies to other areas of the home and found that those shelves work nicely for our homeschool items.

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My children have grown a bit and we no longer needed so many of the toys on the shelves.  We got rid of things that just kept making a mess in our home:)  Now everything is within view, no overwhelming choices, just simple basic here it is!2014-04-29_00078

Coat and shoe organization

When you have a large family, you have many shoes and coats.  I really enjoy the summer months because for the most part we never need a jacket or a pair of shoes.  But come winter time in our Northern area it requires shoes and winter boots.

For each child they get a pair of winter boots, a pair of dress shoes or boots, and a pair of play shoes.

My son made this shoe rack for me and it holds all of our shoes nicely.  I label each shelf to where each persons’ shoes are  supposed to go.  This is the only place where shoes are to be stored, no where else in the home.  I have to train my children in the importance of picking up their shoes and putting them on the rack. Otherwise I could be responsible for picking up 24 different shoes!!!

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Above the shoe rack, my husband has made us a simple coat rack.  It is a strip of wood with dowels into it.  This is where I keep our winter jackets for the older half of the family.  It is relatively high on the wall,to enable this room to be functional.

My husband made this lower coat rack for the “littles”.  Each child gets a hook and come winter time, they need to make sure that their snow pants and jacket are on their hook.

For winter coats, I try and keep 2 per child.  I keep one on the coat rack here for everyday wear and one I hang up by the front door in the hallway closet.   I do my shopping at Goodwill on the half price day and that enables me to purchase jackets relatively inexpensively.  I like to do that because in the winter months Daddy always has some great snow expedition outside.  He will build ice ponds, sledding runs, igloos, any kind of snow fun and they usually come in needing a dry coat to switch into to get back outside and not miss any of the fun.

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Here is the coat rack for the under 8 group.  You place your coat from left to right according to ages.  Stephen, Madelyn, Jentzen, Autumn, Brooklyn, and Jadyn.  Important to teach them to hang their coats up properly or they could lose it.2014-04-29_00079

Here is the coat rack for the older adults.  No set ways, it is summer, we don’t need many jackets:)  I keep the black bag for returning library books.

The bench is great for sitting and putting children’s shoes on.  I just set the shoes to the right of the bench.  There is room under the shelves to store some.  Each child has flip flops which they mostly wear outside.  I like flip flops, just hose them off.  We keep those at the front or back doors.

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continuing with original post…..

 

The shelf above the coat rack is for Daddys keys, wallet, and phone after he comes home from work.  We have lost our keys way too many times.  Dad’s go here on the shelf, Moms are always in her purse.

The basket is for gathering eggs each day.  We currently have 25 chickens and 4 ducks.

The bag hanging on the hooks is our library return bag.  After reading a story from our library stash, I place it in this bag to be returned later that week.

Our cleaning shelves—(I no longer have this but wanted to keep it here)

I haven’t always used all natural cleaners for our household.  I used to diligently buy the newest fragrance of Mr Clean for our bathroom and a good smelling laundry detergent for our laundry. Then I had a child who had excema.  I realized it was largely related to what I was putting on her clothing.  I started researching all natural options and switched our life over. You can read my series on 21 days to a more natural home to see how we implemented our journey to all natural products.  My daughter still has occasionally flare ups but not as severely as she used to.

These shelves hold all of our “extra products.”  The following is what we store here:

  • toilet paper–***new rule—as soon as we get a large package, we take 8 rolls to each bathroom
  • paper towels
  • kleeneks
  • all natural cleaners
  • supplies to make our all natural cleaners
  • basket of cleaning rags
  • basket of sponges and brushes–for cleaning small areas
  • a bucket for deep cleaning the house walls or floors
  • our hair trimming kit–I cut the boys hair out in the garage, this is next to that area
  • light bulbs
  • paper plates
  • plastic cups to hold our snack mix when in the car
  • extra box of baggies, tin foil, wax paper

002My spray bottles that hold my window cleaner, my wood cleaner, and my all purpose cleaner would not fit on my shelves.  I placed a screw in the wall and hook the bottles on that.

On that same side of the wall, I hang up our summer BBQ tools above that.  We are forever losing our tongs and flippers that need to be used on the fire pit grill.  I decided to leave them in the household to keep better track of them.

Underneath the spray bottles I have a few more screws that hold the fly swatter, a brush, and small dustpans and mini brooms for the little ones.  After dinner, I usually hand these out to the younger group and have them sweep up the floor.

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Along the other side of the shelf I hang my broom and my steamer.  I have realized the importance over the years of hanging your brooms to keep the bristles in good condition.  004

We have a simple computer desk in here with our laptop on it.  I am hoping to get another laptop to help with doing multiple online school studies at the same time.  In time.  I have my filing cabinet underneath the computer desk.  The filing cabinet holds all of our household papers and bills. I also keep print offs from my child’s’ school.  I have printed off all of the paperwork that they will need until the 2nd semester of school.

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I also keep my journals of the children in one of the drawers.  I started journaling about my babies before they were even born.  I took a regular notebook and wrote their name on the outside of it and began writing in it while they were still in my womb.  I share funny little stories that they might have done.  I record their visits to the doctors of weight and height.  I ask them once a year to fill in my list of their favorites.  I might ask what is your favorite food, movie, song, bible verse, activity to do in the house, book, etc.  They usually like me filling this in for them and they go back and read what they answered years before.  I try and get them to draw a picture or write something out in the journals  I want it to be something special for them as they get older to see what they did as a child.

***Addition

Outside this room which is just off of my kitchen is where we store our large trash can.  Years ago we did away with the smaller kitchen trash can.  We were emptying it about 2 times per day.  I finally got a large 32 gallon that we keep outside the back door –love it.

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I keep the extra trash bags right next to it. No need to go searching for them.
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On thing we did was zip tied the lids to the trash cans.  We always end up losing the lids due to a wind storm.  Then by summer time you have this grossly smelling trash, not now.  We will always have our lids.

Up next the pantry…

 

 

 

 

Large family organization tips part 9 the laundry room

 

 Having a large family means that you spend a big chunk of your time doing laundry.  In part 9 of our large family organization series we will being taking a look at the laundry.

When I look back on my years being married, I look at the journey that I have taken in our path of doing laundry.

When we were first married, our laundry would take a minimal amount of time to do.  I would dedicate 1 or 2 days per week and do all of it.  I would then throw it into one big pile in the living room floor and fold and put away all at the same time.

Years went by and we had more children, we had  our share of broken washer and dryers.  I learned the value of hanging your laundry on the clothesline.  It saved a lot of money on our electric bill. But during the winter months you had to be a little bit more prepared.  I learned that the Amish hang theirs out through the winter time and have no problems.  I was determined to try it.  I told my husband I could wait on the dryer and would just hang our laundry.  It was fun each morning waking up early,getting it all washed, and then hanging it out to dry.  I would hang our shirts and dresses right on the hangers and set them on the clothesline.  It was easy to  then just put them away when dry.  A friend of mine, saw how I was doing laundry and thought I was crazy:) she gave me a drying rack and I realized the value of this.  I used it for all of my socks and undergarments, very nice.  If it was a particular cold day, I would put it in the house to dry.  The humidity it added to my home during the winter months was wonderful.  No need for a humidifier.

As I was using cloth diapers in the beginning, I would attach a small line to the bottom of our clothesline for my little ones to help hang up diapers.

Nothing is prettier than seeing a line of clothing flapping in the wind. I would try and make it my goal to have all of the laundry on the line before noon.   You couldn’t beat the sun for its natural bleaching and stain removing properties. I would fold the clothing directly from the line into my baskets.  This was great for getting outside in the sunshine, soaking up some Vitamin D.  It was also peaceful for listening to the birds and seeing the beautiful nature outside.

Then I had 6 more babies…..and laundry has changed.

After going through multiple used washer and dryers, we decided it was time to bite the bullet and purchase a nice new set of HE washer and dryers.  I am sure glad we did.

Laundry now a days is so much faster compared to doing it with a standard washer and dryer.  Plus my diapers seem to get cleaner with the HE washing machines.  We opted to get a top loading washer verses the front loading washer.  I had heard from friends that lived in the country how theirs started to leak.  When using hard water there is rust that starts to build up in your seals and will cause that to happen.

I can wash so much laundry with our machines it is amazing.  Our laundry time is cut in half.  The loads do take more time to wash, no quick cycles here, but when you have much to do, you can do larger quantities and that helps hugely.

We got ours from Lowes and purchased a warranty.  I am not big on warranties for products, but I knew that within 5 years time, we would be going through a new washer or dryer eventually.  This was something we use everyday and are very hard on.  So I believe it cost under $200 for the warranty, but well worth it.  I have already had a minor problem and they fixed it for free.

Our laundry room is small, but we have made it efficient. I realized that I could not possibly wash and fold all of our families laundry in one days time. It was taking up too much of my day. Plus I would have a clean basket of laundry sitting on the floor and someone would accidentally throw in a wet dish cloth  or the dog would walk by it getting hair on our clean laundry.  My situation was just not working. Something had to change.

I had to utilize the space that we had, which wasn’t much.  I had my husband build me some simple shelves.  I then bought good sturdy laundry baskets for each person.  I have 2 baskets for the lower half children that all share the same closet.
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Our large family laundry routine

We keep a basket in our bathroom that gets emptied each morning.  I take the basket to the laundry room and separate into 1 of 4 hampers.  These hampers are placed underneath our shelf of baskets

  • towels
  • lights
  • darks
  • work clothes/darks

 

Since my daughter has excema very badly, we switched to an all natural laundry soap that we make easily.   I keep the soap in a large 5 gallon bucket on top of a bar stool, to avoid having to bend so much during the day to get some soap.I use this to wash all of our clothing in.

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After I separate the dirty laundry, I access which hamper is full.  I then dump a whole hamper into the washer to be washed.  If I have a lot of laundry to do that day, like bedding or towels used at the beach, I do a quick wash first with those and set them in a basket on the dryer awaiting an older child to take them out to the clothesline to dry.  No sense racking up our electric bill when we can easily hang them out.  I don’t usually hang up much more clothing except during the warm summer months, to cut down on expenses.  Just towels and blankets are easy to hang and fold right off the line.

As the clothing comes out of the dryer, I separate them into the corresponding baskets.  I just throw it in, I don’t fold anything unless it is a nicer church outfit.  Then I grab a hanger and hang it up and set on the bar.  Towels go into a hamper in front of the washer waiting to be folded on their designated day.  Usually 2 times per week.

We can usually get through a whole week without having to come back and look through the baskets for clothes. If I find that each week I am constantly getting a certain clothing item for someone, I put it on my list of things to buy.  Maybe that means a trip to Goodwill or another package of socks.  I try and make my life easier and searching through laundry baskets for matching socks is not easy.    I have an older child deliver the baskets on Saturday to each room.  Each person is then responsible for putting away their own laundry and returning the basket to the laundry room.  I put away my husband and my laundry as well as the lower half’s pile.  I have the younger girls help me hang up all of our dresses and tops.

As of right now, we still have to wash cloth diapers.  I  have a one year old and a potty training 2 year old in them.  We only need to wash every 2 days.  Click here to see our cloth diaper routine.

**update as of 5.2014 I no longer use cloth diapers.  My growing boy is 1 1/2 and a big boy.  I purchase disposable diapers for him and it makes a lot less leaks.  I used my cloth diapers for about 5 years and 4 children, constantly everyday.  They definitely did their duty.  Well worth the investment. But for now, until potty training happens we use disposables.

It is helpful to have your family learn how to take off their clothing right side out, socks un-balled, and layers removed from each other.  Teach them to empty their pockets as well.  I know some wives will empty pockets and turn pants right side out, but I do not have time to do that.  I told my children if they do not empty their pockets, things will get ruined and I will become very rich. Only a few  headphones,MP3 players and $20 bills have gone through the laundry but it has taught them to keep track of their things.  I show them how balled up socks do not get cleaned and are still dirty inside.   Letting them know that Mom is not always going to be there taking care of every need, and that they need to start taking responsiblity for their things.

If a child does not bring back their laundry basket before I start doing laundry again, usually within 1 day, I put their clean laundry mixed up with the towels in a basket. Then they are going to have to fold the towels and put them away to get to  their laundry.

Here are some tips I have gleaned over the years:

  • Treat stains as they happen to your clothing.  I have numerous things I use to get stains out.
  • Put bibs on little ones while they eat.  Around here, bibs get lost easily so I improvise.  Use a hand towel and a clothespin to hold around babies neck.
  • Avoid white clothing!!!!
  • read labels before buying clothing, don’t buy dry clean only items
  • Don’ t leave towels or washcloths that have cleaned up milk sitting too long.  They will create a horrid smell that actually ferments.
  • Label your shelves to assist the people who help put away your clothing
  • Remember sunshine is great for brightening whites, fading stains, removing smells and killing germs
  • While hanging clothing on the clothesline, be efficient hanging clothing side by side, sharing clothespins.
  • Before you hang up clothing or place in dryer, give them a good snap to remove wrinkles.
  • Do not overload your washer machine.  Water and soap cannot circulate around the clothing if it is packed full.
  • Avoid washing red items with other clothing until you know that it is not going to bleed to other fabrics
  • Fresh blood will come out immediately if rinsed continually in cold water.  Or you can use hydrogen peroxide.
  • Remember heat sets a stain

Make a laundry poster

This was something that I had when my other children were doing the laundry.  As of now, the laundry is my job so I do not have a sign up currently.  But as our jobs rotate I will be needing to make one up again.  I listed which hamper of clothes and what wash cycle they went on.

Towels —1 cup of soap—-heavy duty—cold

Diapers–rinse–cold—-1 scoop of soap–whites–hot–extra rinse

I also had signs listed above each dirty laundry hamper so that the “sorting child” new which baskets to put them in.

This is our large family organizing tips for the laundry room.  Up next the storage area.

Large family organization tips part 7 the little boys room/family closet

In part 7 of our series, large family organization tips, we are going to look into the little boys room/family closet.

 

In our household this is how the rooms are broken down:

  • teenage girls in the basement
  • 2 teenage boys in a room
  • four girls ages 2-8 in a room
  • two boys ages 1 and 3 in a room
  • Mom and Dad in a room

It wasn’t always like this, in the last 5 years of living in this home, we have moved children from one room to the next as they went through different ages and  stages.  Sometimes we would have a new baby and a 1 year old who wasn’t quite ready for their own room, so they bunked with Mom and Dad.  Sometimes we had a 2 and 3 year old that would not sleep well in a room because one would constantly wake up during the night and get the other one up and Mom still had to get up with a nursing baby.   Sometimes it was because of the amount of space that we needed to fit certain bed types.  Sometimes it was because older kids were tired of crying little ones in their rooms.  It was a constant move, but I think we have finally arrived at where we are going to be at for now.  Well actually with Daddy’s amazing beds, there is no chance of moving those big sturdy beds, gonna have to stay put.

The little boys room has become the younger half’s closet room as well.  This was the original room when I had 4 children under 4.  They would all sleep in here and so naturally we just kept all the clothing in here.  It was easier for me to be able to have a central location to put everything away.

One thing you will notice about our closets is that there are no doors.  When we moved into our rental home they had louver doors.  We had many little ones and I did not want to risk a pinched finger, we took them all off and stored them in a shed.   I know for some it would be better to have a covered closet, but for me I just look past it and look at it as functionality.  
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Our girls only wear dresses or skirts so that is easy to hang all of their clothing.  I try and have at least 6-10 outfits for each child.  At least 2-3 nice church dresses and 6-7 play outfits.  Sometimes we have more or less depending upon the availability at Goodwill.  I hang the completed outfit and if it is a skirt/shirt combo that goes on one hanger.  Much easier than digging through drawers looking for a shirt and skirt combo.  Same for boys clothing if it is overalls or church clothing, I hang shirt and pants together.  Everyday boys pants go in a drawer and shirts hung up.  Same ratio for boys clothing 6-7 everyday shirts and pants and 2-3 church outfits.  We hang oldest on left to youngest on the right.

Each child gets a set of drawers as well.  Each drawer is labeled to help others, who are not as familiar with the clothing situation to find things easily, aka Daddy.  Unfortunately my drawers are not neatly folded.  I find that someone, sometime during the day will go through these drawers looking for things and mess up all my folding.  I have found that I can usually find what I need in that small drawer quite quickly even if it is not folded.  So I take one more thing off of my plate and don’t worry about folding their clothes that go in drawers.  I am talking about pajamas, socks, and underwear.  I do fold the girls leggings and the boys pants.  But that is it.

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For the girls:

I do a drawer for pajamas

  • footy pajamas
  • gown pajamas
  • large t shirt used for pajamas.   I find that is easier than trying to search for matching pajama sets at Goodwill.  I just grab a couple of cute larger t-shirt and then they wear their leggings for pants.

I like to make sure that they each have at least one pair of footy pajamas and 4 t-shirts or gowns.  We try and wear our pajamas more than once to cut down on laundry.

A drawer for under garments, like:

  • undies
  • socks
  • leggings

At the start of each clothing  season—- fall/winter and spring/summer I make sure and buy each child a package of underwear and new socks.   With many girls close in age, I try and get different colors of undies and different styles of socks for each girl.  One might prefer crew cut socks, another ankle socks.  For underwear they usually have same prints for different sizes, I try and get different brands so that I can tell them apart.  I just buy the briefs for all of them— one brand had neon ones, and another had flower prints.  It makes it easier at laundry time, as it is hard to tell whose are whose.

I make sure they have 5-7 pairs of legging pants.  We don’t do tights as I found my girls don’t really like to wear them as they get older, they would always get a hole in them, and they were really hard to put on.  Have you ever tried to dress four little girls with tights??? I switched to pant leggings, much easier.

For the boys:

I do a drawer each for:

  • pants
  • pajamas
  • socks and underwear

Boys are easy, a package of underwear and socks and they are good to go.  I try and have 7 pairs of pants, dress and sweat, because I know boys, and they will ruin a few of those over the next few months.  I try and keep my church pants separate hanging up, otherwise they will be wearing pants to church that have grease stains on them.  Boys clothing does not last.

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We do not keep out of season clothing in these closets.  I have designated plastic bins downstairs for those.  Whenever someone gives us a bag of donated clothing, I go through the bags, separate into piles of which size child it will fit, make sure it is clean, and then put in bins downstairs.  I throw ripped or stained clothing out in the garage and my husband and son use it for rags.  The only clothing item that I do keep out is their bathing suits.  I store these in a cloth bag on top of the closet in case we are invited to a swim birthday party during the winter months.

On top of the closet, which is not pictured, I keep extra packs of diapers—even though I use cloth, I buy disposables for when we go out.  Much less bulky and easier when you have many little ones in diapers.

Oh and the tv is in the closet, huh weird spot right??  Well the story was when we had 4 little ones, This room was pretty packed with cribs and toddler beds, I didn’t really have a place to put a tv.   The room was full of beds and toys at the time, no furniture to hold a televsion.  So we put it in the closet, its been a good place, out of the way.  Don’t think because every room has a tv that we watch a lot of it. I have found that if they can unwind from the day in their rooms before bed with a dvd or video , it is a good thing.

 

For the room….it is simple.  This group of boys is little(ages 1 and 3), we have no need for any heavy duty built beds yet.  I just repainted one of the older boys bunk beds with the same paint I did my trim with and made it look all new again. The 1 year old sleeps in a pack and play which is not pictured.  I did away with cribs,after I realized how much space they took up.  The playpen fits the same purpose with much less space.  I found a thicker mattress pad at Goodwill to make it more comfortable to sleep on.

We decorated the walls with vinyl cling on stickers in Lightning Mc Queen because I know their choice will change over the next few years.

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I don’t keep toys in rooms as it is just constant work keeping it clean, however I do have that red bucket you see pictured, that I let my 3 year old keep his stash of cars in.  He enjoys playing in his room,and it is a nice quiet get away place for him to unwind during the day.  He likes to pull out his trucks and play.  I keep a couple of the other larger trucks pulled under his bed as well.  These are toys he likes to play with each and everyday.  If he doesn’t play with it regularly I take it out.  We store these toys somewhere else.  Just the basics in the rooms.  Plain and simple.

Up next …the master bedroom