For those who don't get flylady .... - Page 3

[slsurface]

Originally Posted by rebeccalynn

I am going to try to "get" flylady this month. Many people swear by it but I have not found it really beneficial as is. Someone (I do not remember who) suggested that I look for the concepts behind what flylady was asking you to do. To be honest at that time, my clutter was consuming my thoughts and I did not have the clarity of mind to step back and get the bigger picture. I do not know why, but I have thought about this suggestion off and on ... and I have decided to try it now that I am out from my clutter. Maybe it will help someone else here. I appreciate the people on this forum so much because you have helped me make my family's life better.


So here we go ....

FlyLady Day 1

OK, if shining your sink does it for you, then you can take flylady at her word; however, if you are like me, this is more like a sentence of doom than a "hug". I hate shining my sink. I never do it. I make sure that food is rinsed out after using it and that the counter is dry, but I NEVER shine my sink. Shiny Sink = Waste of My Time.

So, the real message here is to find the one little thing or spot in your house that gives you a "hug". Mine is making my bed. It is usually not perfectly made (2 toddlers who like to lay in mama's bed, but it makes my bedroom look better when I come through the door to a mostly made bed. I fold laundry on my bed and it makes that task easier. I also love going to bed at night in a made bed and not one with covers all over the place that needs to be straighten before I can comfortable get into it.

Yours might be no dishes in the sink, clean dining room table, clean bathroom counter, clean bathroom mirror, etc. If you have no idea what makes you happy because you can not remember the clean house days and what made you happy, then experiment. Try one thing today, if it works, then great if it does not do it for you, then try something else until you figure it out.

PLEASE post your "hug" if you are reading this and know yours or what you are going to try so that others can benefit from your ideas.

Thanks! Hope you find your "hug" today.
-Rebecca

I'm am SOOO glad you posted this! I also never shine my sink either :. It's a waste of time in my home too, because 30 seconds later dh will get it messy again (but that's another topic <sigh>).

My "hug" is definitely a nicely made bed too. It's the first thing I do in the morning. It makes my bedroom seem neat no matter how many baskets of laundry are lurking in the corner.

[rebeccalynn]

Thanks rhiandmoi for stepping up and posting day 3. Going to the state fair turned into a bigger and longer event than I though it would. We ran into family, grandparents spent the night and we just got everyone sent on their way or down for naps.

I think that your blog is great. I've wanted to try to pull the system out of the babysteps for a while to see if I could find anything that I wanted to add to my system and just thought that I would share it with others. I am not really a blogger or anything because I am slow to put my thoughts down and I personally have to limit my computer time so other things do not suffer.

I guess that I will try to catch up a little more on what I have missed! Keep on keeping on everyone!
-Rebecca

[jtsmom]

I never did flylady either, but she has a book. I don't know if anyone else has mentioned this, but the book is called _sink reflections_ and it seems to be a little easier to take what you like and leave the rest than her emails are. I have found the book to be very helpful, though I only do the parts that I want to do and I don't feel like she's bossing me around.

[rhiandmoi]

I had a major DUH! moment this morning. I was starting to think about the whole process of cleaning my bathroom and I realized, DUH RHIANNON! Creating documented processes is your JOB. Why haven't you done this at home before!

So yeah. I am a process analyst. It is my job to document and optimize human processes. How did I not put 2 and 2 together before now?

[rhiandmoi]

Day 4

Today we are leaving ourselves a sticky note reminder to ourselves to get all the way dressed, do our hug item and spend 2 minutes gathering inspiration.

Personally I am flat out not doing this. I have a huge problem with post-it-aholicism at work, and I don't need to be bringing that home with me. If you happened to have some dry erase markers laying around, you could leave yourself a note on the bathroom mirror, and in the morning wipe it off with a little bit of toilet paper.

[Patrick's mummy]

Originally Posted by rhiandmoi

Day 4

Today we are leaving ourselves a sticky note reminder to ourselves to get all the way dressed, do our hug item and spend 2 minutes gathering inspiration.

Personally I am flat out not doing this. I have a huge problem with post-it-aholicism at work, and I don't need to be bringing that home with me. If you happened to have some dry erase markers laying around, you could leave yourself a note on the bathroom mirror, and in the morning wipe it off with a little bit of toilet paper.

Thanks Rhiannon for keeping the blog up. It's helping here although I refuse to leave myself sticky notes on any topic!
I had a look at your before/after pics. Good job My ds2 said "I want to go night night in that bed!"

[SAHDS]

I'm still in my robe and jammie pants (complete with slippers), but I am off to do my "hug".

And my sink is shiny

[rhiandmoi]

Day 5

In addition to the things we've already been doing, today's thing is to start to give ourselves positive affirmations. When we think something negative about ourselves, we are to stop and turn that around into something positive.

So if I am looking in my refrigerator and I see dried blobs of mystery drips, and I think "A better housekeeper would have never let these blobs get this bad", I'm going to stop thinking that, and start thinking "These blobs aren't killing anyone, so it's ok that I didn't clean them until now."

I think in general I'm going to tell myself that it's ok to do what I can when I can. It doesn't have to be all or nothing. Every little bit helps.

[rhiandmoi]

Alright ladies we're finally getting somewhere with this!

Day 6

HOT SPOTS!

Just when we were all thinking, "this program doesn't even have us cleaning anything!!", today we're spending 2 minutes on 1 hot spot.

Remember this is baby steps. Forming a habit that you can stick to. So while you might feel super fired up and ready to do a complete room reorg, remember that the habit we're trying to make is to spend 2 minutes on a hot spot.

A hot spot is a clutter vortex. It's one of those flat surfaces that just attracts random do-dads, paper, and junk. If you don't pay attention to them, they turn into huge mountains of junkawunka. So that's what we're going to do starting today: pay attention to our hot spots.

My entire office is a hot spot, but I've been breaking with the program and I've been doing a massive room reorg in here. Pictures up on the blog.

[Patrick's mummy]

Originally Posted by rhiandmoi

Alright ladies we're finally getting somewhere with this!

Day 6

HOT SPOTS!

Just when we were all thinking, "this program doesn't even have us cleaning anything!!", today we're spending 2 minutes on 1 hot spot.

Remember this is baby steps. Forming a habit that you can stick to. So while you might feel super fired up and ready to do a complete room reorg, remember that the habit we're trying to make is to spend 2 minutes on a hot spot.

A hot spot is a clutter vortex. It's one of those flat surfaces that just attracts random do-dads, paper, and junk. If you don't pay attention to them, they turn into huge mountains of junkawunka. So that's what we're going to do starting today: pay attention to our hot spots.

My entire office is a hot spot, but I've been breaking with the program and I've been doing a massive room reorg in here. Pictures up on the blog.

That's great! I love looking at your pics.
Well, it's taken me til 1:41 a.m. but I've finally found time to do my hot spot!!

I've also cleaned up 5-6 bags of kids stuff that we no longer need and am hoping to sell it tomorrow at a "nearly new sale." I don't care so much about the money, I just want it out of my house. We have way too much stuff, mostly because my grandmother loves to buy stuff for my kids :

Thanks for keeping up this thread, it helps me feel positive about what I can achieve around here

[viking]

instead of a sticky note, perhaps you could make a positive symbolic visual reminder.
here are some examples found via google images to get your creativity going:

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/im...de-Posters.jpg

http://www.worth1000.com/entries/78000/78450SXAW_w.jpg

http://www.softplayforkids.com/image...Dressed-DT.jpg

http://www.gomommygo.com/thankpics/getting_dressed.jpg

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd59/vwtommy/hug.gif

http://www.ursine.com.au/Images/2BearsHug.gif

http://www.realclearsports.com/blog/virtual%20hug.jpg

http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thu...ss_and_hug.jpg


------

i enjoyed this one the most, tho; http://artzthings.com/e-pins/product...roducts_id=796

[Patrick's mummy]

Originally Posted by viking

instead of a sticky note, perhaps you could make a positive symbolic visual reminder.
here are some examples found via google images to get your creativity going:

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/im...de-Posters.jpg

i enjoyed this one the most, tho; http://artzthings.com/e-pins/product...roducts_id=796

Thanks - great idea. That first one says it all to me - we tidy, kids go crazy and make another mess while we're at it!

[rhiandmoi]

Day 7

Pick out your clothes

So today we are thinking about our night time routines and we are adding one simple thing that will make our mornings go easier. Flylady suggests picking out our clothes for the next day. She makes this recommendation because she thinks it's very important to get all the way dressed everyday, so if you aren't doing that you will probably want to choose something else for your night time thing.

I do get all the way dressed everyday for work, but I don't lay out my clothes the night before. Mostly because I don't have somewhere to lay them out on. And picking out an outfit in the morning takes me like 30 seconds. So what I am doing, to make my mornings go faster is to put the load of laundry that I am going to run in the morning in the washer along with the soap and setting the dial. So now hopefully all I will have to do in the am is start the washer. My mornings are super rushed so even though I always intend to start a load of laundry in the AM, I only do so like twice a week and then I end up having to do like 5 loads on Saturday instead of zero.

[rhiandmoi]

Day 8

Get a 3 ring binder and put paper in it.

Today we're starting to really formalize our routines. Flylady recommends that we use a 3 ring binder to do this. This is because for most families, there is at least 1 3 ring binder just kicking around the house, and most families have some extra binder paper too. And later she's going to recommend that you cart this binder all around with you because it will become a repository for your useful information.

Like I said earlier, I do not want to cart a binder all around with me. But I do like the idea of having a binder where all my different processes and routines are written down. I'm into written routines first of all (I think having things written down can help with "compliance" which is why at work I always recommend having every process be written down), but I also have an ulterior motive. I have a dream that one day there will be a complete set of routines for taking care of the whole house, and then I will be able to ask the hubster to do the living room and I won't have to detail step by step what that means. He is awesome at following a process, he is not so awesome about seeing on his own how things flow into each other. He also really likes checklists. Since my 2 goals for this are to have a better division of housework and to have a tidy house, I think that writing down my routines is important.

Others will obviously have different goals, and so today's project might not suit their goals. But I have been around a lot of different kinds of people, and I really think there is a lot of value in sitting down and just even putting a checklist down on paper to help you see how much you do each day, especially if you're feeling down on yourself for "not ever getting anything done". I don't think it is necessary to micro-itemize each thing you do each day, so if you don't want to list out 1. Wake up. 2. Go to the Bathroom, etc, then just put the big things down. But remember not to short change yourself either!

[rhiandmoi]

Ooops

I forgot to post yesterday's project so here it is:

Day 9

Today we are adding a 5 minute room rescue. They want us to do it in the morning, but obviously if that doesn't work for you, then do it in the pm.

A 5 minute room rescue is a 5 minute blitz attack on a small area. Swoop in, swoop out.

[rhiandmoi]

And now the one we've been waiting for

Day 10

We can do anything for 15 minutes.

So how this works is you decide what you're going to do, set the timer for 15 minutes, and then just do that activity for the 15 minutes. During that 15 minutes we are only doing that activity, and if we're not done when the timer goes off, it's ok. We've made a dent, and probably a significant one.

So the suggest thing is to take a trashbag and collect trash from around the house for 15 minutes. Then when it's over close the bag throw it way, and relax for 15 minutes!

[rhiandmoi]

Day 11

Add an inspirational page to your control journal.

So if you are doing the control journal, I guess today's project is pretty straight forward. I'm not really doing one, but what I am doing is keeping a google notebook, which is linked on the blog sidebar. I am much more of an electronic type gal, so this works much better for me.

Some other ideas:

• Dream Board
• Motivational eposters
• scrapbook

[Verity]

Interesting idea! Flylady has always held zero appeal to me because I hate being told what to do. A shiny sink, for instance, is impossible for me to achieve because we have well water and there are always icky spots/rings on everything. (I absolutely HATE well water! : )

On the other hand, I have found that making all the beds is a huge thing. Even if there is clutter than I can't tackle that particular day, or cleaning I just don't have time for, making the beds makes a huge difference in the way a room looks.

[bwylde]

momma4fun said it all . I belong to a Flying group, but I make no allusions to actually doing it all the flylady way. I think the biggest thing I have taken away from her is you can't clean clutter. You can shuffle it, move it around, try to hide it but it's always there.

Even though I hate routines, I know that they are beneficial. When I'm at my best, it can take very little time to clean but I get lazy and sloppy, which means more work. I never learn though.

Again, take what works and leave the rest

[Patrick's mummy]

ahhh, i was doing so well and have now been away for 5 days so feel totally bewildered!
can someone sum up in a nutshell what i am supposed to be doing each day? e.g i was doing hug, get dressed, 2 min hot spot. what else?!?

help!