The kitchen is one of the main areas of our large family’s home. We use it to cook, do our homeschool, entertain, and work in. As our family grew, we have learned some tips and tricks to make this area of our home function the best way possible.

In this guide we will talk about the following topics:

• Keeping the kitchen organized and clean
• Essential Kitchen Gear
• How to Organize your own kitchen efficiently

The Essentials for Keeping the Kitchen Running Smoothly

Pantry

We have a couple of cabinets in our kitchen where we store things like bread, tortillas, cereal, baking items, and rice once it has been opened.

When we come home from the grocery store and unload, we store most of our pantry items on shelves in our garage. We bring in the items we are planning to use right away.

For example, we don’t want to store all the bread we’ve bought in the house for a couple of reasons:

• We don’t have room for everything to be kept in the house and still be organized.
• We don’t want the products to be damaged or smashed because so many kids are rummaging in the pantry.
• We want to try to open things and use them one at a time.

That last one is very hard because we always seem to have at least two of something opened up and being used at the same time. You know how it goes, someone couldn’t find the jar of peanut butter, assumed it was all gone and opened another. It never fails that the jar was sitting on the table being used by another child. Ha!

Appliances

We have two refrigerators and one more in our RV. In our in-home refrigerator, we store the things that we are using on an everyday basis like:

• The opened gallon of milk
• Fresh produce
• Prepped Veggies
• Cooked chicken
• Eggs
• Opened bags of cheese
• Deli meats

Everything thing else is stored in the garage refrigerator. The kiddos enjoy yogurt every morning and it is stored out in the garage refrigerator so they simply go and choose their flavor.

I like to keep my inside refrigerator free from as much clutter as possible so I can see what I have and make sure we use all the leftovers. The garage refrigerator is used as an overflow for the things we will need as the week goes by.

Sometimes if I have company coming or during the holidays I will have to use the refrigerator in our RV. I store the things I will be using for a special occasion or if I am doing a freezer cook day.

When Rick and the kids unload our groceries after doing our shopping, I am the one usually organizing everything or it won’t fit. It’s kind of like a puzzle and you have to move things around until they fit but are still accessible and in our line of vision for when you need them.

I do have a double oven which I absolutely love! Do you know that useless drawer at the bottom of your stove? Well, it was useless to me because I always just stored things in it and forgot about it. Also, I never like opening it. I think it was something about the sound it made that got on my nerves. Anyways, with our oven, they have eliminated that drawer and turned it into an additional oven.

So on top, you have a small, short oven that is controlled by its own set of controls. On the bottom, you have the normal size convection oven with its own set of controls too.

One of the most challenging things to cook for a big family is pizza because you can only cook so much at a time. Everyone has to eat in shifts as the pizza becomes available.

Well, this oven helps and we can usually cook enough pizza to get everyone started and then throw in a couple more for their second round. We generally need at least four large pizzas.

This stove is a godsend during the holidays when you are cooking a turkey and all the sides that go with it. It makes managing a large meal a lot easier.

We have one built-in microwave and honestly, we need at least one more. When we are preparing our meals from the menu board, there is always a long line for the microwave. This is one of the reasons why I allow an hour for our mealtimes.

A lot of the kiddos like to eat ramen and so that takes at least three minutes to cook. They try to organize it and allow the people who have shorter cooking times to go first, but honestly, it’s always a point of conflict.

We have two large freezers plus the two refrigerator-freezers inside and one in the RV. I do freezer meal cooking in order to save time and money so we must have a sufficient place to store those meals.

When I am planning those cooking days, I am always taking into consideration the space I have available and try to plan accordingly. I store a lot of our food in large freezer bags because it saves space. I usually try to do a casserole or two but I limit those because the pans take up more space.

However, I will say this, there is nothing like grabbing a pan and popping it in the oven because it makes dinner so easy! I do try to balance it out with a variety.

I like to buy frozen vegetables because it is so much easier to open a bag or two than eight small cans. I also buy a lot of frozen fruit like strawberries and blueberries because it is so much easier to buy it already prepared, won’t spoil as quickly as fresh fruit, and it is one less thing I have to worry about.

We also bake cookie bars and pancakes on a weekly basis and they are stored in the freezer.

Countertops

I do have some necessary tools on my countertops for my everyday use. I am really picky about what I put on my counters because I tend to prefer things to look clean and neat.

However, if I use something on a daily basis I don’t want to have to haul it around every time I need it. I keep the following items on my countertop:

• Coffee Pot and Pods
• Electric Can Opener
• George Foreman Grill
• Cooking Utensils
• Food Processor
• Kitchen Aid Mixer
• 6 Quart Instant Pot
• 8 Quart Instant Pot
• Canister Set

Coffee Pot and Pods

Did I mention we have seven kiddos? Funny story, I despised coffee and refused to drink it until we had a large family. All these kiddos and trying to keep up with them is what drove me to drink my coffee every morning and sometimes in the afternoon.

This is the reason we keep the coffee pot on our countertop. In fact, it’s a whole brewing station that gives me whatever I need in a matter of seconds.

One of the things I like about our Cuisinart Coffee Center Maker is that it will take any of the coffee K-type pods available without incident. So I can buy inexpensive ones and they will still work.

It also will just give us hot water which works great for those instant oatmeal packets or making a quick cup of broth. This saves on our microwave usage and decreases the wait time for our breakfasts and lunches.

I can also make an entire pot for just those days I need extra strength.

Electric Can Opener

We recently purchased an electric can opener for those small cans. It works great for when I do buy those canned veggies and need to open them up for dinner.

George Foreman Grill

This grill is a lifesaver because it can make six grilled cheese sandwiches or paninis in about two minutes. We have one for our house and one for our RV. Sam uses this grill in the mornings to make toast for his breakfast.

You can definitely use this grill for other things like cooking meat and vegetables too. However, it can be a little bit of a pain to clean so we tend to limit ourselves to sandwiches only.

Cooking Utensils

I have a big glass container where I store all our cooking utensils right next to the stove. When we are cooking and need something to scoop or stir with then we can quickly grab what we need. Plus, it’s easier than storing them in a drawer and it constantly getting stuck because the utensils are jamming it up.

Food Processor

For a long time, I didn’t keep my food processor on my countertop but it has become so handy to us that I have changed my mind. We use this thing on our kitchen prep day that we do once a week and other times in between.

I have found that I love to have my onions and jalapeno peppers sliced by the food processor instead of by hand.

Kitchen Aid Mixer

My Kitchen Aid mixer is an amazing tool to use for a lot of different things. Bella probably uses it the most since she is our resident baker. She likes to make our weekly treats and the mixer makes things so much easier.

There are several attachments you can buy to allow it to do other things besides just mixing. The only one I have is the spiralizer which cuts potatoes, zucchini or apples into whatever shapes you would like.

I do enjoy that but I haven’t used it in a very long time just because I have simplified our kitchen preparation time and decreased the time we spend cooking and preparing our menus.

Instant Pot

The Instant Pot is an electric pressure cooker that cooks your food very fast. It’s like the slow cooker on steroids. Yesterday, I put my frozen homemade chili packet in the Instant Pot, added 14 cups of water, and set it on the “Bean Chili” function for 120 minutes.

During that time it cooked my frozen packet that included dry beans and made it a delicious soup with perfectly tender beans. If I had wanted to do that in the slow cooker, it would have taken at least 8-10 hours.

Now I always remind people that you may set for 120 minutes but it will take some time to get the pressure up. Whatever you set it for, just know it will take longer than that. I usually have a good idea how long it will take approximately but honestly, it’s never been the same twice.

6-Quart Instant Pot

I have a total of two instant pots that sit on my countertops every day. That’s how much I use them! I am a big fan of the actual brand “Instant Pot” because their products seem to deliver the best quality overall.

They are very user-friendly and the food is cooked evenly. Now, I’m just going to say that there is a learning curve when you are just starting out. It takes a few tries before you learn how to cook everything the right way.

I use the 6-quart Instant Pot to make boiled eggs. We also use it to make our side dishes like; corn on the cob, rice, beans, and other veggies.

8-Quart Instant Pot

The 8-quart Instant Pot has brought back “one-pot wonders” for the Hobbs Crew. When your family gets to a certain size and begin to consume a lot of food then you can only cook so much in a skillet. Those types of meals had to be eliminated in our menus.

I cook everything from tacos to spaghetti and everything in between in my instant pot. I do a lot of freezer cooking so I can just simply pop my meal into my instant pot and it’s ready to go.

Some things can be cooked and just sit with the warm function until we are ready to serve. However, things like pasta need to be cooked and served immediately.

Cannister Set

We have a cannister set that holds all our sweeteners and any other spice packets we get from a restaurant. It is located where we can grab what we need. The downside to its locations is that Georgie Lou has figured it out and has been getting into it.

Cups and Plates

Our children are each assigned a different color so they can distinguish which items like cups, toothbrushes, and towels are meant for them. This cuts down on the arguing about who had what cup and they just know which one to use. Here are the colors that are assigned to each of our children:

• Sam-Black
• Bella- Yellow
• Andy-Green
• Alex-Blue
• Randa-Purple
• Nikki-Red
• Georgie Lou- Pink

Funny story, most of our children have had the same color their entire life and so they think we have assigned them their “favorite color.” It’s funny because I am constantly explaining to them that it doesn’t have to be their favorite color, it just happens to be the color of all their things.

When Georgie Lou was born, Bella wanted to switch to her real favorite color of yellow and give Lou Lou her color, pink. We thought it was a good time to do that because most baby girl things are pink.

Paperwork

Ah, paperwork! I hate it! I have gone to paperless as much as I can but we still have a lot of paperwork to sort and file. I have a wall file folder and when the mail comes in, I go through it and throw away whatever I can. Then I put what I need to keep in the wall file folder.

This is where the order of operations needs some work. I am supposed to go through this wall file folder at least once a month. It’s on my to-do list but I have not done it in a very long time. I think maybe I will try to get it done this weekend… I’m hoping!

When I do go through it, I throw away as much as I can and then file the rest of the items in a filing cabinet we have in our basement. I don’t have room for a filing cabinet in our kitchen so this is the next best thing.

The “Flow” of the Kitchen

The “flow” of the kitchen is the way you use it and the way traffic flows through it. We have a home with an open floor plan which is a big advantage for our family. We can move things around to wherever we need them.

Our kitchen is used for a lot of things like:

• School Time
• Friend Gatherings
• Art Class
• Communication
• Fixing Meals

When our family started growing I began to evaluate our space to see if it properly met our needs.

School Time

We have an extra bedroom in our basement and I have tried to turn that into a dedicated school room but it was never successful. I like having my kiddos working in an area where I am most of the time. Sending us all downstairs was just impractical. They always ended up in the kitchen anyway so I just decided to roll with it. So most days they are spread out through the kitchen working on their assignments.

Sometimes they work on the floor or at one of the tables. Sam generally takes over the breakfast bar so he can spread out his subjects.

I also need storage for their schoolwork and supplies. We have a bookshelf where they store all their binders and other school books. Usually, the bottom two shelves are not usable because we have had little ones who like to get in them. So I keep things on those shelves they can get into and play with.

Friend Gatherings

It is so much easier for me to host a couple of extra people than for our friends to host us. Adding four or five to our numbers is no big deal for us but for our friends adding nine to their numbers can be a bit of a challenge. So I am the home that hosts a lot and I love it that way!

We currently have two kitchen tables so we can host several people for meals or for our unit studies that we do with friends.

Art Class

I say art class because I have a couple of really talented kiddos who love to draw and create nonstop. I should probably change this to an Art Studio because that’s more accurate. However, I want our kitchen to be used as a place for them to create whatever they can imagine.

I keep the art supplies within reach so they can use them whenever they want too.

Communication

I have a set of four dry erase boards that are hanging in our kitchen. One of them is a monthly calendar. Another one is the menu board which I will talk about in the next section. The other two I use to teach, make lists, keep track of various things, and post any reminders we need to see,

Fixing Meals

Of course, there is the meal preparation we do and so we need to have room for that. The kiddos prepare their own meals from a menu board we have hanging in our kitchen.

The menu board is divided into four categories:

• Grain
• Protein
• Fruit
• Dairy

When they are building their breakfast and lunches, they choose one item from each category. I have specific measurements and amounts listed on the board so the child isn’t eating too much or too little, it’s just right.

I also do that so I can control the budget and the kiddos learn to portion out their food well. It is not a good idea to eat an entire box of graham crackers in one sitting. Not only will that break the bank but it is just not healthy.

For more information on how we do this, see our post “A Complete Guide: Large Family Breakfast and Lunch Ideas.”

Kitchen Tools

Cookie Sheets

We use cookie sheets a lot around our house. It’s much easier to use than a 9 x 13 pan because they accommodate the amount of food we need for our large family. I have three large cookie sheets sized 18 x 13. They are just large enough but not too big for our oven.

Besides the pancakes and cookie bars, we make things like brownies and sheet pan dinners by layering potatoes, vegetables, a protein and top off with bacon.

Large Skillet

We mainly use a large skillet pan to make scrambled eggs for the Crew. It’s a great pan to cook a side dish like green beans or corn.

8-Quart Slow Cooker

There is one thing the Instant Pot does not do well and that is slow-cooked meals. There are some things that require an actual slow cooker and I love my 8-quart. It is big enough for us to cook whatever we need to.

Aluminum Pans and Lids

I do buy the disposable 9×13 aluminum pans and lids at Sam’s Club because they are easier to use and just throw away. Most of the time the kiddos are handling the pans and they are easier for them to do without the threat of breaking them.

It’s easy to transport food to wherever we need to go or if we are sharing it with a friend. This way they can just throw it away for easy cleanup.

Plus, on those freezer cooking days, its easier to store them in the freezer because when you put the lid on them, they stack nicely. Another added bonus is that we can write on the lid the contents and any instructions needed. That is really handy especially when you share it with someone else.

Remember the Strawberry Jello Salad I talked about earlier? We use an aluminum pan to make it in each week.

Mason Jars

I use my mason jars for everything, they are so handy! I do like the wide mouth ones because they are easier to put the food into.

We store our chopped veggies in them because they stay fresh longer. Whenever I need to pack a salad of soup for lunch I put it into a mason jar and it prevents leaking.

Large Can Opener

When you’re a large family it is so much easier to buy that big can of green beans. You get it home and try to open it with your little dinky can opener and it doesn’t work!

We purchased a large can opener so we can open those large cans easily and without too much trouble. It’s the only way to go!

Large Ice Cream Tubs

Do you know those gallon ice cream tubs? Well, I always keep mine after we have eaten all the ice cream. They make great tubs for storing leftovers like chili, soup, or rice.

Keeping the Kitchen Clean

Since the kitchen is our main hub of activity it is the most challenging area to keep clean. We have a couple of rules we follow to make this a little bit easier.

• Vacuum between each meal
• Clean up our own food mess
• Eat at the table and over the table
• Clear all the mess before you move on

Vacuum between each meal

We have a chordless Shark vacuum that we use to keep our kitchen floor clean. Personally I would rather vacuum the floor than sweep it with a broom. It’s “parking spot” is easily accessible in the corner of our kitchen and it charges while we are not using it. After every meal, one of us will vacuum the floor. I have found it takes all of five minutes and it keeps the floor crumb-free.

Clean up our food mess

After every meal, each child is required to clean up their meal mess. Their dishes need to be rinsed off and loaded into the dishwasher. Any trash they made needs to be thrown away and their cup needs to be put away in the refrigerator.

Spreading around the work and requiring everyone to do their part helps it not fall all on me and Rick. Plus, I have learned that if they have to clean up the mess they are a little bit more careful about how much of a mess they make.

Eat at the table and over the table

I don’t know about you all but a couple of our kiddos love to “perch” like a bird in their seat and eat. We ask that they eat with their bums in the seat and over the table. When you have seven of them dropping crumbs everywhere, it makes for a huge mess.

We also ask that they prepare their food, get everything they need and then sit down to eat. Once they have seated themselves, they stay there until they are done. This is one rule that is always a work in progress.

Clear all the mess before you move on

Before we move on to our next step, we have to clean up from our previous one. If we eat breakfast, we need to clean up the mess BEFORE we do our chores. If we felt creative and created an art studio in the kitchen, we must put it all away before we play on our electronic devices.

Serving Meals

We serve three meals a day and one snack for our older kiddos. Sometimes Georgie Lou will have a midmorning snack because she is hungry.

We eat breakfast around 8:30 in the morning, lunch around 12:30 pm, snack around 3:30 pm and dinner at 6:30 pm. I do plan for them to eat on a schedule so we don’t have “hangry” kiddos. When kiddos get hungry they get angry and you get nothing accomplished.

As I mentioned above, they prepare their own breakfast, lunch, and a snack. Since this is their responsibility, I make sure all the ingredients they need to have access to are within their reach.

Dinner is prepared by Rick, Sam, or me. I fix plates for everyone so I can be sure we have enough and so no one is being left out. I have been told stories about other large families and if you didn’t come when you were called then you didn’t get dinner because it was gone.

I choose to create a peaceful mealtime by just preparing the plates myself. As the kiddos get older this might change but this method works for us right now.

The kiddos do have divided plates for dinner so they can have each of their food groups served separately. It helps for those who don’t like their food touching or mixing.

I also use 2lb food trays, we call them boats, for serving food. We like to have a nice balance between using some paper plates and using plates that need to be washed. It’s all about figuring out how much wear and tear we can put on our dishwasher.

How to Organize Your Kitchen:

Determine the “Flow”

The first thing I always do is think about how I currently use the space and how I want to use the space in the future. I need to make it simple to do every day or it’s not going to get done.

For example, if I didn’t have a place to put my paperwork when the mail came in and I had to run it downstairs every day, what would happen? It would be stacked up on my countertops making a mess. Everything needs to have its own place even if it is a temporary one.

I ask myself these questions:

• What is working well?
• What are the trouble areas?
• What do those trouble areas need?
  • More storage?
  • Moved to a different spot?
• What do we need easy access too?
• Do I need to move things so they can be more easily accessed?
• Do I need more storage places or bins?
• What is laying around that needs to have a place to go?
• How can I make it easy so it will get done?

Make a list

After I have thought about the flow I want to accomplish, I make a list of the changes I want to make. If it’s possible I will talk to Rick or even the kiddos to see what their thoughts are. You would be surprised what a little brainstorming will do for everyone. It produces great ideas! Plus, it helps them to feel included and they will be more likely to help if they have some say in what goes on.

Make it Easily Accessible

Whatever you do, you have to make it convenient for yourself and the family or it won’t get done. I know this because I have done this! I have made big plans and thought “Sure, I can do this or that every day” and then found out I couldn’t. I ended back at square one trying to come up with a better idea.

I tend to put things that are alike in a container for storage. For example, all of our remotes are stored in a bucket in our kitchen. I like the idea of putting something in a box and leaving it there. It can even be messy in the box but as long as it’s all together, then I am happy. It’s just the way I enjoy organizing things.

Rearrange

Look around and see if you can rearrange your living area in a way that would help things flow better. For example, I mentioned earlier we have two kitchen tables in our kitchen. We used to have a formal dining room with our big table in it and a family room with an additional couch right off our kitchen.

As our family outgrew our smaller table, we needed to move our big table into the kitchen because I wasn’t about to have several kiddos eating and dropping food on a light-colored carpet every day.

So we turned our formal dining room area into an activity area for the kiddos to play in. It’s really just an extension of our community living room area. We eliminated the family room and the couch in it and moved our big table to that area. This made room for our kitchen area to have two kitchen tables.

A little out of the box thinking gives me a workspace in the kitchen while not taking away from our eating space. Move things around and rearrange them so they will work for you and your family!

Purge the things you don’t need

Don’t be afraid to move that couch to another place in your house or eliminate it for the time being. I have a habit and it’s probably not a good one but I tend to move and store things in the unfinished area in our basement on these purging days.

There are some things that I am glad I kept because we have used them as the kiddos got older. However, there are a lot of other things that could just be given away because there is a strong chance we won’t use them again.

Getting rid of things makes things simpler and easier to navigate especially in a large family. I will caution you to make sure you are not going to use the item before you get rid of it. I have thrown things away and later regretted it.

If your uncertain store it in a box and if not needed throw it away at a later date.

You can do it!

Just remember it’s all about taking baby steps and changing one thing at a time. We have been doing this for over ten years now and we are still recalculating. I think being consistent and building your “machine” in a way that will work for years to come is essential.

But it does take time! Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think!