With this technique, in 15 minutes your house will be sparkling clean.

There is a tidying guru who is about to unseat Japan’ s Marie Kondo. She is the American Marla Cilley and her FlyLady method, a project based on routines to keep everything in order without having to spend too much time on household chores. According to a survey conducted by the American Cleaning Institute, a person can spend up to six hours tidying every corner of their home, as we insist on doing it all in one day, which, according to Cilley, is a big mistake.

The frenetic pace of life leads us to set aside a day for general cleaning, overexerting ourselves to make up for those who have not been able, or wanted, to do it. This is precisely what the FlyLady method fights against. A cleaning system that moves away from quick and short processes and opts for planning through a series of routines that are easy to follow and complete. Do you want to know them?

Four basic points of the FlyLady method of cleaning

To carry out her method, Marla Cilley focuses on specific areas of the home that she believes are key and must be kept clean. This is done, in a way, by playing with the psychology of the individual because seeing clean things, unconsciously incites to clean more. In the same way, it limits daily cleaning to a specific area and a specific time: Its four essentials are:

1. Spend only 15 minutes a day tidying up a room. Marla Cilley encourages doing it with a timer to stop picking when the alarm goes off. In this way, you will see what you are capable of doing in this space of time. In his opinion, houses do not get dirty in a single day, so we cannot make them clean and tidy in a single day. In addition, by choosing only one room, you avoid wandering from one space to another, which wastes time and distracts you with other things.
2. The sink, always clean. It is not necessary to do a thorough cleaning every day but it is essential that it is kept clean, empty and dry. For Cilley, the sink is the area of the house that feels the dirtiest and the part that can be the most lazy. But if you follow the rule of always keeping it clean, dry and shiny and, above all, free of utensils, you will see how the overall feel of your home will change. This recommendation extends to the rest of the kitchen, one of the most problematic areas in the home.
3. Shoes on. According to the American, the best thing to do is to get dressed and put on your shoes, preferably with laces, as soon as you get up, leaving your slippers in the closet. The reason, he says, is because that way you start the day with energy and are ready to get things done from the get-go. It is something more mental. According to this tidiness guru, people feel and act differently when they are fully dressed, even if they don’t leave the house, in order to avoid excuses for not doing a household chore.
4. Follow routines. Once you have advanced in this method and the FlyLady method is part of your life, start creating routines. The American guru proposes dividing your day into three segments: morning routines, afternoon routines and evening routines, although of course each person should and can adapt their routines to their usual lifestyle. This is a key point in the FlyLady method, since turning an action into a routine will make you do it without thinking. But of course, in order to do that, we have to repeat the same thing many times, in the same way and in the same time slot, to the point that we cannot do one thing without having done something else before.

Basic recommendations to get started with this method

Maria Cilley offers a series of recommendations to beginners in her method and to people, in general, when it comes to cleaning and tidying the house. Among the main ones is the make the bed every morning so that the room does not look like a lion’s den, as well as identify the most problematic spots in the house and dedicate two minutes a day to tidying them up: from the children’s bed to the dining room table, the hallway furniture, etc. It also encourages you to take a garbage bag and throw away 27 pieces of unused junk that may seem like a lot, but once you start…

The American also invites you to clean the bathroom, superficially, every morning (remove the remains of toothpaste from the sink, hair, place the towels…), as well as to create a weekly plan to keep an organized control. In his opinion, it is also important to establish a nightly routine: before going to bed, spend 10 minutes picking up the things that are out of order. This way you prepare your house for the next day.

It is clear that by following these tips, your house will always be clean and tidy. It does not take a lot of time, it is not tedious, since it only takes fifteen minutes each day; and it can be followed by all the members of the family. Who knows? may be the method by which our homes will finally be always ready to receive visitors. It is worth a try.