You have systems at work, how are your systems at home?
Work is often about logistics and creating streamlined systems to get tasks completed quickly and efficiently. What if you were to apply this to your own home?
If your home life is in imbalance, leaning toward chaos and mess, it may be time to restore your sanity and balance in home-life. Maybe you used to have systems, but things have slipped due to work and other life distractions. Systems are a way of getting a handle on things and giving you more time and less stress to enjoy home leisure.
Home Systems can be applied to:
food shopping and errands
cleaning tasks and routines
household DIY and maintenance
gardening maintenance
clothes laundering and drying
an organised home office space
bill paying
finances
tax
breakfast/lunch/dinner planning and preparation
commitments to your children in terms of sports, activities and education
your responsibility to your pets - food, walking, vet checks
vehicle maintenance
When designing a home system, use the following methods:
1. Take one of the areas above and plan your new system to manage it. Focus on one system at a time until you feel comfortable that it’s working before taking on another system.
2. Label your system, just as you would in the workplace, to make it official and specific.
3. If the system takes place in an area, write the sequence down in simplified steps so every member of the household who is old enough, can follow it.
4. Try and set a day and time for each system to occur so that it is easily planned for and expected. It will save you valuable time and not interrupt your other plans.
5. Use sorting routines to make your system more efficient. For physical items, designate spaces and containers, for digital activities, designate specific programmes and forms.
6. Be consistent with the system for a designated period of time, 3 months is ideal, without any changes except to immediate and obvious issues with the system. People tend to quickly give up on things as they feel uncomfortable with change, at first.
7. Review your system after 3 months. Has it embedded successfully into your lifestyle? Does it need to be tweaked? Have circumstances change that mean you no longer need this system?
Here are some examples of home systems and how they can be streamlined:
Food Shopping System
Un-systemised Scenario: You need to shop for a week’s worth of food and head out to the supermarket. When you arrive home, you realise that you have forgotten to buy breakfast cereal and toilet paper and some other bits and pieces. The very next day, you go to a smaller store to buy what you missed on the first day. In fact, you find yourself making many visits to smaller stores during the week.
Systemised:
You run a shopping list where you and your family/housemates add items to during the week; perhaps displayed on the fridge or written in a shared note accessed on your household smartphones.
You use clear containers and jars for as many food goods as possible, so that you can visibly see what needs topping up.
Before shopping day, you plan your meals menu for the following week and add the needed ingredients to your shopping list, so that there is a reduced chance of missing anything.
You plan your shopping around one chosen day.
Finance/Bills System
Un-systemised Scenario: You bills are left in a pile or spread around your house. You often find yourself paying them last minute with no plan or budget in place. Sometimes, you are caught out by payment warnings or final payment threats. You find yourself having to interrupt your planned days activities running around making payments at your inconvenience and stress.
Systemised:
You have used your recent and previous years bank statements to schedule in all expected bill deadlines for annual, monthly and weekly expenses and have recorded these on a physical calendar or your digital calendar.
You have created a budget including your income, savings, expenses and an emergency fund for any unexpected expenses such as breakdowns or replacements.
You use an envelope system, either physically with cash or digitally with your accounts, where you put aside funds ready for payments. Labels might include Gas/Electricity, Water, Council Fees, Leisure/Health, Education/Learning Fees, Entertainment allowance, Fuel, Shopping, Saving, Spending, Emergency Fund etc.
You designate a time each week to maintain your money and plan for financial events.
Clothing and Laundry System
Un-systemised Scenario: Clothes are left around the house without having a home to return them to or a laundry system to sort them in. Cleaned laundry doesn’t get put away after drying and ends up in piles. Dirty clothes are confused with clean clothes. Your house looks like an eternal large laundry. Sudden ironing is done in the morning before going to work as you find your clothes wrinkled and are worried about the impression you will make, adding to a stressful morning routine.
Systemised:
As soon as you enter your house, your shoes go into a set place and your coats and accessories are also returned to their home space.
When you take your clothes off each night, you hang them in their appropriate place (if they are still clean) or put them straight into your laundry basket.
In your laundry space, you separate your whites from your colours in separate baskets/bins/containers.
After your clothes are cleaned and dried, you place the clothes into separate containers with lids labelled with the name of the person they belong to (if you have a larger family). This goes to their room to be sorted into their drawers or closets. The tub can also double up as a dirty laundry depository.
The above point can be delegated to each household member if they are old enough. They can also take the tub down to the laundry and sort the clothes themselves, ready for wash.
You may opt for a specific laundry day/s.
There are many ways you can systemise and optimise your home. It does not matter how you choose to do it, as long as it saves you time, money and stress. A balanced household is the place where you are meant to re-charge and rest, ready for what the outside world brings.
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