FlyLady Ezines 2019

[SAR01]

Dear Friends,

Going green doesn't have to cost us green money. We are very bright and each of us has come up with great ways to save money and FLY!

Everyone is feeling the pinch of the rising fuel prices. Did you know that when you are FLYing you are saving money and helping the environment? I want to discuss some of these money saving green/purple habits we can help you establish.

Decluttering 15 minutes a day! How can this save you money; I know you are thinking this? The act of decluttering makes you more particular about what you buy and bring into your home. This amazing thing happens because you begin to love yourself and the way your home looks. You have to really need something to buy it! Shopping becomes something you do because you don't need a diversion from being at home feeling guilty about your clutter and all the stuff you buy because it is on sale. If you did not spend $20 a week on more clutter then you would have saved $1040 a year. This doesn't even count the money you spend on the gas to run around and buy the clutter. Buying less reduces your carbon footprint. It also reduces your trash and landfills.

Picking out your clothes as part of your before bed routine! This simple action will give you more time in the morning so you can fix your breakfast and a cup of coffee before you head off to work. No more stopping for expensive drive thru breakfasts and designer coffees. You have to pleasure of a peaceful morning with your life under control along with your finances. If you spend $5 a day on a drive thru breakfast and a coffee then you could have saved $1300 in a year. Pulling out and trying on creates piles of clothes and those clothes get mixed up with your dirty clothes and then you use more water to wash them.

Planning your menus for next week and preparing a grocery list before you go shopping can help too. This keeps you from going to the grocery store multiple times each week. This alone can save you $50 a week. There is hardly anyway to keep from spending less than that each time you go to the store. If you are cooking then you are saving more money by not getting takeout from restaurants. That could alone could save you another $25 a week. This amounts to $3900 for a year. Then if you factor in the gas you save by only going to the grocery store once each week. Less gas used, buying fresh food instead of packaged also helps reduce our trash.

Wearing good shoes for your feet help in lots of ways! Good shoes gives you more energy and keeps you from breaking toes and cutting your precious feet. More energy helps you to exercise more and take better care of yourself; this saves on doctor bills. One co-pay for an office visit could save you $20 a month. A broken foot could set you back $1500 for an emergency room visit. Shoes save you more than you would ever think about. $1740 is amazing when a good pair of shoes could runs around $50. What an investment! This doesn't even count the money you save because of the energy you have to keep your home in order. More energy means more walking instead of driving.

Next let's look at how much you save by paying your bills on time and not running up your credit cards. One late charge a month or an over draft fee could run into $100 dollars a month. If there is one there are usually many. You are having to rob Peter to pay Paul. Stay on top of your bills and paying things on time is a major way to save money while FLYing! $1200 is a small amount to save when we examine what we really spend in those fees and interest rates. I haven't even figured the cost of the fuel for all those extra trips to the grocery store, to pay a bill before the power gets turned off, doctor visits and fast food trips. Besides the more you go shopping the more you spend. Fewer trips to the store will keep your bills affordable and you have not put that gas into your car and the pollution into the atmosphere.

So you see with these five simple habits you can save lots of money and help the environment. $9180 is no chump change to me. That is more money than I made some years in my career as a furniture store bookkeeper. That is $176 a week. WOW! Now that will buy you a tank a gas with some money for savings and something simple for you as a celebration!

FLYing makes good financial sense especially when the cost of gas is robbing us. We have been stealing from ourselves for a very long time with our SHEness. We can FLY and save money and the environment at the same time.
Are you ready to FLY and save the world?

FlyLady

[SAR01]

Dear Friends,

What is it about going on vacation that makes it worth all the preparation and hassle? Is it getting away from the phone? I don't think so; most of us have our personal cell phones. Is it getting to seeing new places? Maybe but many of us usually want to go back to old familiar areas. Is it the food? It could be, or is the fact that cooking is not hard in an efficient clean kitchen.

How about the people? They are usually the same ones you have at home. So what is it about being in a different place with the same people? Could it be that the surroundings do not choke you!

Hotel rooms are sparse: Two beds, a desk, one bathroom, a night table, one small closet, a little dining table and maybe a little refrigerator. Hey I am leaving the Television and video games out. Ignore them. Let's say you rent a condo at the beach. It has a small kitchen, two to three bedrooms, a living area, a balcony, a couple of bathrooms and empty closets. The same thing for a house at the lake or a cabin in the woods; they have all the conveniences of home without ALL YOUR CLUTTER!!!

Oh it's not clutter, it is your stuff, I can hear you yelling at me. Well your stuff makes you feel like you need to leave home to breathe. So what does that tell you? Your stuff is killing you. You are uneasy in your own home. Another word for uneasy is disease. Get it?? Your house has become a storage unit for your stuff, not a home.

This is why it feels so good to walk into a sparsely decorated room. The space frees you to breathe without you feeling closed in.

How do we get this vacation feeling in our cluttered homes? By evicting Clutter and Just-in-Case forever! These things have chased you away from your home. They have taken over your residence. They are squatters and it is time to take back your home and make it your sanctuary instead of a storage unit.
Start by Crisis Cleaning: we are attacking the surface clutter that is residing in our favorite hotspots. Spend 15 minutes in the Kitchen, then 15 in the living room and then 15 in the bathroom. Then you get to rest for 15 minutes. Don't skip this step! It is the most important one.

I promise those few minutes are going to make a difference if you will get up and do it, instead of whining that 15 minutes is not enough time. The clutter will be out of sight and you will start to say to yourself that this doesn't look half bad; even if the floors are dirty. Clutter is what makes your home look awful.

Oh you still don't believe me; then do an experiment. Clear off your coffee table. I mean move everything off into a box and just stand back and look at it. How do you feel? The clean and clear is contagious. Now go put away, give away or throw away everything that is in that box.

You deserve to have a home that gives you a beautiful clean feeling. You can get that vacation get-away by taking babysteps to eliminate your clutter. Set your timer and allow that beautiful clean to put a smile on your face!

That beautiful clean is waiting for you!

FlyLady

[SAR01]

Dear Friends,

One of the very first things that you learn on this group is that no whining is allowed; Period: End of Sentence.

We are always being asked: Well I work outside the home, I stay at home full time, I work at home, I care for an aging parent, I have a special needs child, I am a single parent, I am pregnant, I have multiple children, I home school: What can you tell me to do?

Bottom line here folks is this: ROUTINES WORK FOR EVERYONE!! No matter what your situation is, routines WILL help you.

You have to have a morning and evening routine. Think about school children, they have the exact same routines EVERY morning when they get to class. ROUTINES WORK! Routines keep you from getting sidetracked and keep your mornings and evenings consistent.

It doesn't matter one single bit that you have a situation that you think makes you different or special than anyone else. You are all here because you have one main issue and that is that your homes and lives are out of control. We can help you tame them but you have to stop making excuses. Yes, I just said excuses and before I take this any further I am not trying to hurt anyone's feelings or offend anyone. I am merely pointing out that each of you will benefit from routines and your situation no matter how hard it is or sad or whatever will change that.

No one ever believes that any one else has it as difficult as they do. This is called "the Grass is Always Greener" syndrome. But if the truth be known no one would trade places with anyone else because each one of us has our own set of difficulties. All of you have issues, this does not mean that you get a special order custom made system just for you. Our system works for everyone. You have to take BabySteps and not expect instant over night success. We do not promise you that. We promise if you follow what we tell you that you will see progress. Your home did not get dirty overnight and will not get clean in a day. With routines and our guidance you will get there.

NOW, what should you be doing? At the very minimum for a morning routine: Get dressed all the way to shoes (hair and face), swish and swipe the bathroom and make your bed. At the very minimum for an evening routine: get clothes ready for the next day, brush teeth/wash face and shine your sink. This is a very abbreviated version of routines to get you started. Don't minimize that you think this is not enough, it is more than most of you are actually doing. We have thousands of testimonials that will tell you this works.

You have to make a commitment that no matter what your personal situation is that routines can and will work. No matter how small.

You might have to be creative, you might have to adapt but you can find a way to make routines fit your life if you are really ready to FLY.

FlyLady

[SAR01]

Dear Friends,

With each new year we resolve to eat less, move more and take better care of ourselves. We have all made these resolutions and end up with broken spirits because we have set ourselves up for failure once again. I would like to look at our expectations and come up with a way to do all these things in simple BabySteps that can change our lives.

We don't need a new year to decide to take care of ourselves. What do we mean when we decide to "Take Care of Ourselves"? It all boils down to a lifestyle change for many of us. Now we could go cold turkey and go away for a month to some elaborate spa where they fix our meals for us, put us on an exercise regimen, run medical tests and pamper us or we can learn from them and do it ourselves.

If you went away to one of these retreats for a month what would be the first thing they would do to you? We would have to sign a waiver, get a physical and blood work. Why do you think they would make you sign a waiver? This is to relinquish them from any liability that could result from you killing over from a attack.

This in itself should be a wake up call for most of us. Our lifestyles are contributing to the increase of disease, obesity, and diabetes in our country. With this in mind it is up to each one of us to take charge of our bodies and our minds and go get a physical along with the blood work. We should do this before we start any new lifestyle changes. This is our barometer to help guide us. Do not procrastinate about this. Make your appointment today because this is the first step to the rest of your life. Talk to your doctor about taking these BabySteps to change your life. Ask for help and as long as you are getting blood work done get them to run a full panel thyroid screen.

At the spa you will probably be forced to go cold turkey when it comes to smoking, alcohol, and caffeine. So how can we limit these things for us while we are enjoying our Home Spa? Let's look realistically at how much we are doing these things during a day, week or a month. For some people money can be a motivating factor for others they just need to decide that moderation is the key. So instead of 5 cups of coffee a day; just have one. Then replace the coffee with a bottle of water. With dinner have water and one glass of wine instead of a bottle. Smoking is very a very hard habit to break so look at when your body is craving a cigarette and when it is just a simple habit to light up. You will be able to tell the difference. Be nice to yourself and don't punish yourself by taking everything away cold turkey. You know how fad diets work.

You feel deprived and then just throw the diet out the window and devour all you can get your hands on. During the process we are going to learn to nurture ourselves at the same time we are making the lifestyle changes. This way you do not have to feel like you are being tortured.

We can turn our homes into nurturing spas with just a few little additions to our grocery lists. Spas have good wholesome snacks just waiting for you to enjoy them. They require you to eat several times during the day. We don't normally do this because we are too busy to eat. The main reason we don't eat good wholesome foods is because there are not any in the refrigerator. So add whole fruits, cut up veggies, nuts, cottage cheese cups, yogurt, and salad fixins to your weekly grocery list. Remind yourself to eat between meals. Imagine that; you have permission to snack.

At a spa you never see anyone without a water bottle. There are water coolers everywhere and little reminders to drink up. I am not talking about over doing here; just getting eight cups of water a day. If you eat 3 meals a day and 3 snacks a day then drink a small glass with each then you have had 6 glasses of water. Now add one when you get up while you are getting dressed and then another one before bed. You have done it; 8 glasses in a sixteen hour day. That is only one glass every couple of hours. Set your timer if you have to so you will remember to drink your water.

Now for the hard part of being at a spa! They are going to force you to get into shape. We have been couch potatoes for a very long time and we have given them permission to help us. Well let's give ourselves this same permission. You may need to ask a friend to help you. It is much easier if you have someone that you are accountable to. Not moving is not an option, the Spa trainer is not going to accept any excuse for your inactivity; Moving can be as simple as walking around your yard or on a treadmill. Start by adding a fifteen minute walk to your morning routine. Then gradually you will be incorporating other babysteps to your daily walk through life. Little things like parking farther from the front door at the grocery store or taking the stairs. Before you know it you will be playing in the yard with the children or taking the for a romp having a great time incorporating loving movement into your every day life. When you make it fun it will continue to bless your .

A spa has lots of ways to pamper you; Starting with your bedroom. The beds are nice and inviting. They encourage you to go to bed at a decent hour by having a curfew. When was the last time you went to bed before 11:00 pm. There are fresh sheets on your bed and plump pillows to curl up with a good book for a few minutes of leisure time. Getting your rest is one of the keys to helping our bodies renew themselves and heal. There have been studies that correlate obesity to not enough sleep. Let's go to bed and quit making our bodies beg for sleep. Our bodies need good food, water, loving movement and rest to function properly.

We also need to reward ourselves for the simple life changes we are making. At our home spa we can do things like manicure, pedicure, bubble baths, facials and other little things to help us feel good about the babysteps we making part of our routines. These little rewards help you to feel good about you and teach you to FLY (Finally Love Yourself) and isn't that what blessing your is all about. We deserve to live happy, healthy productive lives. Enjoy your spa!

Finally Loving Yourself is easy with a Spa Attitude

FlyLady

[SAR01]

Dear Friends,

How do you like to be treated? With love and respect?

Several years ago, I was in an abusive relationship. All I wanted in life was to just feel loved. I didn't care whether my ex-husband truly loved me or not, I was wanted him to fake it, the result would be that I was feel some sort of affection from him. Well that did not ever happen, unless he wanted something and you know what I am talking about.

We are taught from a young age that in order to receive, we have to give. This goes for every aspect of life. So how do you act toward your spouse? Or for that matter yourself!

At this time in my life, I have the privilege to be married to my wonderful Sweet Darling! I tell him every day that he spoils me rotten and he says that is what he is supposed to do! I am truly blessed by him. His love, completes me! But this goes both ways. I spoil him too! The best part is, I am whole without him and he knows this. His love is the special fertilizer that makes me bloom even more beautifully! It is so hard to describe.

Not long ago while eating in a Chinese Restaurant, I got an interesting fortune cookie!

If you continually give, you will continually have!

When we give our love we will receive love. So who have you spoiled today? When was the last time you did something just because you wanted to treat someone special.

Friday is our special day for focusing on our relationship. Don't procrastinate on Date Night! It is important to your relationship! Start planning this before Friday rolls around.

If your sweetie is not around, then I know something you can do! Spoil yourself! Show yourself the love and affection you need. That is what FLYing is all about! Taking care of your needs, when no one else can or will, you have to do it for yourself.

Are you ready to FLY? Finally Loving Yourself!

FlyLady

[SAR01]

Dear Friends,

Why do we torture ourselves with our clutter?
You know exactly what I am talking about.

We have piles everywhere. Stuff we are going to need one day and we might not be able to afford it then. So we had better hold on to it. Do you hear this "Oh Poor Me" attitude.

This stuff is going to kill you. Are you listening to me? All the piles of clutter are filling your life with guilt and this guilt is hurting your body and spirit. The stress that is in our lives from our clutter, our chaotic homes, and our hectic lives is slowing and painfully killing us. Are you prepared to die this tortured death? Do you want to sit on the side lines while your husband and children enjoy life without you, while you sit home and suffer with this clutter draining your life energy.

This clutter pushes your family away. Your home should be a safe haven for you and your family, but when it is cluttered all of you find ways to be away from home. You dread walking in the door to face this wall of stuff and undone jobs. Let's face it, It is guilt. So you enroll your children in extra activities, any thing to get away from this guilt that surrounds you at home. You all know what I am talking about. With our lives filled with this clutter, we are unable to have anyone over.

You all know the C.H.A.O.S. Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome. This pushes the people we love away. It also keeps us from taking care of things we need to have fixed. Leaky faucets, heating problems and stopped up drains. We are ashamed to have anyone in the house to fix them because of our clutter. I had one member that would not call an ambulance because she was too afraid that if they saw her mess, that they would report it to Dept of Social Service and they would take her children.

What are we doing to our children? They are growing up in a home that they are unable to have their friends over to play and do school work. They don't want anyone to see how they live. They are embarrassed by their home. Do you know what happens, they end up playing at someone else's home and you won't we fully aware of their activities or even worse you keep them secluded in their own home. You are keeping secrets and these cluttered secrets are going to be the death of you and your family.

Now let's look at our marriages. We have insulated our lives from the love that we need to survive. The clutter puts stress on our marriage. I don't care how strong your love is, clutter whether it is your husband or yours is stealing the affection you have for one another. Fights, harsh words and even abandonment have slipped into this once loving relationship. Do you want this? Are you ready for Peace?

This is a decision that we have to make. If we want to live in a home that is not conducive to love: I mean love of self, love of husband, love of children and love of God: Or do you want to clear your clutter so that the love that is in your life can bloom and grow. Right now you are living a life of fear.

Fear is the opposite of love as far as I am concerned. God is love, Fear is of the Devil. Fear of being without, Fear of not being understood, Fear of not being loved. Fear is lack of faith in God. The Devil puts this fear, guilt and worry into our lives. He puts these obstacles in our path, so that we will not find the peace we deserve. He wants us to suffer. Do you want him to win?

Put your faith in God and get off your franny and start to get rid of this clutter.
I have given you the tools: All you have to do is listen and start with small jobs. I don't expect you to get it all done at once, but you have to start somewhere. Many members need to see results immediately, this is our nature. If we don't, we give up and go back to our messy way of life.

I am here to tell you that your home did not get cluttered over night and it is not going to get clean in one day. We are working on changing life long habits, this is going to take some hard work and consistent routines. It will not be a cake walk, but as you start to see progress, you will be wanting to go gang busters.

This is something that we have done to ourselves many times. We work till we are burnt out. We don't want do clean or declutter anymore because we are so tired. This kind of turn around in your life is like going on a crash diet. You get the house clean and before you know it, the place is trashed again. We are putting our homes on a diet; a diet of behavior modification. I am teaching you a new way of cleaning and it starts with establishing routines one habit at a time and decluttering your home 15 minutes a day. Anyone can do this, Mothers with children, people that work out of the home, retired, single; you name it; you can do this. It is so simple, you just have to start.

Are you tired of living this way? We can't come to your house and tell you what to get rid of, as much as we would love to be able to physically assist you. All we can to is hopefully touch something deep within you that will get you away from the computer and the TV, and begin your new way of looking at your life. NO MORE GUILT!

You have found the answer. It is within each and every one of you. Your true spirit is being suffocated by your clutter. If you will release this clutter, you will find the peace and health that you have been yearning for all of your life. It is not a matter of wanting peace. We have been WANTING all of our life. It is a matter of actively working toward our goal of a clean and peaceful home. You can do this by using the tools: Your routines, basic weekly plan, zone cleaning and the 27 fling boogie.

Are you willing to work? Ask yourself if you ready to get your franny out of that chair and change your life. We don't expect you to do all of this right off the bat. You are only expected to get dressed to shoes everyday, keep your sink clean and shiny and declutter for 15 minutes each day. This is it. Anyone can do this!

I want for you what I have, PEACE. I received this PEACE from my routines. It takes time and effort on your part. This is not a magic pill I am giving you. It is a recipe for Peace and you are the Chef. So let's get ready to for the biggest feast of all; a celebration of your love of God, Self, Husband, and children.

Enjoy the preparation. It is not a chore; it is a gift of love!

FlyLady

[SAR01]

Dear Friends,

If you have been having problems getting rid of your clutter, it could be because you have a disease known as the BagLady Syndrome. When we start out housekeeping, we have the cute filing cabinets that hold our important papers. It does not take long to fill those paper consuming monsters with every scrap of paper that we think is important. Soon with those drawers bulging, we start piling those "important papers" on every flat surface in our home.

When our flat surfaces become Hot Spots our homes look messy. We pride ourselves in knowing where everything is. That is until we have to find one of those important pieces of paper. Those piles and drawers explode while you frantically searching for the document you need.

Just let me tell you what has happen to your lost car title? You didn't have room for it in your filing cabinet so you put it on your kitchen counter till you could make room in your filing cabinet. You had many other items that needed to be filed in the same place and the pile on your counter kept growing taller by the day. Then you got the call that your in-laws were coming to stay for a week.

In a panic you cleared off every flat surface in your home by bagging them up in used grocery bags or trash bags and placing them in one of several hiding spots you have created for yourself. Is your favorite stash and dash hiding place between the wall and your side of the bed? Oh it could be on top of your shoes in your closets. The worst place is in the garage because those bags of paper and other things could actually be mistaken for trash and placed in the garbage can.

This is one of the reasons that we don't want anyone to help us get rid of our clutter. We are afraid that something is going to be thrown out that you really really want to keep! Everything that was in those piles was an item that you deemed important at the time. But was it really?

When we excavate those bags that have been stashed under your bed, we will find that 95% of the stuff is trash! You will discover other things like too; like garments with their tags still on them and cute pictures that your children have drawn. You will be shocked at the items you find exiled to those bags. It will be things you have been looking for, for many years. You can actually look in the bag and remember why you stuffed everything in there.

It was because you were in a hurry to get your home presentable for your visitor or so you could leave the house in good order while you were gone to take care of your parents. Getting in a hurry only turns your piles into a mountain of bags.

Many of you are determined to get organized and you think this means going out and buying lots of plastic tubs, pretty boxes and more filing cabinets. If the truth be told, all you really need to do is get rid of the clutter that you have hermetically sealed in those bags and buried under the lids of those bins. God help us all when we start looking for something. Those bags and bins throw up all over our house.

Quit being a BagLady and decide to stop this vicious cycle. Clutter is taking you away from your family. Right now go pluck one of those bags from its hiding place and take it to a clear flat surface. You will need a camera, an actual trash bag, a give-away box, and a put away box. Set your timer for 15 minutes and work as fast as you can. Do not talk yourself out of throwing the trash away. If it is something precious like a picture that was drawn for you, take a photo of it.

As soon as the 15 minutes is up, immediately put everything in the put away box away, place the trash in the garbage can or recycle bin, and take the give-away box to the car. If the place you want to put an item is stuffed to the brim then declutter two items before you put it there. Place those items in trash or give-away box.

Your home did not get messy in a day and it is not going to get clean overnight. If you will commit to eliminating a couple of bags a day; you will find that your bag lady days are numbered. You can do this! I know because I am no longer a BagLady!

FlyLady

[SAR01]

Dear Friends,

We are the Queens of Procrastination, but I have a cure for this ailment. It is so simple but first let me tell you why we procrastinate. We tell ourselves that we don’t have time. There is something missing from this statement. The perfectionism rears its ugly head. What you are really saying is, “I don’t have time to do it right!”

Well I am living proof that when you eliminate perfectionism; you can accomplish anything. Perfectionism causes us to procrastinate. If, when you hear yourself say I don’t have time, you would stop! Recognize the perfectionism! Then set your timer for JUST 2 MINUTES!

As I am writing this essay I am using two minutes to write and two minutes to do something in the house.

Dishwasher unloaded

Now for two minutes of writing. I am going to decide on what to focus on next. I think floors are in my future. Our floors deal with dogs and cats. We live in the woods. I know that two minutes a day on floors can keep your floors from looking nasty.

Mop all my floors

I mopped every room in our home. Was it PERFECT! NO! Was it Done! YES! I did it fast. I feel that the two minutes is like working during the commercials on your favorite television show. Just imagine how much you can get done while you are up. Now think about getting your steps in while you get off your bottom. I have recently learned that I don't have to sweep before I mop with our chenille mop cloths.

Wet Mop my Living Room and Kitchen.

I took five minutes on this one because I was moving while the commercial was on TV. I mop like I used to mow in strips. It is fast and furious mopping. My mop is really wet with no chemicals. No streaks or dullness to my floors; I love my mop!

Reverse Scavenger Hunt.

I set my timer for two minutes and put away the mop and recycling in the kitchen. It was a speedy way to get things that don’t belong in the kitchen put where they belong. Clearing the countertops makes a room feel cozy. There is nothing to make you feel guilt. A true Reverse Scavenger Hunt takes an item from one room to the room it belongs in. Then grab something from that room and put it away in another room. Just imagine if everything that was sitting out on your flat surfaces was put away. Your home would look and feel beautiful.

Just sitting here and looking around I see several things that still need to be decluttered and put away. I think the next two minutes will be spent decluttering. We call this 27 Fling Boogie.

Two Minute Declutter Boogie

This hard to do when you have decluttered many items. All I found to get rid of was two cookie tins. I have spent most of the two minutes putting away items underneath my coffee table. It is my stash and dash place when I am traveling.

My challenge for you today is to take the 2 Minute Challenge. Monday is our day to do our Weekly Home Blessing. Why not try it while you Bless Your Home? We would love to hear what you accomplished. Send it to me; [e-mail] with 2 Minute Challenge in the subject line. This is going to be fun!

You can do anything for 2 Minutes and then you get to go to the next thing on your list.

FlyLady

[SAR01]

Dear Friends,

Are you running around with your head cut off, putting out fires everywhere you go. Are you letting the house run you, instead of you taking control and running the house on your timetable.

This has got to stop. Your stress from just doing what is urgent is going to make you sick, give you headaches, and keep you in a constant state of fatigue.

I can hear you now! How do I stop? These things need to be done. Well here is how. Simple planning, with a little thought to the future, not just the next 10 minutes.

For instance, Running out of milk. You have to stop what you are doing and take 30 minutes to run to the grocery for milk. Have you noticed the expiration date has gotten longer, why not buy 2 or 3 gallons at a time.

If you have other fires you have to put out on a regular basis, Look at what you can DO NOW to prevent them from happening in the first place. How about matching socks, or certain clothes that are needed for school.

What are some of these fires? What is so urgent that you throw your whole routine out the window to deal with this priority??

Unless it is a true emergency, sick family member, or an accident. Most everything else can be planned for. When a true emergency happens, by all means your routine should go out the window. The key here is to be ready for anything. Could you walk out the door in 3 minutes to meet your husband if he called and said, I need you. Being able to answer these kind of calls as well as the little voice that says, Momma will you play with me, or read me a story. You can do this when you are not having to put out those urgent fire calls. Guess what!!! There is no guilt involved either.

Your homework assignment is to make a list of the fire calls you have been making. Don't worry about how to fix them just yet. All I want you to do is list them. If you don't know, then keep a journal this week, when you are rushing to get something done. Running to the store to get something you are out of. Paying a bill that you forgot. What about being late for an appointment? Running out of Gas!

If we would apply the Do It Now Principle to our life, we would be much better off. When we do this, procrastination is no longer a word in our vocabulary. If you look close at your list, you will find that the fire got out of hand because you said. I can do that later.

Stop thinking about what you can put off to the future and take care of some of these issues NOW. The future will be the present before you know it. Why not make it a pleasant one? You hold the Key in your hot little hand. Why put off till tomorrow what you can do today and save yourself some precious time in the process. As well as your health!!!

Are your ready to FLY with me?

FlyLady

[SAR01]

Dear Friends,

My bathtub is my place of meditation. I surround myself with warm water and open my mind and to listen. Robert calls them God Breezes. When they come in the middle of the night, we refer to them as the Midnight Editor and when I get them in the tub; they are bathtub epiphanies. Today the subject was love!

Robert and I have spent the last hour and a half talking about love! Not our love but the love that is in us all. As FlyBabies all we have ever wanted is to be loved. I can remember a time when all I wanted was to just feel loved. It didn't matter if I was really loved or not just as long as I felt like I was loved. I guess that is just affection. Any way love is not something we can make happen.

I don't care how much you try to make someone love you it is never going to happen. You cannot earn love. Respect maybe, but not love. It is either there or it isn't. This is why I have told you for years that you have to get the house in order for you. You are never going to get your home clean enough to make someone love you more or at all. Even as the house gets cleaner this person is never going to love you if they don't love you with a dirty house. Do you understand this? The house is not the problem with the lack of love. If the love is there all things are possible even a small spark of love is enough. You cannot buy love with gifts either. If you are not loved for you then no gift is ever going to satisfy the need you have to be loved by this person or family member.

Do you remember the first time you walked into your kitchen after you shined your sink? If you have not shined that sink yet then go do it now. You feasted your eyes upon a reflection that made you smile. You didn't know why it made you smile but that feeling emanated from the very core of your being. That feeling was love! I know you don't believe me. When that sink greeted you and you smiled, you felt something that changed you forever. I know it seems so simple and maybe a bit corny but that sink is a reflection of you.

When you take care of the sink; just look what that care does for the way you feel each and every day! This is the beginning of you accepting the love that has been hidden inside of you forever. For years we have pushed that love down deep and had forgotten about it because we were too busy trying to work hard enough to earn that love from others. It is time we uncovered that eternal love and cultivated it so that love can be shared with the world.

Now I am in great big purple puddles. Think about all the songs that have been sung over the years. As a little child in Sunday school we sang the song about hiding our little light under a bushel. Then we would yell NO! I am going to let it shine! That little light is your love and your connection to God and the world. That love has always been there, we have just kept it hidden; especially from ourselves. Some of us have even been told it was wrong to love ourselves. Well to this I say you cannot love anyone else till you love yourself.
Love your neighbor as yourself means you have to love yourself to be able to reflect that love to others.

Did you know that when you are loving yourself that you attack love back to you. You become a love magnet. Not only are you reflecting that love to others but that love is coming back to you and the best part is that it is multiplied! And it all starts with you! Have you shined that sink yet? This is your first uncovering of that love that has been hiding underneath all the self-loathing and pain you have suffered your whole life.

All we have ever wanted was to feel loved! We can do this for ourselves without having to depend on anyone else for what we need. We deserve to be happy! This little ray of hope, happiness, peace, and love has always been inside of you! We all remember the Wizard of Oz and the good witch telling Dorothy that she had the power to go home; that it was always inside of her. This is how I feel about FLYing! Your love is just waiting for you to open up the doors and windows, then let the sun shine from within you to light up the world!

Love makes the world go round, it is the energy that keeps us moving when all is lost. Love is always with us, we just have to start with babysteps to rekindle the love that we have locked away. Start now. Go shine that sink of yours, get dressed to shoes, and do something sweet for you. If you don't take care of you; who will?

May the force be with you! Are you ready to FLY?

FlyLady

[SAR01]

Dear Friends,

We have a banner that we use at conferences. It goes over our booth which asked a simple question, "Are You Living in CHAOS?" The look on most everyone's face is priceless. They want to know if we have been to their house.
Their next question is what do you do? The answer is always; we teach you to develop habits and string them into routines. Then what are these products?
I have been trying to keep my house clean for over forty years. If I had a dollar for every mop, broom, or vacuum I have purchased trying to find the best one for the job, I would be a wealthy woman. This is why; we have developed the tools that are easy to use and get the job done efficiently.

Most any mop will clean a floor if you use it on a regular basis. Not only do we have tools for you to use, but we teach you when and how to use them. Sort of like our calendar. A calendar is a calendar but no one ever gave you an instruction manual on how to incorporate it into your morning, afternoon, and evening routines. Any calendar will work if you look at it, but if you don't you blame the calendar. This goes for electronic calendars too.

I never dreamed we would have a business out of teaching people how to develop habits to get rid of the CHAOS in their lives! I needed people to help me because I could not teach and do everything else; which meant salaries had to be paid. Factor that into the need for good tools and we had a way to pay people.

These tools could not be any ole tool; they had to be something that I loved and used. That is how we developed the FlyLady Cleaning System. We started with a Rubba Scrubba. It was so good at anything we used it for that the idea came that it needed a handle. Most brooms were inefficient at best; especially on broken glass.

That's when the Rubba Sweepa was born. The first Sweepa was great but the handle was not any better than one of those disposable ones in four pieces. We started to design a handle that was extendable. My idea here was if your little ones wanted to help, it could be shortened easily. Then if you needed it to be longer for tall people or to reach higher to sweep down cobwebs outside; it could extend.

A mop was our next efficient tool. I have tried so many mops it is not even funny. The idea was to have a cloth that could be washed and reused; dirty mops equal dirty floors. We mop head was made to fit on our mop handle. Daily maintenance of floors makes the house look clean; this is why I have a love hate relationship with a dustmop. The mop looks dirty all the time and can't be washed because of the wax in the red mop strings. This is when we came up with the chenille mop cloth. I took our detailed dusting mitt and sewed it into a cloth for our mop head. We got some made for our mop head. This is so efficient when it comes to dust mopping and wet mopping. You don't even need to pre-sweep before you mop.

Our silver rags are the crowning tool to make our FlyLady Cleaning System work for you! With the FlyLady Cleaning System all the tools fit together to reduce our cleaning clutter and give us an efficient way to make our home sparkle. Are you ready to FLY with the me guiding you and our tools helping you to get rid of CHAOS in your life.

Did you know you can build your own FlyLady Cleaning Bundle or just get the one we put together for you? Right now we have a great deal on our XL Mop.

FlyLady

[SAR01]

May Zone 2 Missions

Zone 2: Mission #1 Monday

We are in the kitchen this week!Take 15 minutes and scrub your stove top! Soak the knobs and drip pans in hot soapy water while you clean the stove top. Some elbow grease and hot soapy water will take care of a lot! Don't become a perfectionist and try to get it as clean as the day it was new. Just do the best you can and then scrub the drip pans and knobs. Don't scrub the knobs so hard that the numbers and words scrub off!Anything that you do will be better than what it was!

Zone 2: Mission #2 Tuesday

Every once in awhile I get an email from a member with a mission suggestion. I received this one and thought it was great! So here is your mission from a member for the kitchen today:I was in the kitchen the other day putting away the silverware and noticed how gross the silverware holder had become! Also, the area around the holder was filled with little bits of nothing..elastics, paperclips, ketchup packets! A total mess, in other words. I had the thought that it would be great to have a mission for this as I'm sure there are plenty of flybabies just like me who don't think about it!

Zone 2: Mission #3 Wednesday

Today is Anti-Procrastination Day and we are still in the kitchen,Your mission for today is to grab a trash bag and clean out your refrigerator. You are to toss ANYTHING that will not get eaten any time soon. This means that new salad dressing you decided to try but really don't like. It is time to let it go. Just as the rule applies to the rest of the house. If you don't love or use it, lose it! Get rid of the fruit that is a few days beyond when it was really edible, get rid of the veggies that are turning into a science project. Check the dates on the cheeses that are potential science project.You will be able to really make a better grocery list when your fridge is cleaned out of all the items you don't like and or don't use!

Zone 2: Mission #4 Thursday

Your Mission for today is to declutter your plastic wraps and foil drawers, cabinets or shelves. We all have a spot that we keep these items and there is always one empty box in there and some lone baggies that are trying to escape. Toss the empty boxes, the rolls of plastic wraps that are too stuck together to work, and those strays that you are not sure if you should use them or not.This is quick and easy! Have Fun!

Zone 2: Mission #5 Friday

Today is our last day in the kitchen and I want you to spend 5 minutes and check on the cleaning supplies and things under your sink? Are there things that you don't use? Are there items you have run out of and need to put on your list? Now, what is up with your dish rags and sponges? If you need new ones, put them on the list too. Enjoy your weekend!

[SAR01]

Dear Friends,

We all love receiving gifts: The thrill of the surprise of what is in the package; opening it up. Wouldn't you like to receive a special gift every single day? This is the gift that keeps on giving.

Your routines even simple ones can give you a great big present every day. There is nothing better than waking up to a home that surprises you each morning because it is CLEAN! I am still in shock when I walk out of my bedroom each day.

This is the finest gift that I have ever received and the best part is I gave it to me! You know you deserve to have the thrill of this gift and it is so simple. But most of the time we are too busy beating ourselves up to take the few minutes to do our simple routines. We don't have time! We think! Every single minute of every solitary day is spoken for. In our perfectionism we don't think we have time for anything new.

My question to you today is why did you join our group if you were not willing to do the babysteps?

All I have ever asked of you is to get up each morning and get dressed to shoes. Do a 3 babystep before bed routine that only takes a few minutes, go to bed at a decent hour, declutter your home for 15 minutes a day and shine your sink!

You really do have time: your perfectionism tells you that you don't have time! Let's look at how much time we are actually talking about.

Getting up and getting dressed to shoes----- 15-20 minutes

Before Bed Routine:

Lay out clothes for tomorrow ------ 5 minutes tops
Brush teeth ------ 2 minutes
Shine your sink ----- 1 minute once you have done it the 1st time
Go to bed at a decent hour -------- 0 minutes

Declutter your home --------------------------- 15 minutes

Less than 45 minutes

Now 45 minutes at one pop may be too much to ask for but all I want is 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes to declutter and 15 minutes at night before you go to bed. You can do anything for 15 minutes!

You are already getting dressed just not when you first get up. This starts you off on the right foot. Unless you have to go to work, but I'll bet even if you do go to work that you wait till the last minute to get dressed. Try it, you may be surprised by the difference it makes in your day. You may not be late to work any longer. This is the first gift you can give yourself: A stress free start to your day.

Shining your sink may seem like a useless task that nothing can be gained from. If you feel this way then you have not felt the pleasure of that sink greeting you in the morning. You see it doesn't matter if your sink is stainless steel, porcelain, or 30 years old. It is not your reflection that makes you smile it is the fact that there is not nasty water and dirty dishes shaming you each morning. I have been getting up to my shining sink for many years and I still smile each morning at my sink because it smiles at me first. This is a present I love to open every day.

Doing your before bed routine of laying out your clothes and getting ready for bed may not seem necessary after all, you are already going to bed. What is the laying out your clothes for anyway? Why can't I just wait and pick them out in the morning? Because having them picked out and ready to go does not allow you to PROCRASTINATE about getting dressed. You have NO EXCUSE any more. A before bed routine is the most important habit of the whole day. It is a gift that you wrap up in the evening and you get to enjoy the opening in the morning.

Are you still refusing to go to bed at a decent hour? Oh you feel that this is the only time you have to yourself! Well staying up late is robbing you of your health, patience and love. Not getting enough rest and trying to function on only a few short hours of sleep is not good for you, your marriage or your children. Go to bed at a decent hour and give yourself the gift of FLYing!

I have had many people ask me what the most important part of the FlyLady program is: This is hard to say but if I had to only pick one gift for you to give yourself it would be to go to bed at a decent hour because if you will do this you will be Finally Loving Yourself. If I can teach you that you need your rest then your home will come together. You will no longer be dragging around living off of adrenaline. It all starts with you.

I know you joined our group looking for the magic solution to getting rid of the CHAOS in your home and life. The gift is there for you to open if you will only let go of your perfectionism and start with our simple babysteps.

No one is going to give you this gift but you. If you don't take care of you then who will?

FLYing is like opening up a present every single day! Are you ready to FLY?

FlyLady

[SAR01]

Dear Friends,

All week long I have had a song running through my mind. We have all heard this song and now it has become the God Breeze for this essay: "I Feel Pretty".
Do you feel pretty? If your answer is NO! Then this is for you!

One of your first assignments is to get up and get dressed to shoes, fix your hair and face, so you can greet your day ready to confront anything or anyone! Are you doing this? If not why are you refusing this one simple request?

I can hear you now; "I don't feel this is necessary, because I are not going to see anyone today but my babies". This kind of thinking is just another excuse. All I want is for you to smile when you see yourself in the mirror. Can you do that with chicken hair sticking up all over your head? You may be able to belly laugh, but can you look in the mirror and feel good about what you see? Do you feel pretty?

Feeling pretty is more about your attitude. Sometimes our attitudes need a little help. I know many of you think that getting dressed is not important to keeping your home in order and getting rid of body clutter, but I want you do this for me at first if you can't bring yourself to do it on your own. This system has never been about teaching you how to clean; it is about motivating you to get up and do just a little. I don't expect you to clean all day!

My Granny always said, "Pretty is as, pretty does!" As a child, I had interrupted this to mean that if you act right you will be considered to be pretty. Now that I am grown and I have finally started to love myself, I can see a whole new beautiful meaning to this unwritten law. If you don't treat yourself with respect and love, you will not feel pretty. Getting up and taking care of you is the most important job of your whole day. Laying around in your 'jammies all day does not make you feel pretty. So in order to feel pretty you have to do something about your appearance. Your fairy Godmother is not going to a magic wand over you and turn you into a princess. Bibbity, Bobbity, Boo!

We have all had those mornings when we didn't feel that it was necessary to get prettied up. Now that I have been doing my morning routine for over 4 years, it is next to impossible for me not to get up and dress to shoes. Even when I am sick, I always get dressed to shoes. Now I want to talk about what clothes we put on.

Do your clothes make you feel ugly? Are they too tight because you have gained a few extra pounds with the last baby? Are you holding on to your skinny clothes in hopes that you will lose the weight one day?

In the mean time you are beating yourself up over the fact that you can't wear that one outfit that made you feel like a million bucks. That outfit yells at you each time you open your closet door. Get rid of loud, ill-tempered clutter! Don't keep anything in your home that makes you have bad feelings. This has all got to stop! It doesn't matter if you only have one everyday outfit for now that you feel pretty in. I don't want you wearing clothes that are too big either!

Frumpy sweats have a way of telling our head that it is O.K. to eat that extra cookie, because no one will notice anyway. Before you know it, you will be filling out those baggy sweat pants. Any of us can look pretty and feel cute in a pair of jeans and a shirt. It is all a state of mind and having clothes that fit you properly. When you love yourself enough to only wear things that make you feel good about yourself, then you will not torture your body with clothes that are too tight and make you feel slouchy.

The idea of feeling pretty also has to do with your under clothes, favorite pieces of jewelry, a special color of lipstick or even a sweet smelling bath bar. It is all your attitude. Love yourself by just being nice to you. Pretty is as Pretty does. This morning I blow-dried my hair. I hardly ever do this, but a little poof makes me feel special. As does an evening bubble bath and a morning shower. Try it sometime. You are worth it. Now don't complain that you are

too heavy to feel pretty. That is all wrong. Pretty has nothing to do with your weight! I feel pretty and I am not a size 10. Pretty is inside of each of you!
I feel pretty and witty and wise! We know the song. Start singing and have fun feeling pretty!

You are FLYing, when you feel pretty!

FlyLady

[SAR01]

Dear Friends,

Most of us love to watch house make over shows on television or the internet. I think it is because we just want something different from the CHAOS we have been living in. One of the first things we hear the host ask is, "What is your budget?" This question would be asked before they even knew what their style was.

At that point my would sink. Where do you come up with thousands of dollars to change the way your home looks and feels. I remember feeling this way when Robert and I got married.

He had built our home when he was two years out of Law School and a bachelor. It was just right for one person. There was an energy crisis and he wanted it to be as energy efficient as possible. He did have a picture window and a bay window which let in some sunlight.

When we married in 1996, I immediately started to make his bachelor pad reflect us. Now you have to keep in mind that I moved in my clutter, added his clutter, and we started going to estate auctions buying more stuff.

Our kitchen was a one butt kitchen. I loved the dark Formica clad cabinets but I hated large low hanging cabinet that was between the kitchen and the dining room. This cabinet was the size of a twin bed. One day I was determined to get that sucker off the ceiling. You know, where there is a will there is a way. My brain went crazy. I had no help, but it was going to get done.

Then I had an epiphany. I would use books to hold up the cabinet as I removed the huge screws from the ceiling. We had plenty of books. I stacked them up and I got started. It was so easy! I remove one book at a time and lowered it. When Robert got home from court, he helped me take it to our extra bedroom.

Our kitchen was now open to the dining room/sitting area. My dark little kitchen did not feel as claustrophobic as before. We still had coppertone appliances, green counter tops, crusty (lime scale) stainless sink, and yellow linoleum floor. I was so happy! The kitchen was becoming mine.

The problem was I tried to cram all the dishes from the cabinet I had removed into the remaining cabinets. Clutter Clutter everywhere and no real organization. At the estate auction we bought a baker's rack which attracted more clutter and it was visible. I was still stuck in more more more mode.

Do you remember that big cabinet I removed from our kitchen. It became the base for a twin bed. With the mattress removed, I filled it with clutter. At this point in my life, I had not realized that you cannot organize clutter.

During the next two years, we continued to go to auctions and find treasures. We married on November 30th, 1996. I didn't catch the Declutter Excitement until January of 1999. As my habits were being established, I was decluttering three times a day. This is when the 27 Fling Boogie was born.

Morning, afternoon, and evening I would run through our home and grab 27 items to give away. Then I would do it all again, looking for 27 items to throw away. I did this for three months. My rule was I had to take the items directly to the car; I could not stop at the garage. The items had to be OUT OF OUR HOUSE. The trash had to be put in the garbage can. When you do a 27 Fling Boogie three times a day; you are going to be so happy with to see your home again.

I do have a confession to make. Decluttering made us love our home. When we finally decided to remodel, I was terrified. The fear came from eighteen months of established habits and routines. I didn't want to lose what I had worked so hard to build. Our home was staying clean because clutter was not standing in the way of my routines.

Decluttering was the cheapest remodel that I have ever done. It didn't take a budget to eliminate our clutter. It took the consistency of decluttering every day.

Are you ready to see the beauty in your home without have to spend a ton of money?

FlyLady