What works for Toyota factories can work for your house

Use Japanese automotive industry innovations to simplify your home.

Your House is Your Machine explores a systems-driven approach to home organization and life. If you like what you’re reading, perhaps you can share this with your best friend, your mom, or someone you know who dreams of an organized home.

You can imagine the automotive industry takes safety and efficiency seriously. Producing a car is complex and requires immense precision. One innovation from the industry (originally from Ford, later improved by Toyota) is abbreviated 5S or Lean 5S. The grandma version of it is, “A place for everything, and everything in its place.”

Is this insanely satisfying or is it just me?

A mechanical engineer friend of mine first told me about 5S and we both thrilled at the idea of applying it to our home.

5S abbreviates five Japanese words: seiri (整理), seiton (整頓), seisō (清掃), seiketsu (清潔), and shitsuke (躾), which translate roughly as:

I realize it seems a little eccentric to bring car manufacturing practices into a home organization context, but hear me out.

It’s easy to undervalue domestic life as unseri…