I've just made up my mind that I have to put forth my best effort at housekeeping instead of thinking that I'll never be perfect so why try?

Anyone tried FLY ladies? I'm listening to their radio show and they make me so comfortable because they sound like they know what it's like to be a total mess and to get better -- not perfect, BUT better!

Any stories/tips/thoughts?

I have tried it a couple different times. Unfortunately it did not work well for me but I do know several people that said the "program" made a HUGE difference to them.

You get emails every day that tells you what you should clean for that day. It did have great tips.

Good luck to you if you decide to try it out

see also:

http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=383

for plenty of info on flylady. :D

I signed up for flylady, and thought it had great tips. Unfortunately, my problem lies in motivation, and I couldn't motivate myself to follow the suggestions everyday. I did like her motto, though: "You can do anything for 15 minutes." So true, that.

Fly what????? I never get past the ADDF notifications of replies to threads to take up another internet related cause.

I clean by "what I am tripping over" method.....It is simple it goes like this:
If I trip over it, stick to it, need to eat out of it or wear it then I need to clean it!!!!

I tried FlyLady.net but I was deleting the post more than following the program so I had to email and tell her I was starting school and didnt have time. I like the program and I found she has some books out about her method. Go to her site and just read the information and apply it to your life wehn you can www.flylady.net (http://www.flylady.net)
Her books can be order there or you can find them in the bookstore.

I have been a flylady member for several years, and like everything else in my life, it worked for awhile, and to a degree it still does-like someone said, it is the motivation part that I get stuck with-and I lost my timer, so that does me no good right now-but my problem is that I am bored to death with house work, I am ready to get out there and do something-so in the meantime I just clean when I have to. I think for ADD people, this is a great system-because you do it right away-and you do things in order-so your brain says, "I can't do this yet, because I haven't done this" and so on until you work up a routine-starting with your clean sink-try it, you might like it. LORI

I tried it.
The constant nagging emails drove me to the point where I wanted to choke Fly Lady.

btw - I didn't do a damn thing she said :D

I clean by "what I am tripping over" method.....It is simple it goes like this:
If I trip over it, stick to it, need to eat out of it or wear it then I need to clean it!!!!
This made me laugh sooo hard. Mostly because I can closely relate.:D

My newest method is - is my husband going to ***** too much about it if I don't clean it up?




yes my marriage is dangling by a frayed thread :p

My wife used it...got all kinds of organizational knowledge and a ton of , I mean a ton of, emails. She still couldn't find the motivation to use the knowledge, but can know tell you exactly "how" to organize your day, she just cannot implement it!

I felt overwhelmed just looking at the website, nevermind getting the e-mails and trying to follow along with it! :eek:

I just noticed, for anyone who is interested-flylady is concentrating on payroll shes this week, maybe month, I am trying to see how others manage. Do you do a routine? I have such a hard time doing the same thing the exact same way every day, but maybe it is the answer for me, to know I can't do something until I do something else, like do them in order-maybe my mind would be more organized if I did that, and I could pigeonhole things. Just wanted you to know.

I tried it, and then tried it again and then tried it again. I couldn't figure out why I just couldn't stick to it and do it. I can tell you what you should be doing and even made elaberate lists of things to do to get organized. I even read her book. There should be a warning label on it. DO NOT READ before being tested for ADD. Would have saved me so much grief over why everyone else could do it and I couldn't even remember where my shoes were, let alone put them on every morning.

Yes, I've tried Flylady & I can't keep up with the frenetic pace the emails come to me. I'm too busy to read all these to do's & then do the to do's. I embrace the general ideas she imparts & try to apply them here & there. Generally buck at anyone sort of commanding me do this now; do that now...I get this imprisoned feeling. I get a routine started & then I get out of the routine. Very hard to keep up & I forget constantly chores exist. Or else I get so chore-oriented I truly believe nothing in the world exists but chores & there is no hope for me or anyone. Life is all chores & get totally depressed about it. Then I find there is life after chores & go to other extreme. Always behind though. Just hopelessly behind and befuddled and confused as to how I can be so behind in the household tasks when most of the time I'm working. I think. Sometimes I get bumped offtrack & hard to get back to the work mode.

getting the emails once a week was enough to make me panic! aaaahhhh. look at all the stuff i need to be doing. then i calmed down and realized i could just take what i need/want, and leave the rest. who's to know?

I have heard of it a long time ago but never got into it. I wasn't ready for it then. can you share the info?:)

That is me exactly-getting bogged down with everything-like pickles and pears, I just am doing one thing or the other, super hyper focus, and then I can't jump from one activity to another, how DO you do that? the 15 minute thing is great, but I lost my timer. That is also why I don't like routines, they seem like jail to me, and yet in my brain somewhere is the knowledge that if I don't do that-like keep up with things, put them away when I am finished, or do that first load of laundry-then that is what causes my depression and here we go again, I will NEVER get this done, so what do you do? Make yourself do the mundane boring routine so I stay afloat? anybody have suggestions?

If cleaning one thing at a time is your way okay, perhaps instead of trying to change the entire system you can do a bit of modifying of the term one thing

Example if the hyper focus is cleaning out one drawer so that cleaning our t this one drawer takes half a day and you are unable to accomplish any thing else...instead of one drawer being one thing how about the surfaces of all the furniture on your bed room becoming one thing!

IMHO......The reason many changes in life fail is because people try to change too much too fast with no regard for their individual strengths/ weakness or personally styles. .making the assumption a style is good or bad…..for me being scattered isn’t either it simply is part of my style as a person…. What I mean by too much is they actually go against their own nature instead of modifying it.

I learn this when my ex-husband was diagnosis with diabetes

If a person were going on a diet.....which would work completely changing their entire diet. .say eliminating many of the foods they like like chips or sweat

or

Modifying their diet by buying one small bag of chips and sticking to that. one regular size candy bar……..Instead of frying their dinner seven days a week bake two days a week / fry 5....for one month then bake three meals and fry four...until frying is two days a week and baking or deli / salads are five. .decreasing portions by 20% while exercising 15 minutes a day will have most loosing weight slowing but slow steady progress is better than short lived successes!


Diets do not work in the long term unless they are ones you can live on for the rest of your life. If the diet can not be maintained then the weight will return!

Neither will cleaning systems!! Which is why many here mention the succeed in the short term but do not stick to it.

Proper treatment of ADD will increase the chances of your being bale to remember the modifications !!!

Small gradual modifications of already established style will increase the chances of "compliance" when compared to rapid, sudden 180 over haul.... sudden major changes that are against a person own nature is the cause of failure and depression!

I was able to apply my ex-husbands dieticians recommendations to some thing I wanted to change….. I found the same set of principles apply to house work!

Barrowed from AA- it is about progress not perfection!

I am not a neat freak by any means but I don't waller in filth or clutter either! My house doesn't look like one in the magazines but I trashed that expectation years ago....what a waste of time which is better spent on writing responses to threads!

Hope you can find some help in this some where !

I've just started using FlyLady and I love it. Already there is a change of energy within myself and within my home. I like that she says-dump the emails, they're clutter. Also, I've read in different areas she supports people finding the right way for them, not necessarily her way. For me it seems to take the perfectionism out of it. I could say something negative like, well it's only been a few days, maybe it won't last. And maybe it won't, but, "just for today", I like the suggestions on the website, and it's helping me.