Venting: looking for non-fundie housekeeping blogs

[Ridiculous]

http://www.home-ec101.com

She also has a book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/144030 ... 0308535%22

Also, this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Accidental-Ho ... +housewife

[AuntCloud]

Hire a cleaning woman.

I honestly don't understand where you're coming from. Men have (on average) more physical strength and are (on average) less squeamish and sensitive to smells. They are clearly better candidates for a cleaner position - Headship can vacuum and mop the entire living room in under 15 minutes.

[nonymouse]

I really like the UfYH app. You can choose a random challenge; your own, prioritized to-do list; room challenges; a 20/10 timer and motivational (yet snarky) blurbs. It also keeps track of your accomplishments. Here's a link (not breaking as it's Apple's App Store): https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/unfilth ... ?ls=1&mt=8

[Lainey]

I honestly don't understand where you're coming from. Men have (on average) more physical strength and are (on average) less squeamish and sensitive to smells. They are clearly better candidates for a cleaner position - Headship can vacuum and mop the entire living room in under 15 minutes.

Well, problem solved, then. ;) My husband does lots of the cleaning. Mostly because I have so much trouble picking up stuff/lifting/moving things because of my back. I want to be better at it, though.

[TurtleBelly]

I have found unclutterer.com to have a useful mix of cleaning and organizing info. Archives for specific cleaning queries. Haven't noticed any religious overtones from contributors.

[RandomTrivia]

I've done Side-Tracked Home Executives, too, and I probably need to get back to it. The SHE ladies were the inspiration for Flylady. I'll take SHE. It's funnier.

I think I have that SHE book - somewhere. And darn, the library doesn't own it. Interestingly enough, about half of the books the library has under "house cleaning" deal more with decluttering. Which granted, I need to do also, but the routine/time management part is probably where I need to start right now.

I have the Flylady book, and while it's churchy, I like the idea of a routine. I get her emails now, but I swear, it seems for the past year or so, they're mostly "testimonials" that end up reading like a sales pitch for some product of hers. (The Magic Purple Rags are really starting to get on my nerves.) I had a bit of a routine going for a while, and it worked okay. Then I had a kid and we moved to a bigger house, and things just went to pieces. I guess it's time to get back into a routine of some kind.

[realist51]

I love this lady! (If you look deeper I think she's Mormon or something, but it doesn't show in her blog!) Her 20 day challenge was brilliant! Never had my house looking so clean...but it was only 20 days and the house has 'reverted!)

theorganisedhousewife.com.au/

I love her, too! I read her books MANY years ago, before people had blogs and before I gave up trying. She is Mormon, but not in your face about it. Really, though, she saved my life when I had small kids and was overwhelmed.

[AuntCloud]

Wonderful tips, this will keep me going through the long weekend!

Love unclutterer.com - FlyLady got me started but I go there every once in a while just to keep motivated. Her Unitasker of the Week posts are hysterical and thankfully, no religion is involved.

Again, part of my problem is not knowing what to do, part of it is the dreaded small house-lots of activities-messy housemates combo, and the biggest part is that I just rather sit here on the couch with my laptop rather than moving furniture around the living room and mopping the floor.

And finally, I think all my problems are solved: http://speedcleaning.com/2013/cleaning- ... iling-fan/

[moodygirl86]

Try this:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... KvzbhO6JTI

[bookgirl14]

I was on Flylady's email list about four or five years ago and it seemed like a never ending parade of email "testimonials" that were trying to sell one of her products. I felt like if you didn't buy her products the system wasn't going to worse and worse I listened to the podcasts several times and I think Flylady ended up crying at some point in every podcast.

[August]

Try this:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... KvzbhO6JTI

I see your cleaning videos, and raise you Kim and Aggie!

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x_6k11x7W8 ... _6k11x7W8Q

[SoybeanQueen]

So this is where all of my people are hiding? I recently decided to start writing about my adventures in domesticity for the same reasons you've mentioned. First, I don't think every cleaning tip needs to involve prayer. Second, I am doing these cleaning experiments because my house is crazy messy and I have a hard time looking at a perfectly perfect house and imagining mine looking that way.

I've only written one specific cleaning tutorial so far (my other cleaning posts have pretty much been bitching about how much I hate cleaning). I cleaned my windows, which I don't think had been cleaned on the outside for the 7 years we've lived here. They were icky. But I figured out how to clean them fast and suddenly I think, heyyy, maybe I could clean other stuff if cleaning isn't a huge pain in the ass. So I figure I'll do more of that sort of thing, because it's what I have been looking for online but haven't found.

If you want to adventure along with me, my blog is [link=http://thisnotsosimplelife.com/]here[/link]. Can't promise it will be fascinating, but I do promise you won't be evangelized. And now I will never post a link to my blog again, because I've done it twice today and feel like a dirty spammer.

I also like Unclutterer!

[Loveday]

So this is where all of my people are hiding? I recently decided to start writing about my adventures in domesticity for the same reasons you've mentioned. First, I don't think every cleaning tip needs to involve prayer. Second, I am doing these cleaning experiments because my house is crazy messy and I have a hard time looking at a perfectly perfect house and imagining mine looking that way.

I've only written one specific cleaning tutorial so far (my other cleaning posts have pretty much been bitching about how much I hate cleaning). I cleaned my windows, which I don't think had been cleaned on the outside for the 7 years we've lived here. They were icky. But I figured out how to clean them fast and suddenly I think, heyyy, maybe I could clean other stuff if cleaning isn't a huge pain in the ass. So I figure I'll do more of that sort of thing, because it's what I have been looking for online but haven't found.

If you want to adventure along with me, my blog is [link=http://thisnotsosimplelife.com/]here[/link]. Can't promise it will be fascinating, but I do promise you won't be evangelized. And now I will never post a link to my blog again, because I've done it twice today and feel like a dirty spammer.

I also like Unclutterer!

Just read your post on how you went from one kid to five. I needed a Kleenex when I finished reading; I think it had something to do with the photo at the end of the post. Gorgeous family! :)

And your windows are so CLEAN! :worship:

[AuntCloud]

Thank you for your blog! Unfortunately someone was chopping onions in my office while I was reading :whistle:

Your kids are gorgeous and have beautiful names, too.

[paganhomeschooler]

I can't stand Flylady. I had subscribed years ago. One day, overwhelmed with 3 little kids and a small house, I emailed to ask what can I do when I clean for my 15 minutes, move to the next place to clean, and my kids re-trash what I just I got the reply to stop whining and keep cleaning! I unsubscribed that day. Unless I locked my kids in a closet, there was no way it would have worked in a 2 bedroom house with 2 toddlers and a 5 yo.

Now, I make my minions clean. I highly recommend it. lol Payback is a bitch!

[SoybeanQueen]

Just read your post on how you went from one kid to five. I needed a Kleenex when I finished reading; I think it had something to do with the photo at the end of the post. Gorgeous family! :)

And your windows are so CLEAN! :worship:

Thank you! I'm very lucky to have them.

The windows really were SO easy. I was so happy I texted a picture of the windows to my mother. My kitchen is clean now, too. Two clean rooms at one time. I don't even know what to do!

[SoybeanQueen]

Thank you for your blog! Unfortunately someone was chopping onions in my office while I was reading :whistle:

Your kids are gorgeous and have beautiful names, too.

Thank you. I think they're quite lovely, too. I named my oldest and my youngest. My three in the middle chose their own names when we finalized their adoption. I did have to steer one of my boys away from choosing "Spiderman."

[AuntCloud]

Progress report: was ticked off by the Small Notebook - the early posts, after reading how much being home was awesome because she was there for all of there daughter's little milestones. Wasn't too impressed by her money-saving tips. First, she compared renting a small apartment to the costs of buying a townhouse. Can I compare the cost of taking the bus and buying a car? Also, her testimonials on life with no cell phone and one car. I've lived with one car and no cell phone, now we have a car and a cell phone per adult and I have to say my life is less cluttered this way, not more.

I re-discovered Unf^%& Your Habitat and it's awesome. I unf$%^$%ed a shelf in the bathroom closet and my undie drawer today, both took less than 5 minutes each and it's so gratifying.

[thetabmeister]

I have used onegoodthingbyjillee.com it's a DIY, crafting, cooking, and housekeeping blogwith a bit of lifestyle thrown in. the site is a little hard to search but I've found a lot of her cleaning methods useful. I would be careful about anything to do with homemade dishwasher soap tho, I've heard it can break the seals. also sometimes Jillee says crazy stuff like "white chickens lay white eggs and brown chickens lay brown eggs". oh, and like 99%of her content is borrowed, often uncredited, from other blogs...that's actually why I stopped subscribing to her...but she does have some cool methods...

[SoybeanQueen]

Not housekeeping, but organizing-related, have you guys tried Cozi? I think the Duggars use it, so I hadn't looked at it for a long time out of annoyance by association. However, I recently downloaded it to my phone, my husband's phone, and my daughters' Kindles/iPods. The free version is pretty awesome, though you do get the occasional flashing ad that bugs. I may eventually upgrade to the paid version just to avoid those ads.

Everyone can add their appointments to the shared calendar. You can color code stuff by person so you can see which family members are going where at what time. It has shopping lists, to do lists, a journal. You can keep track of tons of information with it, and it's free.

I use an Android phone, and I have the Cozi shared calendar widget right on my home screen, plus a screen for the To Do list and one for a shopping list. My husband and kids can add whatever they need to the shopping list, which may be my favorite thing. It all goes right to my phone, so I don't have to find the 37 pieces of paper they wrote their requests on.

If you just want the list-making capability, Out of Milk is also good and free. I prefer the shopping list interface on Out of Milk (it moves the stuff you check off to the bottom automatically), but love the calendar on Cozi more.

[RandomTrivia]

I can't stand Flylady. I had subscribed years ago. One day, overwhelmed with 3 little kids and a small house, I emailed to ask what can I do when I clean for my 15 minutes, move to the next place to clean, and my kids re-trash what I just I got the reply to stop whining and keep cleaning! I unsubscribed that day. Unless I locked my kids in a closet, there was no way it would have worked in a 2 bedroom house with 2 toddlers and a 5 yo.

Now, I make my minions clean. I highly recommend it. lol Payback is a bitch!

I just counted - I got 11 emails from FlyLady yesterday:

a water bottle "testimonial" (I like my insulated Thermos and Kleen Kanteen, much cheaper than hers)

Mold/mildew prevention question - turned into a Rubba Scrubba pitch

blatant feather duster rave

1 encouragement email (reply to fan)

grocery bag testimonial (not a bad deal, actually - if you like purple)

1 rave about using Rubba Scrubba on a fan's dog

1 Habit of the Month, very mild sales pitch at end

1 Daily Flight Plan

1 sales pitch for associated site selling smoothie mixes

1 testimonial for smoke alarms

1 Kids Challenge

So, of the 11, there were 3, possibly 4 (the Kids Challenge) that were useful. The other 7/8 were basically advertising disguised as testimonials, with many links to her online store. I don't think her email subscription offers a way to only get the useful ones, and the subject lines don't help distinguish one from the other. I get that she does this as a job, but the emails are a bit much. I think it may be time to drop the emails and just write up a routine out of the book.

[flubber]

I just counted - I got 11 emails from FlyLady yesterday:

a water bottle "testimonial" (I like my insulated Thermos and Kleen Kanteen, much cheaper than hers)

Mold/mildew prevention question - turned into a Rubba Scrubba pitch

blatant feather duster rave

1 encouragement email (reply to fan)

grocery bag testimonial (not a bad deal, actually - if you like purple)

1 rave about using Rubba Scrubba on a fan's dog

1 Habit of the Month, very mild sales pitch at end

1 Daily Flight Plan

1 sales pitch for associated site selling smoothie mixes

1 testimonial for smoke alarms

1 Kids Challenge

So, of the 11, there were 3, possibly 4 (the Kids Challenge) that were useful. The other 7/8 were basically advertising disguised as testimonials, with many links to her online store. I don't think her email subscription offers a way to only get the useful ones, and the subject lines don't help distinguish one from the other. I get that she does this as a job, but the emails are a bit much. I think it may be time to drop the emails and just write up a routine out of the book.

Spam much? How can someone in business not realise that excess emails are just annoying and are going to make you unsubscribe!!

[RandomTrivia]

Spam much? How can someone in business not realise that excess emails are just annoying and are going to make you unsubscribe!!

You'd think so, but apparently not. It's an all or nothing sign-up, no options for just one segment. Her website says:

"We send out an average of 10 e-mails per day. We have cut back on the amount of e-mails that are sent out throughout the day, but they can still be overwhelming to a new member. Please don’t get overwhelmed by them! Each and every e-mail is an important piece of FLYing." And those spammy "testimonials" are

Testimonials – Testimonials are sent in from our wonderful FlyBabies all around the world. They are meant to encourage and inspire you in your FLYing journey. They are always positive and uplifting stories of triumph and success sent in by FlyBabies just like you.

The links to various products are just icing on the cake, I guess.