Weekly Flylady Thread 20th March 2023

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.

Welcome to the weekly Flylady Thread. 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 (ooh a compound adjective) content!

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- 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!

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

Right here we go...

Mondays are Marvellous!! - kitchen and dining area
Level One
Sweep and mop the floor
Declutter and wipe the worksurfaces
Level Two
Wipe the table
degunge the fridge
Wipe the units and large appliances
Level Three
wipe any drawers that are grotty and cluttered
Wash the windows and sills
Run WM's and DW's through a clean cycle.. don't forget to scrub out the drawers and filters.
Extras

• Deweb and polish
• Clear out a cupboard of junk!
• Wash any curtains/table cloths that need it
• S&S the hob & oven

Twinkly Tuesday - Living room, hall, stairs and porch!

Level One

Declutter ALL the floors!!

Clear the mantle of junk

Level Two

Dust those flat fluffy surfaces

Vacuum/sweep all the floors.. stairs too!

Vacuum/sweep under furniture you can safely move!

Vacuum sofas

Level Three

Wash the windows

Wash any soft furnishings that need it

Wipe down ALL the paintwork!

Extras

• Wipe and water plants
• Dust all the electricals.. carefully.. don't want anybody getting fried!!!
• Wipe front door.. inside and out!
• Binbag dance
• HHI

Wiggly Wednesday- Master bedroom and landing!
Level One
Strip and wash the bedding
Clear the floordrobe
Level Two
Air the duvet....
Clear the floors and vacuum them!
Wash windows
Clean out pets/wash beds
Level Three
Sort through a hotspot
Organise your toiletries and make-up stash, do you really need 6 lipsticks!!!!
Sort through a cupboard.. make it neat and tidy
Empty and wash out all the bins
Extras

• Half hour... FILING... meanness I know but it won't do itself!!
• Deweb and dust
• 36 fling boogie!! .. GO
• Empty and wash out all the bins!!
• Quick one.. check those smoke alarms - no that doesn't mean burn the toast/bacon to check 🙂

Thursday Thrills - Bathroom and Study..
Level One
Declutter the floors
Wipe down sofas and seats
Level Two
Dejunk the desk and wipe off the gunge
Vacuum/mop floors
Scrub the bath, sinks, toilets, showers and tiles etc
Level Three
Wash the windows
Empty out a cupboard clean it out and put back only the bits you need to keep
Defrag the pc and delete 50 useless emails
Extras

• Collect all the laundry from upstairs
• HHI
• Change any lightbulbs you have been leaving.. !!
• Sort out the coats and bags and shoes..
• Do a cupboard stock take,sort a meal plan and shopping list
• Fill a binbag for charity shop

Jazee

Thanks for the thread.
 I should be able to fly a bit more this week.

pigpen

TY for Fred.. I hope all is well Natty xx

I have a landing to clear and a front room to dig out and a few bills to pay this week. I am really fed up of the mess in here.. I have  blanket to knit for the new grandbeast but trying to finish this cardigan first. 

ionafan

Thank you for the new thread, Natty.  It sounds as if you are up to something!

DH went out to his wargames this afternoon, so I had a visit from DS1 and DGD1+2 all to myself   Managed to declutter a Jamie cook book to DGD2 and a phone (for DGD2 when she starts secondary school) to DS1.

Just writing my list for the coming week.  I need to sew a paw back on one of Rosie's puppy toys before I lose it.

Love from Rosie to HB's new family member xx
Well done for Flying solo, Fayolle x

(((Hugs))) spoons and sticks to all Flyfriends in need.  Hope everyone has a good week xxx

Narc0lepsy

Thanks for the thread.
Another week rushed by.  Went down to my Mum's on Thursday, lots of traffic so not our best journey. Pottered round doing things for her, took her out for lunch on Friday.   Saturday another traffic-laden journey driving Mum up to SB and SIL in London. Lovely lunch with them, DB and SIL then drove home - golly it's the first time I've driven over Tower Bridge, scary but interesting! DB drove Mum home.

Pretty tired today after all that traffic concentrating, so went to church, did a load in the garden, did a bit of a report then made dinner. That's about it for today.   Next week needs to be very efficient as our few days away with BIL is the end of the following week.  

Valli

Morning all

lovely day yesterday, so i ploughed through the laundry bin and got it all line dried, including towels.  Also cleaned out the peg bag (home of more dust bunnies) since it was almost empty.  Unpegged into either ‘to be ironed’ wash basket or ‘put to air only’ wash basket which, happily, was the fullest.  Most of it hit the maiden to air last night.  The forecast for the rest of the week isn’t good so pleased about that.  i also washed my car, did some weed pulling, cleaned out the bunnies with DDs help, visited the Aged Ps, and, finally, got the bark chips spread over the section of front garden between my drive and next doors little wall.  Well, about a third of it - need 2 more bags so must keep an eye out at Mr L.  It’s my long term plan to suppress weeds, improve the soil and keep the moisture in as my front garden dries out very quickly.

I also decluttered three episodes of endeavour from the tv box and started knitting, a baby cardy for a baby born last Friday, because i haven’t felt like knitting after the failure of the last project.

YORKSHIRELASS

Morning dear friends

Feeling quite chirpy, despite knowing that it's going to be a tricky day at the paid stuff.  Pilates done, lunch packed, DW emptied and kitchen tidied.

Late start and late finish at the paid stuff today, going to get ready in a minute.

Hope Monday is kind to you all x

Jazee

Morning all.  

So far today I have done dailies, some admin, hoovered through and walked Poppet in the pouring rain.  Dry washing is away and second wash load today is in machine.

 I'm now waiting for DD to pick me up to take DGD2 to soft play.

Have a great day everyone.

pigpen

Squeak at dentist this morning. 10:50

tomorrow DD1 has a hospital appointment so I have Lionel

Wednesday is my nail appointment 12:30 and EC has a MW appointment

Thursday Twinkle is at dentist 11:40

and Friday I might go a whole day without seing anyone but myself!

DD1 & gf turned up at almost midnight last night.. They are here until Wednesday when it is their friends funeral.

OH starting his first training course of the new recruits.

I am going to do the DW and WM and then finish knitting this pink cardigan .. I need to do 2 leafy blankets and several more cardigans.. I will do a quick whizz over the front room too.. I am losing sofas again.

The back landing needs clearing and I will have someone vacuum it later.. probably about 6pm when everyone is awake!

I have a parcel to package and fling

I need to clean the potty for Lionel for tomorrow.

I need to order a spare part for the Joolz pushchair too so I can sell it.

List 5 things on V!nted (£140 in my balance on there at the moment)

Mondays are Marvellous!! - kitchen and dining area
Level One
mop the floor
Level Two
Level Three
Wash the windows and sills
Extras

Twinkly Tuesday - Living room, hall, stairs and porch!

Level One

Declutter ALL the floors!!

Clear the mantle of junk

Level Two

Dust those flat fluffy surfaces

Vacuum/sweep all the floors.. stairs too!

Level Three

Wash the windows

Wipe down ALL the paintwork!

Extras

• Wipe and water plants
• Wipe front door.. inside and out!

Crazycatlady2

I am home alone and did 2 hours of cleaning/tidying/sorting before I sat down then did admin type things on my phone before I let myself check anything else 😂

hope everyone well x 

kazwookie

Not really sure what is going on, I have 'lost' the morning, goodness knows what happened, I have cleaned since 8am until 12.15 noon when OH asked what was for lunch, I told him it was too early ( I thought it was about 10am) I know I haven't been sitting around or on internet.

Bed done

WM x 2 dne

Whole house hoovered

Wooden floors washed

Bins done

Basins / toilets cleaned