Fly Lady Spray -Just call me Exterminator

In SOME of the homeschool community, there are devotees of some woman who dubbed herself the "Fly Lady". A friend told me about these wonderful methods to...well, to tell you the truth, I have not really paid much attention to the Fly Lady because I really don't care if my kitchen sink is clean or dirty; evidentially a big thing to her.

Fly Lady insists that you will feel more in control if your sink is clean...well, uh, mine is relatively sanitary and I am perfectly happy.

Some of this stems from the ever-lovin'-fact that my husband loves me in spite of my non-desire to keep an immaculate house. Hey, the bed is clean and made (he makes in every morning) and the dog gets off his favorite chair when he gets home. There is always something in the freezer to nuke if I have not made dinner. At least I am not stressed because there are magazines on the floor.

I stopped cleaning the dining room to write this because, you know what??? The dining room is less important than my developing my talents.

Back a LOOOOOONNNG time ago, I saw a little plaque that said, "my house is clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy."

If my friends come over and I and/my house are not clean nor organized, I do not worry. The pile that currently occupies the space between me and my monitor will disappear one day when I sit down to watch a movie. Right now, it is effectively holding stuff I might need some day.

The real problem is that people get stressed because they are not June Cleaver. Mrs. Cleaver was not a housewife, she was an imaginary character and paid TV crew cleaned the house.

I am perfectly happy being imperfect. I would rather be in the pool playing with my family or out riding my horse than cleaning. In fact if the truth be known, I would rather clean a horse stall than a toilet...go figure.

So here are my 2 tricks to having a house that is not embarrassing and remains sanitary in spite of the dog, cat and kid traffic.

Trick 1. I clean when I get the chance. That might be 5 minutes while I am waiting for my son or husband. It sure beats nagging them to get ready. It might be 15 minutes before I take a shower. It may be 5 minutes after I read a couple of chapters in a good book. I might even devote a day to cleaning that I forgot to schedule anything. I fit it in between everything else. And guess what. If I want my house to be perfectly clean, it would probably take me about 2 hours to get there. I can always put stuff in boxes or bags and sort it out when I watch a movie (movies are great for sorting)

Trick 2. If it is embarrassingly dirty, clean it. Why spend time cleaning the kitchen sink if it is only a tad dirty?

Set your priorities. God and family come before anything else, especially cleaning and organizing!!