Dirty dishes, a cleaning schedule that is not adhered to, and an unhappy family? Time to organize your home more sustainably. Not only will you keep things tidy, but you’ll also be able to concentrate on the essentials.
After the end of the working day and the study or work day, there is usually the “everyday work”: bills need to be paid, cooking, tidying up, or putting the children to bed at home. The windows need to be cleaned again, the garbage has been waiting for days to be disposed of and where is the remote control again? In the end, you are annoyed, stressed, and dissatisfied.
We’ll give you a few tips to help you organize your household better in the long term.
Organize the household: From frustration to flow
In some sectors of the working world, a management method known as “lean” has become established. It originated in Japan and is based on seven basic assumptions:
- Create quality in the value chain (Jidoka)
- Continuous improvement (Kaizen)
- Reflect regularly (Hansei)
In contrast to the economy, household organization is not about money when it comes to maximizing profits. The currency in which a functioning household pays off for you and your family is: security, self-fulfilment, peace, time or community.
This is exactly where Swedish journalist Eva Jarlsdotter comes in by applying the seven principles to her everyday life and household. We have read her book “From frustration to flow with lean@home” and put together the best tips to help you organize your household more easily.
KEEP THINGS TIDY
Find out where you can improve your household planning. While financial structures set the framework in business, within the family you have to decide for yourself what is valuable for you and your life together. It is just as important to identify costumeplayhub those areas in which a lot of the “added value” in the household is lost (Jidoka).
Step 1: Determine which tasks in your household are going well and where routine order prevails. What can you learn from this and how can you transfer these successes to other areas?
Step 2: Choose the most important area in your household organization that needs change. This is where you start. If you are undecided, you can determine the so-called “demand coverage efficiency”:
How much time passes before a dirty blouse is washed, dried and ironed in your closet? Let’s say 14 days (336 hours). That’s the cycle time.
How much of this time is actually spent working, i.e. washing, drying or ironing clothes? Let’s say four hours. That’s the productive time.
Then your efficiency in the “laundry” area is one percent (productive time divided by throughput time, 4/336 = 0.01).
Step 3: Analyze exactly and honestly why your chosen area is so unproductive by asking “Why?” five times. (the so-called hadome of the Japanese method) five times, for example:
- Why do you dispose of so much food? – Because the children don’t finish their food.
- Why don’t the children finish their dinner? – Because we are late for supper and so they snack beforehand.
- Why is it too late for supper? Because we shop quickly beforehand as there is no food in the house.
- Why is there so much spontaneous shopping? – Because we don’t like bulk shopping on Saturday.
- Why …?
STEP BY STEP
Everyone feels (dis)organized differently. Think about exactly where bottlenecks, obstacles and waiting times are in your “household chain”. After all, these are usually the things that make you unproductive and create inner hogs. Organize your household according to your individual needs:
Are you missing a cordless drill or a screwdriver to finally install the spice rack? Then this is the blocking bottleneck you can fix.
Are you the only person in your household who can mend bicycle inner tubes? Then teach your family members so that they no longer have to wait for you.
What’s stopping you from taking out the trash? If you always forget in the morning, write yourself a reminder note and pin it to the front door.
Sketch a target picture. How clean do you want your living room to be? Metaphorically speaking, do you want to be able to eat off the floor or are you happy if the sofa table is tidy? Then: What do you need in concrete terms to achieve this goal?
Work your way forward gradually, because nobody has to be perfect. It’s about trying out measures, learning and continuing to try them out. For example, if you remove limescale from the tap with vinegar, first try the usual dose in the cleaning water (read also: Taps and aerators: Descaling and cleaning with household remedies). If this is not enough, rub the calcified areas directly with vinegar essence. If that doesn’t help either, leave the essence to work overnight.
Create the right framework and conditions for your measures. If you have opted for better waste separation and recycling, get the appropriate containers. If you want to practise yoga at home, get the yoga mat out of the storage room. When you plant your flower boxes, don’t take your smartphone with you so that you can’t be interrupted.
