Use the 'FlyLady' Method to Make Routine Cleaning Less Overwhelming

A clean home is a peaceful home-but what if the act of cleaning it could be peaceful, too? That's the guiding principle behind the FlyLady cleaning method, popularized by organizational guru Marla Cilley. Let's go over what the FlyLady method is-and why you should employ it now to start seeing some benefits in your space over time. You won't get instant results, but you will get long-lasting ones that will contribute more to your sense of overall cleanliness and peace.

What is the FlyLady method of cleaning?

Cilley's method has been around for more than two decades, but it's found new life on TikTok, where CleanTok influencers have brought it to the digital masses.

The goal of using this method is to be less overwhelmed by the prospect of cleaning-and maybe even start to enjoy it. You do this by changing how you approach cleaning altogether. On her website, Cilley instructs would-be adherents to break their home up into zones" and set aside just 15 minutes per day to clean through them at a set time each month. She promises there will be a noticeable difference after a week: It didn't get dirty in a day, and it is not going to get clean overnight."

This is reminiscent of other tried-and-true cleaning advice that I recommend all the time, namely the idea of only working on your home in 15-minute bursts. Generally, it's better to work in short, focused chunks than it is to burn out or get overwhelmed by trying to do too much at once. You can enhance the effectiveness of working in smaller increments of time by creating a dedicated cleaning schedule, which you can also combine with the FlyLady zones so you know exactly what to do and when to do it.

Setting up your FlyLady cleaning zones

There are only five zones to think about in this method, but they're pretty all-encompassing. Here's how the zones are broken up:

• Zone 1 is your entryway, front porch, and dining room. You complete this zone in the first week of the month.

• Zone 2 is the kitchen, which is done during the first full week of the month, meaning the first week in which there are seven full days.

• Zone 3 is the main bathroom plus another room in your house, like maybe an office or pantry. This happens during the second full week of the month.

• Zone 4 is the master bedroom and its closets and bathroom during the third full week.

• Zone 5 is the living room, but because it is not a full week, it may overlap with Zone 1. It's likely that your living room is near your entryway, which makes this a little seamless as you start incorporating Zone 1 back into your schedule at the end of the five weeks.

Cilley's primary goal is for cleaners to not burn out, so spending 15 minutes a day in the designated zone for that week is sufficient. Routines are key for maximum, efficient cleaning, so make sure your 15-minute chunk is scheduled and you do it every day, ideally at the same time so it becomes more of a habit than an all-out chore.

Maximizing the FlyLady cleaning benefits

While this is great for giving you a schedule and guidelines for what you should be focusing on at a given time, it's pretty vague about how to clean those areas. Call in another method, like the Core 4 technique, to make sure your 15-minute bursts and weekly zones are reaching their maximum potential. Core 4 asks you to clear out, categorize, cut out, and contain your clutter in a systemized way. Once you have all the clutter and overall mess contained, you can more easily do the nitty gritty of cleaning and disinfecting open spaces, vacuuming, and dusting.

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Cilley herself also has some secondary methods to suggest that will help you maintain your home in between zone cleanings. Her "swish and swipe" technique, for instance, asks you to swish a brush around your toilet bowl and swipe a rag across your bathroom counter every morning when you finish your bathroom routine. Incorporating tiny maintenance tasks into your daily routine decreases the amount of effort and time you need to expend on the bigger cleaning tasks as you move through your zones.