Get Everything Done

Several of us have mentioned our frustration with flylady in the past, and I thought I'd share what I've been doing to integrate AF with flylady... basically, I'm using the Flylady zones and missions as timed reminders for my personal AF list. I put down the zone of the week on my personal list when it's posted and keep re-adding it as I work in that zone over the course of the week.

Rather than doing a load of laundry every day, I make sure that laundry appears at least once on every page of my personal list.

For regular house-cleaning stuff, I'm adding non-scheduled tasks (like vacuuming, mopping, etc.) as I think they need to be done and then I get to them when the time is right.

So far it's working pretty well.

Hi Sarah,

I also put my big *hot spot* - the kitchen counter - on the list on every page for quite a long time. I still have it on there, but I think I have a semi-habit / routine now to keep it clean. However, knowing me, I will revert back at some point, and it doesn't hurt to keep it on there even if I do manage to do it off-list, so I'm keeping it. :-)

I think this can work much better if you don't have a lot of open pages, it didn't work that great for me when I had 22 active pages. Do you find the same?

I'm also finding that I'm using some of her principles of only doing a quick middle of the room vacuum; wipe up spots instead of washing the whole floor, etc. because I'm only willing to work for "as long as I feel like" (as per AF) - that can be 5 minutes or an hour.

I still like to stick to my 3 loads of laundry every Saturday or Sunday or if we have a Friday movie night. Otherwise I forget about it and leave it to the mildew monster. :-(

It sounds like you still subscribe to her list? I couldn't stand the clutter of all the constant emails. It drove me crazy! So I have the book instead and listen to her radio program probably once every 6 months or so.

This might sound kind of strange, but in the last month I often put a DVD in my laptop of a 40 minute TV show I want to watch and move it into the room that I want to clean so I can watch/listen as I clean. I have rarely watched TV in the last 20 years or so and had purchased a number of movies and series on DVD, so I have quite a library built up. This is killing 2 birds with one stone and making the cleaning go by quite quickly and painlessly. Playing music never did that for me. :-)

Yeah, I think a small number of open pages works better for this - I don't think I've ever had more than 5 open personal pages. I do put hotspots on there, too, as they get ignored and really bad.

I actually don't get her e-mails; I get the stuff from the Flylady LiveJournal community. I think they may have started a new mailing list with just the zones & missions, but I haven't investigated because I get the info from LJ. I, too, got completely fed up with the mail volume.

I, too, put hotspots on my list, and I like doing laundry daily so that I can stay on top of it & not have to do it all at once during the weekend. I put the daily list (not the get dressed to the shoes & silly stuff) on my AF list every morning. I also put the mission of the day every day (I get it from the website). Once a week, I put all the things from that zone's cleaning list on the list, then even if I don't get them finished within the prescribed week, I'm still working on them & if it gets down to cleaning baseboards, or dismissing them, I have that option & don't feel guilty about it.

I have 10 active pages on my home/wedding list & this system seems to work out much better for me than just looking at a huge list of things I have to accomplish this week.

I have the emails sorted to a different label in my gmail, which I can look at them, whenever I feel like it, or globally delete them.

I do the same, except I don't pay any attention to her missions or zones anymore. I have my own routines down. The problem I had with her missions is I might have wanted to clean out my refrigerator and she had me scrubbing around the sink with a toothbrush. I just wouldn't do anything then. The best thing about using AF for housework is I no longer try to force myself to do certain tasks as often as someone else says I "should" do them. I get to laundry often by putting each task on the list (wash darks, fold whites, put away Ben's laundry). I learned a lot from doing FLYLady years ago. I finally have routines that work--things that I don't have to add to my AF list. Glad others are finding that they work well together.

For cleaning do people find it better to do a small daily minimum each day, or just do as much as you feel like?

Also is it better to do things to a rota, or just do them as needed?

smileypete

When I started AF I put everything that currently needed doing into the system, from "Tax Return" to "Email" to "Unstacking the Dishwasher" to "Cleaning the Sink". I found that having the cleaning tasks in AF enabled me to identify resistance factors and also to identify the best way of doing things. Now, as a general rule, those tasks just get done as needed. For example I decided to work on some files in my lounge instead of at my desk - the files were on my glass table which looked dusty in the sunlight so I cleaned the table top before starting. It wasn't vital that I did it, it wasn't on the list, but it just felt like the right time so I did it.

I anticipate most things getting done "as needed" and off list, but if I want to do a spring clean, or blitz a particular area for any reason then I suspect it will go onto the list. If I have people round for a meal and end up with a lot of clearing up I would probably put it on the list but that would depend on the resistance factor - I may well "just do it".

I don't think there needs to be any hard and fast rule - just whatever works for the individual. I certainly think when starting AF it is helpful to put everything onto the list, as that is how AF sorts and grades the general tasks that we do on a day to day basis, but once we have learned what works for us then we can just do it - sort of equivalent to AF without the list!

smileypete, I do some things on rotation and others on an as needed basis, or should I say on an as-they-stand out basis. Some people may think some of my cleaning tasks should be done more often, but I'm good with it. :-) I don't really have a minimum I do, but I do have a routine list of chores I do most days. I have found the more I try to obligate myself to a rotation, especially to tasks that don't HAVE to be done as I've scheduled them, the less I do. I use routines that are automatic, but I eschew any that foster procrastination. You'll find the balance that works for you.

Another thing that is valuable to have on the list from Flylady is decluttering. I have a box in my hall that is centrally located where I collect everything that I'll be dropping off at Goodwill in the next weekend. If it doesn't get full before the weekend, I deliberately go through a room, closet or cabinet and eliminate things so that I get a full box. It's a bit more systematic than a "27 fling boogie" but it works for me. And they get out the door right away. I don't have the time or patience to bother with Freecycle except for those very large items that won't fit in my trunk. We have a local charity organization that will come to your house to do curb side pickup of large items as well.

I read a blog post once that suggested that you should move everything from your "misc tool drawer" in your kitchen (or wherever you keep things like your garlic press, corkscrew, etc.) and when you use the items, put them back in the drawer. Whatever isn't used in a couple of months should be eliminated. I'm going to try using the same concept for clothes (not seasonal) and pare myself down in that area as well.

smileypete,

I think it's good to have a small daily minimum each day - but for me that's just ensuring that my kitchen counter is clean and there are no dishes in the sink. I'm good at putting things into the dishwasher straight away, but my kids aren't. So I set myself a pretty small minimum - and I tend to do it in the morning (like now) although I wish I would do it in the evening. As long as it gets done, that's all that matters.

I plan to gradually increase the amount of my minimums over time. Just get one ball rolling well until it becomes automatic and then add in another once a month or so. That's just me though - because I have so many years of avoiding housework under my belt.

Jacqueline, I've been thinking of doing the same thing with my big kitchen utensils. I've heard of people doing this with clothes by turning all the hangers one direction and as something is worn, turning it the opposite way. Then you can determine what you do and don't wear.

I like your idea for donating. I am using an idea from The House That Cleans Itself. I have laundry hampers (nice square ones from Target) lined with garbage bags on two floors. One of them is in my master closet. Whenever I find something I don't want anymore, it goes in the hamper. Same thing with the main floor hamper, though I tend to put other household items there. Tomorrow I have a charity coming to pick things up. All I have to do is pull the bags out of my hampers and put them on the porch!

Rather than turning your hangers one way, how about putting a safety pin in all your clothes? Anything that has a safety pin in it six months later should go....

Mel, I do basically the same thing with a milk crate in the bottom of the master bedroom closet - anything I want to donate goes in there, and when it gets full it's time to inventory it (for tax purposes) and drop it off. I usually end up doing drop-offs 2-3 times a year this way - more recently because I've been decluttering baby stuff.

Sarah, you're doing better than I am - I just decluttered my baby stuff since starting AF - and my "baby" is 8 years old!
I wish I could get tax receipts for everything I've given away. :-( One good thing about doing a massive declutter is that you see all that stuff going out the door (stuff you thought you needed so badly at the time) and you really hesitate about buying more stuff that you know you will eventually just be giving away. Now if I could just get over my tendency to stockpile groceries...

Jacqueline,

What I find helpful is to break cleaning tasks down into easy 10 minute 'chunks' where possible, then endeavor do a minimum of one a day.

Even if I'm really busy or tired I can fit it in first thing or find the energy to do something for 10 minutes.

I even write down what each 'chunk' is, and date when I do it, as I find it helps me to keep motivated to keep going :)

I also give the sink and kitchen worktops a 'freshen up' when I have a spare couple of minutes.

I find that turning the hangers the opposite way has a huge visual effect for me. I did it last April & now that it's been a year, I'm selling those clothes at a garage sale later this month. The biggest visual is that I can think in my head, "what have I not worn in forever?" Then I look at the backwards hangars & if I don't want to wear anything in that section I moved to other clothes. Some people also use the method of putting a visual separator between the worn clothes and the others. As they put clothing back in the closet, the separator moves left. People find this is easier to use when it comes to drawers. They put the clean socks, or the utensils closer to you than the separator or to the left/right of it, so it is another visual thing for them.

For me, FlyLady was about learning routines and putting systems into place that reduced labor in routine housework tasks. For example, i learned to load and run our dishwasher and empty it every morning. I know green people will shudder but I save more water doing that than trying to wash the dishes after all the crud had dried on them for two weeks! It's a habit I do on autopilot and keeps our kitchen looking nice.

AF gets all the stuff I need to do that aren't routine (or that I haven't developed routines for.)

Does that make sense?

Oh and I totally agree that FlyLady's emails (especially her essays unless her writing has improved since I opted out several years ago) are terrible! I hated them!

We love the games like Room Rescue and the 27 Fling Thing!

Mary, running the dishwasher every night was huge for me. You'd think a Ph.D. would be able to figure that out on her own, but no! As soon as I started doing that, I could have the kids help unload it because it wasn't run at all different times of day.

What do you all do with the situation of the clothes that don't fit? It seems like every winter, I go up a size, and then come back down again a size in the summer. In fact, I'm working on that right now... in a month or so, I'll get back to the point of "shopping my closet".

Hi Jacqueline
Why worry about it. In cold weather climates, we call this our winter insulation and consider it as "usual". Indoor folk don't interact with the cold temperatures for hours on end like we do. When I don't try to fatten up a bit, the wind cuts through to my bones faster! LOL! When I knew I'd being skiing in 40 below temperatures for a couple of weeks, I'd INTENTIONALLY eat on an extra "coat"! Lift tickets, traveling expenses, lodgine et al factored in....I wanted to be on the mountain as long as I could ! I also did this for Ice diving (scuba diving under ice/great for catching lobsters! )LOL!
learning as I go

Jacqueline - When I did my first big clothing declutter, I had just had a baby, and so the "six month rule" was completely pointless. Instead I looked through my clothes with the question "would I buy this again?" If the answer was yes it stayed, otherwise it went.

Learning as I go, I'm not terribly worried, because I know it always naturally comes off in the spring when I'm always very active. I didn't have the issue pre-children, because I'd just go to the gym in the winter, but I don't like taking the time away from the kids and the dog. I'm still active in the winter, but it's nowehere near the level otherwise. And this winter was abnormally cold.

Thanks Penny, I think I will go through my "small clothes" now with that perspective and once I grow out of my "big clothes" I'll look at culling some of them vs. storing them away again to use for next winter.

Mary,

Thanks for your suggestion about your dishwasher and running it every morning. I was only doing my laundry once a week on the weekends, but it was turning into an overwhelming job and I'm often not home much on the weekend either - or would rather be outside, not stuck inside doing laundry.

This last week, I've started running a small load every morning and drying it when I come home at night or hanging it to dry when it's done washing if applicable. It's definitely not such a huge job to put away now and should cut down on the amount of clothes I have to have on hand as well.

Baby steps... :-)