Do you feel like the work in your house is constantly hanging over your head? I do! I can walk down the hallway and look into rooms, down to the floor or straight ahead and see a zillion things that need attention. By the time I get to where I am going in the house I am overwhelmed and only looking for a chair to sit down in so I can hold my head in my hands. I have this feeling all the time that the dirt and grunge is laughing at me... mocking my inability to get ahead of it.I have tried doing the Flylady thing.
FlyLady uses the Sidetracked Home Executive (SHE) system as a basis for organizing her home and her life. She adds humor, spunk, and a dose of common sense to her advice, but be prepared - FlyLady does not allow whining. You have to get off your "Franny"!Wikipedia has a great synopsis of Flylady's system.First, you join as a FlyBaby. You will receive your e-mail Welcome Letters from FlyLady instructing you on how to get started. You will also receive regular e-mail reminders from FlyLady about zones, decluttering, laundry, shoes (honestly - shoes are very important here!) and more. Don't feel overwhelmed! FlyLady will keep you on track using small baby steps. And FlyBabies - no peeking at all of the routines, etc. shown on the FlyLady website. You are just getting started!
Now, as you progress, Flylady will send you e-mail to help you develop routines to get you going in the morning and to send you off to sleep in the evening. She's tough here - routines are very important! It takes 21 days to form a habit, but for SHEs, it takes 28 days. FlyLady is going to insist you shine your sink too - you'll soon find out why!
Decluttering is next. FlyLady will help you declutter your house using Hot Spot Fire Drills and the 27-Fling Boogie. If the thought of decluttering your home is overwhelming - don't worry - Flylady has been there and knows what you are going through! In fact, FlyLady still has her own "dungeon" of clutter that she is working on!
It doesn’t matter whether you are a male or female, single or married, working in or out of the home, have kids or not, this can work for you. You can easily adapt FlyLady’s system to fit your own lifestyle. You will find that with time, your house and life will pull together.
I love the idea of Flylady but her emails overwhelmed me. If you sign up for her email reminders you will receive 1000 a day reminding you to put on your shoes, clean the sink, asking where your laundry is at... ahhhh! She stresses "babysteps" but I just have not been able to put it into action. I get bogged down in the big picture. And though she does encourage babysteps, Flylady has everything covered. So its easy to feel you are not measuring up and a million baby steps are needed to catch up. So no email reminders for me. I have enbough self talk in my head telling me what needs to get done.
One of the things I do like about Flylady is that she breaks the house up into zones. And everywhere she focuses on one zone... doing step by step deep cleaning, organizing, etc over the week. You get through this cycle and back to the beginning and you just might find that your house is beginning to shape up and you might just be out from under it.
*Disclaimer - I have never accomplished this!
Last night as I was anxiously pondering how to get a handle on this house, I sat down and broke the house up into segments. I decided that each day for 2 hours (8am - 10am) I would focus on one section of the house. But then I decided that by the time i got back around to, say, the f9ollowing Monday, those rooms would be trashed again. I would never feel any real accomplishment. I would only be caught in a cycle of mediocrity or less.
So... what to do?
I am going to jump back into the Flylady and focus on her Zone for this week. She has made some changes to her site so it is easier to get on board. Here are the Zones for December. If you check this same link tomorrow I am sure it will be updated for next week. And there will be a list for all the zones in January. (I might be getting excited!)
These are the zones for December - mark your calendars:
I am not going to think about anything else on her site for now. There is alot alot of information there but I do not want to take any other steps til I feel I accomplished this one. The zone for this week in the Master bedroom... doable and needed since Doc has been wasting away int here with his illness. It need a good cleaning.
So wish me luck... and jump on board if you like. Come Fly with me!
2 comments:
Hey Stephanie! I am holding my first ever blog contest some come check it out! It is only going until 10 pm January 1st!
I've done FlyLady! I chose to not get the e-mails. It was too annoying. Basically, what I do now is if things get out of control I do the setting the timer thing and pick the three worst areas and then work 15 minutes in each area, take a 15 minute break, and then keep going until it is done. That would be hard to do with little ones though. I also still do the 27 fling boogie thing. Oh... and the getting dressed to the shoes. That really does do something to keep you going... and doing the hair and make-up.
I love FlyLady!! Yes the emails are a bit much and no i haven't gotten to the the point that i'm flying. . more like buzzing around. But i'm more organized and there is less stuff in my house now!
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