Allowing users to customize homepage content

I am working on a website section (staff side) where users should be able to create content (book/events/news lists) for the homepage, as well as be able to configure the layout (reorder content).

The current flow separates List Management from Layout Configuration, so first they would have to create a list and then go to a different section on the website in order to link it to a content block on the homepage.

Any examples of similar situations would be really helpful. The current flow is very tangled and goes too far down the rabbit hole.