3). Set

Set is about everything having a place. Think about those questions again...

What do you use every day and need to have at your fingertips? Those items should be on the counter or top drawers, closest to point of use.

What do you use once or twice a week? Those items can be in a drawer or out of sight, but still accessible.

What do you use infrequently or seasonally? Those items can be packed away to rotate out when you need them.

Once everything has a place, it may not stay there. Other people may use it and put it in a different place. Use the sustainment phase to evaluate if there is a better place, especially for others in your family. Remember, this is about continuous improvement.

2). Scrub

Once you have an area cleared, it is a good time for some deep cleaning. It feels better to put items away in a tidy area, plus it will help you identify if some areas gather more dust than others.

While you are cleaning, make note of specific areas that are dirtier than others.
Are they high traffic areas?
Should those areas be cleaned more frequently?
Is it caused by something that could be prevented?


Example: the shelves in my fridge get dirty faster than the drawers. Partly because some members of the family do not wipe drips off the side of a bottle, but also because frozen things sometimes leak while thawing.
I can address the dripping cause by reviewing it with my family. I can also plan to put frozen items in a bowl while defrosting in the fridge.
Either way, I will probably need to wipe off the shelves once a week, to make sure there is no buildup in the future.

5S- Organizing Your Stuff

The 5S's are an acronym for re-organizing an area or workstation so you have what you need (and just what you need) at the point of use. The intent is to clear out clutter so that everything has a designated place.

In manufacturing, we use this to organize work stations. All tools are put at the place where the operator uses it most and it has a very clear location and you can tell if it is missing. All extraneous tools and clutter are removed. Key areas of the equipment are labeled so anyone can verify visually that everything is in place and running normally.

In a home, we sometimes call this Spring Cleaning. We purge our closets of anything we have not worn in a year. We separate winter clothes to another area for next season.
This is also a good time to re-organize. In the kitchen, the tools we use frequently should be within arm's reach (knives by the cutting boards on the counter, wooden spoons and sauce pans by the stove). Those tools we rarely use (melon baller, turkey carver) can be on the lower shelves and drawers. 5S can take it to the next level, so even your husband should be able to find things and navigate around the kitchen.

The 5S's are intended to be done consecutively with the final result being a more organized and visually logical workspace.

This is the methodology that I will be using to organize my household.

5S's
1) Sort
2) Scrub
3) Set
4) Standardize
5) Sustain

Where to begin?

Whenever faced with an insurmountable task (like reducing waste from your busy life), the first thing I do is prioritize.

Where do you spend most of the time in your house?
What do you spend the most money on?
What do you spend most of your time thinking about?

For me, a new working mother, the answer is:
#1 my son and husband (living room and bedrooms)
#2 keeping the family healthy, cooking (kitchen)
So those are the areas I will start focusing on organizing and simplifying.

Next up: 5s - organizing your stuff.

What is "Lean"?

I am an engineer and I have worked in manufacturing for the last 10 years. Through those experiences, I have implemented lean manufacturing using waste reduction, six sigma and process improvement tools.

So now I have a newborn and I am in desperate need of streamlining and simplifying my everyday home life. Can I re-apply the principles of waste reduction and process improvement to my daily life?

I know, it sounds nerdy, but, hey, I am an engineer.

Let's get organized!