Use the Kanban strategy to visualize your budget. Problems and mistakes are not obstacles – they are the prerequisite for things to get better. To do this, you should regularly look back and reflect. You can do this with the help of Kaizen (continuous improvement) and Hansei (regular reflection).
Once you have identifizd the “construction sites”, you should find the first solutions in the next week to get the ball rolling. For example, you could start by getting a second laundry basket so that you can sort the laundry better.
You can document the current situation. Take photos of your piles of laundry. Because it’s all too easy to forget successes.
Write down further suggestions for improvement for later and rank them in order of importance.
You must determine when you start a measure and when it is completed. Don’t start anything else during this time and focus on the tasks you have decided on. This is because unfinished measures take a lot of energy, while completed tasks motivate you.
Keep at it and be patient so that you become more experienced and the changes become sustainable.
Celebrate your successes. Be in the here and now and treat yourself to something, including rest and relaxation. Avoid constantly thinking about what you still have to do.
It is also very important that the tasks to be completed, as well as the progress and successes, are visible – so that you can talk about them. The so-called “Kanban board” can help you with this:
- Make your appointments and those of your family members visible: a blackboard or a blank wall is much better for this than a calendar. Write all the “to-dos” on index cards or pieces of paper and attach them to the board.
- It is important that the whole family can see who wants to be where and when. Then decide together which appointments are important and what can be combined. You should also involve your children.
- Now you’ll be able to see where there are gaps and bottlenecks – and you can work with them: Structure your everyday life, introduce a routine and give yourself time to relax.
- Conflicts will also become clear: Can’t find the time to take the children swimming? If you determine this together as a family and discuss it in advance, you’re sure to find a solution.
- You should also make it clear who does what in the household. Is one person doing too much or always doing the same thing? Talk about it and change it if necessary.
- This way you can achieve continuity and avoid overload. Because you can see when something is getting too much. In this way, you fulfill Muri and avoid overload.
AVOID WASTE
A sustainable lean strategy aims to organize the household in a way that saves as much water as possible, for example. Waste is poison for a lean organized household. With Muda, you become aware of them so that you can then avoid them. There are eight types of waste:
Overproduction, for example because you cooked too much for lunch.
Unused participation and creativity, for example because you cooked without the children. (Read for example: Cooking with children: tips and inspiration)
Storage of unnecessary things: How much space, and therefore rent, do unnecessary possessions cost?
Waiting times: Reminders because bills had to wait.
Extra work: How strenuous is mowing the lawn, for example, if you don’t do it regularly?
Corrections and adjustments: For example, the button you quickly sewed on last week has fallen off again. (How to do it better: Sew on the button)
Transportation: For example, if you don’t store items where you use them.
Unnecessary movements: For example, when you’re looking for something because it’s not where it should be.
Here’s what you can do about this:
- Go through all areas of your household and ask yourself what you are wasting: Resources, time, money, opportunities, living space, trust? For example, calculate your ecological footprint with a CO2 calculator.
- Apply Hadome again (five times why) and get to the bottom of the waste.
- Create a final list: Stop all activities that don’t fulfill a concrete need and get rid of all items that you don’t need and are just gathering dust. This decluttering saves on dusting, for example.
- Keep a budget book to see how much you spend on what and where you can make savings.
YOUR CLEANING SCHEDULE
You decide when ironing is valuable to you. Once you have got rid of the superfluous items in your home, you can organize and sort the “valuable” things (Seiri).
Structure the things you keep. Everything has its place. If you quickly forget where you keep batteries, write it down.
Once you’ve organized everything, cleaning is a lot easier. If you find tidying up or washing up difficult, make it as pleasant as possible with good music or an audio book. If all the windows for spring cleaning are too much for you, clean one window a week.
Create standards for yourself: How can you recognize a dirty floor? What does a made bed look like? This will help you avoid arguments with your family members about how the dishwasher should be put away, for example.
Regardless of whether you live with your family, in a shared flat or alone: set a fixed time each week when each room is cleaned. Limit yourself to a fixed amount of time, for example 30 minutes. Once you’ve done the work, you should reward yourself. On the one hand, because it is now clean – on the other hand, because you have created your constructive routine.
