Dear FlyLady,

I am a working mother with 5 children, and a husband who might as well be No. 6!  Without your mentorship, I would have lost my mind years ago, but I found you in 2002 and, through your mentorship, I have been FLYing for years now!

I never had a problem enforcing a before bedtime routine for my kids, but I had a hard time with it because I would lay out clothes to wear for the next day, and then in the morning I would not feel like wearing them.  How did I fix this?  I started laying out TWO sets of clothes for myself, so I would have a back-up if I did not want to put on outfit A.  We are fickle creatures, and this has helped me get up and get out the door instead of standing in front of my closet contemplating why I thought I would want to wear “this” shirt with “that” skirt or “those” pants.

Maybe setting up some clothing options would help another FlyBaby. Have a great day!

Melissa

Cleaning the Puppy Crate

Dear FlyLady,

I thought you’d get a kick out of this!

I recently bought the Rubba Swisha for my Swish and Swipe.  But as soon as it came in, I took a look at it, and I had a lightbulb go off in my head.  This thing looks like a toilet brush, and it probably acts like a toilet brush, but I never got that far with it to find out!

Our DP (dear puppy!) is still potty training and sometimes has accidents in his crate, which is enclosed and made of hard plastic. He’s small so the crate is small, and it’s hard to get in there and clean without taking it apart!  I had just been wiping it out with vinegar to the best of my abilities (it’s hard to get in there – I definitely don’t weigh 20 lbs. like the crate is meant for!), but I knew it wasn’t really getting clean.  Plus, I’m pretty sure the smell was making DP want to go in the crate even MORE!  Yuck.

Enter the Swisha.  With its little Rubba Fingers and the (blessedly!) long handle, this thing is PERFECT for scrubbing out puppy’s crate! I had been procrastinating (I know, I know) trying to scrub it out, because I knew it would be a long, stinky process that involved pulling the crate apart and getting up close and personal with some puppy messes.  But thanks to that Rubba Swisha, I never have to procrastinate this job again!  A little bit of dish soap and water + my Swisha + 5 minutes, puppy gets a very clean crate and a VERY happy mama!

I love the FlyLady tools and it is so much fun finding non-traditional ways to use them.

Thanks again!
FlyBaby S