Difficult problem, I do know what you mean about fitting messy life into patterns, that said some can still be invaluable at times.<p>Something like a singleton would be handy to stop multiple creation of an object, for web design mvc just makes life a lot easier by decoupling different parts and in theory for your project something like an observer pattern could be created to notify other systems to a state change. <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.java2s.com&#x2F;Tutorials&#x2F;Java&#x2F;Java_Design_Patterns&#x2F;0170__Java_Observer_Pattern.htm" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.java2s.com&#x2F;Tutorials&#x2F;Java&#x2F;Java_Design_Patterns&#x2F;01...</a><p>In the end there&#x27;s many ways and approaches, maybe even brushing up some class design stuff in another language might help.<p>Good luck on your journey, sounds like you&#x27;ll be fine.