Time management for a housewife

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

Without warning in advance, she dropped in to visit a friend. Opens the door in a beautiful white suit, shoes … Two-course dinner, apartment in perfect condition, interior with a twist. And at home - a dog and our kids - the same age. At the same time, she manages to make a career, and to engage in creativity … At least shoot a commercial about an exemplary hostess.

From her I learned about the new Fly-lady or "Flying Lady" housekeeping system, which is now very fashionable in America. Cleaning takes 15 minutes a day, but you are never ashamed of your house in front of guests. According to my friend, a year ago her apartment looked completely different, although she now spends much less time on housework.

The abbreviation FLY - from the English words finally loving yourself, which means "finally loving yourself." Moreover, to fly means to fly. This system of housekeeping and time planning was developed by the American Marla Scilly. The most famous fly-clubs in Russia are the Flylady.ru website and the community of the same name in the live magazine. On the site, you can subscribe to an email newsletter - you will receive daily reminders of what would be good to do in today's fifteen minutes of cleaning. For example, wipe the front door or clean out the accumulated rubbish bags.

The main provisions of the Fly-lady system

1. Appearance. In the morning we put ourselves in order: we put on our usual makeup and put on beautiful and comfortable clothes. Lace-up shoes are a must. Helps to feel in shape and not to bloom. Indeed, if you put on hard-to-wear shoes, then you don't want to lie down on the sofa and look through a magazine - you have to bend over, untie the knot …

2. To get started, create one place in your home that personifies order. Marla Scilly offers the kitchen sink. Keep it clean at all times and gradually build on similar habits as you move forward in small steps, remember that no one is asking you to tidy up the whole house at once.

3. Housework that needs to be done on a daily basis is called “routine” in the fly-lady system. They are all different. For example, in the morning - put yourself in order, load clothes and tea towels into the washing machine, have a snack, wash the dishes and take out the clean one from the washing machine, immediately putting it in its places. Evening - prepare the clothes that you will wear tomorrow, give yourself, your beloved, half an hour - a bubble bath, a pedicure or a TV series.

4. Decluttering the house. The motto of the fly-lady system is "rubbish cannot be arranged." If you want comfort, learn to get rid of the unnecessary. For a family of two, for example, you don't need ten sets of bedding - keep the best four. And order is easier to achieve, and the look of the bedroom is better. To start decluttering, first go around the house and throw away 27 unnecessary things (the number came from the teachings of Feng Shui). Books you will never reread, bad gifts, outdated nail polish. Repeat this procedure at least once a month. What did not dare to throw out - in a separate package and hide for six months. Then, without looking inside, we throw it away. By that time, you will have already forgotten what lies in it, but since it was not needed, it means that you can live without it. And new things appear more easily in the house when their old-fashioned prototypes make room for them. If you are really sorry to throw something away, give it to those in need or sell it at an online auction.

5. Don't buy a new one without getting rid of the old one. I bought a set of kitchen towels - you put it in the closet with one hand, with the other you immediately take out old towels and put them in the trash. Give yourself your word not to buy anything new until you use up your existing stocks of cereals and pasta. This will help you clean up your kitchen cupboard and save money. It is better to spend them on a set of storage containers - and get rid of untidy-looking assorted jars, pouches, pouches forever …

6. Extinguish "hot spots" in time. These are the places in the house where you should put something in the morning - by the evening you will receive a garbage pile. For example, a shelf in the hallway, a bedside table, and so on. Take two minutes a day to clean them up.

7. Divide the apartment into zones. For example, this week you clean more thoroughly in the nursery, and next week in the bathroom and hallway. This is especially convenient to do using mailing lists: when someone outside (and not the mother-in-law) reminds you that today is the time to wipe the closets in the nursery, it mobilizes. It is recommended to start a timer - and spend no more than 15-30 minutes on cleaning the area. As soon as you have time, you will wipe it, it is better than nothing. Accordingly, for example, when sorting through the contents of a kitchen cabinet, get out exactly as many dishes as you have time to put in place during this time. Hands itch to continue - it is better to move with the same timer to the closet in another room. When you go through everything (having arranged for yourself a full rest for the same time after 45 minutes) and the desire to finish in the kitchen remains, you can return. You will be surprised how much, according to such a seemingly strange system, you can manage to do in just a couple of hours …

8. Always and immediately clean up after you. It would seem that there is nothing easier than wiping the stove and the tiles behind it immediately after cooking. But we put it off and then wipe the greasy splashes from the tiles for an hour.

9. We pamper ourselves. This point is no less significant than the others. Drink more water. Take aromatic baths, read your favorite books in the free time, smile more - after all, it is precisely in order for you to feel like a woman, free yourself from everyday life and love yourself, the system was conceived from the very beginning. Be sure to free your weekends from cleaning and washing - dedicate them to your family.

10. Realtor game. Marla in The Flying Housewife. Reflections at the Kitchen Sink”recommends that you imagine that you are a realtor and look at the apartment with someone else's eyes. Your job is to guide the homeowner on what needs to be done to make the house look better before putting it up for sale. Write down everything you advise: “paint the bedroom window,” “replace the handles on the dresser,” and so on. Gradually, by including this in your cleaning plans, you will make your home more comfortable.

Another important thing: don't do two things at the same time! Do not try to immediately become a different person "from Monday"! Otherwise you will burn out by doing too much too quickly. It's like losing weight: the faster you want to "lose weight at any cost," the faster the lost kilograms come back.