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Any FLYbabies in here? Set your timers and let's chat for fifteen minutes.

Not a FLYbaby? Should you be? Read on.

Some people are Born Organized (BO). You know who they are - their bills are paid on time, their houses are spotless, dinners are homecooked and ready by dinnertime , and they always look so bloody serene and composed.

The rest of us are... creative. Spontaneous. Thriving on chaos and performing best under pressure. Sometimes we even believe that.

For the rest of us, there is the FLYLady.

FLYlady wrote:

Are YOU living in CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome)? Do you feel overwhelmed, overextended, and overdrawn? Hopeless and you don't know where to start? Don't worry friend, we've been there, too.

FLYlady is Marla Cilley, an incredible woman who has discovered the only successful way in this universe for the Rest of Us to get out of CHAOS and live like BOs. She runs a free website (www.flylady.net) and a free email list, and if there's one person I can honestly say has changed my life, it's she.

That site...it's just what I need! Bless you Frelga. Smart stuff...

*reads*

I've been to her site, but she lost me with the sink cleaning.

I hereby register my objection at being called a BO!

Quote:

if there's one person I can honestly say has changed my life, it's she.

If there's one thing that makes me unaccountably happy, it's good grammar.

<sigh>

Thank you, Frelga!

She... but don't we say 'It's her.'? So why 'she' in that sentence? I can accept it but I'd love to understand it...

Hmm...maybe in active...It's she who has...ahh now I get it.

I don't have a sink.

Whenever people call my home and ask for me, I say "this is she".

I've had more than one person correct me!

Rodia, you really don't have a sink?

Well, half a lie. I live in a dorm. The rooms don't have sinks in them- we use the big kitchen in the hallway. There are cleaners who come to take care of that, and the bathrooms, and the floors.

(I'd say 'This is me!')

Sink cleaning? I leave that to the hubby...

But, I'm definitely not BO - you should see my desk at work, or just anything at home...

Hey now I like my Choas....sheesh...I would probably die....DIE...I tell you if I was organized and a BO type....My body would go into shock.....


bleeeaaaaahhhhh.....Ara rolls over in death like throws just at the mention of organized help me...oh help me....

Seriously

This site looks kewl. Maybe I can figure out how to get my kids to clean the sink out....pet peeve of mine for it not being clean.

I've been FLYing for about nine months. The site is a little strange, but her ideas are sound, at least for people like me. Attacking things fifteen minutes at a time has made a huge difference. Keeping the sink clean has made a huge difference! It's really true that once the sink is always clean, neatness spreads as mess used to do. . . . And great messes do melt away a bit at a time, and then don't form again. I find myself with time to attack things like closets. And people can drop by and I'm not ashamed, and preparing for overnight guests means getting the linens out of the cupboard--no mad scrambles to dig the house out of a mess.

The Born Organized may roll their eyes now. Ready? Go:

I would recommend it to anyone discouraged about disorder and messiness where they live. Some may not care for the tone of the site, which is oriented toward young stay-at-home mothers and has definite evangelical Christian overtones. But don't dismiss the ideas behind it until you've given them a try. I know other people who, like me, don't fit that profile at all and have really benefited from trying it.

I admit to living in chaos, but I can and do have anyone I want over, as long as they don't care about messes. If he or she cares, he or she does not come over. I've tried to be organized. It doesn't last.

I have a pretty high tolerance level for chaos, but unfortunately when I reach that level I get an irresistable urge to clear it up - and because it's *such* a mess by then it takes forever so I aim to spend 5 minutes tidying every day in order to avoid spending hours on end doing it every month or so So far it's working

Bah, disorganization is my way of life
I dont think its something that MUST be changed unless you're really suffering major aftereffects from it... when no one cleans for me or attempts to organize my life for me, I know precisly at the bottom of which pile which pair of pants is, and in what mysterious configuration on the floor of my room my notebooks and papers are arranged in. When my mom "puts stuff in order for me" Im lost and tearing my hair out for days I celebrate my chaoticness! ...and I dont really care if friends see it...if I keep it from them they dont know the whole of ME. My mother on the other hand, refuses to have people over until I relent and clean. Siiiiiiilly.

Im all for keeping things hygenic...but clothes and papers that are strewn in my room do no harm. I make a point not to have organic matter disippated around the room. Dont want any little co-habiting insects and bacteria....

I go into these little cleaning/organixation phases every once in a while.

Those phases occur about every 3 months or more.



Unless there's something I abolutely can't stand and have to clean it up or organize it, but that doesn't happen very often.

What if I can't even make myself read the site?

What if I'm that bad of a procrastinator?



Sad thing is I'm being totally serious.

*sigh*

I am rather an organized chaos person, a bit like Enchie, but I have found myself craving for more logic in my daily life. I find Fly Lady's tips very much to my liking. I have used the 15 minute trick many times, especially to get my dear daughters to participate in any kind of housework. 15 minutes is liveable for most people and puts a limit to the slavery aspect of housework.
Guess i am going to be shining my sink first thing in the morning!!

W000t! Prim and Lacemaker are FLYing! I knew I'd find other FLYbabies here.

Anthriel, what's wrong with being called a BO? Does the acronim have a negative connotation? If so I apologize. If you are Born Organized, I envy you.

Northerner and Rowanberry, tell me about your sink and I'll tell you about mine. I think in the first 6 years of marriage I cleaned my sink about 5 times. It could get pretty ghastly before I'd get hubby to do it. These days... it's not exactly shining all the time, but by golly it's clean.

Prim wrote:

Some may not care for the tone of the site, which is oriented toward young stay-at-home mothers and has definite evangelical Christian overtones.

I'm neither, and I found that site invaluable. Marla is clearly motivated by her faith, but I don't feel that she is pushing it on anybody. If there's one person who practices without preaching, that's she. (Happy, Anthriel? )

Eruname wrote:

What if I can't even make myself read the site?

If you are serious, you could try signing up for the emails. She calls it FLYwashing. Even if you just read the subject and delete them, it messes with your head enough that eventually you start getting it.

I was just talking to my hubby at dinner, and he felt that I'm really backsliding. He's right, I am, but when I thought back to life before FLYLady, the difference is like Mercury and Pluto.

Quote:

If there's one person who practices without preaching, that's she. (Happy, Anthriel? )

Thoroughly!





B.O. is also short for body odor... but I guess lots of combinations of letters get more than one definition!

I've been pondering since I first read this today, Frelga, and I would say I'm probably born with an organizational gene. <runs, hides> I like order, not necessarily because I'm obsessive-compulsive, (although I can't quite rule that out ) but simply because it is more efficient.

The last two days I've let junk pile up around here (Mr. Anth is out of town) and today I wasted a lot of time just looking for stuff. I lost my cell phone twice today... once it was in the car (along with all the junk from the library, etc., that I didn't bother to unload) and the second time it was on the kitchen counter under the pizza box.

I probably spent 20 minutes today just looking for the dumb phone, when it would have taken me 2 seconds just to put it where it is supposed to go.

Organization is not, for me, an end goal in itself; it's a tool. Being organized helps me think clearly. It makes my day much less stressful.

Not to say that I always AM organized, btw... I have quite often been the biggest slob ever and have had to literally walk paths around the piles of junk on the floor... but I truly am more relaxed and happier when things are a bit more ordered.


So I have good days and bad days, but, in general, I like stuff to be organized. I guess I'm a BO, but one who reserves the right to have lazy days.


I think I like this Fly Lady lady!

Anth, I think I'm pretty much the same way. My roommate would have to disagree due to the amount of papers and clothes around my bed and desk, but generally I feel I'm organized. I like to know where my things are and I love it when everything has a 'place' where it belongs.

Obviously not quite the same, but my-oh-my is my computer organized. Every file is in a well labelled folder and I have so many folders to help organize; it is crazy. But then when I need something I know precisely where it is. And generally when one of my roommates tries to find something on their computers....well let's just say it isn't as efficient to not be organized!

What does backsliding mean?

I printed out 'How to Declutter' for my sister. Hopefully it will help. She's been cleaning her room ever since she turned ten. Hasn't finished yet.