The Fly Lady Cleaning Method

What does an average day look like for me with this method?

My daily routines are broken down into 4 different routines, the way she breaks it down is Morning, afternoon, and evening routines. I split my afternoon into nap and post nap routines. The general idea is the same either way you do it though. In the morning she has you make you bed, start a load of laundry, do a swish and swipe (which is just quickly cleaning your toilet bowl and wiping your bathroom sink), pick what you will eat for dinner, and put away your clean dishes. The afternoon routine has things like drink your water, 15 minutes of loving movement, fold and put away your laundry, and a 5-minute room rescue (a quick tidy in your most out of hand room, for me that picking up my toddlers' toys during her nap). and for the evening you would shine your sink (wash your dishes and wipe your sink down), check the weather and your calendar, and restock your diaper bag/purse etc. for the next day. I add a few other things throughout my day like opening my curtains and tasks specific to caring for my toddler and dog. The routines are entirely customizable to your life but these basic tasks help keep me organized and on top of some of the basic things around my home, and guess what if I miss a day of doing my swish and swipe or I can't get a load of laundry going, or I choose not to like I do on Sundays, I don't feel behind anymore because its being well maintained throughout the rest of the week.

What does a typical week look like for me?

Sunday: Renew your spirit Day.

For my family this means going to church in the morning and relaxing the rest of the day. We do our best to avoid any type of conventional work and we don't run any errands unless absolutely necessary. For me this means I skip my swish and swipe, I don't do any laundry or dishes and I try to plan food I either don't have to cook or that I can cook on Saturday. This will look different for every family but this is what I believe God meant when He gave us the Sabbath as a day of rest. 

Monday: Meal prep Day (and if I wasn't able to shop on Friday, I will do it this day).

I work on cutting up veggies to freeze or making breads and things for the weeks ahead, I'm hoping to get into making more freezer meals soon too so that would also fall on this day if and when I start that. I also collect my trash and put it in the outdoor bins as well as my recycling because where I live it gets picked up on Tuesday Morning/afternoon time although this is technically a part of the weekly home blessing hour.

Tuesday: Weekly Home blessing hour.

On Tuesday's I do my home blessing hour. What this is, is 6-7 tasks that I do every week to help maintain my home, but I do my best to limit to just one hour. I sometimes use a timer to make it feel like a racing game which makes it more fun for me. Those tasks are:

1) Glass and mirrors (mostly bathroom mirrors and fingerprints from my toddler or nose prints from my dog)

2) Dusting

3) Dust mopping/sweeping (if you have carpet this includes vacuuming but all of it only applies to the high traffic areas so your main walkways and hot spots in the kitchen and your bathroom(s))

4) Mopping (again only the main traffic areas and don't worry about scrubbing just quickly swipe over those shoe prints in the entrance or the tracks from the dog, a tip for these is set a timer for 10 minutes and whatever you can quickly get done it that time is enough).

5) Watering my plants.

6) Stripping our beds and washing all the bedding (something I learned through this method that some of you might think obvious but for me was not, was to let my bed air out for a time while the sheets are washing and drying. I feel like it has made my bed feel that much nicer when I get in at night).

7) This is my trash that I try to do on Mondays.

These 7 tasks each week in addition to my daily routines help my home feel so fresh and clean every day and guest ready all the time for when my sister randomly shows up or my friend wants to come over last minute for a haircut etc. without making me feel overwhelmed and like I need to deep clean my whole home each week. I believe they will help yours feel clean and ready too.

Wednesday: Zone cleaning.

Each week of the month you have a different zone of your home, 1-5, that you focus on to do a deep clean on, usually about 2 rooms. This is doing things like a full clean of the bathroom, getting cobwebs from all the rooms, wiping cabinet fronts and cleaning all your kitchen appliances etc. depending on the room you're in. On Wednesdays I focus on the zone for that week. I normally put a good hour or 2 into that area during my toddler's nap. Sometimes I don't finish all the deep cleaning tasks on my list but that's okay because the space is always way better than when I started, and I can pick up where I left off next month.

Thursday: Procrastination Project Day.

This day is crucial for me because I love to put things in a basket or into another room to get done later and then I never get around to it. This has helped me keep from getting a massive pile of projects going at once and never finishing any of them. I also do my meal planning and grocery list making on this day, but I shop biweekly, so this doesn't need to happen every week. This day is also great for if I want to do some extra zone cleaning that I missed the day before or wrap up my home blessing hour if I didn't finish those earlier that week.

Friday: Grocery shopping and appointments.

This day I get my groceries if it's the week I need to do that. That means I try to schedule my prenatal appointments, chiropractor appointments, Doctor appointments for my daughter etc. all on this day. For me it's just easier to have everything on the same day of the week. As of right now this day is nice because it allows me to rest some on the weeks I don't need to shop or have an appointment and do something I enjoy like work on this blog.

Saturday: Family Fun Day (and cleaning my church).

This is a day for our family to do something fun together it also happens to be when most people plan parties and things so that works well this day too. I am also the person who cleans my church however we are a very small congregation and with me being pregnant my pastor's wife gave me permission to do this on an as needed basis so if we have other plans I don't tress to much if it gets missed once in a while.

So that's what the fly lady cleaning method looks like for me and its great because it is flexible for if you have a spouse with a weird schedule (like mine did until recently he use to only work 2 day shifts a week, so he was home a lot the other shifts were night shifts, and he didn't even always have to go in because they were on call so he was home 5 days a week most of the time). This routine has also completely changed the way I manage and care for my home and made if a task I look forward to doing rather than feeling overwhelmed by all the time.