I just got back from a week's vacation in Minnesota...16 people in my parent's +150 year old farmhouse with three bedrooms and one toilet. Still, things went incredibly smoothly, mainly due to my 76 yr. old mom's amazing ability to be everywhere at once.

Anyway, it occured to me that in the event of a disaster it is quite possible for a house to suddenly be filled up with way too many people and it seemed like a good idea for a thread. several thngs that helped us get through the week:

1. Stacks of toilet paper in the bathroom. Not just 1-2 spare rolls but rather 8-10 rolls on hand within reach of the toilet. Half of the people in the house were under 12 and didn't always tell anyone if the tp was getting low.

2. Everyone had a clothespin with their name on it that they used to mark their bathtowels. 16 white towels make it hard to remember where you hung yours, but we can all recongise our names.

3. Twin-sized, inflatable sleeping pads from Walmart are cheap, don't take up much space when deflated and inflate fast.

Any tips or tricks you've picked up from spending time in house full of people?

-Blast

Those are some good ideas. Extra blankets are always nice ot have on hand.

Those are good suggestions. That TP rule is a good one. In my house, I always keep way more than the necessary amount of TP, paper towels and tissues, even though it's just me and my girlfriend here.

I'll add some:

-First capable person in the kitchen cooks breakfast (or helps cooks breakfast) for everybody who wants breakfast. If you sleep in, then don't expect a hot breakfast, unless you make it yourself.

-Leave the kitchen cleaner than you when you arrived. For example, clean your own dishes, and help the cook clean up.

-Strike a match (or spray air freshener) after going number two.

-Extra pillows

-Bring your laptop if you have one. Don't expect to have full access to the house's computer system like you have full access at your own home. If there is only one computer, then the computer is for business and serious matters only. I have witnessed a 12-year-old kid single-handedly bring down an entire home computer network. My nephew was downloading random stuff (games, viruses, etc.) off the Internet.

-Kids are not allowed to say "I can't", not allowed to say "I don't know", and not allowed to whine. My nephew and nieces overuse these tactics, and so I had to make these rules.

Lots of group dynamics that work - growing up with 8 brothers and sisters I'll add a couple:

Eat dinner together. Its when we saw each other, griped about each other, and got bragged on or ragged on for doing something good or bad during the day. Good communication is a key to a group living situation. When I think about growing up its often about sitting around a table at dinner.

Just because [Mom] makes a meal doesn't mean she has to clean up after it - it doesn't matter whose turn it is, someone should be doing KP after every meal. We got better at this one when we got older.

Schedules are flexible and mostly belong to you - doing laundry, baseball, soccer games etc. Someone may take charge and start laundry or drive you to the ballfield, but mostly its up to you. If you want to sit on your butt until 15 minutes before a game fine, but don't expect anyone to run around and get you there on time.

We had cousins, a couple in particular who moved out to the PNW and camped at our house for as long as a couple months. I have an aunt who says that fish and house guests begin to smell after a few days, maybe so. I can't recall my mom or dad ever minding the long term guests, and our cousins are still friendly to us. When they came in though, they functioned as part of the family unit, and had to follow the same rules as everyone else.

If I had to house 16 people today, I would apply some principles learned working at the Red Cross, namely client case work: returning everyone to where they were geographically, economically, and status-wise, as soon as practical. 16 isn't long term sustainable in many modern American households, no matter how much floor space - food and living expenses are greater. You should make a plan with every transient visitor to your home, where they want to go, when they'll get there, and what they'll need or need to do to achieve it. Track the plan, and make sure that people follow through on it.

TP is key :-). I remember Mom buying TP by the pallet, literally - we kept it in a basement storeroom, and took rolls upstairs every day. A remodel added a third bathroom, much appreciated by those of us living downstairs.

A friend sets up small dome tents in the larger rooms and designates these as rooms for the kids. Having their own 'room' helps keep thing organized and gives kids a place that is, at least relatively, their own.

Blankets strung from 'clotheslines' can also be used to subdivide large rooms and give people some privacy.

Rigging up a urinal for the males and a cold-water shower outside can free up space in the bathrooms.

A gallon or larger jug wedged between cinder-blocks with a two-foot length of 3/4" PVD pipe and a large funnel stuffed in the top make for a usable urinal. Rig some privacy shields out of plywood or tarps. Empty when half full by filling with water and dumping on the compost heap. With the males doing most of their business at the urinal, outdoors or wherever they spend their time, the traffic around the bathrooms will be greatly reduced. Rigging up urinals is easier on the nose and vegetation than allowing the males to water the property randomly.

The shower can be as simple as a hand sprayer screwed to the wall and fed by a garden hose or you can easily pipe it in by adding a tee and valve to the water line feeding the sillcock. Hand washing and rinsing off can be done clothes on but if you rig a curtain an actual hot-weather shower is practical. Duck boards or course gravel control the mud and tracking.

Kudos to your mom. If it makes her happy, it's probably good for her.

Random thoughts:

One or two daily meals with everyone together helps forge a positive group dynamic.

Help with cleanup. (Though watch out for generational pitfalls; I have been shooed out of the kitchen by my aunties, who are busy making order and visiting, and don't need a ham-handed male getting in the way. I kid you not.)

Give the guys a project or two. Men don't care to sit around and discuss their health conditions (and would likely rather slit their own throats). They'll jump at the chance to build a shelf, reshingle the garden shed, improvise an outdoor shower, you name it.

Kids (increasingly) are too used to being entertained artificially. They've forgotten how to do it on their own. An adult who's willing to spend time with them, teaching how to have fun without electronics, will be a hero to kids and parents alike. Not to mention changing the world just a little. And preventing the whining, which is a contagion like no other.

A spray bottle by the toilet or outhouse, with a bit of dish soap and a few drops of bleach, helps everyone keep things tidy.

This for introverts like me:
Maintain and respect one private space for the host. The host is not being a grouch for going off on a long walk or out to the cabin to read and have a pint in peace. He is recharging his social batteries and will be with you shortly.

Make it a Point,That the only thing seen on TV is The daily news in the morning,TV is Off-Limits otherwise!Provide plenty of Local media.i.e.-Daily newspapers,magazines,even coupons/advertisements from local stores.Keep lots of strong coffee on hand & Iced tea, as well.Eat outside on a daily basis,weather permitting.Keep a Camera handy for, the lazy moments of relatives,everyone will get a kick out of it,& Any plans that come about will be,decided upon in much quicker fashion.Fishing is Good for everyone,No age restrictions.Hang yellow jacket traps/fly traps thruout the yard.Those porta-showers from the Guide,work real well for Potty's as well,but you are definitely aware of that choice,lol!Keep everyone Full from Morning to Night,Make a Huge pot of Booya,& let everyone pitch in,Same thing with the Swedish Pancakes in the morning.Have everyone pitch in on Making Marzipan,& then bake it in many loaves of bread,feed this to the kids,as often as possible,&they will be full for the duration,hence less whining,etc.Make hand-made Ice Cream with the crank buckets,have every one lend a hand,or churn butter by hand,Keep a Vid-cam handy,these are the times when the Family secrets,are revealed!

Ah... love this We try to enforce a "no whining voice"-rule, and it really does works wonders.

Most of the things I think of are more related to what you personally should do (keep your personal stuff out of "public" areas, volunteer for breakfast/dinner/doing the dishes etc), but I can't think of any effective way of conveying those rules to the clueless who "just don't get it".

Enforce very strict TV rules, in particular if the TV dominates the most strategic place in the living room.

Make the kids go outside to play. They are just as affected as the grown-ups with being stuck that many noisy people in that little space.

Get the kids a solid breakfast. There's few thing worse than kids that are whining because they have been up for 3 hours with nothing substantial to eat. In fact, get everyone who's up at say 8:30 a solid breakfast. Each day.

There have been some great ideas expressed that I will use in the future.

I also set up the porta potty in the garage with a curtain for privacy in case someone has a number 2 emergency.

I like to feed people by age groups. Toddlers first (adults and teens serve and feed the toddlers), then teenagers (adults watch the toddlers), then the adults (while the teenagers watch the toddlers).

I try to keep people occupied, at a leisurely pace; chores during the day, board and card games in the evenings. I will send adults with teens, to take walks during the day, to do a little passive recon, check on neighbors (especially elderly neighbors).

What is Booya?

Projects - good idea, keeps the father-in-law busy when he is with us

Jigsaw puzzles are a great thing for several generations to work on at once

Food - plan lots of meals that are things like chili and pasta - big single pot meals (make sure you have some big pots!) Easy to cook (slow cooker is great and frees up hob space) and sociable to eat. If a vegetarian is among the group, you can easily do a seperate sauce for them.

Think about using more canned / dried food than normal - we find refrigerator space at a premium when we have guests, so need stuff that will store well

A long walk is a good idea at least once a day especially with a group of kids - fresh air and a chance for those left behind to have a bit of space.

Take a deliberate 'personal space' every day - defuse before you get snappy with everyone

Switching the tv off is a good idea BUT planned group watching of films or sport or whatever can also put some structure in the day

Stick to the air freshener. All the match really does is lay an even stronger stink over the original. At least the air freshener is a pleasant stink.

Thanks, those are all good tips!

A few other things that we did:

1. My folks picked up five bicycles of assorted sizes (toddler to adult) at the local Goodwill store for $7 each. The kids used them all the time.

2. Every night after supper I herded the kids down to the local playground to give the other adults some kid-free time (plus it got me out of washing dishes )

3. Breakfast and lunch were "on your own" affairs but supper was a group meal every evening. The kitchen wasn't big enough so we set up three picnic tables in a row outside to eat on...even in drizzle. If needed we had EZ-Up awnings we could have put over the tables but the weather never got that bad.

I tried repeatedly to get my mom to use disposable paper plates but she refused. Lord knows why.

-Blast

Nice, but... both my girlfriend and I prefer the smell of a burnt wood match over the smell of an air freshener. Also, a burning match eats up some of the unpleasant vapors, especially when I let the match burn for awhile and work the match around the bathroom. In contrast, an air freshener merely covers the unpleasant vapors with pleasant smelling liquid particles. That's my theory anyway, and I'm sticking with it!

Compromise: spray the air freshener on a burning match.

-Blast

To help keep people out of the kitchen set up a drinks and snacks table on the porch. Stock this with coolers full of ice for drinks, also water, tea and coffee. I'm not a fan of Koolaide and such, kids rapidly learn to drink water or tea around our place, but if you are keep pitchers of of it in the same place. This limits the numbers of trips into the kitchen. No normal ice maker will keep up so lay in a generous supply of ice before people get there.

Consider regularly putting a kid on 'drink and snack duty'. Their job is to check on the drinks and snacks and to help make/get out more as needed.

Before any big get together scatter chairs and benches in ones and twos around the property and well away from the house. Setting up areas where two or three people can have a conversation and/or escape the crowd. Make one or two of these just one chair, preferably with a decent view, and out of earshot of the house. Some people, some times, just need some time alone.

If you have a body of water at hand do have fishing poles handy. Check with fish and wildlife. Some don't require licenses for kids under a certain age and I have known rangers to give a family reunion a one-day pass for free if they were informed beforehand.

If the water is of any significance allocate an adult to act as lifeguard. Work this in shifts. Being on lifeguard duty is a fair reason to get away, or get someone away from, the crowd.

Keep several first-aid kits and fire extinguishers, a bucket of sand does less damage and is quite effective on small fires, handy. You never know when kids will get overenthusiastic and do a header down the stairs or when uncle Billy will fall asleep with a lit cigarette in his hand and try to burn the house down.

With kids outside make it a game to apply sunscreen and check for sunburn. If you press lightly with a finger and the exposed skin looks very light when pull away the skin is burned.

When I first got here, I thought your handle was just . . . imaginative.

Yet again, you've reminded me how literal it is.

If your home is likely to be overcrowded for a family reuninon or similar social event, then consider a local budget hotel.

If however one is planning to put up friends or family due to some emergency, then hotel accomadation is unlikely to be available.
Pre planning is vital, especialy as the emergency may interupt utility service, or result in empty shelves in local stores.

Keep large stocks of non perishable foods
Blankets, linens and pillows.
Plenty of large cooking pots.
Sufficient glases, plates and knives and forks.

Review secure storeage for firearms, liquor, medicines, dangerous tools, and hazardous chemicals.
Remember that those staying with you may be unaware of the hazards in your home. Keeping a loaded gun under the bed and rat poision in the kitchen cupboard MAY be OK normaly but not with visitors.
Consider the risks of utility failure, or the breakdown of a domestic appliance.
You may be able to cook for yourself on a camping stove, but for 16 ? Consider a large camp stove, or two.
What if the washing machine breaks ? for just yourself you could wash by hand or postponne laundry day , but for 16 ?
In a remote area, consider a spare washer, in a town try to keep money to hand for any urgent replacement.

Managing without electricity gets more diffecult, and possibly dangerous with a crowd, a generator is nearly essiential.

Consider spare/additional PCs, TVs, radios etc, old ones are very cheap.

I would certainly with others who suggest an outdoor urinal and shower, and vast supplies of TP.

Additional from shelter management: Write down the rules and post them. That way, everyone knows what the rules are, and if they are not following the rules, it can be pointed out. It can help diffuse things if you're pointing to a paper and not saying "because I said so". I like to explain things, and will to people who want to listen! Adults will have to remember to follow the rules too.

If bathroom time is a problem get people into the habit of giving notice before taking a shower or other time consuming action.
It is surprising how many people suddenly feel an urge to pee when they hear running water so they should all go pee before the person needing a shower turns it on.