Weekly Flylady Thread 12th May 2025

Natty68

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 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
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

Ok here goes this week!

Monday ~ Kitchen and Dining room
Level One
Declutter and mop/vacuum floor
Clear and wipe work surfaces
Level Two
Wipe units and large appliances
Give one small appliance a good clean!
Bake a cake or find something new too cook.. see what you can make from your cupboard contents!!!
Straighten the shelf of cookbooks!
Level Three
Wipe the table, replace the cloth if needed and dust and deweb!
Clean through the cupboard
S&S fridge/hob

Extras

• Tidy up all the window sills!
• Empty and wash out bins!
• Dust/wipe/wash blinds/curtains etc
• Clear the top of the fridge and freezer!!

Tuesday - Master bedroom and landing
Level One
Remove wash and replace with clean the bedsheets and duvet cover
Open the window and let in some fresh air!
sort out your stash of slap.. what is past its best? Unworn? worn out?
Level Two
Clear the floor of clutter.. the landing too!
Wash the windows
15 minutes floordrobe clearance
Level Three
Clear out one cupboard/wardrobe that needs it
Turn and vacuum the mattress
Dust all those spider webs away.. I don't care if they are your halloween decorations!

Extras - Pick a few!

• Fill a binbag for charity shop!
• Find 5 things to ebay
• List those 5 things on ebay.. no escape this time!
• Wash any curtains/duvets/cushions that need doing!

Wednesday - those frightening kids rooms and spare rooms
Level One
Clear away anything that isn't in it's place, clothes, toys, books etc
Make an appointment for some ME-time.. hairdressers? manicure? night out with friends? .. whatever just do it!
Level Two
Vacuum the floor
Dusting.. all those shelves and flat fluffy surfaces!! Don’t forget the light shade and curtain pole!!!
Strip beds, turn and vacuum mattresses!! and replace with fresh linen .. check if duvets need freshening up too!!
Level Three
Clean 2 windows
Sort through a cupboard/chest of drawers and get the clothes out which are no longer wearable, too small or out of season!
Wipe any sticky marks off walls and doors

Extras

• Find 5 things to ebay
• Wipe the radiators, skirtings and window & door frames!
• HHI
• Mid week fling!! grab a binbag and fill it with stuff to leave the house.. rubbish or charity shop or to donate to a friend!

Thursday - Bathroom and Study
Level One
Clear the floors of clutter
Open the windows and air the rooms
Level Two
Clean/vacuum the floors
Shine the bath,bog,basins etc
Twinkle the tiles
Level three
Clean the toilet seat germs off the telephone, keyboard, mouse, monitor, sockets and switches
declutter the pc desk
Sparkle the mirrors and windows in these rooms

Extras

• Binbag dance
• Throw out/get rid of 3 things from every room in your house!!
• 15 minutes filing
• HHG.. if your garden is already beautiful go out and enjoy it for half an hour!!

Jazee

Thanks for list.  I'm planning on sitting down less this week and getting more done.

Valli

i’m making no promises, Mumnotgood at all, not eating or drinking.  Have spent lots of today hugging DD who is heartbroken.

Washing line dried.  Car washed and vacuumed before we nipped down the M1.  At least my car is getting longer journeys and petrol is cheaper down there than up here.  So something to be glad about. And I’m keeping up the driving skills instead of just trundling about on dinky little local roads.

ionafan

Thank you Natty.  I will be in to maintain the basics this week - can't promise to clean the top of the FF, though!

I forgot to say last week that when we went out on Thursday, we each took half a dozen books for the NT bookshop.  Yes, DH actually chose some that had been sitting unread for at least 6 years!  I'm eyeing a few more to go the next time we visit an NT property.  I've got to the stage of thinking "Why on earth am I hanging onto that?"

The things I need to do this coming week include (among a host of others):
- sort the house insurance for the coming year
- do some weeding
- return some badly fitting trousers to MrS and try to find a better pair elsewhere
- email various friends and family members
- go to the Old Wives' meeting tomorrow evening
- go to various other meetings during the week which are more about business than pleasure
- finish sorting the slides and take the ones that feature her children to my old NDN
- start transferring some old computer files onto my new external hard drive, decluttering as I go
- make some cakes *without* eating any myself!

Hope everyone has a good week, with rain for the gardeners and sunshine for the lovers of heat xxx

Edited to change **   

Jazee

Morning all.  Thinking of you Valli.

So far today I have prepped house for DDs arrival with DGD2 sand DGS today, done my exercises, prepped food for Poppet, done two wash loads which I'll put on line shortly and swept the floors downstairs.

Wordle in five.

Have a great day everyone.

Fayolle

Morning all. Thank you for the lists. Thinking of you here too, Valli.
Yesterday I seem to have managed much of today’s list. The advantage of moving stuff back into the utility room was that the top of the fridge-freezer actually got cleaned! 
WUDUPA. New back door is in the process of being fitted. Wm will be run when he is done there. I might be forced to doing HH admin at this rate.
Iona - I have returned from the last couple of NT shops with books for my teetering reading pile…DH is vaguely muttering about another day out this week, so the pile might be teetering further by the end of the week.

Honey_Bear

Thank you for the lists Valli and Natty.  I'll do kitcheny things at lunchtime.

(((Hugs))) Valli to replenish your supply so that DD can have more.

Feeling physically a lot better today than I did any day last week apart from Wednesday so I'm hoping to get some stuff done.  As it rained this morning the yard will have to wait so it's desk and in-tray clearing time.

Looking for a file this morning to put something in and found a file that had '"Can be disposed of July 2024" on the front so how that escaped the January purge I don't know.  Two bits of paper kept which can go into the archive in the attic Just In Case (I think I'll label the drawer that) place and the rest has been sorted, thrown and ripped up for scrap paper.  We go through an enormous amount of scrap in this house but the pile in my office alone is now 7" high.  That'll do for a bit which is comforting because I ran out a couple of weeks ago and nearly had a panic attack.

Jazee

Dailies and dog walk done.

ionafan

(((Hugs))) to you and your DD, Valli xx

If you nearly run out of scrap paper again, HB, it must be a sign that you need to declutter another folder!  But one day you will have to resort to asking me to send you some of mine - I've still got plenty hidden away

So far this morning I have
- got Wordle in 5, Strands with only one hint, and failed at Connections
- eaten breakfast
- hoovered all through downstairs
- mopped the kitchen floor
- dusted the ornate bits of the DR table legs which somehow keep getting missed
- watered all the indoor plants

Shower and dress next, then desk work.  And another cuppa, I expect!

Sunshine here now, rain forecast from about 1pm - but only light showers, not likely to have the flash flooding we were warned about.  

kazwookie

Thank you for the lists.

Been up since 5.30am! whole house is cleaned, hoovered, bleached, cif, etc etc etc

Rubbish out

3 x wm all out on whirly

Cat 3 brushed.

I've also made a small 6' fence this morning, from the old fence panels, well chuffed with myself, plus I put a cat hole in it, so the cats can go from the back to the front easily.

Off out walking, up to the woods today.

Fayolle

HH admin turned into 2 hours admin. Backlog as DH has been pinching my Tuesday admin time for a couple of weeks. I need to get into the mindset for my tax return. Another day.
New back door is nearly done, then it will be pushing on with project landing / stairs / hall - all jobs that were in the vague plan about 18 years ago before RL turned us upside down.
Kaz - well impressed with your fencing skills.