Top Five Reasons to Have Systems for Your Home

When I started Wildely Organized, I wanted to help families have more time in their day. As I’ve been working as a professional organizer for the past couple of years, I have found that systems are the most impactful part of my work. I can organize everything to look pretty, but if there aren’t systems to keep everything organized, it was all for nothing. 

The dictionary defines a system as a set of principles or procedures according to which something is done; an organized framework or method.

In my work, I use systems as procedures to get things done. Whether it’s a system for putting away your groceries and keeping them organized or a system for you children to follow when they get home from school, each one is to help your home run smoothly and gain more time (and sanity) back into your day.

I could explain all the systems that I use in my home, but I think the more important part is why systems work and why you should have them. I have come up with my top 5 reasons to have systems in your home.

1 Minimize Decision Fatigue by Implementing Systems in Your Home

Decisions are tough on you mentally. The more decisions you make in a day, the harder it is to make decisions later in the day.

Has your significant other ever asked what you want for dinner and you just respond with “I don’t care”? That’s probably because you have used up all your decision making energy and don’t want to make a decision tonight. Or have you ever snapped at your kids late in the afternoon? That’s because you’re tired from making the right decisions all day long and it is hard to make the decision to remain calm when they are also not making good decisions.

When you create systems for your home, you remove that decision fatigue. 

If you have a system for breakfast before school in the morning, you don’t have to make a decision about what and how to make breakfast. If you have a system for picking out your clothes for the day, you don’t have to use that decision power to get dressed. I wear the same thing every day (just different colors) so I don’t have to decide what to wear. I also try to take out my clothes the night before so it’s even easier for me!

Having systems at the beginning of the day helps save some of that decision making power for later in the day. However, I am still making many decisions during the day and using up that power, so my most important systems are for the end of the day!

We have systems for the kids when they get home from school, when they get to watch TV and getting ready for bed. Because let’s be honest, if that was left up to me, they would watch TV all afternoon and go to bed without brushing their teeth (I am also definitely a morning person so evenings are NOT my best time!).

I also have a system for going to bed myself. I have a bedtime routine that is non negotiable, starting with when I start my bedtime routine, 8:30 pm. I do not stay up and watch extra shows or scroll instagram late into the night. I find sleep super important and don’t compromise on that routine for myself. I have no decision making power left at the end of the day (for those of y’all who know me personally, you know I don’t do anything past 7 pm!). Having a routine keeps me doing what I need to do to set myself up for a successful day tomorrow!

2 Keep Your Home Tidy with Daily and Weekly Reset Routines

Visual clutter creates mental clutter.

You might have heard this phrase before. If you are someone who gets overwhelmed walking into a messy house, this is you! If you have a cluttered house and you feel stressed at home, this might also be you!

The best way to ease the visual clutter in your home is to create systems for clearing it. I clear clutter daily and weekly resets. These two routines keep my house from becoming overly cluttered, especially in common areas. 

My Daily Reset Routine

At the end of the day, I make sure the living room is picked up and the kitchen is clean. I love going to bed and waking up with a clean space. I am the first one up in my house in the morning and I want to come downstairs to clean space. This keeps me calm and keeps my head clear of extraneous clutter. This helps me move through my morning routine with ease and start my day on a positive note. 

My Weekly Reset Routine

For the weekly reset, I make sure the entire house is tidied. This normally takes longer than the 10 minute daily reset but is totally worth it! This is the system that keeps the daily reset running smoothly. I get items to the correct room, make sure laundry is put away and my car is ready for the week. I have a weekly review checklist (below) to make sure everything is where it needs to be. 

When I’m on my game, a lot of the weekly reset can be done on Saturday morning. When I’m not, it gets crammed into Sunday. Also, this is a family affair (as much as it can be with small children). The boys (3 and 5 years old) are in charge of tidying the playroom with supervision so things are put away correctly. I tend to let them clean up how they want during the week but try to get each toy to its correct home on the weekends. My husband is helpful with the downstairs areas as well on the weekends. He loves a clean and organized common area like I do so he typically takes on that area and keeps the kids upstairs playing so we have a few hours of clean and tidy!

Having these routines keeps our home tidy and our visual clutter at a minimum. It helps everyone feel calm in our home and have a good weekend and evening!

3 Everyone Knows the Process of the System

With kids, it is important to me that they learn to take care of themselves and their things. It helps to have systems and checklists for them to know the process for the morning and afternoon routines. 

I have checklists in our home for different routines for the kids. After using the checklists multiple times, they know what comes next. It makes it easier for them to get things done. Also, even when they don’t want to do it, they know what is expected of them. After getting home from school, they know they can’t get a snack until their backpacks are emptied and put away.

It also helps adults know what comes next. After the boys empty their backpacks, put them away and get a snack, I clean out their lunch boxes and put them in the dishwasher. This keeps my counter clutter to a minimum and helps me get things done quickly without saving it until the witching hour when everyone is hungry and tired. Or bedtime, when everyone is again hungry but no longer tired, according to the kids. 

Systems also help other family members know what to do, like spouses. My husband knows we empty the dishwasher in the morning. When I don’t get to it, he does it. He knows we clean the kitchen before bed. Whoever isn’t putting the boys to bed takes time to clean the kitchen so we don’t have a mess when it’s time to go to bed. 

These systems that everyone knows keep everyone moving forward to keep our visual clutter down and our home tidy.

4 Ease the Stress of Managing Your Home by Creating Systems

Managing a home is stressful. Managing a home takes a lot of time. Managing a home typically falls on the female in a heterosexual relationship, still. Yes, my husband helps out, but I am the one who buys more toilet paper when we are running low. I am the one who has to be home for the plumber when he comes. I am the one who creates all the systems for keeping our home tidy and running smoothly.

Remember at the beginning of this post, I talked about feeling stressed in your home? Another reason you may be feeling this is because you are in charge of managing the home and you don’t have systems in place. Systems to have help or even systems to get things done faster. 

Having systems in your home eases the stress of managing your home. When I see lunch boxes and snacks on the counter, the clutter doesn’t stress me out because I know they will be in the dishwasher soon. When I see the chaos in the playroom, I know the toys will be picked up and put away before we move onto the next activity. 

Knowing I have systems in place to remove the visual clutter keeps my stress at bay because I know it won’t be there forever.

5 Gain Back Time in Your Day through Systems

Having systems in your home saves you time. I save time by meal planning the week before and knowing what meals we are having for the week. I save time by having my children take care of thier belongings and put them away. I save time by having systems my partner knows and can help out with so I am not required to do all the home activities. 

My actual systems save me time as well. I can clean or tidy more efficiently because I have systems that work for me. When I do my weekly reset, I focus on the upstairs at one time and the downstairs at another. I put items that need to go onto the other floor on the stairs so I’m not spending time and energy running up and down the stairs multiple times. When I’m cooking, I try to clean up as much as I can while I’m in the kitchen so after dinner clean up takes less time. 

Having systems in my home saves me time so I have time to play with my kids when they’re home on the weekends or just sit and read a book for a moment while they’re all happily playing. I’m not spending all my time at home managing my house and trying to keep it tidy. But, someone can drop by at any moment and my house is ready for company at any time!

After reading this post, think about how your home feels to you. Do you feel like you have good systems in place or do you feel like you need some systems to make your home feel easier? If you need help with systems in your home, click the link below and we can set up a phone call to talk about what you’d like your home to feel like. Creating systems is a great way to improve your stress levels and how you feel in your home!