Why I Fly

In my previous post (and don't worry, I'm not going to post multiple times a day) I mentioned FlyLady. I need to explain it.

FlyLady is a system of life/home organization. The website is www.flylady.net. I looked at this (probably ran across it looking for something else and got sidetracked) several months ago. At the time, I didn't see the beauty of it. But, a few weeks ago,I went back to it prompted by a friend saying something about it on FaceBook. And, I decided to give it a try. I'm now on Day 17 of it and I'm addicted. I feel like I'm in a cult.

FlyLady starts you off with baby steps. For instance, on Day 1, the assignment is to empty your sink and clean and shine it thoroughly. I thought it was kinda dumb, but couldn't hurt anything. You know what? I LOVED my shiny sink. That made me clean the counters and backsplash. . . . and the top of my stove.

Anyway, you can see the baby steps on her website. But, here is what I like about her. She says several things that really got to me.

The first is that we often don't clean or get organized because we feel we don't have enough time to do it "right". So, we do nothing. Her answer for this? It doesn't have to be perfect, just do SOMETHING. And, 15 minutes of cleaning or organization is better than nothing. Right? RIGHT!

The other thing she reminds us is that our house/car/office/life didn't get this way in a day or a week, why should we expect to get it back to perfect in that amount of time?

She also points out how much time we lose in life by being disorganized or worrying about the state of things. It's amazing.

One of the other first suggestions she made was to establish an evening routine that included laying out your clothes the night before and organizing the things you need to get out the door in the morning. She calls the place you put your stuff your "launch pad".

I can tell you that I'm not a morning person. But, since I started following this routine, getting ready in the morning and out the door is a breeze. Everything is where it's supposed to be and I know my clothes (and Wyatt's) are clean, matched and ready to go. and I know where my purse and keys are. That's pretty amazing considering my lack of observation and my short attention span.

So, this lady's attitude is why I FLY. I finally found an organization system that I can follow and that I actually enjoy. It's basic ideas really touch home with me. Maybe it's not for everybody, but I think everybody could take a little something away from it if they tried it. Each morning, I get an email with reminders about where I should be in the routine, what I should be getting done that day and then I go to the website and check to see what "Baby Step" I'm on. She makes it so easy. She just adds a little more each day and so many of the assignments are 15 minutes or less. Sounds too simple, but it REALLY works.