Hello,
Congrats Mummies of many to be!!!
I have 4 dc, dd1 is 4, dd2 is 4, ds1 is 23 months and ds2 is 15 weeks. Yes it is tough, but its also fabulous. There are days when i feel like its all too much and days where everything seems to fall into place and I feel like a pro iykwim?
I have had the benefit of having a wonderful friend who was an inspiration to me, 4 ds's with 2 yrs between each and is a single parent.
There are organisational things that I do now with 4 that I didn't need to with 3, but they are mainly to keep me on track and to help me feel in control, I can cope without doing them but things are much smoother when I do do them!
Things like,
I make up large batches of ham / chicken rolls and freeze them to make lunches quicker to make up during the week, ( also means I can't run out of ingredients and things like open ham packets don't go off in the fridge)
making packed lunches for everyone the night before ( including me also gives the rolls a hance to defrost ;o) )
Lay the breakfast table the night before ( bowls with cereal in a cup for each child)and cover everything up so that in the morning you just need to pour the milk.
De-clutter as much as poss, I have zones for toys, bedroom toys stay in the bedrooms lounge toys stay in the lounge, we regularly swap things about and I'm not horrendously strict about it, bedroom toys that get downstairs go back at bed time.
Get a timer and get the kids used to a 10 minute tidy up routine. Be really enthusiastic and excited about how many minutes and seconds are left. Its amazing how fast you can get the floor straight before bed!
Write out a meal planner for 3 weeks and use it to organise yourself - theres nothing worse that picking up the kids from school and still not knowing whats for dinner.
If possible pick up a second hand dishwasher (or a new one if you really feel the need) and sacrifice a kitchen cupboard to house it, it will be worth it I promise.
As for washing Its my downfall everytime, logically I know that I must put through a lights wash and a darks wash every day including sat and sun. If I miss a day I get very behind very quickly.
I also have plastic boxes with each persons names on so that clean washing can be folded and put into the boxes straight away. This way an time I get a spare 2 minutes I can put away 1 box very quickly. It seams much less of a task this way than a giant heap of washing.
My lovely friend warned me that you need to be able to fit things into 10 minute slots, so if you need to clean the bathroom when the kids are about then aim to do just the loo, then the sink, then the bath, you can't always do it easily in one go but you can do everything bit by bit.
Lastly try not to aim too high, its much better to plan to do 3 things in a day and at the end of the day say wooo hooo I succeeded than to aim to do 20 things and fail. You will just make yourself miserable.
I'm not perfect on the stuff above, everything else I am just winging, I'd love any more ideas on organising myself better. Life is a bit mad at times at the moment, but its only going to be this difficult for a short while (I hope.....) My 4th birth was amazing, and I would do it again tomorrow, no regrets at all.