Flylady anyone?

[Sherri Tierney]

I remember Kellie mentioning Flylady in the thread about purging digi supplies. So, I have to ask, who else follows Flylady?

I've been a Flybaby off and on since before I had kids (and my oldest is almost 10, so quite some time) but lately its been more off than on. I feel like I'm starting all the way over and I could use some buddies to help hold me accountable. Obviously you can't stop by and do surprise inspections on my house (thank goodness because right now it is scary!) but I'm not doing so well going it alone here. I have a group I post in but our group has dwindled to 4 and I'm the only one posting much so I feel like I'm talking to myself.

[webseitler]

Hey! Where's your laundry?!

I was a long time ago... but not for years... (and my house reflects that.)

[KateD]

I'm another off-and-on flybaby. More off than on, but I am wearing my lace-up shoes

[YepBrook]

Flylady never worked for me. I basically had a nice shiny clean sink and that was IT. Maybe it's because I refuse to wear shoes in my house???

You know what works for me? Inviting friends over! Just today I had my best friend over and amazingly the pile of laundry on my couch has been folded. Also, the toilets are clean! I also seemed to find the ability to deal with that pile of mail on my kitchen counter.
Seriously, I like to invite someone over at least once a week. Not only because I love my friends but because it motivates me to keep a tidy house. This might not work for everyone, though. I have friends whose houses never change... messy & even dirty as all get out no matter WHO is coming over. I was raised by 2 serious neat freaks who "trained" me to think like them. No matter how much of a slob I am at heart I can't erase the OCD mom-talk in my brain.

Another thing that works is to set up a weekly schedule. Scrap it all cute, laminate it and put it on your fridge. After you complete those chores for the day, check them off with a dry erase marker. For example, Monday I have "laundry, vacuum, mop" Tuesday is "bathrooms, upstairs" Wednesday is "windows, laundry, dust"... I try to remind myself to do the basics M-F, outdoor chores on Sat. and Sun is a day of rest!

[kristijoy]

I love Flylady and have used her system for several years. I've made my own zone worksheets that I follow myself rather than follow her emails. Recently I did a reajustment on all my zone work since we just moved into a new house. So far all I've been doing is UNPACKING and minimal cleaning. (And keeping up the laundry). When I get the bulk of the unpacking done...I'm going to definately start working on those zones!

[Txcorey]

I'm another off again, on again girl. I like the premise of it, but for some reason I have trouble sticking to a daily routine. I might need to just adjust it to a weekly checklist and be more flexible about the days that things get done. I would like to get back on task again. I even made a schedule of days to do things, a zone system for my house, and tasks to do in the zones. Need to pull it back out again.

[sarahbhb]

I use a lot of flylady's principals but don't follow her emails or anything (I honestly found them way annoying)..I do zones, have a daily checklist, and try to make sure my hotspots are clear. I also love her chaos cleaning method for when things have gotten out of control....so brilliant. I'm not so good at going to bed at a decent hour...that is something I definitely need to work on.

[carrie1977]

Wearing shoes in the house is a requirement? *gasp* I'm out! Those are the first things to go when I get home! LOL!

[scrap2day]

Originally Posted by carrie1977

Wearing shoes in the house is a requirement? *gasp* I'm out! Those are the first things to go when I get home! LOL!

Exactly!

[KateD]

The idea behind the shoes is that when you go to work, you get dressed in your work clothes. Lace-up shoes (sneakers) are the flybaby's work shoes. Besides, they protect feet from stubbed toes and from getting hurt stepping on little things left around the house by little people .

I do find that I get more accomplished when I'm wearing my shoes than when I wear my slippers. I tend to be a shoe person anyway; the older I get the more my feet hurt after awhile of walking around barefoot...

[Nettio]

Originally Posted by KateD

The idea behind the shoes is that when you go to work, you get dressed in your work clothes. Lace-up shoes (sneakers) are the flybaby's work shoes. Besides, they protect feet from stubbed toes and from getting hurt stepping on little things left around the house by little people .

I do find that I get more accomplished when I'm wearing my shoes than when I wear my slippers. I tend to be a shoe person anyway; the older I get the more my feet hurt after awhile of walking around barefoot...

Exactly. People tend to get caught up on the "wearing shoes" aspect but what she really says is "Get dressed to lace-up shoes" aka, you'll be more productive if you don't lounge around in your pajamas all day.

We don't wear shoes in the house but since I work from home, I do have a pair of cute flats I wear as my "work shoes." I've trained myself to not randomly kick them off so the lace-up part isn't an issue and I do find I'm more productive when I get dressed and wear them like I would at a normal job.

I love Flylady's philosophy but I'd say I'm more of a laid-back Flylady follower since we only have two adults living here. So I have my daily routines and hot spots and on Sunday evening I do a "get ready for the week" which is my take on her home blessing hour (except way less cleaning, haha).

I do work in zones but not on any schedule - I do more what I'd call "on-demand zone cleaning." Our house here in TX is HUGE (about twice as big as we wanted) so I tend to focus on my non-negotiable areas first (kitchen and main living area) and then will add other rooms as I feel they need it. But like I said, we only have two adults, don't wear shoes in the house and are both pretty laid back so I don't think either of us care if our house is mopped, vacuumed and dusted every single week. I can find better ways to spend my time.

[Sherri Tierney]

I would get a lot more accomplished if I didn't have kids. I can say that for sure. I've tried for an hour to get stuff done and I've stopped 4 fights and reminded the kids about 19 times each that they need to start getting ready for bed. I am exhausted and they aren't helping. Ugh.

Anyway, the shoes thing is a MUST for me. If I don't have my shoes on, I get NOTHING done around the house. I don't like walking through the house without shoes on so if I don't have shoes on I'm either in bed or I'm reclining on the couch. I used to think it was the cold hardwood I didn't like to walk on barefoot but we have mostly carpet here and I hate that even more. I'm just not a barefoot person.

My problem with Flylady has always been that I try too much at once. I don't do baby steps. I delve in and then get overwhelmed. When I first found Flylady all I had was guidelines, not even daily emails. I did so much better then than any other time. I think its because the emails pile up and I start to feel guilty that I haven't done everything for that day, etc. I need to go back to cleaning my sink and starting an evening routine. Of course, I take issue with the sink bit. I despise doing dishes. I'd rather do anything else in the world. I'll clean my sink but leave the dishes. Having an empty, shiny sink does not make me want to clean the rest of my house at all. I actually had a chat with Marla (Flylady) about this once. She said I need to find a different 'sink'... meaning that I needed to find what does inspire me to keep going. At that point in time when I talked to her, I didn't even HAVE a kitchen sink. I didn't have a kitchen. I did dishes in the bath tub and cooked in a shell of a room that was supposed to have been a kitchen (no flooring, no ceilings, no drywall, completely gutted). At that point, in that house, my living room became my 'sink' and I did really well. I just haven't found my 'sink' in this house (because, as I said, the real sink certainly doesn't inspire me).

Originally Posted by YepBrook

Flylady never worked for me. I basically had a nice shiny clean sink and that was IT. Maybe it's because I refuse to wear shoes in my house???

You know what works for me? Inviting friends over! Just today I had my best friend over and amazingly the pile of laundry on my couch has been folded. Also, the toilets are clean! I also seemed to find the ability to deal with that pile of mail on my kitchen counter.
Seriously, I like to invite someone over at least once a week. Not only because I love my friends but because it motivates me to keep a tidy house. This might not work for everyone, though. I have friends whose houses never change... messy & even dirty as all get out no matter WHO is coming over. I was raised by 2 serious neat freaks who "trained" me to think like them. No matter how much of a slob I am at heart I can't erase the OCD mom-talk in my brain.

Another thing that works is to set up a weekly schedule. Scrap it all cute, laminate it and put it on your fridge. After you complete those chores for the day, check them off with a dry erase marker. For example, Monday I have "laundry, vacuum, mop" Tuesday is "bathrooms, upstairs" Wednesday is "windows, laundry, dust"... I try to remind myself to do the basics M-F, outdoor chores on Sat. and Sun is a day of rest!

My husband always jokes that we should invite someone over every week because the house is always cleaner when someone is coming... and really, its true. Year before last my son's speech therapist came to the house twice a week. My house was ALWAYS clean when she came. It was a mess in between visits but I always had it nice and shiny when she arrived. She always commented on how great my house smelled too. These days I walk in and it just smells musty. We're going to a concert tomorrow night and we were discussing with our baby-sitter whether she was going to come here or whether we'd take the kids to her. I did a happy dance when I found out she'd rather watch the kids at her house. It saved me having to clean.

Anyway, I've done the schedule thing, all the way down to scrapping and laminating it. Thing is, I don't use those kinds of charts. I made my kids awesome chore charts that are hanging on the fridge and I never even look at them. I don't look at the calendar either so that wouldn't help. I also have a hard time with schedules like that because I never end up feeling like doing something on a specific day. I either do it when I can't put it off any longer (I work best last minute, truthfully) or I do it when the notion strikes. If I say I'm going to clean the bathrooms every Tuesday they won't ever get cleaned. If I say I'm going to spend 15 minutes a day rescuing a room its more likely that I'll get the bathrooms cleaned before mold grows in there. (seriously, no mold in my bathrooms... just messy counters with toothbrushes and toothpaste)