LIFE IN LOCKDOWN | Day 26: Spend 15 minutes decluttering your home

Tidying guru Marla Cilley, aka The FlyLady, provides top tips to tackle the mess without feeling overwhelmed

21 April 2020 - 12:45 By Toni Jaye Singer
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Marla Cilley promises that her FlyLady techniques will help you blast clutter in just 15 minutes a day.
Marla Cilley promises that her FlyLady techniques will help you blast clutter in just 15 minutes a day.
Image: 123RF/milkos

After 26 days in lockdown, chances are it may look like a "mess bomb" went off in your home with little piles of clutter everywhere.

You know you should start clearing up, but the thought of doing so seems overwhelming. That's when decluttering diva Marla Cilley and her quick and easy FlyLady cleaning techniques come to the rescue.

"Your home did not get dirty in a day and it is not going to get clean overnight,"  Cilley says on her websiteHer advice is to take "baby steps" and tackle the clutter a little bit at a time, spending no more than 15 minutes per day doing so. She even advocates setting a timer so you don't go overboard.

To get started, she recommends you try her simple "Hot Spot Fire Drill". A hot spot is any area that is frequently used as dumping ground, like that bedroom chair where you pile your clothes instead packing them into your wardrobe or dropping them in the laundry hamper.

"Get rid of that pile, find the surface underneath, and stop this hot spot from becoming a raging clutter inferno," Cilley enthuses.

Check out Cilley's website flylady.net for additional FlyLady cleaning techniques, including her "27-Fling Boogie" and "Five-Minute Room Rescue".

• From gripping series to watch to fun crafts to do with your children, we'll be adding a new activity to our 'Life in Lockdown' series every day. Keep an eye on timeslive.co.za for tomorrow's instalment.


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