Gil...I'm SOOO offended!! *snort* I guess I'll forgive you though...those lilies and all... LOL ;o) Flylady reminds me of my DM...I couldn't count the number of times my mother has said to me "a place for everything and everything in it's place" (Of course their 100+ year old house has a full basement, a walk in closet in every bedroom, large coat closet, pantry, double the kitchen cabinets...etc...) Again I say *snort*! Maybe if I sold everything...our three bedroom house has a half basement and one...count it...one closet (it's only 1' deep and 2.5' wide...) No broom closet...no coat closet...no closet in the master bedroom...no linen closet...Hmmm wonder what the REAL problem is?? A place for everything?? HA! There...I'm done my rant...I feel better now...where'd that paralizer go?? Ang, I have to agree with you on the shoe thing though...the only person wearing shoes in my house will be my 85 year old Grandma, who needs her orthotics, as well as the traction! I do like the idea of daily reminders of which tasks to target to keep the whole place clean though...takes the brain work out of it...I'd rather save that for my garden. I'm in the habit of vacuuming everyday, mopping once a week...but everything else just tends to slide until it HAS to be done...like every last dish in the house is dirty and "Hey Dear...looks like we'll be doing hot dogs on the fire tonight..."LOL Verena Whose sink is still shining... ;-)

Sounds like the Flylady morning routine is what you are already doing especially if you are cleaning your sink the night before. I think Flylady would suggest you make the bed but heck, we all will understand if you decide you don't have the time. Have you tried requesting the emails in "digest format"? Most yahoo groups allow this. That means all the messages in one day are collected together and sent out as one message. That said, I just sort my inbox alphabetically by the sender and delete all the messages I don't want from flylady. Kind of feels cleansing and usually doesn't take too much time. Of course I'm recently retired so I know there is no comparison in stress levels with someone who works outside the home. I have just started Flylady and am going very slowly. She herself says that it all started with a commitment on her part to keep her sink clean so it was clean when she woke up at least for 30 days. I've kind of started that way and progressed to some additions. But I'm taking it very slowly. I LOVE the testimonials she sends out. I delete almost everything else but always read testimonials. I don't have children but even the ones about kids are inspiring. Housework can be so BORING. I had a career as an engineer before I retired and I'm having trouble coming down to real life and trying to have consistently an organized fairly clean house (that is in the middle of being remodeled because we were conned by a contractor but another story..). The testimonials and sometimes some of the messages (depending on where I'm at) really keep me from feeling I'm in a dungeon with horrible boring tasks and no one that understands. Anyway, I figure at the rate I'm going that my house may look pretty decent in about a year or so. Just do what she says, don't worry about being behind, just jump in where you're at. Maybe we could have a thread on this Cleaning Board for flylady support? I'd like that. You made a good start. Once it reaches 99 posts (I think that's max number), we can start "volume 2" like they do on some of the other forums. Of course with your work schedule, you may not have time. If you don't want to, I don't mind starting a thread. Let me know if you are interested and also share any of the other "challenges" that you have in particular that are driving you crazy. One last important thing. If we do this, we have to be concerned about Flylady copyrights and we can't cut and paste anything from her site (or from her emails). Hopefully, just share our problems with our clutter. I think we should still be able to use some of her terms such as 27 Fling boogie where you run thru the house as quickly as possible finding 27 things to throw away. I have modified it to be used with a timer and usually set it for 15 minutes or 30 minutes. Does wonderful things. I usually have to force myself to quit decluttering when the timer goes off. Maybe a Flylady thread would make more sense in the "Organizing Home" forum? What do you think? --Alice

Donna, I love your wall hangings! It is so nice to see unique projects - thanks for sharing them with us. Sounds like the Jax Quiltshow was a fun weekend for you both. I really need to get my butt in gear and get ready for Camp! I was planning on doing sooooo much yesterday and the @#!$ power went off for the entire afternoon - for no apparent reason! Today, my stuff is still not working right, and I am in complete panic mode. I got one project packed up today - I'm so sick of it, I may not even work on it at Camp. But I should, just to get it done (well done to the point of joining the other done tops :)

Autumn, I don't think you need cooking classes. I never knew how to cook anything until I moved out of the house. My mom was seriously OCD and wouldn't let us in the kitchen. I literally taught myself how to cook basics with a cookbook called "The I Never Cooked Before Cookbook". It explained everything. For example, when it told you to boil something, it had photos of what boiling water looks like. It had photos to explain the difference between chopping, slicing, dicing and mincing. It was incredibly helpful since I didn't even know how to anything. I think I could pour cereal and make taste. I had never even made cookies before. I'm certainly no gourmet cook but after familiarizing yourself with the basics, you can start throwing things together with some success without taking a class, imho. Like, after cooking a few Mexican dishes using recipes, you learn the basic ingredients, flavor profiles for sauces and seasonings, and then just start throwing things together using those basics in different ways. Using beans, rice, various hot sauces and seasonings often used in Mexican dishes, some chiles, and then a variety of vegetables, you can make sautes, soups, salads, casseroles, whatever using meat/fish/poultry as your protein or even the cheese (if you're vegetarian or want to do a vegetarian meal once in awhile) or the beans (ditto for vegan eating). When I do this, things might not be the least bit authentic to that cuisine, and I substitute a lot so I don't have to run to the store for something, but if you have a pantry of basics, it's not that hard to throw together something tasty. I hate grocery shopping so I do wish someone would do that for me. I sometimes send DH but he always gets some odd stuff and spends too much, lol. And I really don't like thinking up what to cook so I'll often have DH grab the protein out of the freezer. Whatever he grabs, I cook. Or I'll just reach in and close my eyes and grab something. Batch cooking does help. I often will cook up a big pot of rice (usually a wild/brown rice combo) and keep a container in the fridge to heat up as a side or throw in a soup or casserole. I do the same with dry beans, peas and bulgurs. I always have couscous and quinoa on hand because they cook up quick if I'm out of rice. So sides are easy. A variety of fresh veggies and a few bags in the freezer of Asian and California blends make it easy to throw a veggie side dish together. I buy cleaned/bagged salad mixes, mixed greens, and baby spinach making it quick and easy to put together for a salad or toss in the last few minutes of a stir-fry or saute. And multi-meal planning works well. If I make a roast, I save some for French Dip sandwiches the next night. Or I might boil up a chicken or two and use the breasts for stir-fry and the meat off the rest of it for chicken enchiladas or some other casserole or a soup. At least once a week dinner is my own Muscoe soup or casserole using the stuff that is starting to go but isn't bad enough to throw out. Thanks for that, bpathome, as I just call it Clean Out the Fridge Food. Muscoe sounds more purposeful. We don't eat out much. I can't see paying $20 for a meal that I can make for $5 at home. And I figure the time to go there, order, wait, eat, and go home takes longer than it does for me to cook and clean up. I don't have a cooking gene or special skills. I just decided to be fearless in the kitchen. Most things you make, if they don't turn out right, are salvageable somehow. The rare times it's not, the dog enjoys a treat. :) I think of it as a way to play.