Several years ago after reading a letter in Dear Abby I investigated the site FlyLady. She encouraged me to not be a procrastinator and to get up and get moving. I embraced her daily night cleaning of the kitchen sink and her laundry routine first thing in the morning. I made myself a control journal and I followed her holiday meal preparations. I had an organized house for quite some time. I'm not sure what happened and why I quit flying, but I am determined to start again.
Since September I started flapping my wings. I cleaned out my sink with bleach and Comet and shined that baby up. The premise is that if we do this each night before bed we will awake to a clean sink and a great start to the day. The other daily routine is getting dressed as soon as you roll out of bed in the morning. Put on your clothes. Put on your shoes. Put on your face and brush your hair. This way you are ready for anything. House on fire? You are ready. UPS man at the door? You are ready. Before leaving your bedroom you pick up the dirty laundry and walk it to the washing machine where you start a load. Bang. Task accomplished before breakfast. Her last daily routine is swishing and swiping the bathrooms. Do this and your bathroom is already for guests. No more rushing in to ready it.
The sink thing never worked for me back in the day because my husband would go to bed after me and leave dishes in the sink I had just cleaned. This time I'm going to threaten. As for the morning routine, I loved that one and have for the most part carried that one through for several years. I might stray on weekends and holidays, but I do feel better getting put together early on. The laundry thing was great when I did it and now that there are only three of us it should make it even easier. The bathroom routine was one of my favorites and I'm sorry I let that one go. I can already see after a week of getting back to it that it will be SO helpful.
Flylady will send you daily emails letting you know which area of the house you will be concentrating on. Spend the 15 minutes she requires completing the tasks she suggests and chaos will soon be gone from your home. The premise is that the house didn't get dirty in one day so you should't expect it to be totally clean in one day. An example was the day's area of the dining room. I was to either declutter the room (that's for beginners, but decluttering isn't a problem in my house for the most part) or start working on her detailed list for cleaning that area. Only 15 minutes are expected and we are to set a timer. Each week she has different zones and each day different tasks.
Once you are in her rhythm it is quite easy, but you have to be willing to do it. You don't have to follow everything her way. I've changed days around in the past, but I think I'll stick with her routine for awhile. Baby steps. Already I see that following through with this has given me more time for things I want to do. I no longer feel guilty taking an hour or more to just sit down and read a book. It also gives me answers to that dreaded question from the working husband, "So...what did you do today?"
Me: "I did a load of laundry, cleaned the kitchen sink, walked the dog, swished and swiped the bathrooms, decluttered the dining room, swept the front porch...." He doesn't need to know all of that was before 10:00 am.
Fly, baby, fly!
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