Weekly Flylady Thread 27th May 2024

Natty68

Welcome to the weekly Flylady Thread.

We often see new flyers (gents welcome!) around this time of year so please don't worry if you feel you cannot keep up.  Similarly if your house has been neglected it won't be turned around in a day - but if you stay you will get into some good habits which do help!  Happy flying.

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'
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

Ok here goes this week:

 

Bank Holiday Monday - Sitting Room of Sunshine and Hallway of Happiness

You have a choice today,, you can either do just the normal Bank Holiday dailies or you can do a normal Monday Flylady bits....  The choice is yours

Level One
Open the windows and turn on some music!
Wipe and water the plants
Declutter the chairs, floor and fireplace
Level Two
Vacuum the floor now it is visible
Wash any throws/curtains/cushion that need freshening up
Clean any glass.. pictures, windows, mirrors etc
Level Three
Vacuum under any furniture you can.. please don't injure yourselves!
Wipe sofas and dusty places
HHC in the hallway.. sort those coats and shoes and mess!!
Extras

• Vacuum AAALLLLLL the way up the stairs
• Binbag dance... grab a bag fill it and fling it!
• Spend 15 minutes tackling a hotspot!!
• Wipe the woodwork in these areas

Triumphant Tuesday - Kitchen of Kreation
Level One
Open the windows and let in the light (we could clean them but this is simpler!)
Clear and wipe the worksurfaces & table
Level Two
Wipe the little appliances and put them back in their homes
Wipe over the cupboards and large appliances
Clean out drawers and filters
Level Three
Sweep and mop the floor
Shine the grotty windows
Empty out a grotspot and make it beautiful
Extras

• HHI
• Fill a bag for charity shop
• 29 fling boogie... GO!
• Throw out the manky dead tea towels and cloths

Wondrous Wednesday - Superb study & Bathrooms of Bubbliciousness
Level One
Declutter the floors
Empty and wash out bins
Clean any windows
Level Two
Clean the bath, sinks, toilets, showers.. shine the taps!
Vacuum/mop floors
Declutter the pc desk
Level Three
Wipe the keyboard, mouse, sockets, switches and telephone
HHI
Clean under any furniture you can move but don't usually bother moving
Extras

• Delete 10 dead links out of your favourites
• Do at least 15 minutes of filing
• Grab a cuppa.. and if it is nice.. go sit outside for a bit an enjoy life!! If not you can sit here and talk to me!! 
• Scrub down the tiles

Thrilling Thursday - Bedroom of Duvet-nia & Landing of Loveliness
Level One
Open the window and air the room
Strip off smelly bedding and sling it in the wash
Level Two
Vacuum the mattress and air the duvet (I dangle mine over the washing line if it's nice)
remake with the clean bedding
Put the floordrobe in the wardrobe
Find 10 things to get rid of!
Level Three
Vacuum the landing and bedroom.. starting at the bottom of the stairs!!!!
Remove anything that should be elsewhere.. your bedroom is NOT a shed!!
binbag dance..
Extras

• Wash any curtains that need doing
• HHI
• De-flea any pets that need doing.. and their bedding!!!
• Clean the windows

Fantastic Friday - The Land of 'Spare Oom' and the neighbouring Land of child Grot
Level One
Open the windows and collect the smelly laundry!
Strip the beds that need doing
Spend half an hour doing something for yourself!!!!!
Level Two
Find the floor.. books on shelves, toys in boxes, games in cases and restacked.
Vacuum new found floor
Wipe windows, pc's, screens etc
Level Three
Wipe away any sticky messes and grub-spots
Tidy the drawers and cupboards of clothing.. stuff everything back in that is dangling out
Turn mattresses and remake the beds
Extras

• Find something to freecycle.. you could even fill a box of junk to car boot 
• Find something to ebay
• Find something to send to charity shop
• Find something to give to someone you know
• Get rid of it all then!!! lol

pigpen

TY for Fred. I hope all is ok at yours

roundtuit

Morning all xx 

Thank you for the thread Natty and Valli xx

Good to see CoG posting - not good that you're feeling down 😘

You OK piggers? You're very quiet. You know where I am if you need a listening ear 😘

I'm up. 6 o'clock on a Bank Holiday Monday- not that that makes any difference to me as I don't work on any Monday 😊 But 6 o'clock is a bit early. I wanted a brew though, so I'm up, made my bed, got weighed*, and made that all-important brew.

*STS Fayolle  - so any weight gained this week is not my cast offs 🤣. I need to rethink my strategy as what worked in the first quarter isn't working now. 🤔 Even though I'm doing more. 

iona - I told you. You wouldn't listen. Waggy finger. Please, please, do pace yourself. Big hugs heading your way. 😘

Hugs to Narc0 too. And YL. And anyone else that would like a hug this morning...have one of mine. 🥰

Back later with a plan. 
Rxx

Valli

Ooh Iona…hope it’s easing.

Buttons sewn on cardi, so now need to pack and post.

Made Sunday dinner yesterday and have been “suffering” since, tummy wise, bloating etc and 3 loperamide taken.  No idea what the trigger was.  

Finished watching series 1 of Broadchurch… ooh…. and almost finished sleeve 2.  The weather forecast is severely depressing, so much so tgat the TD has been pressed into service.  Humph. DW TD and WM all x 1.

Need to finish sorting the pots from yesterday.

Happy BH all

Goodintentions

Good morning 😊
Thank you for the lists Natty, and Valli for last week
Iona Another waggy finger here....please take it easy! I hope you have caught up on your sleep now
Narc0 I hope you get some down time too. I'm glad your mum is recovering well. It must be so frustrating for her! 
cog Hugs to you
YL I hope you had a lovely time with your boys and feel well rested

Yesterday I decided to go to the allotment as we had a window of good weather after the overnight rain. I am now so fed up!! When I got there I discovered that the slugs/snails had eaten all of my pumpkins & cucumbers, my last remaining sunflower, all but 1 of the kale & half the broccoli. I thought 'at least I have the tomatoes'. But no! They had eaten all 9 tomato plants! 😡 I have never know slugs to eat tomatoes before this year!! I cut the grass & filled 1 trug with weeds then headed home. I felt like giving up there and then 😥
Back home I pottered in the garden. I pulled up my big girl pants and sowed some more cucumbers, courgettes & pumpkins. It is not too late for them. 
1 load of washing line dried (it turned out to be a lovely day). Roast dinner cooked. DW put on before bed. Did some knitting.

Today I am going pram shopping with DD2 & her mil (her 1st grandchild) I bought DD1's pushchair, but if mil wants to get this one I am OK with that (they have very expensive taste & a lot more money than me!) There are plenty of things that the baby will need, including time, so enough to go around. 
Okay - I need to get up, have breakfast, weigh in (I will do that first I think!) & straighten my hair (it is too scary at the moment to be seen in public!) DH is going food shopping. I will tidy round when I get home - LR needs a vac'ing.

Have a good Bank Holiday all! 

Fayolle

Morning all, I’m back after having house guests from Friday until yesterday. Thank you for the thread, although I am being a fraudulent flylady atm - you know the score, if I haven’t done it, I make it up 😊.
Iona, I think my waggy finger might make a complete waggy hand. Please take care.
Round - pah, you don’t get me like that. I have ignored the scales this morning 🤫
GI - I am about to trek to the allotment to view the slug damage too. Sometimes I do wonder why we do it, but keep on keeping on. Don’t give the slugs the satisfaction!

Narc0, glad to hear that your mum is making good progress.
Ok, I had better get dressed and get the wellies on. In that order, before the neighbours see fit to complain. Back later, hugs to all x

roundtuit

Brew 2 supped and breakfast eaten. 

I'm dressed, fed the birds, put out the recycling,  completed Wordle, failed to get even one line in Connections (sadist setter on form today 😉), and knitted a couple more rows of the pram blanket. Oh, and I've put the heating on and shuffled the laundry.

Spitting with rain at the moment. 

Rxx

Valli

i got 2 lines, Round.  Wordle almost defeated me too.

showered, drainer cleared, pots soaking

ionafan

Fayolle said:

Morning all, I’m back after having house guests from Friday until yesterday.....  I have ignored the scales this morning 🤫

Iona.... a complete waggy hand. 

Blame the house guests!
I must admit that a complete waggy hand is terrifying

Valli, I hope you feel better soon and discover the culprit, so that you can avoid it next time.

We had glorious sunshine from 6am when I woke up and opened my curtains until about an hour ago when I finally got dressed.  Thunderstorms are on their way so I must take Rosie out for her walk earlier than usual and hope we don't get soaked.

DH wants to go to a particular GC this afternoon where there is a cotton trading concession, and I do need a couple of tops for myself, but he's thrown away the latest catalogue so I can't check whether it came with any discounts.    He has also offered Kaffee und Kuchen - as if we haven't got enough of either at home, but it would be rude to refuse, wouldn't it?

I have loaded the breakfast dishes into the DW, wiped down the sides, and deadheaded one of the pelargoniums on the kitchen windowsill (4 for about £1.50 from MrAl this time 2 years ago, they overwinter indoors and bloom for months on end ).  

Rosie says "Are we going out now?" so I'd better say yes or she'll lick me to death.  See you later xxx

kazwookie

Thank you for the thread

WM x 3 done on whirly, it is now light drizzle! but I think it will blow over

Whole house hoovered

BIns done

Bed done

All hard floors done

Dusting done

Other boring cleaning type stuff done, in other words the whole house is done for now.

Toast I think

Have a good day

pigpen

roundtuit said:

You OK piggers? You're very quiet. You know where I am if you need a listening ear 😘

I've spent the week knitting.. I decided it is pointless trying to clean because there is so much stuff it is impossible.