15 Systems That Have SIMPLIFIED My Life 

What are some of your favorite systems? 🤩

60 years ago, when I was 5, my mom had me start helping with household tasks in order to earn my allowance. It's such a good way to instill discipline and a sense of responsibility in kids. The tasks increased as my abilities improved, but by the time I was 10 and she had to start working outside the home, she knew she had a partner in me and I would do what needed to be done to keep things in order. She was not sentimental about much so the house never got too cluttered. Unfortunately I lost this sense of order as I became an adult and am now drowning in a sea of beautiful collections of pottery, jewelry, hammered aluminum from the 1940s, kitchen items, furniture, books, and clothing. I retired at age 60, and started trying to wade through "the stuff". I started volunteering in a charity thrift shop and even though that sounds like the last place I should be, I think it has helped me see how in the end this is all just "stuff", and it doesn't improve life all that much. Carloads of items are brought by family members who are having to clean out houses of parents and grandparents and it's just overwhelming. So, I'm now in "swedish death cleaning" mode so my friends won't have to deal with so much of my stuff and I will feel able to travel and enjoy this last 20 years or so of my life without worrying about the STUFF. First I stopped buying, then started grouping things together and paring down the collections. Every time I volunteer, I take a carload to the thrift store to donate- It's slow, but it's working!

For picky kids, get them involved grocery shopping (obviously, this was pre covid). So when we bought vegetables, he could choose one vegetable that I'd have to cook that week. And he could veto one vegetable I put in the cart. What that does is that thorough the week, if there's something he doesn't want to eat, you remind him that he agreed to that vegetable, he veto-ed another (or none) and that means he needs to eat what's on his plate now. And it's a fun process, so much so that after a few months of that, he'll be excited to pick his favorite vegetable that week and even have suggestions on which meal to make with it.

I love how organized you are, but this way tech for our family. Our boys are 12 and 17 and don’t even have phones, they don’t want them. I swear my 17 year old should have been born in another era. Other than playing video games for a bit in the evenings he says there is too much technology in this world…lol. The boys are responsible for making sure their laundry is in the hamper by laundry or they will be wearing dirty clothes, they keep their rooms tidy and pick up after themselves. They are in charge of the pets. Feeding, fresh water, litter boxes…etc. they make their own breakfast and lunches unless I’m making something that we all love. My oldest cooks dinner several times a week and can make mean meatloaf. I have a debilitating Illness that zaps my energy very quickly and my husband and boys really chip in helping with the daily/weekly chores. The boys have a lot on their plate will school and homework, so we try to keep the chores minimal but effective. Before videos games animals need to be cared for, dishes from dinner put in the dishwasher, etc. while I’m not as tech savvy as you are,I think I can implement some of these ideas and make them work for us!

Mia! That is genius, making your girls read aloud to you both, the parental guidence for the higher rated films! 'Not comfortable reading it? Not watching it either.' GENIUS! I will be remembering this one for the grandchildren!

Over on Kallie’s channel “But First Coffee” a fellow subscriber shared a brilliant straightforward piece of advice and that was “Don’t put it down, put it away” absolutely brilliant, I’ve found it extremely useful 🙋🏼‍♀️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

I cannot say how much I appreciate your parental guidance tip for movies! My kids are still little, but I am going to save this gem for the future. Thank you so much!

I really loved your systems!! One system we have is a weekly family meeting /calendar coordination. Not because we can’t just rely on Google calendar, but the opportunity to identify busy times or special projects, priorities and have a forum to anyone to bring up stuff (like allowance, chores, vacation).

I like that you are preparing your children to be adults. Adult at 18 means what do I need to teach them to be functioning adults? Our family system is meetings. We meet once a week for discussing our calendar--we have a special google calendar for things we might want to do together. At the meeting we decide if we are doing it together, and who is getting the tickets. We also meet to discuss finances, and emergency preparedness.

I love the robot vacuum haha. I'm glad the alexa list works for you. I don't have alexa or anything similar, so I used to make my list directly on the supermarket app, but I realized that I need paper, because otherwise I get distracted with my phone. So, there's an old school paper on the fridge that says oats and almond milk 🤭

Beautiful delivery on an important topic! Bravo on your well developed Content. One of my favorite mantras to get me to do the dishes, I started 2 decades ago is, “ The meal is not over until the dishes are done”. Pretty self-explanatory. I am a professional organizer of 23 years in South Florida. Love this work. Honestly it’s not even work. It’s love.

I have had 2 echo dots still in the box for almost a year. You have talked me into taking one out of the box & syncing it with my google calendar. You are so organized. You are amazing.

Wow! I love the way you organize yourselfs. 🙌 I had when my children were small a system where I took one of them every 3 weeks to the hairdresser. After their haircut they could choose a store or several to go to and after that they chose a restaurant. When they were small it was toystores and McDonalds but as they grew up it became more cloths stores or other stores to buy things they saved up for and niecer restaurants as well. We called them Lena afternoons as that was the name of the hairdresser. Now I am a grandmother but both my sons and my daughter in laws have Lena afternoons with me. One on one you get to have nice conversations where you really get to know what is going on. Especially if you go to stores, I love thrifting, so as you talk about a nice pice of furnature or laugh at a rediculous tie you get a very relaxed connection. You have your favourite café or stor or like one of my daughterinlaws that loves ballet just as I do. So we take an evening now and then to look at ballet. And then we lunch together when she is in town. So I hope that my sons will keep the Lena afternoons with their kids too…

I’ve been looking for a video like this about actual systems to put in place, thank you for creating! The Alexa grocery list has been a game changer for us as well, especially since I always have my phone if I decide to go grocery shopping while out and about.

Love that my kids have our google calendar on their phones! We go over it every time they come back from their Dad's, but they can look if they are trying to schedule something with friends or for school.

Thank you! What a great list! I will definitely implement some of these. 👍

Awesome tips- my kids are younger so for now we use points for chores and behavior with monetary rewards or a small “prize”/date. I’d love to try the greenlight system when my children are older. I can’t wait to switch to a shoe rack, for now we have a basket with a lid hiding all the shoes 🙂

Love this video! i didn’t think I was coming here for parenting tips, but I love the idea about the movies. I think it is awesome! Encourages their own self reflection and critical thinking! Will file that in my memory bank for when needed when my kids are older.

Wow, how switched on you are. You are a fantastic example of love and family working well. Lots of love in your family. You are a very good mother. I had one of those but lost her early through cancer. I've ambled through disfunctional situations many. My Mom would have been as straight as you are. I have tears knowing that. I'm glad I tumbled on you this evening. God bless you all🙏

Great video. First watch for me on your channel. We take our old kitchen towels and cut them into smaller squares. There is a clean bin and a dirty bin and if the kids make a mess, they grab a clean one, clean up and then put it in the dirty side. It’s been helpful with two little ones and gaining independence. Plus, we have a space to put all our kitchen towels when dirty.

I really enjoyed this video! Love the tip on parental guidance! Genius!

Hi. This is the first video I've seen of yours. I'll turn 60 in December and my daughters are 23 and 25. The 23 year old still lives at home and runs her business from the upstairs studio. I found this video to be very informative. I'll be looking at Amazon's fresh delivery!, I'll try using Alexa for our grocery list, and I'll look at Google sheets for finances. I have POA over my parent's finances and they live 12 hours away from me. I'm always looking for good systems. Thank you. Tammy in N Alabama. 🙋‍♀️

Great video, thanks Mia!

We had awful experience with Green Light. They never sent the card besides multiple calls to their customer service but were very insistent in charging us for the card we didn't have due to their fault. It lasted for months.

Totally agree that planning your time actually gives more freedom, flow. Rather than keeping things in the back of your head or forever extending to-do’s. I know this, still I get those day I don’t work and suddenly I’ve spent the day thinking about things to do but not really acting, overwhelmed. Something I think I need to add on is time to chill without think I oughta do something else.

Hi thanks for all the videos you upload. They give me so much motivation! ☺️

Some interesting and different tips here. My daughter is 30 now, but I really wish I had known and used some of the systems you list here, especially sharing the household chores. Well done, you seem to have created some valuable foundations for your family.

One of THE best videos I’ve watched on this topic! Thank you.

We only have 1 real system in place. Since my boys are older (17, 20 & 22) and still at home, we have 3 chore charts. (1) weekly routines: Animal food/trash, people food, dog poop, dishes. So someone's in charge of taking out the trash all week - I got tired of hearing "I always do it" - then the next week it rotates. (2) Monthly list: this includes all joint household items like sweep kitchen, wipe bathroom counters, etc. There's 24 items on the list and each person does them once a month on specific days. And then in a sense, when you rotate each chore weekly to the next person, every chore gets done 4 times a month but only once per person. And no one has chores more than 3 days in a row and they can't complete more than 3 chores in one day, otherwise it throws off the routine. (3) Personal list: Monday is a free day. Tuesday is straighten your desk. Wednesday is empty your personal trash, etc. All items that pertain to only YOUR personal space. I purposely made it so that each chore will take roughly 2 - 3 minutes and ALL are under 5 minutes. Some chores literally take 45 seconds. Sweep the bathroom ... it's a small bathroom! Each month I print the new list and hang it in the community landing area by the bedroom doors where the command/calendar is and they highlight when it's done. This has worked really well and it's helping them to realize that they have the ability to keep their own house clean for under 10 minutes a day when they move out. The only other thing is I only cook like 3 days a week. The other days, they cook or fend for themselves. Whoever is on people food that week has to help with groceries, prep to put away and then help cook. They have 1 night that they cook for everyone and then once a month, they all have to work together to create a family meal. I have to say I just recently found your channel and I'm loving it and you! I can't believe you don't have more subscribers. We gotta work on that.

Thank you for sharing this video, great tips and I really love the systems you have in place... I have a 2year old and 3month old atm so very inspiring for me x

I just (yesterday) found your channel. I'm profoundly grateful to you for providing this content...it's sorely needed here 🙏

Wow, please do more of these!! Such unique and well-explained tips. Im a new wife and mom and spend hours on RU-vid looking for methods like these to stay organized so that I can adopt habits for my family while keeping my sanity and I got so much out of your video!!! Much love! Hope to see more soon :)

My “ system “ for changing my filters for heater/air conditioner is to change every change of seasons. On first day of spring, summer, fall, and winter my husband knows it’s time to change that filter. Every Wednesday I call “ wash sheets day” … I wash clothes on other days. but Wednesday wash means the sheets!

We use Siri for many of the things you use Alexa. Especially timers. We use our Kroger grocery app to add needed groceries over the week. No need to spend the extra money for Alexa. We could do delivery. I husband prefers pick up

Your last tip about reading the parental guide is genius! Thank you. I suspect you're going to have that wonderful relationship with your adult kids where you all vacation together every chance you get!

Just found your channel, love your content!

I just recently found your channel. Love it! I subscribed right away.

Oh can you do a video on batching?! I’d love to know how you batch planning - and more importantly keep up with the system you planned for!

I loved these suggestions!

Great ideas! Thank you! I learned a few things.

Great suggestions. Even my 19 year old wouldn't want to read the descriptions out they are very reserved. I am looking to buy a home system too, but will probably have to use Google here in Australia. We would be very happy having an online chat based shopping list as there is generally only 2 of 3 adults in the house and I would like to be not the one that has to remember everything 😅. Loving Clutter Cure, wish I had found you earlier.

Love this!!

1. Mesh laundry bags to keep socks together. 2. Wash laundry only 1 person per load!!! Total game changer!!! No time wasted sorting clothes anymore! Each person has their own hamper. 3. Electronic… NFC tags to set automations. (I have a tag that when I touch my phone to it, it automatically sets a laundry timer on my phone for the timing of our (old) dryer. Another tag is programmed to send my husband a text to let him know when our toddler goes down for a nap.) 3. Meal prep. Freezer meals that dump into instant pot.

Thank you for all the useful information! Could you elaborate on what sort of things you plan while batch planning? You mentioned planning a whole year ahead. Thank you!

I'm not a mom but that last part with having your daughter(s) read a desired mature movie or TV show listing out loud is both ingenious and a little amusing. I would adopt that strategy if I had kids. 👍🏼

15 is already a lot

My comment got deleted somehow 😅 so I'll just say this: having a virtual calendar and notes app has helped me so much with organization. It's helped me stay on top of things for a long time. I honestly have no idea why my comment got deleted when it was a response to your question of what I use to stay organized.

Great systems! Email folders! OMG this is what I need to get a handle on, thanks for the reminder. And batching-would love a video on this 😊

Wow, I clicked on the video not expecting much but I found some of the systems Really helpful

Love your idea for chores!

I have a grocery inventory in my phone Notes which is just a checklist of all our staple items, including spices, oils, condiments, etc. it serves as both an inventory (I check or uncheck it depending if we have it) and a shopping list (I indent it if we’re running out or need to buy more back stock). So for example we might not have fresh cilantro but if don’t need it that week I’ll keep it unchecked and not indented. This makes it easy when I go shopping to quickly scan what I need to get, and also check if we have something so we don’t overbuy (this is particularly helpful for things that aren’t in daily/weekly rotation, like “do we still have frozen peas?”). I shared the note with my partner but I think it needs improving a bit more as it’s still quite manual, and also still requires a bit of navigating in the store to find everything. I’d love to hook it up to Siri somehow and also organise it more closely with how the store is laid out so we can just follow the list in order as we go through the aisles. I like going to the store because I spend a lot of time inside at home so I prefer it to shopping online, but I like having a good list system to work off.

Manage exchanges, I love that 😆 we have a similar exchange but my husband doesn't prefer massages as his payment lol.

We have Apple HomePod minis in the kitchen, living room and bedroom. They’re hooked up to smart bulbs and to the Apple TV so we can easily say “turn everything off” when we’re leaving, or have things turn on when we get home. It’s also great for timers in the kitchen, moving music from one room to another (especially when cleaning) or playing sleep sounds to wind things down at night.

I’m so glad I stumbled on your video. Although I don’t have children, you mentioned you live in Portland. I live in a condo in the PDX burbs. I just subscribed & set up a slow cooker Pinterest board. Thanks for the idea!

The title of this video should be " How I automated our life". Lol. It's really awesome that you explored these systems and found ones that work for your entire family.

This was one of the best videos I’ve watched on the Tube in a long time! Kudos! I actually have my version of most of your systems 😊

Amazon fresh - game-changer on time, money, and reliability! Checking out the vacuum asap! Movie idea - GENIUS as well!

Thank you for your tips love them

Love the system for determining if your daughter is mature enough to watch a show! Brilliant!

Excellent ideas!

I'm not into the techie stuff as much as you but I like how you think about simplifying family life! Just found you today in the beginning of my journey to decluttering so I smashed that subscribe button!

So many gold nuggets, you’ve gained a new subscriber.

Very useful systems! i should try more of them.

We have our Alexa remind us when we need to take or garbage can out to the road every week. Our youngest (almost 7) goes around the house and collects the trash from various rooms such as bathroom, office, and laundry room and he dumps it in our main can in the kitchen. Then my husband takes that bag out and rolls the can to the end of the drive. Every day when our daughter (11) gets home from school, she has a snack and empties the dishwasher. That way when it’s time for me to cook, the kitchen is ready and she’s working on her homework.

You are so organized that I feel like I have the most random yet flexible schedule ever haha :)

Mom of 2 boys here. Really enjoyed this. New sub!

I love your parental guidance idea!

This is one of the best videos I've seen lately. Packed with helpful tips. So much so, that I think I'll have to watch it again. Thank you

This is kinda basic, but we have a system where I put papers/items in certain spots that relate to certain actions. That way, my husband can work on the project, too, if he knows that “papers here” need to be filed or mailed, etc. This saves us having to write notes on or label everything.

That Alexa calendar thing sounds like something I would like to try. Thanks!

I love this😍😍🥰

10:55 you are also teaching them you have to get money for everything and there's no such thing as charity. (Charity is joy, especially if the person both receiver and giver is happy) that's right, happy doing it and happy the person is happy about it 😊

Wow I love your systems. I have used a few of them, esp the Google calendar. Could you provide illustrations? It will be easy for us to understand. And maybe more videos like this about systems in the future with illustrations would be great. Thanks!

Hi! I live in Sweden and here we all have a shoerack guz its not polite to walk in with dirty shoes. So I think a shoerack is something everyone should have :D

I love the movie idea! This is an issue I’m having with my daughter right now! What do you use for her to read the parenting reviews from? Is there an app or website you use? I would love to implement this! :) And thanks for this awesome video!

very informative, thankyou. e mail sorting great idea. i have about 100 or so that i haven't looked at. the 5 minute is good as well

Another wonderful video,,, Thanks a lot

Great video

Thanks Mia!

I’m looking for a new ways to divide chores, cooking, daily task between two people! My partner and I do community very well! There’s some things I dislike; leaving dishes piled in the sink throughout the week or clean the bath room every 5 days etc… stuff like that. My partner dislike me cleaning up something instantly when I see it or something out of place. We need balance system & routine! It’s way different than living with my family. I’m okay with it but mentally I have these habits instilled inside my body. Haha these tips are very helpful. I’m going to check out your Pinterest! Hoping to find new recipes to eat tonight. 😊

Love your channel, I also have zero emails, every evening I delete or put in a folder if it’s important. I can Never understand people having 100s of emails and not deleting them… Awwww my husband has the Splenda and spoon habit…. Lol

Each System deserves its own video! Relink back to this one and win-win!

Loved this video!! Thank you so much. Also hi 👋 I’m also a local to Portland

I enjoyed hearing these tips. I find Alexa and other devices creepy. I have an older (2 years) robot vac and when it isn’t bumping into things it is amazing. It is really loud on tile. You might like to read the book The Store. 😂

This is wealth of knowledge!

WoW you are so organized , Iearned some things Happy family good for you dear.👍

you are an inspiration! enjoy your videos very much!!! thamk you!!!!

Ms. Mia, Love this content. This is wonderful for me. I’m Always trying to figure out a system so that the household can run smoother. Can we get you off the Splenda? What about stevia or flavored creamer 😊

Iv been looking for a robot vac mop for a while. Like it that you enjoy yours

Thank you so much ❤

This is a great set of ideas and I need to do some of them. However, there are times when we have power outages here which would erase all that information. A grocery list on the frig works best for me. Batching tasks and email folders will help. Setting appointments for tasks would help me when I learn how. My phone is still smarter than I am.

You are so wonderful, wish you a new day full of joy and happiness. Always accompany and develop with you like

Just pausing the video for a sec - I love your email folder system. Is it a drag-and-drop sort of thing? I’ve got to look for a tutorial ‘cause my Gmail account is out of control. 😅

Well, I don't have a spouse or children living at home, so a lot of this isn't for me, but I will set reminders for things I want to get done. I already use email folders. I don't take my shoes off in the home, but my daughter does, and I've been thinking about it for a while. Thanks.

Beautiful ! perfect by..cleaning organized office desk old papers, documents mails - sorting, ripping, crumbling...Can You make that clip?

Girl I think I was organized, but you beat me up royally 😝😝😝

Wow excellent ideas!

I love your couch/sectional. Where did you buy it.?

Basically a tech commercial. And a couple of tips. Not really systems. But I really appreciate a few of your other videos.

This was nothing but an infomercial passing itself off as something else!