If you know Fly Lady (cleaning system)...

[american_mama]

I first heard about Fly Lady here, but am terrified to go to her site and get overwhelmed just on the homepage. I seriously think this would happen. So I am hoping someone here who is familiar with her can summarize two questions I have about her tips.

1. Getting rid of the dish drying rack. I believe she advocates this since it becomes a place where dishes pile up and it makes your countertops look cluttered. I completely agree. But, what is the alternative? Does she advocate that you hand dry and immediately put away all your hand washed dishes? I have never hand dried dishes ever. It's enough effort for me to wash the darn things, I can't picture myself extending the effort to immediate drying and putting away.

2. Zone cleaning. Just looking for a quick summary: how big is a zone, how often do you clean it, what's the general goal. Can a zone be as small as a catch-all tabletop, or is it supposed to be a whole room or two?

And I'll throw in a general third question. We attract tons of paper clutter in two spots in our house (dining room and one particular kitchen countertop). It's stuff like mail, kids artwork, paper information I picked up in the course of daily errands. Any general tips for moving paper items to the right place in the house?

[ellies mom]

1. I never got rid of my dish rack. What I did was to run my dishwasher every night and unload it every morning so that I could put my dirty dishes straight in and then I'd hand wash what needed to be hand washed as I dirtied it and then usually put it away later after it dried (usually the next morning).

2. Zones are 1-2 rooms. For example, the kitchen is one zone, the living room an other. The dining room, entry and front porch are a third. You spend about a week in each zone and each day you do a task that takes about 15 minutes. It could be wiping the cobwebs from the corners or wiping down your cupboards.

3. She calls those areas "hot spots" and tells you to clear them 1-2 times a day. I have to say that for me at least once a hot spot gets out of control, it seems as though the whole house goes downhill really quickly.

Her system really does work although I have to admit that I have really let it slip. It works better for me when my mornings are free because it is easier for me to do it and then start my day. Otherwise, once I get home I never get started.

[happy2bamom]

Thanks for this post, I need the help too. I've signed-up twice for Fly lady, but by day two I get too overwhelmed with all of the emails and unsubscribe. I think that I'll start with the things listed in the PP. Thanks again!

[ellies mom]

Thanks for this post, I need the help too. I've signed-up twice for Fly lady, but by day two I get too overwhelmed with all of the emails and unsubscribe. I think that I'll start with the things listed in the PP. Thanks again!

I set up a filter. I keep the missions and have the rest go straight to the trash. Although I'm thinking of letting a few of the others go through. I really wish we could customize what e-mails we receive because I agree that they can be overwhelming.

[ErinMC]

In a rush but, like you, I got overwhelmed with her site and the dozens of emails. So now I just try to check her missions page once a day:
http://flylady.net/pages/FlightPlan_Missions.asp
and that gives me a goal to get one extra thing done for the day.

HTH!

[mamicka]

1. Getting rid of the dish drying rack. I believe she advocates this since it becomes a place where dishes pile up and it makes your countertops look cluttered. I completely agree. But, what is the alternative? Does she advocate that you hand dry and immediately put away all your hand washed dishes? I have never hand dried dishes ever. It's enough effort for me to wash the darn things, I can't picture myself extending the effort to immediate drying and putting away.

For this one, I just use an in-sink dish drainer instead of one on the counter. Its a good compromise between uncluttered counter & air-drying.

[hellokitty]

Thanks for this post, I need the help too. I've signed-up twice for Fly lady, but by day two I get too overwhelmed with all of the emails and unsubscribe. I think that I'll start with the things listed in the PP. Thanks again!

I did the same thing. I am a big time fly lady flunkie. Isn't she the same one who says that you should wear your shoes in your house? That just doesn't sit well with me at all, DH and I both grew up in shoe free homes, and we still do the same thing now. To us, it makes a big difference. I could never survive w/o my dish rack, even though we use our DW too. I don't think fly lady's program is cut out for everyone.

I did find another program that was much more user friendly and less intimidating. It was consisted of printing out a list of things to do each day with a checklist and I found it much less intimidating and more my style. Here is the website, it is not free, but I think the price is reasonable...

http://www.motivatedmoms.com/

[ellies mom]

For this one, I just use an in-sink dish drainer instead of one on the counter. Its a good compromise between uncluttered counter & air-drying.

That is a really good idea.

[tiapam]

I have not been very successful at Flylady in the past, but since then we have moved to a bigger house, with a dishwasher, and I hired a cleaning service. :) So, pretty much the opposite of everything she is about.

Our DW is old and some stuff just needs to be done by hand anyway and I have discovered that it is more satisfying to me to wash and dry and put away a small number of dishes than to wash a big load and just leave them to air dry. Of course, this does not happen all the time, but I really feel better when I can do a small load "completely". We have a double sink with an in-sink drainer.