Why 5S is for everyone in every situation

The term 5S could sound strange at first because it doesn’t mean anything in itself. What does it mean? It’s made up of 5 Japanese words – Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu and Shitsuke. The English translation is: Sort, Store, Shine, Standardize and Sustain. Why should you understand this and apply it in your life, and what are the benefits?

We live our lives very hectically without much planning or being conscious how we do things. We get frustrated if something doesn’t work well or takes more time than is expected. Not to mention those things which generate “re-work” or “excessive motion”.

Here’s a quick example: you want to show a friend a photo which you’ve stored on your phone. How quickly can you find the picture? Can you find it in 5 seconds? Probably not. This means that you might have hundreds of pictures, some of which you haven’t looked at for long time and which are not relevant any more (such as a picture of a product in a store which you wanted to buy). Many people take photos and store them on their phone until the memory is full. When it’s completely full and you aren’t able to take another photo you get frustrated, so you start deleting photos or buy a bigger memory at more expense. Question: when does your phone’s memory become full? In that moment when you really need it.  How you can avoid this situation?

Some tips:

1. Don’t take countless photos without a reason
2. Delete all unwanted photos from your phone every week (empty the trash as well)
3. Upload all necessary photos to your PC, laptop or server every week
4. Keep and store only necessary photos on your phone
5. Alternatively, if you definitely need hundreds of photos then make folders for different topics for easy retrieval.

How you will benefit:

1. Your phone will never be full
2. You won’t need to pay for extra memory
3. You can avoid the frustration of having to re-boot your phone because the memory is almost full all the time or having unnecessary applications which are never used
4. You can avoid being in a situation where you are unable to use your phone to take a photo or send an urgent text as the memory or storage is full (for example, being in an accident or simply meeting with your favorite actor/actress)
5. You will be able to find all your photos in 3 seconds for whatever purpose you need

So let’s translate it to 5S:

Sort:                  delete all unwanted items

Store:                store only the necessary items

Shine:               put your records in order or create folders for each topic

Standardize:   establish e.g. a weekly routine to delete or move items to the right place (trash, folders or       PC)

Sustain:            keep your folders relevant and up to date all the time (without any trash)

You can use this simple and easy method or routine in basically everything you do.

Some more examples of where you can apply 5S:

• Garage: can you find your tools easily or are they in a big drawer or cabinet or stored all around the garage (or maybe not even in the garage as you lent some of them to someone but you have no idea to whom and they haven’t given them back)?
• Kitchen: when you plan to prepare a meal can you find all the ingredients in 3 seconds each? How does the inside of your fridge look? Is there any expired food in your fridge?
• Car: is your car nice and tidy or is the trunk full of trash which you plan to throw away one day?
• Your closet: is it possible that there are many items that you haven’t worn for years? Is the idea behind it that ‘it will be good one day if I lose weight or gain some weight’, or are you simply waiting for something that never comes…?
• PC or Laptop desktop: how many icons do you have on your desktop? More than 5-10? Is it possible that you have as many as 50? How quickly can you find the file you want to use?

All unused unnecessary items should be deleted or got rid of! This applies to your clothes, files, food, etc. You will immediately see that you don’t need that much space for storage and everything will be visible at first sight without spending a long time searching.

What will your benefits be?

• Save time (no need to waste time searching)
• Save money (no need to buy things which you might already have or to increase storage (PC, fridge, etc.)
• Increased storage space (no need for more cabinets)
• Reduced frustration (wasting time searching for something you can’t find)
• Increased visibility (you will immediately be able to see what you have)

Just try this out on one or two things and count how much time you could save in a day or a week. If you tackle things one by one, later on you will potentially save hours a day. This valuable time can be used on things which are important to you e.g. your own interests, your family or your hobbies.