Weekly Flylady Thread 30th May 2022

Natty68

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 Valli 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’

WUDUPA ~ Washed up, dried up, put away

WUALTD ~ Washed up and left to dry

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- thats 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 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 stooping, 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!

Some of our abbreviations: DH- dear husband, OH- other half, KH/CF- affectionate term for ex husband or partner   DS/DD- dear son/daughter, DGC- dear grandchild, WM- washing machine, DW- dishwasher, LR/DR- living/dining room, RoD- room of doom, Mr S/A/T/M/L/Al- supermarkets Sainsburys, Asda, Tesco, Morrisons, Lidl, Aldi. You get the picture!

Any more questions I bet are answered in the wonderful welcome guide which was produced by our much loved Toots

Here goes this week:

Monday ~ HAVE THE DAY OFF AND DO SOMETHING FUN WITH YOUR LOVED ONES!!!

Not a bank holiday as originally thought...😉
Do your dailies
Tackle a frog or 5
And spend the rest of the day doing nice things with your family!

Tuesday ~ pick a room...

Level One

Declutter and vacuum/mop the floor

Pile up all the hotspot into one mountain and pend 15 minutes sorting through it!

Level Two

Dust and deweb

Wash soft furnishings that need doing.. throws, curtains, blinds, nets.. whatevers..

Tidy up a cupboard/drawer or other storage vessel

Level Three

Wash stinky pet bedding/clean tanks etc

Wipe doors and skirtings and paintwork

Binbag dance

Extras

• Start your ascent of Mount Ironmore - aim to reach base camp today!
• Arrange services on fires/boilers etc..
• Scrub and demould doorseals! Don't forget the ones in the WM
• Tidy the top of the fridge/freezer
• Empty and wash out bins!
• Get those final bits sorted for back to school next week

Study or other reception room & bathrooms - Wednesday
Level One
Clear the clutter from all these rooms!!
Ring someone you love just to tell them so.. we never do this enough!
Wash any curtains/blinds/mats etc that need doing
Level Two
Vacuum the floors
Clean bath, toilets, shower and sinks
Wipe down the tiles and defragment the pc while doing this.
Level Three
Declutter and dust the pc desk
Wipe away cup rings and sticky things
Wipe the keyboard, mouse, cables and sockets and suchlike.
Clean the windows.
Extras

• HHI..
• Clear a hotspot
• Degunge around the bottoms of the taps!
• Wipe cupboards and polish mirrors!

Holiday Thursday ~ Bedroom and Landing

Level One

Strip and wash the bedding, remake bed before bedtime!

Declutter the floor and vacuum it! See if you can find a bit of floor you've not seen in a while!

Level Two

Binbag dance

Level Three

Wash any curtains/nets/pillows etc that are in need

Tidy up the shoes and clothes that are scattered about

 

Extras

• Catch up on a job you've been putting off... phonecalls, filing etc..

• Start thinking about pack lunches or dinner money, are the lunchboxes clean and where have you put them
• Spend time with family/friends doing something you'll all enjoy 🙂

Holiday Friday ~ Study and Bathroom

Level One

Spend half an hour doing something for yourself! Coffee with a friend, hair appointment... whatever

Bake some Platinum Jubilee goodies for your nearest and dearest.

Level Two

Vacuum/mop floors

Wash the bathmats/shower curtains or anything else that needs it

Scrub the fixtures! polish the mirrors and taps

Level Three

Dust and defrag the pc and declutter 50 unwanted emails and 5 links from your favourites.

Extras

• Empty and wash out bins
• Wash any stinky pet beds.. or the pets themselves if you wish

Enjoy the Platinum Jubilee weekend...

pigpen

TY for the Fred.. Love and hugs to you and DH I hope you are both doing ok

Tomorrow OH is working, the only day he is working this week.

Not quite sure what tomorrow has in store for me, but I do have 2 parcels to post.

elbree

Thanks Natty

I have been reading along this week but can't always post. Scrubbed the garden decking today, a messy and quite unsatisfying job when it only looks a BIT less green when it's dried out again. I think the idiots who installed it a couple of years back did it wrong, but what do I know? 

Tomorrow:
Admin for exam board

Order parking permits for various summer visitors

BR

Then a friend and her dog coming round for coffee with myself and 8yo. Hopefully it will be nice enough to enjoy the garden 🤞

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi all

Thanks Natty.  Three busy days at the paid stuff for me then three days off, I have to work next Sunday.  Tomorrow is a late start so I am hoping to get out on the bike and have a little me time before I go into the office.

Have been feeling a bit fragile today, tomorrow is a fresh start.

roundtuit

Hello everyone xx

Thank you for the lists as always xx

Not a Bank Holiday here - but Thursday and Friday are, so I won't be at the paid stuff on those days. 

Hugs to all. Hope it's a good week for everyone 
Rxx

kazwookie

Thanks for the lists.

Bad morning so far................

Broken nail

No weight lost

WM has been very very sick, so cleaning up the mess!! back later

Natty68

Oh darn I'm so sorry for putting the wrong list up for today. I have no idea what happened, the only thing I can think of was I thought today was a bank holiday as it would've been normally...lol

Anyway have a day off anyway, just do what you want beit working/cleaning/washing etc. And blame my odd brain fog for the complete muck up....lol

Normal service resumes tomorrow 👍

Jazee

No problem Natty, an additional day off is great.
Finally DH and I have emptied the cupboard of doom and have only put stuff back in that needs to be there.  I now have some boxes of old paperwork to go through but I can do that one box at a time.

pigpen

OH has sorted the summerhouse doors.

I have made a very cheeky offer of final settlement on a loan.. 4/7ths of the balance.. don't ask don't get right?? What's the worst they can say?

I have  not done anything else though.. just going to feed the beastlets.. they had secnd breakfast at 10:30-11am so having a delayed lunch!

My tummy is VERY unhappy today and I'm not entirely sure why. I've clearly eaten something it didn't like!

Washing to get in, girls to bath, budget for June to sort..

kazwookie

Wm sorted out, but now it won't work, so I'm leaving it for now, I know that doesn't get it fixed, but it saves me getting fed up with it and stressed.

Bed stripped and remade

Bins done

Whole house hoovered

Kitchen sorted

Patio table and chairs got out of shed and power washed, while power washer was out, I've power washed a deck chair, bucket and the outside edge of the guttering, all windows and their surrounds, webs etc gone.

I now need to clean the windows and do my walking

Weight loss this week 0 = 21lbs so far

Miles walked in May 163

Fayolle

Thank you for the lists. I will be in, just need to get my act together.
Wm x 1 done this morning, just about dry now. Dinner cooked (fridge LOs as Mr M due to deliver tomorrow), kitchen tidied.
Tomorrow I will start afresh. 

Yay to a 2 day working week here.