What am I doing wrong?

[Abirdinthehand]

I have small ones at home full time, and I'm pregnant, and work a few hours from home. I have been trying to do flyladya bit for a few months, on and off, but I just can't seem to get a balence. Like - I 'zone cleaned' our bedroom on Monday, under the bed, on top of the wardrobes, everything, and it looks great. But as a result the study has descended into a outer circle of hell, heaped with laundry and junk, and to get through it you have to climb over the ironing board .

And I feel guilty sound 'fine tuning' in our room (like clearing out my jewellery and accessories drawer) because that's this week's zone, while the study is a much more obvious mess.

What am I missing - have I misunderstood? In my head I have a vision of the house with every room clean and tidy, but I feel like as I focus on one area the other bits all fall apart.

you need to do your decluttering first, something I'm still struggling with nearly 2 years later. just keep plodding along with it, and declutter as much as you can, you WILL get on top of it :)

I think the best bits of the flylady (and I only skimmed it, so no expert) are the quick fix things, 27 thing fling, clean sink type stuff.

I have a superficially clean house because while the DCs have breakfast I whip round the kitchen doing the washing/ dishwasher/ wipe down. While they bathe I swish and swipe the bathroom. I hoover every day as it is the quickest thing to do to get it to look like I have cleaned.

IN reality I very very rarely get to ponce about in the bedroom shuffling my wardrobe around, because I focus on clear floors and worktops.

I think the detail needs to be left for a person with a lot of time.

have you tried doing the babysteps first before you move onto zone clearing.

I did go through baby steps sort of, but didn't find them that helpful - some things I have tried to keep up, like always getting dressed and making the bed. But I just skipped some of them Which didn't really feel useful, or were about things I already feel on top of (why mess with something already working!).

I didn't realise she suggests decluttering the WHOLE house before any zone cleaning - eg our bedroom is not at all cluttered, but did need a good clean. But other rooms ARE cluttered - I thought I just decluttered them when it was their 'turn' if you see what I mean.

I agree with Nagoo that for me flylady is definitely take-some-leave-some system, I don't want to follow it religiously. I just can't work out how to keep most of the house nice most of the time, instead of 2 rooms perfect and the rest a bomb! I kind of like to 'finish' things, so I like to clean an area really thoroughly before moving on. Maybe that's my problem!

I am doing Flylady, in one of her emails the other day, she said that it was more important to focus in your morning and evening routines and on decluttering rather than zone cleaning. She said not to try to do zone cleaning while doing the weekly home blessing. Also that once you have decluttered the whole house thoroughly, which will take a few months if you are dong a little bit each day, then the home blessing is a breeze. For us the big problem is we have far, far too much clutter.

Yes, you are supposed to get rid of the clutter before you start the detailed zone cleaning.

I don't think you've misunderstood. If a zone is clutter-free, then you clean it when it's the current zone. Theoretically you can then just maintain it during the WHB until it comes round next month.

The problem with rooms like the study is that they don't come round every month. My study is also prone to filling up very quickly, so I try to do a 5 min Room Rescue every day (not that I actually manage it, but it would make a huge difference if I did!)

I tried Flylady and thinks its rubbish. I understand the point of doing it step by step and the idea of the site is great buy I don't need to be told to tie my shoes. What I've done is wrote a list of EVERYTHING that needs to be done in the house, so basically a list of 20 things. I do bit by bit. I feel much more happy ticking things off and it makes me feel like I've acomplished something