flylady.net

i don't know if any of you have heard about flylady.net, but i recently discovered her website and i signed up. my house is always a mess, and i figured that it couldn't hurt to try out her system. i've also decided that i need to try to get a routine down, or some sort of system in the works before this baby arrives and throws a new curve ball at me. the whole flylady system is based off of what she calls "baby-steps" and "routines" etc. and you get about 10 e-mails a day.

...

so far i like her system. i don't follow it EXACTLY though. when she tells me to dress to my "lace-up shoes", i figure if i have flip-flops or heels on: i'm good. when she tells me to "shine your sink", i figured as long as my sink doesn't have dirty dishes in it: i'm good. i figure that anything is better than nothing, right?

...

but i like using her principles and adapting them to fit my lifestyle and schedule. no my house isn't miraculously clean all the time. but it's better than it was. hey i had family over the other day and my apartment was actually pretty presentable.

...

the e-mails can get kind of annoying sometimes. having to read through people "testimonials" about how wonderful her duster is, or how great the CD is (which i mostly view as marketing, "buy flylady merchandise -- but hey she offers her programs for free, can't blame a girl for trying). and i just delete the reminder e-mails when i do them or if i already did it for the day. some of the tesitmonials are great reminders, and some are just "my life was sooo bad until i met flylady, and now my life is wonderful." GAG ME -- delete!

...

here's *some* of my routines:

• get up, make bed (haha), shower, get dressed, fix hair and face, start a load of laundry (wouldn't that be nice if i could get myself to wake up a little earlier to fit that in -- then i could switch it out when i get home from work -- maybe someday)
• swish and swipe (as in your toilet and counters, its amazing how doing this everyday for like 5 seconds makes it so it doesn't take 15 minutes when you never do it)
• 15 minute de-clutter (seriously, set a timer and just do it, when the timer dings stop. this is wonderful -- although i do it when i get home from work)
• check calendar and "to-do" lists. (i've become much more organized with my planner now, and i always know what's going on, and what needs to be done)

she also has a thing called "home blessing hour" which means you bless your home and family by cleaning, and it only takes ONE hour. that's my kind of cleaning, this usually gets done on saturday, or i break it down over the week. she also has a basic weekly plan which breaks down what needs to be done over the course of a week, weekly checklists, and a different "zone" for each week. (week 1: entrance, dining room, front porch, week 2: kitchen etc.)

...

anyways, i would recomend trying it out if you have any trouble with housework, or you just like looking for new systems. i love her routines (morning and night) and i love how she breaks the housework down into mangable "zones". i've thought about setting up my own system so that i don't have to get a million e-mails that are sob-stories -- i know those probably help some people, just not me. i want just one e-mail a day. we'll see, if anyone else, want to work on trying to keep our houses clean together, let's do it.