Fly Lady cleaning system - 5 main principles

Fly Lady's quick cleaning technique and the inseparable art of living without worries have won the hearts of millions of women around the world. In this article we will tell you how to manage everything, never get tired and at the same time maintain joy in your soul. Do you want to be able to “fly”? Let's try!

You can listen to this article in full on our podcast:

Surely every representative of the fair sex has heard something about the fly lady at least once. Who are these people, you ask? First of all, these are women who value their time and strive to bring peace and joy to their hearts.

Isn't it a very tempting goal?

A real lady fly - a flying housewife or businesswoman - arranges her life in such a way that she has time to do household chores and devote hours to herself, her beloved. How to achieve this?

The answer to this question is given by Marla Seelly, an energetic American and the very first fly lady. The cleaning system of this super housewife, recognized in the West, is extremely simple and understandable.

But since it is focused primarily on American realities, which, of course, differ from ours, we have adjusted some points specifically for Russian women.

Fly Lady in Russian style

The creator of the unique method established the following cleaning rules:

Instead of taking a long time to clean, spend just 15 minutes on it in the morning and the same in the evening. To do this, set a timer on your phone.
During these 15 minutes, do not try to wash the entire apartment. Concentrate on just one room.
Don't move on to the next room until you've finished the first.
Pay special attention to the so-called “hot spots” - places where you like to put all sorts of things and where, therefore, rubbish accumulates (usually these are different shelves, chests of drawers).
The 15-minute rule will ensure you never have to do any deep cleaning.
Ruthlessly throw away or donate things that you no longer need or never liked. This will reduce the number of items you have to wash.
If you are a perfectionist, stop being one. Cleaning in small steps leads to the same result as a full-scale cleaning in one sitting, and saves a lot of nerves and free hours.
In the morning before and in the evening after cleaning, pamper yourself: drink tea or coffee, flip through your favorite magazines, take a relaxing bath.
Once a week, devote one hour to lightly cleaning the entire apartment (removing dust from surfaces, dirt from the floor).

Flying Bee Graph

A day in the life of Fly Lady

Now let's see what this looks like in practice.

You wake up in the morning. It doesn't matter whether you work or not, you need to get yourself in order from the very beginning. Marla Cilley is absolutely correct in noting that nothing disciplines us more than a well-groomed appearance.

Tie up your hair, wash your face, brush your teeth, make your bed, dress nicely, prepare breakfast for yourself and your family, run the laundry, take your vitamins.

After that, relax a little, reward yourself with a couple of minutes of pure pleasure and do what you like.

Then grab your phone, set the timer for exactly 15 minutes and begin your daily mini-cleaning.

The most interesting thing here is: where exactly to start and how?

We divide the apartment into zones corresponding to the rooms. That is, the kitchen is one zone, the bathroom is the second, the living room is the third, and so on.

Remember: never try to rush from one area to another, because then you will never completely clean one particular room. That is why we make this division - to do the cleaning gradually and competently.

The main thing is no fuss. Not in one day, but you will manage everything.

So, your first area is the hallway. Consider how dirty and cluttered it appears. The maximum period for which one zone is cleaned every day (30 minutes in total, that is, 15 in the morning and the same in the evening) is one week.

But if you have a very small hallway, in which you only need to wash the rug, wash the floor, wipe the dust and clean the shoes, then perhaps seven days will be too much, and for example, four days will be enough for you to completely clean this area.

Use the same principle to decide how much time will be spent on other places. It all depends on the individual characteristics of the room: the area, the degree of litter and pollution.

Marla Seelly recommends a week, but this advice is more suitable for owners of private and fairly large houses, of which there are not so many in Russia.

Let's go back to our morning. Having cleaned and washed the necessary places in the zone in 15 minutes, turn off the timer and feel satisfied with your work. Cilly considers this moment very important, and she is right.

You should thank yourself for your efforts, albeit short-lived. It's better to do something than nothing at all, right? After a couple of months of such step-by-step actions, you will be amazed to discover that your apartment is really clean!

In the evening, when you come home from work or are free from household chores, repeat the cleaning ritual, continuing to improve your area. Finally, wash the dishes or run the dishwasher.

After 15 minutes, thank yourself and relax nicely. Having relieved the tension that has accumulated over the day, go to bed with a smile: tomorrow a day full of new achievements awaits you!

For maximum effect, you should also do a weekly hour-long cleaning, which includes dry and wet cleaning, namely: vacuuming, dusting and mopping the floor. Marla calls this event a "House Blessing."

Watch the video: FlyLady. Where to begin?

What should I contribute?

Whatever you want! Some will say that they already remember everything and there is no need to waste time filling out all sorts of paperwork. And they will be wrong. Why? Take, for example, your job or the institute where you once studied. After all, there you had to keep diaries or notebooks. Write down tasks and plans. After all, it’s easier to live according to the system. Do you agree? When the scheme has already been written down, all that remains is to follow it.

Think about what you usually do at home, weekends are included here too. What would you like to do? But let’s agree honestly and include everything in this list! Even time to meet friends or go to the movies. Now organize it into graphs. This will be your first step towards your goal. For example:

Cleaning.
Cooking.
Income - expenses.
Garden care.
Children.
Personal care.
Animals.
Entertainment.

And for each column, make a weekly plan. Some even include phone numbers of relatives, friends, emergency services, and others. Birthdays also have a place here.

And now a small example by sections.

Fly Lady: Cleaning System

There are still issues with “hot spots” and littering.

Essentially, these are sides of the same coin. The point is that you eliminate everything unnecessary from your life. The concept of minimalism is now very popular abroad.

The consumer society no longer knows where to go from the influx of branded goods, mountains of clothes and food, which it throws in the trash because it “doesn’t fit.”

Minimalism tells us: keep only what you love. This simple but magical thought has inspired people all over the globe.

Followers enthusiastically note that clearing their homes of clutter miraculously frees up their thinking. It’s easier to think, easier to breathe.

You begin to better understand what global goals to set for yourself, which people to maintain contact with, and which ones to remove from your list of personal likes.

It’s hard to say goodbye to a familiar, albeit unnecessary, memory, but a true fly lady is not afraid of difficulties!

Declutter your home every day (at least one item at a time), keep an eye on “hot spots”, and soon you will accustom yourself to ideal order. There will be no more parasitic places in sight!

Watch the video: All about the audit trail

Fly Lady for working women

What do you think it means - fly lady in the office? What kind of flying bee is this?

Let's say you work for a company eight hours a day, and you don't want to bother yourself with all this "cleaning" nonsense. When do you find time for all sorts of techniques if you come home exhausted, loaded to the brim with thoughts about who needs to send reports and how many?

To do this, the system came up with a trick, namely, it assigned a symbol of a clean house. Everyone can come up with their own personification of order, for Marla Cilley it is a sink.

If you are afraid that you will not be able to become a fly lady due to being too busy and tired, our advice to you is to start by washing just one item every day. If you choose a sink, scrub it tirelessly until it is perfect.

Over time, this will become a habit. Some adherents of the concept laughingly tell how they begin to clean the sink right in front of guests, this action has become so automated for them.

A sparkling sink will take a week, a month or two, but will inevitably awaken the desire to clean more. You will suddenly realize that you have these unfortunate 15 minutes, which, it would seem, were not observed before.

There will be a stove behind the sink. Behind the stove there is a countertop, shelves, kitchen decor. Do you feel what the power of habit and discipline can do to people?

How to manage everything? Find out!

Flylady diary review

There are restrictions on the number of photos in the store itself. To understand how versatile and useful the flylady diary is, I suggest you look at this review.

In this review, I will tell you how I plan my week, month, year with the “My Secretary” diary.

The holes are made for a standard notebook on A5 size rings. There is a huge selection of them now. My cover is with the cat Simon

There is a corner pocket glued to the inside of the cover. There I put receipts, which at the end of the week, when registering expenses and income, I enter into an excel file. Sometimes I put stickers with important reminders on the inside cover.

The title page reminds me that I am not the only one bearing the burden of daily problems)) Yes, yes, all assignments are sent to the personal secretary)) When I accustomed myself to planning and constant use of a diary, my head stopped swelling with the amount of different types of information that needs to be kept up-to-date in a woman's head.

Monthly plan:

On the reverse side is a list of pending tasks for the current month. These are all those things that could not be moved from one day to another, long-standing tasks that really really need to be done, and other current tasks that should be completed in the near future, but have not yet been planned. When you move and rewrite them from month to month, sometimes it gets boring. And you think: “Damn! Is it really so difficult to do this? But I’ll take it and do it today!” And thus, I very quickly began to deal with elephant tails. Although no, it would be enough for a whole dinosaur!

The diary itself. It starts with planning your week. Current zone, flyspot. To-do list by zone - some tasks selected from the general global list that are scheduled to be completed this week. Below is a mini-weekly.

Day planning is divided zonally. At the top is “IMPORTANT TODAY” - things that bleed from the nose, but must be done. On the left is a list of current affairs at work, home, and personal affairs. On the right: - daily procedures (I write down medications for myself and my child, inhalations, exercises, manicures, etc.) - self-development and training (exercises for the body and mind. I confess that I don’t always keep up with this section. But I’m trying to get myself on track. When we stop learning, we stop developing. And the mountain of opportunities that could open up for us moves further and further away. We also shouldn’t forget about physical activity. In other words, this section is a mandatory minimum for the day. And when you don’t cross it out something for a day, two, three, you become ashamed. It’s a shame for spitting on yourself. It’s very motivating. You pull yourself together and try again.) - expenses for the day (a short list of income, as well as expenses with the check amount and name store, expenses without receipts. I add the receipts themselves at the beginning of the notebook. I usually sit down to add up the results on Sunday. When I’m lazy, once every two weeks. Thanks to this small but very useful section, there are no empty spaces in the accounting department.)

This is what my productive day looks like. I immediately cross out everything I’ve done and see what else needs attention. I usually select tasks from the list in order of priority. Sometimes, when I’m very tired and don’t want to do anything, I imagine that I’m just playing. And I need to complete as many missions as possible. Do you know with what pleasure you cross out lines later? Do you feel like spiderwoman)))

Section "Home" Events. Lists".

In general, you can form sections at your own discretion. The dividers are arranged in the order that suits you. And the tabs are cut out yourself. Recently, transparent films have been added to the kit, which need to be glued to the tab so that the corners of the tab do not wrinkle or fray.

Routines: morning relay race and evening marathon.

Below are missions by day of the week and a list of weekly cleaning hours:

Inspirational)))

On the next page there is a house plan, a list of hotspots and the name of zones with cleaning dates.

Next are the to-do lists by zone - permanent (periodic) and one-time tasks.

Then lists events by month.

Just lists of whatever. Books (read), films (watch), debtors, etc.

Next, the blue section “Medicine and Health”

Directory of contacts. Phone numbers, names of doctors, doctors' schedules, contacts of medical centers, hospitals, etc. Now you don’t have to rummage through the telephone directory or the Internet every time to call and make an appointment. I find this section with my eyes closed)

Medical notes. For personal reasons, I did not take pictures of the recordings. I usually write here treatment plans (mine and my son’s), dates of observation by specialists, and tests. In general, everything that doctors write in their cards is only in a brief and understandable form to me.

Home First Aid Kit This section has already saved me a lot of money. Previously, every time I went to the doctor, I was asked what medications to eat at home. But I could only roll my eyes, say “ah,” and dimly tried to remember the tricky names. Now I always know what I have in my medicine cabinet. I force the doctor to choose from my list.

Well, it’s clear that, again, for ethical reasons, I didn’t take a photo of the sketched piece of paper.

Emergency hospital packing list. I haven't filled out this section for a long time. Then I thought: “What if I have to rush to the hospital? Usually it happens so suddenly that you don’t realize anything.” I remember how I once went to the hospital, forgetting to take my slippers and robe. In general, I filled it out. And three days later, for the first time, my child and I were taken away in an ambulance. Oh, how I was shaking then, my brain was inadequate and was shaking along with me. This list helped me get organized despite my condition.

Kitchen

It took me so long to force myself to create a menu. And then it turned out that the menu reduces food costs. Because they stop being thrown away, and they are all eaten. And I stopped having headaches about “What to cook for dinner?” As well as breakfast, lunch and snacks. It turned out to be more convenient for me to create a menu for half a week.

On the back is a list of products in stock, what to buy and a place for notes (where to look at the recipe, edits to real recipes, etc.) Sometimes it is much easier to look at the sheet of paper, what is there, and based on this, create a menu. Otherwise you come up with a dish and run like a fool to the refrigerator and cabinets, checking what you need to buy. In general, this section is a must-have, it saves time)

There are pages with food options to make menu planning easier. Still in the process of being filled.

My favorite is rrrecipes. Stained cookbooks are a thing of the past! No need to look for a place to put your book. I just take out a piece of paper and attach it to the refrigerator with a magnet! The recipe contains short instructions. And if you forgot something, you can see the detailed description below. This is such convenient simplicity.

Well, the last one is “Data”

Address book for contacts of organizations, salons and other places.

Phones. Everything that didn’t fit into the phone due to infrequent use. I have them in the sections “Housing Issues”, “Kindergarten”, “Miscellaneous”.

And lastly, the most important, necessary and generally irreplaceable - password box. At the top the name of the resource, site address, login, password are indicated, at the bottom you can add additional information (which soap is registered for or the answer to the security question)

Next, I have 3 files where I store all the waste paper (receipts, stickers, doctor’s prescriptions, etc.) And there is also a pocket for business cards. I used to carry a pack with me in a bag, but they wrinkled, frayed, and tore. Now they always have a decent virgin appearance

I adored ring notebooks from the first day I saw them. Precisely for their versatility! In ordinary notebooks and notebooks, I was always haunted by the thought “Tear out the page and move it to another place.” That's why I made my dream of an ideal QOL diary come true. And guess what? )) Today I just don’t know what I would do without him. Everything is in it. Almost my whole life! He keeps it under control, strictly putting everything in order, just the way I like it!

Fly Lady tasks for every day

Now let's move on to the most interesting part.

If we've convinced you that Marla Seelly's rules are attractive and effective, prepare a daily cleaning plan. It is called an audit trail, where all zones are entered, and all types of tasks are prescribed for them.

The point of starting such a business diary is not to keep everything in memory. We know that this is not possible, especially if you are a really busy woman.

Get a thick notebook or install a notes app on your phone or tablet.

If you choose the traditional writing method, line the sheets according to how many zones you will have and how many things to do for them. Or you can make a regular list with points and numbers.

The audit trail usually includes not only cleaning details, but also other important events: birthdays of relatives and friends, emergency numbers, lists of available medications and necessary purchases, financial calculations. Some also devote pages to recording wise thoughts and interesting quotes.

Kinds

It’s not difficult to guess that records can be stored in two available ways:

on paper.
electronic.

It's convenient for anyone here. It’s easier for one girl to put a notepad in her purse, and for another to open a tablet or laptop.

And then only your imagination! If you prefer the paper version, then take what you want. You can write it down in a notebook, notepad, or diary. There are no restrictions on sizes either. There are options that have been underway for several years!

Fly Lady's audit trail. Completed example

We want to offer you the best cleaning option by zone. Using it, you can easily deal with the mess in all rooms!

Below is the latest Fly Lady audit trail we have developed. You can download it for free by simply right-clicking on the pictures and saving them to your computer.

Cleaning the hallway

Cleaning the bathroom

Kitchen cleaning

Living room cleaning

Cleaning the bedroom

The proposed example of cleaning by zone can be printed and pasted into your personal audit trail. Do the same with your daily, weekly and monthly to-do list.

Fly Lady: Books

If our article seemed insufficient for mastering the material, here are several good publications dedicated to properly and quickly putting things in order in the house:

Marla Cilley “Flylady School.
How to bring order to your home and life . The Bible is a real Fly Lady. It is with this book that you need to begin to comprehend the method.
Shuke Matsumoto, Zen Cleaning.
A method of putting things in order without effort and stress from a Buddhist monk . Cleaning secrets from a Japanese priest. In a purely practical sense, the book is useless, but it puts you in the right mood, clears your thoughts and perfectly motivates you to finally take care of your household. The author correctly notes: cleanliness in the house is cleanliness in the soul.
Francine Jay "The Joy of Small Things"
How to get rid of trash, get yourself in order and start living . The publication talks about the concept of minimalism. Valuable advice is given on how to dare to completely reconsider your material possessions.
Jeff Bredenberg's 2001 Secret to Perfect Cleanliness
. Outwardly unprepossessing, this book actually helps every housewife, even experienced ones, very well. A huge list of household life hacks is divided into categories and alphabetically. Therefore, it is easy to find the information you need.
Tony Hammersley My Ideal Home.
166 life hacks. A complete guide to organizing space at home . The sorting of ideas here is also carried out by categories, but their role is played by zones already known to us, that is, rooms in the house. Nice and useful read.
Marla Cilley “FlyLady School – 2. How to understand the reasons for your gluttony, get rid of excess weight and love yourself
. Not exactly about cleaning, but also for true “bees.” Marla encourages us to finally take on a diet and get our bodies back to normal. As with the first book, the reader is encouraged to progress in small steps. From a psychological point of view, this is an excellent, non-traumatic approach.

All of these manuals can be purchased in the Ozone online store. This is what they look like:

Fly Lady and books

We've sorted out the printing media. What's going on with Russian bloggers?

Fly Lady Yana Lan

Yana Lan is a professional psychologist and minimalism expert. She has two channels on YouTube. In her videos, Yana talks about how to eliminate mess and chaos in accordance with the Fly Lady technique.

Her recommendations are somewhat different from those given by Marla Seelly and other “bees,” but they are no less effective in everyday life.

Basic rules of cleanliness and order in Yana Lan:

We clean every day for 15 or 20 minutes. But instead of writing lists, we just look around and determine what needs to be changed. For example, you notice that the curtains have become dirty. Take them off and take them to the dry cleaner. Or you see that you need to wipe down the lamps and water the flowers.
Once a week, standard, not general cleaning is required.
You still need to make one list. This is a list of extraordinary tasks that we, as a rule, prefer to forget about. This includes things that cannot be reached not only during daily, but also weekly cleaning. For example: oil the door, paint the walls, buy more bed linen, pick up a new blanket.
Yana advises reading the books “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron and “Getting Things in Order” by David Allen. From them you will gain additional information about how much diaries and planners help in solving problems.
Littering applies not only to useless items, but also to gifts. As a rule, it is especially difficult to part with them, because you don’t want to offend the donor. The psychologist advises: talk to this person frankly. Try to explain to him why this item is no longer relevant to you. A frank, confidential conversation will allow you to stop feeling shame and throw away the gift.

Watch the video: How to motivate yourself and your children

Using the Timer

Marla Seeley insists: when doing household chores, it is important not to get tired so as not to burn out and abandon the system. She advises setting a timer for short intervals (from 2 to 15 minutes depending on the task) and during this time immersing yourself in cleaning without distractions.

Waiting for a call creates discipline, so with a timer, work goes much faster and more efficiently than without it.

Photo: Instagram sad.fat.cat

Try not to pull out more things than you can sort through and wash in the allotted time.

Fly Lady Golda Balabusta

“Balabusta” is translated from Hebrew as “hostess.” And indeed: Golda is a superwoman. She is a mother of many children, the wife of a rabbi, a teacher at a higher educational institution and a fly lady.

Her advice is suitable not only for housewives, but also for businesswomen. She, like Yana Lan, is a fairly well-known blogger in Russia. We've collected the best ideas from her video below.

Golda Balabusta on proper shoe storage:

If you have many children, it is better to store shoes not in the nightstand, but in the closet. You can buy it or make it to order (the second option is more preferable, since you will build it for yourself).
To free up space in the hallway, it is advisable to choose a narrow and tall cabinet with additional side sections.
Sloping shelves are impractical; it is better to buy a cabinet with regular shelves - then you will be able to put shoes on top of each other.
Shoes cannot be stored outside the closet. Make children wipe down their boots and shoes immediately after going outside and then put them away. This way you will keep the hallway clean.
Place all out-of-season shoes on the mezzanine. You don't need it in an accessibility zone.
Buy two-story shoe stands from Ikea, as well as clear shoe boxes from AliExpress. The latter are very convenient because all the pairs you have are visible through them.
If you still don’t have enough space, buy hanging pockets; they are sold at any hardware store.
In winter and the off-season, when the streets are muddy and the roads are sprinkled with salt, put regular newspapers in the closet. This way you won’t damage or stain the furniture.

Lifehacks for the kitchen and more:

Buy a set of disposable bath caps and cover your food plates with them to prevent them from getting dirty. This is much more convenient than sealing bowls with foil or cling film.
Get a magnetic notepad with a pen and hang it on the refrigerator. Write grocery lists, recipes and any other information there so you don’t have to store it in your head
If you have children and a slob husband, then there are probably various small objects lying around your apartment, such as Lego elements, balls and screws. Get an ordinary plastic container for these things and throw them there. When you have a free minute, “unload” the box.
Buy a set of disposable gloves for the kitchen. They can be worn not only before washing dishes, but also during cooking, when your hands get dirty.
Before you get ready to make lunch or dinner, place a large empty bag on the table. Throw all cleaning into it immediately. The countertop will remain in its original condition, and after finishing cooking you will only have to throw the bag in the trash.
If you often freeze food, buy a marker and a set of small pieces of paper. Before you put the bag in the freezer, put a note in it stating what's in it. When you look in the refrigerator, it will be clear where everything is.
Purchase wet wipes and dry paper towels. They will come in handy in any emergency if your loved ones have spilled or gotten something dirty.
Store different types of cereals in transparent containers. This way they will be clearly visible.
If there is food left in the refrigerator that no one wants to eat, put it in the freezer. Perhaps it will come in handy again soon because someone suddenly gets hungry.
To save space in kitchen cabinets and drawers, place tall baskets of different sizes in them, which will serve as both dividers and containers for items. Vertical storage perfectly solves the problem of lack of space.
Do not crowd the countertop with anything, this is a space for cooking and nothing else.

Structured

And here you combine the graphs. Experienced fly ladies divide the recordings into 4 parts:

Introduction. Goals for the week are written here. All your possible wishes.
Housework. Actions you need to take: cleaning, cooking, children. You can simply write down the days of the week and make a rough plan. For example, on Monday we are preparing to eat (write what exactly). Then, we clean the area and work with the child. And so on every day.
Shopping lists for groceries, medicines, chemicals, cosmetics.
Self-care for your loved one.

I'll tell you a little secret. Some flyladies start several notebooks at once. One contains information on housekeeping, the other contains telephone numbers. And in the third event for the weekend, the so-called holiday magazine.

Which template you choose is up to you. Just don’t try to fit into someone else’s scheme. This will be a major mistake. Develop your lists.

By the way, I'm waiting for your options in the comments. I wonder if you have ever tried to set up your life according to this principle? Did it work? If not, why not? Leave responses and become blog subscribers. Until next time. Bye!