Keeping up with Laundry and Dishes with a Family of 7 plus my Weekly Cleaning Schedule

Today I thought I would share my cleaning schedule, and since I for one have no time to scroll through a post it is right here at the top. You can quit reading now if you want, it doesn’t hurt my feelings one bit. 🙂 I got this customizable printable from uncookiecutter.com

So if you are still reading you may want a little more information. I have 5 kids, and 5 kids makes for a lot of dishes and a lot of laundry! It would be really easy to become quickly overwhelmed or drown in a sea of laundry! My motto has become “One load a day keeps the chaos at bay”. You can see that everyday I try to do a load of laundry, dishes, and decluttering.

Laundry- With one load of laundry a day I can keep up with my kids and their numerous daily outfit changes. I only break my clothes into 4 categories: Whites, Jeans, Colors, and Towels. I do not buy a lot of clothes that have to be ironed. My Nana taught that to my Mama and my mama passed it on to me. The only ironing I do is the occasional collar.

I also let my kids help with the folding and hanging. Even my 2 year old knows how to separate laundry. They don’t mind this, and all those hands make it go very quickly. Our system is to dump the dry load in the floor. We then separate into piles by who it belongs to. The owner then folds or hangs and then puts away his or her laundry. I do help them fold. We all work together on matching socks.

Dishes– to be honest this has been one of my biggest struggles for the longest time. We have only about 5 feet of usuable counter space in our kitchen. If I do not keep the sink clean, I feel like my entire kitchen is a mess. It can be very visually overwhelming for me. The system that works best for us right now, may not be best for you.

I have a 2 year old and a 13 month old who think that if the dishwasher is open that it is their jungle gym. So, in order for me to do the dishes, they both have to be occupied. This usually happens at breakfast and at dinner. In between those times I do not mind if things pile in the sink a bit because I don’t want to fight them off the dishwasher. I usually unload the sink during their breakfast, and reload the morning’s dishes. At night I load after dinner and try to run it. I also wash all the pots and pans so that when I go to bed the sink is clear. I also wipe the counter and table at the very minimum after dinner. There is something very relaxing about going to bed with a clean kitchen.

Decluttering– I am not great at this either. We live in a home that is 1200 square feet. With 7 people and all our clothes, it can seem pretty tight. I am trying to get better at tossing what we do not find to be useful, necessary, or beautiful. If you need help with decluttering check out Konmari. It was very helpful to me. I find that in the season of life I am in with my littles, I cannot just dump out my closet however. It would never get finished. So I am striving for 2- 15 minute decluttering sessions everyday. I would be a big fat liar if I told you I did this everyday. So give yourself some slack and just do the best you can.

So those are my everyday chores. On top of those, I also pick one other area of the house to really focus on. This helps me to stay on track, and also makes the results much more tangible to me. The chores I have listed are very straight forward. Please use the extra blanks to help fit in any extras you may have.

Well, I think this pretty well sums up the structure of my housework system. I will try and post more how I clean certain items if you would find that useful. The main thing, is just get started. Do something. Don’t just sit there wondering what to do. Start with your dishes and a load of laundry. Once you master that pick a room. Just DO something! You got this!!