Applying ‘5S’ in your home
WHAT IS 5S?
Have you heard of 5S before? It’s a concept that was introduced to me in my time in the corporate world of pharmaceuticals, and is a workplace organisational method that was first developed in Japan. Each S refers to a Japanese word, which translated are: Sort, Straighten, Shine or Scrub, Standardise and Sustain. There’s also more recently been a 6th S added, which is Safety.
USING 5S AT WORK
Within my work, this approach was applied to the warehouse, our laboratories and so on.
I was working within Project Management, and I didn’t have a lab to manage. However, I did have an office with lots of paperwork and stuff!
What I did with my desk was I took everything and put it into a couple of bags for life under my desk, and only left out the essentials that I used each day. This is basically Sorting, or decluttering, the environment.
I then made sure I had a designated space for everything on my desk; I Straightened my belongings. With 5S, particularly in manufacturing spaces you’ll find that areas for equipment might be marked out on the floor for example. So I had actually marked out a little space for my stapler to live and my pen pot! (I know, I’m mental.)
Then it’s Shine or Scrub - so basically get everything clean.
Then Standardise - so this involves documenting the plan. You could take a photo of how your desk should look and then get this up on your wall as what good looks like.
Then lastly it’s Sustain… so you need to maintain the area.
HOW WE CAN USE 5S AT HOME
So… what’s my point in sharing this with you?
I’m a huge advocate of decluttering, and have written previously on decluttering our homes and also our digital environments. I also love organisation, and with my remaining belongings that I’m choosing to keep - they all have a designated place that they are stored/kept. Seemingly in the UK we spend up to 110 days of our lives looking for lost items - what a waste of our time!
Well, as part of my evening routine - in addition to putting the kids to bed, I put each of my rooms to bed. I know what good looks like for each room, and there is a designated place for everything. So before I go to bed, I’ll go round the rooms and just reset them back to how they are meant to be. This means that in the morning I’m waking up to a tidy and organised house…. and let me tell you, it feels good!
