Why I love FlyLady, her daily household management tips and Christmas planning
Ever since I signed up in July I’ve been hooked on FlyLady’s daily email reminding me to give my bathroom a daily ’swish & a swipe’, to drink plenty of water throughout the day, to get everyone’s clothes for the next day ready the evening before, to give each room in my house a focus for a few days each month but above all I have been LOVING her regular advice for getting prepared for the ‘Holidays’ (she’s extremely american).
I come from a very small, quiet, non-religious family who never made much of a thing about Christmas when I was a child but I have always stated that it’s my favourite time of the year as it combines all my favourite things: being host to lovely people enjoying themselves, eating, drinking, giving presents, making the house look lovely and singing (I love do love the Christmas singing!) but had little idea of how to organise it all without busting various blood vessels during December. FlyLady has shown me how.
This year as we have downshifted and moved much nearer to our families in Bristol (and because we have kids are at that lovely age of nearly four years old) we have lots of family coming to stay with us. Normally I would be paralysed by fear at the prospect of all that hostessing, shopping/card sending/food prep etc but thanks to FlyLady’s daily pearls of wisdom (such as ‘Stop being a perfectionist’) I’m really really enjoying the run up to Christmas and am so happy that I’m on top of all the various things we do to make it a happy holiday for one and all.
One piece of advice she gave her so called FlyBabies was to carry a notebook with us exclusively for jotting down christmas related lists (who to send cards to, gift ideas, budget tally, menu planning, food buying, catalogue numbers and item codes blah blah blah). Well my 25p notebook is now full of lists having carried it with me and used it whenever I’m waiting for the kids to come out of pre-school or minding them while their enjoying their bath…
For the first time I’ve managed to
(a) define a realistic Christmas budget for gifts, food, booze, cards, stamps and wrapping AND HAVE STUCK TO IT
(b) have made just enough Christmas cards over a period of weeks & stamps rather than buying loads and then despairing as I wade through a never ending list of people to write them to in one all night session. This year my list is much shorter and I’ve written the labels ready to stick on the envelopes a few at a time.
(c) resisted the temptation to go ‘Christmas shopping’ and instead have made things, bought online having researched first or have bought vouchers/tickets for experiences rather than adding to relatives’ unwanted clutter
(d) made a food/drink list and have been buying a few of the bulky/heavy non-perishables each week rather than in one double trolley laden expedition nearer to Christmas
(this last one is my idea rather than FlyLady’s but it worked last year so I did it again)
(e) kept the spending down by buying pretty or useful things throughout the year whenever I saw them in a sale, in a charity shop or at a great price, I even put decent things that I had but no longer needed and I stashed them in a big box on top of the wardrobe - when I looked through the box in mid-November and compared it to the people I wanted to give a present to I already had a good number of them covered! Free presents - yay me!
Check out the FlyLady’s ‘Holiday Control Journal‘ for loads of really lovely christmassy ideas all focussing on the fun and joy of the season rather than the stress and the overconsumption.
Back to FlyLady in general though -when I first signed up for her daily email it was more for research than anything else but I haven’t yet unsubscribed as I do really value the reminders to do certain little things because of the profound effect they can have on your whole day (eg. coming down to find a clean kitchen in the morning rather than a sink full of stinky pans).
I’ve also begun to build the following habits into my daily routine (she introduced us subscribers to each month in 2006):
- January - Shining your Sink
- February - Decluttering for 15 minutes a day
- March - Getting Dressed to the Shoes (first thing in the morning)
- April - Making your Bed
- May - Moving
- June - Drinking Water
- July - Swish and Swipe
- August - Laundry
- September - Before Bed Routine
- October - Paper Clutter
- November - Menu Planning
- December - Pamper yourself