Since I Discovered the FlyLady

The FlyLady is the home-keeper's organizational, inspirational and instructional wellspring. I had actually heard of her many years ago but didn't need what she had to offer in my stage of life. So when I heard our MOPS speaker was going to share what she learned from the FlyLady I decided to check her out. I also had come across some rather gross discoveries in my home most notably mentioned in the dishpan post - a colony of dust bunnies and oh yeah a broken vacuum. Then, there was the baby's bath tub that I still shutter to think about. Just the overall revelation that if I were to have another baby and no plan for keeping the house clean and meals on the table not only would we have a dirty tub but we would be eating a lot of cereal.

So I made some changes. This is what I have done so far.

Meal Planning - I could never do a weekly plan because I don't want to be locked into chicken on Tuesday in case I am not in the mood for chicken or if something comes up and there isn't time to make chicken. Yet I know I needed a plan because trying to figure it out at 4pm wasn't working either! So I thought and I thought: What would work for me? The solution was 4 meals at a time. I usually only make 4 meals a week anyhow. So I pick 4 meals and write down the key ingredient if the recipes is in a book and what ingredients I might need. Then, each day if I need to make a meal because leftover are done or promised for lunch I pick one of the four meals. It is really working for me! This plan has built in flexibility which is what me and my palate need!


The 2nd Flylady change this night owl is getting to bed at a decent hour. I don't wake up well - never have- I don't think going to bed any earlier is helping me get up but having extra sleep isn't hurting. What I have done is set my cell phone to go off at 9:30 each night. This reminds me that I have 30 minutes to get to bed if I want to hit my target of being in bed by 10 to read and do my devotions. The 9:30 warning reminds me not to start anything new - like a movie, or to finish up what I am working on. In fact one night while watching the Sherlock Holmes movie I stopped in the middle to go to bed. That took some discipline! I do allow myself the freedom to decide 1-2 times a week to stay up later if I have something I need to do like a blog post or something I need peace and quite for. This worked well most of November. I'll admit I was sloppy during the Christmas season because I had so many projects to work on. The reminder really helped me be aware of my decision making. Since actually drafting this post many, many weeks ago my husband got a hold of my phone and turned off the alarm. He hated it. However, I am still pretty cognizant of 9:30 rolling around and have been working on getting to bed at a decent hour without the alarm.

The 3rd change is cleaning by zones.  Each week  I focus on a different room for deeper cleaning, decluttering and reorganizing as needed. The whole idea is to keep maintaining cleanliness instead of tackling piles of dirt once they mount up enough to move me. This way I know my shower stall and curtain will get a good cleaning at least once a month.

All this was going really well and then, well, life happened and taking a nap just seemed way more important than dusting. So I took a break but I am working on getting back into the groove.