Are You FLYing?

Are you living in CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome)?  Did you know that, "A load a day keeps Mount Washmore away"?  Have you ever swished and swiped or maybe done a 27 Fling Boogie?  I'm sure that most of my readers have already guessed that I am talking about Flylady.  If you don't know who Flylady is then read on.

Marla Cilley, known as Flylady to her followers, is an organizing and time management expert that offers her system of getting your house and your life in order for free on the Internet.  That's right, Flylady is FREE! 

As a professional organizer I highly recommend Flylady to my clients that are chronically disorganized.  Have you ever seen those TV shows where the host and a crew go into a person's home and get it all cleaned up in 3 days time?  Many times, when there is a follow-up show, a lot of the participants have regressed back to their old way of doing things.  I want to shout at the TV that the host should at least direct these poor people to Flylady!  Even in my own job, I go in and I help someone get organized.  I put systems into place that will help someone maintain what we have accomplished but it is then left up to the customer to do the daily tasks to keep their home organized.  This is where Flylady comes in.

Flylady advocates making small, manageable changes in your daily life that will eventually lead to huge changes overall.  She does this by sending out daily reminders in the form of emails.  Your first job is to shine your sink.  It may seem like an odd place to start but you have to start somewhere and Flylady gives you that spot.  When I joined Flylady almost 5 years ago I was amazed at how that shiny sink in the morning really did make me smile. 

Eventually, Flylady asks you add more to your routines.  She wants you to get dressed each morning, do one load of laundry each day, do a quick "swish and swipe" of your bathroom and a few other things that will help you get your home in order.

One of the things that I love about Flylady is that she wants you to do these things at your own pace and in your own time.  As she says, "Your home did not get messy day and it's not going to get clean in a day".  She wants you to change her routines to suit your life.  She simply gives you the basics. 

The only drawback to Flylady is the shear volume of emails that you can receive in a day.  Don't be afraid to delete any that aren't relevant to you.  I always delete anything that is a testimonial for one of the products that Flylady sells (she does this in order to continue to offer her service for free).  It's not that I don't like Flylady's products, because I do and have ordered a few, but I will order what I need when I'm ready.  I also delete the Flykids Challenges.  They are no longer relevant to my life.  Some days, when I'm busy, I delete everything that comes in from Flylady.  Don't worry if you do that as many of the emails are recycled and the subject will always come up again.

I also highly recommend that you join the Flylady community.  I joined a local Flying group on Yahoo.  I've made some great friends.  We support each other and encourage each other in our efforts to FLY (Finally Loving Yourself).  Many of us will put our to-do lists online for the entire group to see and at the end of the day we check off what we have accomplished, usually to a round of accolades from other group members.  Some Yahoo groups are quiet.  My group has had a few from outside our area join in because our group is much more active.  Not only do we communicate online with each other, we also have Flycoffees, Flydinners and recently, some of the group have begun Flywalks on Sunday afternoons.

If your local group is not active, Flylady's Facebook page is always available.  If you don't want your Facebook friends to see your daily activity on Flylady's page then start a new Facebook page under another name and post that way.  I see a lot of people on there that include Flying in their names in some way.

Please check out Flylady for yourself.  You can find her by clicking here or by clicking the link at the side of the page.

Are you a Flybaby?  How has Flylady helped you?

Pin It