How to manage an 8 sim household?

I try to avoid the larger households, but when I do have them, I will pause the game, and click on what I want each sim to do. I will have one sim prepare a couple of large group meals, and place them in the refrigerator. This way in the mornings, before sims have to go to school, and work, they can eat, or eat when they are hungry and the meal is not ready yet.

With a household of 8, the PAUSE button is your best friend.

I agree with the pause button. I am playing a household of 7- 2 Adults, 3 children, and 2 toddlers. 1 of the children and 1 of the toddlers are getting ready to age up. Basically, I really wanted them to have a girl and all 5 kids ended up being boys. Not sure if I want them to try again, but if I do it will be a little later. I dont like playing more than 2 toddlers at once if I can help it. I am just constantly rotating between all of them, and once I know their needs are met, I focus on one or two sims at a time while the others skill build. It can be a little overwhelming if all their needs need help at once, and thats when I pause. I make them all eat at the same time though, and that does help tremendously.

It's funny thinking on it now I've not played an 8 sim family in the sims 4 yet despite having hundreades of hours in it. Though I guess with my legacy family currently being at 7 sims in the house I'll know this chaos soon. Thankfully no toddlers in this chaos!

My biggest households are my favorites! The pause button is used a lot, but I love my big families. However the ever annoying Sims 4 toddlers have kind of acted as a birth control for my sims. I hate the toddlers! I love them, but they are so needy! Perhaps no children should ever be in my future! :)

I enjoy having the big households but it seems to lag more and load the household slower. I have a decent computer but still seems to do it.

I find having a fixed schedule helps a lot. Once you've found an optimal daily routine, stick to it.
This way you spend less time monitoring needs, since they go down at the same speed as the day before.
Except fun, I can never reliably schedule fun, it depends on what happened at work.

Have waking up hours. Know who gets up first (because they work earlier than others or because they have to cook) and who can sleep late, who has time to shower in the morning and who will have to wait for an evening bath, which bathrooms are occupied when so the shifts are seamless.

Adapt their needs to the furniture. Your kid is up too early and gets tired too fast because of it ? Change their bed for one with less energy. One bathroom is never empty because sims take too long to bathe ? Upgrade the tub.
Always make sure there are snacks in the fridge, like cookies, so a hungry sim can wait till dinner.
Have your early riser sims energized (coffee or shower) in the morning so they can get through the longer waking hours.
Make sure there is plenty of entertainment ! That's the biggest need to fill once you have a working schedule. Make time for hobbies.

Don't have a sim eat a full meal in the afternoon, or go to sleep in the middle of the day. That's a sure way to throw off the schedule.
Capitalize on evenings being the important moment of the day. If all your sims are awake and fully active by 6am that's useless, they'll be tired by the time they come home. Have worse beds or send them to bed later at night.

Learn what works for your household ! Not all sims work a 9-to-5.

I micromanage all my sims like that and barely look at their needs anymore. I have more time to actually enjoy the game and try new experiences because the boring needs to fill are out of the way.

I use two mods though, the command center with time speed slowed at half, and a faster eating mod.

I give my sims hobbies and dreams if I think my child sim to my an artist I would improve on that skill, I mostly have my house family proof so I have a basement only for skill building and of course my sims are occupied with their jobs.

I have 2 parents, 5 kids, and one baby. I started by hiring a maid and a nanny whole I made the parents fall in love and elope. I lock the kids in their rooms at night to keep them from running from the monster. (3 story house I can lose track of them and nights are long if they're not all asleep)

I pause and first thing start one Sims tasks then the next. With the kids I'm mostly concerned they do their schoolwork. Put it out on desks and lock them in a study until done. Then suquentially let them out and start their asperation tasks.

Also take some Sims to the park or what not and leave them there ( click a Sim that's at homes lightning bolt icon and switch control) then I have less to manage on really hectic days! Also it's faster to bring them home this way, as I select bring Sim here. Same for getting the whole household somewhere. Travel with max amount and bring the rest once there!

Make sure to have the autonomy turned completely off. It'll make things easier.