Sink Reflections

My mom gave me this book with the disclaimer "don't be offended"--and I wasn't. I know I am "overwhelmed, disorganized, living in CHAOS" (can't have anyone over syndrome). It is by the "Fly Lady" who runs the website flylady.net. She has a system of cleaning and organizing based on the philosophy that doing a little bit all the time, and not worrying about perfection is the better than going all out once in a while. It's taken me about a week to get organized enough to start this method, but so far it seems to be working for me. Here are some of the tips/methods that are helpful for me:

• Shine the sink every night and keep it clean all the time. Don't let anything stay in the sink--ever. Not even a dish rag--keep it on a hook under the sink and replace daily. I really have noticed a difference in the kitchen with this one simple rule. Dishes automatically go in the dishwasher and it seems to keep the whole kitchen clean.



• She talks about "hotspots" or places that attract clutter. For my house it's my desk. Her advice is to focus on keep this "hotspot" clean at all times--even if you don't do anything else.



• Get dressed, do your face, and put on lace up shoes before doing anything else in the morning. I had to modify this because I try to exercise in the morning, but it has really helped to get dressed right after exercising, instead of feeling like a total scrounge all day. Really, most cleaning can be done in regular clothes.
• My favorite tip is to clean the bathroom every time you go to the bathroom. She suggests that you drink a lot of water (because it's good for you anyway) so that you have to visit the bathroom a lot. I try to remember to use a different bathroom each time, and I put windex and lysol under each sink along with clean rags. This is working out really well. Instead just thinking about how I need to clean the bathroom, I actually just do it!
• I also have begun to do laundry all the way through to the end and never letting it leave my laundry room to get piled on my bed. I do one load every day from start to finish. With just one load at a time I have enough room to fold it on top of the washer and dryer. I hate having stray socks on my floor in my bedroom, which is where I usually fold laundry. This method is really working!
• She tells you to get rid of anything that doesn't bless your home. I actually got rid of a vase I bought on our honeymoon that has been sitting on the floor for 13 years waiting for me to do something useful with it. I also got rid of the extra fabric from my bridesmaid's dresses that I didn't know I had until this week, and a bunch of old Christmas stuff that should maybe have been sentimental but isn't, so why have it? With my overactive imagination I sometimes have random nightmares like what if Gestapo type soldiers ttake over our country and come to my door and say my family will be spared only if I can produce an artifact from my honeymoon...I also always wonder how much money I would have to be offered to shave my head or be a surrogate mother. Anyway, none of these scenerios will ever happen!

What isn't working yet is the "zone work." She divides the home into 5 zones and you are supposed to work on deep cleaning one zone for 15 minutes a day. Zone one is for the first week in each month (which may be shorter than a whole week depending on what day the month starts), zone 2 for the second week, etc. I'm still not sure how to divide my home up. In the book she has just one week for the kids' rooms, all bathrooms besides the master, and I think the den too. She must not have as many kids rooms--not that 3 is that many, but it seems like that "zone" is too big. Anyway, even to have 15 minutes to clean is difficult once my day gets going and kids are home from school, etc.

She also says that if the kids or husband don't do their share, don't whine, just do it for them. I totally get the "no whining" thing, but I am having a hard time trusting that if I just do everything they will somehow come around and see my good example and start pitching in. I think they might just come to expect that mom is the maid--sweet! I guess it doesn't hurt to try to just do everything myself happily--I do it all angrily now anyway! I'll see how this goes.

Overall, I think it is definitely worth reading. My favorite philosophy is that even cleaning the wrong way is beneficial, so forget about the notions of right and wrong when it comes to cleaning. For instance, today I really needed to mop the floor but didn't have much time, so I just started mopping with water in the places that I could see black spots on my tile. I used the mop to push the crumbs to the corner and swept later. And even though that is not really the right way to do it, it still looked much better in about 2 minutes! I think that we are all too caught up with the notion that our homes have to be "perfect" to be clean. Real-ife dirt and clutter really isn't like sin, despite all the religious metaphors that compare the two. If it looks good on the outside, who cares if it is hypocritical, as long as you intend to deep clean eventually, right?

Well, I'm really good at planning to start new habits, but sometimes not the best at following through, so we'll see how this goes. If it doesn't work out, I can always go back to my own method--the plan to clean all day everyday and then do this for about two days, then realize that I will never, ever get ahead so I give up completely and decide to read a book and pretend that living in a disaster doesn't bother me until I really can't stand it anymore because it does bother me so I am mean to everyone around me and act like a martyr for having to do housework....Hey..maybe I should write a cleaning book!!!