Flylady

A little while back, i.e., early January, I found an interesting website - flylady.net (link is located on the sidebar). It is dedicated to helping people gain control of their lives and homes - in small doable increments. Since it is free, I figured I would try it for a little while.

Since joining, my house has been getting cleaner and more organized little by little. The laundry is never piled up, because I do 1 load everyday, our bed is always made and my kitchen is mostly clean. I love it!

I really love some of her philosophies. She says "you can do anything for 15 minutes"; "you are not behind, just jump in where you are"; your home did not get messy in a day, it won't get clean in a day; and my personal favorite, you can't organize clutter, you have to get rid of it.

I think the most powerful thing she teaches is the power of routines. I had read that children crave routines. Order really helps them to thrive. But I never figured that would be the same way for adults, but I have found that trying to stick with a couple of routines has really made my life easier. I have a morning routine, a before bed routine and Audrey's bedtime routine. And I try to follow flylady's days of the week schedule too. I try to plan my menu for the next week on Wednesdays, right after I clean out the fridge to see what we still have and what we need. Then after making my list while I am making a menu, I go grocery shopping on Thursdays. Now I don't find myself needing to make more than one trip a week to the grocery store and we are starting to have really fun food - last night we had beer-battered onion rings and burgers -yum! I guess a little organization and a few good routines, really go a long way towards improving one's quality of life.