“You are never behind. Jump in where you are.” – FlyLady

FlyLady has divided the home up into 5 different zones. Don’t worry if you think you have more than 5 zones in your own home (we all do!); follow FlyLady’s Zones. Her zones will hit on all the major living areas of your home. Each week, we work in a different zone. Each month, we repeat all the zones. In a few months, you will notice that the main parts of your home will look great. Then you will be ready to tackle some of the “other” areas of your home! Want to learn more about zones? Read the FLYing Lesson about Zones!

February Zones

These are the zones for February; mark your calendars! The bolded zone is the one we are in this week.

• Zone 1: The Entrance, Front Porch and Dining Room (February 1-4)
• Zone 2: The Kitchen (February 5-11)
• Zone 3: The Bathroom and One Extra Room (February 12-18)
• Zone 4: The Master Bedroom (February 19-25)
• Zone 5: The Living Room (February 26-29)

How to Begin

When you first start decluttering, cleaning, and organizing your zones, you are encouraged to spend 15 minutes per day decluttering in the current zone. That’s it — BabySteps! Set your timer for 15 minutes and clear out those things that you don’t use or love. Flybabies, don’t forget to keep working on your Morning and Before Bed Routines — do them everyday! (See the FLYing Lessons for more information about this.) Once you have a good start on your routines, it is much easier to do the zone work.

Read about this week’s zone.

Go to the launch pad to see today’s mission in the flight plan!

Before you start, review the rules of zone cleaning:

1. Be fully dressed to shoes before you start.
2. Your daily cleaning chores should be finished and preferably weekly vacuuming done.
3. The room has to be fairly straight.
4. Do not pull out more than you can put back in one hour.
5. Clean one drawer or one pile at a time.
6. If you do not know how to declutter, read the FLYing Lesson on How to Declutter.
7. Be consistent. Do a little every day. Don’t try to accomplish this in one day; you will burn out and will hate this system. BabySteps!
8. Set your timer and work for 15 minutes. That’s all. It did not get junked up in one day, and it won’t get clean in one day, either. It will take patience and BabySteps. You can do this.

Kelly’s Missions

After you have started decluttering in a zone, you may be ready take a look at Kelly’s Missions. These are fun! Kelly will send you on a mission in the current zone. You never know where you will end up (or what you will find) when you do one of Kelly’s Missions!

FlyLady’s Detailed Cleaning List

Once you have decluttered the zone (this may take a few months to actually complete —there is no rush here!), then you are ready for FlyLady’s detailed cleaning list. You will be amazed at how easy it is to do detailed cleaning when the clutter is gone! What is more amazing is how easy it is to keep it clean when your routines are in place. As FlyLady says, “The house practically cleans itself!”

We also have printable detailed cleaning lists (in PDF format) for each zone.

FLY Spot 

This week we’re in Zone 4: The Bedroom. Take a look at your curtains or blinds.
Do they need to be cleaned or dusted? Take care of that now. Try the feather
duster first, but if you have a build up on your blinds or curtains it may be
time to wash them or have them cleaned. You’ll smile when you see how nice your
window treatments look without that protective layer of dust! Declutter any
little knick knacks on the window sill that you don’t love while you’re in this
area.