Milk Without Cookies

This is the subject of a daily email that I receive (by choice) from an online group called www.flylady.net. Flylady is a resource for stay at home moms, career moms, or anyone who wants to get a handle on the clutter in their homes, cars, offices and lives.

Kelly, the Flylady herself, encourages us to embrace routine as a way of overcoming the overwhelming task of keeping house and caring for a family. Hence, the daily question about laundry.

So where is my laundry? Well, before typing this, it was on the bedroom floor, and the laundry baskets were full. There was some in the dryer getting wrinkled and a few items on the drying rack downstairs. Now it has all been gathered, a load is washing, and the dryer contents are sitting next to me, crying out to be folded and put away (hate that last part).

But the point is that if I keep up on the laundry every day, it won't come to a head on Sunday morning, when I'm looking for my black pants and something to put on the baby. This seems simple, but hundreds of my flying friends know that this is something that is easy to put off, and then it becomes overwhelming.

Another routine is the daily swish & swipe in the bathroom (figure it out for yourself), and shining the kitchen sink. I love both of these routines because it prevents these areas from becoming disgusting so that I really DON'T want to clean them, but have to because someone could catch a disease.

It's possible that this all sounds crazy. But it really is one of the most sane things I do. I was upstairs completing my morning routine which includes getting dressed to my shoes, and I felt so good about myself. As a stay at home mom, it's easy to put things off until you can get them done just perfectly, but when you have a screaming one year old, that time is NEVER going to come.

Flylady reminds us that cleaning your home in 15 minute bursts, as well as you can in that moment, is just as much a blessing as doing the task "just right". With flylady at my side, I can see a light at the end of the crazy mess tunnel, knowing that I can do anything for 15 minutes, and then get back to all the other demands of my day.