Things you need when you have a big family

In the course of becoming a big family there are things that come up that you need that you don't even realize, because you just don't think about it when you are an average sized family.  Just one day you are sitting there wondering why something is so darn hard and you realize its because whatever it is just is not meant for 10 or more people.  Take for instance sharpening pencils.  We are like a small business over here, we have that many people who are constantly sharpening pencils.  The 5 pack of plastic sharpeners from the dollar store just isn't gonna cut it.  We were sharpening and sharpening all day, everyday.  No one could ever find a pencil to use that was sharpened, which is an issue for a 3 yr old or 5 year old who are just learning how to use pencils let alone sharpen them.  Then it occurred to us the problem was the sharpener.  Not the pencils.   We need an industrial one.    Yea that should fix our problem.

Families start to acquire bunk beds as their family grows.  At first you think the ones with all the stuff built in will work the best.  How can it not, you get a dresser, desk and book shelf with 2 beds!  Until you try to shove another bed or 2 in that room.  Then you realize there isn't the space.  What big families need is streamlined and minimalist.  No more of this big bulky furniture.  No, its all Ikea all the time for us.  We just purchased our second set of Tromso bunks beds from Ikea.  No ladder to stick out and trip over, the metal matches any decor, (which is hilarious that anyone with 8 kids would have a decor!  What would that be called, Mega Family Kitsch?) its gender neutral, can be taken apart and stored in small spaces, and I can fit 2 in one room!  10 years ago that consideration never entered my mind.  In fact when I bought my oldest a captains bed I was thinking how great it was that he got a dresser and desk for all the space a bed took up.  Yea, right.  Try packing that thing up and moving it when you have 6 other beds to fit in a moving van.  Needless to say we sold it.

After a couple of kids you start to accumulate clothes.  Winter clothes, summer clothes, boy clothes, girl clothes.  Boxes and boxes of clothes.  You put them in closests, you put them under beds, you shove them in dressers.  You get rid of everything that can't be stain treated or patched.  You learn what you like in clothes and get rid of what you hate (snap up the back outfits for newborns?  whose bright idea was that?).  You are pregnant so much and nursing so much you don't even have normal clothes anymore...or maybe you do, in a box somewhere.  From 10 years ago, I'm sure.  They are still in style right?  So now your house is over run with storage.  What do you do with it all?  Shelves in the garage is a good start.  Shelves lining the whole wall, every wall. Yup, pretty soon your garage looks like a Target Warehouse.