You are not behind! I don't want you to try to catch up; I just want you to jump in where we are. O.K.?

"You are not behind! I don't want you to try to catch up; I just want you to jump in where we are. O.K.?"

I love seeing this at the bottom of all the emails. I do my routine list like that, too. If a repeating daily task doesn't get checked off today, I just do it tomorrow. I don't add today's stuff onto tomorrow. If I miss my 15 minutes of cleaning today, I don't do 30 minutes tomorrow. I'd be fed up with this in no time if I worked that way.

If I don't change laundry in the morning and it's already afternoon, I just cross it off for the morning. It'll be back in the morning for tomorrow. Besides, I'm so far ahead of where I usually am with laundry that it's ok.

I don't try to do it all at once. After I got done with the kitchen zone, I thought of a couple more places I need to focus on. So I put them on the list for next month when I return to the kitchen zone, and I'll start my 15 minutes routine with those places. I'll do the same for the computer room/bathroom at the end of this week.

I'm not doing everything FlyLady suggests... yet.

1. I don't have all my Hotspots tamed, so I only apply the Hotspot fire prevention to my kitchen table so far. I have a list of what these Hotspots are so I can address them after I've been through that zone once to douse the fire already there. My kitchen Hotspot was where my 15 minutes/day naturally started in that zone, and I expect the trend will continue.

2. I don't do 27-fling boogies because I can't run through the house yet. This seems like it will apply more to things that are clutter, rather than just trash and misplaced items. I'll get there in a month or two.

3. I don't do Kelly's missions because they address issues or areas that are a bit beyond my current state of disarray. If I can't get to my cupboard yet, I can't very well clean it out.

4. I don't do the 5-minute room rescue because 15 minutes a day is enough for now. If I do my routines plus 15 minutes, I feel like I've accomplished a lot. That extra 5 minutes won't seem so bad once my routines are habit. Or maybe I'll start applying it to my computer room as soon as we move out of that zone, since it is by far my worst room. (Or at least it was before I started Flying!)

I've noticed, too, that even without having to be reminded, I'm not whining! Nevermind all the mini-feminist, "it's not fair," "woe is me," "I work 8 hours a day, too," "why doesn't he have to help," stinking thinking I was used to. If I can get all this done 15 minutes at a time without DH's help, then I really don't need him participating to accomplish my goals.

It's very empowering, actually. Just like he didn't have to do anything differently in order for me to lose 38.6 pounds on Weight Watchers and feel better about my appearance, he doesn't have to do anything differently for me to lose 25 years worth of acting like a "slob" and feel better about my home's appearance. I'm motivated by internal, selfish reasons just as much as external ones when it comes down to it. I'm changing me to make me feel good.

Oh yeah, I guess I'm Finally Loving Myself.