Oh girls, girls, girls have I got some exciting news to share with you (no - it's not adoption related but it's good!) :)
But first let me explain a few things. In the past few months, my dear hubby has been making comments such as "Babe, I don't know what's up, but the house has been especially messy this summer." OR "I can't think here!" OR "Where are my white shirts, I just need a white shirt!" OR ... well you get the drift.
I have always been a relationship oriented person as opposed to task oriented. I didn't really care for words like "structure" and "routines" because I wanted to be spontaneous and ready for fun and relationship building whenever the opportunity presented itself.
But in reality, this was more of an excuse from a girl who felt like she couldn't get on top of anything. It's not that I couldn't clean, in fact I'm a perfectionist in many ways and so when I would clean, I REALLY cleaned, but the truth was most of the time my home was a mess. I was overwhelmed and didn't know where to begin.
There's simply nothing fun about coming home from getting groceries, for example to a messy house. I would be tired and many times crabby and instantly there was more mess to deal with and more mess = more stress.
Often the breakfast dishes (and crumbs) were still out and sometimes even the dinner dishes from the night before! Hey, I'm just being honest here.
It's the truth, the dirty truth! :)
A big part of my problem was the fact that I had too much on my plate and really had no plan of how to truly change BUT I needed to change. And with this realization I assumed that life was about to become a lot more dull!
So I was praying one day for wisdom on this whole issue and talked with some friends about my need for help and one friend directed me to FLY Lady
This is what I read when I first checked out her site and I have been hooked ever since.
"Are YOU living in CHAOS?(Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome) Do you feel overwhelmed,overextended, and overdrawn? Hopeless and you don't know where to start? Don't
worry friend, we've been there, too. Read on..."
It's all about taking baby steps. I can tell you that in the past 2 weeks, my home has stayed consistently cleaned - not perfect but inviting. I feel like a new woman, my friends!!
I'm actually working around my house more, but it feels like I'm doing less because I now have a plan! Seriously, I'm finding JOY in cleaning! FLY lady is big on setting your timer and just taking 15 minutes to doa little something here or there. I've de-cluttered, cleaned, organized, even rearranged furniture and my home feels new!!
Of course, I still have areas that I need to work on for example, the house looks better but I don't always plan ahead for dinner (though I think I just found a solution for that too! More on that later).
FLY Lady has helped me develop a daily schedule. I get emails every evening with the next days task. For example, every Friday is "Clean Out Your Purse and Car Day" and every month there is a new habit to work on. This months habit is laundry which is good for me.
Baby steps, baby steps, baby steps. I can't tell you how free I feel, my friends! FLY lady is a blessing from the Lord, I have no doubt! I now have more freedom to invite friends over on the "fly!:
There is more I want to share on this - lessons I'm learning, new attitudes I've developed, and new solutions for dinner so check back this week for more!
Check out Fly Lady today and "remember you are not behind, you are just getting started."
7 comments:
I found your link from Sarah Fiechter's blog. :) I've done the FLYLady thing too. Another option I recently found was Sandra Felton. She writes, speaks, and has www.messies.com. I like this better than FLYLady myself, so I thought I would share.
I've told many a person about the fly lady. My girlfrien Jai told me about her and I immediately saved her site to my favs. Glad you found her and more importantly are finding peace. I hate that feeling of being overwhelmed by your home. Glad it's easing up.
Congratulations Jami!!! I'm excited to check out that website soon so maybe it can help me too! Glad you found something that works for you! Thanks for sharing!
i pretty much feel just like you about cleaning, etc. i hate it. and i always feel like there is so much to do. and i'm unmotivated. i just decided last week that what i need is a schedule. but the idea of a schedule sort of makes me hyperventilate because i'm afraid that i will do nothing but work, work, work and will feel really bound by it. so i'm going to have to check fly lady out. :)
Hey Jami-love this, thanks for sharing! Just curious...do you have a yahoo account or did you have to create one? I signed up but they only will send the e-mail to that address and we use hotmail. To have it forwarded is $19.99 a year...not a lot but I thought it was kind of silly so I just wondered if you found a way around that or if you just log into yahoo every day. thanks :)
I just signed up- so excited!
Jess- I created a yahoo account- once I got into it, you can go to your account and add other email addresses and pick one to have it sent to- there was no cost involved and it already got sent to my current email.
Just a note- once I joined, I couldn't find the "Join Group" button so I used the email at the bottom of the page (says subscribe here email) FlyLadyMentors-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and they sent me a link that signed me up. Also, note that there is a spot under your account and then your information (by the email part) that you can edit your marketing preferences and opt out of the yahoo junk emails.
Thanks for sharing, Jami. I need some order in my home! I'm excited.
My sister has been doing this for several months & it's helped her a lot-she forwards me the 'sneak peek for the week' & I usually manage to do some of it-it's pretty great! Glad it's helped you :)
janelle
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