Weekly Flylady Thread 1st August 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 

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 don't forget to scrub round the base (i use an old toothbrush)
Clean/polish table - wipe mats/change cloth - don't forget table legs and undersides.  Wipe/polish chairs
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 plugholes 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 sparkly
EXTRAS

HHI
peg out some washing
S&S bathroom
Paperwork/admin up to date - it's a new month - do you need any cards?
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.  A fish pie, cottage pie or lasagne are useful standbys.
Start sewing on nametapes/stamping names on uniform.  You'll thank me in September when they all ababdon their cardis/tops in the playground
Test smoke/CO2 detectors.  
Check Toots list - 

Tuesday -  The Lounge, Hallway, stairs and landing

Level 1
Deal with cut flowers and pot plants - top up water/wipe leaves/remove drooping or dead blooms.  Why not treat your pot plants to a shower?
Empty bins/ashtrays
Clear gibble
Plump and straighten cushions
Wipe sofas with leather wipes or vacuum - look for all those dust-catching crevices.  Lift seat cushions if you can and vacuum underneath
Wipe/dust coffee tables and leave tidy
Wipe sticky coasters

Level 2
Clean windows and mirrors 
Vacuum floors - and use an edging tool to get into all the nooks and crannies - and stairs!
Clean doormats
Dust/wipe electricals - use a just-damp cloth.  Don't forget the remote controllers!

Level 3
Dust all round - don't forget sills, skirting boards, tops of curtain rails and/or battens and top and frame of door.
Wipe door handles, banisters, light switches and sockets - and the bits of the door where people hold to close it.
Check for cobwebs and eliminate!
Clean lightshades and lampshades; check all lighting is functioning as it should 
Wipe lightbulbs (if cold)
Dust pictures/paintings on walls - and dust behind them too!
Stand in the doorway and look back into the room - is it clean?

Extras
S&s kitchen
s&s bathroom
HHI
Make an appointment or arrangement for some me-time

Wipy Wednesday - bathrooms, cloak rooms, en suites, wet rooms

level 1

open windows
empty bins
remove towels etc to the WM
scrub out the loo and wipe the outside
Rinse the brush/holder and dry outside in the sun

level 2
scrub hand basins inch taps and under tge plug
de gunge plugholes
clean window

level 3
scrub shower/bath
wash curtain or wipe screen
dust all round
 mOp floor

Extras
HHI
binbag dance
enlist the help of any idling schoolchildren - making beds etc. 

Thursday Thrills  - The Boudoir

level 1

open windows
strip bed - and stick bedding in WM
clear floordrobe and chairdrobe
empty bin

level 2

make bed with fresh bedding
clean bedside tables
vacuum/sweep/mop floor

level 3

clean windows and wipe sills
dust all round
Use a damp cloth to wipe lotions and potions - and fling anyting OOD/past it's best

extras

S&S bathroom
S&S kitchen
Bin bag dance...fling that gibble
Children's job - sock sorting/pairing/throwing

friday flourish kids/guest/spare room

Level 1

opevn window
srtip bed
empty bin
 clear floor

level 2 clean window

sweep/mop or vacuum floor

level 3
dust all round

extras
can we sort some toys/games - throw anything broken
wash Lego in detergent mixed with soda crystals. Rinse well and put outside to dry in the sun
if no Lego to wash is there anything else that would benefit from a wash? Tea sets, Knex Hama bead trays?

can anything leave? Charity shop?  Car boot?  EBay? Vented?

if no kids…can You find some neglected or unwanted bits to throw?

ionafan

Thank you Valli.  I am a bit ahead already, as I have just put half a roast chicken, a goodly number of roast potatoes, 3x double servings of pear and blackcurrant crumble, and 2 scones in the FF.  I also called round to see my Cypriot friend and she gave me double portions of dolmades and marinaded pork with potatoes, so we are well set up for the coming week!

It has been a long and busy day, and I am exhausted.  I shall not be going to bed late.  Rosie has to go to the vet early tomorrow for her annual jab and a pedicure, DH has to been driven to the dentist, and my only other aspiration is to complete an application form for a digital giving device for church.  Whatever happened to good old talents and denarii?

I look forward to hearing of recombobulation progress over the coming week

(((Hugs))) spoons and sticks all round, as needed, and happy hols to those going away xx

pigpen

TY for Fred.

Musical Theatre Summer School starts tomorrow so I am back on the trudge for the week.. and I need to pack for holibobs.. 6 people.. 1 week.. and it is all on me.. as usual.

I have a headache..

I need to make Squeak a pack up for tomorrow.. and drinks.. and get her sorted..

I have just realised that my family don't like me.. I am sort of tolerated.. I feel like a complete outsider, it is really weird.. but I still heave headache..

WM is on and I will hang stuff out in the rain tomorrow no doubt.

Narc0lepsy

Oops another week gone.
Went out for a meal last night with Mr N and his 2 mates so much flying done beforehand as they came back for cake/coffee/ale afterwards; not that the mates would notice, but at least it's done.  Mr N feeling better, Covid negative.
Endless filling of bird feeders, watering veg and pots (we had all of 5 mins rain today), planning week's activities which are quite numerous.
Took culled clothes to CS yesterday so no changing my mind.

Sorry to hear about CF, give Moomin a hug Pigpen.

roundtuit

Good morning everyone xx including any lurkers reading this 👋

Hugs to YL xx 

I know that feeling piggers. I just tolerate them back now 🤫 xx

I'm still in bed. And I'm still tired. But it's a new month, a new week and a new day. ( I do love it when the 1st is a Monday.)

So I'm going to get up, make my bed, have a brew and plan my day. And SMILE.....where is Mademoiselle these days? Pop in and say hello if you're able to xxx

Now where was I? Oh yes, get up. Easily distracted? Me? Memory span of  a goldfish these days! Keep on swimming ladies.

Love to all
Rxx

Tahlullah.H

Hello.  I hope you don't mind my joining.  I have had this lifelong aversion to cleaning forever.  I can't even come up with a good excuse as to why I don't clean, I just don't.  I will make an effort is someone is coming round, and give the whole house a full going over, but that's it.  I don't even do a quick swish of kitchen surfaces etc.  I just let them get beyond the pale and then one day - could be months down the line, I suddenly can't stand it any more, and will clean the kitchen.

In my favour, I don't like clutter, so I regularly tidy up and I have been slowly decluttering everything, including the room of doom.

Just the motivation to actually pick up the vacuum cleaner, and perhaps the mop and duster - although a duster won't cut it in the majority of the rooms!

Thanks.

BadCat18

Morning all

thanks for the thread, I’m in again. After a busy weekend order has finally been restored! I even found some motivation to do some batch cooking yesterday so I am ahead on todays list! So far today

• wm x 1 done and out on line
• Bed made, clothes picked up, windows open
• DW emptied and now running again on a cleaning cycle
• Litter trays refreshed, cat food bowls washed
• Wm loaded again ready to go!

Working from home but looking like a reasonably easy morning (shhhh) I’m set up in the conservatory for a couple of hours with the doors open for fresh air. I also have a lunchtime booking for an exercise class, mission slinky is back on…. 5 weeks until holiday

have a good day, back later x

roundtuit

Welcome aboard Tahlullah xx 

I'm up,  made my bed, opened the curtains,  updated the calendars, and while the kettle was boiling for my brew I stood the airer out in the sun, picked up a roll of wrapping paper - to be taken upstairs to rejoin the stash, and binned a (very) small piece of wrapping paper that I was keeping 'just in case'. If I ever buy someone a single Crunchie it will no longer be gift-wrapped!

Round 1
Set towels / tea towels swishing 
Put the pots to soak
Get dressed
Feed the birds 
Put out the recycling 
WUDUPA a bowl of pots
HH Admin
Read the leccy meter

P& S coming for coffee ☕ 

Look after yourselves 
Rxx

pigpen

Welcome Tahlullah... I loathe cleaning too.. I don't really see the point.. sadly I am also a bit of a hoarder so decluttering is REALLY hard too.. but I have floor to walk on and my stairs are clear.. Don't try to do it all at once.. baby steps.. everything comes round again and it takes a few weeks to get into the swing but don't do too much and burn out.. (My kitchen is a swamp!.. and my front room is horrendous.. I don't think there is floor!)

OH took Squeak on the commoner wagon to summer school because the car is dead again..

I need to start packing and I don't want to go so cannot summon energy to pack..

ooh.. V!nted sale.. FLING! A 15 year old Next hoodie!!

Dizzy_Imp

Hello ladies and a special welcome to Tahllulah x  My house is a $h!tpit so I wouldn't worry that yours is in need of some TLC 

Sorry to hear you're feeling like your family don't like you Piggers {really, really quick hug} for you.  Families are such hard work.  It's the first anniversary of my mum's death today and I've sent flowers to my dad, because although I don't miss the manipulative, narcissistic bat, I'm sure he does.  My whole family think I'm a hard-nosed biatch,  but distancing myself from my parents when I was young has saved me many hours of heartache. You carry on doing you and ignore the haters x

• Four parcels packaged up to send off to their new owners - fling!
• Two huge boxes of schizzle dragged up into the attic room to sort "another time"...yeah, right!....
• Washing up done, washing machine on, feral kittens caught and sexed - two boys and a girl.  I need to see if I can get them neutered under the free PDSA farmcat scheme (if it's still running).  I'll microchip them when I next feed them.  Need some names - suggestions welcomed?
1 x white boy with tabby tail and a grumpy face.
1 x pure black boy, super friendly.
1 x beautiful tabby girl with pale eyes.

Their mother is called Houders (short for Houdini, as she can escape from any kind of cat-proof cage/crate). 

Also...anybody want a kitten or a cat?  We now have cats (3 live mainly indoors, 4 are rat-catchers, or in training) and with 8 dogs, 10 puppies, 3 goats and eleventy hundred chickens, our feed bill is becoming crippling. 

Next is to sort the mountain of socks and pants into correct piles and then put them away!

Actually, next is a cuppa...

kazwookie

Morning, thnak you for the lists.

Windows are open

WM x 2 done out on whirly

Bed stripped and remade

Bins empty, washed out, and drying in the sun

Cats fed

Hoovering done, bagless thing emptied

Shoping done

Shower gels / hand soap half bottles tipped into each other as needed.

Sides wiped over

Several other small jobs done, including clearing up dead flies / rodents from the cats.

Weight loss   28lbs gone gone gone, (2 stone) now the real  hard work starts to shift the rest of it, according to NHS BMI is still 9 lbs.

Steps walked for July 410,267  (179 miles) 1 million steps diabetics UK,  I am on track and coming to get you!!.

Piggers my family has never really like me as such, I have been here just over 2 years, my brother / sister/ relevant kids have not been here to visit, I have been to theirs, all be it as far as the door step, one lives apporx, 1 mile to the left of me, the other 1.5 miles to the right of me.

Oddly when I was having work done to the house, several of the younger workmen, know my nephews and made comment on the fact they hadn't been here, to a certain extent I have given up inviting them now.

Have a good day / week, if you are off on your hols enjoy.