Big family logistics

13 little life hacks for managing a crowd

I’ve always been fascinated by large families. Back in 2002, when I was a 23-year-old (childless) intern at USA Today, I wrote a feature piece for that paper on mega-families and their laundry logistics. I was still at it in 2020, when I wrote a feature piece for the New York Times on the same topic.

Partly because of my fascination, I’ve been told many times to read Cheaper by the Dozen. I finally did recently and I have to say I was…disappointed. It was less a round-up of large family logistics than a character sketch of the family patriarch, who seemed a little insufferable (apologies to any big fans!). I’m now reading Belles on Their Toes, the sequel where he’s much less of a character for reasons I won’t go into less I spoil the plot. I’m enjoying it more.

Anyway, I’ve never been tempted to have a dozen children, but I’m happy I wound up with five. Managing that number does present its logistical challenges, but I’ve found that many larger families come up with systems for minimizing the chaos. Here are 13 of mine.