How the 5S method streamlined my home organizing and cleaning into one task

Very rarely do we see a home organizing method come along that has its roots in automotive manufacturing. When I first saw it, I knew I had to give it a go – after all, it sounded ridiculous.

The Japanese concept of the Five S's is designed to improve efficiency. The five S’s translate roughly to sort, set, shine, standardize, and sustain – and its alteration into a home organizing idea makes it the perfect routine to merge organizing and cleaning all into one easy-to-manage task. 

I gave the method a go to tackle my neglected home office, and safe to say this is a routine I’ll be implementing around the rest of my home. 

5S method for home organizing

The five S’s are rather self-explanatory:  

• Sort: Collect homeless items and sort them into categories (or binning them)
• Set: Put items back in logical places to make everyday life smoother
• Shine: Make sure the items and the area are clean
• Standardize: Create a routine or checklist to ensure that this method is used in all areas of the home
• Sustain: Make sure to follow through and repeat these steps to keep your home organized and clean – be it daily, weekly, or monthly.

When organizing my home office, I somewhat combined this method with another – the ski-slope organizing method – in that I collected the homeless items lying around my office in a collapsible laundry basket to make sorting them and putting them back a little easier.

Having them all in one easy-to-carry basket made setting them back in the right places less of a juggling act. 

It also meant I could put the items I needed in the office back and set aside items from the living room or bedroom, for instance, in a tidy pile that I wouldn’t be falling over to deal with after I finished with the office.

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This is where the method stands out to me. Usually, organizing, tidying, and cleaning are all listed on to-do lists as separate tasks – all mammoths in their own right. However, the five S’s incorporate cleaning tips into the routine, making it seem like I had less to do overall. 

It would probably help to take a duster and some polish to the area you are working on before you start sorting and setting (I had to run back downstairs to grab some). Once I had everything, however, it was as simple as wiping down the surface I was about to set something back on, and wiping down the object as I put it back. 

It wasn't a deep clean by any means, but I think it is a great way to stay on top of everyday dusting without making it seem like another task to check off. 

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Standardizing and sustaining were two S’s I grouped together to finish everything off. I made a plan to repeat the first three S’s every other day to stay on top of clutter, deciding that instead of creating a decluttering checklist to follow strictly each time, I would simply work in whichever room of the house was causing me the most overwhelm. This made the whole method easier to sustain, as I was not as constricted to what I could get done.  

My verdict

Although called the five S method, the sixth S could easily be ‘streamlined!’ 

This cleaning and organizing solution works wonders by cutting out unnecessary back-and-forths around the room or creating a long to-do list splitting cleaning and tidying up, making it look more daunting to complete – helping to prevent overwhelm when cleaning. 

I will certainly be trying the method again in my kitchen next, where I think the combination of tidying and cleaning in one will be the most effective given how often we all need to clean a kitchen to keep it functional.  

FAQs

The five S method, when coupled with other decluttering strategies to help overcome decision fatigue, makes it an incredibly useful practice to have in your tidying arsenal. I think it is certainly a methodology that can be built into your everyday life, making it a positive habit that can change the way you think about even the most mundane of tasks.

Alternatively, if you are a sentimentalist, try the Mottainai organizing method to make the most of your clutter without it going to waste.