Just what is the Flylady programme?

Just in case you've never heard of Flylady after my post yesterday, I thought I'd talk a little about how the basic programme works and how it will work in the garden. 

Flylady is designed to split housework down into manageable chunks of time and organised routines so you don't have a house in CHAOS, that is Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome. First, you set a routine for the morning, afternoon and evening. For example, my morning routine is:

Make bed

Feed cats

Make invalid chicken food for Paxo and open up chickens

Have cup of tea while checking calender for the next couple of days ahead and making to-do lists

Shower

5 minute swish and wipe in the downstairs bathroom (Wipe round sink, swish toilet bowl, wipe round toilet, clean cabinet mirror and every other day swish floor with microfibre mop)

Get dressed

Put on load of washing

Take vitamins

Wash up

Do Flylady 'mission' for the day 

 

What's a mission?

That last one needs a bit of explaining. As part of the Flylady programme, you mentally section off the house into 'Zones" and work on decluttering and cleaning a new Zone every week. There are also little 5-15 minute missions throughout the day to clear hotspots where papers or clothes or shoes have built up, or accomplish a small task you might not ordinarily do, such as clean out your handbag or get rid of the rubbish in the car. I usually do these missions in the morning. 

Anyway, back to the basic programme; one of the first things you do every week in a Zone is a 15 minute declutter. This is usually accomplished by a) walking around the Zone with a bin bag throwing away rubbish b) the next day grabbing items to give away to friends or charity then c) the following day picking up and returning objects that do not belong in that zone to their rightful places around the house. That's a bit simplistic but essentially everything you do boils down to those three things. 

So for example, if you're in the bathroom you might be asked to go through your cabinet and fling away all the out of date stuff, then the next day collect all the opened things you tried a couple of times but didn't like and give them away. If you're in the bedroom you might be asked to pick two pairs of the your rattiest old shoes to throw away or pick the most unflattering item of clothing and put it in the charity bag.

 

The last few days in the zone is then spent doing some cleaning that perhaps doesn't often get done (for example light fittings, behind furniture, under beds etc). Over a period of months you end up completely decluttered and then each week in the Zone is just spent deep cleaning or doing projects that need to be completed. 

This week was Zone 1 

In the house Zone 1 is the porch, lobby and dining room. 

This week most of the junk in my house in those three areas has been cleared, either by throwing away, giving away or returning to their rightful homes. The front door, back door and internal doors in between have been wiped down, the light fittings cleaned, and the windowsills wiped down. It all took less than 15 minutes a day in addition to my routines. 

Tomorrow I do the main cleaning in the house for an hour: clean the upstairs bathroom, dust the lounge and master bedroom, hoover the house and change the bed. Then I have the odd bigger jobs to do when it crops up every now such as cleaning the car, washing the windows, washing carpets and upholstery, wiping out the fridge, cleaning the oven....you know the sort of jobs I mean. 

It seems to work ok for me, but I am not strict Flylady. I do not do my washing up at night and shine my sink, as I'm stink tired at the end of the day and can't be bothered. I'd rather have a bath and read a book in bed! I also do not get dressed down to my shoes, as I prefer to run around in bare feet to give them a rest, and I'd trash my carpets very quickly if I wore shoes in the house. 

Flylady in the garden

Flylady has also translated very well to my new garden Zone plan too. 

My morning garden routine:

Check all pots and water any that need it

Water hanging baskets

Check tomatoes in greenhouse

Pick up any rubbish that crosses my path

Check over plants for obvious problems that need looking at later during evening routine

Very quick weed (usually of bind weed) while the watering cans are filling up at the water butts

Then there's the decluttering and missions - so far in Zone 1 this week I've thrown away dead plants and empty pots, emptied and cleaned out a water butt with Jeyes fluid, cut back and fed the herbs in the butler sink and planted a new clematis against the fence.

 

The breezeblocks and small rectangular pavers have been dragged off the stone seat and up to the end of the garden, and the seat scrubbed down with algae cleaner. 

 

 

By the end of the weekend I aim to have some new bedding plants in the patio bed and the dahlias staked and tied back. I have even made rumbling noises about finally making up the seat cushions with this fabric I bought last August:

 

Personally I blame Carol at Boxwood Cottage for all of this. Click on her Flickr pictures on the right hand side of her blog and check out her garden pictures. Pure inspiration. I now have some leads on wonderful climbing roses and plants I want in the garden. And thanks to her I've also made up my mind that - yes - box hedging in the beds is the way to go to contain everything neatly. My bank balance may not recover after this.....

Comments

[niki]

Hi - thanks so much for stopping-by my blog and for your kind concern and advice. I look forward to reading the wise words you have writen on your blog here too, as it looks like its just what I need...
I did reach 'burn-out' around 18 months ago, so am now on a more cautious path these days...
Have a great weekend and thank you again,
Niki