5 Household Systems You Need for a Smoothly Running Home

Household systems are essential for keeping the chaos at bay, creating the home environment you want, and maintaining peace and joy in your home. Implement these 5 systems for a smoothly running home!

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The “lazy days” of summer are over, and it’s time to get back into the rhythm of the school year (however it looks for you this year!).

You know what helps with that?

Systems.

Household systems help you stay organized, boost your productivity and efficiency, and keep your home running smoothly. They help you save time and money. AND they help you keep your sanity!!

Basically, systems are essential for keeping the chaos at bay, creating the home environment you want, and maintaining peace and joy in your home.

Implement these 5 household systems to keep your home and family running smoothly.

5 Household Systems You Need for a Smoothly Running Home

1. Routines Systems

If you want to calm the crazy in your home, developing routines is an ideal place to start. They may sound restrictive (especially to you free-spirited souls), but routines are life-giving to your home. They provide structure and stability, prevent everything from descending into chaos, and actually create more space for fun!

Here are a few of the routines you might want to consider:

Morning routine
Evening routine
Daily routine — you can tweak these summer routine tips to apply year-round if you’re a SAHM or homeschool mom.
School prep routine
Homeschool routine — I’m not a homeschooling mom (other than preschool), so I don’t have advice. But Kristi Clover is a homeschool genius, so I’d recommend her homeschool resource site!

2. Household Tasks Systems

Finding systems for household tasks that work for you (keyword: you) will make running your home easier, better, and possibly even more enjoyable (hey, anything is possible, right??).

Here are some ideas of systems you can implement for the most common household tasks:

Laundry — Here’s the laundry system I’ve used (and loved) for the past several years. I rarely, I mean RARELY, get backed up. And when I do, it’s never by more than one load!
Cleaning — Experiment with different daily/monthly/seasonal cleaning lists (you can find TONS on Google or Pinterest), make “cleaning as you go” a habit, and institute “15 minute family pick-up” every night
Decluttering — I find it much easier to declutter in bits and pieces rather than as large-scale projects. I keep a couple boxes and bags around the house that I fill with donations whenever I come across them. When the boxes/bags are full, I drop them off to my local donation center.
Chores — Whether you call them chores, family contributions, household jobs, or whatever cutesy name you’ve come up with, getting your kids involved is not only good for you and your home, it’s good for them, as well!
Meal prep — If you’re a Merry Momma regular, you know I have lots to say about this! If you’d like help in this area, I highly recommend (as do many others who have read it) my book The Every Mom’s Meal Solution Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to Feeding Your Family Well in Any Season, Budget, or Lifestyle!

3. Planning Systems

There’s a well-known saying that says, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I’ll spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

Planning can sometimes feel like a waste of time. In reality, though, a little prep time upfront pays dividends later in efficiency and effectiveness.

Here are a few of the planning systems you’ll want to put in place:

Family schedules — Whether it’s a master family calendar on the wall or a digital app that syncs to everyone’s phones, find a system that helps everyone get on the same page.
Personal planning — Again, it could be paper (here’s my all-time favorite planner) or digital, but a good planning system will help you get more (of the right things) done!
Meal planning — Ahh, meal planning. You had to know I would get here eventually. Until the very last breath leaves my body, I will continue to shout that busy moms NEED to meal plan. It is the only way to consistently feed your family healthy meals without going crazy (or broke).

Here are some posts to help you in your meal planning:
How to Meal Plan in 30 Minutes or Less
How to Meal Plan For Your Personality
5 Ways to Simplify Your Meal Planning

And of course, you’ll find MANY more tips in The Every Mom’s Meal Solution Handbook!

4. Organization Systems

Now that you’ve created some systems for organizing your life, let’s organize your stuff! Here are some of the organizational systems you’re going to need to put in place:

Toys — Ugh. I’m still working on this one!! But my recommendation is lots of bins, baskets, and totes that make it super easy for your kids to clean up their own toys. Oh, and regular (and ruthless) purges. 😉
Clothes — Find a system for storing and rotating seasonal clothes, as well as outgrown clothes that can/will be used for a younger sibling. (Labeled totes are my go-to!)
Paper — Paper (mail, school papers, home office, kids artwork, etc.) is one of the BIGGEST sources of clutter in most homes. There are lots of systems out there, so experiment and find one that works for you! (Here’s how I finally banished our kitchen counter paper clutter!)

5. Money Systems

Ah, money. It’s not always fun to talk about (or think about). But the more you can get control of it, the more it will work for you rather than against you. And that requires good systems.

Here are the money systems you need in your home:

Budgeting — There’s no way around it – if you want control over your money, you need a budget. As Dave Ramsey puts it, “A budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went.”
Expenditure tracking — A budget is half the battle, but you also need to evaluate how well you’re sticking to your plan. A system for tracking your expenditures will help keep you on track.
Communication — If you’re married, you’ll also need a system for communicating with your spouse about your finances. Set up your budget together. Keep all purchases visible between the two of you. Determine what level of discretionary spending needs mutual approval. And schedule regular check-ins to discuss where you’re at and where you’re headed.

By the way, for budgeting and expenditure tracking, I highly recommend the You Need a Budget (YNAB) app. We’ve been using it for over a year and L.O.V.E it. 1000% worth the money (which isn’t much – less than $10/month!). You can check it out here via my referral link.

Those are the 5 main types of household systems a family needs for a smoothly running home. Is there anything you would remove from this list? What would you add? Share your thoughts in the comments below!