Home organisation tips for a big family

I don’t really think of myself as having a big family, but I guess four children makes us larger than average, it also means we have a larger than average amount of stuff. Even without toys and the bits of general almost rubbish kids collect, there are at least six coats and six pairs of shoes hanging around at any one moment and in reality it’s more like six coats AND six hoodies and twelve pairs of shoes, as everyone has school/work shoes plus trainers. There’s also a minimum of three sports bags, plus swim bags to find a home for and all the paraphernalia that goes with swimming, gymnastics, rugby and whatever else is going on that week.

I’ve been very frugal buying baby items, and so far avoided any giant plastic toys, but Charlie loves DUPLO and trains so we pulled out Zak’s collections recently and there was a LOT! I keep looking at and buying storage, but the answer is probably to just have a massive clear out. We’re also terrible for not being able to find keys and the right accessories needed for the day ( again, imagine six lots of hats, scarves and gloves ) so I’ve decided what I really need is some great hallway storage maybe with a drawer or basket for each person to keep us organised, I’ve seen some fantastic shoe storage cabinets on LionsHome which seems like a good starting point.

Most of these tips are the things I wish I did, but I know would massively reduce the stress around getting out of the house in the morning.

Home organisation tips for a big family

Have a set place for items such as keys and phones, so you can always find them. I need to lead by example on this one, as we are forever searching coat pockets and bags searching for ours, which not only wastes time, but it pretty stressful when you’re about to be late somewhere.

Only have items out that you need, for example I put summer hats into storage for winter and winter accessories into storage for summer.

Start the day with a  clean slate. There’s not much worse than coming down to a kitchen full of last night’s dishes, so make sure you clean the kitchen the night before, or at the very least put the dishwasher on!

Stay on top of the clothes washing. When we have a busy week my washing pile starts to take over my bedroom, so I generally try to do a load a day to stay on top of it, and fold and put the clothes away in the same day so my ironing pile doesn’t become too scary looking. I’ve actually taken to avoiding ironing almost completely, but that’s not always possible.

My best tip is to have a little basket in each room where you can drop things that don’t belong in the room to keep it tidy looking. Then every now and then put things back in the right place/room!

Do you have any home organisation tips for me?

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