Fly Lady = Fly Baby

Well, the fly baby in me is back! It has been dormant for the past year while we were in Hawaii. Why? Well, life there was very easy and very simple. When there is just two adult people in a three room house and you only brought four suitcases of stuff to put in it, there wasn't much work to keeping it maintained. Oh, about every two weeks, Gordon would vacuum and I would clean the bathroom and mop the linoleum in the kitchen. Oh, and a quick dusting of the few pieces of furniture we had.

Dishes weren't much of a problem because we mostly used paper plates and cups. We only had to wash the utensils and the one pot or pan that we used to cook our simple meal. We usually ate the leftovers the next day, so there was no food to sit in the fridge and spoil. We rarely used the oven, so I never had to clean it. And though we had a four burner stove, I only used a small one or a larger one. I keep the other two burners covered.

Washing clothes wasn't much of a chore as I only did one or two batches a week and that was usually in the evening when we were winding down from the busy day. After the batch was dry, it didn't take long to put the clothing or towels in their rightful place.

When we were getting ready to move back here to the mainland, some of the students offered to help me clean the house. I didn't need to take them up on their kind offer as the house and the cupboards had been maintained because of the things I had learned a few years ago from Fly Lady.

Our biggest problem was just shipping the stuff we had accumulated and wanted to take back home, or giving away those things what we chose not to leave for the next missionaries who were moving into the apartment.

Those boxes that we shipped are the things that are facing me today. On Thursday, I was set to hit the bedroom with all the enthusiasm of a new fly baby, but the lack of hangers set me back. Instead I went to Wal-Mart with Sandy to buy some material for a bean bag cooker (another blog about that later), material to make my chicken pincushions for the DUP museum (another blog) and the very needed hangers. No sooner that I got back from that excursion, that Gordon told me that Hailey was in a soccer tournament and that we should go watch her play.

That was more fun that tackling the bedroom, so off we went to watch Hailey help her team win! Naturally by the time we got home I only had time to make a quick dinner (posted on the whatcha got cookin'? website) before I went off with Sandy to her Enrichment Night meeting where I saw some dear old friends from the old ward and met some new ones. There we cut out the makings of the bean bag cooker. We still have to sew them up and stuff it with the polystyrene beads that come in bean bags.

So this morning, the fly baby emerged and I hit my closet. I chose to clean out all the boxes I had put in there and had never opened since. I also found some little gifts that I bought for my granddaughters a few years ago and forget I had them. (I am always doing that, but my fly baby tendencies should help me be better.) There are more girls now, so I have to find some more of those little gifts so no one will feel left out.

Anyway, I found lots of room on my clothes racks for my clothes. It looks so nice and neat and I can find everything. Of course, you should see my hallway and the other bed room. :( That will have to be tackled on another fly baby exercise.

If some of you wonder who Fly Lady is or who have forgotten about her great ideas which are just good common sense, you should look at her website: FlyLadyMentors@yahoogroups.com