Weekly Flylady Thread 21st July 2025

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

Ok here goes this week!

Magical Monday ~ Kookin Kitchen

Level One..
Clean floors
Shine the sink and taps making them sparkle..
Level Two..
Clear and wipe kitchen surfaces
Clean cupboard door fronts and the front of appliances
Sort fridge bringing what needs using soon to the front
Level Three...
Wipe window sills, clean any marks off windows if required
Wash the washer drawer out if it's gunky
Clean OVEN yes I know you all hate that one , wonder how many choose it!
Extras

• Clean inside of fridge
• Clear one hotspot
• Water the pots/newly planted stuff in your garden. Don't forget those house plants either
• Take a duster and wipe around the tops of your door frames – as many as you can manage in 5 minutes..

Twinkling Tuesday ~ Luscious Living Room and Delectable Dining Room
Level One..
Vacuum floors and sofas
Level Two..
Clear the table and put a clean cloth or a nice vase of fresh flowers on it.
Dusting, even if around everything
Remove clutter making sure stairs especially are safe
Clean TV, other electricals and cabinets
Level Three...
Clean any other glass like mirrors etc
Tidy shoes, coats and bags
Vacuum under furniture (only if you won't hurt yourself doing it, and yes that does includes all you pregnant ones too, don't want any injuries)
Extras:

• Pick one or more of the following tasks –
• Clear one hotspot
• Clear one shelf, dust and replace items after giving them a wipe over
• Clean any other glass in these rooms, mirrors, picture frames etc
• Clean windows in these rooms

Wishful Wednesday ~ Mystical Master Bedroom & Limpid Landing
Level One..
Remove bed linen and wash, replace with fresh linen
Level Two..
Check fire alarms are working
Vacuum floor in bedroom and on landing
Sort out your makeup and toiletries if you didn't do this last week..
Level Three....
Dust surfaces & make sure no cobwebs about
Vacuum mattress before replacing with fresh linen
Eat a frog!
Extras

• 27 fling boogie time, time for that midweek fling, go on grab a bag and clear that clutter
• Clean windows in these rooms
• Sort one drawer, making sure only what should be in there is, anything that's had it's day or doesn't belong there is removed
• Wipe tops of door frames, even if just what you can do in 5 minutes

Thrifty Thursday ~ Barnacled Bathroom and Studious Study/Pc Area
Level One..
Clean floors in these rooms (even if it is around the clutter)
Level Two..
Clean bath, toilet and sink ~ let's have twinkling taps.
Clear any clutter from desk
Dust PC and desk
Wipe keyboard and mouse (these usually have more germs on than your toilet so important)
Change bath mat and towels.
Level Three..
Clear clutter from floor
Wipe down tiles in bathroom
Clean shower screen/curtain if you have one/if required
Extra:

• Clean tops of wardrobes
• Delete 50 emails
• Sort out computer bookmarks and delete any that you don't need/require/haven't looked at in 5 months.
• Sort a wardrobe or part of, a drawer or set of drawers making sure it has what needs to be in it and any 'extras' are put where they should be.
• Clean window
• HHI

It's Finally Friday ~ Those terrible kids rooms and spare rooms
Level One..
Clear away anything that isn't in it's place, clothes, toys, books etc
Spend at least half an hour doing something for yourself!!!!! paint your nails, make an appointment to have your hair done, a lovely soak in the bath.. whatever you feel like!!
Level Two..
Put anything back in it's place that isn't where it should be
Dusting.. all those shelves and flat fluffy surfaces!! Don’t forget the light shade and curtain pole!!!
Level Three...
Vacuum Floor (even if it's just where you can see)
Strip beds, turn and vacuum mattresses!! and replace with fresh linen .. check if duvets need freshening up too!! Wash the curtains!
Extras

• Time for the Friday Flylady Fling, aim for 27, if you can't find that many, well done, you are obviously making a difference
• Clean windows in these rooms
• Declutter one hotspot anywhere
• Clean any mucky marks off kids doors and walls, oh and those lightswitches and door frames.
• HHI

ionafan

Thank you Natty x

One word sums up my weekend: migraine   I even ignored the church bells this morning and took myself back to bed until lunchtime.  I'm hoping to feel better tomorrow, as I'm due to go to a friend's house for a cuppa and chat, and we've already had to postpone twice.

I will do my best to fly a bit later this week.  (((Hugs))) to all in need xxx

Valli

thanks Natty for the new thread.

DD went swimming the popped to emmandess where she found kumquats ys so bought some ‘to try’.  Being of an impish nature I asked to watch.  To cut a long story short I now have 2 jars of kumquat marmalade and she now know what weight of ys fruit I’d want to jam.

Lots of tidying and admindone and we’ve finally had proper, copious rain.  Waterbutt will be brimming.  Grass will no longer be brown.  Ads of washing to do and no line drying for a while. *sigh*

eltee2

Done HH MAD 🐸 session on CoD.  Found passport, sorted some paperwork, shredded/recycled about 25% of it. Chucked out some gibble.  Have boxed up the stuff I'm keeping but not putting it back until I've dealt with the rest of the cupboard.

Feeling smug and eager to do another HH session tomorrow.

roundtuit

Morning all xx 

Go eltee2. I wonder if you'll find any treasure?

I'm up, made my bed,  taken my meds, turned over the calendars, completed Wordle in five,  completed Strands with no hints,  only managed two lines on Connections and I'm supping my first brew. 

Towels and tea towels are swishing. Oh, and I got weighed- + 1 lb. Slowly heading the wrong way here 🤦‍♀️

No broadband in most of the village after yesterday's downpours so I'm using my limited mobile data. Maybe a good thing as mindless scrolling is definitely becoming a problem here. 

Last day of my Annual Leave. Nooooo.

Hope you feeling better today iona 😘

How are you doing weenancy? 😘

Love to all.
Rxx

Recurring dream: it's Christmas Eve afternoon and I haven't wrapped presents for anyone yet including a young DS. And everyone and everything conspires against me. No wonder I wake up feeling anxious 😟 

Jazee

Morning all.  Wordle in six.  

Thanks for the list.

Round, I also woke up anxious but my dream was an alien invasion.  I have had that Xmas dream though before.

DD is unwell today so family not visiting so in theory I should do lots of flying today.  Yesterday I did some sorting in our cupboard of doom inspired by Eltee and now have a big box and bag of treasures for the charity shop.

 I'm going to make the buttercream for my cakes though before anything else.

Have a great day everyone.

MinnieMousesMummy

Morning, thank you for the new thread, please count me in, although this morning is proving to be a struggle with post holiday blues and Monday morning vibes, they don't go well together. It's another damp muggy day here today. 

My list for today
Drop my car off at the garage for its MOT (fingers crossed it doesn't fail on too much) Woohoo, my car passed its MOT with only a couple of advisories. 
Take DD over to the stables to check on her horse (I'm using DH's car today)
Cancel the interview that I had booked for this afternoon
Order the back to school stationery
Declutter 50 emails from personal inbox
Do paid stuff
HHI
Look into boot sales and schedule in the diary (I need to do a major declutter) We are hoping to do a boot sale this weekend. 
Pack up stuff that needs to be returned to a client that I no longer work for All packed, so now I just need to drop it off. 
Go to the country store to get some things for the horse
Collect DH from work since I have his car
Spend an hour organising my new diary
Take the dog for a long walk
Collect together the stuff that is required for the interview that I have tomorrow morning
Collect the car from the garage
Wash up the dishes, dry and put away
Speak to DH regarding getting a DW He is going to do measurements and source pricing
Take DD to the stables so she can exercise the horse and do anything else that needs to be done. 

I think that is everything that I need to tackle today. I hope everyone has a lovely Monday/week. 

kazwookie

Thank you for the thread.

Wm is done, however the heavens have just opened, so it is draped on the airer not very neat but at least it is not all lumped together in a basket.

Cats fed

Shower cleaned, hose and head taken off and limescale removed / cleaned and reinstalled.

Bins done

Patio and driveway swept of debris from weekend rain, I guess I'll have to do it again later.

Outside of window ledges wiped over.

Waterbutts filling up!!

Bed stripped and remade.

Half the house hoovered, about to do the rest.

Somehow need to get my walking steps in for my type2 1 million steps, at this rate I'll be walking laps of the house! currently 290,000 done.

I've now walked 10k steps or more per  day for the last 177 days, so pleased with myself.

Plus I have cut out the c**p I was eating and have lost since about Feb time (exact date unknown) 38lbs (17.2kgs), so now down 3 clothes sizes, and new nicks on order as existing ones keep falling down, very unlady like! new clothes found in various draws / cupboards, from last time, but this time the weight must stay off.

Got a question for my bank, all said bank will do is agree with me the account sort code and account number / name. That if you read your emails is not what I asked, so last night I sent them another snotty email, listing 1 to 6 bullet points my question, today they have now passed the email up the line which is what they should have done in the first place. Really customer service today is not what it used to be.

Wanders off to find the hooover.

Have a good week.

kazwookie

Rain is now at bibical portions, no joke a river about 4 inches deep running past the front door, the drive is flooded to about 6 inches and running under the back garden gate in to the garden and flooding the grass, all I can say it the grden is well watered, all water butts are full and overflowing.  oh and don't use the toilets as the drains are backded up as well, going to need a pump out if it carries on.

Pollybear

Morning all.   I've got a washload on the line, we've been for a walk and had a coffee out and bought a few bits in the supermarket.    Car is booked in for service and MOT tomorrow so when we got back I vacuumed it out and I've washed it.    Just waiting for the windows to dry so I can get the glass cleaner on them.   The mechanic drove by and shouted out that we've passed just by washing it!  We'll see...

Jazee

Well done on the weight loss Kaz.  I need some of your determination.

Dailies and dog walk done.  I have completed first cake and done crumb coat on second.