Hate Housework? You can DO LESS with systems!

there are people whose passion is homemaking they love cooking they love cleaning they love making their homework for their family that is not me is this a minimalist kitchen or does she just not have anything to use to cook with so what do you do if you want to spend less time and energy on managing a home you use systems hi I'm Julie I'm your systems gal and I help family set up systems at home that are timesaving energy giving and peacing so confession time I have a pretty organized house but I don't do home organization for fun I'm not decanting Tide Pods for aesthetic pleasure or Instagram reels I am practical I use systems to save mental energy and have more time for the stuff I like like playing games with my kiddo or reading a book or not cooking honestly anything but cooking so if you're like me this video is going to help you out today today I'm going to talk about what a system is the types of systems you could use to get it together at home what the elements of a system are and the way to make it work for you okay are you ready here we [Music] go so what is a system it is just a repeated way of doing something in your home that minimizes stress saves you time and gives you energy that's it it's not that complicated but putting them in place knowing when to put them in place and keeping them going is is something else challenging maybe so let me tell you systems have these elements they have a goal they have a cue either to start the system or to keep it up they have clear steps that you do the same way every time and they have a standard like a way you want it to look or be when you're done okay that's it now let's think about some examples think about your junk drawer there's no goal there's no trigger there's no action steps and no upkeep queue and no standard let's just be honest to contrast with a junk drawer think about this drawer this drawer is inside my command center its goal is to provide a designated Landing space for items I regularly need in this location the trigger for using it is that it's in the right place it's right by the front door and it's easily accessible so whenever I want something from there I just open up the drawer I can see everything I need and the right items are here for the purpose of going in and out of the front door there's an upkeep Quee so if I start just throwing things in here it gets messy that's my cue to reorganize it and it's a really simple system but you can see why it's different than a junk drawer if I had a junk drawer in the front of my house right by the front door it might contain a lot of stuff that I don't need there uh but that I've shoved in there for the purpose of just getting it off the counter that is not the purpose of this drawer this drawer purpose is so I can open it and get things I always need here at the front door listen I am not opposed to a junk drawer if you want a junk drawer you should have a junk drawer but at least make it a system at least make your junk drawer have a purpose and if that purpose is just clearing off the counters I support you just what are you going to do to empty out that junk drawer okay just think about it let's take a more complicated system like meal prep if your system for meal prep is oh my gosh we don't have anything to eat tonight we better cook let's look and see what we have to cook that's actually a fine system if you don't mind the system of I'm cued to do this system when we don't have something planned for dinner most folks want something more comprehensive than that because when you are trying to cook maybe you don't have everything you need blah blah blah A system that would help reduce your stress would look different right a meal prep system that was connected to other systems in your home was um really working to reduce the stress and the time it takes to meal prep it would look different than oh my gosh we don't have food tonight let's cook okay so my my system is going to be really different than yours I am sure but this is the way my system works the goal is eight meals in the fridge that I can use for lunches and dinners for myself and groceries loaded in the fridge of things that my kid likes those are my goals for meal prep I need that done usually by Monday of every week so the trigger for that is that a Meal box arrives every Sunday for me and it's one of those meal boxes where there's two recipes and there's four servings of each and when that box arrives it cues me to do my grocery shopping on Sunday and then I cook it on Sunday night now uh I will say that the standard of having eight meals and groceries loaded up in the fridge is something that my daughter has come to count on and so have I so that is my system I want to take a second and say your system could look really different you may have a larger family you may have bigger needs you may have dietary restrictions you may have all different things going on with meal prep but the point is to create create a system a routine that you and your family do that could be something that you count on every week and you don't have to use so much brain space every single week to make it happen a system could be anything it could be a routine that you do it could be a physical location and how it's set up or it could be like an automation running in the background that you set and forget any of that I would call a system so like our kitchen table is a system just the way it's set up so I have a tray and on that tray there are frequently used condiments there's pencil in a notepad and then there are landing spot bowls these are bowls we put things that belong to me or my daughter that are lying on the kitchen table so when I'm cleaning up at night anything left here that belongs to one of us can go right in those Bowls the most frequent item I think hair ties uh so underneath the tray is a basket of napkins and next to the tray is a bowl of fruit and vegetables that we're trying to eat right away unless we're working or we're doing homework the table is otherwise clear because this tray setup is a physical system it's just a bunch of containers organized together but they have a goal they have steps and they have cues for when they need upkeep everyone in the house uses it the same way and it happens to be kept up like that every single day that's a system okay it's not that complicated it's just a system systems do have requirements my systems have requirements here they are simple sharable connected easy to keep up that's it simple the steps need to be the fastest way to do the thing not the most complicated way okay and sharable this is what makes system special when you do something the same way every time and everyone in your house agrees they could do it too so if you're drowning in chores or you feel like you're the only one who helps out around the house systems are your way out at first you have to teach teach the system but eventually the system runs Without You supervising or explaining it just becomes the way your family does it right and that can help you relieve some of the pressure of feeling like you're the only one that does anything at the house right so a major requirement for a system to be excellent is that it's sharable another requirement is that a system is connected to other systems in the home our meal prep system it's connected to our house cleaners to our nighttime schedule and to our meal prep delivery box the house cleaners who help me come on Mondays meal prep day is Sunday and sometimes Monday if I'm too busy but the benefit of doing it on Sunday is that the house cleaners can clean up Monday morning anything I didn't clean up that makes my clean up much less intense I only cook one day a week so having the kitchen professionally clean Monday morning makes me feel like I got a little incentive or bonus for meal prepping on Sunday when I was planning to do it I think of it like a little motivator to do it on Sunday when I don't feel like it it's like yeah but it'll take less time because the ladies coming on Monday morning can help you out a little now this may not work for you you might cook all the time you might love cooking and you might think a system like this is just too utilitarian that's fine your system could look completely different I don't enjoy cooking but it's kind of a requirement for running a house and I'm the only adult here so I have to do it I found a system makes it much less painful and takes less time time there are also things like this in your house you don't like to do but it's a requirement no moral judgment from me make a system that makes it easy on you another requirement about a system is about time and energy the system's steps should be the simplest way to achieve the goal don't make it complicated just because it's a system doesn't mean you're going to actually do it it needs to be simple and quickly achievable if you put a 10p part system in place and you're so excited about it it and you think that excitement is going to propel you to do the system that'll last a few weeks then it's just a chore make it simple okay make it simple here's the reason why you want to keep it as simple as possible think about a routine or a system that you have no problem doing brushing your teeth putting lotion on after a shower whatever it is you probably could do it while holding a conversation listening to a podcast talking to your kids it doesn't take any brain energy at all because you've done it the same way every day your whole life and the muscle memory carries you through a lot of time those are routines our parents taught us to do or made us do my 9-year-old still needs reminders to brush her teeth but hopefully soon it will be a daily routine she does on autopilot that comes with a simple system that gets repeated the same way every time if you're creating a 24o plan to get the laundry done and every time you do it it takes brain energy to remember the process that is not a system okay okay we're working to reduce the amount of work your brain has to do to do all the stuff in your house so let's talk about customizing your systems so this is about knowing yourself a system that works for me might not work for your brain or the brains of the people in your house so first of all think about what is already working in your house think about a system in your house that runs well everybody does it the same way and it stays relatively stable and kept up that is the kind of system that works for you and for your family replicating that kind of system will work in other rooms with other tasks to make a system stick you're going to identify your systems style let's let's find out a little bit about your systems personality first what cues you to do a task are you visual like if you see something it'll cue you or are you somebody who's like I can't really see anything in my house if it's on the wall if it's on the fridge whatever I like doing it every day at the same time or are you someone who likes to have a certain day where they do all their chores or all their systems and then the rest of the week they don't think about it so maybe their laundry system is a Monday system maybe their meal prep system is a Tuesday system I don't know how your brain works use this information about what cues you to create your system because the number one thing I see with families implementing systems is that they last a week and then they don't last anymore because nothing is really queuing the action it's all very well and good to make a system but if you can't keep it up it's it's not why why just why do it okay the second thing about your systems personality are you an always doing upkeep person or are you a schedule upkeep person knowing this about yourself is maybe one of the most important things matching your system to your personality around upkeep is going to be really critical so I like to do upkeep in my house when I feel like it and then for deeper things it's later uh let me explain so I have a system in the kitchen which I talked about before where I can keep the kitchen table cleared off every day and those bowls allow me to distribute all the miscellaneous stuff that doesn't belong there at a later time when I feel like it so the cue for that is that the bowl is full if you like to schedule 5 minutes every day to clean up and keep up your systems you can set them up like that so they get daily upkeep the third thing about your systems personality is can you delegate think about who you can delegate to in your house and how you'd make a system work for them or everyone so if you want to see my command center system which batches together a lot of systems in your house check out this video and dive a little deeper into making systems work for you and batching them together which is like the best way to do it you can find out a lot more about command centers and take my free Workshop to learn how to set one up at your house comment below your favorite system at home and if you're feeling generous like And subscribe so you get notified when I put a new video up and thanks for watching [Music] no [Music]

Channel: The Bossy House

Views: 4,664

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Id: Bg97CZQlzWs

Length: 14min 5sec (845 seconds)

Published: Wed May 15 2024