I Tried FlyLady for a Month. Here’s What I Think

In the beginning of May I started reading up on a cleaning system. It’s called the FlyLady Cleaning System.

“FlyLady is a support and self-help group that offers advice to help people with housekeeping, founded by “The FlyLady”, Marla Cilley. … FlyLady’s messages cover topics include clutter, the value of routines, weekly and monthly cleaning, increased self-esteem, and letting go of perfectionism.” – wikipedia

Photo by Good Soul Shop on Unsplash

Now, I have to tell you that I’m not a naturally messy person – I can’t stand piles of anything laying around. The messier the space around me is, the more stressed out I get. I’m a self-professed clean freak. But.

I’m also chronically ill. And have been for the last 14 years. (*thankfully it’s only been the last @7 years that I haven’t been able to work.)  This means that I am just not able to keep the house at the level of clean that I want to. I wear out so easily and get frustrated that I can’t get to the deep cleaning because I’m struggling to just keep up with the daily.

Day 1 : I’d already prepped the lists to be ready for today. I did the Swish and Swipe, emptied the dishwasher and later in the afternoon, set my timer for 15 minutes. I wiped the counter and sink in the guest bath and then did a quick vacuum of the guest room. Since I still had (almost half) of my time left, I decided to do a quick vacuum of the whole house. I’ve also started a load of towels. I’m pleased with what I got done as I’m still battling fatigue today and a fluctuating migraine. Thankfully, I’ve been working on doing the dishes in the morning anyway so that habit was already started.

Day 2: a day of fatigue and migraine. I did the Swish and Swipe and emptied the dishwasher. Nothing else.

~I was going to keep track of the days but I didn’t… coughcough, but I feel like these two days give a good example of just how it goes. One or two days I’ll do well with hitting the 15 odd minutes of zone cleaning and the next, I’d do nothing. But that’s fine! Those few days I still made progress.

~It’s been over a week since I started the Flylady, but with fatigue hitting me last week as it did, I wasn’t able to keep up with even the Swish and Swipe (a quick scrub of the toilet and wipe of the sink). But, I have been more intentional (when I could be) about emptying the sink of dishes at night and having the kitchen counters clear and wiped off.  The relief in the morning of coming into a decently clean kitchen is definitely worth the extra effort in the evening.

~I’m noticing that I’m more intentional about doing quick wipe downs of things that before I would probably have waited until I was doing a full clean of the area/room.

So, while maybe I wasn’t quite as successful my first week as an unofficial FlyBaby, I’m already benefiting from this cleaning system.

My feelings, three weeks later, are the same. I am finding that I have started thinking about cleaning differently. Instead of seeing a whole room or situation that needs tackled, I am able to focus on one area (like cleaning out and wiping down a side table in the living room) and being proud of myself that I accomplished something. Now, I do want to point out that I did not follow her baby steps. As someone who wasn’t starting from a cluttered house, or from a lack of any sort of cleaning habits, I skipped the baby steps and settled into a wee bit of a morning routine and cleaning in zones. The point of Flylady, that I’ve gathered, is to make it WORK FOR YOU. Go as slow as you need to on her baby steps. Don’t go for perfection. Just jump in wherever they are in the daily emails and join them.

I’ll also add that I’ve not been good about setting the timer for 15 minutes. Maybe it’s because I move at a slow pace and know that if I try to hurry and get as much as possible done in that amount of time, I’ll end up causing my fibromyalgia to flare later, or I’ll just use all of my energy up and be stuck on the couch the rest of the day. So. I move at my own pace, get however much done in a bit of time and stop when I need to.

Now, the website is daunting. Don’t worry about it though. Just sign up for the emails and follow along. Since I didn’t start from the very beginning of Flybaby steps, I click through the email link to the current Zone Detailed Cleaning List and hand write those out. The emails are a bit overwhelming in their amount. But to deal with this, I’m thinking that once I’ve written all the detailed cleaning lists out, I’m going to unsubscribe from them. Once again though, if you really want to try this, don’t worry about it. Just delete the ones you don’t absolutely need in order to do this at your own pace.

As you can see in the first photo, I am not even attempting the evening routines. (you’re encouraged to take each task on one at a time, slowly building up to having these full routines morning and evening). Evenings are when my pain flares, so like I said before, the only thing I try for is to get the kitchen cleaned up. But, I wrote this list out at the very beginning, so I just ignore it now.

The second photo is of zone 3 and for me that means it’s the guest bath, guest bedroom and closet. This is my second time in this zone but apparently I already wiped away the check marks from last month! So sad.

And the third photo is zone 4 and for me that is main bed, bath and closet. It is encouraged that you go from the top of the list down, so that, when you come back to the zone the next month, you can pick up where you left off. And by doing that, you rotate nicely through the room over the months. But, as you can tell, I did what I felt like in the room and left it at that.

I am trying to follow that idea better in the other rooms now, because it does make sense. I even wrote out the list for the dining room from top to bottom cleaning (starting with dusting cobwebs, down to windows and ending with cleaning baseboards and mopping the floor).

What prompted me, as a person struggling with multiple chronic illnesses, to start this? I’ll tell you, The Secret Slob. She’s so fun to watch and breaks this system down into something a bit more understandable and manageable than the website does. Go check out her videos – she’s just finished up a video series of going through the zones with us. This one just might inspire me to fancy up my lists as well.

If you’re struggling to keep up on house cleaning, or are feeling like you’re drowning in clutter, I recommend you giving this cleaning system a shot! And if you do, come back and let me know, I would love to hear about it.

~Laura

Tags: cleaning, daily cleaning, daily habits, flylady, flylady cleaning system, help with clutter, trying the flylady cleaning system