ANYONE FLYLADY? (I'm trying in an effort to save $$/ Keep it clean)

[grlpwrd]

I still "FLY," but I also visit www.organizedhome.com a lot, too.

Actually, I take bits and pieces from FLYing, SHE, books by Bonnie McCullough, Kathy Peel, Julie Morgenstern (author of Organizing from The Inside Out...), and others. You just need to find a system that works for you, keep up with it, and maintain.

 

[zurgswife]

I tried Flylady...and see how it would be great for a SAHM but for me...I work and it is cleaning others house..I found no matter what some nights I was just not into cleaning my sink...It didn't work for me...

 

[poohfriend]

Thanks so much everyone. Thanks for the organized home link, and for the info on what works and doesn't work for you. (The emails are a little much for me too. I just try to take the commando approach Fly Lady uses in strides. She means well for me and my family!)

Princess..house check your PM

 

[ksoehrlein]

You've all inspired me to check it out, and I decided to try it over the weekend. Here's my experience:

Friday evening: Worked late, until about 11. Came home psyched to shine the sink only to find that DH had already loaded the dishwasher (hooray!) and had it running. The surplus dirty dishes that didn't fit his dishwasher load had nowhere to go, however. Handwashed some of them, gave up after a while, and went to bed.

Saturday morning: Tried to clean one small area of the kitchen floor. Used my new FloorMate, which I love since our first floor is almost entirely hard woods. DD played in her sandbox and got sand all over the floor, including the clean spot. Got out the FloorMate again. DH and dog went outside, did yardwork, and now there were grass clippings on the floor. Swept. DS found a box of packing peanuts and decided to shred them onto the floor. Gave up. Cleaned the sink (mostly) before bed.

Sunday morning: It was nice to wake up to a clean sink, but the floor still had the peanut issue. Swept the floor. DD and the neighbors played in her sandbox. Two of them had a potty emergency, so they couldn't take the time to thoroughly clean their feet before dashing through the kitchen on the way to the bathroom. Have given up hope that the kitchen floor will ever be clean for more than 2 minutes at a time.

How do people with young children and pets manage to maintain the results of their efforts?

 

[EthansMom]

How do people with young children and pets manage to maintain the results of their efforts?

You know that saying, "If you wanted to see my house clean, you should have been here last week."?

My house is cleanest when the kids are asleep or when my son is at preschool. The best I can hope for is that at the end of the day or the week or the year, the house will be a bit cleaner and more organized than when I started.

I haven't gotten back into Flylady as much since we moved, but I have been able to maintain bare minimum standards by doing "Flings" (quickly putting away anything that is in the wrong area and throwing out any garbage -- works well for getting the toys put away and picking up the kitchen) and vacuuming/cleaning bathroom/mopping/etc. once per week in addition to keeping up with laundry and dishes.

Have you thought that it might be easier to wash your daughter off before she comes into the house from playing in the sandbox rather than cleaning up all the sand from inside the house? My DH is putting together the kids' playset right now and I plan to keep a hose nearby to spray off the kids before they come inside.

 

[kpk89]

I do! I no longer get the emails, but the biggest thing I got out of it was the 15 minute thing. I used to feel like I needed a HUGE chunk of time to get anything done, and that the house wasn't "clean" unless it was all cleaned at once. Now I spend a little time every day doing "something," and it never (almost never ) gets totally out of control.

Also having "errand day" helped a lot. I used to make a trip every day, and probably spent a lot more $$ than I needed to. Now I keep a strict list, and don't go running out for ANYthing. It must wait until errand day.

 

[Praise2Him]

I just started FLYlady in January and I love it! I'm a perfectionist/procrastinator and could never get started on anything because I wouldn't have time to finish it perfectly. Now I'm focused on doing what I can and not worrying about the rest. My house is MUCH better than it's ever been (at least the public rooms) and I'm not embarrassed for people to come inside anymore. I love the e-mails because I can glance at the title and just delete it if I don't have time for it. I haven't tried the menu's because my family is really picky. I set up my own system of rotating menus. I picked out the family's favorite 14 recipes and just go through them until we're done, then start over again. My favorite saying now is "Housework done incorrectly still blesses your family". It helps me realize that I don't have to sweep up every speck of dirt, etc., but that anything is better than nothing. I'm a SAHM with a husband, college freshman (living at home), high school sophomore, and I home school our 8th grader.

 

[Nicolepa]

Have given up hope that the kitchen floor will ever be clean for more than 2 minutes at a time.

How do people with young children and pets manage to maintain the results of their efforts?

Dh bought me a Shark. It's a cordless vacuum. Doesn't work real well on carpet, but on wood floors it works great. I use this for the mini messes (cereal, dirt, shredded popcorn, small pieces of paper). It is awesome, I don't have to keep dragging the vaccuum out and plugging it in. I just have to charge the shark about once a week. I still bring the regular vacuum out 1-2x a week. I think it was like $50 at Target, worth every penny!

 

[ReneeQ]

I had done Flylady for about a year and did pretty well keeping the house under control. It's just myself, my husband, and a dog, no kids. I work full time and have a lot of health issues. I had a really bad Dec. - March healthwise and totally quit Flying. I am finally feeling better and starting to
Fly again.

I DO wish there was a way to subscribe to her emails WITHOUT all the reminders. I enjoy the email testimonials from the Flybabies, and like getting the daily zone assignment. I just wish I could opt out of the 20+ reminder emails each day.

 

[Taja]

Like the concept, but if you aren't a stay at home anything, all those reminders could drive you crazy. Weekdays I'm away more than I'm home--it's pretty much get up and out the door, come home and go to bed--and the house still gets dirty! I'm pretty neat, but in a dry climate, dust is a major factor!

I'm very organized, but between house work and yard work, weekends barely exist. And I have to squeeze things such as mopping floors in when my uncle is sleeping so he doesn't walk on the wet floors. :shrug: Such is life!

I'm slowly decluttering the house through eBay and yard sales, as well as contributions to charities and curbside pickups. It's slow going, but it's getting done.

If guests are rude enough to say anything about the house or yard, I always let them know I welcome their assistance!

Sometimes I'm not a nice person! LOL

 

[Gillian]

How do people with young children and pets manage to maintain the results of their efforts?

Well, I don't!

We also have a shark, which is good for cat hair, cheerios, etc. I have been ill and it's a pain for me to get out the regular vacuum for little things. The shark is light & convenient. The kids (4 and almost 2) like to help!

We don't have a mudroom, so I put small, washable rugs by the back door & the inside garage door. That cuts down on the stuff tracked into the kitchen! We all take off our shoes when we come in. Most of our friends ask for shoes off as well.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

How do people with young children and pets manage to maintain the results of their efforts?

The point of flylady isn't to keep your house spotless, it's to develop routines to keep housework from getting to the point of being overwhelming. The routines themselves are the maintenence. It's your home, you're supposed to live in it and it will get messed up in the process, but no matter what at some point it's going to have to be cleaned, if you develop the routines then you just do a little bit of cleaning at a time rather than a big cleaning marathon that everyone in the house messes up 5 minutes and makes you angry.

The zone work is like spring cleaning broken down into 15 minute a month increments.

And to me the bonus of flylady are the reminders to take care of myself first (much needed reminders with 5 kids), I guess alot of people don't need that, but I get caught up in taking care of the house and everyone else in it and then taking care of me comes last and I start to resent it.

And as far as the sand/grass/whatever on the floor is concerned, I may as well wait until after dinner to sweep it up unless I'm expecting company or the baby is going to be on the floor in that particular room because personally I'd rather go outside and play with the kids than sweep the floor.

 

[Disney Ontario]

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have never heard of the flylady.
tell more and where I can get the information.?????????????????

 

[bengalbelle]

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have never heard of the flylady.
tell more and where I can get the information.?????????????????

www.flylady.net

 

[*mama2aislinn*]

Sounds like a neat concept. I've never heard of Flylady. I'll have to try it out! Maybe it'll help my unorganized life!

 

[d-man's mom]

I was great at Flylady before I moved into my house. I've been here nearly 5 months now and still have things in boxes. I'm a single mom that works full time so my time to organize (run errands, work on the house, etc) is limited to the weekends that my son is with his dad. My paperwork hotspot is back in full force- even though I own a shredder!

I go to bed with a clean sink/kitchen no matter what. It's an easy room for me to keep organized, so even when things are hectic, I at least have one clean room!

I don't remember if it's from Flylady or from a book about clearing out clutter, but one of my favorite things to do is to walk around the house and put 10 things into the trash. (or Ebay pile) Now I have only things that I love on display in my house.

You might realize once you get started that you already had your own Flylady system in place & didn't even know it. (if you always sweep you floor on a certain day of the week, laundry day, etc)

 

[bengalbelle]

My paperwork hotspot is back in full force- even though I own a shredder!

Paperwork is the thing I battle most! If I let it pile up for even a day or two I'm in big trouble .

 

[PaulaSue]

I try to do a lot from the web site and OH. I have tried repeatly to get the emails but they never come????

I would love a buddy. My house needs it.