One Home Rule: every item has one home location. Flow dies when you search.

If a tool doesn’t have a home, it becomes a traveler. Travelers create mess and wasted time. You put the router on the assembly table “just for now” and three days later you’re tearing the shop apart looking for it. I’ve done this a hundred times!

The Fix Is Simple

Every item gets one home location. Not a suggestion. Not a general area. One spot.

When you’re done using it, it goes back. When someone asks “where’s the…” you have an answer. When you start a project, everything is where you expect it to be.

The Key Insight

Label locations, not items. Labeling every item becomes homework. Nobody keeps up with it.

Instead, name your locations:

  • “Top drawer, router station”
  • “Shelf 3, consumables wall”
  • “Systainer stack, left side”
  • “Milwaukee Miter Station (MMS), drawer 1” - This is actually one that I use.

When items have named homes and locations have labels, the system runs itself.

2-Minute Mission

Name 5 locations in your shop right now. Don’t overthink it. A shelf, a drawer, a bin, a wall. It doesn’t matter, just give them names.

If you can’t find it in 10 seconds, the system is broken, not you. Fix the locations.