FlyLady - Pagan Style; Hot Spots

For those of you who don't know what FlyLady is, it's an inspirational website designed to help you clean and de-clutter your home and your life. It helps you create routines that work for you, your lifestyle & your family to help housekeeping become stress-free and something you just do naturally and daily rather than something you put off until the last minute and then stress about when you have company coming over.

I have felt for awhile now that many aspects of the FlyLady program can be applied in spiritual ways to those who consider themselves, Neo-Pagans, Kitchen Witches, Hearth Witches, Green Witches, etc. I will be going over some FlyLady basics here in my blog and writing about how they can be seen as a spiritual thing; not just a house-cleaning and organizing thing! If you missed it, check out my post called "FlyLady - Pagan Style; Welcome Letter"

When you start with FlyLady, there are 31 days of "Baby Steps" to help you slowly start to integrate small changes into your daily routines. It's about developing habits and changing your mind-set to a positive one!

BabySteps Day 6
Keep Doing what you have been doing!
Look at the written reminders you have made for yourself!
Get Dressed To Shoes When you Get up!
Keep Your Sink Shining!
Learn about Hot Spots and spend 2 minutes "putting out" one major Hot Spot in your home!
(read FlyLady's Day 6 message here )

 

 

 

FlyLady describes a "Hot Spot" as a place that attracts clutter.  We all have places in our home... usually some kind of flat surface like a table top, countertop, or a chair, where you put things instead of putting them away.  Then more things get put there, and more things, and more things.... and like a wildfire it is soon raging out of control... a big clutter spot that has taken over the whole surface!

 

Energetically, these Hot Spots can be dangerous!  In Feng-Shui we learn that clutter disrupts energy flow in our home and our lives, and this effects our stress levels, our health, our financial abundance, wealth, and family happiness.  How many times have you forgotten or missed a bill payment because you misplaced a bill in one of these "Hot Spots"?  Or had an argument with a family member because someone has "lost" or misplaced something, and eventually you find it buried at the bottom of one of these clutter piles.  All this could have been avoided if we had just put things away in the first place!  We tell this to our children all the time, and yet we still have these areas in our home that attract and collect clutter!  When I go around my house on a "Hot Spot Firedrill", I imagine that I am putting out little fires... it's almost like putting out random candles so they don't cause a house fire.  I find all sorts of things on random surfaces and I say "Hey!  You don't live there!  Where do you live?"  And I pick up the papers, mail, toy, hat, coat, random candy wrapper, etc.... and go find it's "Home".  It may sound silly, but I feel like a house fairy flying around and finding any unruly children and taking them back to their rooms!!

 

Today your goal is to identify your "Hot Spots".  You don't have to clean them all up today, just identify where they are throughout your home!  Spend at least 2 minutes cleaning one of these Hot Spots.  You are going to add this to your Daily Routines, to spend just 2 minutes every day clearing Hot Spots.  Once you get the main ones cleaned up, if you spend just two minutes every day going around your home and clearing those Hot Spots, they never build up and out of control again!  Just two minutes a day to put things away!  Eventually it becomes habit to keep these spaces cleared and put things away right away, and this will make a huge difference in how you take care of your home and family!

 

I have a hutch right next to our front door... a cabinet with doors on it.  When we get bills in the mail, I put them in here.  I throw away the junk mail, and take cards or letters to my desk.  When I need to find the bills, I know exactly where they are, and they are not cluttering up a spot on the kitchen table.  You can use a basket or a bin to hold your bills and important incoming mail... create a "home" for the things that need to be put away, filed, etc... this way you have a place to put things instead of just throwing them in a "Hot Spot".

 

Keep up the positive thinking!  Write a reminder to yourself to check your Hot Spots every day!  So far with the Baby Steps you are getting fully dressed when you get up in the morning, checking your written reminders to yourself, spending 2 minutes clearing your Hot Spots, and keeping your Sink Shining!  You are speaking to yourself with a more loving, positive voice and noticing how even these few little things you do... if you do them every day, they make a big difference!  Keep up the great work!