Dear Friends,

Are you ready to declutter in the Master Bedroom a little at a time with me this week? The FlyLady loves herself and her FlyBabies, and so do I. Despite what some of you have heard from other people, you CAN successfully declutter your home a little at a time. You DO NOT have to dump your possessions in a pile and sort them out.

Read the rest of this after your missions below.

Here are you missions for the week:

Zone 4 Missions: The Master Bedroom

Monday – Declutter for 15 minutes from the Master Closet. (Concentrate on the worst area of your closet.)

Tuesday – Deal with the Stash and Dash in your Bedroom. Toss. Toss. Toss!

Wednesday – Declutter extra items from your nightstand.

Thursday – Declutter and dust the top of your dresser and any other flat surfaces.

Friday – Strip your bed, wash everything, and remake the bed.

Set your timers for 15 minutes and then take a break when it goes off!

Weekly Menu Plan

Monday – Beef stroganoff

Tuesday – Meatloaf

Wednesday – Chicken and Dumplings

Thursday – Chicken

Friday – Take out

Enjoy your week! Keep your routines simple.

For the next few minutes, I want to share with you about why I know The FlyLady’s system works. When I started following Marla more than 15 years ago, I was a homeschool mom with 5 children. We had clutter from toys, clothes, books, paper, and just plain junk.

It was hard to keep up with the needs of the children, much less declutter. My routines were not in place at all. We ate together at night. That was one routine that stayed in place firmly. But cleaning and decluttering were hit or miss.

Twice a year, I had to switch my children’s clothes out for the new season. It was horrendous. It would wipe me out. I would spend a whole weekend just sorting through their clothes. Some of their clothes I would box up for the next child. Some of their clothes were so worn out that I just tossed them. Some of their clothes were passed on to others.

The four boys shared a large closet, and it was nice to have it all in one place. But it was also quite a beast to clean out and sort. There was no way I could pile it all in one pile and deal with it in a day. It took days and hours. Meanwhile, they still needed to nap and sleep at night.

One strategy was to deal with one boy’s clothes at a time, but it was still overwhelming to me. In a nutshell, we had too many clothes. As I started following The FlyLady, I slowly implemented her routines. I let go of clothes that the boys did not like or wear. I thinned down the amount of clothes we had in the house.

As I was implementing routines, I taught my children the routines, too. We learned together in many ways. I taught them how to put their laundry away by putting pictures on the drawers. We folded laundry together and made it fun.

We kept at it, and over time, their closets got better. We still had to switch out clothes seasonally, but with less clothes, it was much easier.

We learned to let go of extra stuff that was causing us more work. That is really what clutter does to us.

All these years later, I am maintaining our home. My children are maintaining their closets, and none of us dump our clothes in a pile to sort through them. Each month, we spend 15 minutes pulling stuff out of our closet or dresser and donate what can be used by someone else.

The FlyLady system does work! I encourage you to hang in there and resist the urge to do a mass purge. It will wear you out and burn you out.

Your Home Blessing for today is to wash the sheets.

Your Zone Mission for Monday is to declutter for 15 minutes in the Master Closet. (If you have children, this is a great mission for them, too!)

My menu plan for Monday is beef stroganoff with a salad.

Have a blessed day!