Weekly Flylady Thread 17 June 2024

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 plugholes and in overflows
Clean cruet, salt and pepper, wipe any sauce bottles that are used on the table

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

Level 3

Pick a cupboard or a drawer; empty it, clean it out and put back its contents tidily
Sweep/mop/vacuum floor - and wipe any fascia boards!
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
S&S bathroom
Paperwork/admin up to date 
Meal plan for the week. - and plan to cook a double sized meal and freeze one for a CBA day - fish pie, cottage pie...something complete!

Wednesday living room, Hall, stairs landing

Level 1

remove anything that doesn’t live here
wipe dusty plants
can any coats go in the WM?
empty bins
give doormats a bash against a wall - or a wash

level 2

sweep, mop or vacuum floors
polish mirrors
remove cobwebs

level 3

dust all round, not forgetting skirting, sills and picture rails if you have them
clean Lights
clean windows inc frames

extras 

S&S bathrooms 
S & S kitchen

Thursday Thrills…boudoir

level 1

open windows
strip bed, leave to air
remove rubbish
clear floors robe/chairdrobe/exercise bike or wherever else is pretending it’s only there to hold clothes

level 2

remake bed
vacuum/sweep and/or mop floor

level 3

dust everything
wipe sticky lotion and potion vessels
clean windows

extras choose as few or as many as you like

s&s kithchen
s&sbathroom
wash brushes and combs and let them dry in the sun - make up brushes and sponges too!
empty a drawer - clean it, put back contents 


KIDS ROOM SPARE ROOM STUDY OR SOME GRIM HOLE YOU’RE AVOIDING

levek 1

strip bed or clear desk…
remove detritis from floor
empty bin
deal with plants

level 2
ckean windiw
sweep clean mop vacuum floot
straighten room
renake bed if is a bed

level 3

dust all round
wipe electricals

extras
s&s kitchen
s&s bathroom
HHI

ionafan

Thank you Valli x. I will do what I can, but. It’s going to be a busy week.

Honey_Bear

Thank you Natty and Valli for the threads.  I'll be doing a bit every day in the house, and with a bit of decent weather at long last as much laundry as I can dangle, and finishing potting up the last of the geraniums that have been hanging around for weeks.

pigpen

TY for Fred..

I'm busy.. and lurking mainly.

Cloth_of_Gold

Sorry I haven't been around for a while but A had a heart attack on Tuesday. He was as right as nine pence all day but after going to bed he woke up feeling not right. He had quite mild symptoms and he didn't have most of the classic symptoms at all so it wasn't clear at first that he was having a heart attack. When things didn't resolve though I became concerned and called an ambulance and the paramedics did an ECG which they said showed an abnormality but they weren't sure of its significance. They took him to one of the heart attack centres based in a local hospital with me following on behind by car. By the time I'd parked and got up to the ward he was already hooked up to monitoring equipment and being attended to by 3 staff. After a whole battery of test, including an angiogram, he had two stents fitted.

He's home now and recovering but soon gets tired. He has 6 meds to take each day, on top of the ones he was already taking, and has to got back for a review and for a further stent to be fitted as they weren't able to do it with the others for some reason. One immediate benefit though is that his badly swollen feet are now nearly back to normal. It's been quite a week but I hope we can start go get back to normal now. It's been years since I spent even one night here on my own and it seemed very strange.

Needless to say, flying has taken a back seat but I have managed to clean the bathroom and vac around and S&S in the kitchen in the last few days. I haven't been able to read the posts I've missed but I hope everyone is well. Sorry if this a bit garbled.

YORKSHIRELASS

Oh no CofG that must have been scary, glad he is on the mend, make sure you are taking care of yourself too.

Went to DSs for tea yesterday and DH wanted to stay for the football so we were late home and I had a couple of gin and tonics and a cocktail which was a bad idea on a Sunday night.  Had a real heart to heart with DSs GF which was lovely. 

So, in the office today then a 20 mile drive with DH to look at a car then back to the paid stuff until about 9.30pm tonight.  Flying will be minimal, I have swept the washing off the airer and put it in the tumbler to finish off.

Have a good Monday all x

JingsMyBucket

Oh no @Cloth_of_Gold that must have been so scary but you handled it well. Wonderful quick thinking by you x. 

Thanks for the new thread Valli. Even though I wasn’t on last week’s thread I was still doing some cleaning here and there. We also had a new tumble dryer delivered on Saturday morning and that has made laundry must less stressful. It’s been raining so much and now we don’t have to wrangle with an old tetchy dryer just to get things done. 

I’ll be back later today with a list. Have a good morning all and stay safe x

Valli

morning all

Glad A is home and on the mend.

DW took 2 loads after yesterdays dinner, so will need emptying of pans when I go down.  WM x 1.  Paid stuff beckons.  Hope all have good days.  

kazwookie

Thank you for all the lits xx

Get well soon A

Bed stripped, remade.

WM x 2 on the go, sunny here for once, 1st load out on whirly.

Bleached toilets

Hoovered half the house so far

Fed cats

Got large wheelie bin back in off the road, as they have been emptied today, normally they put it back just inside the drive, today it was on the road, good job this road has very little traffic.

Right off to carry on, hoovering, dusting and such like

roundtuit

Morning all xx 

Thankyou to Natty and Valli for keeping the thread running smoothly xx

Glad to hear that A is now home and on the mend. Xx

I miss your posts piggers. But as long as you are all OK that's the main thing xx

Monday morning weigh in revealed a gain of 1.5 lbs. Totally expected after succumbing to the need for pizza and chips on Thursday evening. Stress eating. And I needed bread at the weekend....another stress / comfort staple. I'm not beating myself up. I'm still 31.5 lbs lighter than I was in January. Reset. Refocus. Restart. (And think of another way to deal with stress peaks....meditation or go for a walk perhaps.)

I'm up, made my bed, got weighed,  failed at Wordle, completed Connections, and supped my first brew. 

Brew 2 and breakfast next.

Love to all
Rxx

Jazee

Morning all.

Glad that A is on the mend CoG.  It must have been very scary.

Thanks for the list.  I'm in but as DGD2 is here today flying will be limited.  She's still in bed as it was a very late night with all the family here.

 I wrote a long post yesterday which hasn't saved for some reason.  Anyway, just to let Round know that the first thing I did this morning was to get dressed but my routine varies day to day.

Have a great day everyone.