How FlyLady is Going

We've been doing our version of the FlyLady since we moved into our own place together in 2021 and we carried on doing it when we moved from a flat into a small house.  I've adapted what we clean in each zone to work for us and they really are 'zones' for us rather than rooms as our living space is all open plan, except for the bathroom.  I've also now written them out on index cards, rather than have them all digital so that both of us can easily see what needs to be cleaned that week.  Otherwise, this is how it's been going.

A big part of FlyLady is decluttering each zone as you clean and we have been doing that.  I do still feel that we have too much stuff in our little home, but we do use /enjoy/ have a purpose for everything that we have right now.  We just need to make sure we keep this up so that it doesn't become too cluttered in the future.  It doesn't help that there is a whole lot of stuff that came as part of our rented accommodation and which we've had to put into the storage areas we do have, which means that there are more things out than I would like.

Then there's the tidying, which I try to do daily whilst reminding myself that it's a lot quicker to just put it away straight away in the place that we've designated for it.  If there's anything that needs to go up or down stairs I leave it on the stairs and as I move between the levels I carry the items to where they belong.  It only takes a few seconds, but it really has helped keep our home a tidy-looking place to live in.

The rest is about cleaning, with the main areas being cleaned every week and the more in-depth zone cleaning done on rotation.  Though this means I'm not dusting or hoovering all the areas every single week I find that the floors always look clean (apart from right beside the front door) and there is little enough dust that I don't have to worry about it setting off my allergies.  The house as a whole always looks tidy and clean, and that means I can enjoy being at home without having to stress about what needs to be cleaned.

So the FlyLady has turned out to be quite a good find when it comes to keeping on top of the cleaning and tidying, without getting overwhelmed.  It also works really well with how my brain works as I don't have to concentrate on one thing for too long a time, which usually leads to me not doing it very well.  I will definitely be carrying on this system no matter where we live.  After all, who doesn't want to live in a tidy, clean home without having to put too much effort into it. 

Doing a Whole Lot of Cleaning

As I put in my last post, the flat has become a bit of a disaster and definitely needs a reset /spring clean.  It also doesn't help that it's quite small, so any amount of mess looks bad.  I decided to bring back a cleaning method I use to use to help slowly bring the flat back into order, and that is the Fly Lady.

In its most basic set up, that I've taken anyway, you have a morning and evening routine that allows you to stay organised and keep clean the most used areas of your home.  Then there's the 'Weekly Home Blessing Hour' that is a cleaning routine you do to keep your home in a general state of cleanliness, as well as a rota of tasks you do on specific days during the week such as paying bills and organising a menu plan.  The last thing is the zone cleaning, which sees you tackling each room in the house for a week at a time and is where all the deep cleaning happens.  It's also when you do any decluttering that is needed.  

I'm not following this cleaning method exactly to the letter but have adapted it to fit what suits us right now.  Such as I don't really do the morning or evening routines and that means we need to add cleaning the bathroom to the weekly home blessing.  We also don't need to do a laundry load every day, which is just as well as the electricity bill would be massive if we did.  I have to admit that the weekly home blessing is something that my husband does rather than me.  I've been working more on the zones and we share tasks like the laundry.  

Before

Our flat isn't really separated into lots of rooms, so to do the zone cleaning I've separated the main living space into a hallway, bedroom, living room, and craft /office room and I'll just work through each area separately.  The idea here is to set your timer to 15 minutes a day and work your way through what the Fly Lady recommends you do in each zone to give it a deep clean, at least until you've worked out your own routine.  Once the 15 minutes are up you stop in that zone until the next day and if you don't complete every task by the end of the week you just leave them until the zone comes around again.

After

The first thing you actually do in each zone before the cleaning can begin is decluttering as there's no point in cleaning things that don't need to be there.  Even though we do declutter on a regular basis I have been surprised at just how much extra stuff I've been able to get rid of.  Obviously I'm only doing my things and our general items, I'm not touching any of my husband's things.  That's for him to go through.

Before

So far I've gone through the hallway, kitchen, bathroom, and office /craft room.  Even though the last two zones I'm yet to do are the ones that take up the main living area of the flat the space already feels to much better and more inviting.  The last two zones are actually the ones I'm most dreading and will probably be the most work, but they're probably also going to be the most satisfying to complete.

After

As with almost everything in life, the Fly Lady won't work for everyone and I've already started adapting it to fit our needs.  However, I do think the small amounts done on a regular basis works better for me than just going at everything in one go.  The whole idea here is if you do small amounts of work on a regular basis than your home will always look good and be clean.  Even though I've separated out the main living space into four separate zones right now, once we've got to the stage where we're now just maintaining it I will probably just treat them as one area to be cleaned all at the same time and give myself two weeks instead of one.  In the not so distant future the flat will be clean and tidy again and I'm looking forward to that moment very much.