FLY Lady (Finally Love Yourself!)

Formerly, keeping a clean and orderly home was never an issue for me. In fact, I relished in the time I spent doing chores and organizing. I couldn't get enough of it. I found that the more I cleaned, the better I felt, so the more I would clean, etc. I find that a clean, clutter-free home frees me to embark on more creative, productive endeavors. On the contrary, living in a messy house leads to mental, emotional, and spiritual clutter. A great book that sums up the effects of living in chaos and how to get out of it is Karen Kingston's Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui. I highly recommend it.

Anyhow, I know all of this and was living by it... and then I got pregnant. I experienced about 6 weeks of intermittent nausea and fatigue, and as such I was forced to shift my priorities. A clean house ranked second to getting adequate rest and keeping my 4 kids clothed and fed. Well, the first trimester passed and yet I found myself stuck in some of the same bad habits I had developed while in survival mode. As of late it has been my goal to get back to where I used to be, yet despite my best intentions it's still been a struggle. Then I remembered FLY Lady.

She randomly popped into my head the other night as I was contemplating what I could do to get back on track, and so far she has made all the difference. I feel more like the old "me" than ever before. She has a very simple program that is easy to follow and is very gentle in her tactics. For example, Day 1's goal was to shine my kitchen sink. So I did. And naturally, this made me want to keep up with my dishes and counters as well, so I did that too. Yesterday's task was to shine my toilet. So I did- both of them. And naturally, with a shiny toilet you'll want clean counters and sinks, too. I also jumped ahead in the program and read that she recommends washing one load of laundry a day, so I've been doing this as well. As such, I am no longer overwhelmed by the burden of trying to wash, dry, fold and put away 6 loads of laundry at once. Today is only Day 3 for me, but I can already feel the change. I have fallen back in love with my home and the chores that go along with maintaining it. She coins the term CHAOS (can't-have-anyone-over-syndrome) and helps you to overcome it. As far as I believe, everything is better in a clean house! This is coming just in time for the holidays, too, and I hope to have reached my goal of order and cleanliness before I start homeschooling. Thank you FLY lady.