Flylady?

Does anyone do Flylady here? I am missing the housewife gene, so our house is always a mess. Upstairs is kept pretty tidy, usually I can get it company ready in about half an hour (which is not enough as some of my friends tend to just show up without calling first), but downstairs? Not so much. If we got robbed, I'd probably not notice. And the laundrey is out of control.. I did start flylady before the summer, but then it was summer holidays and I kind of fell off the wagon, and the house kept back to it's usual state of messy.

So on sunday I started again, and I am already seeing the benefits. SO helped by cleaning the bathrooms before he left, bless him, I hate cleaning bathrooms.. When things are broken down into 15 minute parts, it seeems so much easier to get on with. I also made a control journal, something I didn't bother with before, and it really helps that I have a list to check before I go to bed to make sure that everything is done. In two days I have done more than half of the washing (and put it away - something I never usually bother with)! And our bedroom is actually looking more like a bedroom and less like the clothes section at a flea market. Yey! I also found out that my oldest DD has 16 pairs of jeans and cords, Who on earth needs that many trousers?

Have any of you tried this, and more importantly kept it up?

nope, haven't tried it. i too am missing the that gene . i go in spurts where i keep up with everything and then i slack off, lol. my house is one story and tiny so its not a huge job to keep it up. i have the same problem with laundry. i'm never done. i just put away 2 baskets on Sunday and only have a pile of blankets and one more basket of clothes left to wash. maybe i'll get it done today?

I am a Flylady failure, too, but she has helped change my life, even if I don't stick to her program. I love the idea that I can accomplish stuff in 15 minutes. Be encouraged! Even if you don't stick with it forever, you will hopefully make some good changes that will help bring order to your life.

LOL... love your descriptions, Kristine!

I have not heard of Flylady before... I'll have to check it out. My mom would tell you that I'm not her child... she is a clean freak, as is my Dad... I'm a free spirit when it comes to my house... *glancing over at the huge pile of boxes that surround my desk*

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Rebecca

I've done Flylady before and although I no longer get the daily emails and such, I've kept up with a lot of her systems and they are fantastic!

I definitely do the night-time routine and it helps me so much to have a better morning. Doing just a few simple things before I go to bed sets my up for the morning, no matter how tired and cranky I am!

I also like her 15 minute cleaning spurts and thing it is amazing how much you can accomplish in such a short amount of time. She also does a 28(?) fling-boogie where you have to walk around with a trash bag and you cannot stop until you have 28 things to throw away... amazing how much you can declutter just by doing this a few times or even once a week!

The emails can get really overwhelming though, so I've usually opted just to check in on her site and use and adapt what I think will work for me.

One question for flylady people - where do you find the 15 minute schedules? I started earlier this summer, and opted not to get the daily emails... and the whole first month of stuff was like "Shine your Sink", "Get Dressed To Your Shoes", "Smile at Yourself" (okay maybe not the last one, but it felt like it, lol). I did it almost a week and still didn't have any cleaner of a house.

So I quit. Where are the lists? It was like the first week was working on your self-esteem...

I used to "Fly" a lot, but found the emails totally overwhelming. I follow FlyLady on Twitter now though, so I get reminded of things.

One of my biggest challenges is that on a given evening, I feel I have to choose between
a.) keeping a tidy house
b.) relaxing alone or w/ family (i.e. TV or movie)
c.) blogging/photo editing/scrapping.

It seems like the three are mutually exclusive... and we don't even want to get into the "no time for exercise" issue.

We've done FlyLady for a couple of years and it works!

Here's our schedule:


BEFORE BED TO DO LIST
Quick clean-up:
- Clean up from dinner – clean off table, stove and counters, wash dishes
- Living room: Pick up floor, etc

Prepare for tomorrow:
- Thaw food for tomorrow’s dinner and/or get out crock pot
- Lay out clothes and shoes for tomorrow
- Make lunch for tomorrow (on working days)
- Reflect on today’s accomplishments



MORNINIG TO DO LIST
- Make the bed
- Put load of laundry in
- Eat breakfast, feed Wesley breakfast
- Make a list for the day
- Finish making lunch


WEEKLY CLEANING SCHEDULE

Sunday: Planning Day
- Plan meals for the week, and make grocery list
- Prep ahead for weeknight meals as able

Monday: Grocery & Laundry Day
- Crock pot day for dinner
- Double check meal/grocery list
- Go grocery shopping – Deanna
- Do 2 loads of laundry (including sheets) from start to finish – Steve
- Empty all trash and diaper pail, and clean our refrigerator – Deanna
- Take trash down – Steve

Tuesday: Free Day
- Water plants – Deanna
- Straighten/sweep porches - Steve

Wednesday: Weekly Quick-clean (1 hour of quick-cleaning time)
- Toss old magazines and sort mail – Deanna
- Sweep (mop as needed) kitchen, hall, bath – Deanna
- Clean bathroom - Deanna
- Vacuum all rooms – Steve
- Dust all rooms and clean all mirrors - Steve

Thursday: Paperwork & Laundry Day
- Clean out purse - Deanna
- Sort/pay bills – Deanna
- File paperwork/bills – Deanna
- Write cards, thank you notes, etc. – Deanna
- Do ironing – Deanna
- Do 2 loads of laundry (including rugs and tablecloth) from start to finish – Steve

Terrific schedule, Deanna!

I too am a Flybaby... or sort of. I have my own morning, midday (I'm home for lunch), afterwork and evening routine, and I'm slowly setting up my weekly/monthly/yearly routines. I use my PDA a lot and it's a terrific help: I don't have to get the e-mails (which were on the wrong time for me since I live in France... get the "get up and make your bed e-mail at 3pm is kind of weird! LOL). The babysteps system and the 15-minutes thing are terrific too.

scrapperjade said:

One question for flylady people - where do you find the 15 minute schedules? I started earlier this summer, and opted not to get the daily emails... and the whole first month of stuff was like "Shine your Sink", "Get Dressed To Your Shoes", "Smile at Yourself" (okay maybe not the last one, but it felt like it, lol). I did it almost a week and still didn't have any cleaner of a house.

So I quit. Where are the lists? It was like the first week was working on your self-esteem...

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The concept that I use of the "15 minutes" is one of her older concepts I think. The theory being that you can do ANYTHING for 15 minutes. So what I'll do when the house is just overwhelming and I don't even know where to start is just set a timer and GO. I have no set thing to do, I just have to be up and moving... and it works! I have found that the messes are not nearly as BIG as I think they are when I see how much I really can accomplish in just 15 minutes.

I've never been religious about her program, but I have picked up some very useful tips from her and I do occasionally try to do some zone cleaning.

One question for flylady people - where do you find the 15 minute schedules?

Click to expand...

I can't get the site to come up right now, but I think if you go to the link for Today's Zone or something like that, then there is another link for the detailed cleaning lists.

That's a brilliant schedule Dana!

I find a few of the things on the site a bit strange (like dressing up to shoes in the morning - I don't wear shoes inside, and I get dressed for work anyway), so I just skip those bits and use the stuff that works for me.

I get the e-mails, I delete most of them, but some of them are pretty good - like the daily missions where they give you a 10 or 15 minute task for the current zone. Like today, the task is to spend 10 minutes wiping the cupboard doors in the kitchen. If someone came round and told me the cupborad doors needed cleaning I'd probably be offended (even though it's true), but getting it in an e-mail is fine - it's not like these people have been to my house. And it helps me to do it too.

I've been thinking about making a schedule for my oldest daughter too, dividing her rooms into "zones" that she can spend 5 minutes on clearing up before bed to help her keep her room in order.