Flying high, and this is why....

If you are following, you know I have been posting a lot about the FlyLady.  And if you know me well at all, you know if I get into something, I really get into it.  (Think back to Hypnobabies, and me calling labor "my birthing time".... I get invested and really buy in to whatever I am doing.  Yes, I am doing some Hypnobabies with this pregnancy too!)  Back to the FlyLady...I was shocked to discover that I only discovered her one month ago.  It seems like so much has changed already, my attitude, our home, the clutter and disorganization.... even by using FlyLady's "baby steps" and not jumping in too much.  (She advocates for baby steps because doing too much at once can burn a person out.)

And by the way, the FlyLady is one person, but it is the network of people that makes this work.  We are "flybabies" and take lessons from things the FlyLady taught herself.  She was once living in CHAOS (can't have anyone over syndrome - her acronym, not mine), and she established simple routines to change her attitude, to get and keep her house in order, and to be kinder to herself.  I love the messages that she sends.  They are empowering and thoughtful, unlike the internal perfectionist messages I sometimes send to myself.

So that is a bit of history about the start of my relationship with FlyLady.  Now on to what has changed in our home:

• Decluttered and organized the attic - there is plenty of space now, as opposed to before when we could hardly walk up there!
• Decluttered, organized, and cleaned the laundry closet
• Decluttered, organized, and cleaned the cleaning products under the kitchen sink.
• Decluttered, organized, and cleaned two kitchen drawers and the tupperware cabinet
• Decluttered and organized the dining room cabinets - floor-to-ceiling cabinets that are our only storage on our first floor.
• Decluttered, organized, and cleaned the middle bedroom 
• Purged and organized Luke's bedroom closet and clothes drawers
• Organized toys in various parts of the house
• Purged FIVE giants trash bags full of my old clothes
• Reorganized bedroom closet and drawers

Now onto the systems that have been developed to help prevent the clutter from creeping back in:

• My new bedtime routine helps me start each day ahead of the game.  I will have another post about the bedtime routine, which will outline each step in detail.
• We now run the dishwasher every night before bed, and empty it upon wakening.  This ensures we have a place to put our dirty dishes from the very start of the day.
• We have a wonderful new laundry system (to be explained in detail in another post) that helps me to stay on top of the laundry with one load per day.  It gets washed, dried, folded, and put away on the same day!  The same day, people!  No more living out of laundry baskets. This is huge!
• While it sounds simple, I now put things away after I use them.  
• There are times this doesn't happen because of Luke's needs, or for other acceptable reasons, for example, a hot curling iron that needs to cool. In those cases, I do a 5-minute room rescue when time does allow, like during naps or while Luke is eating or playing happily on his own.  This entails a quick sweep of a hot spot or messy area.

Doing all these things makes it feel like I am not cleaning all day long.  That's a beautiful thing!  I don't especially enjoy cleaning, but I do take pride and feel great about a clean house. 

Next step?  Establishing a few more routines throughout my week to help me keep this place guest-ready at all times.  Going to work on the weekly home blessing over the next few weeks.

FlyLady Inspired

Sharing my FlyLady inspiration from today:

• I wore shoes today.  All day.  I don't usually do this, mostly because I don't like wearing shoes indoors, but also because we became a "shoeless" house to help prevent allergy issues for our floor-loving crawling baby.  FlyLady says practice getting dressed all the way to shoes everyday to help get your butt in gear.  So today, I tried it.  I got a lot done, didn't turn on the TV (except for Nate Berkus's wonderful coupon tips today), and feel great about my day. 

• I rebooted the laundry, meaning that I did one load today to prevent chaos from taking over.

• Because of the daily routines I have been practicing, I had time to work on a couple little projects during Luke's nap today.  I absolutely LOVE what I created, and will post some photos of the craft sometime soon.

So, it's another successful day, and I'm feeling thankful to FlyLady for the inspiration to make it a good one.

What can I accomplish in 15 minutes?

I am utterly amazed at what can be done in just 15 minutes.  Today alone, using 15-minute intervals for each task, I accomplished the following:

• sorted through a very messy kitchen drawer
• cleaned and organized our laundry closet in the kitchen
• purged and re-organized cleaning products in the cabinet under the kitchen sink
• tidied and organized our middle bedroom

So, in one hour, spread out over the course of the day, I took care of crazy hot spots all over the house!  Feeling good about these successes....

Loving me some FlyLady!

I promised I would give small but frequent doses of information about why I love the FlyLady.  Here is today's dose:

I went grocery shopping yesterday, and while I was there, Chris was putting Luke down for a nap and preparing to take him swimming.  I soon received a text message that read, "I love organized Nancy. Luke is already down, and I already have all our stuff ready for swimming.  So much easier than before." Chris was simply referring to the fact that he didn't have to searchch through endless laundry baskets to find his swimsuit, towel, and arm floats.  The backpack was where it should be, as were the swimmy diapers.  I have already been feeling good about the progress being made in the house, especially with our new addition coming soon.  However, the recognition is so nice, and I am glad that we are living in a peaceful home finally!