When in Doubt - 5S

We have had a few projects on the go, like making the car fit in the garage now that the temperature is dropping and organizing the pantry now that it is better stocked. These jobs seem somewhat overwhelming, and we found that once again we fell back on our "business" knowledge. Now all the terms I am going to use have homemaking equivalents, but what make these 5 terms work is putting them together.

To start these projects, we basically started by "5S"ing the area. This is a foundation of lean manufacturing, and honestly is one of my secret weapons in a big organizational project. And for all the times I laughed or rolled my eyes and manufacturing engineers "5S"ing parts of their home, I apologize, I was wrong.

5S stands for:

• Seiri (sort)
• Seiton (straighten and set in order)
• Seiso (shine)
• Seiketsu (standardize)
• Shitsuke (sustain)

So basically it ends up being this:

• Sort - go through everything in that area, touch it all and sort it into piles to keep in this area, to move to a more appropriate area, and to purge. Take everything that does not belong in the area OUT!
  
• Shine - I like to shine at this point even though I might have to do it again after strighten - clean it all up, dust, wipe, polish, the works, after all, you just pulled everything out! All those surfaces are clean!
• Straighten - now that you have successfully purged the area of everything that does not belong, set the area in order! Put things in their new home, organize like with like, and items that get used together next to each other as much as possible. Again, if you find something that does not belong in that area take it out!
  
• Shine 2 - this is where shine really belongs, and you might have to do it again, or at least a little touch up.
  
• Standardize - congratulations you have a whole new organized area - now label it or in some way make sure you know what goes where! In manufacturing they will actually take colored tape and tape squares on the floor and label absolutely everything so you know where stuff goes when you are new and come into the area.
• Sustain - this is the tricky one. Now that you have done ALL THIS WORK you certainly don't want to have to do it again! So now you have to maintain the area. This is easy. If it is your pantry just make sure you put things back where you got them from, and when you put away your grocery shopping put it in its spot as opposed to just jamming it all in quickly. When you go into this area you might just want to do a little straighten as you go through, makes it easy to sustain it!
  

And yes, this was one of the first major steps to organizing our pantry, which is looking great! Although not labeled because I am giving myself time to use everything for a while before I commit to its location.

Once I had this done in my pantry I started using another business practice...but that is for next week.

The Sick List

While I have not posted much in the run your home like a business but with a lot more love series it has not been for lack of ideas, but rather for lack of time! But this week our whole family is either sick with colds or on the way to being sick with colds. It reminded me of this helpful list I shop for and fulfill each August. I try to keep it stocked all the time, but always make sure it is fully stocked before cold and flu season starts. This year it seems to have started early with strep, bronchitis, pnemonia, stomach bugs, and rotten colds all making their appearances!

In...um...honor (?) of that I thought I would share my list with you! Let me know what you would add! Also, what is not on this list is a huge stash of tea, honey, and homemade bread!

• Gatorade - minimum 4 per person, ideally a whole case from Costco
• Canned Soup (4 per), plus stuff to make homeade
• 7-Up 2 L (for upset tummies and heartburn)
• Popsicles (box)
• Saltines (box)
• Baby Wipes (extra)
• Flushable Wipes (extra)
• Extra Diapers
• Infant Tylenol (one full unopened one in addition to what is open)
• Children's Tylenol (one full unopened one in addition to what is open)
• Children's Motrin - this used to be on the list but it makes my children wake up after 2-3 hours so I am taking it off the list.
• Lysol
• Laundry Soap (at least 1 full bottle extra)
• Antibac Wipes (cleaning)
• Tylenol
• Motrin
• Hand Sanitizer (I shoot for 1 on each floor and 1 on the change table)
• Antibac Soap (refills for my refillables)
• Sudafed
• Children's Cough Syrup **
  
• Cough Syrup
• Kleenex (we actually buy this in huge quantities at Costco when they have coupons)
  
• Bendy Straws (at least 1 unopened box to use in place of my usual wash and reuse ones)
• Dixi Cups (to use for rinsing after tooth brushing)
• Papertowels
  

This list does not cover every eventuality in life, but it gives me a serious fighting chance at NOT having an emergency run to the store! Plus it was updated after Miss Pear was in CVICU during N1H1 season to include antibac stuff because she will always be more at risk for flu complications.

**I understand a lot of doctors are saying this is unnecessary in most cases, but both my girls have been told by doctors that they need this to help them.

Stocking Up Motivation and Goals

Some of the best advice I ever received for being a good home manager was to run my home like a business, but with a lot more love! After being raised in the business world in my family's business, attending business school, and working in the world of supply chain management for 5 years I find this advice very practical! I take the tools I used in supply purchasing and planning and apply them to my home management practices!

Two weeks ago I shared pictures of my disorganized and partially stocked pantry. That was so we could move onto what comes after the shopping strategy because after all, you need a place to put stuff!

I confessed I had to change my shopping strategies as we moved and was trying to balance saving money and meeting my family needs as best I could, and I also talked about getting stocked up again, or at least working towards that. But a key part of stocking up for me is knowing why I am doing it. Yes, there is the argument that it is just common sense, but I like to plan stuff out, so I decided I need more detain than that to plan.

All companies have stocking goals and they usually start with conflicting goals like low inventory and never miss a customer shipment. Fortunately my goals and reasons are not conflicting...except that pesky stay in budget one!

So here are my reasons for wanting a well stocked pantry, freezer, and even fridge.

1. I would like to be only buying food items on sale - therefore I would like to have enough on hand to make it to the next sale. In a perfect world every item I buy at the grocery store was on sale and had a coupon.
   
2. It is important to me to be somewhat prepared for life's little emergencies - someone gets sick, life gets crazy, there is an unexpected expense. I would like to have food on hand to make meals to get through these crunches. Not to say there would not be an emergency trip for milk, but running in for milk is one thing, running in with a huge list is another. (Although buying milk at Costco definitely leaves us wiggle room here too).
   
3. We would like to be able to say yes when the call comes out for snacks for Sunday morning or someone needs a meal. I can do that better if I have what I need on hand!
4. We want to do a better job of hospitality, and it is much easier for us to offer the invitation or say yes when there is not a special trip to the store required.
5. We get snow and ice storms here - plan ahead so we are not one of those families in the grocery store frantically stocking up before the storm hits!
6. Be able to put off going to the store because we have more important things to do. There are some weeks I just don't want to go to the store. Sometimes we have lots planned, and sometimes I am just needing a break or the sales are lackluster and just do not warrant a trip.
7. We have one car, and I love that! But it does make errand running require some creativity sometimes!
8. Okay, here is the truth I have been hinting at. I just don't like grocery shopping. Going once a week is really my limit. I do like Costco, but the grocery store? Not so much. Having a healthy pantry definitely makes this dislike easier to manage!

Okay, I confessed my foibles and goals, how about you? What makes you want to stock your fridge, freezer and pantry?


Next week more concrete plans to make these goals happen and these motivations work.


Series:
Part 1: New Shopping Strategy
Part 2: New Shopping Strategy Part 2

Pantry

One of the things I have appreciated about this home is the in kitchen walk in pantry. It is a lovely convenience and right in the corner of our kitchen.


It is not stocked as fully as I would like, nor is it as organized as I would like, but it is coming along!

I still have over flow in the garage, but we commandeered the bookshelf I was using to hold the homeschooling supplies and got a sturdier rack to do pantry duty in the garage, it looks like this:


I still have a second old wood bookcase that did double duty of holding cleaning supplies and other assorted stuff in our old home, and now will hold canning supplies and cleaning supplies in our new home.

The whole pantry and stockpile situation is coming along nicely as I shop sales and restock, but I still have not fully unpacked the cleaning supplies. In fact, to the left of the garage picture are 2 boxes of them that are opened, just not unpacked.

In addition to that we also have a laundry room with 1 long shelf. More on that next week.

But after talking about my new shopping strategies, I figured I should share where I store stuff before I moved on to the next step!

New Shopping Strategy Part 2

Some of the best advice I ever received for being a good home manager was to run my home like a business, but with a lot more love! After being raised in the business world in my family's business, attending business school, and working in the world of supply chain management for 5 years I find this advice very practical! I take the tools I used in supply purchasing and planning and apply them to my home management practices!

Last week I talked about the importance of a strategy, my new shopping strategy, and focused on groceries. But with no CVS in sight, Babies R Us and Target being much further away, and no double coupons I have had to rethink how we purchase toiletries, medicines, diapers, and other household things. So this week is part 2 focusing on my shopping strategy for all household and toiletry purchases.

When we lived in Southern CA, before I smartened up, I would just go to Target 4-6 times a year and buy what we needed. While this was certainly cheaper than the grocery store or drug store, I could do better, which I eventually worked hard on. At our last home in Southern CA we had exceedingly close 2 CVS drug stores, Babies R Us stores, and 2 Target stores, so popping in to each whenever there was a good sale on one or two things was no big deal, no extra time, and always on the way to somewhere. So I was a bit sloppy in my planning, I just popped in when there was a good sale! But it worked.

That will not be the case anymore!

Babies R Us and Target are far enough away to be their own special trip!

Time for a new plan. Here it is:

One thing I have learned is that if Costco has a coupon on something it makes it very hard to beat their price. So I am looking through their coupons carefully and buying what I can and what we need. Also, gone are the days of cheap and free toothpaste as our dentists have said we need certain things in our toothpaste...sigh.

I am watching the Walgreens flier to see what is available there, but to be honest it is not great yet as I am missing weeks of coupons. (Even though it is on the way to most things).

And we try to pick up at the grocery store whatever we see that we use and is a good price.

This is working great for everything but diapers and wipes!

When Jen commented about diapers last week too I figured it was worth talking about!

In Southern CA the best deal I could find on Pampers diapers was usually if I bought the big box at Babies R Us with a box of wipes and used their $7 off coupon and manufacturers coupons. Due to sensitive skin we stick to Pampers (we tried others, it was not fun). Recently we discovered Costco sensitive wipes which were a great price and we can use! This made the Babies R Us deal not so great any more. After some research I found the Diapers.com price to be the best for us, especially considering they take coupons (via mail), have ecoupons, and free shipping over $50. This ends up not only being a good price, but it saves me a trip (remember the 1 car thing) and saves me time. For me it is an all around good thing! Not to say that I will not keep my eyes pealed for a good deal, but my options are more limited, and the Target sales have been more limited too!

If you want to try Diapers.com, you can use my code KRIS3192 to get $10 off your first order of $49 or more, which is also where the free shipping starts. (I will get a credit too, I think $5)

These may not be the most rock bottom cheap methods of doing things but my strategies maintain an important balance of saving money, saving time, maintaining the quality my family wants, and meeting my family's needs. Those were the key factors in making our decisions for our shopping strategy, and also a big part of my stocking plan...but that is a conversation for next week!

Is this a series you are interested in? What would you like to see covered? (Clearly we take requests!)

Series:
Part 1: New Shopping Strategy

New Shopping Strategy

Some of the best advice I ever received for being a good home manager was to run my home like a business, but with a lot more love! After being raised in the business world in my family's business, attending business school, and working in the world of supply chain management for 5 years I find this advice very practical! I take the tools I used in supply purchasing and planning and apply them to my home management practices!

One thing I found helpful in business was that there was always a plan, always a strategy, always a standard procedure in place. Often in business, especially in supplychain there is a "stocking strategy" or a plan for getting material into your stock room either at the raw materials level or at the finished goods level.

I would not say I was deliberate in creating a stocking plan or grocery strategy in Southern California, but my shopping always followed a monthly pattern:

• 1 monthly Costco trip - it replaced the grocery store that week.
• Weekly Henry's trip, occasionally skipping a week if we were stocked up.
• 2 grocery store trips a month (once was always canceled because of Costco, and it seemed like once a month the sales were mediocre and I could not be bothered!)
• CVS - as sales or extrabuck rolling dictated, but usually twice a month.
• Target as required - about once a month
  

Since moving we have been rethinking our grocery shopping strategy, and being much more deliberate in our planning of a strategy. There were a couple key reasons for this:

1. There is no Henry's Marketplace up here - that was my go-to store for produce and bulk spices, rice, beans, coconut and other assorted bulk baking things at excellent prices. Also where I would look for healthier and organic stuff.
2. They don't double coupons up here.
3. We want to eat an increasingly healthier diet, and are especially motivated by the girls health issues this past winter. (not that we eat a lot of junk now, we just want to do better.)
   
4. We were encouraged in our efforts to seek out more organic produce by our pediatrician who was talking about a new study that determined just how much pesticides build up in children's bodies! She said to go organic on fruits and veggies as much as we could afford, and that it was more important than worrying about hormones in meat and dairy!
   
5. We do not want to increase our grocery budget, not even to stock our pantry.
   

Now, these are our reasons, and if your strategy and philosophy is different, there is no reason we have to agree.

In addition to this we would like to carry a well stocked freezer and pantry at all times to deal more effectively with the ups and downs of life and to make what could be an emergency a minor inconvenience! This will also make life with one car easier.

So here is the strategy I am working too.

1. I signed up for a CSA that can adapt our box so we do not get peanuts or potatoes. We are currently getting the standard box every second week, but if this is not enough we will go to the family sized box every second week. Our CSA is organic, cheaper than buying produce at the store, a better quality and flavor than the store, will allow us to adjust the contents of our box each week, and will allow us to order extra. Plus the pick up is only a small detour on my husband's way home from work, and right next to a popular family area. Perfect for us!

2. After checking out the stores I found the one I like the best. So the plan is to cherry pick the sales there each week unless there is a screaming deal somewhere else. It seems like they have the best prices overall and on sale items, and with 2 children and 1 car we prefer to not be making multiple stops at grocery stores each week.

3. Continue to use Costco for dairy, bananas, baking supplies and a lot of meat. I know I can get a better price on meat if I shop the sales, but have had such terrible experiences with quality when I do that it is rarely worth it when the girls prefer to be herbivores and we are trying to coax them more along the continuum towards the carnivore so they at least eat some meat without coaxing and bribery. This will probably result in going every 2 weeks-ish for milk, but that will also mean I don't have to do a gargantuan shop once a month, and I can be very disciplined to stick to my list!

4. Utilize online sources. We like some stuff from Tropical Traditions, and they often have a couple screaming deals, but the prices are often undermined by their shipping, so we took advantage of the offer they had of ground shipping for $5. I needed to order something and by doing this even saved on our first order. Now I can cherry-pick the sales there. We also are checking out a few other things like Shelf Reliance for longer term pantry storage items that are a great quality and we like to use anyways, and Prairie Hill Grain for organic beans and the like. It is also on my list to check into Azure Standard and see if they have a regular run into our neighborhood. More and more I am finding that the shipping costs are no long driving up the prices, but you do have to be careful.

5. Watch for excellent deals at Walgreens as we go right past them to get almost everywhere.

What is great for us is that we can do this without upping our grocery and household items budget! I have been able to hold our grocery budget at the same level for about 4 years now. I find that by having a strategy I actually save money by not running all over the place as if I am in a new store or one I rarely go to I am more likely to impulse shop or pick up extras than if it is the store I am at all the time. I know, I am weird that way, but this saves us money and helps me stay disciplined.

What is your shopping strategy? How do you determine where to shop? Are you finding you are able to hold your grocery budget firm or is it creeping up?

Is this a series you are interested in? What would you like to see covered?