With eight kids between us, Liz and I have come to learn tips, systems, and organizational advice over the years that’s help make life a little easier for us. So on this episode of our Spawned Parenting Podcast, we’re sharing them with the hopes that they’ll simplify your life, however many kids you might have.

You can listen right now (seriously, just click play!), but be sure you’re a subscriber – on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. Also, if  you can spare a minute to leave us a 5-star review, please do! We’ll read it on the show.  

Big Family Tips for Families of Any Size

You’ll want to listen to the entire episode to get all of our tips, but here are a bunch to get you started, along with links we mention on our show.

Chores: Put your kids to work, but don’t necessarily tie it to an allowance. It’s important that your kids feel like they are part of the community in your home, without getting paid. Kristen shared her allowance system, that can help you navigate this. And if you need printable chore charts, we’ve got those.

We’ve talked about this topic on Spawned in more depth. And we love what our friend KJ Dell’Antonia has to say about kids and chores.

Food shopping: Using shared lists, like the app AnyList, can be a huge timesaver. While paper lists can work in a pinch, it’s helpful (and a timesaver) to have everything in one place.

Meal planning: A meal plan by category can help streamline the process. So if you know that Wednesday is always soup night, and Mondays you always do a casserole, you can more quickly find your recipes. Here are some great meal planning apps if that helps!

Check out this podcast interview with Amiyrah Martin, who has some awesome meal planning tips. 

Laundry: We have a laundry basket for each family member, and we even put one in our family room (or den) to catch the stray socks. Trust us, it works!

Bathrooms: Here’s something that works for us: give everyone their own color towel. It’ll cut down on laundry (see above!), and there’s no fighting, or least, not as much anyway.

Want more awesome big family tips? We share lots more – on entertainment, clothing, and all these topics – on this podcast. Listen now to hear them all.  

Our sponsor: Tide

Our sponsor Tide knows how busy life is for families, which means household chores are often delayed or condensed to save time, especially laundry. But thanks to modern high efficiency machines, it’s easier than ever to do fewer and larger laundry loads so families can have more movie nights and parents can sneak out for adult only nights. 

The larger the load, the more dirt which means, more stains sneak through and become harder to clean. And since the average family is actually doing large laundry loads (that’s right, not just large families like ours), most without even realizing, it’s likely the clothes aren’t getting clean.

Tide wants to make sure you have the power needed to clean your families’ clothes. Make sure your detergent and dosage are the perfect match for your large laundry loads. And for the best clean, always follow dosing instructions on your detergent’s label.

Our Cool Picks of the Week

Kristen: I’m loving Helen Mirren in Catherine the Great on HBO. It’s a 4-part mini series that should not be missed.

Liz: The best hostess gift (or holiday gift) –  Homesick candles.

Top Photo by ray rui on Unsplash