Heidi from A Lively Hope is guest posting today!
Finding your bottleneck is a well-known business efficiency practice. If you can find the one problem that slows your business down and fix that problem, you can expect to see drastic results. This idea applies equally well to homemaking. I realized this not long ago, after a particularly frustrating outburst from one of my children.
It may seem silly, but the bottleneck in our home was shoes and socks. We are homeschoolers, but we still put on shoes and socks at some point nearly every day. We’ve always kept a bin for shoes in the mudroom, right near the back door. When the shoe bin was too full we’d empty it out and put the shoes away in the proper bedroom closets.
Every day when it was time to head out the door I would call out to my kids, “Let’s go, guys! Shoes on!” My six year old son would then launch into a huge fit because he didn’t know where his shoes were, despite the fact that they could only be in a couple of different places. (His bedroom closet, the shoe bin in the mudroom or possibly by the front door).
Then one day I had an epiphany: Shoes should only belong in ONE place. That way when I call, “Shoes on!” there is only one place to look.
I purchased three bushel baskets from Hobby Lobby (for 50%, of course), one for each child. They fit perfectly under the window seat, right near our mudroom/garage door. Now the only place that shoes belong is in those bins.
I also went one step further. We keep a hanging shoe organizer on the inside of our mudroom door. In the winter it’s full of gloves, hats, mittens, scarfs, etc. and in the summer it holds sunscreen, swimming suits and the like. I now use a couple of the bottom pockets to hold socks for both of my boys. This simplifies the shoe/sock issue even further. Now when it’s time to head out the door there is no need for my son to go down to his room for anything footwear related.
I have noticed a huge difference in our home with this seemingly small change. Now when I call, “Shoes on!” there is no stress or tears. The boy who was formerly so stressed by this moment every day now calmly grabs a pair of socks and a pair of shoes, he sits on the window seat and puts them on and we happily head out the door.
Not only do we have less of a problem going places, but the stress level when we leave has greatly diminished. Eliminating a near-daily freakout/stress fest has done wonders for our family dynamics.
Your family may have the shoe/sock situation completely under control, but my guess is that you’ve got another organizational area that could use improvement.
What is your bottleneck and how can you simply and/or effectively remove it?
Heidi has a bachelors degree in Horticulture from Utah State University. She is married to an engineering genius and is a homeschooling Mama to three miracle children. She spends as much time as possible reading, creating, journaling, and photographing life’s little moments, and spending time outdoors with her family. She is an author of scripture study guides for children. She blogs at A Lively Hope.
This post is part of the Establish a House series that runs every Wednesday.
Now that is a true “Cranial Hiccup”, a moment of pure brilliance. Easy solution to a problem many have!
Love the idea of the shoe organizer for hats and mittens. I’m going to have to figure out a spot for that. We do the bucket too- definitely better.
Shoes are a problem occasionally, but the biggest problem I have getting out the door is my 16 and 12 year olds who won’t leave the house without their hair and make-up (my 16 yo) being perfect even if we’re late. Grrrr! So far I haven’t found a solution because getting up earlier doesn’t help. I could always take away the mascara and straightener. 🙂
We’re not there, yet, Valerie! Maybe you could keep the mascara in the car and they can’t put it on til they’re on their way 😉
That is brilliant, to keep the socks in the same place as well! Even though it’s only a few pairs, it would still be easy enough to fill back up, and there is no need to go anywhere else – just to the one spot, and out the door! Now if only this worked for stubborn Misters who leave their keys, wallets, hats, etc, all about the house, ha! 😀
Thank you! It’s been working SO well for us. I have no solutions for adults yet, though 🙂
Great ideas, Heidi. I have a similar solution for shoes. Now if only I could get my kiddos to use it!
Yes, that can be tricky. Especially because I like to try out new ideas like this all the time. They’re not always sure which idea we’re currently using.
Mine is Meal Planning! If i could just learn to do that ahead of time, life would be so much easier!
I’m working on meal planning, too! I go through phases where I’m really on top of it, and then I get out of the habit and wonder why dinnertime is so stressful all of a sudden. It’s such a great habit!
i admit that we have several “bottlenecks” at our house. A big one is not having stuff ready to go when we need to be out the door. Finding shoes is a part of it, but we have a mudroom with cupboards to resolve that. I’m usually trying to add stuff to the diaper bag, find my cell phone, put my dog in the kennel, and keep my two-year-old safe while hollering instructions to my 12-year-old. The fix? Better planning ahead. I need to use my evenings better to prepare stuff for the next day. Guess I know what I need to do. Now I just have to do it–consistently.
Once I learned to repack the Sunday diaper bag on Monday morning, getting ready for church became much less stressful. It took me a while longer to figure out I should replace diapers and snacks in the everyday bag soon after we got home as well. It does make a difference.
I hear you! Building the habit is the hard part. In so many cases I know what I should be doing to make my days go more smoothly, but actually making it happen is another story.
I wish that had been in our house when 6 kids were running around. At one point I wanted to just dip their feet in liquid rubber and be done with shoes and socks. Now that I am alone, I have an Ikea dresser (tall and skinny) by the front door, and my shoes are there. After Christmas I started to keep socks in there as well, black crews and black trouser knee highs to wear with longer skirts. Saves me a ton of time and stress.
At one point I sent a ten year old son downstairs to his bedroom for his shoes. Nope, can’t find them. Sent him again to look harder. Nope can’t find them. A third time. Nope, not in my room. Mom went down and tripped over them. They were just inside the doorway in plain sight!. Yup!
I love the liquid sock/shoe idea! My husband is an engineer, maybe I should ask him to work on that! I can’t tell you how many times we’ve gone through the same scenario you shared. No shoes, anywhere! Oh, except right where you said they were…
I like your shoe/ sock storage idea! My bottleneck is stuff I don’t want to do. Like make awkward phone calls, schedule appointments, deal with difficult social situations, pretty much anything that requires me to have social interaction with people outside my home! Ha ha! It helps if I pick one thing her day I have to get done, or get it all done on one day and enjoy the other days that week, or even pick one day a week where I don’t have to do any of those hated tasks.
Holly, I like to have day a week to take care of all those nagging things, too. I call it Anti-Procrastination Day 🙂