Are we looking for a new way to approach spring cleaning? The FlyLady cleaning method has gone viral on TikTok. The FlyLady method was created years ago but has recently gained attention for the video-sharing app due to its systematic “zone” formats and time limits. Read on to learn how to incorporate FlyLady cleaning tips into your routine.
TikTok is embracing a new way to tidy our homes just in time for spring cleaning: the FlyLady cleaning method.
Although the method, according to the FlyLady website, was created in the 1990s by Marla Cilley, according to the FlyLady website, it has reached a new audience through the video-sharing app, with the hashtag #flyladymethod garnering more than 64 million views.
Rosa Picosa (@rosapicosa) is one of the users who helped jump the FlyLady method into the 21st century with her cleaning TikToks.
In one of her videos, the mother of two describes the method as “pure magic.”
Picosa is not alone in trying the method.
In a video that has garnered more than 32,000 likes, user @bridgettehartt says the method has given her “so much hope of not being inundated with cleaning my house.”
How does the FlyLady method work?
Although Cilley shares many tips for maintaining a clean house on her website, the method has received attention recently, particularly because of the systematic division of the place (called “zones”) and time limits for cleaning.
“All I ask is 15 minutes a day. Set a timer and do a little each day,” Cilley writes on the FlyLady website. “You’ll see a difference in a week… It didn’t get dirty in a day or get clean overnight.”
The zones are as follows:
Zone 1: Clean the entrance, veranda, and dining room during the first week of the month, which may only be a few days. Zone 2: Clean the kitchen during the first full week of the month. Zone 3: Main bathroom and another room in the house (such as a nursery, spare room, office, hobby room, or utility room) during the second full week of the month. Zone 4: Main bedroom (including closets and bathroom) during the third full week of the month. Zone 5: The living room is the fifth week of the month and usually only lasts a few days/rolls into zone 1.
The goal is to work on your zone for just 15 minutes a day that week.
“I don’t want you to burn out,” Cilley adds. “15 minutes a day; consistency is key here.”
If 15 minutes a day doesn’t seem like much to keep an entire house in order, don’t worry. There are other steps Cilley recommends for keeping track of things, including:
Have a morning routine where you freshen up your bathroom as you get ready for the day. Add a daily load of laundry your way, so it doesn’t build up. Do a 60-minute refresh (what Cilley calls her “weekly house blessing”) once a week for extra cleaning.
And if not all the FlyLady steps work for you, that’s okay too.
In one video, user @mellystarzangelbaby explains that Cilley’s tip to put your dish rack away, not on your counter, didn’t work for her because she didn’t have room to put it out of sight.
Fellow FlyLady follower Picosa chimed in to reassure her that it was okay.
“You’re GOOD!” she wrote in the comment section. “Don’t be afraid to adjust something that doesn’t make sense or doesn’t work for you. FlyLady has some interesting suggestions; you don’t have to take them all.”
