The FlyLady Meets Twitter

I have two rooms that are usually under control : the living room (LR) and my dear daughter's (DD) bedroom. Both are rooms that she has complete access to at all times. I worked my Montessori magic on them to ensure that they are safe yet stimulating environments for her to explore independently. Even though they both suffer the ravages of a toddler, it takes five minutes at the most to restore order in each room. The rest of my tiny home? Let's just say that they aren't quite at the same level yet.

The FlyLady (aka Marla Cilley) presents household management advice using the principle of "you can do anything for 15 minutes". So, one is to set a timer then clean one room for precisely fifteen minutes: no more, no less. When done, one moves the timer to the next room and repeats the process. So what if it isn't done perfectly - according to the FlyLady, housework done imperfectly still blesses our homes.

Housekeeping then becomes a matter of developing good habits. The FlyLady helps us start good habits with her Beginning Babysteps program. I have started (and failed) to complete the babysteps several times before, but this time I knew I HAD to make it work, otherwise I just wouldn't have anytime to devote to writing. I signed up for email reminders of what I should be doing each day, but that didn't do much to prod me in the right direction.

Then one day I noticed on the FlyLady's webpage was a Twitter button. I had just joined Twitter, but wasn't really comfortable with it yet. So I followed the link and landed in #flylady zone.

What I found was a group of people in various stages of Fly-ness. We post our goals and our successes here and basically cheer each other on. Cleaning house is more fun when you have someone to do it with, and Twitter allows me to do just that. There is a FlyLady Forum as well which I keep my eye on. But Twitter allows me nearly instant feedback on what I'm doing. If I need motivation, I can find it there as well.

Once I started using Twitter in conjunction with my flying I finally began to see results in my home. I have now been Flying longer than I ever have before and I'm sure that by the end of the summer I will have a home I would comfortably invite people into on a moment's notice. I'm also finally getting the hang of Twitter and my writing empire is slowly spreading!

How do I clean thee? Let me count the ways.
I clean thee to the depth and breadth and height
My duster can reach. To the ends of cobwebs
and ideal sight.
I clean thee to the level of everyday's
Most decluttereing need, by sun and candle-light.
I clean thee freely, as we strive for Right
I clean thee purely, as we turn from CHAOS.
I clean thee with a passion put to use
In my new habits, and with my Dear Family's faith.
I clean thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost socks, ---I clean thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! ----and, if God choose,
I shall but clean thee better after BabySteps.

This lens was inspired by a Rocket Moms discussion. Rocket Moms is a Squidoo Group that gathers the smartest women on the web together and is being led by the wonderful bdkz. Keep your eyes peeled for other Rocket Moms productions!