Last Updated on February 14, 2025
Ever feel like family life is a juggling act with schedules, chores, and clutter constantly competing for your attention? One simple trick transformed the way we manage our busy household: color coding.
No, it’s not an elaborate filing system. It’s simply assigning a unique color to each family member—and using those colors across different areas of our home to streamline schedules, reduce mess, and cut down on daily chaos.
Here’s how it works and why you might want to give it a try.
Color Code Your Family to Organize Your Schedule
The first place we introduced color coding was our family calendar. I wanted a way to quickly see who had activities on any given day without decoding tiny notes or names.
How We Did It:
- Assign Colors: Each family member got a color (luckily, their favorite ones).
- Use Matching Pens: Events for each person go in their color on our calendar.
- Go Digital or Paper: We started with a wall calendar, switched to a dry-erase board, and eventually found that a weekly refrigerator calendar worked best.
👉 Pro Tip: Use a file holder with color-coded folders to store permission slips, invitations, and school papers. It saves time and arguments!
Over the years, I’ve used a variety of calendars. These three were my favorites because each of them had plenty of room to track all of our activities.
Then, you just need to buy colored pens so you can use a different ink color for each family member. Whether you like to write in ballpoint, gel ink or marker, you have plenty of options!
Over time, I moved from a paper wall calendar to a dry erase version. I liked the improved visibility since it was posted prominently on the refrigerator. This made it impossible to avoid so I was far less likely to forget important tasks or events.
Thankfully, it’s very easy to find multicolor dry erase marker sets, so it was easy to transition to this new system.
Once I had more than one child in high school and our weeks became REALLY busy, we switched to a weekly planner. We stuck with the dry erase, refrigerator version since the visibility was still just as important.
In our family command center, I also posted a wall mounted file holder. Each family member had a folder in the same color as their ink color on the calendar.
The colored folders are where we would keep important papers from school (e.g. field trip forms and reading logs), birthday party invitations, etc. This made it much easier to keep track of those items!
Color Code Your Family to Reduce Dirty Dishes
Tired of washing 15 glasses a day for a family of five? So was I—until we assigned colored cups to each person.
How It Works:
- Designate Cups by Color: Each person gets one primary cup color.
- Buy Extras: Have a backup for dishwasher days.
- Guest Prep: Choose colors not in your family’s palette or keep a neutral set for guests.
🎯 Unexpected Bonus: The kids actually used their cups more than once, cutting our dishwashing workload in half.
Drinkware
A few important notes if you decide to implement the color coded drinkware system in your home. First, make sure you order at least two of each color so that when one is in the dishwasher, each person has a clean cup/glass to use.
Second, plan for guests. Either order a set with more colors than you have family members so that the extra colors can be used for guests. Or, keep a separate set in a different style that you can use for guests.
Snackware
Once you realize how effective the color coding system is at reducing the number of cups and glasses you wash each day, you’ll probably want to invest in colored plates and bowls too. Really, I only found this effective when you have younger kids.
When your kids are teens (and older), they tend to snack right out of the fridge or pantry, bypassing plates and bowls completely. That’s why I’m only showing kids plates and bowls below.
Color Code Your Family in the Bathroom
Bathrooms are another hotspot for confusion—especially when multiple kids share one. Color-coded towels, toothbrushes, and toiletry bins turned chaos into order.
How We Did It:
- Towels: Each child got two in their signature color.
- Toothbrushes: Easy to track who forgot theirs when packing for trips.
- Storage: Individual bins eliminated arguments over who left toothpaste smears in the drawer.
🧼 Surprise Perk: My kids became more responsible for their bathroom items once they “owned” their color.
If your kids share a bathroom and you don’t want to spring for character toothbrushes, you can extend the color coding system to their toothbrushes too! When you’re traveling, this makes it really easy to spot at a glance which of your kids forgot to pack their toothbrush so you only have to send one child scurrying off to retrieve it from the bathroom before you leave.
Color Code Your Family’s Laundry
Laundry sorting became a nightmare once the kids wore similar sizes. Color coding solved that.
Our System:
- Hampers: Each child has a color-coded hamper.
- Laundry Bags: Mesh bags in their color for socks and delicates.
- Ownership: When clothes show up in the wrong basket, it’s clear who needs to pay attention.
👚 Bonus: This method naturally transitioned my kids to doing their own laundry.
Color Code to Tame Clutter
Ever had a storage bin turn into a mystery treasure chest? Assigning colors to storage containers eliminated the “that’s not mine!” debate.
How We Made It Work:
- Bins: Each kid has a bin for toys, hats, and gloves.
- Hooks: Color-coded hooks for backpacks and coats.
- Responsibility: They take better care of their bins because it’s their “domain.”
🎯 Time-Saving Hack: Label bins with the person’s name and color to help younger kids learn the system.
More Color-Coding Ideas
Once you start color coding, you’ll find endless ways to apply it. Some other ideas that have worked for us:
Here are some ways to color code your family even more:
- Drawstring bags – for sports equipment or items to keep kids occupied in the car
- Lanyards – My teens favorite keychain holder
- Thermoses/Water Bottles
- Earbuds
Better yet, you can color code ANYTHING by using labels, tape, or carabiners. Just attach the right color to any item you choose!
See my complete Amazon list of color code ideas for your home.
Color coding your family doesn’t require fancy supplies or hours of work. With a few simple changes, you can streamline your schedules, simplify household routines, and even cut down on chores like dishwashing and laundry.
Want more practical ideas to make family life easier? Check out the Home Management Planner for tools to organize your home with less stress and more ease.
💬 Have you tried color coding in your home? Share your experiences or tips in the comments—we’d love to hear what works for you!
For my 3 boys, we did towels, cups, toothbrushes, hangers since it seemed one was getting broken daily, and several were on the floor that no one would claim 🙄 then it was toothpaste in the sink 😡 it really is a heart issue when they wont own what they’ve done. I used blue, green, and red. So toothpastes were mint, spearmint, and cinnamon. Now as middle aged, a couple of the boys have moved out, but we’ve added a 6 and 9 year old, and purchased a tiny home with 1 bathroom. Organization is key. All our towels are white, so I sewed hanging loops on in different fabrics for each person so we can keep track. We also like to use decals on clear acrylic cups and they last a couple years in the dishwasher!
Thanks for sharing all of the great ways you color code in your family. What a great idea to even use different colored toothpastes! That’s smart to sew hanging loops of different fabrics on the white towels. You’re very creative!
great article! what i must have right now is some sort of color coding system for folded clothing that don’t go on hangers. Would be great to locate a device that can sew or soft-staple on a dot of color to the clothing for differentiation. Any ideas??
Look at Inchbug or namebubbles lables.
I love color coding! Now that my children are all on their own l still use the system & assign a color to family, Church, appointments, projects etc. I can tell at a glance what l have going on that day.
Thanks for taking time to share 🙂
Great idea, unless you happen to be color blind like I am! It is a more common problem than most people realize. I am female, so it is not an inherited problem. It comes from a disease I have been cursed with since childhood, Multiple Sclerosis. It runs in my mother’s side of the family.
Jeanette S. Hall , instead of color coding you could use a dots system. For example one dot for the oldest child, two dots for the second born and so forth. For dishes just different plates designs.
Corinne absolutely amazing idea, looks cool too! Adding some color with some LED robe would be awesome too…