Goodbye, old friend...

I have destroyed one of my most treasured companions.  I took it apart, ripped it to shreds, threw it away.  I spent hours cultivating this relationship, hours upon hours of careful creation.  It's amazing how easy it was to get rid of it.

Today I dismantled my Flylady Control Journal.

For those in the dark (and how do we even know each other?), the Flylady is a woman in North Carolina with, essentially, a housekeeping website.  She is very positive, with a lot of catchphrases: "Jump in where you are," "CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome", "SHE (Side-tracked Home Executives", "Babysteps", and other happy, cheerleader-like phrases.  I joined when the Girl was born, I was sucked into the pit of postpartum depression, and I just needed to get the underwear clean.  And it helped.  There was a whole community of people to talk to online, and I was so lonely.  I had never set up routines, and those really helped - not only getting the housework done, but anyone with depression knows, nothing helps you get through a bad bout like a set routine.  Not to mention, she started me on the decluttering, and that was a huge help.  Getting rid of stuff is cathartic.  Sometimes kind of addicting, as my family will likely find out after my most recent episode.  This morning.
Anyway, I sent up my control journal, which is a binder with all the routines and family information you need, right at your fingertips.  A lot of families have a binder like this, I'm sure.  I used Flylady's systems when we had to sell our condo in Bartlett, and when we moved down here.  Flylady's chat groups introduced me to my first friends in Kentucky, who I still cherish to this day.  I bought her products - the feather dusters (large and small), her calendar and stickers, her book, her timer, and her friend Leanne's cookbooks.

It's just not serving me anymore.

Don't get me wrong, Flylady is a great system.  It's helped thousands of people, and I was one of them for awhile.  But I like making my lists at night before bed, instead of having a book of routines. My health and fitness is definitely taking precedence over my housekeeping right now, so most of those routines weren't being completed, anyway (who says I don't know how to balance - I'll clean later.)  I've discovered some other ways to organize that are working for me.  And the pretty purple fairy lady is just not my motivating force right now.

Today I spent several hours working on my filing, getting rid of old papers, putting together a pile to shred.  I have cut my paper clutter down by a lot.  I have set up my calendars for the year, using a combination of wall calendar, Google calendar, and my phone (finally accepting the dawn of the digital age.)

I suppose this post is really more about growth than anything else.  I'm only 5 months away from my 40th birthday, and I'm trying to figure out what helps me streamline my life, and cull what isn't working anymore.   And, for those of you who are where I was, check out Flylady, she really is a lovely person with some great ideas that work.

And now I have an extra binder.