Any Flylady Followers?

[Coleroo]

I grew up in a "messy" disorganized home...and i guess that carried over into my married life. Well, after 2 years on saving advice, we have our financial life in control - and this fall I was finally prepared to take my home back into control as well! I was (in my eyes) fortunate to be laid off and given the chance to work in my home and be proud of it the way i always wanted to be - so back in early october, I started (once again) to read through fly lady.

I've adopted many of her methods to suit my family - and after over a month now of following my routines, much of what i do has become habit and im blessed with a consistantly clean home! I don't follow her to the T, i just "adapt" what would work for me (for instance, I would never ever wear shoes in my home or get fully dressed in good clothes to clean my bathroom!)

Here are some things I do

~ Scheduled routines each day for different sections of the house (monday - clean living room, dust, vaccuum; tuesday - clean kitchen, mop; etc...).

~ Morning routine involves a "swish and swipe" of the bathroom sink, toilet, and kitchen surfaces (i keep clorox wipes in each bathroom and the laundry room beside the kitchen). I also have a motto of "one load a day, at least". at night, i load the washer if needed and start it, then empty the dryer - folding clothes into a basket on the dryer ready to put up the next day, in the morning i load the dryer, and load the washer again. same with the dishes - load at night, empty in morning.

~ "declutter SOMETHING" every day. i modify the 27 fling boogie just to mean "declutter" for me. if i get stuff up to donate or pass on to friends, i consider that a plus.

Much of what i do now is complete habit - such as wiping off the washer and dryer with a chlorox wipe while waiting on the water to fill. my basic maintainance chores also never take more 15 minutes, and my thorough cleaning takes about an hour and a half. My house is always clean by doing this and my husband is so proud. my mom also cant believe it! you would have to know me to understand how much this has changed my life - i was the queen of mess (my bedroom at home as a teen didnt get cleaned -besides pure trash- for 3 years once) and our first year of marriage was plagued with piles of clutter and overflowing laundry everywhere.

my bathroom routine, one of my now-most-ingrained habits, keeps it guest ready all the time - i bought each bathroom a $2 toilet brush that sits in its own little bucket, then i filled with half water and half lemon pine sol. in the mornings, i take the toilet brush, and swish around in the bowl to clean then i wipe down the outside bowl and seat with a clorox wipe, toss in , then flush. the whole process takes no more than 90 seconds and the toilets look great (believe you me, toilets can get scary if they aren't cleaned often!!!).

anyway - i have just been busting at the seams with the thought that "yay! i have a clean home finally!" that i wanted to see if anyone else has experienced this with flylady routines.

Oh, and might i add - before i started all this nearly 2 months ago, we were seriously considering a maid. haha..imagine how wasteful that would have been and how much that would have COST!!

[PrincessPerky]

Sounds awesome, I found fly lady first and in some de-cluttering/organizing discovered I needed financial help, which is what brought me here.

I still have troubles many days...but making simple habits and keeping on top of it, really makes a difference (I came from a clean once a month for company family) Not to mention feeling free NOT to keep that knick-nack from Ex Step Grandma Ethel!

[Coleroo]

i dont think i could have gotten decluttered in my home if it wasn't for the fact that ive spent 2 years decluttering my finances... i think those financial lessons are drifting over into every prt of life! i use to waste money on stuff - and thus the stuff then created clutter..and so forth. knick nacks and clothes were my worst problems! now i only keep really small things if its really special (such as the llama hide coasters from our honeymoon! they're gorgeous!)... and if i feel the urge to buy a "cute knick nack" i remember how much better my house looks without them all scattered around.

[zetta]

I tried Flylady, and discovered that no matter how I organized it, between all the tasks there were about 5-6 hours of housework that needed to be done each week (not counting shopping and cooking) -- and this was before kids! (Being an engineer, I actually timed how long it took me to do each task, from emptying the dishwasher to vacumming the living room to folding a load of laundry. My standards aren't obsessive -- I can live with the toilets being cleaned biweekly.) I could either break it up and do an hour every night after work, or spend half a day every weekend -- no wonder I had no time to relax! So finally I threw in the towel and hired a biweekly housecleaner. What do you know -- it takes her either 5 hours alone, or 2.5 hours with a partner to clean the house and fold 3-4 loads of laundry. It's worth every penny, especially now that I have a child and am working part time.

That said, I do think her strategies for decluttering are very good. But if your clutter situation is under control, there's a certain irreducible minimum of housekeeping that needs to be done to maintain a home, and her system couldn't reduce that time for me.

[mackybethsmommy]

I've been a flybaby for a little over 3 years. It helps you keep your sanity and saves you from spending your day off cleaning the house. The basic idea is clean up after yourself and don't keep what you don't need/love. It's amazing how much more relaxed I am now when holidays and company come than I was 3 years ago. She also has a finance section on her site that gives great information. I've got my house routines down now and have started working on my finance routines.

[boefixepa]

I was just starting the system before I meet DH, and need to get back on track. I don't have major problems or anything, but I know I would do better and can do better then I am doing. I have high hopes of getting better once I quit working and am home more. I know there are lots of areas I can work on decluttering and sending things bye bye....I will get there little by little. My house is never CHAOS, but it is dusty.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

There are some household chores that I probably do much more frequently than is average. Others, I just zone out on and forget, including some things that probably should be done daily or more. But mostly, household chores are boring to me and I put them off. More than once in the past I have seen people raving about FlyLady, so I would go to the website and read the advice. Maybe I even signed up for the email reminders; I don't recall. But reading that FlyLady stuff was not motivating for me. It was about as boring as doing the actual tasks. So, FlyLady is not for me.

Hey, I'm the person whose child at about age 8 came home from a friend's house and said with disbelief, "Hey, they wash the dishes at Jonathan's every day!" I shamefully had to let him in on the fact that washing them after every meal or snack is not considered obsessed, but proper. He had already accepted my lazy example as the gold standard. Oops.

[leggzz66]

I read that site now instead. I signed up for it once, and got to many email packages each day. Three different people from that site, about 5 a day per person, that i recall. So i just read her site now instead of signing up for thier ezines. I can read what i want, when i have time to do so. I do however like that 27 item deal. I think i want to try that one. I also found from someones blog on here a site for homemade cleaners, I look at that one often too. I like to watch kim and aggie even more, thier humor is great. The show aires on bbca and its called how clean is your house? Some of those houses, om! makes you wonder how ones didnt lose custody of their kids looking at those messes. Those ladies are truely funny tho. They go by the green way also, where i first seen stuff, then saw posted online on other sites with actual recipes. Its been awesome learning new things. Like tang in your toilet overnight, whod a thunk it? lol

[PrincessPerky]

I discovered long ago that truly clean houses have two tricks, all the same two, they might call em different, but they are really the same.

1. Clean up after yourself
2. Have a consistent habit of cleaning up after others..and big stuff.

The only thing flylady does is remind you to clean up after yourself and clean up after others...I actually can't take her emails either, but I liked the de-cluttering advice. I loved the stories of people happy with so little.

course if I tried to take the time to read all her stories I would never have time for what routines I need to clean up!

[leggzz66]

LOL! your so right on the money princess. Have you tried the 27 items trick yet? i forgot the word besides 27 jamboree or something like that, where you take 27 things thru house for garbage, garage sale and charity?

[PrincessPerky]

nope, can't count that high! Least not with 3 kids and a house full of work calling me! Though I do aim to 'fill a bag' the AMvets send out a bag and schedule a day for pick up in the neighborhood..I spend the day before gilling it.

[simpleyme]

flylady was very helpful to me,she preaches not be a mayrter (SP?) but just do what needs to be done
also she taught me that laundry is not done till you fold put it away,very simple concept that keeps the whole house looking good

after being on fly lady for a year my house was so clean ,and I saved so much money not buying clutter that is when I started taking extra interest in our finances, then I found Dave Ramsey and quit borrowing money , now I have hardly any bills and a clean desk ;-)

[leggzz66]

wow princess, we never get bags out here except for food drive with the scouts, but im sure you could count to a gazillion at least.lol

grats also to you simplyme! Do share. Whats Dave Ramsey? Yet another item i have not heard of yet.lol

[simpleyme]

I am not sure I can mention DR here LOL
those that like him love him everyone else hates him LOL

daveramsey.com he has books and a radio show about debt elimination and debt free living

[Coleroo]

i see a few of you mentioned you dont get her emails - me neither! i found them way too "cluttering" by the 2nd day of signing up! so now i just read through the site - she puts everything on there anyway, all the reminders, information and whatnot.

Princess Perkey - you hit the nail on the head!!!! those who clean up immediately after themselves are already 90% ahead.

[Mosher]

I am not sure I can mention DR here LOL
those that like him love him everyone else hates him LOL

daveramsey.com he has books and a radio show about debt elimination and debt free living

[n_vizion]

I used to visit her site quite often. Her tip on getting a sparkling sink was priceless. I think I swing by her site to see if she added anything new and exciting. Thanks

[divinemsn]

I just became aware of this site. I haven't read thru all her stuff yet but I have caught onto the part where I should do a little everyday.

[Aleta]

I also was with FlyLady but found not her reminders but all of the testimonials to be too much and too many to keep up with. Of course I would hesitate about not reading one thinking that there might be something important there. I started getting clutter in my emails of things I would keep (just in case). She is the mother that none of us had. She is a great mentor. When I read her sayings, it's as if my aunt or grandmother was saying the same thing.

She has a great vacation planner before you leave to go and a holiday planner as well.

As for th 27 boogie. It is about throwing out, donating, or giving away 27 items a day. It's not that hard. It includes newspapers, coupons. It is actually difficult to throw away 27 items. On days that I had more, I would put it to the side for a day when I didn't have 27. It's like a game and it does put you on the path of decluttering. All I know is that it works.

You start realizing things about your personality as well. I realized why I hated to start some projects. I was a bit of a perfectiionist and I was told when I was younger that if you can't do something right, not to bother doing it at all. Also, when people expect too much and give you few complements on your accomplishments causes problems as well.

[layla 17]

I've tried Flylady, but I agree with Aleta she's a little too demanding of all the things to keep up with. She definitely gives intelligent ideas for ways to declutter and organize, but I unfortunately don't have time to complete all of the tasks. She provided great starting points for me though.