Weekly Flylady Thread 28th March 2022

Valli

Welcome to the weekly Flylady Thread.

What is FLYLADY? Well, it's our version of the US flylady idea - but we work on the principle that housework is not fun, it's boring, can be time-consuming, is often thankless but, unfortunately, necessary. It's here on Old Style to provide the support we all need and to make the whole task easier and quicker. We also accept that, sometimes, life just gets on top of us and we can't keep up, maybe because we're time-poor, not in the best of health and/or we have littlies who need us. We are definitely NOT control freaks aiming for perfection and utterly spotless show-homes.

You're more than welcome to join us in the everlasting battle against dust, grime and gibble. The aim of our thread is to make those onerous tasks less daunting, and to support each other - and to make time for the finer things in life!
Please do remember we have to abide by MSE rules; each post should, ideally, include some mention of flying.
Thank you Natty for last week's thread.

Please follow the forum rules on this thread as Flylady has been here a LONG time and is a fabulous support and resource for lots of us. All posts should have some Flylady-related content! (i.e. it should be on-topic)
The idea is that even if you are really busy you don't need to fall off the wagon!
Every room comes back around next week so please don’t stress about catching up
These lists are only suggestions and not a must do list; you are more than welcome to post and follow your own lists.
Also adding a declutter mission each day will help to gradually clear the clutter and make flying easier.
A few of the basics before we start the week -

Hotspots are areas where if one thing gets put there, loads of other things follow!
Daily routines are anything you need to do on a daily basis like washing, swish and swipe kitchen and bathroom, ironing, making beds, vacuuming high traffic areas, making meals etc.
Night-time routines are all things which make getting ready in the morning easier, preparing clothes for the next day, making lunches, swish & swipes of the kitchen and tidying the living room before you go to bed plus personals like shower/brush teeth etc.
Fling Boogie - stick on some loud music, grab a bin bag and whiz around the house finding items that can go out with the rubbish, recycling, for charity shop, basically anything that will stop it cluttering your home.
Swish and swipe/S&S means have a quick wipe over an area such as a sink or toilet to prevent the build up of dirt. This is usually done on a daily basis

HHE/HHC/HHI Half Hour exercise/challenge/ironing ... run around for 30 minutes to the Benny Hill music frantically cleaning exercising or ironing.. .other music may be used if you prefer!
WM ~ Washing machine
TD ~ Tumble dryer
SC ~ Slowcooker
BM ~ Breadmaker
DW ~ Dishwasher
SOAADFA ~ Sit on 'bottom' and do 'nothing'
KH/XH/FW ~ Ex-husband and other not so polite versions
DH/DD/DS/DW/DP ~ Dear husband/daughter/son/wife/partner/whatever
OH/SO ~ Other half/significant other
NN ~ nice neighbour
Toxic (friend/mother/sister/whoever) ~ person in your life that seems to exist to make your life miserable
AF ~ Aunt Flo 'time of the month'.. nothing to do with flying but it comes up often.
ETA ~ Edited to add
Gibble ~ miscellaneous crap that appears forever homeless
Dot-to-dot ~ pick a small area (not a whole room) like a chair/coffee/table/shelf/worktop or wherever- that’s your first 'dot' - totally clear it - clean it - and only put back what should be there - deal with what you have removed (not just move it somewhere else) then if you have time move on and do the same to another 'dot' -the idea is just like a dot to dot puzzle, you aim to join up all the dots and have a tidy room. The trick is to keep each dot tidy until you get them all joined up! All credit to former Flylady AnW's Mum for this one
RoD ~ Room of Doom, the one room that feels like it is a permanent pit and cannot be used to its potential!
MAD half hour
- Mad is the abbreviation for Make A Difference.
The idea is that you have a Forth bridge (ie never-ending - or just huge) task but that you work on it in half-hour bursts. This way you know you ARE stopping, and that you won't get it finished but you will make a difference - so it might be clearing out - the garage or shed, or clothes sorting, or weeding - you get the picture - but rather than keep going until you've lost the will to live you do half an hour...but, eventually those half hours will get the job done!
Frog (or other amphibian) ~ google 'eat that frog'
Spoons ~ google 'but you don't look sick' and/or 'The Spoon Theory'.

Mr S/A/T/M/L/Al - supermarkets Sainsburys, Asda, Tesco, Morrisons, Lidl, Aldi. You get the picture!!

Click here to read Toots wonderful welcome guide

Marvellous Monday - Kitchen and Dining Room

Level 1
Open some windows for some fresh air.
Wash up, dry up and put away (or remove all pots to DW) 
Clear sides and wipe down - wipe small appliances and caddies etc.  Don't forget the splashbacks or tiles!
Replace what lives there, wiping as you go
Empty bin and clean it out too - put it outside to dry in the sunshine, if you can.
Clear and clean sink and accessories - don't forget those out-of-sight places - under plugs and under draining racks - and shine those taps - or clean them!
Clean/polish table - wipe mats/change cloth
Check fruit and wash bowl
Throw away your manky dish cloth or sponge and replace with a new one!  Put out a new hand towel and a new tea towel too
Good slug of bleach down pluholes and in overflows

Level 2

Wipe down all cupboard and drawer fronts inside and out, not forgetting handles and tops and bottom as well as fronts!
Clean hob
Clean microwave
Sort fridge and wipe seals; weave stuff that needs using up into your meal plan (see extras); update shopping list as appropriate
Wash and wipe fridge shelves and baskets.
Dust dining area/room
Descale kettle if needed
Clean WM , TD and DW filters; remove WM detergent drawer and wash it out.
Wipe inside of washer drawer and DW door then run empty on a hot cycle to clean out the pipes!

Level 3

Pick a cupboard or a drawer; empty it, clean it out and put back its contents tidily
Sweep/mop/vacuum floor 
Clean chairs (and highchairs) - don't forget under the seats where sticky fingers linger.
Clean windows in both rooms.
Go round the whole house wiping door handles, light switches and banisters - we WILL be germ-free!

EXTRAS

HHI - I have LOADS to do - I didn't get any done this weekend!
S&S bathroom
Paperwork/admin up to date - month end looms
Card for April & Easter - do you need any?
Check your freezer - does anything need using up? - if so weave it in to your...
Meal plan for the week. - and plan to cook a double sized meal and freeze one for a CBA day - or (if you live alone or there are just two of you) freeze some leftovers.  Things like chilli or bolognese can be frozen as individual portions but you can add them together to make a bigger meal if you need to.  
And have we checked our smoke alarms/CO detectors

and finally - are all clocks moved forward?  Timers properly set?

Terrific Tuesday

Bathrooms, cloak rooms and en suites

Level 1
Open window
Remove towels and fling in WM
Scrub Loo inside and out, slug some bleach or descaler down afterwards.  Pay special attention to under the rim.
Dust anywhere that needs dusting - wipe any 'on display' bottles down 

Level 2
Clean out baths and/or showers
Clean shower heads and hoses
Clean handbasins including taps - don't forget the out of sight bits!

Level 3
sweep and mop or vacuum floor as appropriate
clean windows
polish mirrors
dust and polish where necessary
Chuck any lurking potions that are not being used/are old
Clean light pull

Extras
Wash showercurtains (if any) and put outside to blow dry - possibly!
HHI
S&S 


Hump Day - Wednesday

Kids room, guest room, office

Level 1
open window
sstrip bed and leave to air
empty bin

dust/vacuum bed
remake

level 2
clean window
vacuum, sweep, mop floor


level 3

dust all round not forgetting tops of doors
check lighting ok

extras
s&s kitchen & bathroom
HHI

make time for something nice for you 

Thursday ... nearly the weekend...

Living room

level 1

if you haven't much time 
just straighten cushions
tidy round
kshift rubbish

if you've a bit more time Level 2
sweep, mop vacuum floor and soft furnishings
water plants and deal with curly flowers/arrangements

level 3
dust and p9ish
ckean windows

Extras
TAKE A PHOTO OF YOUR METER READINGS WITH TIMESTAMP AND EMAIL YOURSELF A COPY OF PHOTOS AND SAVE THE EMAIL

HHI
S&S kitchen and bathroom


Friday master bedroom

strip bed and leave to air
empty bin
ckear chair/floordrobe 

remake bed

clean windows
dust all round

clean floor

Honey_Bear

Thank you for the shiny new thread Valli and Natty for last week's.  The house will get the usual slatternly effort from me using the list as guidance for when I run out of ideas.  At the moment I'm sort of gently fire-fighting.

I've done a test this evening - negative.  So far so good; the oximeter is showing 99-100% so I'm good.  I hope you rmother feels much better very soon Dancemum.  Our 80+ year old neighbour who had it a couple of months ago still feels very tired a lot of the time but she's got a lot of other health problems so I don't think she was too suprised by that.  Either way she's still carrying on, that generation that just gets on with it.

pigpen

TY for Fred.

GWS vibes for all the sickies.

Just back from MIL's... nuff said... Elyssia had a full on *fight me* meltdown.. lasted about 20 minutes.. ended up with me removing her from the bathroom by the hand, leading her downstairs and her being placed in the car.. she was ok after that.. I think she just needed to explode.. hopefully she will be good for a few days now that is out of her system.

Still have lunches to do but they can wait until I've had a cuppa..

Jazee

Morning all.  Hope you and yours are all ok today.
Still feeling rough here, started day by being sick.  Sorry if TMI.  So, have decided to not even try to walk the dogs today.  I'm going to put clean pyjamas on and then just potter if I have any bursts of energy.
Thankyou for the list.

Have a great day everyone.

Honey_Bear

Sorry to hear you're under the weather Jazee.  GWS vibes heading your way.  Belovéd blowing his nose every 3 minutes and feeling tired after a slightly broken night's sleep but other than that so far so good.

Unusually for me I was up early and have unloaded the DW and walked Layla.  I'm now back in bed with a coffee while I plan how to guard my lovely little tomato plants from this week's drop in temperature and catch up with a couple of online newspapers.  Not a bad start to the day at all.  I am not a morning person normally.

Jazee

I'm washed and in clean pjs.  While upstairs I put dry washing away and changed the bedding.  I, ahem, dusted the flat surfaces in the bedroom with a pillowcase I'd just taken off.  That's flying, right?

pigpen

Jazee.. I have a very dodgy tum this morning too... I hope you feel better soon xx

Pixie is still fast asleep in bed so the other 2 have been taken to school and we will take her when she is ready.. she was clearly exhausted and needs the rest and rest is more important at 8, I doubt a tired half asleep child learns very much, maybe more thanan asleep one but hey ho..

I may just knit today and feel sorry for myself.. lovely review left for the chip shop who tried killing me..

1 more item sold so I can fling that later.

DW needs to be loaded 22 times.. and Squeak hasn't surfaced so the cats are starving to death.

roundtuit

Morning all xx 

GWS Jazee xx

Hugs to all the poorlies,  the stressed, the bereaved xx

Good luck tomorrow Valli, and thank you to you and Natty for keeping us going xx

My bed is made, and I've supped my first brew.

To Do Today List 
Shower and wash hair 
Get dressed
Feed the birds 
Put out the rubbish and recycling 
WUDUPA 

Then I'm going to try something new (to me) - borrowed from HB and probably misunderstood. 5 minutes MAD in each room over the course of the day.  It's an experiment. I'm interested to see what can be done in 5 minutes. Hoping it will inspire me to do 5 minutes each evening after work, which will be 5 minutes more than is done now. 

Take care 
Stay safe.
Rxx

YORKSHIRELASS

Definitely Flying Jazee, hope you feel better soon x

Unsettled night and I am not feeling it this morning.  DS1 was messaging me late last night, I think the MH issues are creeping in again but he refuses to admit it, instead he fills every hour doing stuff to distract himself.  I know the patterns so well but all I can do is be here to pick up the pieces when it all gets too much for him.

I had a vague plan about getting out on my bike before the paid stuff but a) its raining a bit and b) I dont feel very energetic.  I am still in PJs but have done a rough April budget and updated finance spreadsheets.

I will get a shower and get dressed then whizz around with the hoover, clean out the LR fire and potter a bit before I head into the office.

Have a good Monday all x

Jazee

In a bid to stop feeling sorry for myself I have put recycling out, prepped food for the dogs, washed dishes, dusted dusty bits in living room, quickly hoovered through and made some phone calls.  One was quick catch up with a friend who is in a terrible way health wise so made me realise what I have will pass and to put my big girls whatever's on.

kazwookie

Jazee you take it careful, and rest up gws

Thank you for the new thread x

I have:-

Changed the bed and remade

Emptied all the bins.

Hoovered the whole house,  3 cats are moulting, nightmare.

Groomed 1 cat, I'll get at least 1 more later, OH can do cat 3, but he is much improved in his shy / nervousness, will even let me stroke him but on  his terms.

Removed dead bird from cat 2! the 1st one of many to come I am sure.

2 x WM all hung out, not really sure why as sea fret is here, but OH tell me the sun will be out by 12 noon.

Been and measured the fence I have in more detail, and sent an email to saw mill type place for prices.

Chased up the window mender as one of the latch / mechanisms isn't working, he will ring me back.

To do

Groom cat 2

Get food

Get new car park pass for beach

Walking

Cook

Have a good day