I'm a control freak/perfectionist... in case you haven't noticed, or perhaps don't live close enough to me to feel the effects.
However.... my house has always been messy and cluttered. In high school, I don't think my room was ever clean. And my car? My friends joked about how it was an extension of my room. I'm pretty sure I annoyed the crap out of Brandi and Melody (my college roommates). I never understood why I
preferred everything clean and neat, but I was never able to kepp my personal space looking that way.
I know that I've always been a marathon cleaner. I wait until all of my laundry is dirty to do any wash. I wait until all of the dishes are dirty to clean the kitchen. It stressed me out! I was always living in CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome). I hated being that way, but every time I tried to make a cleaning schedule/program for myself it always fell through. Now being 7 months pregnant I am starting to slow down. I get tired quickly, and marathon cleaning just doesn't cut it. Not to mention the fact that I am trying to teach Brandon to "help" me do some chores. Just so you know, "marathon" teaching doesn't work.
For the last couple of months I have been organizing my house room by room to get ready for Malachi. We moved Brandon into the 3rd bedroom, which was previously my catch-all room. That required me to go through and really organize our closets. The house started feeling better, but I was getting more tired and the house wasn't necessarily company-ready-clean either. When I had Brandon I went into labor on Friday, which was my normal cleaning day at the time. Well, I didn't get the cleaning done and I came home to a trashed house and I was so embarrassed that Brian had to do some marathon cleaning so family could stop by (which of course didn't get done in my perfectionist way). I didn't want a repeat of that with Malachi.
THEN, my mom introduced me to
flylady.net. She had been looking for chore charts for cleaning your home with older, teenage children when she ran into it on a forum or search engine of some sort. This website has seriously changed my life.
It is a strange name, I know. Apparently, the woman who started the website loves fly fishing and had used "flylady" as a screen name on another website. Then, after her methods and website were established, someone suggested it stands for
Finally
Loving
Yourself. This has been true for me because being able to control my home has definitely improved my self-esteem and therefore, finally loving myself.
So what is the website all about? Basically, it helps you establish routines for cleaning and managing your day/life, whether your a SAHM (stay at home mom) or a single woman with a full time career. What I really like is that you can mold her "rules" to fit your lifestyle. She has certain things you do and she teaches you how to make it work for you. Oh and did I mention that this site is 100% free?
I spent days looking through all of her information on the website. She suggested you start with the "baby steps". This is the key to success. You don't just jump in all at once. You establish habits day by day, over time, with baby steps and that is the start of your routines.
I have been building my own routines and have established habits. And now my house it clean, almost dare I say it, constantly. I have no fear of people coming over. The worst that could happen would be that Brandon has toys out, and really who could blame me? My home has been practically spotless for 2 weeks.
I want to post pictures of my home with some key cleaning points FLYlady suggests as proof that they work.
FIRST and probably most importantly, SHINE YOUR SINK. No, I am not joking. This is a quote from the site, "This is your first household chore. Many of you can't understand why I want you to empty your sink of your dirty dishes and clean and shine it, when there is so much more to do. It is so simple. I want you to have a sense of accomplishment. You have struggled for years with a cluttered home and you are so beaten down. I just want to put a smile on your face. When you get up the next morning, your sink will greet you and a smile will come across your lovely face. I can't be there to give you a big hug, but I know how good it feels to see yourself in your kitchen sink. So each morning this is my gift to you. Even though I can't be there to pat you on the back, I want you to know that I am very proud of you." My sink has looked like this from day one. Now, my sink looks so nice, I can't stand to keep dirty dishes in it. I rinse them and put them right into the dishwasher. Your kitchen feels so darn good when your sink looks like this. Seriously, it's AWESOME. For more on how to "shine your sink" go
HERE.--------------
The next big step for me was
HotSpots. Flylady defines them this way, "
A Hot Spot is an area, when left unattended will gradually take over. My favorite analogy is of a hot spot in a forest fire, if left alone it will eventually get out of hand and burn up the whole forest. This is what happens in our homes. If left unattended, the hot spot will grow and take over the whole room as well as making the house look awful. When you walk into a room, the hot spot is the first thing you see. Your eyes are locked on it. Over the years my hot spot has migrated. As a child it was a chair in my bedroom. I would pile it to the ceiling. Right now I have two hot spots in my home: the dining room table and the bed in the extra bedroom. The dining room table is a staging area. We put the unopened mail there, as well as any thing that needs to go to the basement. Some times you cannot see the top of the table. This is the first thing I see when I walk into the kitchen. Granted, the pile has only been there since last night, but if I don't deal with it first thing in the morning, it will collect many more items by evening. CLUTTER ATTRACTS CLUTTER. The Bed in the extra bed room is just the same. I use it as a place to put things that don't have a home. Do you have areas like this that continue to grow if left alone? Does the rest of the family see this as a place to put things when they do not want to put them where they belong? It is our job to NIP this in the bud. Get rid of that pile, find the surface underneath, and stop the Hot Spot from becoming a raging Clutter inferno!" Here are my HotSpots:
The counter/bar and dining room table
And the front entrance area.
Now the thing is, these pictures are what my HotSpots look like for most of the day! Amazing! Keeping these clean, through my routines, makes the house look 10 times better (maybe even 100).
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Then my nemesis,
making the bed. My dad is all about making beds. I never got it. Therefore, I rarely did it living at home, and up until now, never consistently made my bed in my own home. For over a month, I have been making my bed the moment I get out of it, every morning! (And sometimes in the middle of the day when I take a nap :)). Here is what Flylady says, "It is amazing how a made bed can change the whole look and feel of your bedroom. There can be a hotspot on your night-stands and dressers burning away - but if the bed is made the whole room feels and looks less cluttered. Your bed in the bedroom is what the sink is to your kitchen. If the sink is empty and shining the whole kitchen feels better, the same applies to our beds. If the bed is made instead of the sheets and bedspreads in tangled mess - it changes the way we feel when we are in the room." And TA-DA! Look how awesome our bedroom looks!
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Finally, the
Swish and Swipe....This is what our bathroom looks like every day:
Flylady explains it best,
"As part of my morning routine I clean my bathroom. Now this is not the crisis cleaning because company is coming and you have not touched the bathroom in months. This is a daily maintenance that keeps it company ready all the time! I know many of you don't think that this needs to be done but I assure you that you deserve to clean and fresh smelling bathroom all the time too.
It don't take much time to do this either. This is why I called it a swish and a swipe. Doesn't that sound like a lick and a promise! Quick and easy! Here is how it works and once you establish this habit, your bathroom will never look and smell dirty again.
To accomplish this you need a couple of things to keep in your bathroom. I have my favorite window cleaner in each bathroom just for this purpose along with a roll of paper towels or old wash cloths. You can use what ever you like just so you don't have to leave the room to swish and swipe. You will have no excuse to get sidetracked if you will do this.
Here is the swipe part. I take the window cleaner and a rag and wipe off the mirror and then the counter, faucets and sink. Bam it is just that fast. Now I do this as I am getting dressed and I put my things away. Do you hear me! put your stuff away as you use them this keeps your counter clear and easy to wipe down. Then I take that same paper towel or rag and head toward the toilet. I keep a toilet bowl brush beside each toilet in our home. They are kept in a crock (one like you put kitchen utensils in). I keep an all-purpose cleaner like old shampoo in it (not bathroom caustic cleaner). Soap is soap as far as I am concerned. You could use old shampoo that you hate or what ever you have. They are even making some great new toilet bowl brushes that are kept in cylinders that have lids. Now don't do this if you have little children or pets that will get into this. Each take take the brush and let the excess cleaner drip off; if it is thick you may have to water down the solution a bit so it will drain well. Then take the toilet bowl brush and swish it around in the toilet. Even if you don't use any soap; you will keep stuff from growing in there. Then wipe off the back of the toilet with the used paper towel or rag, then the seat, the rim and lastly the sides and floor. If you have little boys you know how they miss. Then toss the rag in the laundry or the paper towel in the trash. When you do this once a day you will find that your toilet is always fresh as a daisy."
Now, I know this is nothing revolutionary. Likely, many of you are doing something similar. I was never able to figure out how to get started on my own. Now, I feel great about myself, as well as my home. I no longer have "CHAOS" in my home. I know that whenever I go into labor, my house will look nice. I actually have MORE time to play with Brandon, and I have MORE time to read and do the things I like to do (like make this blog post!).
Go to
flylady.net or
CLICK HERE to go straight to the "Getting Started" page.
