3 Things I Learned from FlyLady

Three things I learned from Flylady when I joined her list several years ago (back when she had only a few hundred subscribers; now there are thousands):

1.) Swipe your bathroom every day and you'll never have to clean the bathroom again. (I use Clorox wipes - just one per day, swiping the sink first, counters, then the commode, from cleanest area to dirtiest). Your toilet will always be ready for company drop-ins! This simple thing has been so freeing to me. I used to think that I had to make a fuss over the bathroom, as in "now I shall gather various cleaning chemicals and then I shall scrub the bathroom for an hour."

2.) Don't put it down, put it away. Flylady says something like, "never touch something twice if you can touch it once". I catch myself all the time starting to set something down "to get to it or put it away later." Then I remember that I don't want to touch it twice, so I'll just put it where it goes.

3.) If overwhelmed, set your timer for 15 minutes and tell yourself to just work for that long. I do this when cleaning out closets, or when I am looking at a dirty kitchen but think I'm too tired to clean it. Also, when my house is way too messy, I set the timer for 15 minutes and ask the family to work with me for only that long. We get SO much done in that little bit of time. The family seems more willing to help me when they know that there is a time limit set, and mama won't say, "Oh, and do this...and this...and...that, too."

by Lori Seaborg