3 Benefits to Putting Systems in Your Home

Systems have benefits-- and if you're not putting them in place it's costing you big time. 

Without systems, you're missing out on critical moments with your family, the opportunity to share the work load, and your own mental peace. 

Family Time is WORK, Actually

When you’re figuring out where the toddler’s shoes are, where the homework is, and which permission slip is missing, you’re working. 

All that work that goes into your day as a mom and as someone managing a home, all that work is WORK. Let’s not call that family time without mentioning the WORK that goes into it. 

And lord knows we all know there’s work that goes into parenting. 

Just one morning transition is taking up so much brain space and forcing you to become the cruise director for your family, the reminder-in-chief, the team manager for everyone’s snacks ,the roadie for everyone’s gear.

Systems Have Benefits: for Connection

What if you put a system in place so you didn’t have to do all the thinking as you walked out the door in the morning?

You could actually ENJOY your morning and you could use this time as a way to CONNECT with your kids instead of feeling like you just ran a bootcamp to get your family out the door. 

So the #1 way you’re missing out by not putting in systems is you’re squandering major opportunities for connection. 

A system like a command center at the door can help ease the stress of transitions in and out of the door by creating landing spots for items you always lose. If you start putting systems in place about where things go and get your family involved, you don’t have to be the only one who knows where the permission slips are. Backpacks are on the hook so you dont have to go all the way upstairs to retrieve it from deep inside your tween’s bedroom. 

Systems Have Benefits: for Delegation

The #2 way you’re missing out by not putting systems in place is that you’re missing opportunities for delegation in your family. 

When you’re the only one putting their brain on a set of tasks, it’s impossible to get some help. 

So if you feel like you’re the family cruise director and no one else can help out with friend’s birthdays, meal planning, grocery shopping, or schedule-keeping, you are OVERWORKED. 

For no reason. 

Yes, of course you’re the smartest person in your home. But you don’t have to do all the work. 

So set up some systems to get your family involved. If you keep that system in your head, you can’t delegate it to anyone, right?

This could be as simple as making a birthday chart for the wall and putting your 8 year old in charge of listing every family member’s birthday and checking it periodically to remind the family whose birthday is coming up. 

You could even set up a system where you purchase multiple gifts and have a present closet going. Then, put the wrapping stuff next to the closet, and when a friend’s birthday comes up put the child in charge of wrapping it. If you have relatively low standards and don’t mind bag and tissue combo, you’re golden. 

Systems Have Benefits: for Peace

And finally, the #3 way you’re missing out, is that you deserve mental peace.

You deserve to have things run smoothly in your home, without getting stressed, without yelling, without nagging, and without feeling overworked. 

Systems have benefits for bringing you mental peace because they take the brain work out of doing daily tasks.

If you put some mental work into SETTING UP the system, actually doing the system becomes less work over time. 

So if you put some mental effort into your Sunday routine, Monday morning goes so smoothly! 

Think about systems in your home that you could put in place, systems for mail management, meal prep, laundry, kids chores, permission slips, toy management, the remote controls! 

Any system you create could be as simple as putting a piece of velcro on the back of the remote and telling your family “this remote lives HERE” and making sure they know it should return to that spot every time. No more looking for lost remotes!

So think about systems you’d like to implement in your home, ones that could get you mental peace, some help from your family, and connection points with your kids during the day when you’re usually nagging. 

Start with a Sunday Routine

If you’re looking for a place to start, my suggestion is to create a weekend or Sunday routine for yourself that batches lots of the things you need to do over the weekend to get ready for Monday. 

By batching, I mean grouping several things by location and then creating a routine around it. So my Sunday routine is batched by location.

Some tasks happen in the kitchen, some at my command center, and some with my personal planner.  Group several tasks together by location and you’ll find you get WAY more done!

Systems have benefits for your family and for YOU. Get started setting up your systems at home now so you can get some of those awesome rewards now!