Dear FlyLady,

I read your e-mails always for practical tips, but often times for inspiration, as well.  The other night, as all the usual excuses ran through my head; “I’m too tired.  Nothing special going on tomorrow, I can wear anything, how long will it really take for me to gather together an outfit…etc. etc.”  Something said to me; “you never know.”

Flash ahead a few hours to 4:00AM.  My beeper goes off (I was not technically on call, but sometimes — about once a year — this happens).  So, suddenly I am getting ready in the dark, at least half asleep, thinking; “thank you, FlyLady — this is so much easier since I had everything ready the night before.”

Later this week, I did only a partial routine before bed (better than nothing, I figured), and guess what?  The next morning, I overslept!  I was only 10 minutes late, but realized the difference it would have made, should I have followed the routine.

As one relative of mine used to say; “10 minutes at night is worth one half hour in the morning.”

Thanks for all you do,

FLYing in New England

I Will Be Purging Paper

Dear FlyLady,

I am a brand new FlyBaby, I have been shining my sink for a week now and due to an unexpected visit from our landlord, my DH and I had a crisis cleaning day shortly after that.

I am also a SHE, a full-time college student and a part-time caregiver in several locations around our area. This leads me to my testimonial.

I was asked to work for a new client this morning and needed copies of my license and other health-care related documentation. I couldn’t find one piece of paper because of the amount of paper clutter.

I thought I was fine because most of my papers are in a filing cabinet, but each file is so overloaded that it took me an hour and a half to find the one slip of paper that I needed.

It nearly made me late for work!!

I had an AHA moment this morning to start purging my paper clutter and realized how much I was filing that was unnecessary. Thank you so much for your words of encouragement, I will now be purging the paper clutter 15 min at a time!!

FLYing in NW Washington