flylady.net or the lure of routines
About a billion years ago I went onto Flylady.net and I have to admit that I thought, “this lady is crazy. She is a purple houskeeping dictaotr!”. I read through her site – thinkin g thoughts like – crazy woman gets dressed before she does anything. She shines her sink every night? why is she so happy about house work ..huh , just work on a task for 15 minutes? Interensting idea.
Fast forward a bit — the book Home Comforts by Cheryl Mendelson . Another one that seemed overly obssed by cleaning things ( I do not care how a fitted sheet is folded — as long as it doesn’t fallon my head or take up too much space) However in her introduction, sh mentioned an old fashion idea — laundry day was monday , baking day was Tuesday … a schedule.
Fast forward to – a few weeks ago . A lot of my friends were talking about the flylady again and there was a slightly different take on things . Most of the people I know still look at the getting dressed to the shoes every morning as something that doesn’t make lot of sense. The language is too cutsie. But people were still reading and talking and using the site. At the same time my friends were talking about the flylady , I was in the process of trying to figure out how the house was going to be a better place to live. I had been back at a full time job for six month; it was a month after my walk and I hated that my Wednesday off was become clean the house day. DH had come up with a great plan for the master bedroom to improve – so the momentum was there. So I reread the flylady site – with a more grown up eye and a trust in my ability to pull what I needed out of it and not be overwhelmed by the purple.
Interesting, the site read differently to me this time through. While I would say the flylady has many ideas about how things should be done,a lot of what she said made sense. Things didn’t become a mess in an hour , a day or week so they won’t become clean and organized in a an hour a day or a week. Her baasic plan breaks the house in to zones and you concentrate on one zone per week. She has a bunch of daily routines and different places to concentrate on and decluttering tips , but the interesting thing for me is that the zone thing seems to work for me. Over a week, I got the kitchen cleaner than it had been in a while – in small 15 minute tasks. And interestingly – the kitchen stayed clean while we ripped apart the bedroom and scattered it all over the house.
We ended up with a last minute thanksgiving here. So we needed to clean up in order to fit people in the house – it didn’t take too long and all but two rooms look good. We are both happier with things cleaner and more organized and I think we a little help from the routine builder we have a chance at some visual peace
3/50 project
So It is all about local business . It turns out that for every 100.00 spent in a local independent store 68.00 comes back to the community – only 43.00 if you spend it in a chain and well, nothing if it is online. ( there are some intersting exeptions to this)
The project info can be found here. it looks like brick and motar counts in the project because of commercial property tax. What this site is asking you to do is think of 3 independent brick and motar business and commit to spending 50.00 dollars out of you budget at them – instead of at a chain.
I have a few quibbles with this. But only because it doesn’t count a home based business like Pamela’s Soap or an online delivery business like Nile Pie . However , because they don’t have commercial property taxes – they don’t fit the model. But if you read through the 3/50 project site – they aren’t against such business – they just don’t fit the strict model.
Now I actually do spend at money at local business. the big grocery stores, clothing stores, and hardware stores that I use are chains. Sadly, book buying is mostly on line – but if I am near a bookstore – I buy.
I’ve read a few post about not buying for the holidays – but I think supporting the local independent businesses is a better idea.
So some local favorites:
Corrie Glass
Mr Mikey’s – hey i just found out they deliver!
th e Vine in Niles
the Nile Cafe
Bronco Billy’s ( small local chain)
kiowa rose
Picnic sandwich bistro
I’m wondering if I can make a bigger list, by thinking about it a little more
Dark
I was going to call this rain, but that is not the problem. I kind of like rain. The problem is the rain hit at the same time as the time change. and allergies. Some one even noticed that I have allergy eyes this morning. Getting out of bed has been ridiculously hard. I think three days of sun would fix this . I swear , this feels like getting up in the middle of winter in CT.
Home Improvement by Nathaniel
Nathaniel doesn’t like our wall paper anymore than we do. He is being proactive about it. Note: wallpaper removal is a tough job
Clean All the Things
Welcome, Welcome to Clean All the Things Week. I took vacation so I could clean the house. I’m not sure that DH understand this. And I am sure the cat thinks it is Knock everything on the floor week. But I just want to get things under control , so I can get on with more fun projects. We shall see.
Nathaniel
I figured out that I had no pictures of Nathaniel on my blog. Nathaniel cam into our life a couple of weeks after we lost AndyCat. Nathaniel was a wondering around our neighborhood – very friendly . Despite having a collar and a bell , no one could find his home. so he either got very lost , or was abandoned . Unforrunatley due the park, a lot of animals ( bunnies, cats and dogs) are abandoned here. nathaniel is still a kitten- maybe 8 months old now. Here is a picture of him useing an insulated bag as a fort
