Dear FlyLady,
I don’t write reviews or testimonies for anything before this. I was just compelled to let you know how much good you are doing for people, families, parents, and marriages.
I stumbled on your website in late June because my family and I were living in CHAOS. I was sobbing and Googling pictures of what ‘real’ houses looked like to try and feel better because mine was a disaster. My husband and I work full time and we have a 6 year old DD,4 year old DS, 1.5 year old DD. I had no routines and I would spend my weekends trying to catch up. Crisis cleaning for company was just a part of life. With owning an older home, renovations and the messes they bring always seem to be looming over my head. The dread I felt coming home to a house in CHAOS was awful. Overwhelmed is an understatement to what I felt. Finding your site has changed our lives. I have become a more patient mother with streamlined routines. I have become a better wife not playing the martyr because I was “the only one doing anything”. I have become a better person and much less of a perfectionist with your routines and your take care of yourself attitude. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Your routines and philosophy are so encouraging and supportive. I jumped right in and shined my sink, printed out your routines, and got to work 15 minutes at a time. I was truly amazed at how much I could accomplish (even on those weeknights between cooking, baths, and bedtimes) in just a short amount of time. After cleaning for 45 minutes I can now fully relax on my 15 minute breaks from cleaning and do something guilt free for me! I love it! I am very proud to say that my house is now clutter free! We’re remodeling our main floor bath so to be able to keep the house clean while that mess is going on feels like I have control over my life. My kids love to clean their rooms in 15 minutes intervals and it’s fun for them to see how much they can get done before the timer goes off. We often play kid songs as they are cleaning.
Some routines wax and wane a little just because of life and not being as consistent as I could be. About 4 weeks ago my 6 year old DD came home with lice! Ahh! So not only did we have to do the lice cleaning process our house was messy on top of it. So we got everything spotless and got rid of those awful things. Two days ago lice reared it’s ugly head on her again! This time, our house was extremely manageable and I was caught up on laundry because I do a load every day! So all that needed to be done was the current bed linens and other current clothes. The old me would have been 2-4 loads behind. I can’t tell you enough how much ‘a load a day keeps Mt. Washmore away’ has been praised in our house. My husband even said, “We would not have been able to do this without FlyLady!”
I have your calendar color coded with everyone’s schedule as my husband has on call weeks, our out of town training days and where I will be at for my shift. I have made a control journal. I now call it my ‘Peace of Mind Journal’. I added a spiral notebook so that as I think of stuff for lists, or groceries, Christmas present ideas, etc. I added a 3 hole punch folder so that I keep paperwork in there that I need to fill out, daycare, school picture info, etc. One side of the folder is for incoming/to do and the other side is outgoing. On the outside of the journal it says, “What she tackles, she conquers”.
I am shouting your praises from the rooftops! Thank you so much for everything you have done and continue to do. I’m FLYing and I love it!
FLYing in MN
