Flylady Is Right About Most Things But Not This

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Flylady Says:

You Can Clean Your Home In "Fifteen Minutes A Day"

Photo © Istockphoto.com/hopshomemade

I Say:

15 Minutes A Day Is Not Enough To Clean Your Home When You Have Several Small Children

Flylady's website teaches people how to create routines for, among other things, cleaning their homes.

The concept of creating routines and schedules is a great one, and I really think some of the things she teaches are just spot on. You should definitely check out her website if you aren't familiar with it.

But (after all that warm praise you knew there would be a but, right?) one of her slogan's is "15 minutes a day," which many people interpret as you can clean your home in just 15 minutes a day.

In my home, with three small children, that is just unrealistic.

A Disclaimer - I Am Not Anti-Flylady! I Just Don't Want People To Get Tripped Up Because Of This Slogan!

Note that in the following discussion I am criticizing a slogan that Flylady uses. My beef is with this slogan, not Flylady.

I just think that when taken literally this slogan can cause people to feel like a failure when they cannot live up to it.

You can also interpret this slogan of "fifteen minutes a day" differently, such as by interpreting it to mean fifteen minutes at a time.

This, most likely, is how it is meant. And this concept of fifteen minutes at a time is a powerful and good one.

However, that is not exactly how she says it. She says "15 minutes a day" and I don't think, when taken literally, you can clean your home in fifteen minutes a day with small children.

This slogan about being able to do your housework in 15 minutes a day really tripped me up for the longest time, and made me feel inadequate because I did not measure up.

My point here is only to try to save household managers like myself this heartbreak by letting you know, from someone who has been there, done that, that it is OK to be more realistic and not hard on yourself.

Having Small Children Is A Season In Your Life

Think of the time in your life that you have small children as a season.

Seasons come and seasons go, but during this season with small children Flylady's motto of fifteen minutes a day is not realistic.

Once your kids get older and can do more chores then you will pass out of this season of little children and can move toward shortening your daily cleaning schedule, but don't hold yourself to some unrealistic standard during this season of life. It goes by too quickly!

What I Define As Housekeeping Activities That Take More Than 15 Minutes A Day

When I say I cannot do all my housekeeping in 15 minutes a day I am counting the time I do laundry, clean up the kitchen after each meal, general neatening and tidying, looking at the mail each day, and cleaning up crumbs and spills from my kids just to name a few things.

I couldn't do all that in 15 minutes a day if I tried.

Heck, cleaning up the kitchen after dinner every night takes longer than that depending on how many pots and pans were dirtied and how messy my kids were with eating.

What I don't want people to think if they listen to Flylady's advice is that they are a failure because they cannot clean their homes in 15 minutes a day.

A More Realistic Schedule When You Have Kids

I suggest the following cleaning schedule when you have small children:

I think this is much more realistic during this season in your life than expecting to magically clean up all the spills and crumbs of childhood in fifteen minutes a day.