Flying update

**prairiewife** · 03-12-2008, 12:42 PM

A couple of weeks ago I posted about my frustration with the flylady system. Thanks for the responses. I took everyone's advise and have been customizing her system to work for me. I know she encourages us to do this but it took some creative thinking (and I had to stop whinning that it wouldn't work for me).

So I've come up with two morning routines one for the days I work, one for my at home days. This seems to be working. I just take out the morning routine I need put it in a paper protector sleeve the night before and then check things off as I do them in the morning. This has been the start of my control journal. I already had an old binder, but I did splurge $4.00 on a pack of pretty paper to type in on.

I also realized on my at home days I wasn't doing the get up, shower and dress first thing. No hurry because I didn't have to go to work. This week I've been allowing myself 1 cup of coffee while I watch a few minutes of the news, then straight to the shower. I'm ready for my day by 7:30 and have much more energy.

I have a sticky note to remind me to declutter 15 minutes in the weekly zone.

Still working on my shiny sink. My sweetie often doesn't get home until after 7:00 then by the time we're done with supper it can be 8:30. So I've been trying to have everything I can washed and in the dishwasher before he gets home. Last night I only had the supper plates to wash.

I don't like starting a load of laundry in the morning if I have to leave the house. I hang a lot of the laundry on drying racks and I was coming home to a wet, wrinkled load. So I am doing a load of easy things at night like towels. Then on my days off two loads of things like work clothes that need to be hung up right away to dry.

**tbs727** · 03-12-2008, 04:04 PM

Good for you! Remember, baby steps!

**cissylu** · 03-12-2008, 09:47 PM

that sound`s great to me.

**prairiewife** · 03-13-2008, 10:19 PM

Today I started a load of laundry when I got out of the shower. Was washed, dried and folded by the time I had to leave for work. I got the items hung that I needed to and they were dry when I got home. It was a stretch, but then I didn't have to add doing a load tonight when I got home. Once we get the clothes line up I will do full line dried loads on my days off.

My mornings are becoming much more efficient. I have so much more energy early in the day and have been amazed this past week how much I can accomplish.

I like having my list and the accomplishment I feel when they are all checked off. These are all things I knew I should be doing but for some reason was having a hard time getting them all done.

**PrairieRose** · 03-14-2008, 09:09 AM

Good for you in finding what works in your life. If I stick fairly closely to my routines my house stays in great shape. When I don't it all falls apart.

**nuisance26** · 03-14-2008, 09:21 AM

~Good for you! I'd like to get back into this myself. I'd been doing my version of it up until a year ago when I just got burnt out on revamping it all the time. Every 3 months or so, my toddlers would change habits and needs and throw my schedule completely out of whack. My house was always so much cleaner on the Flylady system.~

**emily_hope** · 03-14-2008, 11:59 AM

I am glad you were able to take her ideas and make them work for you. My day goes much smoother when I have a schedule.

**prairiewife** · 03-25-2008, 02:57 PM

I have fallen on my flying wagon the past week. :surprise: Worked Friday and Saturday, went to visit relatives for Easter, then back to work Monday. Today I'm looking around the house wondering how it can fall apart so quickly.

I know it's all about the decluttering. It's so hard to clean around stuff. My biggest problem is not having a place for everything and not putting away things right after I use them. Mostly paperwork because we are still trying to finalize our taxes and this is bill paying week so I have all these papers I don't want to put away because we need to go through them first.

I have a small file box, a binder for fiance's business expenses, a bill organizer, a coupon organizer and a shelf in one of the kitchen cabinets I'm storing papers in. I also have a drawer in the kitchen and one shelf for office type supplies. Such a mess. I did find a two drawer file cabinet for $28 I think I will buy to try and keep all the papers in one place. This might help. I don't currently have a desk (we can't afford to purchase one) and I think this is part of the problem. Everything has to get set up on the kitchen table to do paperwork then put away later. Not very convenient. And of course at 9:00 p.m. I'm too tired to put it all away and tell myself I'll do it tomorrow!

I noticed last night that the spare room has started to overflow into the "guest bedroom" (I would just die if I had guests that actually had to sleep in there LOL!). I realized today I have been looking at the spare room all wrong. I look at it as a whole room. If I had been putting away or getting rid of one thing each day for the past 4 months it would be clean. So back to baby steps.

I read the decluttering and getting rid of 7 things a week posts here for ideas and I always get motivated after reading them. I just need to get moving (or off my franny as flylady says).

**nuisance26** · 03-26-2008, 09:39 AM

Originally Posted by prairiewife

I have a small file box, a binder for fiance's business expenses, a bill organizer, a coupon organizer and a shelf in one of the kitchen cabinets I'm storing papers in. I also have a drawer in the kitchen and one shelf for office type supplies. Such a mess. I did find a two drawer file cabinet for $28 I think I will buy to try and keep all the papers in one place. This might help. I don't currently have a desk (we can't afford to purchase one) and I think this is part of the problem. Everything has to get set up on the kitchen table to do paperwork then put away later. Not very convenient. And of course at 9:00 p.m. I'm too tired to put it all away and tell myself I'll do it tomorrow!

I noticed last night that the spare room has started to overflow into the "guest bedroom" (I would just die if I had guests that actually had to sleep in there LOL!). I realized today I have been looking at the spare room all wrong. I look at it as a whole room. If I had been putting away or getting rid of one thing each day for the past 4 months it would be clean. So back to baby steps.

~You've probably already thought of this, but if you have a spare room, is it possible to make a corner of it your 'office'? If you're buying 2 file cabinets you could just lay an old door or scrap wood across the two cabinets to make a desk. At least you wouldn't have all your papers out on your table anymore(I'm completely guilty of this one as well!).~

**prairiewife** · 03-26-2008, 11:40 AM

I've been submerged in the spare room this morning. I called a girl from work who's son is moving out on his own and she will take the extra coffee pot, crockpot and iron. These went straight to the car to take to town tomorrow.

Yes, I would love to make the spare room into a craft/office room. It's a small room but once it's cleaned out it would make a great place for our office stuff and my sewing machine. It is also where I line dry my clothes so one corner would have to be for the drying rack and clothes bar.

I have heard of making a desk by using two filing cabinets with a plywood top cut to fit. I wonder if it would be tall enough? I've been keeping my eyes open for a used (affordable) desk at the flea market here, but no luck so far. I did find a folding table for less than $30 it's about 18 inches deep and about 4 foot long. I may end up buying this.

**kaykwilts** · 03-26-2008, 01:30 PM

Good for you for adapting Flylady to fit your needs. I need to do the same.

**geckoace** · 03-27-2008, 10:38 AM

wow you really jumped right in good work. i have to adapt my routines to accommodate the new baby its been a little hectic but not too bad.

my tip for your is to get a small hanging file caddy until you have a desk, sort everything that you are currently working on into folders when u are working on it take the whole folder out work "in" the open folder then when u are done just fold the whole thing up and shove it into the caddy. this works well for me it keeps papers from being in piles and from your piles being destroyed when someone else cleans up and if you get a nice enough one you dont have to worry about leaving it out on the table