Last year my favorite blogger, FlyLady, released another book called “Chaos to Clean in 31 Days.” Now I just love her, and the book didn’t cost too much so I immediately bought the pre-purchase and waited eagerly to get it.
Magic Bullet
Isn’t it funny how we are always looking for the next new magic item, that silver bullet, which will instantly solve our problem? It doesn’t matter if your thing is dieting, budgeting, or cleaning your house. We are all looking for the same quick solution, that easy fix to make all our worries go away.
Well, sure enough, I thought this new book would be my new shiny object that would solve all my problems. The funny thing, though, is that when I received my book and started reading it I realized that I thought I had read it before. Yep, in fact, I had. When I first signed up for FlyLady she used to send a series of emails in your first 30 days of being on her email list to walk you through learning your baby steps.
I don’t think she does this anymore, I think maybe her email list just got to be too big to manage in such a personal way. Now when you sign up you are immediately on her big email list which sends all the missions, Q & A’s, the current zone work, and everything. Which is a lot, trust me.
It takes a month to build a habit
This book is a compilation of those first 31 emails you would have gotten had you signed up for her email list back then. And all of the information in the book is also still available for free on her website. But honestly, how many of us have time to check in on a website each day to get our next “mission” – ha! I barely have time to shower each day!
I know I personally, never finished reading all the 31 emails of her baby steps seven years ago when I first signed up with her. You can read my journey when I first began with FlyLady here. She gets the idea of small baby steps from the same inspiration as Dave Ramsey – the Bill Murray movie with the same name. Funny how that one movie inspired such a cultural phenomenon….but I digress…
In her own ingenious way, FlyLady has packaged all her 31 emails into this one easy-to-use book that you can reference each day. No more remembering to check a website each day, and no more emails getting lost in the black hole that is your inbox. Just get this book and take the hassle out of learning her system. It is well worth the $10 and you can get it here.
FlyLady knows us so well because she has lived the chaos – and has come out on the other side while still intact. Lucky for us, she has now made it her life mission to guide the rest of us through the crazy maze, and help us come out on the other side ready to really live life. No more hiding behind our clutter. No more missed bills, deadlines, or school projects due to the lack of any sort of organizational system.
Be kind to yourself
If you are looking for some super complicated, uber-cleaning schedule then you should probably keep looking. But if you are looking for a slow and steady, kindly word of advice – then FlyLady is just the answer to your crazy and chaotic life. I know she has changed the way I do just about everything around my home. Is my home perfect? Far from it! But as she says in her book “we are going for progress, not perfection.”
Looking for a “Cliff’s notes” version of what she says in the book? I don’t think she would mind since you could technically get this all for free on her website also. So I took the liberty of making a quick guide on how to go from Chaos to Clean in just one month. Remember – there is no substitute for the daily readings and really diving into her program. You won’t get an A on your paper from reading Cliff’s notes! But you will pass the class, and in the end, isn’t that all we are going for?
Get your free download of the quick and easy, down and dirty from this book on cleaning right here.
From post-it notes in my bathroom to my morning routine in my control journal – it is all from FlyLady. Don’t know what any of this means? You will after reading her 31 Days to Clean – and I highly suggest that you do, especially if you are drowning in clutter and chaos.
Clear out those Hot Spots, write out your evening routine, and dust off your family calendar! Your family won’t know what happened when momma starts smiling and blessing rather than always nagging and feeling frazzled. Remember: You can do anything in 15 minutes! Let’s do this!
