Flylady

You sound just like me. When I spend the day cleaning I usually can't go to bed at night because I have so many piles on my bed. :)
I love fly lady but I didn't sign up for her emails. I heard they are overwhelming. I just watched the videos. I took one little step and ran with it. I just focused on keeping my sink shiny. I created the habit of putting the clean dishes away in the morning and putting the dirty ones in all day long. Wash at night a repeat. It's amazing how that changed my mood.
Another thing I changed which I see you doing is moving stuff around. I used to move stuff from room to room and make piles to organize. I can't say that I have completely broken this habit but I try to use the only handle it once rule. Ex. I will look at the hutch in the kitchen which is one of my hot spots. If I pick it up, I put it where it belongs rather than making a pile to put away.
It's really hard not to get side tracked but just keep saying bedroom, bedroom, bedroom....whatever room you are cleaning. I need to refocus myself all the time. It's hard to break habits. You can do it though.
Good luck.

I tried Flylady but just couldn't get into it.
You started out w/one room. Good but then it sounds like you got lost in
it. Easy to do.
From your description (easier when it's someone else's mess :), you got started on one thing then jumped to another.
You may not need flylady . You just need one thing:
tackle one thing from beggining to end & don't get distracted
What do I mean? You went from bed (stripping it) to dresser tops to dusting to drawers to piles to organziing to bathroom closet. See what I mean?
You should have (& I know this is easier than done):
bed - strip, re-make
bathroom - toilet, shower, counters
closet -pull out, organize, donate
once you do all that THEN you do the drop off to the other rooms: carry
in a laundry basket
jewelry
carpet etc
See? One thing at a time, from start to finish then move on to the next.
You jump around (Belive me, I do the same but am forcing myself to stop!
YOU can do it.
Think: 1 task at a time (cleaning or organizing)
one room at a time
etc.

I like flylady. Take the ideas you like and forget the rest of the hype!
Clean your toilet/shower and toilet when you're done with your shower almost every day.
Do O. room per day.
When you see a "hot spot getting piled up--attack it!

That's the kind of stuff I've applied--I still consider myself a follower of flylady but I don't "do" the site or the emails anymore--I've got it! LOL

I learned of the flylady many years ago (8 maybe). I never joined her site because I don't need more email to read. What I took from her was this: 15 minutes of power cleaning a few times a day is enough to keep the house in order, once it is already clean.

I am currently working on a deep cleaning of my whole house. I've done two of the bedrooms. I'm doing one room a week, doing it in 15 minutes segments a few times a day.

Once I get everything clean, I am going to write down a time schedule for all the household cleaning tastes and put myself on a solid rotation (second week deep clean microwave for grease build-up, etc.).

The key is to focus on one thing at a time, and use those 15 minutes wisely. For instance, I wipe down our main bathroom every morning. It only takes 2 minutes, I then pick up stuff. I also organize by day, Monday is dust bedrooms, for instance.

I have never heard of that website, but with what you are trying to do I would take one thing at a time, then just maintain it. For example, if you want an organized closet, take a full day to tackle the closet and ONLY the closet. Make a point to stay focused on ONLY the closet and NOT get distracted with another task. Once you have finished organizing the closet, make sure you maintain the cleanliness of the space. For instance, do not just throw clothes in there or put a pair of shoes just anywhere...keep things in their proper place. That way, it will stay nice and it will be easier to keep clean.

If you start a task and then look over across the room and realize you could be doing something over there, DO NOT stop what you are doing to start something else. Keep a pen & notepad near you at all times and write a "To-Do List" of all the things that come to mind. When you get to doing that task, make sure you focus ONLY on the task at hand and finish it BEFORE starting anything else.

HOpe this helps! I LOVE to clean and organize...can you tell? :)

I do like flylady but hate her emails. I have set up my email to send all from her to the trash except for the ones that are the holiday cruising missions and flight plans for each day. Really cut down on all the junk she sends.

Flylady is such a waste of time - it is one more thing (or many if you are having to clean up your e-mails) to do! If you just make a list of what needs to be done everyday, it is amazing how much that REALLY helps. I love checking off the things I have completed. It really is just as simple as that :)

You are actually breaking one of her rules - you are only supposed to do one area at a time. So when you started with the dresser, whenever you went to another room to put away, you should have just put it away in the cluttered space and gotten to that space later (ie tomorrow or next week) and then gone straight back to finish the dresser.
It is hard to ignore a cluttered jewelry drawer, or bathroom closet, but if you want her system to work, you really have to ignore it... just for now!
I don't visit the page often or get her emails at all, but I apply what I learned when I was first into it. I swish and swipe my bathroom every day, I do one bed at a time (strip, wash, and put it back together in one day), I lay my kids clothes out the night before, I have a definite morning routine, and every day I work on decluttering one room or closet (we have a big move coming up so this is helping me feel ready for that).
Don't waste your whole day cleaning, just do what you can in whatever room you happen to be in. You can't believe how fun spraying and wiping down a table (with vinegar) can be for kids, so while they do that, I am in the adjoining livingroom sweeping under couches and TV table (we turn on the music and this is fun family time!) If you don't get to it for the day, there is always tomorrow!

i'm with you. great ideas but i had to go no mail, the email clutter overwhelmed whatever RL good stuff she gave me. i suggest going no mail, and periodically just hit the website for fresh inspiration. the 7-thing-fling worked well for me for a while although i haven't done it for a long time. the 15 minute increment idea was hugely helpful. the best thing i ever took from her was to leave a clean kitchen counter and sink, every night, no matter what. the plague-of-locust 20-somethings i've got here right now often swarm behind me and trash it, but they're agreeable about cleaning it up the next day and at least i go to bed feeling accomplished.
it's funny this post comes up today. just yesterday i had tea with a friend who is a faithful follower of the pagans-fly flylady site. i was laughing at her for being so OCD with her folder full of neatly catalogued flylady suggestions, but danged if the holiday ones she shared with me weren't really really good. my favorite was to stop trying to make every cookie my mother ever made, and just ask each one of my guys to tell me their #1 favorite and just make THOSE. and to make the dough ahead of time and freeze it in batches, so that when the feasts are near i can just whip a batch out and bake it. cookie baking is a joy unless you're frantic and stressed, and this one little idea just put the happy back into one of my favorite holiday activities.
:) khairete
S.

Updated

I started ,my own quest of a very basic way of cleaning and keeping up. When you go shopping...grocery, clothing, whatever before your done with your complete shopping trip you have to pitch the equivalent amount of stuff that you brought into the house(this includes groceries as there are outdates and things you didn't like, freezer burnt items). If you bring home an outfit, an outfit from somewhere in the house needs to go or something of equivalent size, buy a new coffee maker? same thing. Bringing in mail, sort it over the recycling bin, removing envelopes, advertisements and keep the actual bill or item. if you get magazines get rid of something equal to it before you get to read it. A friend gives you a gift, find something to donate, toss or whatever. It keeps the build up of stuff from happening so there is less to clean, it also makes you think twice before you buy things because you .always have in your mind it will be more of a process when you get home to get it put away and then get rid of something.

Eliminate checking e-mails for 14 days(inlcuding facebook) use that time to go through 1 corner of a room each day until you have worked your way through the whole house. Give yourself a week off to catch up on e-mails and fun things and then go right back to doing a corner a day until you have process yourself through the whole house as keeping up is easier than looking at a whole daunting task all at once and then giving up.

You sound like me, easily sidetracked.
I joined Flylady years and years ago, and have never gotten fully on board. I got some stinkin' thinkin' going on up here I just can't get past (like the fact that no one else in the house seems interested in cleaning)... so my house is a disaster area that NO ONE can come into.

If you do rejoin, I think you can sign up for a digest of the emails (all emails as one)... or put a filter on your email so they all go into a Flylady folder. Then you can either batch-delete, selectively delete the ones you know you won't read (I never read the NEWO emails), or whatever works for you.
The emails are intended for the people who need them for motivation. If they're not for you, skip them.
The way the way Flylady can rescue you is to help you find your focus, and using a timer. I really am amazed at how much I can actually get done in only 15 minutes (when the mood strikes me). I occassionally like to do the crisis cleaning... 15 minutes then move to a new room... but can only do that when the kids aren't home (because the minute I put something away, they pull it out to play with).

If you don't want to try Flylady again (or think it won't work for you), you can instead try Sidetracked Home Executives, which is where Marla started.
It's all about finding what works for your (and your family).

Good luck!