Have you kept up with Flylady?

[Night Elf]

The longest I ever followed Flylady's cleaning schedule was a couple of months. I really must admit that my house was tidy and lovely. Then I got tired of following a schedule because I'm not really a list-type person. That was about 5 years ago. I've seen threads about Flylady and how some people felt like I did and just stopped. However, I'm reconsidering it because I've gotten lazy.

 

Since Flylady, I tried the SHE system of using index cards instead. I thought I liked it better because it was easier to flip through the cards on the counter than flipping pages in a binder. I didn't keep up with that either.

 

So, did you start as a not-so-great housekeeper, begin a program like Flylady (doesn't have to be that specific one), and stick with it, meaning you're still doing it?

 

I just finished giving my kitchen a really good cleaning and it took me about 1.5 hours. Of course I'm looking at the dining room and living room as well. I'm ignoring my bedroom that is dusty and has stuff on every horizontal surface. Oh, and it's nearly 2:00pm and I haven't even started school with the kids! My DH gets home from work about 4:45pm and I haven't even given dinner a thought. :blushing: Can I run away?

[Mejane]

No. I love the "shiny sink" thing, but I simply cannot "get dressed to shoes" everyday. :D

[jelbe5]

I hope you don't mind me putting this info here . . . I am not trying to hijack your thread but I was just musing about sharing this when I saw your post.

 

I have not had a lot of success with Flylady (felt overwhelmed with the emails, etc.). But I really liked the idea of routines.

 

This does not really answer your question but I wanted to share this for people who have an iPhone or iPod Touch. There is a nifty little program called "HomeRoutines" which is set up to follow the Flylady system. It is a little pricey at $4.99 and is the most expensive app I have purchased (most apps I download are free) BUT it really is a nice app. You can totally customize it for your personal routines. So right now I am putting in the very basic routines I need to do for AM and PM. Something about having the things on my iPod Touch and checking them off appeals to me! Hope this helps somebody . . .

 

http://www.homeroutines.com/

 

Adrianne in IL

[Granny_Weatherwax]

With some things "Yes" with others "No".

 

I am not a "dressed to shoes" personality. Heck, I take my shoes off whenever and wherever I can (I have the remnants of broken toes to prove it).

 

I do the daily tasks. Monday - vacuum, Tuesday - clean glass, Wednesday - dust, etc.

I also keep up on the kitchen and constantly remove clutter. I keep Flylady clings in my desk drawer and pull them out if I tend to slack on things.

 

DH has taken over the laundry so I no longer stress out over that chore. I have a mental block when it comes to completing a load all the way through to folding and putting away. I am happy if I remember to put the wet clothes into the dryer so they won't spoil.

[aggieamy]

I like the Flylady stuff but feel like it's not really for me. I work outside the home and I'm what she would call Born Organized. My flat surfaces aren't covered with stuff because I couldn't deal with that. My kitchen sink is cleaned because the thought of it being full of stuff makes me feel icky inside. Some of her tips were good though and I've added them to my routines like wiping down the bathroom sink everyday and having an active plan to declutter. Since I already had routines that work well for me I couldn't see giving up my current system to implement another. I am encouraging my sister to read her book because I think if you don't already have routines in place then she could be really helpful.

[athena1277]

I tried to do the Flylady thing a ways back. It started out pretty well, even dd got into it because they had the daily kid chores, which for some reason were cool when they didn't come from me. However, when my dear dh (who loves to tease) teased me about shining the sink, I quit.:glare: I wanted to do something good for the family, but not if it meant getting picked on.

[Jayne J]

I am also a Born Organized type, but at the beginning of the year I was feeling a bit out of control and tried Flylady, just to get myself moving and back on track. I did it for a grand total of 2 weeks. It was just too much, in terms of keeping up with emails and lists and zones. All the big stuff, like hot zones and shiny sinks, I already had under control, and the daily lists of zone cleaning were a bit over the top for me--Do I really need to dust every baseboard and windowsill in the house every month?

 

Ultimately I took what worked--the bathroom swish and swipe, which helps alot, as I hate cleaning the bathroom. The rest I dumped and went back to my own thing. Like I really need one more thing to worry about. (Oh no! Is my sink shiny? Is it OK not to wear shoes??:D)

[Another Lynn]

No. I love the "shiny sink" thing, but I simply cannot "get dressed to shoes" everyday. :D

 

Getting dressed to the shoes is the *only* think I do every day. If I didn't wear my "running" shoes everyday, I think I would just crawl back in bed....:tongue_smilie:

 

While I can't say it has helped with the state of the house, it does help us get school done everyday. :D

[MSNative]

I tried starting her system several times but always wanted to jump ahead instead of baby stepping. When I finally baby stepped it clicked for me (for the most part.)

 

My sink shines and I usually get dressed to the shoes (but b/c of an injury not FL). I've also added getting dressed to the ponytail. Caught my reflection in the mirror one lunchtime and saw my hair. Yikes. My poor kids must have been scared to death with me homeschooling looking like Medusa.

 

I do not feather dust. Hate that thing. :) Nor do I swish and swipe (but I clean my toilets daily cause my kids can't aim) I love my own routines and I hate it when I stray from them. One thing I now can never do - let the toilet paper run out - and with three boys that's saying something! :) Haven't gotten the control journal thing down, though. I start one frequently, but then it just ends up ion the shelf with the cookbooks gathering dust. I now just keep my routine in my hs planner.

 

I think the main thing is to use her ideas and make your own system.

[Night Elf]

Ok, I do find it funny when I see someone sum Flylady up by shiny sinks and wearing clothes/shoes. :tongue_smilie:

 

I didn't keep a shiny sink. I thought that was kind of strange to focus on that when it was the rest of the house that stressed me out. I didn't dress with shoes because I've always been a PJ person. I only get dressed when I leave the house. And I didn't need the emails to follow the routines. It was the idea of having the daily/weekly/monthly schedules that appealed to me.

 

My subject heading is misleading. I really meant to ask about any type of cleaning schedule designed by someone else. It took Flylady's program to even get me thinking any routine was helpful. My mom didn't have routines. She just cleaned. She said it was her joy to keep house and raise children. So why didn't she pass that housekeeping skill to me?? :)

[Guest FlyingHigh]

This is exactly the right way to FLY! I don't feather dust either. I do, however, get dressed to shoes every day or I would lay around in my pajamas all day. The main thing with FlyLady is find what works for you and do that. Not everything is for everyone. She shares suggestions that work for her and then you can make your own adjustments and tweaks as needed. Plus, it is all free.

 

I'm not sure where I would be if I hadn't started FLYing. She has taught me to love myself and to realize that making cleaning fun in turn makes me want to do it. And yes, I do make it fun. I dance when I sweep, I let the kids help me even though they don't do a great job, we make dinner together and giggle if an egg breaks. I live everyday to the fullest because I know that my routines are in place and that gives me the majority of the day to have fun.

 

I feel the same way as Beth above. I had no idea what a routine was. Quite literally I never had one until I started FLyLady. I just hope y'all find something that works for you because simple routines really do make your life easier so you can thrive and enjoy each day to the fullest. Who wants to be stuck cleaning all day. NOT ME!

[Audrey]

S.H.E. is what got me into a good routine. I didn't know about Flylady at the time. Since then, I get her digest to check the Flylist for the day, but that's it. I have become a better housekeeper, but I don't think I was that bad to begin with. When I lived alone, my place was immaculate. I have come to the conclusion that mess is the product of everyone else in the house, not me. :D

[swimmermom3]

I think it has been about ten years since I first encountered the FlyLady and I am grateful to her. I no longer follow her site with the daily reminders but I still think in terms of "hot spots" and "swish and swipe." Some of the routines that I developed are still here and others fell away.

[Peela]

I am a huge Flylady fan, but I do not follow her program rigidly at all.I joined up about 8 or 9 years ago and it helped me so much- but I don't think I have ever in all these years followed her program completely. I take parts of it as it suits me. Its the "flywashing" over years that helped the most- its the attitudinal stuff- the "you are never behind, jump in where you are" and the you can do anything for 15 minutes" that helped break me out of my perfectionism.

 

I can now keep home- but I still like to create systems and routines for myself and I usually use Flylady as a foundation for them because it has always worked for me. But no, I dont wear shoes inside much, I use zones just as inspiration for where to put some energy but not much at all really, and I usually delete the digest without reading it. And sometimes I go for months without being subscribed or following the system much at all.

BUT I am extremely grateful to Flylady - she really changed my life- and I consider myself a "Flybaby" no matter how far I drift from the system or how loosely I implement it.

[Cedarmom]

I use it, but I am flexible because I get tired of routine. I stick to the zones, that helps me not be on overload as what to do. Then I look at the sneak peeek for the week on Mon. I do the missions sometime during the week, not on the day assigned. Or maybe I'll pick a differant (still short) mission to do. For heavy duty I'll just do what I feel needs to be done in the room. I use the system to help me focus on a zone and keep it short. I try to do short decluttering in the area too.

[Suzanne in ABQ]

I learned some very valuable lessons from her that I carry still, 7 years later. My kitchen sink is always clean (though there may be rinsed dishes sitting on the counter, waiting to be dropped into the dishwasher -- a job I hate, lol); I fold/hang and put away each load of laundry as it comes out of the dryer; I put away each sack of groceries as they come into the house, and I always get dressed for "public" when I get up in the morning (no shoes, though -- I hate shoes).

 

But, no, the binder doesn't get used (I keep track of everything on my computer nowadays). I don't zone clean. I'm still sort of a crisis cleaner: I let things go until they drive me nuts; then I yell at everyone to pitch in and put all the "stuff" away. Once in awhile, I deep clean a room, but it occurs when the mood strikes, not because a line on a calendar tells me it's time.

[MarinesWife]

Have you ever seen Bootcamp for Lousy Housekeepers? It breaks your workload into themed days with just having maintenance each day.

[Night Elf]

:tongue_smilie: This thread startled me because it had my name on it and I know I didn't post it! Only then I looked at the date and it's from last March.

 

It's ironic though. DH was just asking me about the Flylady routine last week and wondering if I should go back to it.

[Mimm]

I know Flylady has helped a lot of people but I just CAN'T get into the program and I've tried off an on since almost the very start of her little email group. Before she had a website and a logo and a book and all that. And I've never been able to make it work for me because I can't get past all the annoyances. I really wish I could adapt it to suit me. I get the idea, I guess I just need to build routines and zones that make sense to me.

[Night Elf]

I get the idea, I guess I just need to build routines and zones that make sense to me.

 

I haven't been following flylady's routines, but I adapted some of her ideas. I focus on deep cleaning one area at a time, rotating areas over the weeks. This is her idea of zones. Of course I clean in a general manner each day. An example of my zone cleaning: I clean the bathroom well every couple of days but I only really deep clean it every few weeks. I wash down the baseboards. I clean inside the drawer and cabinets. I clean the hair out of the shower drain (my daughters have extremely long hair). I learned from flylady that if I keep up with the general cleaning, the deep cleaning doesn't have to happen every week. I also learned about doing a load of laundry each day or every couple of days. If we wait more than 3 days, we end up with several loads at once and we all hate that.

 

I don't do stuff like set aside a day for errands and cleaning out my purse and car. I don't need a specific day to schedule those. And I don't focus on feeling pretty. I guess I understand the premise but feeling pretty doesn't motivate me to clean my home. I clean because it's necessary, whether I'm in my pjs and a headband or dressed in jeans and a tshirt.