how to save hours on the housework.....the tips for surviving the masses

[drlove8]

buy a telly bracket and get it on the wall where the little darlings cant reach, saves hours of cleaning jam/chocolate spread/poster paints off the tv screan! also keep clean bedding inside the pillowcase as a set ( duvet cover ,sheet, pillow)and keep in kids room for quick night time changes. my best , most used tip is to "let" the DC each go to a friends house for tea ocasionaly, just phone all DC's friends mums beforehand and beg insist arrange all your kids to go , all on the same night!

[AppleandMosesMummy]

Mmmm so you plonk your kids in front of the TV and then farm them out for others to feed and look after and that's your top tip for being a good mother to 8 children ?
Am hoping others will have something more inspiring

[FairLadyRantALot]

AaMM....you do come across ratehr obnoxious....
I could not even imagine coping with 8 Kids....I have only 3 and that seems never-ending at times...

[FairLadyRantALot]

you are joking about reporting a relatively harmless post, especially considering you calling the OP a "shit mother"....

[AppleandMosesMummy]

Hardly coping is it, sending them to other people to look after, what an odd OP

[KingCanuteIAm]

I have reported your personal atack on Drlove8 AAMM.

Drlove, what a great idea for a thread, could you start it again or shall we continue here in a more positive vein?

[CarGirl]

errr she never said she plonked them in front of the TV she just said it was kept out of the way!!!!!

[Sparklytwinkletoes]

sounds like good diary management to me!

[PeggyGuggenheim]

I'm outta here. Apple, chill.

[Lilyloo]

to both dr and appleandmoses !

[CarGirl]

my advice is only have the minimal amount of clothes each child needs.

Each child has 10 pairs of identical school socks but all unique from their siblings.

If they have similar knickers (long story) use iron on name tapes to label them so dh can help with sorting clean washing

Change of bedding kept in the room to which it relates.

If they don't play with certain toys get rid of them.

[Tabithacat]

Great tip about the bedding - I shall be starting that forthwith!

I used to love it when mine were all invited out on the same night - mind you makes for a lot of guests the following week!

[AppleandMosesMummy]

Well there we go, lots of useful tips are coming out of the wood work, am glad I gave this topic a little nudge now

[CarGirl]

Make enough food for 2 meals so you only have to cook in full every other night

Stay in a small house, it's less to clean even if you are overcrowded.

I'm sure i've got some others!

[PeggyGuggenheim]

Is that how it works then? Write something catty so that people pile in to defend the OP and then the subject takes off?

In that case how do we know that the OP and AppleAndMosesMummy aren't one and the same?

(Long-time lurker, still learning)

[FairLadyRantALot]

Lilyloo why at OP?
She didn't say that she lets them watch TV all teh time, but that having it up on brackets out of the way reduces cleaning it and she also never said that she gets rid of her Kids all the time...just that at times she arranges for the Kids to have eat-overs and prefers to organise them so they out the same time, to save cooking for the odd day...hardly the crime of the century?

My tips:
try to buy non-iron clothing;
don't bath Kids every night....unless dirty and in need of bath...otherwise once or twice a week should do..(obviously different for teenagers...)
Pocketmoney only when Kids doing a chore (age aproprate)....can save some time

[taczilla]

ignoring any hooha good tip about bedding being kept in the pillowcase.

[CarGirl]

ironing????????????????????????????

Organising washing so you around when cycle finishes. Hang all relevant clothes straight onto clothes hangers and NEVER iron again...........

I have hook things on the washing line for good weather and the go on the curtain rail in the winter. Best of all train your dh to do this bit!

[KingCanuteIAm]

I like the one I heard here - I think it was Cods (but I may be wrong, please don't be offended if I have credited the wrong person ).

Have a fold up crate for each person. When you pull out the washing fold it into the relevant crate and hand to each person to put away.

My particular like for this one is that, if it does not make it to the drawers, it will at least be in something to stop it getting dragged around the floor and put back into the washing unworn

[juuule]

Crates wouldn't work for us - 9 offspring -no room I fold into piles according to bedroom and then tell them to take it. Sometimes there ends up a girls pile and a boys pile which they have to sort themselves because I don't know whose stuff is whose.

[bronze]

I like all these tips. Going to start the bedding in pillowcase one.
I already sort of do the crate thing but more than one child to each crate and I also hand the washing on hangers, much easier.

I have a box on top of 'the shoe shelf' with each childs things in. Hat scarf etc in winter or sunhat and lotion in summer.

Leave out clothes, shoes, bags etc the night before to save time and stress in the morning. Make packed lunches at the same time.

Try and stick to the same colous for each child so in my case ds1 has green everything and ds2 has blue. Plate, towel you name it.

[kitkatqueen]

Drlove8 Definatley agree on keeping the tv out of reach, If its high enough it also has the added benefit of stopping the youngest dc standing right in front of it and causing trouble with the older ones.

We already have a colour for each dc, pink, yellow, green, and blue towels etc. Easy to name do stickers in those colours for cups etc. ds is 20 mnths and hands out the drinks cups based on the colours on the stickers.

I have a lock on the dvd cupboard door because I was spending too much time putting the dvds away and they were getting ruined. dd1 (5) can open the lock, do it al herself and relock the cupboard, I help dd2 and ds1.

I have a washing cupboard downstairs in the kitchen. Keeps the washing pile off the floor and means we have a "no dirty washing upstairs" rule. It all gets brought down every am and put in the washing cupboard. (means I don't have to run around the house looking for washing.)

Beds get changed on a monday for the girls including their bath towels, wednesday for us and ds1 inc towels. ( will have to slot ds2 in there somewhere).

And I clean the bathroom while they are in the bath...

Love the idea of using the pillowcase as a bag containing the rest of the bedset.

[sorky]

when we upgrade our tv it will most certainly be put up on the wall out of they way.

Mine have taken magnets to the screen and one day the 2yo coloured it in with crayon. Do you know how hard it is to get crayon off the screen ?

We do the pillowcase with the bed change inside. Saves loads of time searching for the matching bedding at night.

When I iron, I place it into piles on the dining room table for each person, then they take it upstairs and put it away. I do the 2 LO's the elder 2 do their own and Dh does ours.

We're just introducing 'jobs' for pocket-money in our house which is proving quite helpful.

[fidelma]

The girls 9 and 7 will do alot for 20p.Everyone cleans up after a meal including sweeping the floor.It halfs the time of the cleanning then we can play.It makes me a better mummy.I am lucky enough to have a laundry room.The school uniform never goes upstairs it all hangs on a rail on the back of the laundry draw.Also all sports clothing and kit is in large cupboards in the laundry.And I guess as many systems as possible.