Dearest FlyLady,

There I was, starting to really Rock my Routines, and it felt fantastic!  My house was almost completely decluttered, and it was clean!  I was even mastering the hot spots, which I always thought I was too tired to do before bed. While I was procrastinating in my mind about it one evening, I realized I was cleaning off a hotspot while whining that I didn’t have the energy to do it. With my routines in place, I didn’t realize I was actually doing it automatically! I was SO happy!!!!

That’s when it all came crashing down and burning at my feet. My mind said,”This is so easy, I can do MORE!! With FlyLady’s system, I’m only deep cleaning one zone a week, which means it only gets done once every five weeks. THATS NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!!  I know. I’ll do one zone every day. I can spend just one hour a day on each zone and the house will be PERFECT all the time!!!” :-)))

You know the rest. The routines fell away after I would miss a day here and there, then fell behind on everything and now I’m completely out of my easy routines. I have to start all over building my routines and opening my control journal again.

Your routines, when they truly become routines and we don’t think about them, made me think it was so easy. My perfectionism made me think I could and should do more.

Your system works wonders. We don’t feel like we are doing anything and the house is sparkling. Next time I get into my routines, I won’t feel guilty about how easy it is to keep a clean house, and I’ll smack the martyr in me (or give her an umbrella drink and sit her down outside in an Adirondak chair) and tell her to relax. Everything is done.

God bless you for helping us martyrs.

Fluttering again in Colorado