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This podcast episode will give you tactical and functional organizing tips for multigenerational living. If you are in a multigenerational home or considering this option – this is for you!
Multigenerational living is near and dear to my heart these days. I am cherishing this life phase I’m currently in – sharing my home with Abby (my daughter) and Grayson (my grandson). I know many members of the Organize 365® team and community also live in multigenerational homes.
I realize that different circumstances may lead you to be in a multigenerational home. The three main situations that I’ve seen for multigenerational living are:
- Caregiving. If you are living the “sandwich” generation lifestyle – taking care of your parents while trying to keep up with your adult children – I have a BIG HUG for you! Being a caregiver can be incredibly isolating. I’ve been there, and it can be a long road.
- They are consciously merging households. This seems to be a more recent phenomenon (in the United States, at least). Families consciously decide to live together because they enjoy each other, it makes economic sense, and they can share in the work and experience of running the household together.
- Life circumstances. Sometimes it’s not a conscious decision, but life circumstances create a situation where multigenerational living is necessary.
- Be purposeful about transitioning the home to support a multigenerational home.
- Ensure that everyone (INCLUDING YOU) has their own space. Everyone needs their own space. In my home, this means that Abby and Grayson have their basement apartment. They get to decide what they want down there, what it looks like, and they are responsible for everything in this space. I also have my rooms in the house that are just mine.
- Create rules for communal spaces, but be willing to renegotiate and evolve those rules as the situation changes. For example, the collaborative spaces in our home are the living room, kitchen, laundry room, and garage. These areas get to be cleaned and organized to my standards. There are rules for how we operate and care for these areas.
- Laundry Days – This one has been great in our household. We have designated laundry days to ensure that we can get laundry done for ourselves on the days that our most convenient for all of us in the household.
- Don’t feel guilty about saying what you want regarding the communal spaces.
- Organizing the kitchen and food in a multigenerational home – start by considering the stages of life each of you are in. In my household, we have the toddler phase, Greg and I work away from home, and Abby is a stay-at-home mom. Our kitchen supports three very different stages of life. We have created a dedicated space for everyone’s food and Grayson’s adorable toddler eating utensils, plates, and sippy cups.
- Baby Gates – Living Room, Dining Room, and Laundry – Grayson doesn’t go in those areas, so they stay picked up.
- Weekly Cleaning – We have a weekly cleaner come, and every Thursday, we know the house is being cleaned, and everything needs to be picked up.
- Minimalized toys in the family room – Constantly decluttering and rotating the toys in the family room – not minimalist but minimized.
- Pick your battles.
- Create rules.
- The Sunday Basket® – one for each adult in your home
- Household Reference Binder – one per house
- Medical Binder – each family member needs their own
- Financial Binder – each family unit or couple has their own
- Household Operations Binder – you would have this for each family unit – like teachers at a school – they would each have their lessons.
