Following FlyLady’s BabySteps with HomeRoutines


If you’ve downloaded HomeRoutines because you are feeling totally overwhelmed with your house and want to get organized, The Flylady’s babysteps are an  excellent way to get started.  Flylady (Marla Cilley) is legendary for her supportive messages combined with stern but loving instructions that will help you get out of CHAOS (“Can’t have anyone over syndrome”)

If you want to get organized the Flylady way, it’s best to follow her Baby Steps rather than jumping in and trying to do everything all at once (not the least because her system and website grew and grew along with her mailing list, and along the way she’s added extra bits and extra friends and experts, so it can take awhile to get your head around it!)

As with everything: adapt away!

If you prefer working offline, or whatever, here’s a little printable chart of the topics of each Baby Step; clickity click for a PDF.

BABYSTEPSCHART

Before you start: ^

Delete the example routines and create a new “Flylady Babysteps” routine

  1. Touch Edit on the Home screen of HomeRoutines
  2. Touch the delete button (with the minus next to it) next to Morning Routine, then touch the confirmation button
  3. Repeat, to delete both of the other default routines
  4. Touch Add Routine, and type in the name FlyLady Baby Steps.
  5. Touch Done at the top of the screen

Set up your Babysteps Routine:

  1. Touch your FlyLady Baby Steps routine to open it
  2. Touch Edit at the top of this routine
  3. Make tasks in it that are just named the numbers 1 – 31. You could also use the one-word summaries from my printable baby steps summary up the top of this page.
  4. At the bottom of the list is the schedule. By default, it will appear every day, and never clear its stars.That’s how you want this list to behave, so you can keep track of where you’re up to, so leave it like that.
  5. Touch Home in the top left corner to return to the HomeRoutines homescreen.

The Flylady 31 Baby Steps:

Day 0: Getting Started ^

Read FlyLady’s Getting Started page and sign up for her emails. (You’ll get like eleventy-five emails in the first day alone; suggest you scroll to the bottom of any one of her emails and click the SafeUnsubscribe link, which lets you switch to the Lite version where you only get one or two emails a day)

Day 1: Sink ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website.
  2. In HomeRoutines, touch your Flylady Baby Steps routine to open it,  and touch the grey star next to the 1 to give yourself a gold star for today.
  3. Touch Home to go back to the home screen.  You’ll see that the star next to the name of your routine has got a little gold wedge up the top  – it is starting to fill in with color as you complete the baby steps routine.

Day 2: Shoes ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website.
  2. Open up your Baby Steps routine and give yourself a gold star for today.

Day 3: Website ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website.
  2. Open up your Baby Steps routine and give yourself a gold star for today.

Day 4: Sticky ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website.
  2. Open up your Baby Steps routine and give yourself a gold star for today.

Day 5: Voices ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website.
  2. Open up your Baby Steps routine and give yourself a gold star for today.

Day 6: Hotspot ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website
    Today FlyLady talks about “Hotspots”  Those are the places where, if you put one piece of paper down, somehow within a couple of hours it’s got 8 more pieces of paper, 2 bits of mail, the community newspaper, a hairbrush, and a sandwich crust sitting on top.  I don’t know how it happens either.  Anyway, if you set your timer for 2 minutes and attack a hotspot, it helps keep them under control.
    You can use the timer in HomeRoutines from any routine.
  2. Open up your Baby steps routine
  3. Touch the stopwatch icon in the bottom lefthand corner
  4. Choose 2 minutes with the wheelie thing
  5. Go to the nearest hotspot, then touch Start on the timer.
  6. Tidy up that hotspot!
  7. When the glorious timer of glory goes off, enjoy the tidier hotspot!
  8. Don’t forget to give yourself a gold star for today.

Day 7: Clothes ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website,
  2. Don’t worry about putting anything else in HomeRoutines yet!  Just remember to give yourself your gold star.

Day 8: Routines ^

 

Create your Morning Routine

  1. Touch Edit at the top of the HomeRoutines homescreen
  2. Touch Add Routine, and type in the name Morning Routine
  3. Touch Done at the top of the screen
  4. Touch your Morning Routine
  5. Add the first morning routine tasks from today’s assignment.
    You can touch Return after you type each task to go to the next line.
  6. Now you can set your schedule for this routine.  Touch the little schedule at the bottom of the screen.
  7. Now touch all the yellow squares to give them a checkmark.  The completion stars will reset each day, so you can start fresh every day.
  8. Touch Done
  • Create your Before Bed Routine
  1. Touch Edit at the top of the HomeRoutines homescreen
  2. Touch Add Routine, and type in the name Before Bed Routine
  3. Add the first Before Bed Routine tasks from today’s assignment. You can touch Return after  you type each task to go to the next line.
  4. Edit your schedule for this routine to reset every day as well
  5. Touch Done
  • Give yourself your gold star for today.

Day 9: Declutter ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website
  2. Use your HomeRoutines timer to try a room rescue.
  3. Add the task to your morning routine
  4. Follow your Morning and Before Bed routines and give yourself a gold star for each task
  5. Give yourself a gold star for today in your Baby Steps routine
  6. Check out the HomeRoutines Accomplishments screen at the end of the day – it lists everything you’ve gotten done in your routines. Go you!

Day 10: Timer ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website
  2. Now you get to use the HomeRoutines timer again, this time for 15 minutes! And another 15 minutes!
  3. Follow your routines
  4. Give yourself a star for today
  5. Check out your accomplishments

Day 11: Inspiration ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website
    HomeRoutines doesn’t have a spot for inspirational quotes, but you could use the notes app if you don’t have anything cuter. There are lots of nice gratitude journal apps available too 🙂
  2. Follow your routines and give yourself stars for each task.
  3. Give yourself a star for today’s baby step.
  4. Check out your accomplishments

Day 12: Delete ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website which is to delete all the emails from her.  (By the way, I had an epiphany about the numerous emails that Flylady sends out each day: I think it is exposure therapy for decluttering, because each time you delete one, it is good practice for removing actual stuff from your life.  Besides, there’s always the Lite version)
  2. Follow your routines
  3. Give yourself a star for today
  4. Check out your accomplishments

Day 13: Mission ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website Today’s job is to do one of Flylady’s Zone Missions – assignments posted every weekday.   The location of the job will be in the current Zone according to Flylady’s schedule, which works very nicely with the Focus Zones in HomeRoutines – but don’t worry about setting those up for now, just set your timer for 15 and do the mission of the day!
  2. Follow your routines
  3. Give yourself a star for today
  4. Check out your accomplishments

Day 14: Calendar ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website and read her Calendar essay.
  2. Follow your routines
  3. Give yourself a star for today
  4. Check out your accomplishments

Day 15: Bed ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website – adding to your Morning Routine
  2. Follow your routines
  3. Give yourself a star for today
  4. Check out your accomplishments

Day 16: Email ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website.
  2. Follow your routines
  3. Give yourself a star for today
  4. Check out your accomplishments

Day 17: Bedtime ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website – and add to your Before Bed Routine.
  2. Follow your routines
  3. Give yourself a star for today
  4. Check out your accomplishments

Day 18: Commandments ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website, which is to read her “11 Commandments
    Fordward Thinking Mommy made a colorful printable version of these.
    Such typography! So fonts! Wow. (Sorry, I had a doge in my throat)
    Flylady Commandements from Fordward Moving Mommy
  2. Follow your routines
  3. Give yourself a star for today
  4. Check out your accomplishments

Day 19: B&B ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website.
  2. Follow your routines
  3. Give yourself a star for today
  4. Check out your accomplishments

Day 20: Laundry ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website – and add laundry to your routines.
  2. Follow your routines
  3. Give yourself a star for today
  4. Check out your accomplishments

Day 21: Ask ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website.
  2. Follow your routines
  3. Give yourself a star for today
  4. Check out your accomplishments

Day 22: Journal ^

  1. Read today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website. You can see – if you click on Flylady’s separate page for Control Journal steps – that there are lots of ideas for extra things to go in a folder, like phone numbers and emergency checklists, that don’t go in HomeRoutines. That’s fine… we’re all about the Routines part here.  (Those things are still very useful, so, you know, make sure you know where they are)
  2. Follow your routines
  3. Give yourself a star for today
  4. Check out your accomplishments

Day 23: Afternoon ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website – now create an Afternoon Routine in HomeRoutines, naming it to suit yourself. Remember you tap “Edit” in the top right of the screen to add a Routine.
  2. Add a few suitable tasks to your new routine
  3. Follow your routines, and give yourself a star.

Day 24: Swish ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website, adding to your morning routine.
  2. Follow your routines, and give yourself a star.

Day 25: Testimonial ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website
  2. Follow your morning, afternoon and evening routines, and give yourself a star.

Day 26: Jump in! ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website
    Flylady’s “Jump in where you are” philosophy is great.
    We chose to make routines reset, so you don’t have a backlog of incomplete ones hanging over you, and you can start fresh each day. Be kind to yourself 🙂
  2. Follow your morning, afternoon and evening routines, and give yourself a star.

Day 27: Dinner ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website: adding to your morning routine or evening routine.
  2. Follow your morning, afternoon and evening routines, and give yourself a star.

Day 28: Water ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website: add reminders to drink your water  to routines.
  2. If you like to drink a certain number of glasses of water a day, you can set up a routine just to keep track of your waters!
  3. Follow your morning, afternoon and evening routines, and give yourself a star.

Day 29: Pamper ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website
  2. Follow your morning, afternoon and evening routines, and give yourself a star.

Day 30: ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website
  2. Think about your weekly plan. Here’s Flylady’s example
  3. Put a reminder for each day in your daily reminders.
  4. Later, you can set up a routine for each day with the details, if you want a detailed checklist for each day of the week.
  5. Follow your morning, afternoon and evening routines, and give yourself a star.

Day 31: Onwards! ^

  1. Complete today’s assignment on FlyLady’s website
  2. Follow your morning, afternoon and evening routines, and give yourself a star
  3. Congratulations! You’ve finished the Flylady baby steps!