So, who IS FlyLady?

Both Brent & I have made reference to FlyLady here and there throughout our posts. And a lot of people are asking the question, who exactly IS the FlyLady and what has she done that could possibly have changed my life?



Well, FlyLady's name is Marla Cilley (pronounced Silly). Her husband is a District Court Judge in North Carolina, so I'm sure he's heard a bunch of comments about that name. Basically, FlyLady is a mentor to almost 500,00 people, mostly women, through a Yahoo group. Her followers are called FlyBabies. Her goal is to get people to the point of Finally Loving Yourself. According to FlyLady, there are two types of people in this world, BOs (Born Organized) and SHEs (Side Tracked Home Executives). SHEs are the biggest portion of her followers. These are the people who are generally very creative, but live in chaos. People like my sister, LOL. Growing up, you couldn't see the floor of her bedroom.



FlyLady helps people learn how to keep their homes clean, peaceful, decluttered, and organized by instituting routines. Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I am BO. Everything has its place and belongs in it. I used to be like this to the EXTREME! Jane loves to tell the story as to how I had this stuffed turtle on my nightstand when I was a teenager. She would sneak into my room and turn the turtle onto its back. Whenever I would enter the room, I would make a beeline for the turtle to turn it back over. For some reason, this was a source of great amusement for her. I have mellowed out-I sort of had to, having kids in the house. But, not before I totally ingrained these things into Dade, unfortunately. At the age of 2 he was already completely stressing out when someone put his toys into the wrong bin. It is one of the traits of mine that I wish was not so prominent.



So, people who know me well, also know that I have always been a NEAT freak, not a CLEAN freak. Everything was in its place, and usually covered in a thick layer of dust. I hated vacuuming and dusting, with a passion! I never had time to do it "right," so why do it at all? Well, that's where FlyLady has come in. She teaches us that housework, even done incorrectly, still blesses our families. If we make housework fun and ingrain it into our routines, we never see dirt again. For example, I do the swish and swipe. While in the shower, I spend about thirty seconds wiping down the tub (swiping). Then, I wipe of the countertops and swish the toilet in another thirty seconds, and I have a clean bathroom. Every day! No letting the gunk and grime build up until you can't stand your dirty bathroom any more and spend three hours cleaning it "right" and choking on harsh cleaning fumes. Brilliant! I generally dust almost daily now, with my FlyLady feather duster. Doing it every day, I never see dust, but if I skip it for a week, there it appears. I can dust my entire 3 bedroom townhouse in 8 minutes-I timed it! I never knew you could actually dust without a rag, Pledge, and about 3 hours to spare as you painstakingly wipe down every item you own. Like Granny always taught us. And for those who say feather dusters only swirl dust around, obviously you have never used a true ostrich feather duster. They are the BOMB! Brent even wanted one to combat the dust in Iraq.



Basically, FlyLady has changed my whole attitude-about almost everything. She has taught me to look at housekeeping as not a "chore," but a way of "Blessing" my family. I show my family how much I care by making sure that the laundry is clean, a nutritious, healthy dinner is on the table, and "nothing says I love you like a clean toilet when you are sick." I have settled down and have much more time to enjoy my family, and treat them like loved ones, instead of a screaming banshee wanting everything to be perfect.

An example, Jane and I have been planning on having a girlfriend of hers and her 2 kids over for dinner tonight for about a week. The kids are all BFF. I got home this morning and said to Jane-maybe I should have cleaned the house. I looked around and saw all that really needed to be done was the routine I already have implemented. Everything else was done. What a relief! No more crisis cleaning.

Anyway, that is FlyLady in a nutshell. For those of you interested in learning more, check out her website under my links. For those of you that think I'm a little odd, that's nothing unusual either.