19 Loads of Laundry a Month: 11 Parenting Routines of Families With 6+ Kids

The family filmed this in July, the brightest time of year in Finland, and the children woke up on their own between 5:30 and 5:50 in the morning.

“My morning routine with 10 children is quite easy. Keep it simple and everyone gets the love they need.”

The 6 of took responsibility for our clothes, our rooms, and our personal belongings. Keeping them in order and clean wasn’t considered one of our chores. Chores were what we did to contribute to the big family as a whole and we all took turns.

Each of us took turns washing dishes. When we got a dishwasher we took turns loading and unloading. We all learned to cook from an early age. We all cooked because we liked to eat: end of story.

Each of us had a housecleaning specialty when Saturdays rolled around. The 3 boys had trash detail/lawn work. Girls had everything else. (?!)

My specialties? Dusting and bathrooms.

One Saturday morning I begged to know: “Why do I always have to clean the pee that the boys spray behind the toilet?! I didn’t put it there!”

The Answer: “Because you’re good at it.”

Lesson learned: if you ever hate a job/responsibility, don’t do it well or it’ll be your job for life.

“We have a monthly budget of $1,300 for our family of 11 and we will stop in a store for some milk, fruits, and vegetables halfway through the month.”

Their rules, from the same caption: mostly knit clothes to skip the ironing, few light colors to skip stain treatments, and some clothes worn several times between washes.

“Our family of 10 washes one load of laundry a day — or less! (I once counted over the course of a month we did 19 loads.)”

Growing up, our kitty corner neighbor and their next door neighbors raised 10 and 8 kids respectively in their 2 bedroom homes. Attics were eventually converted into 2 bedrooms, each. Girls on one side, boys on the other. Babies downstairs with mom and dad.

Growing up in a larger home with only 2 siblings but, still, just one bathroom, it was the bathroom scenario that always blew my mind for 8-10 kids. But they always made it work somehow.

The haul changes a little every week. The week this was filmed, there was no milk on the list, because the family had already stocked up the week before.

“Here is what a week’s worth of groceries looks like (and cost) for our family of 8!”

The people across the street from me had 9 kids but the 9 kids never all lived there at the same time. The oldest 2 were married and moved out before the youngest 2 were born. The youngest 2 had nieces and nephews that were older than them. They had a 3 bedroom house. The older kids eventually finished the attic for themselves. They paid for it and did the work and moved themselves up there. They were in hs and college when they did that. All 9 kids went to college.

The family list in the video description names Josh, Alicia and ten kids, from 3 to 16 years old.

“Hi Friend! My name is Alicia. Let’s fold laundry together. I know it can be overwhelming, but we can do it!”

When we lived in Hawaii when I was under 10, we loved to eat at the Pagoda restaurant. It was a huge pagoda constructed over a massive koi pond. In addition to the main restaurant, it had smaller individual pagodas for individual parties away from the main dining room. Dad always requested a pagoda as much for the fact that we thought it was special and that we had 7 kids under 13 years of age. It had a waterfall, footbridges and paths to walk around. It was a wonderful place for kids.

Both of my parents are from 10+ families. They grew up poor so all of the girls shared a bed and all of the boys did. 5 to 6 kids in a bed. They also had to share birthdays to save money and hate if anything else is scheduled on their birthdays now.

Each of my parents came from a family of 10 kids each. I have 36 aunts and uncles and over 50 cousins.