Anybody here understand "FLYLADY" advice?

[boefixepa]

Re: Anybody here understand "FLYLADY" advice?

What I've come to like best are the testimonals that come in the emails about the difference people can make with the system. I don't think I am a lost cause or in need of medical help! (Video Lady) I just want a little less stress. I tend to let things go for a while and then do it all at once and it stresses me our. The routines are simple and good habits, so that is what I am working on. I've never really worried about the 27 boogie fling....I just keep an eye out for things I don't need and get ride of them.

[mountainmist]

Re: Anybody here understand "FLYLADY" advice?

Nah.. As I understand it if you've got a pile of pens to toss, toss 27 of them and call it good. In a few days the pile is gone.

This advice is for people so overwhelmed with the mess that they can't even start to clean. It's permission to do a small task that seems possible rather than the whole job that is paralyzing them (ask me how I know.) It doesn't work for everyone, and if 27 minutes works best for you, then that's what you should do!

Flylady's been great for me, though my house is far from immaculate it's better than it was.

Okay, I think I understand better now; fact is I've got innumerale projects to choose from, and today I decided to simply pick the one that APPEALS most to me, one that I'd actually LIKE to do, and simply toss the "Priority Must-B-Done-NOW" list in the wastepaper basket, cuz not much is happenning, AT ALL, on that "important" list.

The whole indecision thing is frankly horrifying me, I just read yesterday that the tendency for indecision can be indicative of a genetic proclivity for hoarding, and that simply is NOT something I'm interested in cultivating -- indecision & procrastination have taken on a really scary veneer ...

What really interests me to do is to go through my emergency stores, and to identify all the 2009 expiration items and put them all in a different area - some products, not many, but some, already have 2010 expiration dates, and I'd simply like to cull all these canned goods from the others - and then inventory them.

I try to always label the cans that don't have intelligible expiration dates with the date I purchased them, but was so busy this past year that I actually didn't have time to do so - so I've got canned goods, particularly the generic variety, that I guess I want to use up FIRST.

I'm also considering never buying another item that doesn't have a clearly identifiable expiration date on it.

I have NO idea why food manufacturers believe that I, their "valued" customer, shouldn't immediately be able to read that date --- so I'm seriously considering never buying those brands anymore, no matter how inexpensive, I find it very irritating.

[TinyFish]

Re: Anybody here understand "FLYLADY" advice?

'I don't have the stuff strewn through the house, but I do have several humdred organizational projects ahead of me -- but they are things where I have to sit down and concentrate and be very organized and also ruthless in the the culling, I don't have the stray clutter here & there, I have more like "mini-mountains" carefully concealed in drawers and/or storage boxes which can be culled, or rather should be.

I've got maybe half a dozen boxes filled to donate, but I'm waiting a couple months to see what else I can add to those six boxes and then donate it ONCE and have ONE receipt of the donated items: where/when/what, date/signature.

I'm sure I have plenty to toss out, but I prefer to do a major overhaul, and not her methods.

Apparently she's instructing me to grab NUMBER ONE pen out of the collection and toss it, then go pick up a dust bunny that the vacumn missed and NUMBER TWO toss it, and I'm just not like that.

I'll simply have to spend 27 minutes at ONE AREA or in ONE TASK, and that would work for me.'

I think you are missing the point. The point isn't that you have things 'strewn' in the house or that you throw out one pen and then have to find a different kind of junk. You can throw all 27 things out. And those things might be hidden in a drawer or box, or closet. My old insurance and warranties were not 'strewn' they were in the filing cabinet, which is where they belonged until they became obsolete and now they needed to be culled.

I think you are also missing one of the basic steps. One of the first things she tells you to do, (at least when I joined, I think it may have changed slightly) before you do any of the mini missions is spend 15 minutes a day tackling clutter in one area. If you like, you can do 27 instead.

The idea is to break the 'mountains' down into doable portions and develop good habits. For most people, if you leave it all for one gigantic sort, you won't do it, or you will do it once a year, it will look good for a week, then get out of control again.

I guess the thing here is to be honest with yourself. Are you really going to do that one big sort? If so, mark your calendar and commit to it! Is it worth living with the clutter until then? Maybe you would find it more managable if you sorted a little bit daily, (15 minutes 27 minutes or whatever) and dropped the donations off weekly? Part of the problem with saving up the clutter is you might never get around to moving it out of the house.

Flylady is of the opinion that if you are fretting too much about the details of the method, then you are probably trying to put it off. I find with myself, 99% of the time that is true. My house was never SO bad, but I find I learned a lot of good tips and got some motivation from Flylady.

Once you have done a pretty good job at decluttering your house for a while, you find that you are less and less likely to bring in more clutter. (Paper is still a huge problem though that I find needs occational mini-sorts). I try to 'declutter as I go' now and then periodically sweep through a room tidying up and decluttering for a few minutes. Sometimes I pick a few drawers or a shelf or cabinet to attack and winnow out any remaining clutter. Once or twice a year I have a Spring/Fall cleaning and really attack a room at a time. That's when a lot of things like books and clothes end up going. I find just knowing that I'll have to eventually declutter something and lug it all the way to the dropoff (that's the part I really hate the most) keeps me from gathering as much junk.

Good luck with your decluttering. Remember: don't obsess, just give it a try! Then you can see how much you like the results.

BudgetMom, I think every tech-head ends up with at least one 'big box O obsolete technology' if they aren't careful! For the extra monitor, I went around this with my hubby as well. Would he really NEED to finish those 3 am projects? Are they for work or something? If so, could he use another monitor that is already in use? Say borrow the one from son's computer? I'll bet your little boy isn't up at 3 am on the computer! I finally convinced hubby when I pointed out that we have two complete computers that belong to us personally, plus our work laptops, so we'd SURELY be able to just BARELY manage to SCRAPE by for 24 hours if our LIVES depended on doing something on the computer. Once I put it that way he busted out laughing at how ridiculous it seemed to keep a 'spare' monitor when you already had 4 computers at your disposal! Tee hee.

-TinyFish

[mountainmist]

Re: Anybody here understand "FLYLADY" advice?

.....But in starting to read the messages you do get the hint - some of the assignments are the 15 minutes on those mini-mountains of yours type and then taking a 5-10 minute breather and then going back in if you feel like it but not beating yourself up because you can never seem to get to the mini-mountain at all.

She advocates taking bite size pieces and doing what you can. Many sidetrackers have wonderful intentions but never get to the implementation stage and they berate themselves because they can never seem to actually get any one thing accomplished.

.....If I said to myself, {imagine booming voice of God} "Today is housecleaning day." I would run and hide under the bed.





BUT, with a gentle email nudge, I can go run and swiffer the kitchen quick. And tomorrow I can clean out a kitchen drawer. And the next day I can clean one shelf in the frig. The next day I can clean under the sink. The next comes a reminder to scrub out the trashcan. Then comes a day of taking one cabinet and tossing the old stuff and wiping down the shelves and restocking it neatly. Nothing too harsh or back-breaking but it gets done. And on a more regular basis than I would do it w/o her reminders.

If I see massive amounts of mini-mountains I freak and do nothing. "N.O.T.H.I.N.G." {insert Klinger's voice from Hogan's Heros there!





My mother a Born Organized does all morning EXTENSIVE Saturday morning cleaning and there is no way in H.E.double hockey sticks that I'll ever clean that way again.

I am surrounded on all sides of my home with neighbors like this. EVERY single Saturday morning, at 7 a.m., they start in with heavy duty Spring Cleaning. And continue all day.

I might do that type of intensive Spring Cleaning every other year, or so, whether it needs it or not...

NO way am I starting my weekend that way, I'm much more like you, I do a bit here & there, as the spirit moves me.

I can't imagine setting the alarm for 5 a.m. every Saturday so that I can get right up with the birds and do springcleaning, it's inconceivable to me to spend one seventh of my waking life doing THAT.

After I finish with this inventory of my emergency provisions pantry, I think I might make a list of those "mini-mountains" -- there may be fewer than I imagine.

[mountainmist]

Re: Anybody here understand "FLYLADY" advice?

I agree that you should have a serious line of demarcation, a "ring pass NOT," around all your doors to somehow keep the clutter from even entering your house in the first place. I especially try to do that with the mail, to get rid of ALL the junk immediately, because that stuff and all those catalogues turn to piles so quickly.

What I do nowadays is to immediately recycle the obvious junk circulars, and then I have one box FOR SHREDDER and in my garage I keep all the catalogues that arrive. That box will go out with the recycling on January 1st.

I can't remember what book I first read that in, to make a barrier at your doors, and that ONLY important non-clutter was permitted inside.

Maybe it was CLUTTER'S LAST STAND, that was a very funny book.

[PrincessPerky]

Re: Anybody here understand "FLYLADY" advice?

donation....you mentioned saving it up, I dunno the worth of your stuff, but it is my understanding that, up to 250 a trip you don't need a reciept (though it wont hurt) so if your nearing 250 you might have an easier time come tax time donating in chuncks.

and if you are like me you will feel better marking it off your todo list.

[Duchesse]

Re: Anybody here understand "FLYLADY" advice?

I'm lost here. Who is FLYLADY?

[JanH]

Re: Anybody here understand "FLYLADY" advice?

Flylady.net is a way for people without household organizational skills to learn them by little steps at a time. I didn't learn too many skills cos I worked outside on our farm and didn't do much housework. I was able to always have laundry and dishes done, but I didn't learn other habits. Also, my disorders had me sidetracked and unfocused except for taking care of my kids. So, flylady was given to me as a skills thing by my therapist who was teaching me management skills for my disorders. I didn't need all her ideas, but since my bipolar thing has me up and down, the routines and little steps helped me establish ways of getting through those days. Has made things easier around here.

[TinyFish]

Re: Anybody here understand "FLYLADY" advice?

She also sometimes does a special month where she gives advice about basic personal finance. Things like getting your checkbook up to date, paying down debts, etc.

[Mathew Green]

Re: Anybody here understand "FLYLADY" advice?

Matthew,

OK, maybe you need a 'bits and bobs' jar for unusual pieces of hardware. Your average screw, nut, or bolt, however is available from the hardware store inexpensively if you find out what it is needed for.

I specifically said"...bits and pieces that obviously aren't easily-replaced standard-hardware items."

I wasn't talking about saving every 1/4" bolt or ten-penny nail that happens to pop up in your house!

People who get into decluttering tend to go way overboard and think that everything they can't identify has to go out "Right Now". It doesn't. It just needs to be clasified as something you can't identify and set aside in a place where you can easily find it if you need it. Once you get decluttered to a certain point, there are no more unexplored boxes or crannies that might be hiding whatever that McGuffin belongs to, and you can safely toss it. But until then, it's better to be safe than sorry.

I'm reasonably decluttered now, but I still have a dozen or so things in my "what is it" box at any given time. One turned out to be the thingie to unjam the garbage disposal. Another oddly shaped bit of metal I wasn't able to ID right away because it was needed to hold a shaft in place while adjusting a machine that rarely needs adjustment.

You get my drift. I meant exactly what I said in my post -- not that people should save everything just in case or use the bits-and-pieces box as an excuse for keeping a pile of replaceable stuff "just in case".

[TinyFish]

Re: Anybody here understand "FLYLADY" advice?

I understood ya Mathew, hence the smiley. There it goes again! Sorry if it didn't come across that way! I did say that you might need a little jar for bits and bobs and other UFOs.

I meant it more as a general warning against the more general, negative kind of thinking that goes 'If I throw X out, I will need it'. The inlaws are like that about EVERYTHING in their house and it has got out of hand. They wouldn't get rid of (donate) DH's old monitor (10+ years old, stored in damp crawl space). We repeated over and over that we didn't want it, couldn't use it, wasn't worth shipping cross country, they begrudgingly decided to 'strip it for parts' before discard. Ummm, nobody in the house knows anything electrical or how a monitor works, so what will the parts be used for!? Not sure they even did that, they are probably hoping we will change our minds and rescue it. Heh heh. I'm sure those 'parts' will languish for decades.

I suppose I have developed a 'let it go now' philosophy for most clutter. I think that is because there seems to be a clutter inertia. The longer you keep something, the sillier you feel throwing it out because that would be admitting that keeping it for the first 5 years was a mistake!

Anyhow, didn't mean to ruffle feathers.

-TinyFish

[Mathew Green]

Re: Anybody here understand "FLYLADY" advice?

Here is a great example of keeping things you don't need: For years we had a 'big box of technology'. A 60 gallon bin full of computer bits. Old modems, old harddrives, keyboards we never used.

I call those "dead parrots".

"It has passed on! It is no more! It has ceased to exist! It has expired and gone to meet it's maker! It's a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed it to the perch it'd be pushing up the daisies! It's metabolic processes are now history! It's off the twig, kicked the bucket, shuffled off this mortal coil, run down the curtain, and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!"

At the speed computer stuff becomes obsolete and incompatible with newer software, any part that isn't clearly good enough and new enough to be reused in the next two years isn't worth saving. The only exception is old machines running Windows 95 (fun for the kids) and 'obsolete' computers that run Linux just fine, even though they'd choke on most versions of Windows.

I once had a roomie who was saving a 1200 baud modem "just in case". Not 12 Kbps mind you, 1200 BAUD (as in "a little bit faster than my SO types while watching TV with one eye and talking to me at the same time!") : Lord knows what he ever thought he'd use it for.

[Mathew Green]

Re: Anybody here understand "FLYLADY" advice?

I have no idea why Flylady chose the number 27, but it is widely regarded as a "majic" or "sacred" number because it is 3^3 (iow 3 times 3 times 3) and also has the distinction of being 3 less than 3-times-10.

Any majic or sacred number times itself or another sacred number produces a larger majic number, so 21 (3 times 7) is a majic number and iirc 144 (12 times 12) pops up in the Bible a lot. These numbers are so much a part of our long-forgotten cultural roots that most people recognize them as 'special' without ever asking why. And that's my theory as to why Flylady uses 27: She recognizes that it will sub-consciously register with many people as a 'special' number.

[PrincessPerky]

Re: Anybody here understand "FLYLADY" advice?

Well I wish she had stuck with 3, or 7, I can usually count that high..but not to 27!

[TinyFish]

Re: Anybody here understand "FLYLADY" advice?

OK, I sent a note asking FlyLady why 27 items. Let's see if we get an answer. I didn't find anything on Google.

Myself, I'm not sure that FlyLady is that into the magical or mathematical properties of numbers. I'm betting it is a cultural reference or a 'random' number that just sounds good. Is there a song that is the something-something Boogie that rhymes or something?

Maybe it is like 42 in the Douglass Adams books. I was at a talk he gave once and someone asked him what it meant. He said that everyone always asks him that and he'd had some people come up with interesting theories, but he hadn't intended it to mean ANYTHING, it was a JOKE. It is just a nonsense answer that doesn't tell you anything and doesn't even symbolize anything. I guess it ended up as an interesting piece of living satire on the human quest for meaning. Maybe people were hoping he really DID have the answer to 'Life, the universe, and everything' and had just encoded it in his books.

-TinyFish