The Duggars: 20 and Counting!: Raising One of America's Largest Families--How they Do It (Paperback)

by Jim Bob Duggar (Author), Michelle Duggar (Author)
Key Phrases: chore packs, organization tips, blanket time, Jim Bob, Johnson Road, House Built (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The Duggars: 20 and Counting! is a behind-the-scenes look at the supersize family that fascinates millions of television viewers around the world. From Idaho to Istanbul, people want to know how Arkansas parents Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar efficiently and lovingly manage seventeen (soon to be eighteen) happy, homeschooled children without going into debt -- or losing their minds!

This, the Duggars' first book, is an entertaining and enlightening collection of stories, photos, recipes, tips, traditions, and practical ideas designed to answer the questions of the curious, such as:

- Why do you have so many children?

- How do you provide for your family financially?

- How do you handle mealtimes? Transportation? Laundry? Birthdays?

- How are your children so well behaved?

- Why do all your children have names that begin with J?

Since their first documentary broke viewership records on the Discovery Health Channel, the Duggars have appeared in American and international news media, sharing their rock-solid faith and their overriding belief that "children are a blessing from God." In these pages, Jim Bob and Michelle share their story, beginning with their own childhoods. They reveal how their growing-up years shaped their philosophy of parenting. It continues with tales of their big, busy family, whose televised documentaries and frequent appearances in news shows and newspapers have created an international following.

The Duggars share, with humility and humor, the family routines and guidelines they've learned through biblical study and trial and error -- ideas that can help make your home a place of peace, love, and support:

- Financial lessons for debt-free living

- Organizing systems for a clutter-free home

- Homeschooling methods and schedules

- Training tips for little ones

- Relationship builders for older children

- Favorite Duggar family resources

Reading The Duggars: 20 and Counting! is like visiting this big, busy family right in their home: fascinating, inspiring -- and fun.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Organization Tips Our Sanity

Systems, Schedules, and Methods That Work for Us

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.
-- Ecclesiastes 3:1

We've come a long way since those days when there were seven of us living in the nine-hundred-square-foot car-lot house. After living there for seven years, our next house on Johnson Road seemed like a mansion. It had three bedrooms, two baths -- and a Laundromat!

While we were living back at the car lot, Michelle had managed our family's laundry with a single washer and dryer. But in the wintertime, the washer, which was out in a detached garage, would freeze up. Then she would have to carry all the family's dirty clothes to a self-service laundry in town.

It was a chore, loading all the baskets in and out of the car, in and out of the storefront laundry, and then back to the house while sometimes having to also corral a bunch of children. But there was an upside too: it took less than half the time to do the laundry, because while she was there, she could use multiple washers and dryers.

That gave me (Jim Bob) the idea of having our own Laundromat right at our house. I suggested to Michelle that we install two washers and three dryers in the Johnson Road house as we were remodeling it before we moved in.

She thought I was crazy. What family has two washers and three dryers in their home? But after we talked about it a little more, she agreed it could be a timesaver. So, over the year of the remodeling project, we watched for opportunities to buy high-quality used washers and dryers, and we've had our own Duggar family Laundromat ever since. (Now we have four washers and four dryers.)It may have been that first set of multiple laundry appliances that helped us realize, with five children and possibly more in the future, we needed to live differently from other families, who had only two or three children. We started looking for ideas and innovative ways to make the household run more efficiently. In this chapter, we'll share some of the organization tips, systems, and schedules that keep our household running smoothly.

Up, Away, and Out of Sight

I (Michelle) am not a natural-born organizer, as some may be. But when we were living in the little house at the car lot and preparing to move to the Johnson Road house, I realized I had to get organized or I would go under. Someone recommended Emilie Barnes's book Survival for Busy Women, and I'm still using the methods and ideas that book taught me. After reading the book, I immediately started implementing Emilie's great tips for getting organized, including her system for simplifying a household move. The ideas I'm sharing here are based on or adapted from her ideas.

If you ask me, homes for big families, or maybe any size families, need almost as much storage space as living space. My goal has always been to keep most things like toys, games, books, and equipment out of sight and out of reach but easy to access. That plan keeps stored-away things out of the children's minds, so when they aren't using an item, they often forget about it. Then when we bring it out again, it's like receiving a new gift at Christmastime; they are so excited about playing with it again. Plus, it's something that hasn't been underfoot all the time. That practice, along with the children's lack of exposure to broadcast television advertisements promoting the latest new toy or game, keeps them from constantly asking to buy new toys and games. Another reward was that little hands or eyes were not reaching for or seeing those packed-away, out-of-reach items. I wasn't constantly tripping over things the little ones had pulled out -- or at least not as many things as I tripped over before! Emilie's system made things much easier.

Moving Methods

Although we had "only" five children when we moved to the Johnson Road house, we had a lot of stuff, and moving it all when the remodeling was finished was going to be a really big job. It took us nearly a year to finish the remodeling, though, so I had lots of time to get packed. We were hoping to move before Jessa was born, and I met my goal of having everything packed a month before she was due in November 1992.

As it turned out, however, we didn't move until March 1993, so during those last few months at the car-lot house, we were living with the bare minimum while most of our belongings were packed in boxes. Emilie's system made that possible, and I loved getting a taste of how good it feels to have an uncluttered house! All the boxes were packed, labeled, and neatly stacked in a back room, ready for the move, but accessible in the meantime. Here's how we got organized for that move, and how we've stayed organized ever since.

1-2-3, GO!

1. Sort

The first step in getting organized, either for a move or just to simplify your life, is getting rid of stuff you don't need. If you move something you don't need, it can stay unused in a box somewhere for years, taking up space and adding clutter to your life. So I followed Emilie's suggestion to start by spending fifteen minutes at a time, cleaning out and packing one closet, one drawer, one shelf, one something.

You'll need three black plastic garbage bags. (It's important that you can't see through the bags so you won't be tempted to retrieve something from a bag once you've already sorted it.) One bag is for the stuff you're going to throw away. The second bag is for the things you're going to give away or sell at a yard sale. The third bag is for the items you're going to keep, either putting them back in the closet or drawer if you're simply organizing, or packing them into a box if you're moving.

If you're busy (as most moms of young children are), make it your goal to work just fifteen minutes at a time. It can seem overwhelming if you think you have to organize or pack a whole room at once, but knowing you're just going to work at it for fifteen minutes makes it seem more doable. Sometimes I would even set a kitchen timer so I knew when the fifteen minutes were up. Then I walked away until the next time I had fifteen minutes free.

Once you've sorted out that drawer or closet, you're ready to pack the keepers into a box. Even though it cost some money at a time when we were saving every penny possible, I chose to buy cardboard file-storage boxes with lids that were all the same size so they would stack easily and could be labeled clearly. I didn't want to use clear plastic boxes because I didn't want the children to be able to see what was inside and be tempted to dig stuff out.

2. Label Boxes and Corresponding Index Cards

The most important part about packing for moving or for storage is labeling the boxes according to an organized system and recording the contents on index cards. Yes, this takes a little time and is a bit tedious, and a lot of people skip this step. But it's absolutely crucial, especially if you're packing well ahead of your move, as I was.

Using a felt-tip marker, I color coded every box at the upper corner to show what room it went in. Then, on its corresponding file card, I used the same color to fill in a triangle covering the upper corner. I put these cards in a little recipe box. The color coding made it easy to see that like-colored boxes were stacked together when we moved them to the new house, with each color going to the appropriate room, right from the get-go. We didn't have to move the boxes again once we got them to the new house.

Each box was also clearly numbered. And on the index card numbered to correspond to that box, I wrote down each item I packed in that box. I wrote at the top of the card where the box was stored: in the pantry, the garage, or one of the bedrooms. I wrote everything in pencil so that later I could erase things that were removed from the box.

The system worked wonderfully when we moved, but it also made life lots easier before we moved. For instance, we were all packed up in November but didn't move until March so when we were hosting a big Thanksgiving dinner, I could get out the card file, go through the cards that were color coded for the kitchen, and easily find the big platter I wanted to use for the turkey. The system eliminated having to unpack and dig through twenty kitchen boxes. I would say to one of the older children, "Please go get box number twenty-three from the pantry shelf and bring it to me."

I packed seasonal things like Christmas decorations in those boxes for moving, and many of those decorations have been in those boxes or others like them ever since! The cards and the color-coded system let us know exactly which boxes contain specific Christmas things. So if I want to set out something early, like the ceramic Christmas tree that is a keepsake from my mother, I can send one of the kids to get box fifty-four out of the garage.

We asked a friend to design and build shelves in the pantry and laundry room at our Johnson Road house to custom fit the box system. This one thing helped tremendously to keep our cabinets and shelves clutter-free and much more organized. Every time I would go to get something out of a cabinet, I wasn't reaching around or knocking over items I used only occasionally to get to the one item I was really after.

We're still using the same system. Now we also store folded off-season clothing in labeled and color-coded boxes. Hanging off-season clothes go to an out-of-the-way closet.

3. Write in Pencil So You Can Weed Out

The system was also helpful in weeding out things we didn't need when it was time to move out of the Johnson Road house twelve years later. I went through the cards and put a little check by all the things I wanted to get rid of: items that were obsolete or those we had outgrown or no longer used. Or, if I planned to pass along items to other families that I knew could use them, I wrote their names beside the item on the card. And when it was time for a garage sale, I would tell the children which boxes we needed so we...

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Howard Books (December 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 141658563X
• ISBN-13: 978-1416585633
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (103 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,805 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

88 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lots of background info not in the shows!, November 28, 2008

By	F. Tregay (Illinois) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I had my library order this book for me for their collection, and it arrived early (hence the review before publication date). I read the book in a few hours today. It is quite an interesting read with lots of information that has never been included in their television specials. The Duggars write about their political run, child rearing philosphies, daily schedule, organizing and chore methods, their businesses (past and present), and many more topics.

There are many recipes and pictures with captions (some from before they had any kids) scattered throughout the book. Most of the recipes are available on their family website, though. The Duggars even included a floor plan of their home which cleared up some confusion for me as to where things were located after watching their tv shows.

I was surprised to read that even though their home was professionally decorated by Discovery Health/TLC, there were a couple of things not included/completed in their home their first year that many of us would not want to live without in our own homes. They had to save up to afford them. I think some of us probably get the wrong impression from their shows that they have a lot of money in the bank. After reading the book I believe that they really are frugal and need to be to provide for their family.

I wish the book had included more information on how they really live frugally today. Possibly some information on the menus they follow to budget food expenses or more overall budget/expense information on how they truly afford 17+ kids, would have made an interesting addition. Also, there is only a little tidbit about the girls' "dress code". I wish they had included more information about how they came to decide on it and when they started the modest dress code.

It was overall an interesting read and gave me a more complete understanding of this large God fearing family.

46 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most honest book I've ever read, December 3, 2008

By	Lolagranola "lolagranola91" (Rural Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

I'm only half way through and I do love the Duggar's - but I have to say I cannot believe how frank and honest they are in this book - all the critiscims people have made of their family like "why doesn't Michelle breastfeed for birthcontrol?" - these are all addressed in the book. Also I'm ashamed to admit I assumed they had inherited money and that they got health insurance from Jim Bob's brief stint in the house of Reps - wrong wrong wrong - they are incredibly frugal and always have been - they started out with nothing married as teenagers and have saved and scrimped until they came to the relative financial security they have today (not wealth, security) - also they have a health insurance plan with high deductibles to make it more affordable - once again - I'm astounded they shared all these very personal details. I am absolutely loving this book and can't wait to finish.

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I am impressed and grateful for this book!, December 26, 2008

By	Leocea M. Mclanahan "Lea" (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this book recently, and it is just wonderful.
Anyone who thought that they are weird, closeted religious fanatics will change their minds if they read this. Michelle and JimBob *are* strong Christians, with a conviction to allow God to control their family size. This does not mean that they breed like animals or take fertility drugs to have as many children as they can. Instead, they enjoy each other, and enjoy their life together. What this means is that if God has chosen for this one to be the last, they will accept it, and not go to extraordinary lengths to achieve a pregnancy. They will also welcome with open arms any children God blesses them with. This is really not an unusual viewpoint to have today, believe it or not. It IS hard to do. I know, because I and many of my friends follow a life that does not include artificial birth control. Michelle is one of the lucky ones. Out of 19 pregnancies, she has 18 children. Most of us have much smaller families. I have four, and I know several with less than five. The average seems to be 6 or 7. Please don't assume that those of us with many less children don't believe in the same thing! We just weren't blessed with that number of full-term births.
Reading this book, I am struck by the real-life education that these children are receiving. The children have been involved in their family businesses since birth! They have real skills, including building a house (!), that most video-playing, couch potato children of today are lacking. They will be ready for their adult lives when the time comes. I am sure that employers will line up to hire these honest, hard-working young men and women. They can only be a benefit to society.
I am a fan, obviously, but even I was amazed at how much more *normal* they seem compared to the tv show. I didn't know that the reason they are debt-free was simple hard work and planning. I didn't know that the tv show did NOT finish their house completely. That they went a whole year after moving in without air conditioning, until they saved up for it!!! Ditto for a yard. The show is NOT how they paid for their house, or why they can afford their children. Remember, the show was 15 and pregnant again. They had 15 children when they first had a show! They were supporting them themselves.
Instead of criticizing these people, read the book and find out the truth. They are a hard-working, good-natured couple who have been blessed abundantly, and are generous enough to share it with others. I recommend this book for everyone. It will open your eyes to a lifestyle that is a true blessing to everyone.