Anyone else enjoying Flylady? - Page 2

[lovemyfamily6]

Alright, you guys inspired me. I rejoined Flylady and signed up for the daily digest. I'm going to go sit down with dh tonight, but tomorrow I will start. And I will try very hard to "jump in where I am" and not get overwhelmed and try to do it all at once.

[sarafi]

Thanks for reminding me...I need to check her out again!

[bwylde]

You can even just go on her site to check things out and she has a toolbar now which apparantly has the daily things on it (I don't have it but may get it as it donates money to charity when you use the search engine)

[adtake]

Is there a specific FlyLady support group on here? like a tribe??

I used her for a while and just felt too much with 2 little boys in the house. Now I have 2 in school and a 2 year old and newborn at home. The 2 year old loves the help and clean, so I may be able to get back on again...

[jrpbrown1]

Originally Posted by adtake

Is there a specific FlyLady support group on here? like a tribe??

I used her for a while and just felt too much with 2 little boys in the house. Now I have 2 in school and a 2 year old and newborn at home. The 2 year old loves the help and clean, so I may be able to get back on again...

Apparently not. I just did a search in Tribal Areas and didn't find one. FLYlady has her own messageboard now, FYI.

[Carla_KY]

I like her ideas too! I dont' follow her exact plan, but I have picked up several of her ideas. I have a daily cleaning "routine" that I try to follow and my house stays much tidier than it used to! I've been doing it for a couple years now I guess.

It has reduced a lot of stress for me.

[AuntNi]

I Flylady! I hesitate to say how much she's helped in several areas of my life, because I start sounding like a cult member. But honestly, in addition to my house, the system has also helped with my weight and finances. Plus, I feel like a better mom.

I certainly don't do it perfectly, but my favorite parts are:

Wearing shoes really does make me more productive
Swish & swipe in the bathrooms
1 load of laundry per day
You can't organize clutter - you can only get rid of it.
You can do anything for 15 minutes - I use this all the time to power through unpleasant tasks at work.
"Housework done incorrectly still blesses my family," although I really loved the PP's "half-assed" phrasing.

[flowmom]

I am the kind of person that the flylady systems are designed for. I get into messes because I'm a perfectionist and don't have time to do anything properly . Also, I have a lot of trouble starting and sticking to routines. Finally, I have some unhelpful attitudes about housework (bitter at family about the amount of mess, lack of help). I am not following the flylady system totally, but I'm gradually starting to incorporate some of her ideas and strategies and they are helping a lot . Flylady's cultural background is very different from mine even though we are both north americans, but I find that she is sharing some concepts that are relevant to many mothers' lives.

[Anna06]

Lots of good posts here. I'm going to check her out. sign up or something, as I am in a rut. My house/life/weight all seem to get out of balance at the same time.

[flowmom]

The flylady podcasts have really helped me to understand the flylady philosophy.

[laohaire]

Originally Posted by lillydilly

The most helpful thing of all for me was the change in attitude. I really did go from resenting all the housework to seeing it as blessing my home and my family. Even if I gained nothing more from her than that, it was worth it.

I will look at it again (I think I did the first 3 days and then I got real busy with something and forgot to pick it up again). But I do not resent housework, and feel it is a blessing for my family. My problem is just that I feel so overwhelmed.

I understand FL helps with the overwhelm by just having you do a little at a time, but the part that gets me down every time is that it takes exactly 2 days for my house to fall COMPLETELY apart. Only 2 days. So I feel like I have no margin for error. If I'm sick or if I spend my energy for a day or two on another project (outdoors or something), then boom, I have to start from the very beginning again.

I hate that, and it saps my energy. It's like, why bother.

If it took a week to fall apart, that might be ok. But, god, 2 days??

And I don't even mean that 1 day of letting it go is still close to good, it's already close to terrible after 1 day, but 2 days is all it takes for the house to get to the WORST it gets.

And if you think I'm a perfectionist, and the worst is not bad, that is not the case. I'm talking dishes everywhere, mountains of laundry all over the floor, food spills on the floor from DD, EVERYTHING.

So I feel like even with FL, if the routine is disturbed for a mere 2 days, I have to spend enormous amounts of energy to get it back (either all at once, or just by starting all over again with FL and spending weeks or months).

Any thoughts on the above? Is that just the reality, that you just HAVE to stick with it at ALL costs?

[AngelBee]

:

[laohaire]

Is there an official Flylady book?

[lovemyfamily6]

Originally Posted by laohaire

I will look at it again (I think I did the first 3 days and then I got real busy with something and forgot to pick it up again). But I do not resent housework, and feel it is a blessing for my family. My problem is just that I feel so overwhelmed.

I understand FL helps with the overwhelm by just having you do a little at a time, but the part that gets me down every time is that it takes exactly 2 days for my house to fall COMPLETELY apart. Only 2 days. So I feel like I have no margin for error. If I'm sick or if I spend my energy for a day or two on another project (outdoors or something), then boom, I have to start from the very beginning again.

I hate that, and it saps my energy. It's like, why bother.

If it took a week to fall apart, that might be ok. But, god, 2 days??

And I don't even mean that 1 day of letting it go is still close to good, it's already close to terrible after 1 day, but 2 days is all it takes for the house to get to the WORST it gets.

And if you think I'm a perfectionist, and the worst is not bad, that is not the case. I'm talking dishes everywhere, mountains of laundry all over the floor, food spills on the floor from DD, EVERYTHING.

So I feel like even with FL, if the routine is disturbed for a mere 2 days, I have to spend enormous amounts of energy to get it back (either all at once, or just by starting all over again with FL and spending weeks or months).

Any thoughts on the above? Is that just the reality, that you just HAVE to stick with it at ALL costs?

I hear you. My kitchen is almost always a disaster and it bothers me so much. I can make it look really nice and keep up for days, but then if something happens (toddler needs me right after dinner/older kids fighting/etc) and I can't do it after dinner, it's a dump and I can't get out from under it. It's horribly frustrating and I'd love to hear thoughts as well.

Originally Posted by laohaire

Is there an official Flylady book?

Sink Reflections. Everything in the book is on here website though, I think.

[ShannonCC]

Originally Posted by artparent

i love flylady. it works when i do it

: :

[flowmom]

laohaire, I know what you mean. That happens around here, but it's because 1. there is too much stuff in our home (so more mess can be created), 2. storage is too full of stuff so it's hard for family members to put things away, 3. there are some organizational issues where it's not convenient enough for family members to put things away. I am making babysteps on dealing with this stuff and I am finding that things don't fall apart as quickly. Having too much stuff in a room doesn't just make it take longer to clean/tidy, it can take double or triple the length of time and make it feel more overwhelming in the process (making it more likely that giving up will happen). Flylady is really hardcore that you start with decluttering 15 minutes a day -- that really makes sense to me. All the other stuff is not do-able if you have the practical and emotional barriers of living with too much stuff. Even seeing small changes is really motivating me to get going on this. One of the best things that I've done is declutter some pieces of furniture from our living area. It has makes the room look and feel more spacious and less cr@p can collect in and on the excess furniture.

[Crunchy*VT*Mom]

All the other stuff is not do-able if you have the practical and emotional barriers of living with too much stuff.

We're in the decluttering forum, so you are preaching to the choir here, but ... AMEN.



I have found that if I have too much stuff to clean, then Flylady's routines are too much for me. My home blessing "HOUR" takes more like three.

But when I keep things simple and pared down, then I can clean everything up in a snap.

For me the hard part was realizing that I couldn't just declutter ONCE and have it stay that way...that decluttering was really something that I had to do every single day, just like flylady says.

Because an area of my life that is totally cleaned-up (my file cabinet, for example) will quickly become full of clutter again and need to be tackled again in six months.

I need to stick with that fifteen minutes a day rule.

[laohaire]

That's a good point - I'm not new to decluttering, so I don't know why I didn't think of that.

Not new, but haven't fully achieved it yet. I have fully decluttered all of the downstairs except the kitchen and the kitchen closet - GAH!!!! The kitchen closet looks like an 8 or a 9 in the "how cluttered is your house" thread. However, it's not affecting me, since I rarely open that door.

Upstairs, however, I just haven't had the energy (been through a moderate health issue this year for starters).

But yeah I can see, less stuff means less disaster. If I managed to pare down significantly, then an all-out total disaster still shouldn't take that long to clean up.

[flowmom]

Originally Posted by laohaire

But yeah I can see, less stuff means less disaster. If I managed to pare down significantly, then an all-out total disaster still shouldn't take that long to clean up.

That's awesome that you've been decluttering. Peter Walsh and Flylady would both probably recommend that you tackle your master bedroom next -- that's also a very important room from a feng shui perspective.

[applecider]

So I happened upon this thread this morning and didn't give it much thought. I"ve heard about her and checked out her website before (a long time ago) and didn't think I really needed the help. But I checked her out again this morning and read the part about shining the sink. We moved into this 1912 house a year ago and I thought the white sinks were just stained dingy brown no matter how I cleaned them.

WELL I was WRONG!! I did the sink shine thing today and now I am almost blinded when I look into the sink! I wish I had before and after pics. Boy it really keeps me wanting to keep the sink cleared out and dishes away or in the dishwasher just so I can look at my clean sink. So now I guess I'll have to check the rest out and see if I can amaze myself again tomorrow! :