**UPDATED** Making Flylady Work For You

**This post has been, by far, the most popular post on this blog. (It's even been pinned on Pinterest... OMG!!!  hehe) It's also my encouragement to get back to blogging! A lot has changed since I wrote this. We bought our first house, our kids have grown a lot, my marriage has grown a lot, and I've grown a lot! I figured if this will be the first post many find on my site, I better update it! So I've left all of the original post, I've just added in blue any updates. I hope you still enjoy it!! Most importantly I hope it helps!! Thank you so much for stopping by!**

**BTW, I'm off right now with my camera taking updated pictures to add!**
  

So I mentioned a couple of times that I would post about Flylady, and how I made her program work for me without being overwhelmed. I've been avoiding this post because I knew it would take forever to write! There's just so much that goes into it. It's not just cleaning. It's time management, making a home management/ household binder work for you, figuring out how your mind and home works. whew. I'm tired already!

First off, I have no ill feelings for Flylady or her program. I actually think that the concept is genius! I'm just not a household notebook, follow a minute by minute checklist everyday kinda gal. Flylady is BIG on having a "control journal." It is basically a household notebook. I've tried a household notebook many, many, MANY, times and it never works for me... I have a household notebook, just not the kind you read about. I can't have things that need to be looked at daily tucked away in a notebook. That notebook will have a home. That home will hide it. Therefore, I wont look at it everyday.

My household notebook has a section for family. A section for my ideas and projects. A section for finances, and a section for holidays. Notice there is no calender. My calender is beside my coffee pot in the kitchen, where I will see it every morning. It is hanging on a wire mesh file box that I call my "paper tamer." I got the idea from here. On my calender I have my appointments, holidays and my son's school events. I also don't keep family information, or address' in my notebook. I know my family's information, what I don't know is safely in my file cabinet. My address' are on my computerand all phone numbers are stored and backed up on my phone.
~I now use a HUGE magnetic calender I found at Target and it's stuck to the side of my fridge. I also started keeping addresses in my dayplanner instead of on the computer.

My family section holds all sorts of goodies. If I see an article in a magazine about something fun to do with the kids, it goes in there. If I get a flyer for an event we would like to attend, the date is written on the calender, and the flyer goes in my binder. Ideas on the Internet, written in the binder.

My ideas and projects section holds everything from drawings of how I want to rearrange a room to things I've been meaning to buy. Whatever is on my mind, I put in there. When I have time to do a project, I look in my binder and pick one.
~Pinterest has sort of taken away the need for the "Ideas/Projects" and "Family" sections. I still have a few things in there, but Pinterest is my go to for these kinds of things now. 

My finance section holds a folder for my bills and bill calender. When I get a bill I open it, put the due date on the calender and file the bill in the folder. When payday comes, I can easily see what needs to be paid. Everything I need to pay those bills (stamps, envelopes, return address labels) are all stored in that folder. Then I have my budget worksheets. My husband gets paid every two weeks, so each payday I go through and look at what bills are due, what I will payout in groceries, gas and other misc. weekly expenses and anything else that will be paid out that pay period. (like doctor appts, prescriptions, etc.) Add it all up, deduct it from his pay check and decide what to do with the rest. I usually give my husband and I some free money, and the rest goes into savings.
~As I started using my binder less, I decided to just add two files to my wire mesh "paper tamer." I added a BILLS file (with everything needed for paying bills), and a PAID BILLS file (all bill stubs with date & check # on them) but I still use it in the same way.

My holiday section is a lifesaver! I keep it in there all year. I use it to jot down gift ideas as they come to me and birthday party ideas for my boys. When their birthdays start getting closer I pull out a sheet of paper to put in there and plan everything on it! That way if I forget something, I can easily look back at that paper At Christmas time I have our Christmas dinner plan and shopping list. I plan out what I can cook the day before. I have a running gift list so I don't forget to buy a present for anyone. Christmas activities to do with the kids, all things holiday go in this section!
~I still use and adore my holiday section!

That's my household binder!

Flylady is also big on decluttering before starting to clean. I agree completely. I think all of her little "27 fling boogies" and stuff just make it too complicated. Whatever zone you are working in that week, instead of cleaning... declutter! You cannot clean a cluttered home. It's impossible! Instead of cleaning you will just be moving piles from one place to another. I wrote a post about organizing and decluttering and there are also MANY resources out there, if my post doesn't help.

I used to keep everything. My husband keeps everything. Put us together and you've got a whole lotta madness! Our bedroom was basically a storage room. I hated going in there, it was like a maze! I slowly chipped away at it and got rid of everything we were willing to part with, the rest went neatly under our bed. Now our room feels like a bedroom, and I actually enjoy spending time in there. Now I make a trip to Goodwill every few months getting rid of clutter! I saw how much better I felt about our home after getting rid of all that clutter, now I'm hooked!

My cleaning schedule is a simplified version of Flylady. Basically I have things that need to be done daily, weekly and monthly, which is Flylady's basic plan. She just goes into WAY too much detail for making the routines! I remember to brush my teeth, I remember to make breakfast. I don't remember to make my bed. I don't remember to take my glass of water to the kitchen. I don't remember to straighten my bathroom counters when I'm done getting dressed. These are the things I need reminders for. The other things just make that list look scary. So I simplified.

My morning routine goes a little something like this...

 

• Make Bed
• Straighten Night Stands
• Straighten Bathroom Floor and Counters
• Clear Table After Breakfast (with kids)
• Do Breakfast Dishes
• Wipe Up Mess On Floor (if any)
• Cleaning
• What's For Dinner?
• Outside With Kids (or errands, if any)

A  lot simpler, right? Well, it is to me anyway.

My Afternoon routine is usually starts after we eat lunch...

• Cleanup After Lunch (clear table, counters, dishes and sweep)
• Pick Up Toys With Kids
• Living room Spruce Up (fluff couch cushions, daily vacuuming)
• Free Time

My evening routine starts after I'm done cooking...

• Cleanup After Dinner (table, counters, dishes, sweep)
• Pick Up Toys With Kids
• Pick Up Kid's Room With Kids (this is something hard for me to remember. I'm working on it :0)
• Kid's Baths (pick up while in there)
• Living Room Spruce Up

That's it! I only put things on my routine if it's something I need to be reminded of. I have this on my fridge so I can see it easily throughout the day. I don't look at it all day every day, because most of it has become habit. If I look around and ask myself why the house is a mess, I refer back to my routines and usually I find I forgot a thing or two, and do them. When I follow these routines, my home stays clean, I have more time to play with the kids, and even relax! Wow, I never would have thought that was possible!

~When I decided to edit this post, I figured that I would have to re do all of the routines. The funny thing is I still keep this basic routine, although it's not posted anywhere anymore. It has become such habit now that I don't need the visual reminder. If that's not a testament to how well finding the right routine works, I don't know what it!

Also on my fridge is my weekly cleaning/ to do list. I like to have this out in the open, too! Every morning when I make my coffee I look at my calender and at my weekly chore list. Just by glancing at these two pieces of paper, I know everything that needs to be done that day.

Monday

• Vacuum all rooms (not in detail, just a quickie)

Tuesday

• Make my grocery shopping list with southernsavers
• Zone Cleaning

Wednesday

• Grocery Shopping
• Dust

Thursday

• Mop Kitchen

Friday

• Budget/ Take out cash
• Windows

Saturday

• Laundry Day!

Sunday

• Sheets and Blankets
• Get Sunday Paper
• Make Pharmacy Shopping List
• Pharmacy Shopping

I do my weekly things during my morning routine. (where I have listed "cleaning") That's just when I seem to have time and motivation. Yours may be at night, or in the afternoon. Every person and every home is different. Sometimes days get switched up for different reasons. I may not feel up to a laundry marathon on Saturday, so I'll do it Sunday. Or I may not have time to do my pharmacy shopping on Sunday, so I'll go on Monday. This is just a basic plan, life happens.

~I still keep my cleaning routine posted on my fridge for a visual reminder and easy access.

Ok, so we've covered daily tasks, weekly tasks, now onto monthly tasks. I like Flylady's take on this. I used to do a room a day before Flylady. I always found it not only took up way too much time, but weekly was way too often for deep cleaning. I still use her basic zones, but made them work for my home.

1. Living Room and Entry
2. Kitchen and Dining Area
3. Kid's Bathroom
4. Kid's Bedroom
5. Laundry Area
6. Master Bedroom
7. Master Bathroom

When I do my zone cleaning on Tuesday, it's deep cleaning. I'm talking moving furniture, washing knick knacks, vacuuming under couch cushions. But you only do one area a week. I like this because even if something comes up on Tuesday, I have a whole week to find time to do it.

~So after my discovery and acceptance of my ADHD-PI/SCT I stopped being so hard on myself. I stopped expecting the impossible of myself. Talk about relief! Whew! So I have changed my cleaning routine a little. I no longer have weekly and monthly cleaning- Just weekly. Whenever I notice something needs a good deep cleaning (like what I would have done during monthly cleanings) I just jot it down in my planner and the next time I feel like deep cleaning, I know right where to go. 

So my cleaning routine now looks like this:

Monday: 

• Kid's Laundry
• Livingroom (deep clean, but i don't go overboard with it)
• Dust

Tuesday:

• Our Laundry
• Bedrooms ( I usually alternate between the kid's room and our room. vacuum, sheets, declutter)

Wednesday:

• Kitchen (wipe cabinets and appliances, clean out fridge, declutter)
• Make grocery list and gather coupons

Thursday:

• Bathrooms (I alternate between the two bathrooms. Tubs, toilets, sink/ cabinets, trash, mop)

Friday:

• Bills and budget
• Errands/ Shopping

So what's the point in all this? Don't worry about reading her gazillion emails, doing all of the babysteps, piecing together all of the nonsense. The point that she's trying to make gets lost in all of that.

Figure out what needs to be done daily. Don't put down things that are already habit, only the things you need a reminder for.

What needs to be done weekly? Flylady calls hers a weekly home blessing. (WHB) It's just a little spruce up. Dusting, washing sheets, windows, etc. You can spend about an hour doing everything at once, one day a week, or you can split it up and do one or two things a day. Whatever works for you! You can also put other things that need to be done weekly on this list. Errands that need to be run, balancing your checkbook, whatever you have on your weekly agenda...

Put these two things somewhere that makes sense for you. On your fridge, bathroom mirror, in a binder. Whatever works for you.

Think about your house and all of the zones that are in it. Bedrooms, bathrooms, living room, den, kitchen, dining room. Now pick a day of the week that makes sense (not a lot going on) and do your zone work on that day every week You do a different zone each week. Remember, declutter first, then worry about cleaning...

That's it! Flylady's program simplified into a couple of paragraphs! I really hope this helps. Flylady's concept is wonderful, and really changed my life. She just has it set up in a way that discourages a lot of people.

Now, since I've been finishing up this post all morning, I'm off to catch up on my morning routine!

Trash To Treasure Jewelry Box Makeover

So I went out to my FAVORITE thrift store looking for some projects to keep my hands busy, and boy did I find some stuff! For a grand total of $17, I came home with....

So first up, I decided to makeover this little jewelry box...

After a lot of thinking, I decided paint, and removing the pink fuzzy stuff was the way to go. It would make it more versatile. Maybe a jewelry box. Maybe a pretty desk organizer. Maybe displayed on a table or shelf with trinkets inside... Who knows!

So after some primer and paint... drum roll....

NICE! This little beauty will be available for purchase on my brand new (so excited!) TrashToTreasureSC Etsy Shop!

Stay tuned for another thrift store trash to treasure!

It's Been A While...

Hello everybody! How have you been?! It's been a loooong time since I've posted due to computer trouble, but I'm back and sooo excited to catch up on everything!

I have exciting news... We're buying a house! It's a short sale, so it's been a long process. I think we're finally in the final few weeks though. We should be moving in at the end of the month, and I am beyond excited! So I wanted to share some pictures. I can't wait to get started on all of the projects I have brewing in my head and share them with you.

So, welcome to our future home...

I would show you the beautiful foyer and dreamy closet space in it, but I don't have pictures haha. I will show you when we finally get moved in. Moving through the foyer, you will either go to the left into the kitchen, or go straight into the living room. We'll go left into the kitchen...

I'm loving the cabinet space! I don't think I have enough stuff to fill the cabinets! The only downfall in the entire house is that there isn't a big dining area. It's an eat in kitchen... But, for the price we're paying, it's perfectly fine with me to downsize to a smaller table!

Now onto the living room, which is in dire need of updating!

Not sure what I'm going to do here... I'm at a loss. I know it has potential, I just can't figure out where I want to go with it...

Now we'll head down the hall...

Here is the kid's/guest bathroom. It's a little dull, but I can fix that :0)

Now for May's Bedroom...

He said this is his room because it already has a transformer border haha. He actually likes the red carpet also... I was hoping to get rid of it, oh well.

On to Owen's....

Of course Owen picked his room because of the race car border... at least he has a neutral colored carpet haha.

Now, to the master bedroom...

Not too shabby. I'm still not sure about the color. I kinda want to keep it, but it's a little bold for my taste.

The master bathroom is pretty bad.... We will definitely be doing a complete renovation of it as soon as we have the money. The set up is strange, and it's way too small.

The stall shower is in the "cubby" across from the toilet. It's so close, the shower door will probably bump the toilet while you're getting out, haha. Across from the sink is a huge closet, though. So we can probably make that into more bathroom space and just rearrange a bit.

Now, back up because I forgot to show you the laundry room and garage ;0)

Off of the living room, is the laundry room...

Across from the washer is a set of stairs leading up to the FROG. I don't have pictures of it yet, but it will be a guest room/ Hubby's hideaway. It has an entrance to the attic for storage, and a HUGE closet that will be perfect for storing holiday decorations!

Then there's the garage... Oh lovely garage... Just waiting to be filled with all Hubby's junk that is strewn around our current house... I love you garage...

There is a door leading to the back yard also, which we plan to use as the everyday entrance to keep dirt from piling up in the foyer. So I will be making a little "mudroom" at the bottom of the stairs for all of our stuff.

Now onto the back yard... It's not the prettiest, but again, lots of potential!

I can just see the deck finished, lattice replaced with wood, the Jacuzzi and pool all set up and the smell of Hubby's famous ribs on the grill. Yes please!

So there it is! Home sweet home... I am also excited because this is actually the neighborhood I grew up in, and I have many fond memories of living there. It is going to be a big change from the country setting we live in now, but I'm excited for our kids to be in a suburban setting with lots of friends to play with. Hubby and I love living in the country, and plan to move back to the sticks when are kids are grown. While they're young, though, it's nice to be in a neighborhood.

I look forward to sharing all of our projects with! Check back soon!

I'm In Pain!

Whew! My sister and I got to talking the other day about how we're tired of being fat... We decided to start working out together when she gets off work in the afternoon. Yesterday morning, for some odd reason, I decided to hop on the treadmill before the boys woke up and my nephew got here. I also did some strength training. I felt wonderful all day! I always feel great after working out, I don't know why I don't do it every day!

Any who, so my sister got off of work and came to pick up little Brenden. I figured she wouldn't want to workout. WRONG! She was all motivated, so we tried to pop in one of my DVD's. Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. I bought it a while back... tried it once... Ended up screaming some awful words at Jillian Michaels, and never trying it again.

Luckily the DVD player remote was MIA so we skipped the DVD and went walking. Between the treadmill in the morning, and the walk in the evening, my legs were pretty sore this morning. So what does my dumb self decide to do when I come across the DVD remote? That's right... My memory of the pain must have faded because I tried it again. Somehow I actually made it through the whole twenty minutes, but I still screamed some very unpleasant things at her... ;0)

So now here I wait. My sister will be here in about an hour to pick up Brenden. I PRAY she does not want to workout today. My legs are threatening to give out on me...

I'm going to stick with Jillian, though. I'm hoping to get my sis on board with it too! I saw some awesome before and afters on a thread and now I'm motivated! So for the next 30 days, I'm going to kill myself twenty minutes at a time... Hopefully, though, I'll have some nice before and after pics to post!

So when my sis comes, she can do it if she wants but I'm done for the day! She's welcome to join me tomorrow and scream profanity at poor Jillian with me.... :0)

I'll keep ya posted!

Boys Will Be Boys...

So we got off to a good start this morning. I got the boys up and made them some cereal. I reminded them to put their bowls in the sink...

But then things went haywire!

Is he literally climbing the walls!?

 

Apparently, our furniture is a jungle gym, and my drink is now Owen's. It's only 7:30AM!! 

 

hmmm. I think It's a play outside ALL DAY, kinda day. What'cha think?

New Art Box

When I posted about my bathroom closet I told you I found something at Target that got my juices going. A while back I read this post and thought it was a great idea! I had an extra cleaning caddy and tried it out, but all of our art supplies wouldn't fit. Not to mention, the coloring books and craft paper. So I went back to stuffing it all in this box...

Since school is out, our "art box" is getting a lot of use. I stopped trying to put it up only to have to pull it right back out, so I started leaving it on the kitchen table. It's within the kid's reach when they need it, but boy, what an eye sore...

So at Target I found a cleaning caddy that looked just wonderful to fit all of our art supplies! What was right next to it? A matching plastic basket... What did I do with these two things??

Tada! The cleaning caddy fit perfectly in the basket, leaving enough room underneath for all of their coloring books and drawing paper...

I love the caddy because of all the little compartments. It was like it was made for art supplies!

This art box looks so much better sitting on my kitchen table. I'm loving it!

I think he's enjoying it too! 

So I Have This Closet...

In our bathroom we have a closet. For years we've used it to house towels, extra hygiene products, etc. About a month ago, the boys somehow broke their closet door. Instead of going out and trying to find a door that will fit our narrow closet openings, we left it alone. When I reorganized the boys' closet I realized quickly leaving it open wasn't going to work. My two year old would dump everything out of it daily! So I figured I would take the door off of our bathroom closet and put it on theirs as a quick fix. 

A couple of days ago I was looking at it and realized this was prime real estate, and was not being used to it's full potential. I humdingered for a while on what I could do with it and I got an idea! I could still use it to home our hygiene stockpile, but make it double as extra square footage/wall space! Kind of adding a few extra feet to our dressing area...

So here is what it looked like yesterday....

I had a shelf in there that held the baskets, but I had already taken it out before I took the pictures haha. Here's a picture of it anyway...

So I went to Target looking for some sterilite drawers. Of course I had to stop by the dollar section! I found a couple awesome things that got my juices going on another project!!! Any who, so I got what I needed, came home and got started! I had to bring my ham of a nephew in with me to keep me company...

Before long we had this!

I plan to get some smaller drawers to put on top of the bigger ones to hold my jewelry. I have never had a full length mirror in this house because I didn't have anywhere to hang one. Now I do!

In the drawers are my stockpile items. I plan to make labels for them, but with the clear plastic, I may not need to.

On the top shelf, my paper goods are stored in baskets. I was going to get some more dollar tree baskets, but I forgot. Once I got home and started clearing everything out, I found these! I figure I can spray paint them so there's not so much white going on. (white baskets, white toilet paper) 

So there ya have it! A quick, cheap and efficient makeover! What'cha think?