Weekly Flylady Thread 20th April 2026

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!

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 (hopefully only once a month lol)

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 (not just in the kitchen!) for some fresh air 

Check fruit bowl - add to washing up if necessary!  Throw anything really fluffy in the compost bin (except kiwis - they're supposed to be fluffy)

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!  Is it time the tea/coffee/sugar caddies were washed out?

Put AWAY as much as you can - do ALL those small appliances NEED to be on show?

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!

Glug some bleach/cleaner of choice down the plugholes and overflows.

Clean/polish table - wipe mats/change cloth - don't forget the legs and places where sticky fingers can reach.

Clean chairs/stools/high chairs - and don't forget legs and rails!

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

Clean cruet, salt and pepper, wipe any sauce bottles that are used on the table.  Waxy dribbles are fine on candle-stuffed Chianti bottles but we don't want to see dried sauce and ketchup, thank you very much.

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; update shopping list as appropriate, wash shelves etc and check running temperature.  Wash out salad boxes etc.  

Dust dining area/room

Descale kettle if you have one

Clean WM, TD and DW filters; remove WM detergent drawer and wash it out.

Wipe inside of washer and DW door paying particular attention to manky crevices

Level 3

Choose a drawer, shelf or cupboard for special attention.  Empty, clean out, replace what is needed or useful and fling what is unused and/or out of date or chipped and cracked.

Sweep/mop/vacuum floor

Clean windows in both rooms.  You could also wipe frames & sills inside and out!

EXTRAS

HHI

S&S bathroom 

Month end looms - if your 'payday' is this week get those spreadsheets up to date.

Do you need any cards for May? Add them to your list.

Declutter challenge - pick a neglected drawer - empty it, clean it out and put back only what you will use.

Twinkly Tuesday

bathrooms, cloakroom, en suites

Level 1

flush toilet, glug some cleaner down it

empty rubbish, clear detritis

scrub toilet bowl

wipe handle and all outside of loo, seat lid etc

polish mirrors

Level 2

scrub shower tray/bath

clean screen or remove shower curtain to wash

wipe down tiles, shelves, ledges etc

clean hoses and heads

Check storage cabinets and clean 1 shelf at least

Level 3

clean basin inside and out

shine taps - and scrub where they attach to sink/bath - no grimy crevices in Flytown please

clean sill and window - if you leave it ajar often check the frame too

clean floor

Wipe switches and door handles

Extras 

s&s kitchen

clean loo brush and holder and stick outside in the sunshine to bleach dry

HHI

Jazee

Morning all. Thanks for the list.

I'm back to looking after the grandkids today, first time in four weeks but will see what flying I can achieve before they arrive.

Have a great day everyone.

Fayolle

Morning all,

Thank you for the lists. My favourite rooms…! I will knuckle down. First load of washing is on the line, 2nd load is swishing. The sky is a beautiful cloudless blue.

I hope all poorlies, those struggling and those that we miss for not posting are all doing ok x

ionafan

Morning everyone, and thank you Valli for the new thread. I promised I would post today, so here I am. I have been reading along and am very grateful for all the kind messages and good wishes for DH and myself xxx It's been five hard days and no sign of it ending yet.

DH is in the Acute Medical Unit and was on continuous monitoring for a couple of days. He was moved out onto a "normal" bed in the unit at about 2am yesterday. At about 10am the consultant who was doing the rounds asked him, "Do you want to go home today?" - this being the same consultant who, the very first time DH was admitted for similar problems about 6 years ago, sent him home while he was still very unwell, with the result that he was readmitted a couple of days later and spent another week in hospital. You can imagine DH's reply! Anyway, his BP is going up and down (mostly too low) so he isn't stable enough to come home yet.

By not going to church yesterday morning, I just managed to prepare all the craft activities for the Baptism families' get-together in the afternoon, but I dropped them off with one of the organisers and went to visit DH, rather than help at the event. It's a good thing I did so, because by 3pm I was absolutely exhausted and hurting all over, so I came home after an hour of very little conversation (DH was watching a film on the ward TV - Jurassic Park???) and fell asleep for 2 hours. After that, I had just about enough energy to boil 2 eggs and butter some soldiers for my main meal of the day - and I was in bed and asleep soon after 10pm.

So far today I have opened the BR and study windows, FUPA yesterday's clean laundry, phoned the leg ulcer clinic to say that DH won't be attending his appointment today (!), cleared away the Easter tree (the hawthorn branches had finished blooming and were dropping sticky stuff), dealt with dead daffodils, waved goodbye to Rosie who has gone out for her walk with L, eaten my breakfast, made my bed, and tidied away a few things in the kitchen. I shall make myself a sandwich and take it to eat at the hospital later.

Will post again when I can. In the meantime, keeeeeeeeep flying! xxx

MinnieMousesMummy

Morning all, Thank you for the new list

My list for today

• Go up to the stables to check on the ponies and give them breakfast whilst there
• Paid stuff (covering in local kennels, dog walk)
• Attend uni lecture
• Spend an hour on exam revision for next week
• Attend invigilator training
• Load DW and switch it on
• Empty the kitchen bin and wash it out
• Take DD to the stables so she can feed and check on her ponies

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

MadamMim2013

Afternoon all.. 👋🏼

Thankoo for the lists, I have been tidying the kitchen and even deep cleaned the hob, then cleverly made it messy again, so it’s had 2 scrubs! 🙄

2x washing done

Shopping done, picked up more fence stain and my Stepmums upcoming birthday gift 🎁

Thinking of you & your DH @ionafan, hoping he stabilises enough quickly for him to come home, though as he knows, it’s better to be in there currently while things aren’t right. Glad he stood up to the consultant!

Need to get off the iPad now and keep doing..

Blackcats

thanks for the list which gave me some good prompts.

Kettle descaled and tea & coffee station cleaned and organised

Fruit bowl checked and a plan in place to ensure there's no waste including small apples lurking at the bottom of the bowl

Re-organised the shelves in the door of the fridge that just have tubes and jars randomly shoved in

One bank of cupboard fronts cleaned. Cooker splash back and hood cleaned and now looking lovely and shiny

Jazee

Thinking of you Iona.

Before the children arrived I cleaned the cutlery drawer so something off the list. DH has been brilliant doing all the cooking and washing up today.

kazmeister

Evening everyone.

Thanks Valli and Natty for the list.

Had a lovely day with Dad yesterday and Uncle J was looking better than I thought although is on 0ramorph for the pain. We didn't stay long then Dad and I had lunch together before I drove home.

Decluttered 4 bags from the back of the car into the charity shop. They were only taking 2 at a time but the smart girl said how big are they, could you get 2 in a bin bag, hey presto 4 bags became 2 and that's stuff gone.

Got a few bits I needed in HB and then came home and cooked roast chicken dinner for DH, DD and I.

Today has been Grandkiddy day but I did do some of the list in DS's kitchen. DGD and I made breakfast together and then baked brownies. She's only 2 but loves to 'help' so I have some great pictures of her at the sink washing up and wiping the table down. She was still napping for school run so I left her sleeping as DS was working from home, which was nice as it gave me some time alone with DGS. Both kids were then hyper until mummy came home and then they were allowed their 1 hour of TV a day while she cooked dinner. It took me 50 minutes to get 14 miles home as the traffic was stinking, nothing drastic holding it up so no idea wht it was so bad.

Dinner was a HM freezer chilli and DH WUDUPA.

I'm having an early night having just updated the finances before payday Friday. Didn't sleep well last night due to a migraine which I managed to lift with painkillers for most of the day but feeling it again now.

Tomorrow is dentist check up between work and I know I have a problem under my bridge so not sure how that will work as it was put in 23 years ago privately and now I am luckily NHS, but that will probably mean a whole realm of problems as almost every dentist since has said, they don't make them like that any more and I do not wish to have my front teeth on a plate.

Anyhow enjoy the rest of the evening, I'm away until tomorrow

Valli

Went to outswimming cancer and nearly drowned laughing at an overheard comment - we are a pretty stoic bunch and well used to being poked and prodded by consultants - well one of the ladies was telling her swim buddy she quite likes going to the dentist as she knows she'll keep her knickers on!

(she has gynaecological issues so, of course her medical appointments involve 'downstairs')

No actual flying done but the frog which is PoA and accompanying proofs of income has been printed, signed, certified and witnessed - DD has done her bit, just need to pin DS down and I'm done. At the same time the 'list of important numbers' has been started - and it is almost complete. This will go in the filing cabinet with my will. It includes pension provider details, NI number and will include my NHS number too, when I find it.

Ironed laundry put away, swim stuff washed. WUALTD.

Narc0lepsy

Hugs to Ionafan and DH.

Not a good night as I'd had several phone calls/messages from Mum's care home as she had tried to get up awkwardly and had suspected fracture of her little finger. Latest message was 10pm saying she was in hospital so of course I slept fitfully wondering if the phone would go to give me an update. Long saga of waiting for X rays, waiting in corridors for transport but at least she is safely home. So that boycotted am gym partly owing to lack of sleep and also the need to be by a phone. And general anxiety.

Did a load of weeding, sowed some spinach, moved hardening-off plants from greenhouse to patio.

Did a dot-to-dot round the house moving things back to their right place.

Have started 2nd pair of 'maryjane bootees' for vicar's daughter who is expecting. It's a change from gloves but just as easy.

Deconstructed remainder of yesterday's roast chicken; meat went into a bowl for tonight's enchiladas and possibly a risotto tomorrow. Carcase into slow cooker with a leek to make soup. Chopped other enchilada ingredients ready for Mr N to assemble while I was at zumba.

Had long chat with DB mainly about Mum.

Went to AT lesson.

Went to zumba.