Weekly Flylady Thread 5th January 2026

Fayolle

Afternoon all,
Yesterday disappeared in a haze of painting. Upstairs is now ready for the carpet to be fitted next week. The fitter called today  - could he come tomorrow? Guess what - DH put him off 🤷‍♀️. Plumber came today, so the new radiator is now on the hall wall. Slowly, slowly…
I did fit some unexpected flying in yesterday when DD was called into work for an extra shift - her bedding changed and washed, vacuumed the visible spaces on her floor, then cleaned the bathroom. I started by doing a desultory (think that’s the word, anyway!) clean, finished by doing a whistles and bells one. If only it would last.
This morning I have pulled together my hairdresser’s bookkeeping. She had a tough year last year, so this is the least that I can do to help a bit. I secretly enjoyed being back “at work” for an hour or so. Not sure that I have achieved anything else of note. I have an ironing pile to tackle in a bit. I still have the woodwork downstairs in the hall to finish, but DH has now randomly decided to sand another bit down. Again.
HB - your pantry challenge sounds a bit like my freezer challenge from December, still a work in progress. There is, dare I say it, a teeny tiny visible difference from trying to use something from the freezer every day. If truth be known, I probably ought to join a pantry challenge too, as I am guilty of having siege mentality when it comes to food stores.
Welcome to all returners and newbies! 

Honey_Bear

Valli and Fayolle - my version of a Pantry Challenge is just to use up anything and everything I can before I go for a proper shopping expedition again.  I reckon I've got enough of most things to see us through January, from the Freezer at least until the end of March, and then there are all the tins and jars which is where I have accumulated most, and that'll probably see us through for a full six months.  Sugar, flour (all types), dried fruit, nuts, herbs, spices, cheese biscuits, yeast, longlife milk, pasta - oh god, the amount of pasta ... the list goes on and on.  When I restock the freezer I want it to be with food we actually eat, not just odds and ends that seem perfect when I'm in the supermarket but languish in there forever.

My personal rules only apply to me; whatever anyone else's stash contains will determine whether that person thinks they've got a rich abundance they need to work through.  

Belovéd does grocery shopping too, but he's not responsible for the overflow from the kitchen in my office or the shelves in the cupboard under the front steps.  I noticed the other day there's even a tide beginning to spread across the floor there - longlife skimmed milk, a six pack of sweetcorn ....  

I'm not as smart as the collective intelligence of the whole of the corporate supermarket behemoths.  In other words, they're better at selling me things than I am at resisting buying stuff.  Therefore, I need to STAY OUT of supermarkets as much as possible.  I don't find it difficult to say out, what I find impossible is going in to grab my L!dl Freebies, and not spending £50+.  So, L!dl will just have to do without me and I'll forgo my free nata. / Morribunds points, Sainbobs N3ctar points or whatever.  

What I will allow myself to get from the Co-op at the bottom of the road is fresh fruit and veg, milk, butter, eggs and anything the animals need.  (I don't need bread because I've made all of ours for years  Good old Panasonic breadmaker.)  I will allow myself to replace things I've used up like cheese or Sunday roasts, or fresh fish.  No doubt I'll find an excuse to buy myself some crap or other because it's whoopsied while I'm in the Co-op, but the key to my version of a Pantry Challenge is to get inventive before I go shopping.  After all, when all of this stuff fell into my shopping basket (who am I kidding - it's always a trolley) I knew what I was buying it for and exactly what I was going to do with it; I just haven't got round to doing whatever that was.  So now's the time.

I was mithering the other day about not having any veg - but I've got a few tins of ratatouille or the sweetcorn in my stash so why didn't I think of them?  

I do meal plan now, it's taken me literally years to get that down to a fine art, but for some reason I never think of linking the meal plan with the shopping list, as sensible people do.  That's the Ultimate Goal here.  Have a manageable stash of things I can and will rotate, a small stash of emergency food because things can and do go wrong (pandemics, power cuts, illness) and a lot more space than I currently have.  And to write a shopping list for that week's needs only.

I'll always have a stash of home made preserves but the amount we've got means I won't be doing any preserving this year, and that'll also save me time.

My two luxuries - time and space.

Does that make sense?  

Today I drank the last of my proper coffee, so I'm down to using up some Bambu coffee style drink and some instant.  Good.

And Fayolle, we must have been working our ways through our freezers at the same time because I now have some space in mine and I most assuredly didn't at the beginning of December.  Doesn't mean I can find anything in there though.

Blackcats

We've had a mini break this week so the magic hotel room cleaning fairies have been keeping me neat and tidy.
it was nice to come home to a tidy and clean house.  I used a burst of energy to clean and organise a tall kitchen cupboard.

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi all

I am very particular about our food stores.  I hate having too much and it really stresses me if the cupboard and freezer is too full, which I might regret if we ever have some sort of national emergency.

I want to work my way around the house doing a deep clean in each room.  I might start with the kitchen tomorrow as I don't need to work all day and the forecast is awful. 

Busy day at the paid stuff, tired now.  I managed 20 minutes on the spinning bike before work today but we still have chocolate, cheese and cake and I find it really hard to resist.

Not much flying done, just the basics but that will do for now. 

kazmeister

Evening peeps

Another day at the paid stuff and DH bought some reduced ready meals for tea (which was good as I had not planned anything) so will do a quick clear away and then having peaked at today’s list I will head upstairs. I don’t think I will actually complete anything on the list as it is soo bad but I can put Christmas stuff away and baskets of clean laundry to at least give myself some space.
“I reckon I've got enough of most things to see us through January, from the Freezer at least until the end of March, and then there are all the tins and jars which is where I have accumulated most, and that'll probably see us through for a full six months.  Sugar, flour (all types), dried fruit, nuts, herbs, spices, cheese biscuits, yeast, longlife milk, pasta - oh god, the amount of pasta ... the list goes on and on.  When I restock the freezer I want it to be with food we actually eat, not just odds and ends that seem perfect when I'm in the supermarket but languish in there forever.”
HB I could have written this myself, our under stairs cupboard is known as the shop and there’s a spare of just about everything in there and more for some things. It is a ridiculous amount of stuff and some of it must be approaching expiry dates. So a conscious effort must be made to use up. 

On a separate note the carpet I ordered was apparently cut ‘short’ so won’t be available for another month so the shop owner decided to order the other one I had been looking at and as it was more expensive decided to absorb the additional costs, you only get that with an independent, so hopefully carpet on Monday. 

Right I’m away, have fun and hope the storm doesn’t hit too hard (we’re forecast rain)

Valli

Hope you're all safe and warm.

omg THE SHAME

tea was chilli con carne into which I flung a well out of date tin of mixed bean salad. (2022 blush)

And stuff in the freezer has celebrated at least one birthday!

but I have a plan...  muhahahaha

marmalade made.

hygienist said my teeth were nice and clean but the dentists have decided the refilled tooth is coming out *tremble*.

PUT YOUR COFFEE DOWN...

Last time I had teeth out, long ago and far away, to make room in my overcrowded mouth my mum gave me a special absorbent pad which she placed over my mouth and then covered with a scarf.  As mum was a nurse I assumed this was a special hospital-issue dressing so I could spit out any blood, discreetly.

Many years later I realised I had actually been walking round with a sanitary towel over my mouth.

mumofjusttwo

week have some of the house but takes an age to type as age has been affected and now I have handed back my driving license so no have to use the bus 🚌!
Ds has been a wonderful help and has also forest kitchen cupboard and tidied up and taken thinks to dump. 

Honey_Bear

Yeah, I forgot to add that the pasta stash is actually in the top of the wardrobe, because there was literally no space anywhere else.  I opened a jar of pesto the other day with a Best Before date in late 2022.  During the pandemic the food safety rules were amended to say that tins and jars could have an extra three years after the BB date, so it was pretty much in date, really.  But that's how bad my stash is but in fairness to me that was the last jar of green pesto.  Various other types of pesto to work through next.

I have a tendency to buy things that I later just decide I'd rather not to eat or drink because I prefer something else, something shiney and new, and that's how the stash multiplied, and then obviously bred.  So I'll be drinking instant coffee and the Bambu stuff until it's all gone, I'll be quaffing the various fruit teas that i thought looked interesting and when those two stashes are used up I can buy the stuff I really like again.  I'll feel very virtuous about it, too.  

I love love love your tooth story Valli!

Narc0lepsy

Sadly no more snow here but it stayed grey and misty/murky/drizzle for much of the day, with a cold wind and reaching the dizzy heights of 4-5 degrees.
- one load through wm
- one load through DW
- put away a lot of things which had migrated to the kitchen
- dealt with a lot of flagged emails
- set up cc payment
- transferred some money in a poor ISA to a better one
- rang about my business insurance; I'd been asked to ring and had done so last week, but the (self-admitted "not usually in this department, just helping out") lady had passed on the wrong message. Now all sorted.
- went to drum lesson
- got a couple of things from Mr T on my way through from their car park
- posted a birthday card
- planned a trip to a big town tomorrow as we need a new 2-ring ceramic hob to replace the one I dropped a pan on (I have a £20 BQ voucher); kitchen curtains as they are falling apart and I'd also like to look at swimsuits in D£cathlon/Sports D1rect, any discounted flower arranging supplies in H0bbycraft (have a £2.50 voucher)  and anything reduced in M&S.     I'l order the hob for click & collect tomorrow once I've seen the weather; town with all the shops I need (and the hob in stock) is 19miles away so I don't go there often.
- updated my Xmas card list on the computer from the one I amended while writing cards this year. 

Valli

Honey_Bear said

I love love love your tooth story Valli!

lol. - it was years before I realised...wish I'd shared it with the celebrant at mum's funeral....

I'm quite perky (gin and Patience ). and I'm listening to my spotify playlist...so many memories.  After I threw the first Mr Valli out i used to go clubbing...groove is in the heart

and I did take his keys and push him out and I'm really proud of that because the first Mr Valli was a bully and a bit liable to throw a punch