Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Flylady

I am a Side-Tracked Home Executive (SHE for short). I tend to procrastinate projects that seem too big to me and when I start the project, I feel overwhelmed and stop. I am not naturally organized and clutter always seems to accumulate on unmonitored surfaces. Poor Denis, he is much neater than I am and is always trying to manage my clutter. Shoes magically find their way back into our closet, the coffee table surface gets magically cleared from time to time. He puts up with me and is so kind to do it without complaining (much).

There is a woman named Marla Cilley who wrote a book called Sink Reflections. It is intended to help people like me to bite off just small chunks of our to-do lists each day and not get overwhelmed and give up. She has a website that has lots of home organisation tips, but the scope of her advice really goes beyond just housekeeping. It is about taking little steps to improve yourself and your life and taking responsability for what you can control. Good stuff. I am trying to set just a couple of goals to do each day. Today I am going to clean my bathrooms and package up the meat that I bought yesterday for storage in the freezer.

7 comments:

Rachel said...

How quick are you at getting unpacked after a vacation? I HATE unpacking, and it seems the suitcases and other luggage usually take 2 or 3 days to get unpacked. Even though I despise tripping over them for a few days, I can never seem to just get right on it. On the other hand, when it comes to packing up to leave, just give me a couple of hours and I'll be ready!

Tracy said...

that's funny. So true.

I unpack my clothes pretty quickly so that I can wash them. Unfortunately, since this was a work conference, I brought home a lot of little trinkets and info from the companies that were represented. THOSE items I have not done anything with yet. That it too great a task... :o)

BTW, I did my three chores today. 2 bathrooms and 1 freezer = 3. :o)

Martha said...

Flylady is great but the last time I checked her website, it had become rather, well,... cluttered.

Some of my favorite Flylady tricks
1. Wear your lace up shoes
2. The daily bathroom routine (swish tiolet, wipe mirror... )
3. The timer trick, although I haven't used it in a while.
4. Is this where we learned to play "10"? Everyone has to pick up and put away ten things.
5. Make your bed every day.
6. The kitxchen sink... I do have trouble with this one, but Flylady says "no excuses" so I won't go into why.

Priscilla said...

I used to be on her e-mail list...but the number of emails to sort through got way overwhelming. Her routines did help. I am SHE as well. Marla (yes, it is Marla I believe...not Martha)...anyway....Marla is a true SHE in that the very thing she preaches against (clutter) has invaded the emails she send. If I didn't check it everyday, my email would start bouncing because too many would fill up my inbox.

But I would say that she was very helpful in alot of ways. I need to get back into it because I have fallen out of routine and my house is showing it.

So "go set your timer for 15 minutes and clear your hotspots!"

Tracy said...

I can tell you two know what you are talking about! Yes, you are right, it is Marla, I shall have to change that.

I also used to be on her email list and deleted a lot of messages. It does get to be too much, but it was helpful for a while to really understand what she is about. I am not faithful in using her tools each day, but her philosophy did impact me and I am more able to take small chunks out of a project, or do just a couple of things a day. I also don't obsess about doing my chores perfectly. Better done than perfect was a good tip. And her emails about family life and responsibility were really good, I thought. So overall, I give her a big thumbs up, though if you saw my house you would wonder... :o)

Priscilla said...

I agree with you. She really does deserve a thumbs up.

Believe me...my house is not picture perfect. (You'd wonder too if you saw mine) She did help me. I still set my timer for 15 minutes on occasion.

A really enjoyed reading the list of items people found and got rid of during the "declutter boogie" challenge. (I can't remember what she calls it anymore!) I would read and laugh.

I tried to set up my own system without her e-mails...but I never stuck with it. Those "daily reminders" were rather helpful.

Ruth said...

You've convinced me Tracy (and Priscilla and Martha) I'm going to check her out!!!

Thanks