Oh Crap! – Musings of an Unperfect Mommy

Time For A Change

January 15, 2021

If you’ve followed me here awhile or seen any of my housekeeping posts you know that I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Flylady. Not the person – just the method. It worked great in the very beginning when I started getting the house we had then in shape, but that was at least 20 years ago and I believe it’s time for a change. Don’t get me wrong, Flylady is good and can work well, but when it’s 20 years later and you’re still struggling with certain issues in your home it’s time to do something different. You know the old line about insanity right?

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different results.

So, here’s the new plan: Konmari. Yeah, I know, the new child on the decluttering/get your house in order block. But you know, there is a lot of truth in why she does what she does. Let’s look at some problems I’ve had with Flylady and why Konmari might work better for me.

Flylady is a very slow process to get your house in order by getting routines in place and decluttering a little at a time. Konmari tackles everything at once in an intense decluttering process so that everything is done in a much shorter period of time giving you a cleaner house in a shorter time.

Flylady is about cleaning as well as decluttering. You learn routines to clean your house on a regular basis so that it stays that way. Let’s be clear – housekeeping is repetitive and you need regular cleaning to keep your home fresh. For me the decluttering has kind of fallen off so daily tasks can get done. With Konmari I’ll get the decluttering out of the way right away so that I can deep clean right after (maybe do a Konmari type deep clean) and maintenance will follow. A word of caution – don’t neglect dailies while doing any method. You still need to eat, need clean clothes, daily kitchen and bathroom clean, and floors. If you don’t have any routines at all start with Flylady.

With Flylady you discard stuff but with Konmari you add another step – you thank those items for serving you before you discard them. Some people might think this is New Age hooey, but I will disagree. Thanking things for their service is gratitude and if you don’t have a spirit of gratitude then not much is going to bring you joy. This brings me to another quote I love from Sheryl Crow’s song “Soak Up the Sun”:

It’s not having what you want, it’s wanting what you’ve got.

If you aren’t happy with what you already have, then chances are you’re not going to be happy with what you think you want to have either. Start with getting rid of the things that don’t serve you and leave only what you do love. And make do with that for awhile. You will probably find that you don’t need what you think you do and a new lifestyle will emerge. Both Flylady and Konmari teach these things.

I think I’ll stop there because really those are the main differences for me and I don’t want to go into some big thesis on all the differences. The main thing is, I want my house cleaner NOW and Flylady will take more time. Like I said above, I’ve been doing Flylady 20 years and I’m kind of back where I started so it’s time to do something more intense. I’m giving the Eight Week Tidy Challenge Marie Kondo has on her website a go. It’s a daily step by step of her method to get your home in order.

So, there you have it – it’s a new year and it’s time to really get some change going in my life too. I was going to do that last year and then 2020 derailed me. In reality I probably could have done all I wanted to in my home, but somehow it didn’t happen. No more of that – let’s get going and get our homes (and lives) in order so we have more time for living instead of cleaning or even being embarrassed by our homes. Life is too short for that.

2 comments
Comments

On January 20, 2021 at 7:06 PM, Matt said:

"you thank those items for serving you before you discard them"
Don't think that's new age, that's just Japanese.

On January 22, 2021 at 11:05 AM, java_queen said:

You are right - it is a very Japanese thing to do. It's not a bad thing to do in general either. FWIW - I thanked our big items like our old house and our old van even before I knew about Konmari. It's all about gratitude - being thankful. There will be a post on that forthcoming too.

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» Time For A Change » Oh Crap! – Musings of an Unperfect Mommy

Time For A Change

January 15, 2021

Comments

On January 20, 2021 at 7:06 PM, Matt said:

On January 22, 2021 at 11:05 AM, java_queen said:

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