Cleaning Routines for Working Moms: Fly-Lady
Whether you are a Mom working away from home or a Mom working at home, we all need cleaning routines to keep our homes under control. Fly-Lady might be one of the most well-known programs out there.
What Are The Origins Of FlyLady?
Marly Cilley is the founder of FlyLady. She started this program in North Carolina in 1999 with an email group which led to the FlyLady.net website two years later.
She has a busy website, an active YouTube channel, a “No-Whining Allowed” Facebook group, emails, apps for cell phones and multiple published books. It is not hard to find the FlyLady system online.
Get Started!
If you want to start the FlyLady system, you don’t even have to wait for tomorrow morning. Right now, you could go into your kitchen and clean your sink. Shine it up! That’s a start and a central part of this cleaning system.
FlyLady is about setting up your cleaning routines for the morning, afternoon and evening (or even just morning and evening). A little bit of consistent cleaning will keep your house cleaner and reduce the need for big, all-day cleans.
In the beginning, she recommends Baby Steps. This is her way of introducing you to the program by adding one task each day to build a routine. You can sign up through her website for daily email reminders which will guide you through the first 31 days of Baby Steps. It takes 28 days to create a habit so in 31 days, your home cleaning routine should be comfortable.
Building consistency is important. You do what you can. If you miss something, you have another start tomorrow. Your a working mom so your cleaning routine doesn’t have to be perfect; you just have to try and try again.
What Are The Keys To The FlyLady System?
Use A Timer.
Work for 15 minutes at a time. This is manageable. It is not overwhelming and will keep you on task. You have permission to stop after 15 minutes!
Start The Day Well.
When you get up in the morning, make your bed before you leave the room.
When you get dressed, get fully dressed. This includes shoes.
Stick To The Weekly Routines.
Each day has a specific task or set of tasks assigned to it. Depending on your schedule and your family (especially if you are a shift worker or have shifting custody of children), you may find it works better to rearrange the days, but this is how she sets it out.
Monday: Weekly Home Blessing.
This involves the highest traffic areas of your home – probably just your kitchen, living room, entry, hallway, maybe the office — and taming them. This is not a deep clean and you’ll spend no more than 10 minutes in any room. This is a quick dust, mop, vacuum, pick up garbage and cull papers.
You don’t need to spend more than an hour here.
Tuesday: Break Day or Desk & Plan.
While Cilley lists Tuesday as a break day, some devotees like YouTuber Diane in Denmark suggest this is a good day for your desk. Spend some time at your desk to pay bills, do your meal planning and update your planner.
Wednesday: Anti-Procrastination Day
Yes, this is the day to do those things you’ve been putting off. You’ll feel better when you get these things done. Maybe this is making phone calls to book appointments, fixing the hem on those pants that have been waiting for a couple of weeks or shredding the paper waiting at the paper shredder.
Thursday: Errands
You’ll save time if you plan ahead and do all your running around at once. There is always something that needs to go: donations to drop off at the donation centre, purchases that need returned or overdue library books.
You can put those items into a basket or tote through the week and take them out with you on errand day. Bonus: that leaves you with an empty basket if you have any shopping to do on the way home.
Friday: Date Night, Car and Handbag.
FlyLady calls it date night. If you don’t have a date, then maybe consider it a date with yourself and take some time for self-care. Whether that’s a manicure, a soak in the tub or some quiet time, do something for you. You are important!
Take the time to clean out your car and your purse. Bits of garbage, papers, all that stuff that accumulates doesn’t take a lot of time to deal with.
Weekend: Family Time.
Having a clean home is important but shouldn’t be your top priority in your daily life. Spending time with your family and, if you are a church-going family, refilling your spiritual well can be your priority.
The cleaning routine you have followed consistently during the week will give you the flexibility to take a weekend break from cleaning to focus on priorities.
How Do You Clean Your Home With Zones
There are four full weeks and a partial week in the month. FlyLady dedicates each week or partial week to a different area. Then you rotate through the major areas of your home over the five-week rotation. Her set schedule ensures that everyone is working on the same zones at the same time.
Over time, you’ll find the main areas are taking less time and effort to keep clean and tidy which will leave you with time to get to those other extra spots that are not specifically named in her general zones. Her 5 main zones are:
- Foyer or entry, porch and dining room
- Kitchen
- Bathroom and One Extra Room (office, children’s bedroom or bathroom). Note: this can be more than one bathroom but doesn’t have to be all bathrooms.
- Master bedroom, closet and bathroom
- Living room, den and basement
Zone cleaning involves a more detailed cleaning than what you do in the Monday home blessing. She recommends decluttering for 15 minutes a day before you start tackling the detailed zone cleaning lists which involve things like wiping down bannisters and light fixtures in zone 1 or emptying and cleaning the fridge in zone 2.
The FlyLady website has detailed lists for zone cleaning for you to work through. You might not always get everything done, but over time it gets easier. If you are an email subscriber, she will send you a daily mission as well; this is an additional task to take care of in the zone.
How Do You Declutter With FlyLady
On every zone cleaning list, she includes a note that if you haven’t decluttered the room yet, decluttering should be taken care of first. Use that timer. If you can’t do 15 minutes at once, then tackle it five minutes at a time.
She has multiple suggestions for decluttering.
27-Fling Boogie
This involves walking through your home with a garbage bag and throwing out 27 items. You toss and take the garbage out. No second chances here. It’s just a speed thing.
Hot Spot Fire Drill
Clutter attracts more clutter. This is just a quick attack on a known problem spot. If you aren’t sure where your hot spot is, look for a pile of paper. It’s a common culprit. (It’s also a sign you might need a strategy to deal with papers.)
Five Minute Room Rescue
This is a daily 5-minute task to work on your toughest, cluttered space. It keeps it from being overwhelming. You can manage 5 minutes! If it goes well, it’s optional to keep going.
Keep A Control Journal Or planner.
Having a spot to keep track of what you are working on can be really handy. This can also be an effective tool to review periodically to see what is working for you and what isn’t.
You don’t have to use a physical book. If you do this already on your phone, then stick with what works. You have to adapt it to you or you won’t stick with it.
Shine Your Sink!
This might be what FlyLady is most famous for: the clean sink. If you do nothing else in your day, you need to clean and shine your kitchen sink before bed. This is her non-negotiable.
I know, if you have teenagers, sometimes the sink doesn’t stay clean after Mom and Dad go to bed, but hey, you can teach them how to clean the sink when they are finished!
What Does A FlyLady Day Look Like?
As mentioned earlier, this program has routines tied to each part of the day.
Morning Routine.
When you get up in the morning, make your bed and get dressed, including lace-up shoes. FlyLady is adamant that you must have your shoes on whether you are leaving the house or not. It’s about being ready for anything. (I don’t wear shoes in the house so slippers will have to suffice!)
Her morning routine also includes:
- Do a quick swish and swipe to clean the bathroom. Keep this simple: wipe down the counter and sink, put away any toiletries and swish the toilet brush around the bowl. You don’t even have to use cleaner.
- Tackle a 2-minute cleaning of a hotspot in your home. The hotspot is anywhere you drop things and a pile develops. Usually this is a flat surface you want to keep clear but could even be a drawer or a basket.
- Do a 5-minute room rescue to pick up one room.
- Put in one load of laundry.
- Turn on the dishwasher after breakfast. If your family likes to run the dishwasher after supper, emptying the dishwasher might be a better early task.
This leaves the house clean as you and your family leave for work/school. Your kids can empty the dishwasher after school.
Your a working mom about to embark on a busy day so your morning cleaning routine isn’t a big commitment of time. If you are finding it too much work, get out your timer and audit how long it takes you to do each of these things.
Afternoon Routine.
Working Moms can divide these this cleaning routine between morning and evening or finish it after work. See what works better for you.
- Tackle your zone cleaning, including the Mission of the Day.
- Spend 15 minutes decluttering each day. This might be less than 15 minutes if you already did a few minutes in the morning.
- Update your control journal/planner.
Evening Routine.
The evening routine is an especially good one to get the whole family involved in. Mom is not the only one living here and shouldn’t be the only one responsible for it. The title of this post may say cleaning routines for working moms, but everyone in the household can be delegated a task in the routine.
- Plan clothes for the next day so there is one less decision to make in the morning.
- Do a quick walk around your home for a last pickup and home reset. Hopefully, you took care of the kitchen right after supper so you don’t have to worry about it later. Polish that sink!
- Set up a launch pad for the morning. Collect everything you need to take with you in this one convenient spot. This might include your wallet, your swipe card for work and your gym bag if you go to the gym before or after work. If you have small kids, you probably already use the launch pad to make it easier to get your kids off to school.
Give Yourself Structure and Routines That Work!
FlyLady is a great system for anyone who wants a structured plan and an exact idea of what to work on each day. It’s important to remember that you don’t have to do it all right away. She doesn’t expect anyone to adopt all the different tasks immediately. You just have to start with something.
The routines will become automatic because they are short and simple. This is why you start with the kitchen sink.
Her website has a lot of information on it. If you’ve looked and found it a bit overwhelming, I get it. Check out this link to get a super easy breakdown with checklists.
Cleaning routines for working moms are important guidelines to follow consistently in order to help you maintain a clean home as you juggle work, home and kids. It doesn’t have to be a second big job to tackle when you finish the workday. It’s manageable steps! You’ll feel calmer and more in control of your home.
