Why do folk need flylady/cleaning sites to clean their house?

[DrNortherner]

If it's dirty clean it. If it's messy tidy it.

Amen.

I think it's supposed to be incentive. But with me it's the opposite. Spend 30 hr reading what to do, I could clean the bathroom and bedrooms in that time!!! Also as soon as you get internet up you have to come on MN for a 'minute' = all housework gone out of the window

oops meant 30 minutes not 30 hrs

It's for people with poor organisational skills. And it's not just about cleaning, a lot of it is about improving self-esteem.

I actually find it quite useful. I do my 'normal' cleaning fairly regularly but I would never remember the rest of it.

Improving self esteem?

How?

I think by giving the message that the first thing you do every day is look after yourself rather than the blardy house! "Get dressed to shoes, hair and make-up" is the first thing on the list and if you do that it means that if the postman calls to the door or if you have to drop the kids up to school, you're not a dishevelled mess. Also if you're bad at housework, your kitchen is a mess and a neighbour pops in for coffee, it's very hard not to feel judged, even if the neighbour is actually oblivious to the mess, you imagine that they're judging. Also the message in the e-mails that "You are not behind, I don't want you to try to catch up" is nice and reassuring. I wouldn't mind Flylady coming to my house whereas I would positively cringe at the idea of Kim and Aggie who would tear me to shreds!

Clearly they do or the sites wouldn't exist.

Why do you need to not understand the need for them?

I don't get them either...I'd never heard of them till I came on here. Why waste time posting lists of housework you are going to do then post again when you've done it? Isn't housework tedious enough...posting about it on websites is just yet another tedious job imo!!!!
Any way by the time I get in from work at night and my DH and DCs have been left unsupervised for 6 hours you can't tell if I've done any housework or not....Perhaps I should get them on these cleaning sites?!!!!

I certainly don't waste time posting lists on websites and only follow some of the Flylady stuff on an ad hoc basis but I do find it a useful prompt. In doing so I am slowly rediscovering corners of my house as I gradually manage to clear out the mountains of crap . When I finally get on top of things, you can guarantee we'll be ready to move house .

I find it reminds me about things I wouldnt normally do - its obvious you need to tidy up or clean somewhere obviously dirty, but you need a process to do the less frequent jobs, like deep cleaning bedrooms, so it helps to get reminders.

what does it remind you to do? (Ie, what exactly are we neglecting and should I be worried?!)

it's just a way of prioritising jobs imo

and a way of knowing when to stop

if you haven't got all day to tidy - well I haven't - it's just a system, so you know what to do to day to keep on top of things and then you sit down

you're not constantly thinking 'ooh I need to clean the bathroom floor/ dust the living room/ vacuum everywhere/ tidy out the wardrobes/ fridge/ toy cupboards' because you don't have to do everything at once

it is easy to clean your house, you're right. But doing it efficiently is another thing

I don't actually do Fly but I can see the appeal. My house is fairly clean and tidy these days (DDs grown up, that's why!) and I have a routine which includes hoovering carpeted bits, sweeping wood floors, bathrooms etc. But however much better it all looks when those things are done there are always things I spot along the way which also need doing - inside cupboards, dusting bookshelves in out-of-the-way places, skirting boards etc and there are so many of these I shy away from knowing where to start and seldom do any at all.

Someone else deciding FOR me and giving me one small extra task a day to do which I wouldn't normally would be an excellent motivator for me.

For example, I went to the site once and found the day's task was 'declutter the kitchen worktops for 15 mins' - you had to set an alarm and STOP when the 15 mins was up - and I thought how psychologically cunning that was - someone looking around and panicking at the chaos they see and not knowing where to start would find it easy to do a 15 min task knowing that they not only could, but must stop at the end of the allotted time.

I'm not obsessive about housework and I'm sure most Fly ladies aren't either, but I do enjoy my house more when it's clean and tidy - I can't, for example, relax until the kitchen's clean and tidy again after a cooking session - not because I neurotically hate the look of it - but because I know it's waiting there for me to do!

Sorry for girning at you! I meant

I am finding Flylady an absolute life saver atm. Have just started taking ADs for severe PMS & suspected depression/PND and just getting out of bed in the morning is hard enough.... so having a system that give me little steps to follow to try and stop my house from looking like an episode of A Life of Grime is great. It's actually really rewarding to see a nice line of ticks on my list and having a tidy bits of the house does seem to be helping with my self esteem

OK - this is what I've learnt from FlyLady

Cleaning outside of toilet
Giving my bedroom a proper spring clean every now and then (was lovely when I'd done it)
Cleaning kitchen appliances
Cleaning light fittings, sockets etc
Having a toy throw out in kids room
Re-looking at lounge and firmly removing stuff that shouldnt be there

Mostly I suppose its easier to be reminded to do this room or that job, rather than have to work out a schedule myself