Fly Lady System: Basic Principles Of House Cleaning, Where To Start, How To Fill Out An Audit Trail And Other Recommendations + Reviews, Photos And Videos

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-17 22:26

House cleaning system Fly Lady (FlyLady)

Probably, for most people the word "cleaning" causes despondency and melancholy, and the phrase "general cleaning" simply leads to despair, especially if such an event is scheduled for a weekend. Often you want to forget about the future and the inevitable, to run far, far away, where it is clean and comfortable and the sight of a neglected household does not terrify. How can you clean up your home and learn to maintain it without spending the whole day, seven days a week? How not to break loose and become an ideal hostess (at least for prying eyes)? You can get answers to the questions posed and try to apply them in your life by getting acquainted with the Fly Lady house cleaning system.

Content

• 1 Fly Lady house cleaning system: who, when and for what purpose came up with? What are its common pros and cons. Who is it for?

  • 1.1 General pros
  • 1.2 Disadvantages
  • 1.3 Suitable for
• 2 Principles

• 3 Organization of work according to the system: where to start? Required items

  • 3.1 Audit trail

    • 3.1.1 Weekly work plan
    • 3.1.2 Routines
    • 3.1.3 Zones
    • 3.1.4 Weekly cleaning hour
    • 3.1.5 Phones and addresses
    • 3.1.6 Menu
    • 3.1.7 Inspiration Page
  • 3.2 Where to start?
  • 3.3 Sample pages from a real audit trail
  • 3.4 Video on the productivity of an innovative idea
  • 3.5 Tips for writing an audit trail
• 4 Diverse responses from women who used this system

Fly Lady's house cleaning system: who, when and for what purpose came up with? What are its common pros and cons. Who is it for?

Fly Lady House Cleaning System

Back in 1999 in America, housewife Marla Scilly, having tried various methods of housekeeping to no avail, decided to develop her own. The main goals at the beginning of the journey were as follows:

• put the house in order
• learn to maintain this order,
• don't scare yourself with overwhelming tasks.

The main idea was: not to grab onto everything at once, but to begin to disassemble the chaos point by point, that is, from one specific cluttered area, and not to spend the whole day on cleaning, but to devote quite a bit of time - 15 minutes a day is enough. In the first six months, the system regained its original appearance, the terms "routine", "hot spots", "weekly cleaning plan", "cleaning by zones" appeared in it. Later, Marla Scilly shared her invention in her blog, and in 2001 the site of the same name was created, which is still one of the most popular in the world.

General pros

So, this home cleaning system has several advantages:

• It will help to put things in order at home and maintain it.
• Teaches self-discipline.
• The system will make it easier to keep everything under control (not just the household).
• Although the initial goal of creating the system was to put things in order in the household, in the end FlyLady helps with improving the whole life in general.

disadvantages

The creator of the system is an American, so some moments are alarming for Russian hostesses, who are not used to thinking within the confines of their own large house. The disadvantages include the following points:

• Since Marla Scilly lives in America in her own house, Russian housewives in some moments, for example, in the process of dividing an apartment into zones, need to adapt the source.
• The unusual requirements for "work clothes" for Russians are alarming for many. Working clothes mean a neat appearance, in which you are not ashamed to meet guests at any time and shoes with laces. In Russia, of course, there is no tradition of walking at home in shoes, so many who have not fully understood it are perplexed by such a strange requirement, which, in principle, can simply be missed.
• An obligatory point of the system is keeping an audit trail, this moment initially baffles many and the work stops before it has begun.
• In order to apply this system in your life, it will take a lot of time, work is going on gradually, you need at least patience, which many do not have enough.
• The system is designed to be active in the morning, afternoon and evening, so many working housewives cannot adapt it to their lifestyle.

Who is it for

The creator herself claims that a woman of any employment can adapt to FlyLady, since the system is very flexible. However, according to the reviews, one can come to the conclusion that working women who come home late in the evening and leave for work early in the morning are simply not physically able to adapt to such a lifestyle. Therefore, it is easier to delve into and begin to enter the regime for non-working housewives, women on maternity leave, those who are at home in the morning, afternoon and evening. Mothers on maternity leave are almost always busy with children or cleaning, with the Fly Lady system you can try to keep cleaning to a minimum and free up more time for children, husband and, of course, for yourself.

Working women can adapt the system, take something useful from it and successfully apply it in their busy life, for example, “hot spots”. These are the places in the house where the main mess gathers. These "hot spots" need to be identified and then paid attention to them once a day for five minutes. Even the busiest woman is capable of such superficial cleaning.

Marla Scilly developed her system gradually, adding new points. Therefore, it tells everyone that you need to start small and not scare yourself at the beginning.

Principles

Marla Scilly herself did not highlight the principles; these are most likely the first steps from which the acquaintance with the FlyLady system begins.

Principle 1. Clean kitchen sink

Since you need to start with something, the author of the system invites everyone to go and polish their kitchen sink to a shine. You can even find a special author's recipe on the Internet. After that, the cleanliness of the sink must be maintained all the time, that is, every day, give it your attention.

Principle 2: Getting Started Every Day: Getting In Order

After waking up and hygienic procedures, you need to dress yourself up beautifully and put on lace-up shoes. In this form, it will already be more difficult for you to return to a warm bed. Climb! Great things await us!

Principle 3. Introduce rituals (morning, afternoon, evening)

Probably, you still have your own morning and evening rituals, in this mode they are called "routines"? Write them down, think over them, add them. For example, now add washing the kitchen sink to your every night's routine, which should now always shine with you. And in the morning routine we add a beautiful outfit and lace-up shoes.

Principle 4. Throwing out unnecessary things

Throw out unnecessary things every day. Marla Scilly advises to throw out 27 things a day that only create trash at home, interfering with the organization of home space. Ideally, littering should not take more than 15 minutes.

Principle 5. Do not save up things

To make the "clutter" of the apartment easier, try not to save up a lot of unnecessary, but, in your opinion, very necessary things, such as glass jars, plastic boxes, food bags. Try to get rid of one old thing by buying the same new one.

Principle 5. Working in the zone 15 minutes a day

Divide the space of your home into zones, for example, entrance hall, kitchen, bathroom, toilet, room. Dedicate a week to cleaning the area. This week, on the set days, clean the area for no more than 15 minutes a day, set a timer so as not to overwork!

Principle 6. Hot spots

Hot spots are places in your home where rubbish is most likely to accumulate. For example, a bedside table in the hallway, a coffee table in the living room or bedroom. Find hotspots in your home, sort them out, and keep order every day. Engage in "hot spots" every day for no longer than 5 minutes.

Principle 7. Blessing at home - 1 hour per week

Blessing the house is our usual cleaning without crawling under sofas and pushing closets. Walking on dusty shelves and dirty floors can be done in one hour a week, provided you devote some time every day. Set aside one blessing day at home a week, but not a weekend!

Principle 8. Start small and little by little

Don't start by cleaning the entire apartment right away. We start just a little bit so as not to frighten ourselves off.

Principle 9: Don't be perfectionists

Don't try to make everything perfect, it's very easy to give up everything. We do it as much as possible.

Principle 10 Audit Trail

Every “flying lady” needs a logbook. It contains your daily and weekly schedule. All routines, division into zones, menus for the week, important phones and encouraging phrases. It will make your life more organized and more orderly.

Principle 11. Weekends

Relax with your family, loved ones and friends on the weekend. Gain strength and energy.

Based on the principles of the system, you can calculate how much time a day should be spent on cleaning.

Morning, afternoon, evening routine - 20 + 20 + 20 = 60 minutes;

Work in the zone - 15 minutes;

Littering - 15 minutes;

Extinguishing "hot spots" - 5 minutes.

It turns out that the maximum time devoted to FlyLady for the whole day is 1 hour 35 minutes. Many people include littering and hot spots in their routines, then it turns out at least 1 hour 15 minutes.

On a day dedicated to Blessing at Home, the system takes a maximum of 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Organization of work according to the system: where to start? Required items

To immediately enter life through the system, you must go through the "rite of passage": wash the kitchen sink to a shine.

Audit log

In the future, all actions lead to the creation of their own audit trail. The magazine contains and systematizes all your work on the Fly Lady system. This is a kind of personal diary of every "flying lady". There is no rigid framework for the way it is created. For a start, a regular folder on rings with files will do, and those who have already entered the rhythm of the system can be creative in creating their audit trail.

Fly Lady Checklist for Beginners

Diy Fly Lady control log

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

Weekly work plan

The weekly work plan looks like a table or a to-do list for each day, here it is scheduled on what day what tasks are performed. You can start with a rough draft and edit over the course of a week, adjusting and adding new points. Or you can use someone else's example from forums or social networks and later correct it for yourself.

Routine

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

Morning routine:

• we put ourselves in order;
• read reminders;
• making the bed;
• we look into our accounting log;
• put on the wash.

Daily routine:

• littering;
• hot Spots.

Evening routine:

• We clean the sink, preferably to a shine;
• Preparing clothes for tomorrow;
• We plan lunch and dinner for tomorrow;
• We hang the laundry;
• We go to bed on time.

Zones

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

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

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

Zone 2. Kitchen

Wipe off the dust

Wipe the multicooker

Clean the oven

Wipe down the stove

Wipe the microwave

Wipe down the refrigerator

Clean the hood

Wipe down other household appliances

Wipe down the windowsills

Wipe down the work surface

Sweep the floor

Wipe the floor

Disassemble hot spots

Go through products

Wash the vegetable rack

Remove the cobweb

Wipe cabinet fronts

Wash windows

Arrange the dishes

Take out the trash

Tidy up the spices

Clean up the shelves

Wipe down the lampshade

Wipe off dust and water the flowers

Weekly cleaning hour

In the weekly plan, one day is allocated for the “apartment blessing”. In this section, you make a list of things to do in that hour. On this day, you do not work in the zone, but you observe all the daily rituals (routines). It so happens that it is impossible to devote an entire hour to the "Blessing", then the work can be scattered over several days. This is true for working and mothers on maternity leave.

Sample to-do list for Apartment Blessings:

Weekly cleaning hour

1. Vacuum, sweep or mop the floor in the center of the rooms (we do not move furniture, do not touch the corners, this can be done when working in zones).

2. Wipe off dust on open surfaces.

3. Get rid of unnecessary magazines, newspapers, flyers.

4. Change bed linen.

5. Wipe down doors and mirrors.

6. Remove garbage from the trash can, pack in a bag and prepare for disposal.

Phones and addresses

This is where you create your personal reference book, which is always at hand.

Menu

A weekly menu plan is drawn up, the necessary products are signed. This menu is convenient for shopping.

Inspiration page

You can write down various quotes and sayings here. Many put the 11 commandments of the Fly Lady in this section.

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

Where to begin?

Before you start, you need to realize that the system is designed to make your life easier, not complicate it. Remember this. When starting to live with this regime, do not overdo it. Let everything move very gradually! The list below can be realized by you in a month, or maybe in a year. This is normal. Nobody rushes you.

The procedure is something like this:

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

Don't forget Fly Lady's 11 Commandments:

If you can hardly plan your week, it is difficult for you at first without prompts, then the Internet has information for beginners with a detailed step from washing the sink to creating an audit trail. Also in social networks there is information about which area cleaning this week is devoted to. By subscribing to the news, you will receive information about the affairs in the zone that you need to do in 15 minutes a day. But all this information will not replace a complete audit trail, compiled individually for you.

Some more helpful tips for beginners:

1. At the beginning of the journey, when creating a weekly work plan, scatter cleaning (except for the daily routine) not on all working days.
2. Involve your kids and husband in the simple things on your list.
3. Do not forget about yourself, you have to love yourself! Relax and recharge others with your good mood.

Sample pages from a real audit trail

Home Blessing

Section: inspiration

Evening routine: an example

Weekly work plan: example

Morning routine: an example

Video about the productivity of an innovative idea

Audit trail tips

Diverse reviews of women who used this system

Fly Lady's house cleaning system helps in organizing the household of the whole family. It makes the life of the hostess easier, makes it clear that keeping the house clean and standing up in the evening is real! Many people say that the system helped to find oneself, since it necessarily allocates time to work on oneself. The number of subscribers and the popularity of the site speak for themselves. Finding something for yourself, adapting and adjusting the system to your lifestyle is within the power of any woman, even the busiest one. However, at the beginning of the path, do not forget that you need to go to the goal in small steps and then everything will work out.