Fly Lady!

This is how I was... a mess who didnt know where to start. I would clean the house, and in days it would be a mess again! I WAS SO STRESSED!

A few years ago, when I was a new stay-at-home Mom (SAHM), I was super active on a few parenting websites. One of them was actually created by someone from an online pregnancy group I had belonged to when I was pregnant with Carter, it is called Misfit Moms. The site has forums and I found some AMAZING women on there! We shared our pregnancies, birth stories, potty training techniques, good days, and bad days! One of the best things we shared were ideas- cloth diapers, recipes, and cleaning tips. One of the ladies on there told me about FlyLady, and I checked it out. I was AMAZED!


Here is how FlyLady works:

1) You go to the site. The site is FREE! I love free! Kurt and my first year of marriage was SO hard, we were on a killer tight budget, so free mattered a LOT. Over the years I have come to appreciate that her site is free, because she totally could charge for it, and people would pay! But, the goal of the FlyLady isn't money, it is to help! Amazing. So, step 1: go to the site.

2) Pay close attention to the "Getting Started" page. There are babysteps, and they are important. There is a lot of info on there, and FlyLady warns us not to just download, plow through, and go mad- the idea is to take babysteps, and by doing babysteps we will NEVER have a messy home EVER AGAIN.

3) Sign up for the email reminders.

The above is how to get started, now allow me to tell you WHY to start:

Some people have a problem with clutter. I don't have an issue with it, but Kurt does. Kurt loves stuff, he doesn't like to part with things. Over the years he has gotten better, but it has been hard to control his ever increasing amount of clutter. KIDS ARE MESSY. I would swear that stuffed animals are capable of breeding- because if we have more than a few, we have TONS! Flylady specializes in clutter, and creating good habits!


I would clean. I like a clean house, but I would clean and clean and clean and burn out. It seemed like the kids' rooms were always overflowing with toys - many of which were just junk that I never got around to throwing away! Between cleaning, organizing, and making dinner, I would feel lost. There was never a balance. I never had time to keep the house clean, make great meals, exercise, read, and make myself pretty- I just couldn't do it! But, man, did I try. I worked so hard, I wanted to be Supermom, and I would crash and burn trying to do it. That was until I found FlyLady.


FLYing means Fully Loving Yourself. Flylady give me praise for the work that often went unnoticed. Flylady DEMANDED that I take time for myself, just to recharge! Flylady wanted my home to be peaceful, sparkling, and happy, and gave me the tools to help it get there. Flylady reminded me to drink water, and move my body. Flylady gave me the tools to have a wonderful home.


A few of the things she says, "The house didn't get messy in a day, and it wont get clean in a day, either." SO TRUE. I cant even count the number of hours I would frantically hurricane around my home, cleaning everything I could, just because I was under some kind of deadline: the in laws coming, neighbors coming for dinner, etc. It was horrible! "Even housework done incorrectly still blesses your home"- this quote was huge for me... I came from a family where my mother pretty much did everything. My mother is a TOTAL perfectionist and I wanted a home as clean and orderly as hers was. I would work so hard, but I had to do EVERYTHING perfectly, or I wouldn't do it at all. If I didn't have 2 hours to mop my floors, they wouldn't be mopped (yeah, that is how long it would take me). Flylady taught me that a quick sweep job is better than nothing, and that I don't have to move the furniture every single time I vacuum.


Do I still have times when the house gets in complete disarray? YUP! But those are only after multiple days of illness or busy schedules, and it no longer takes forever to clean- I just pull out FlyLady's Crisis Cleaning plan and get to work, and in under 2 hours, the house is back beautiful. **I would like to add, when I first started the FlyLady program I started Day 1 by Cleaning my Sink, and Crisis Cleaning. I am the type of person that needs to see results NOW, so that helped me stay motivated.


I love Flylady. I love that my home is always clean, and always improving. Are the insides of every drawer organized? Not yet... we recently moved... but, they WILL be, in time! I love that at any given moment people can stop by my house and I can invite them in without worrying about what they think. I like that people come into my home and feel comfortable! (I think the Scentsy helps with that too, lol!)


The Flylady emails are a big part of the program. I often get sidetracked by the computer, and I like how the emails remind me to be on task. Each night I have a "Flight Plan" that is emailed to me for the next day- it has a list of the things that I am going to do! I LOVE IT! My "To Do" list is done FOR ME! So handy! My husband LOVES Flylady because she encourages us to treat ourselves nicely, and take time on our appearance- something I always felt guilty doing. My husband loves to see me in cute clothes, makeup on, hair curled, smiling, dinner ready, clean house, with a happy wife and happy kids: no one is frazzled or stressed because I have TONS of time- because little habits help me KEEP the house cleaned!


Now, time for me to lace up my shoes, and go shine my sink!