Weekly Flylady Thread 2 June 2025

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
Clear sides and wipe down - wipe small appliances and caddies etc.  Don't forget the splashbacks!
Replace what lives there, wiping as you go
Empty bin and clean it out too - put it outside to dry in the sunshine.
Empty out caddies/storage jars or tins and wash them out.
Wipe sill, sockets, door handles and switches and anywhere fingers linger 
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!  get a new hand towel and a new tea towel too

Level 2

Wipe down all cupboard and drawer fronts, 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; 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.

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.


EXTRAS

HHI
S&S bathroom
Make sure you’re up to date with cards… Father’s day this month too

Terrific Tuesday

Bathrooms, cloak rooms and en suites

Level 1
Open window
Remove towels and fling in WM 
Scrub Loo inside and out, slug some bleach or descaler down afterwards.  Pay special attention to under the rim.
Remove rat tails from plugholes

Level 2
Clean out baths and/or showers
Clean shower heads and hoses
Clean handbasins including taps - don't forget the out of sight bits!

Level 3
sweep and mop or vacuum floor as appropriate
clean windows
polish mirrors
dust and polish where necessary
Chuck any lurking potions that are not being used/are old
Clean light pull

Extras
HHI
S&S kitchen


EXTRA JOB…If you are compiling a I’m dead, where everything is list/notebook please go on the .gov website and look at the list of paperwork needed to register a death.  Sis has the appointment to register mums death on Friday in Ripley (Believe it or not) and will need mum’s birth certificate, decree absolute and deed poll (or whatever documentation she did when she changed her name).  Stepdad has been tasked with locating this paperwork.  Even though mum died in May and we’ve been waiting for the medical examiner we are now obliged to register within 5 days from yesterday!  

Thursday - almost the weekend Living room, hall, stairs and porch

Level One
With warm (hot if you can bear it)soapy water on a clean cloth - rinsed frequently - wipe EVERY door handle, light switch in the house - including entrance doors.  Don't forget the letterbox
Declutter ALL the floors!!
Clear the mantle of junk
Fling any rubbish
Straighten cushions, curtains and throws
Tidy coffee/side tables
Empty bin
Empty ashtrays
Attend to plants and flowers

Level Two

Vacuum/sweep all the floors.. stairs too!
Vacuum/sweep under furniture you can safely move!
Vacuum sofas
Clean mirrors

Level Three

Clean the window and door frames 
Dust and polish furniture and ornaments
Clean doormats

Extras

Dust all the electricals.. carefully.. don't want any frazzled flybodies
Binbag dance around the house
HHI
S&S kitchen
S&S bathroom

The Boudoir Fridays task for those up to it.  

level 1

open windows
strip bed
clear floordrobe and chairdrobe
empty bin

level 2
make bed with fresh bedding
clean bedside tables
vacuum/sweep/mop floor

level 3
clean windows
dust all round
Use a damp cloth to wipe lotions and potions bottles to remove sticky blobs

extras
S&S bathroom
S&S kitchen

Jazee

Thanks for the list Valli.  I'll try to be in as much as I can. 

Have a good day everyone.

kazwookie

Thanks for the lists

I'm in.

Fencing man is going to be late as he has gone to get an extention cable!.

So far,

Hoovered

Bins done

WM x 3 done, pegged out

Floors all washed

Cats fed

Cars moved on to road, I don't trust builders, who park close.

Other small boring stuff done

To do:-

Walking

Shopping

Check on fencing guys.

Fayolle

Morning all,
Thank you for the lists, I will be in and try to keep up.
Towels are in the wm so a small start on level 1, as today looks like the last assured drying day for the week. I will go to the allotment soon and get the last squash / courgette plants in, which will be a big job done, as well as kick starting my step count for the day. Ironing pile cleared yesterday afternoon, so this afternoon I might think about what small daily declutters I can do, as well as attempt again to finish my sewing.

Honey_Bear

I'm in as we have a guest coming to stay on Thursday and the house really should look a bit smarter by then if I follow the lists and do a bit every day.  Little and often should be my mantra but if I'm honest it's more, 'Really?  Again already?  I dusted two months ago.  Belovéd did a lot of vacuuming yesterday which makes life easier.  (He's broken a tooth on the crackling he cooked so right now he's en route to the dentist who will fix him up so he can go to London again later and he doesn't have to worry it will bother him.)  I spent all my energy and time yesterday on the greenhouse timbers so I should titivate it a bit this morning and then it's done, finished, finito and can be put together, put outside and filled up - at last.

@Cloth_of_Gold - I use Delia's Complete Cookery Book (p634) for Pavlova but I'm not sure about meringue nests, and I trust our oven to cook at exactly the temperature it says on the dial, which I know a lot don't. 

YL I can't vouch for your neighbour's friend of a friend, obviously, but I'd rather take a recommendation from someone I know when it means giving a key to the house than someone from an agency on t'internet.  I hope the arrangement is successful.

@SpikeyGran - Wren is a rescue golden cocker, an ex-breeder, we adopted when she was about five years old and she's all heart.  She's a bit reluctant to get right 'Down' but we've had some success over the weekend with reminding her.  I absolutely love collies, and we normally adopt collie crosses, but both Layla and Wren were the first dogs I found that ticked all of the boxes when we were needing the next dog, so that's why we adopted both of them.  I'd be reluctant to have a pure collie because we live in the city centre, don't have a private garden and neither of us can rely on being fit enough to give a collie the amount of exercise they need.  (Ex-farmer's daughter, used to working collies with livestock.)

Strands with no hints for once, all four Connections with one life lost and Wordle in 5 today.

I have a long list of 15 minute jobs that absolutely must be tackled asap because of the amount of time I've spent on the wretched greenhouse, so what with that and Valli's listie I've got my work cut out this week.

ionafan

Morning all.  Thank you Valli for the new list.

Today I got all but one letter in Wordle before I ran out of lives, Strands had me stumped or a while but I have just completed it with no hints and no mistakes, and I got all the Connections by the skin of my teeth. 

Yesterday DD&Co came for lunch on their way home from visiting other relatives around here.  I still managed to get to church and cook a nice meal for 1.30   DGS1&2 are both over 6 feet tall now and have appetites to match!  Rosie finally got her walk at 5.30, after which I ate up the very few lunch leftovers for my tea (DH had gone out mid-afternoon to wargames, of course, and didn't get back until 10.30).

DD brought me a slides viewer that automatically converts the images to .jpg files, which will save me some money if it works well.  I haven't had time or energy to carry on sorting prints for several weeks, so I shall probably have to start again from DS1's birth.  This morning I have labelled the new albums because I was forever picking out the wrong family line - a small job but hopefully a helpful one.

The house got cleaned in honour of the family lunch - at least, the downstairs did, and the bathroom - so I have nothing much to do off today's list, and I'm planning to do desk jobs this morning (west-facing window) and change to sewing in the DR (east-facing) this afternoon: I have two pairs of trousers to shorten.

First I need more coffee...

Hope you all have a good week - thinking especially of Mr and Mrs YL.
xxx

Jazee

Dailies, dog walk and greenhouse watering done.  Wordle in four.

Honey_Bear

Greenhouse wood all protected with at least two coats.  I'll remove the last of the masking tape later and then it's done done done.

Belovéd dropped off at the station, more grass seed bought and a four metre square patch under the ornamental cherry has been hacked back to ground level and the trimmings dumped in the garden waste bin which I share with a neighbour.  It's now full to over-flowing.  It's going to tip down all day tomorrow, so rather than try to water that patch (the ground is bone dry) I'm going to wait for the rain and then reseed that area late tomorrow and hope that some of it takes.  Another neighbour is having his 70th birthday party in the garden in a couple of weeks so I'm hoping the seeds germinate in time to give a bit of green fuzzy cover in the areas that look a bit bald at the moment.

I also cleared some paperwork this morning and popped into the C0-0p this morning to find a couple of things I really like where whoopsied, so I'm having pizza and tiramasu for supper tonight.  Excellent.  I feel I've earned them.

Jazee

Family has now gone home.  Before they arrived I shined the kitchen sink, swept living room floor and wiped living room radiator.  

DHs outfit now ready to wear.  Mine is pinned where I need to make alterations but not stitched yet.

YORKSHIRELASS

Iona thank you, that means a lot, and HB I hadn't thought of it that way but you are right.  Just because someone runs a "proper" business doesn't mean they are trustworthy.  I feel like we have made the right decision. 

DHs Line Manager has said that he can leave next Friday, a week early, but someone else has to agree.  Things are moving forward though.

First day back at the paid stuff for me which wasn't too bad, and I went cycling with my ladies group straight after work.  I haven't been for ages and it was tough.  I will sleep tonight.

Flying has been limited to making the bed, putting the DW on and tidying the kitchen.  I will catch up tomorrow. 

Narc0lepsy

Thanks for the list.
We had a good weekend, 2 good visits with Mum who seemed in pretty good spirits.  Met up with BIL and his stepson for dinner last night. Had a sea swim this morning (after a wild paddle yesterday when the wind made waves too big for me to trust my swimming).
Got home this evening a bit too late to go to zumba without a rush (lots of traffic) so before I dared sit down and slob, I:
- watered greenhouse and pots/baskets on patio
- filled bird feeders
- case unpacked and one load washing done and hung out
- input solar meter reading
- caught up with several emails and messages
- renewed animal adoption which was due
- looked at London Open Gardens map to decide where we want to go on Saturday
- picked some spinach/chard to go with the fish pie we'd had half of on Friday and frozen for tonight