Flylady in the Russian way - cleaning using planning

Fly Lady's quick cleaning technique and the inseparable art of living without worries have won the hearts of millions of women around the world. In this article we will tell you how to manage everything, never get tired and at the same time maintain joy in your soul. Do you want to be able to “fly”? Let's try!

You can listen to this article in full on our podcast:

Surely every representative of the fair sex has heard something about the fly lady at least once. Who are these people, you ask? First of all, these are women who value their time and strive to bring peace and joy to their hearts.

Isn't it a very tempting goal?

A real lady fly - a flying housewife or businesswoman - arranges her life in such a way that she has time to do household chores and devote hours to herself, her beloved. How to achieve this?

The answer to this question is given by Marla Seelly, an energetic American and the very first fly lady. The cleaning system of this super housewife, recognized in the West, is extremely simple and understandable.

But since it is focused primarily on American realities, which, of course, differ from ours, we have adjusted some points specifically for Russian women.

A little history - Marla Cilley the flying housewife

Flylady, or “flying housewife” (from the English Flylady, fly - to fly), is a system invented by the American Marla Seelly based on the book by Pam Young and Peggy Jones. The name “Flylady” was born at the very beginning of the system’s existence and had nothing to do with flights. FLY was an abbreviation of the English phrase finally loving yourself - “finally love yourself.” However, very quickly fans of the system introduced flight terminology. Newcomers to the system are traditionally called “Flybaby”, even if their age has exceeded retirement age.

Flylady movement

In 1999, Marla Cilley began sending out materials about her system via email. 2 years later, the website flylady.net was launched, which still sends out daily reminder letters to registered participants about what needs to be done around the house.

As of 2010, over half a million people around the world were active subscribers to the mailing list. Plus active sites of the FlyLady system, translated into many languages ​​of the world by fans of the system - the FlyLady movement is gaining increasing popularity all over the world.

Flylady system and its basis

According to Marla Seelly, there are people who are organized from birth; these people usually do not have problems with the cleanliness of their home; you can come to them at any time of the day or night, and everything will sparkle. Such people sincerely do not understand that someone cannot cope with cleaning.

There are also disorganized housewives who have problems with everyday life; a mountain of dishes in the kitchen and unironed linen in the room make such housewives sad, and cleaning on weekends turns into torture for them, because it is not clear where to start, there is a mess everywhere. For such people, the Flylady system was invented, offering a series of simple sequential steps, following which you can significantly reduce the level of clutter in the house and stop suffering at the thought of future cleaning.

Ideally, followers of the system can come to the point of stopping doing general cleaning altogether - daily minimal effort allows you to keep the house in order without a fierce battle with chaos twice a year.

The system is based on two ideas: getting rid of unnecessary junk and moving forward in small steps.

Fly Lady Golda Balabusta

“Balabusta” is translated from Hebrew as “hostess.” And indeed: Golda is a superwoman. She is a mother of many children, the wife of a rabbi, a teacher at a higher educational institution and a fly lady.

Her advice is suitable not only for housewives, but also for businesswomen. She, like Yana Lan, is a fairly well-known blogger in Russia. We've collected the best ideas from her video below.

Golda Balabusta on proper shoe storage:

1. If you have many children, it is better to store shoes not in the nightstand, but in the closet. You can buy it or make it to order (the second option is more preferable, since you will build it for yourself).
2. To free up space in the hallway, it is advisable to choose a narrow and tall cabinet with additional side sections.
3. Sloping shelves are impractical; it is better to buy a cabinet with regular shelves - then you will be able to put shoes on top of each other.
4. Shoes cannot be stored outside the closet. Make children wipe down their boots and shoes immediately after going outside and then put them away. This way you will keep the hallway clean.
5. Place all out-of-season shoes on the mezzanine. You don't need it in an accessibility zone.
6. Buy two-story shoe stands from Ikea, as well as clear shoe boxes from AliExpress. The latter are very convenient because all the pairs you have are visible through them.
7. If you still don’t have enough space, buy hanging pockets; they are sold at any hardware store.
8. In winter and the off-season, when the streets are muddy and the roads are sprinkled with salt, put regular newspapers in the closet. This way you won’t damage or stain the furniture.

Lifehacks for the kitchen and more:

1. Buy a set of disposable bath caps and cover your food plates with them to prevent them from getting dirty. This is much more convenient than sealing bowls with foil or cling film.
2. Get a magnetic notepad with a pen and hang it on the refrigerator. Write grocery lists, recipes and any other information there so you don’t have to store it in your head
3. If you have children and a slob husband, then there are probably various small objects lying around your apartment, such as Lego elements, balls and screws. Get an ordinary plastic container for these things and throw them there. When you have a free minute, “unload” the box.
4. Buy a set of disposable gloves for the kitchen. They can be worn not only before washing dishes, but also during cooking, when your hands get dirty.
5. Before you get ready to make lunch or dinner, place a large empty bag on the table. Throw all cleaning into it immediately. The countertop will remain in its original condition, and after finishing cooking you will only have to throw the bag in the trash.
6. If you often freeze food, buy a marker and a set of small pieces of paper. Before you put the bag in the freezer, put a note in it stating what's in it. When you look in the refrigerator, it will be clear where everything is.
7. Purchase wet wipes and dry paper towels. They will come in handy in any emergency if your loved ones have spilled or gotten something dirty.
8. Store different types of cereals in transparent containers. This way they will be clearly visible.
9. If there is food left in the refrigerator that no one wants to eat, put it in the freezer. Perhaps it will come in handy again soon because someone suddenly gets hungry.
10. To save space in kitchen cabinets and drawers, place tall baskets of different sizes in them, which will serve as both dividers and containers for items. Vertical storage perfectly solves the problem of lack of space.
11. Do not crowd the countertop with anything, this is a space for cooking and nothing else.

How to get rid of junk?

Flylady offers followers a simple idea, trash cannot be organized. As long as there are too many unnecessary, unused things in the house, cleaning turns into moving trash from place to place, wiping the trash from dust, organizing the trash and other worries about it. Therefore, followers of the system begin to get rid of unnecessary things.

“Your home has been cluttered for days and will not become perfect overnight” is the basic principle of “decluttering” your home. The system offers different ways to get rid of trash: you can quickly walk around the apartment, pick up 27 unnecessary items and get rid of them. You can set a timer for 15 minutes and during this time collect unnecessary things. There are days when the newsletter reminds you: it’s time to go and throw out some old stuff.

It can even take several months to completely empty an apartment, balcony, mezzanine, storage rooms and closets of unnecessary things, depending on the size of the home and the passion for accumulating “emergency reserves” in case of a nuclear war. Marla Cilley suggests keeping only the things you love and actually use, passing on to other people or throwing away the rest.

In the future, Flylady recommends taking a balanced approach to purchases and purchasing only what you really need. Having bought, say, new jeans, it would be a good idea to throw out the old ones, otherwise in a year you will again find several worn pairs that you no longer wear in your closet.

In addition to the obvious benefit of freeing up space, this measure clearly reduces the amount of dust in the house. Which, without a doubt, is good for the health of all family members.

Rules

It's difficult for us to get used to something new. We look for free time to clean up the house, killing minutes that could be devoted to family and ourselves. Let's try to distribute the load. And simple rules will help us with this:

• We don’t clean when it’s dirty, but learn to maintain cleanliness regularly.
• After using the item, put it back.
• Learning to say goodbye to trash. Don’t hoard used items that have been sitting around for months (or maybe even a year) unnecessarily.
• Control food supplies. Many housewives like to buy cereals, sugar, pasta, canned goods when they see the tempting word “promotion”. However, the cupboards did not run out of old supplies. This is how food accumulates on the farm, which often has to be thrown away. After all, it has an expiration date.
• Weekend for yourself! Actually, this is why we learn to fly around our home with a broom during the week.

In general, this technique teaches not only how to distribute the load, making work easier. Its main goal is to teach a woman to love herself. So try to apply the Russian fly system for yourself. Perhaps you will make your own adjustments here!

And now I’m interested in hearing your suggestions for optimizing the methodology in the Russian way. What do you offer? Would it be interesting to try? Leave your comments and become blog subscribers. Bye. See you again!

Cleaning plan

Any major or emergency cleaning drives a disorganized housewife into depression, since it implies great accomplishments in everyday life in a short time.

After such cleaning, you usually don’t want to pick up a mop and rag for a long time, and the house gradually returns to its original state.

Therefore, the Flylady system suggests taking small steps, but every day. The basic principle is that anyone can do anything for 15 minutes. You just need to set a timer and during this time do what the system recommends for today - always make a cleaning plan. This technique allows you not to get tired. In addition, driven by a clear time frame and having certain instructions, people manage to do much more than if they were thinking about where to start.

Breaking down any task into small steps and moving forward slowly and steadily is truly effective, as has been proven by positive reinforcement training experts in humans and animals. Moreover, the principle “if you drive slower, you will move further” ultimately leads to faster results when developing new behavior skills, be it cleaning, diving or rhythmic gymnastics.

Marie Kondo: order in the apartment - order in life

KonMari is Marie Kondo, a Japanese specialist in cleaning up your home, office and life. She has written more than 4 books and brought order to the lives of many people. You can learn more about the technique itself from her book Marie Kondo, “The Magic of Tidying Up.

The Japanese art of putting things in order at home and in life.” For those who don’t like to read and want to get acquainted with everything visually – the Japanese film “Life is the exciting magic of cleaning.”

The peculiarity of Marie Kondo’s system is that before cleaning, the apartment must be decluttered. Those. throw away unnecessary things: everything that you haven’t used all last year and most likely won’t use next year.

Moreover, this should not be done gradually, little by little, but all at once - over a couple of days.

In other words, this is a general cleaning that will help clear up the space around you as much as possible. These are not just old things that should have been thrown out a long time ago, but also things that you haven’t worn or used for a long time, and that simply irritate you!

You can read more about the method in the book; here I will give only 5 main principles:

1. Decluttering happens all at once in a short time. Only in this way will you be able to feel the freedom and joy of the cleared space and understand exactly what kind of cleanliness should be maintained.
2. Cleaning is not “by zone: kitchen, bathroom, bedroom...”, but by category of things. For example, clothes, cosmetics, books and magazines, etc. Very often we store the same things in different places and when cleaning we have to perform the same actions: sort out cosmetics in the cosmetic bag and in the bathroom; books in the bedroom and magazines in the living room. In order not to waste time and not to do the same work several times, we shovel identical things into a pile and only after that disassemble them.
3. If you haven't used this item for a year/3 months, throw it away or give it to those in need. If you haven’t worn a dress for a long time, but it’s a pity to throw it away, give it to those who need it. It's unlikely you'll wear it in the future, which means it's taking up precious space not only in your closet, but in your life. Give it away, sell it or throw it away and you will feel better. The same should be repeated with other little-used items.
4. Give thanks and say goodbye to each item. On the one hand, this seems complete nonsense, but on the other... Great idea. Every time we thank an old thing for its services, we become wiser and more responsible. We learn to treat things with respect, buy unnecessary things less often, and more often appreciate what surrounds us. We become happier.
5. Every remaining item should have its own place. This will not only simplify the process of cleaning and finding things, but also increase its energy.

This system came into my life after FlyLady, but it had a very serious impact. After I threw away 4 huge bags of trash, I really began to feel better, I had the strength to achieve new achievements and goals.

There are 2 disadvantages of the system:

1. She never learns to cope with the daily routine. No matter how many things you throw out, and no matter how often you put them back in their place, there will always be children and a husband who don’t care about “what mom has been reading.” Although there will be much less garbage, I promise J
2. During the decluttering period, it requires a lot of time and effort.

Cleaning with planning

The Flylady system has a certain set of tools that allow you to bring cleaning to automation. The main ones are zoning, cycling, planning, performing routines, weekly cleaning through planning. In addition to these purely practical techniques, there are psychological ones: wear lace-up shoes at home, dress every morning so that you are not ashamed to open the door to the postman, wash the kitchen sink every evening. There are also a number of special techniques that you can learn about on the system’s website or in the newsletter. Let's talk briefly about the basic tools.

Weekly cleaning

Flylady divides the house into zones, and devotes every week of the month to work in a certain zone. The zones, of course, were created based on the average American house, which has more rooms than in an ordinary Russian apartment. However, they are easy to adapt to our realities.

Weekly cleaning lasts for five weeks. So, the first week of the month Flybaby devotes 15 minutes daily to cleaning the hallway and dining room. The second week they spend 15 minutes daily in the kitchen. The third is in the bathroom and nursery (in our apartments this will have to include the toilet). The fourth week is spent worrying about the bedroom. The fifth is in the living room, the common family room (what we usually call the “hall”).

Organizing work according to the system: where to start? Required Items

To immediately enter into life according to the system, you need to undergo a “rite of passage”: wash the kitchen sink until it shines.

Audit Trail

In the future, all actions lead to the creation of an audit trail. The magazine collects and systematizes all your work on the Fly Lady system. This is a kind of personal diary of each “flying lady”. There are no strict limits on how to create it. For starters, a regular ring folder with files will do, and those who have already gotten into the rhythm of the system can be creative in creating their own audit trail.

Fly Lady audit trail for beginners

Do-it-yourself Fly Lady audit trail

However, the magazine has a clear structure. Any audit trail must contain the following sections:

Weekly work plan

The weekly work plan looks like a table or a to-do list for each day; here it is written down on what day what tasks are performed. You can start by making a draft and editing it over the course of a week, adjusting and adding new points. Or you can use someone else’s example from forums or social networks and later adjust it to suit yourself.

Routines

Routines are your daily household chores in the morning, afternoon and evening, which you try to make a habit of. We divide our entire home routine into morning, afternoon and evening. We spend 20 minutes on it. That is, you should spend no more than an hour on your routine per day. We make a list of daily tasks for each time of day. Examples of home routine:

Morning routine:

• put ourselves in order;
• read reminders;
• making the bed;
• look at your accounting journal;
• We put on the laundry.

Daily routine:

• littering;
• hot Spots.

Evening routine:

• Clean the sink, preferably until it shines;
• We are preparing clothes for tomorrow;
• We are planning lunch and dinner for tomorrow;
• We hang up the laundry;
• We go to bed on time.

Zones

First, we divide the space of your home into zones. For example like this:

• Zone 1: Entrance hall, corridor;
• Zone 2: Kitchen;
• Zone 3: Bath and toilet;
• Zone 4: Bedroom
• Zone 5: Living room;
• Zone 6: Children's room.

After you have divided the space of your apartment into zones, for each you make a list of things that you try to do in a week within 15 minutes a day. An example of a to-do list (checklist) for Zone 2 is given in tabular form:

Weekly cleaning hour

The weekly plan sets aside one day for the “blessing of the apartment.” In this section, you make a list of tasks that need to be completed in this hour. On this day you do not perform work in the zone, but you observe all daily rituals (routines). It happens that you cannot devote a whole hour to the “Blessing,” then the work can be spread over several days. This is relevant for working people and mothers on maternity leave.

Sample to-do list for “Apartment Blessings”:

Phones and addresses

Here you create your personal directory, which is always at hand.

Menu

A menu plan for the week is drawn up, the necessary products are listed. This menu makes shopping easy.

Inspiration page

Here you can record various quotes and sayings. Many people place the 11 commandments of the Fly Lady in this section.

The audit trail is created gradually. It’s better to create your own, rather than adapt to someone else’s. On the official website and on social networks on the forum there are examples of ready-made audit trails, some can be downloaded in electronic form.

Where to begin?

Before you begin, you need to realize that the system is designed to make your life easier, not complicate it. Remember this. When starting to live according to this regime, do not overdo it. Let everything move forward very gradually! The list given below can be implemented by you in a month, or maybe in a year. This is fine. Nobody is rushing you.

The procedure is approximately this:

1. Form your routines - this is your daily work.
2. Identify the “hot spots”.
3. Divide the house into zones.
4. Make a to-do list (checklist) in each zone.
5. Make your own weekly plan or use an example.
6. Start living and acting according to the plan, adjusting it on the fly.

Don't forget the Fly Lady's 11 commandments:

1. Keep your sink clean and sparkling.
2. Get dressed every morning. Remember your shoes.
3. Do your daily routine every day.
4. Don't let yourself sit at the computer.
5. Clean up after yourself immediately.
6. Do only one thing at a time.
7. Don't take out more than you can clean in an hour.
8. Do something for yourself every morning and every evening.
9. Try to work as quickly as possible.
10. Smile always and everywhere.
11. Don't forget to laugh and pamper yourself every day.

If you have difficulty planning your week, it’s difficult for you at first without prompting, then there is information on the Internet for beginners with outlined steps from washing the sink to creating an audit trail. There is also information on social networks about which area this week is dedicated to cleaning. By subscribing to the news, you will receive information about things to do in the zone that you need to do in 15 minutes a day. But all this information will not replace a full-fledged audit trail compiled individually for you.

Some more useful tips for beginners:

1. At the beginning of your journey, when creating a weekly work plan, do not spread cleaning (except for the daily routine) over all working days.
2. Involve your children and husband in simple tasks on your list.
3. Don't forget about yourself, you need to love yourself! Relax and energize those around you with your good mood.

Example pages from a real audit trail

"Blessing of the Home"

Section: inspiration

Evening routine: example

Weekly work plan: example

Morning Routine: Example

Video about the productivity of an innovative idea

Tips for creating an audit trail

Cleaning by zone

Thus, during the month we devote time to every corner of the home - we clean it by zone. At the beginning of following the system, it is mainly about getting rid of unnecessary trash, paper deposits and the like. When there is no trash left in the area, it’s time for detailed cleaning, wiping the baseboards one day, cleaning behind the toilet the next, and so on. The newsletter will remind you what to do, so there is no need to think about what to do today.

It may seem silly to follow a to-do list, for example, in the hallway. But for those who get discouraged by the thought of decluttering, this may be a good choice because someone else has already come up with the sequence of actions, and you just need to follow the beaten path.

Why is the system needed?

Tell me, what do you do on the weekend? Most likely general cleaning of the apartment. Did you guess right? And the most amazing thing is that it seems right to us. This is how we set priorities and distribute, as it seems to us, the load.

Look, on weekdays we work, then we get home. On the way, we pick up the child from the educational institution. Perhaps we also have time to run to the grocery store.

Then we come home and stand at the stove, meet my husband, set the table, and clean up. And a lot more. Feed the dog, do homework, help pack your briefcase... My head is spinning. And it seems like it will never end.

Have you tried planning your actions at home? Yes. Stop and think about what you have to do every day during the week? Now try to write down your thoughts, systematize your tasks and distribute them over 5 days! It may seem unrealistic to many. Well, how can you clean your apartment when you’re already on your feet in the evening?

Can. And when this technique enters your life, it will take much less time to clean up. There's just one little secret here. And I will share them later. In the meantime...

Flylady principle - cyclicality

All housework is not only divided into zones, but also looped into weeks and months - this is the main principle of Flylady. That is, a series of actions you perform in a certain sequence, depending on the day of the week. The system offers a ready-made option. You can come up with your own. Let's say, if it is more convenient for you to make purchases for the next week not on Thursday, as Flylady suggests, but on Saturday there is no need to follow the precepts of the guru with religious fanaticism. Each month is also a cycle to develop a new healthy habit. Let's say one month you work on getting rid of unnecessary paperwork, another month you get into the habit of drinking a certain number of glasses of water per day, etc. Again, no one forbids you to choose your habit (daily morning exercise is no worse than getting rid of electricity bills ten years ago) and work on it.

There are also larger cycles in the year; preparation for the New Year holidays is one of them. Flybabies start buying gifts and preparing the house for Christmas not at the last minute, but almost a whole block in advance. The big plus is that at this time there are still no queues in the stores and you can plan your purchases instead of rushing around the shops, frantically remembering whether the children of your mother-in-law’s second cousin are in for surprises. Cyclicity is actually always present in our lives, days, weeks, months, seasons. Even fruits and vegetables ripen and are present on our table according to certain cycles. Moreover, smart followers of a healthy lifestyle arrange training in cycles of strength, fat burning, increasing endurance, etc.

Zone 3. Bathroom and another room

This is FlyLady's list. If your home is still cluttered, you are not expected to complete this list in its entirety. Just declutter every day for 15 minutes. Don't be intimidated by the size of this list! No one is going to try to complete it in one week.

Every month we pay special attention to one room, and in other rooms we do just a little. In a few months everything will work out on its own

BabySteps! Your house didn't get like this overnight, and you can't clean it out in a day. Print the list on a separate sheet for each room. Copy the list into your favorite text editor. You may need to make some changes to it to tailor it for you, for your family.

List for bathroom:

1. Wash the rugs
2. Wash the floors with special care
3. Organize all the shelves, drawers and cabinets
4. Wash the walls of the shower stall (tiles around the perimeter of the bathroom)
5. Wash the shower door (curtains)
6. Organize your first aid kit
7. Wash the scales (from FlyLady.ru: what if the arrow moves to the left as a thank you?)
8. Throw away empty containers

List for guest bedroom:

1. Polish the furniture
2. Organize your drawers/closets
3. Remove cobwebs and clouds of dust from the ceiling
4. Clean the mattress, get rid of dust on the bedspread
5. Turn over the mattress
6. Wash the curtains
7. Wash the windows
8. Clean the bath
9. Wipe down the sewing machine
10. Organize the bookshelf
11. Tidy up your computer desk
12. Wash the toilet
13. Throw away unnecessary things
14. “Feed” the plants

List for children's bathroom:

1. Wash or wash the rugs.
2. Wash/scrape/gloss the floors
3. Organize all the drawers and cabinets.
4. Wash the toilet, bathtub
5. Wash the shower door
6. Wash bath toys with special care
7. Clean the floor (especially around the toilet)
8. Throw away empty containers

List for children's room:

1. Polish the furniture
2. Organize your drawers and cabinets
3. Remove cobwebs and clouds of dust from the ceiling
4. Wash/clean the mattress, wash the bedspread
5. Turn over the mattress
6. Wash the curtains
7. Wash the windows
8. Organize the toy shelves
9. Wash under the bed
10. Clean out your closet
11. Take out things that don't belong in this room
12. Take away things the child has outgrown
13. Vacuumed under the bed, cabinets
14. Wipe the baseboards
15. Remove fingerprints from walls and doors
16. Sort videos/toys/books

List for the office (both home and work):

1. Wash all horizontal surfaces
2. Throw away pens/pencils that don't work and are unlikely to ever work.
3. Sharpen your pencils
4. Throw away all the trash
5. Put things in their places, sort papers into folders
6. Pay your bills - don't put it off until later
7. Unpack no more than one box at a time
8. Throw away old papers (over 7 years old)
9. Wash your monitor screen
10. Place enough paper in the printer
11. Designate a designated area for current accounts
12. Vacuumed under the table and throughout the room
13. Wipe the dust off your furniture
14. Wash the windows
15. Remove cobwebs and clouds of dust from the ceiling
16. Check your supplies of envelopes, paper, printer cartridges, pencils, pens, refills, glue, stamps, etc.

Cleaning sequence

Flylady suggests planning almost everything, from the menu for the week, continuing with the shopping list and ending with errands and meetings. This implicitly means having a pair of diaries, one for work tasks and meetings, the second, called an audit trail, for monitoring the completion of household chores according to the FlyLady system - it is very important to follow the cleaning sequence.

This may seem a little excessive, but if your house is a complete mess, it might make sense to check in every day: the sink was washed, the shoelaces were tied, the bed was made. Each checkmark on your to-do list means that you are already doing well and serves as a certain reinforcement. The need for an audit trail can be left open. But it is known for sure that planning menus and purchases allows you to significantly save money, eat more balanced and control the availability of food and household chemicals. And of course, there is no doubt about the need to plan meetings, visits to the doctor, school affairs, clubs and sections for children.

Daily routines or cleaning rituals

Marla Silley herself calls daily routines the most important tool of the system. This sounds scarier than it actually is. Cleaning rituals are simply a list of tasks that are completed every morning and every evening. It is not mandatory, you can adapt it to suit your rhythm of life.

In its most general form, a morning routine may include making all the beds, wiping the mirror and sink in the bathroom after washing, loading the washing machine, putting yesterday’s dried laundry in its place (relevant for those who work at home or are caring for a child). An evening routine may consist of a quick scrubbing of the toilet with a brush and a dash of detergent, wiping down kitchen surfaces, preparing clothes for the next day, making sure to clean the kitchen sink, etc.

In general, routines should not take more than 15-20 minutes and do not involve washing as such, only superficial cleaning in those places that easily and quickly get dirty in everyday life, because they are constantly used by all family members.

To answer a possible question - yes, Flylady suggests wiping down anything that looks clean every day. Then it just won't get dirty. For example, a kitchen stove that has been washed once will remain shiny in the future, and the bathroom mirror will no longer have to be scrubbed of toothpaste stains.

Washing clean may seem a bit redundant. On the other hand, if you wipe once a week, you will have to work hard on surfaces and plumbing fixtures. You can try it, maybe the proposed mechanism suits you.

Budget

The program encourages not to clean up the mess, but to prevent it. Likewise, when it comes to finances, a competent housewife should initially spend money carefully, and not try to save money later.

Budgeting principles

Incoming and spent funds are entered into the table in different columns.

The first column - income - contains wages, repaid debts, donated money, in general, all possible financial income.

The second column is expenses related to utility bills and purchases. You need to find all the checks or use SMS messages from the bank so that the information is fully reflected.

• Don’t forget to indicate new expenses and earnings; the fly lady system is based on this point. The key to successful budget management is constant control. It is recommended to record expenses and income every day for 2-3 months. For convenience, you can use any recording method - notebook, voice recorder.
• Every family sooner or later runs out of money. To mitigate the sad consequences, it is important to keep a stash ready, the final size of which depends on the regularity of replenishment. The best option would be to save 10% of each salary every month.
• The amount of the nest egg should ideally be equal to three times the monthly expenses. In case of unexpected dismissal or difficulties, a financial “safety cushion” will allow you to stay afloat for a couple of months.

All money spent must be divided into three columns - mandatory, desirable, non-essential.

Read also…. What to give to a girl, mother, colleague and more on March 8

Costs are optimized in the third column. When non-essential expenses decrease, free finances appear that you can spend on your dreams - this is how the Fly Lady budget system works.

Cleaning by day of the week

Flylady suggests calling (and considering) cleaning a blessing at home, rather than a tedious chore. This is, of course, a matter of semantics. No matter what you call the mop, it still just cleans the floor. But there are a couple more rules about weekly cleaning: it should last no more than 1 hour 10 minutes - that’s the first thing. And second, any cleaning by day of the week is better than none. In the sense that there are no ideal, verified, documented and carved in stone ways to do cleaning. And even if you don’t live up to your mother’s or mother-in-law’s high standards and simply wipe the floors in the center, it’s better than not mopping the floor at all.

Timer cleaning

They also suggest doing cleaning on a timer, no longer than 10 minutes per operation, and you need to act superficially and quickly (because you already quietly clean the corners during the daily fifteen minutes in the zones). In general, such cleaning involves spending 10 minutes each vacuuming in the rooms, mopping in the bathroom, toilet and kitchen, wiping dust, mirrors and glass doors, changing bed linen, throwing out unnecessary newspapers and magazines (for those who has them), throw out the garbage from all baskets (for those who keep a basket in each room).

As you can see, some of the points are not particularly relevant to our realities, so they can simply be omitted or replaced with more pressing tasks. Flylady sets aside an hour of cleaning on Monday, which is not particularly suitable for working Russian women. No one forbids you to choose any other day to clean up or simply divide this hour into ten minutes and do one thing every day. Dust on Monday, vacuum cleaner on Tuesday, etc.

Praise yourself!

Every time after performing your household duties well and competently, and especially when using the FlyLady system, praise yourself. After all, there is a reason! If other housewives act on instinct in managing their household chores (and competent housekeeping is a well-organized task), then you learn competent time management in the most important thing - creating a warm and cozy home. In which everyone is comfortable: you, your family and any kind guest. Isn’t this a reason to praise yourself in the process of mastering the science of being a FlyLady and then in the process of consciously applying the acquired knowledge? Therefore, do not forget to say a few words of gratitude to yourself or reinforce even small success with any encouragement (a piece of chocolate, an orange, etc.).

Perhaps readers of these lines would like to add their own points - welcome to the comments. But at least these basic principles of the FlyLady system have become fundamental for me and they are quite sufficient. Well, about routines, about ways to reward yourself with your loved one, etc. We'll talk about it in the next articles. Good luck.

Photo Flylady - shoes with laces

Flylady suggests starting the day by wearing lace-up shoes. These don't have to be shoes - T-shirts are fine.

The point is to feel more collected, this time. Being ready to immediately take the trash to the trash cans is two (more relevant for the American middle class, which has a personal trash can in the backyard). Three - for those who do not work “in the presence”, this does not allow them to let loose and walk around in wrinkled pajamas until their husband arrives. Four - laced shoes are difficult to take off so you can lounge on the sofa in front of the TV, instead of ironing three shirts on the timer. Relevant for those who do not go to work.

Flylady's photo is how you should look to feel comfortable.

Dress decently every day

This is, of course, more important for those who spend most of the day at home - housewives, young mothers, freelancers and shift workers, like “every three days”. You are not required to wear evening wear or a business suit. But Flylady suggests dressing neatly and neatly before starting your daily activities. The explanation for this is very simple: when you look neat and fit, you feel better. In addition, you don’t need to rush around the apartment looking for pants if your neighbor rings the doorbell.

Combining home and main work

In the age of equal rights, there are not so many housewives, and while American women can be homebodies, Russian women work, but they need to keep their apartment clean. Marla Seelly advises such ladies to join the fashion trend, because this will make life easier for working bees.

Rules

1. Sleep less. Set your alarm a little earlier to do a 15-minute routine, and then get yourself ready.
2. Cook more. Freeze some of the food as semi-finished products. For example, the whole family wraps cabbage rolls over the weekend and freezes half of them for future use. The same thing is done with pancakes, dumplings and other dishes.
3. Automate processes. The modern young lady is helped by a multicooker, dishwasher and washing machine, and robotic vacuum cleaners. The owner will only have to monitor the operation of the devices.
4. Carrying out related tasks. The meaning of the principle is to kill two birds with one stone at the same time. You shouldn’t sit idly by while the multicooker cooks porridge or the microwave heats up food; you can clean the table, mirrors and other surfaces.

Wash the kitchen sink every night

Despite the quite visible results, this tool can rather be considered psychotherapeutic. The sink is the starting point of the entire FlyLady system; it is suggested that you take the first step: just go and clean the kitchen sink properly. And this is the end of each day: wash the sink if it needs cleaning, or just wipe it dry.

What's the point? Also in positive reinforcement for those who are depressed from the inability to restore order. In the morning I came to the kitchen, and there was an island of cleanliness. In the evening I washed it again, made an effort, well done.

One can argue about the advisability of such a fixation on the kitchen sink. In general, no one forbids you to choose your starting point, keeping it in order will help you maintain strength and confidence for further work on putting your house in order.

"Hot Spots"

The so-called “hot spots” are easily accessible horizontal surfaces on which most often your whole family “stores” garbage. Ideal for such purposes are bedside tables, tables, window sills, shelves at the level of your eyes and hands.

They definitely need to be disassembled. Every day. You can spend 10-15 minutes on them if you see a “specific blockage” on them. Any mess that takes longer than two minutes to clean up can be called a rubble.

But professional housewives still recommend devoting a maximum of two to five minutes to such points. This way you will avoid loss of strength and energy when cleaning the apartment using the fly lady.

Common cleaning questions

The system has existed for many years, so it has been chewed up and sorted out down to the smallest detail. However, there are a number of typical cleaning questions that arise for those who are new to it and are deciding whether to give it a try. The biggest complaint is the shoes.

Is it true that you need to wear heels every day?

No it is not true. The height of the heels is not regulated in any way by the system, we are simply talking about comfortable shoes in which you can spend the whole day. The meaning of the laces on these shoes is described above.

What's wrong with slippers?

Because they are easy to throw off. You can try to perceive shoes simply as part of the work uniform at home. Well, they exist, and the author of the system believes that they are needed. In reality, of course, Marla Cilley will not come to you and check whether you are barefoot or wearing lace-up shoes.

Is it true that to successfully implement the system you need to buy a special diary, rags, brushes and a universal product for everything right on the Flylady website in America? Not true. You can do without all these wonderful items. After all, your goal is to get rid of unnecessary things, and not at all to buy new ones.

Common cleaning mistakes

Despite the short time spent on housework every day, the FlyLady system quickly produces results; the house becomes more orderly. At this point, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and start making cleaning mistakes—over-structuring your life and your home.

Very often, fans of the system begin to buy every conceivable box, chest of drawers and containers for folding and organizing anything, purchase tags and stickers in industrial quantities and organize everything in their closet simply in order to then post photos on the Internet in the community of fans of the system.

Flylady does not require a complex system for labeling things and serious care for boxes and folders. If you find yourself buying up the entire assortment of a Swedish furniture store or an entire stationery store, you may be in over your head. Think about whether you really need all these things that you are going to put in so many boxes? Flylady proposes to make life much simpler, and not complicate it by introducing a sophisticated system for storing and packing a bunch of things.

Also, don’t go into a cleaning frenzy and buy all kinds of cleaning products for everything in the apartment. Firstly, mixing detergents with different effects can easily lead to an unpredictable chemical reaction and, for example, poisoning. Secondly, you probably have unused supplies of all-purpose detergents waiting in the wings. And thirdly, after a few weeks or a couple of months after starting to use the system, you will wash away the most depressing dirt (yes, in small steps every day). Then you definitely won’t need special strong products to wash off different types of dirt; you will need something universal to maintain cleanliness.

Fly Lady for working women

What do you think it means - fly lady in the office? What kind of flying bee is this?

Let's say you work for a company eight hours a day, and you don't want to bother yourself with all this "cleaning" nonsense. When do you find time for all sorts of techniques if you come home exhausted, loaded to the brim with thoughts about who needs to send reports and how many?

To do this, the system came up with a trick, namely, it assigned a symbol of a clean house. Everyone can come up with their own personification of order, for Marla Cilley it is a sink.

If you are afraid that you will not be able to become a fly lady due to being too busy and tired, our advice to you is to start by washing just one item every day. If you choose a sink, scrub it tirelessly until it is perfect.

Over time, this will become a habit. Some adherents of the concept laughingly tell how they begin to clean the sink right in front of guests, this action has become so automated for them.

A sparkling sink will take a week, a month or two, but will inevitably awaken the desire to clean more. You will suddenly realize that you have these unfortunate 15 minutes, which, it would seem, were not observed before.

There will be a stove behind the sink. Behind the stove there is a countertop, shelves, kitchen decor. Do you feel what the power of habit and discipline can do to people?

How to manage everything? Find out!

Charging the batteries

Last on our list, but not least, Flylady suggests planning everything, including recharging your batteries. On the list of things recommended to be done every day, be sure to include a little time (the same 15 minutes) for yourself. This could be a salt bath, a short yoga session for relaxation, or a face mask. No matter what, but every day.

At first glance, it seems that 15 minutes a day is nothing. However, 15 minutes in a warm bath is enough to relax tense shoulders. And this is already a lot. In addition, the system reserves weekends for communication with family, friends, relaxation and entertainment. All this will allow you to recharge your energy without waiting for complete exhaustion and breakdown.

Does it seem strange to schedule time with your family and put it in your planner? On the other hand, if you can’t otherwise cut it out, and the whole weekend is spent on ironing and cooking, then why not try? After all, what do you have to lose? Apart from a bunch of junk?