Tundraco's Daily Living Guide to Raising Kids Everyday Care for Mulitples

When caring for multiples it can seem as if you need twelve arms and a 70-hour day just to get everything done that needs doing. While it may be impossible to grow extra arms or extend the day, there are a few shortcuts that will help make caring for your multiples just a little easier. . .

When caring for multiples, you have enough to keep you busy without nitpicking over the details.

• Designate one room or area as the 'junk room'. Toss everything that you want to keep but don't have time to put away into that room. Twenty or thirty years from now when you are looking for something to do, you can go through the room and have fun looking at all the junk you should have thrown away in the first place.
• Turn your phone off – except when you have the desire, the time, and the energy to talk.

Minimize your workload.

• Strip your house. This means boxing up knickknacks and other dust gathers. Get rid of all those fancy ruffled pillows and other high maintenance articles. Strive for simplicity in your decorations and household materials – this will help minimize your homes cleaning requirements and will provide you with more room for all the new baby stuff. Think of the 'house cleaning' as another step in babyproofing the house.
• Designate one night a week as the cooking night. Have someone else (like hubby) keep an eye on the kids while you prepare a week's worth of meals for the nonmilk drinkers. Wrap them in easily heated material and freeze until hungry.
• It may be wasteful, but use throwaways, like paper plates, whenever possible. Be sure to make full use of such modern marvels as disposable diapers and disposable bottles or bottle liners.
• If you have steps in your house and frequently have to carry things up and down, place a bucket at the top and bottom. Place items that need to be transported into the bucket and when someone is going up or down the stairs they can take the bucket with them, thus eliminating untold trips up and down the steps.
• Don't bother making beds, dusting under the hutch, or basically driving yourself crazy trying to keep the house sparkling – they'll be time for that after the kids are in college.

The key to managing multiples is organization. Become a religious list maker and prioritize your tasks. Work at your management skills – delegate the responsibilities and the chores of caring for the multiples.

• Post a large calendar, somewhere handy, so that you can keep track of appointments, milestones and when the last time was that you and your husband had a few minutes alone. If you find that you are not getting any personal time – make an appointment for it. Hire a babysitter if you have to, and let yourself have some fun.
• Get a large erasable board. On it, keep track of who has been fed, changed, bathed, etc… It may seem silly, but take my word, there are going to be days when you are simply not going to remember who is in need of what. Keeping track of the babies care routine can also be valuable when more than one person is caring for the babies, so that you do not duplicate efforts.
• If anyone offers you their assistance - don't be coy - accept! There is no shame in needing or wanting help.
• Not everyone will have the luxury, but if you do, hire a house cleaner to come in occasionally to tackle the heavy work. Otherwise, keep a list of time consuming or heavy work that needs to be done around the house. If it really, really needs to be done and you can't get anyone else to do it for you, than break larger projects up into smaller segments and work at them a little every day or so.
• Put your baby's on a schedule too. They may not like it at first, but if you stick to your guns, they will quickly adapt.

Take a course or read up on time management skills. You may well find that in the end it was the best investment of your time that you could have possibly made. It will be invaluable when it comes to finding time to do all those things you want to do with your babies.