Anybody Tried the "Fly Lady" to Keep House Clean?

I have never heard of Fly Lady. However it sounds like this is what I already do with keeping my house clean. I am also overwhelmed & get panicked when my house is not clean. It is very difficult to keep it from being messy but I follow my kids & husband around all the time. My husband says I am clean to a fault, but he likes a clean & tidy home too. It's impossoble to have it perfect at all times, kids have to have fun too. I believe you have to keep up on it during the week so when the weekend comes you can relax a bit. Your girls are old enough to help out too, its important for them to start now. My son will be 5 soon, & he puts his laundry away, my dghtr is 3.5 she picks up toys & my soon to be 2 yr old wants to help the older 2. But remeber less is better too so maybe have a garage sale or when you are really feeling anxious that the house isnt organized/clean thats the best time to get rid of stuff. Well gotta go clean.

This has worked well for me, but I had to make a few changes. Her schedules are a great place to set up a system for you. Some things seem kind of common sense, but I guess people need things set up at that detailed of a level.

I used to have a team of cleaning ladies come in twice a month and clean everything. Well they are gone and I had to do something, so I started using the FLYLady. I still don't have that perfectly clean house like I did when the cleaning ladies left, but it's close enough.

One VERY helpful thing I got out of this was the concept of clutter control and staying on top of the clutter before it got out of control. All you can do is give it a whirl. Do the best you can and that's good enough.

M.

I've used it on and off, with varying results. If you are at the nothing end of the spectrum, try the baby steps she recommends. Something is better than nothing and you just may find yourself surprised at how much you can accomplish in a short time if you don't view it as looking at what you haven't accomplished. Personally I find some of her ideas a little nutty. I don't have any deep rooted psychogical issues about perfectionism stemming from childhood or depression era packrat syndrome that she likes to carry on about. But what the heck, it's free. Give it a try.

Hi A.,

You can have only 1 email sent to you per day by adjusting your settings. I think it's called a "Digest email". It's pretty long, but you can then scroll near the bottom to find out what you should be working on for the day.

About me: I've done FLYLADY off and on and I've gotten some good tips from the free emails. But sometimes it seems like they are promoting their products a bit much.

Good luck! --S.

I'm gonna warn you......if you sign up for her e-mails, you will be completely BOMBARDED and OVERWHELMED with a ZILLION e-mails from her. For me, I just quit reading them, since I just didn't have the time. My house is still a mess...

LOL.

I'm sorry, it's just that I've been a member of the FlyLady site for a few years now and most beginner Flybabies sound just like you!

Seriously, the FlyLady motto is: your house didn't get dirty overnight and it won't get clean overnight either!

I would say that the FlyLady system is a PERMANENT way to keep your house organized and clean. It prevents burnout, and it keeps you from being an "all or nothing" kind of person. It's the system designed for people JUST LIKE YOU and me!

I have to say that I went on and off the system, but now I'm doing really well and I love how my house is always company-ready! It's not perfect, but if someone drops by I'm not embarrassed to have them over and they can use my bathroom without me rushing into it first to wipe up stuff. Anyone can see ANY room at ANY time and it's presentable! Again, not museum-perfect, but presentable.

I'd say since the system is FREE, just start with the babysteps. Trust the system, and do what it says, no more, no less. You have nothing to lose.

Just recently I walked in my garage and was happy to see everything organized and neat. Then I walked into my clutter-free foyer, hung up my coat in my neat closet, sorted through the mail in my clean kitchen, kicked back on the couch in my clean living room. It was great! Especially for a messy pack-rat like me. Maintaining my house is easy, and no, I'm not always cleaning. Who has time for that with kids and a full-time job? LOL!

Try it :)

I LOVED the Fly Lady system when I kept up with it. After my twins were born, I fell right back into CHAOS, and I'm actually getting ready to start from scratch. It was the best system for me, and I have always been the all or nothing personality you mention. Like N W said, trust the system in baby steps and it really will work. Before my twins, our house was amazing for the first time ever. My husband honestly did NOT believe I was doing it myself. He literally asked the neighbors if I had someone coming over to clean because in all the years we've been together, he didn't believe I even COULD maintain a clean house...haha! Go for it!