What is FlyLady Zone Cleaning?
Early on in my cleaning routine search, I stumbled upon phrases like zone cleaning, swish and swipe, and hotspot fire drill but had no idea the power of these simple tasks to transform my messy house into a real working home. Finding the FlyLady and subsequently, the FlyLady Zone Cleaning really helped me grow up and grow into a functioning mom and homemaker.
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Where should I even start with the FlyLady?
While the FlyLady Zone Cleaning has the power to transform your home, I truly feel that starting with the FlyLady Baby Steps is crucial to true success. If you are new, please consider checking out this blog to get started. The FlyLady Baby Steps guide you to build a true foundation that will keep you from slipping back into chaos when life gets rough and let's face it, life has a way of getting complicated!
Once you feel confident that your daily routine is working well, you add in the FlyLady Daily Focus. The Daily Focus can sometimes be called a Basic Weekly Plan. This step will help you get bills, errands, and the home reset on the books and planned out. Again, this step is key to gaining balance with all of the other responsibilities that usually fall to the mom (but not necessarily). If you are ready to get organized and focused, consider checking out my Tidy Life Planner which includes tools that coordinate with the FlyLady's daily focus.
Now, that you have the daily routine set and the basic weekly plan, we can roll up our sleeves and get to some amazing deep cleaning!
What is Zone Cleaning?
The FlyLady has broken up the house into five areas. Each week, the FlyLady reminds us which zone to deep clean in. Zone cleaning is very similar to spring cleaning.
What is the difference between Zone Cleaning and the Weekly Home Blessing?
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As part of FlyLady's Daily Focus (Basic Weekly Plan), Monday is designed to be the day to do the Weekly Home Blessing Hour. There are six tasks that you clean for ten minutes each. The Weekly Home Blessing is NOT a deep clean, it is a quick clean. For example, during the dusting the FlyLady encourages using a feather duster. She says not to move items but to quickly dust around the room. The Weekly Home Blessing is done ONLY in high-traffic areas. High-traffic areas are usually the path from the entry to the living room to the kitchen/dining area.
As part of FlyLady's Daily Focus (Basic Weekly Plan), Monday is designed to be the day to do the Weekly Home Blessing Hour. There are six tasks that you clean for ten minutes each. The Weekly Home Blessing is NOT a deep clean, it is a quick clean. For example, during the dusting the FlyLady encourages using a feather duster. She says not to move items but to quickly dust around the room. The Weekly Home Blessing is done ONLY in high-traffic areas. High-traffic areas are usually the path from the entry to the living room to the kitchen/dining area.
The FlyLady's Zone Cleaning is the deep cleaning within each zone. Using the same example, when it comes to dusting as part of the zone cleaning, we remove everything and use a good polish on it all. Additionally, zone cleaning rotates into all areas of the home so that at the end of the month you have done a deep cleaning everywhere.
How does FlyLady Zone Cleaning work?
The reality is that deep cleaning is often put off due to time and the fact that it is physically more intense. With zone cleaning, we go high so sometimes need ladders and we go low so we may be on all fours. Because deep cleaning is hard work, the FlyLady chips away at these big tasks with just fifteen minutes at a time.
When should I Zone Clean my house?
The concept for FlyLady Zone Cleaning is to tackle this monster one bite at a time. Each day, she suggests fifteen minutes or so of deep cleaning. This is your home and your life so do not get caught up in this. I personally TRY (yes, I said try) to do zone cleaning Monday through Friday but I do not zone clean on the weekends. This is something I encourage everyone to consider. We are moms and not maids. My weekends are for family as much as possible.
“We are Moms and not maids.”
What Zone is it?
The zones rotate by the calendar. The first week of the month is zone 1 which is the Entry and Dining area. Week 2 is all about the Kitchen. On week 3, we roll up our sleeves and scrub that tub...that's right, we are in the bathroom plus one extra room. I have multiple bathrooms. I work on each of them in week 3. Week 4 is the Master Suite. Lastly, week 5 is back to the Living Room to finish up the month.
The difficulty is that there are 4 1/2 weeks in the month and five zones. So on the week that splits to the next month, we split time between Zone 5 and Zone 1. Not to worry because we quick clean these areas every week during the Weekly Home Blessing Hour so it shouldn't need that much.
How to make Zone Cleaning work?
I have had so many comments saying the zone cleaning is the hardest or most confusing. My secret to success comes down to a few things. First of all, getting a detailed cleaning list. You can do this in many ways. The easiest I feel is to download the FlyLady Plus app which you can edit and customize, I have a full tutorial here.
The second way is to print the list from FlyLady's website here. This is not my favorite for two reasons, the website is a mess and the printable is not cute. If you want something cute and easy to find, check out my shop here. Lastly, get creative and make your own!
Once you have the list, pick two or three tasks in your zone to focus on for the day. Set a timer for 15 min and get moving. Try playing YouTube videos or Podcasts while cleaning. Cleaning time will fly by.
I love my Control Journal pages because I can make notes for items that need replacing or repairing for the next desk day or anti-procrastination day. This helps me stay focused, get things off of my mind, and keep going with a purpose.
How to do FlyLady Zone Cleaning if you don't have time?
It happens and the best defense is a good offense! I have been teaching my amazing Patreons (if you need guided cleaning check it out here) what I call my Push Day. I always plan my most needed or worst tasks that I need to tackle in my zone cleaning for the week for the first day of zone cleaning. This let's me power through the tough stuff just in case life happens and I can't get back in there the rest of the week.
As I said earlier, I try to zone clean every day through the week but not on weekends. However, my reality is more like 3 days of the week. Don't beat yourself up if you can't deep clean every day, work with what you have and be consistent!
Let's do this!
The secret sauce to everything is consistency. Working hard for one day lasts about that long, but working a little every day makes it last forever. As a recovering hot mess mom, I know it works. You can do this and I am here cheering you on!
Send to moms who get it!
In the fight for a peaceful and calm home, it is not the cleanliness that causes the most stress...it is the visual clutter. The fact that things are left out on counters, tables, floors is the first impression of your home. So, by finding little hacks to limit visual clutter, we can instantly make the house feel more tidy and peaceful.