For those who don't get flylady .... - Page 4

[sapphire_chan]

Originally Posted by 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!

I think you were supposed to start doing "I can do anything for 15 minutes."

She's on a business trip now and hadn't updated as of this morning.

I'm not following the plan because a 2 month old makes it more like "see how much I can do during her nap" than 15 minutes whenever, but seeing the new blog post each morning got me motivated to do something during the day.

[rhiandmoi]

Ok I'm back!

Being gone is exhausting, but hubster did a good job keeping up his routines while I was gone. And since so many of the areas were in pretty good condition there were only a few extra things in each hotspot.

So here we are:

Day 12

Today we are deleting emails. For those of in the group who are getting the official emails everyday, the official project of the day is to delete those. For those of us who are not getting those emails, we should go through our inboxes and weed through a little bit. I think this could be a 2 minute hotspot even.

So to recap what we're doing so far:

1. Hug
2. Get Dressed
3. 2 minute hotspot
4. 5 minute room rescue
5. 15 minutes of decluttering
6. Thinking positively
7. Doing one thing at night to make the mornings go easier.
8. Keeping our inboxes up

[flowmom]

Originally Posted by Patrick's mummy

can someone sum up in a nutshell what i am supposed to be doing each day?

Flylady's Beginner Babysteps.

[Patrick's mummy]

Great, I'm back on track!
Thanks all

[rhiandmoi]

I have been reading ahead on the baby steps, and I am noticing that they are very teeny tiny baby steps. People that are completely enrolled in the program will be getting continuing and ongoing emails and reminders to help them keep going, but those of us doing the modified version, we need to do a little bit of foundation building here.

One of the things we need to start thinking about is how to divide our living space into zones. The official program has 5 zones:

1. The Entrance, Front Porch and Dining Room
2. The Kitchen
3. The Bathroom + 1 extra Room
4. The Master Bedroom
5. The Living Room

The idea behind zone cleaning is that you don't have to clean everything at the same time and you can spread it out over the whole week, month, or year. Within each zone there are "missions" - things that you need to do once a month, once a quarter, twice a year, and once a year.

So I guess first things first, everyone should start mentally dividing their living space into 4-5 zones. I think one our upcoming side projects is going to be to take a zone, and completely list out everything that would get done to completely and 100% clean that zone, so that we can divvy that up into different missions.

[rhiandmoi]

Day 13

To day we are doing a mission. The official zone for this week was the living room, so all the official missions for this week were in the living room. But think about a smallish project 30 mins to an hour or shorter that you can do that will make you feel really accomplished. Last weekend I did a refrigerator mission, and completely went through my fridge and threw away everything that was old and unidentifiable, and completely cleaned it out. Just the refrigerator section. It took about an hour, so longer than I thought it would, but I felt totally awesome when it was done. The freezer side is still a bit of a disaster, but the refrigerator side was really amazing. There are a few drips and drops now, which I am thinking about going to go take care of, but for the most part it's still looking good. I think about twice a year I should do that.

I think for today's mission for me, I'm going to continue working in my office. I still have hours and hours worth of missions in here.

[rhiandmoi]

Yesterday:

Day 14

We are reading an essay about using a calendar to get organized.

http://flylady.net/pages/FLYingLesso...ngCalendar.asp

I am not good with keeping up calendars. Well I am good at keeping up my work calendar, but it is with me like 99% of the time. I do not want to keep my personal calendar together with my work calendar, so I keep a regular wall calendar on my fridge. It never gets updated.

I have started carrying a notebook in my purse, and I put big things in it for each month, but that is not the same thing as carrying a calendar. I think I really want an electronic pocket organizer, but I am not sure if that's in the cards for me.

[rhiandmoi]

Day 15

Today we are making our beds.

The actual thing is to add one thing to our morning routines that should be happening on a daily basis. So if bed's are already your hug, then maybe hanging up the towels can be your new morning item. I will not be making my bed because there is still a person sleeping in it when I leave for work, but I think I am going to add a morning 5 minutes of stretching. I don't think there are any rules that the things we add have to be house cleaning only things.

[homeschoolAK]

can I join in too! I've been fluttering for a while, but I lost track of everything last December and am still trying to recover. Today I set 2 goals and think I will only get one accomplished. I wanted to get the laundry caught up and find my sink! So far I've only managed to find the sink!

[rhiandmoi]

Originally Posted by homeschoolAK

can I join in too! I've been fluttering for a while, but I lost track of everything last December and am still trying to recover. Today I set 2 goals and think I will only get one accomplished. I wanted to get the laundry caught up and find my sink! So far I've only managed to find the sink!

Anyone can join in!

We're not doing the official thing each day, we're just trying to see what works for us, and kind of sub in some things so we follow the spirit of the recommendations if not necessarily the letter of the recommendations. And if you find something that works for you, totally post it! We're mostly flylady dropouts here trying to make the methods work for us. Also check out the blog I am keeping, there are some photos there and some of the things that I am doing specifically in my own living space.

Oh and if anyone else wants to send me photos for the blog let me know!

[homeschoolAK]

Thanks!!

:

[rhiandmoi]

Day 16

Today's official project is to read an email from Flylady. If you get the emails, no problemo.

Today's unofficial project is to read 1 post from an organizing inspiration blog or thread. Here's a few possible ones:

http://letstalkorganizing.blogspot.com/
http://jdorganizer.blogspot.com/
http://www.declutterit.com/
http://creativeorganizing.typepad.com/
http://www.organizedwithstyle.com/blog.htm
or
http://mdcnoflyzone.blogspot.com/ if you want to see pictures of my house in various states of clutter.

[Patrick's mummy]

Done two lots of "I can do anything for 15 mins" today and recycled a huge heap of paperwork.
But, my house still looks like one big hot spot! One day.. just have to try not to get discouraged

[homeschoolAK]

I found something that works!

My son has really bad allergies. So dust is a big issue in my house! I have tried for years to figure out an easier way to dust than to wet wipe everything twice a week. My husband is also allergic to feathers so the flylady duster was out (it's ostrich feathers). I found a synthetic static duster and tried it. I have to shake it out often, but it works really good. Now instead of spending an hour twice a week, I grab the duster for 5 minutes every other day. With dusting every other day I don't have the build up and it goes a lot faster. : (I also skimmed down on the amount of nik-naks I have out, and rotate them now every month.)

I was also able to reach the ceiling fan in the stair well since the duster has a telloscoping handle!! For once my stair well is cobweb free!!!

[rhiandmoi]

Day 17http://flylady.net/pages/bbd17.asp

Today we are setting ourselves a bed time.

This gives us "permission" to think about ourselves a little bit. We need rest and down time and it is not selfish at all to say, this is not an emergency and can wait until tomorrow, I'm tired and I need to rest to do a good job at this. Of course there are going to be some things that do need to be handled right away, but unless someone is bleeding, starving, or actually sick, most things can wait until you have had a chance to rest.

I already have a weekday bedtime for myself of around 11:30, but I don't have to be awake until 7. If I had to be awake earlier I would have to go to bed earlier, I can really tell when I haven't had enough sleep, and everyone around me can tell too. I know some people don't need as much sleep, but think of it as a time when you turn off the TV/computer/other demands and just recharge and reconnect with yourself.

[rhiandmoi]

Day 18

Today we are introduced to the program's 11 commandments.

I think 11 is too many, so here's what I'm going with:

1. Divide and conquer. So the office is a huge disaster of unspeakable proportions. But the desk top is a manageable bit, and so is the top shelf of the closet, and the middle shelf, and the top drawer of the dresser, etc.
2. Put things back. This is my biggest self sabotaging habit. If I would just put things back right away half the problems with my clutter would solve themselves.
3. Accept that into each life a little clutter must gather. I'm never going to be a clutter free person, and even though I feel good when I conquer clutter, I shouldn't feel bad when clutter shows up again.

[rhiandmoi]

Things I don't get about Flylady, things I do

I think the biggest thing that doesn't click for me, is the shiny happy face you're supposed to put on. I've been doing these daily projects, and really I think this is the thing that bothers me the most. And the acronyms. Although I think maybe the acronyms are a very close second. I have been watching Celebrity Rehab on VH1 : and Gary Busey is making me crazy with his acronyms and I think it is having an affect on me so that whenever I see them now I get crazy.

The things that I am "getting", it takes a while to establish a routine and you don't want to start too many things all at once, because then when you burn out you'll lose all of your new things. It's been frustrating for me not to have the assignments feature major WOW cleaning projects, but if I am being honest with myself, I'm not even doing my 2 minute hot spots every single day and clutter still builds up there. And even some new hot spots are sprouting up. So I am accepting that change is a slow process, because I have to change a lot about my relationship with "stuff" and the reasons that I accumulate in the first place. And why I don't put things away when I'm done using them. So this is sort of a midway point for us in the first month, and I just wanted to see how everyone else was doing.

[homeschoolAK]

Granted I have been working on flylady for a long time now. One thing I found that works for me when it comes to establishing my routines is to add 1 new thing every week and don't stop doing the other things. Everyday, same thing over and over.

My morning routine so far-
Get up.
Make bed
see DH off to work
shower
Then I sit and have a nice cup of coffee before the kids get up.

It has taken me a month to get this far! First I started getting up half hour before the kids and getting my coffee, DH was on his own. Then I added making the bed, then getting up with DH, then I started my showers in the morning. Next week I;ll add something else. Or I might just take a week and make sure I have these established since I have family issues at the moment.

The key I found before (I was doing great before December of last year), is to make the system work for you. i don't use flylady's cleaning lists, I don't section my house off the way she does, and I have to do a lot more than 1 hour a week for "blessings". Instead I have my own lists, my own sections, and I have a daily blessing. I also don't focus a whole lot on the sink. Instead i picked one spot that has always bothered me and is the hardest to keep clean. For me it was the dinning room table. I almost always have a few dishes in the sink, and I refuse to hide them (out of sight, out of mind). But my table is always shining before I go to bed! In a sence, I don't use flylady's system, I use my own! I just use hers as an example on how to build my own, and I take her advise on the babysteps.

[rhiandmoi]

Yesterday was Day 19

I forgot to post it, but yesterday we were reading testimonials. I think this is mainly to keep us going, because like I said yesterday, it is starting to get frustrating that we aren't having more WOW! moments with this. It's important to remember that it's a slow and steady process and that each new habit needs to get established before we add another one. Personally, I find plenty of inspiration right here!

[rhiandmoi]

Day 20

Now we're adding laundry in to the daily routines.

This is the one thing that I find makes the biggest difference, and I am really trying to establish this habit. I hate hate hate folding and putting away laundry, so when all the laundry gets held up until the weekend, I don't put it away and it lays out and is cluttery and ugly and blech all over my room.

So about a year ago, I got 2 two-compartment laundry hampers and we sort the laundry as it gets dirty. What I am really trying to do is take 1 load and put it in the washer at night and then in the morning before I leave I just start the machine. When I get home I put the laundry in the dryer. After dinner the laundry gets folded and put away. This habit has been really really hard for me to establish, but I think it will be worth it in the long term so I am really working on it.