Flylady v Organised Mum, thoughts?

[Lopril]

I'm familiar with both systems having tried Flylady about 15 years ago and TOMM more recently. I didn't stick with either long term but am now able to commit a bit more time to a system and give it a proper try.

I'm interested to hear from anyone who has also tried both and what you found to be the pros and cons of each. I like aspects of both but need to find something I can work with!

Fly lady has lots of things to do where as TOMM is predictable and it’s easy to adapt to fit your needs.

Why do you like the idea of them? What is it you want to achieve?

I like with TOMM that, as you say, it's predictable. But not keen on having to get all of my cleaning stuff out every weekday (and putting it all back!).
With FL, I seem to recall that I wasn't cleaning every day. But perhaps I was doing it wrong! But FL did seem rather complicated.

Sorry, posted too soon.
I'm needing to declutter and get into a cleaning routine. It's all been rather haphazard for years.
I have more time at home now and it's just me and DH, so it's time to get sorted at home. No more excuses!

I briefly tried flylady many moons ago but didn’t really understand it so I’m maybe not who you’re looking to answer this!

I like Tomm for the simplicity and how I don’t even have to think about it. The Friday focus is simply brilliant for tackling the things I’d never normally get around to.
However my house is big and it takes me 40mins to an hour for the level two, if I try to stick to 30 minutes like she says to my house gets dirtier and dirtier rather than cleaner and cleaner. Similarly the level ones take me more like 15 minutes 3x a day rather than 15minutes in total (I do include dishes and hanging up/putting away laundry though).
And with 4 children I also do a lot of tidying/spill cleaning/crumb sweeping so I probably spend closer to 3 hours a day on house related stuff. So it doesn’t live up to the 30 minutes a day promise for me!

Plus although a quick whizz round each room every week keeps it cleanish there are definitely areas that could do with a more thorough clean more often than every 8 weeks.

And I also get bored with doing the same stuff week after week after week so I sometimes have a week where I can’t be bothered to do level twos so instead have a reorganisation/tidying/annoying jobs I don’t get round to even with Friday focus week

I've tried both. I liked them both in theory but don't have the time to actually do them.

Ive tried both but neither work for me - my house is bigger than average, I work part time but work two long days means I can’t do much cleaning those days and I have a chronic illness so some days or weeks I can’t do much at all. I use the Sweepy App. I do daily routines which given size of house and the amount of laundry takes about 45mins a day, some weekly tasks and task list for each room. It allows you to put tasks in that you do every couple of months as well as each work and so it reminds you to do them. I also have a decluttering list on it so I spend time doing that. I’ve been sick for 10 days so all my rooms turned “red” but within a few days just doing 5/10 mins here and there in a room it will be under control again and the house looks better. My life is too unpredictable for these systems. I think doing cleaning in 5-1-5 minute bursts works better for me physically and mentally.

Sounds like you just need a plan. Work on decluttering, do a quick tidy every evening and at the weekend you and DH spend an hour cleaning.

Love TOMM, the only way I manage working full time and a house!

Thanks everyone.
It turns out that TOMM at week 1 of the 8 week cycle starting today so it's a good time to start.
I plan to commit to it for the next 8 weeks and see how I can tweak it as I go along.

Today's plan is to complete Level 1s, do living room for Level 2 this morning, and then this afternoon I will spend an hour decluttering bedrooms ready for Level 2 in there tomorrow.

I quite like TOMM but i forget to stick to it when i'm working which defeats the object somewhat!

I'd like to get DH in on it as he WFH some if the time. He definitely does pull his weight with housework but i'm not sure he'd be interested in an app, and i don't want to cast myself in the role of "Coordinator of Housework".

I've just downloaded the Sweepy app after seeing you mention it @redpandaalert. Hoping I get on better with it than I did with TOMM and FlyLady.

Sweepy app is great those that have lives which are more unstructured so it all gets done in 10-15 quick clean sessions and I do bits in each room some days and tackle whole rooms another day. Depends on my health and time. I don’t have a regular life with regular hours and regular health. I think the app suits those with ADHD also. The colour coding tells me which rooms need most attention.

Just finished setting it up! The other apps I've tried seem to involve setting specific days for doing each task. That doesn't work for me, as my working days/hours are unpredictable, so I never know when I'm going to get some time to do stuff. I really think Sweepy might be what I needed! The colour coding is really good, and setting the things up has made me reconsider how often some jobs really need doing!

I like TOMM in principle, especially the idea of a regular ‘focus’: I did it for a few weeks (just read the website to get an idea) and then adapted it to me

But I think the best thing is to make your own schedule adapted to your house & the flow of your week

I do ‘daily basics’ every morning (air bed, unload dishwasher, make sure kitchen & bathroom tidy etc), then 45 mins each of WFH days in the afternoon (gives me a break from sitting, & time to think - i work a bit later to make up the time), same regular zones of the house
Monday- kitchen & utility
Tuesday- bathrooms
Wed - off (this is my office day)
Thu - dust & hoover bedrooms & stairs
Fri - clean my office room & the living room
Sat - change beds, catch up anything missed in the week, errands incl getting rid of any clutter (charity shop run etc)

What I found was the ‘Friday focus’ is a great idea to go some deep cleaning fairly regularly, but I personally prefer to pick a rainy weekend every month or so and blitz it for a few hours (decluttering, skirting etc) rather than do some of that every week - and means I actually get rid of stuff which is important

Oh, to add - I set reminders of what to do on Alexa, which is handy for the monthly jobs especially

I'm doing FlyLady and would say to start with don't get too deeply into it. I read the "baby steps" over a few weeks, to understand the concept of it and I created morning and evening routines to follow. I do the main all over cleaning day "home blessings" she calls it. And that's it at the moment! I like how it's just a few minutes here and there, it's more motivating than trying to do a huge task all at once.

I'm on the Fledglings thread. If I've got some time I click the link someone kindly puts up on the thread and do what it says. But I'm a long way from being fully immersed into the FlyLady system. So far it's helping though.

I'm slowly getting used to the plan for the week part eg Saturday is for having fun, Sunday for resting, Monday for cleaning. I can't remember what the other days are for. I haven't signed up for the emails either because apparently there's lots. I'm finding it very adaptable and flexible. It's not complicated if you don't try to do too much too soon. When I first looked at the website it gave me a headache, but I understand it better now from clicking the occasional link on the thread.

I use a mix of TOMM and sweepy.
On days that I can I do TOMM. On days that I can’t/or just can’t be bothered tbh I use Sweepy.

I hate routine and structure but NEED routine and structure!

Forgot to add, the whole family use the apps not just me. Whoever is at home most each day does those jobs. I don’t automatically clean just because I am female.

I've done the Flylady system for years.
A big problem is the website and emails are incredibly cluttered and confusing.
However, the system itself is very good, and so simple to just jump back into and adapt once you've got the hang of it.

In a very small nutshell...
Weekly:

• Monday is a speedy hoover, dust, polish, wipe and quick tidy up in every room (called the house blessing), in theory lasting an hour in total.

-Tuesday to Friday focuses on one room only (the Zone) each week for a 15 minutes declutter session. This rotates over the month.

So, for instance Zone 2, the second week of each month, always focuses on the kitchen, for 15 minutes a day Tues-Friday.
Zone 3 - the main bathroom- is always on the 3rd week of each month.

You start the system by using those 15 minutes in the Zone to just declutter (this can go on for several months depending on how much clutter you have!).
Once the clutter is cleared out you progress to using the 15 minutes to deep clean. The Flyady website offers suggestions of what to achieve in those 15 minutes deep cleaning (called missions) but it's only suggestions to start you off.

If I don't have much time to do the whole thing, I'll just do the Monday house blessing, (perhaps spreading it over the week if I can't fit it in on Monday).
If I have a bit more time, I'll do a couple of days of 15 minutes in the zone for that week. If the house is getting messy, I'll use those 15 minutes to revert back to decluttering. It means over the month each room will have had an hour of decluttering or deep cleaning as well as a weekly cleanup.