7.11.13

FlyLady

Ask God's blessing on your work, but don't ask Him to do it for you. -- Dame Flora Robson

I'm not a good house keeper and I never have been. I'm tempted to say that I never will be, but my recent victory over the Laundry Monster is evidence that I can be taught. I am not a naturally organized or efficient person, but I have seen that I can learn. To that end, I'm scrapping my current system (which has barely kept me afloat) and building a new one.

Several years ago, I discovered an enormously helpful website. FlyLady helped me conquer some of the worst piles of clutter in our house and develop a basic routine. Over time, I tweaked the routine to make it fit my personality better. That had the unfortunate effect of making it much less effective. Because, as you'll recall, I'm not a naturally organized or efficient person.

I won't bore you with a decade's worth of details, but here's what really prompted me to go back to the beginning. I was reading a FlyLady email that talked about her bathroom Swish & Swipe and how it should only take 2 minutes. I realized that the heinous task that I've been calling a Swish & Swipe takes me half an hour (and I hate it).

Clearly, I am doing something wrong.

So, I have gone back to FlyLady's 31 Beginner BabySteps. I am only on Day 2 and it's very tempting to skip forward and do everything at once. BUT, I am forcing myself to take this slowly, so that I don't crash and burn. My house did not get messy in a day and it's not going to get clean in a day. I have to slowly build new habits that will take the pain out of keeping house.

That's the theory anyway.

Currently, my kitchen sink is shining clean and I wore shoes all day today. (Good news for my feet, but bad news for the toes of my daughter and one of the cats.) One baby step at a time...

Anyone want to join me?

2 comments:

Not so evil step Mama said...

I'm with you. I've stopped fluttering myself. Good time to begin again.

ellenbo said...

wow! I just read this and in the last week, stumbled across my old flylady bookmark and started poking around! i'm in!