Weekly Flylady Thread 15th June 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!
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

Open some windows for some fresh air.
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!
Replace what lives there, wiping as you go
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!
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!  Put out a new hand towel and a new tea towel too
Good slug of bleach down plugholes and in overflows
Clean cruet, salt and pepper, wipe any sauce bottles that are used on the table

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 (see extras); 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.
Wipe inside of washer drawer and DW door

Level 3

Pick a cupboard or a drawer; empty it, clean it out and put back its contents tidily
Sweep/mop/vacuum floor - and wipe any fascia boards!
Clean chairs (and highchairs) - don't forget under the seats where sticky fingers linger.
Clean windows in both rooms.
Go round the whole house wiping door handles, light switches and banisters - we WILL be germ-free!

EXTRAS

HHI
S&S bathroom
Spend 15 minutes in the garden - even if it's just with a cuppa, planning!

Tuesday

Level 1

The washbasin
open window
remove all gubbins around it
scrub out
ckean and polish taps
clean plug, chain etc
wipe mirrors
clean pedestal/cupboard

level 2 
The loo
scrub inside and out
wipe cistern
wipe loo roll holder
dust sill and clean window

Level 3
clean Bath/shower
wash curtain or wipe and shine screen
clean taps or showerhead
clean and clear drain
wipe towel rail
replace towels
clean floor

Extras

HHI

Bin bag dance

Wednesday living room, Hall stairs landing

Level 1

remove anything that doesn’t live here
wipe dusty plants
can any coats go in the WM?
empty bins
give doormats a bash against a wall - or a wash

Level 2

sweep, mop or vacuum floors
polish mirrors
remove cobwebs

Level 3

dust all round, not forgetting skirting, sills and picture rails if you have them
clean Lights
clean windows

Extras

S&S bathrooms etc
S &S kitchen
wash make up brushes and dry in the sunshine

THURSDAY - UTILITY/PORCH/STUDY/SPARE ROOM (PICK ONE)

Level 1

Open window

Empty bin and remove all rubbish

Water plants

Level 2

Clean windows and sills

Dust/wipe all surfaces

Clear cobwebs

Level 3

Sweep/vacuum and/or mop floors

Make a note of anything that will take longer to deal with eg dingy cupboards

Extras

S&S kitchen

S&S bathroom

ionafan

Thank you for the new thread, Valli xx I shall aim for Level 1 each day, with maybe the odd extra, as my diary and to-do list are both pretty full for the coming week.

round, in your last post you said you had taken "A step towards normality 😊" but I don't remember you ever doing "normal" before. Should we be worried? 🤪

I received a WA message from DS2 today, saying that he and DDiL2 had each thought that the other had invited us to DGS3+4's confirmation service next Sunday, so I have spent most of the evening sorting out extra doggy day care for Rosie (fortunately L can take her) and adding extra cards to my shopping list for this week. And of course I have to make a coffee cake to take with me!

DD has just emailed the family to send round DGS1's birthday wish list - he'll be 18 on Sunday, but is still in the middle of A-levels, so any partying is being postponed - and as I shall be meeting DD this Thursday for a cuppa, anything I give him will have to be ready by then, for her to save me the postage. One suggestion on his list is "Things you would have found useful when you turned 18" but of course in my day you had to wait until you were 21 to get the key to the door. I shall give him some money towards his new computer, but I'd like to get him a few silly bits as well. So far DH and I have only come up with a suitably inscribed mug, a pair of colourful socks, a cheap biro, 20p (or maybe a coin from my era, if I can find one!!!), a bar of soap, and possibly a snack pack such as nuts and raisins. Has anybody got any other ideas, please? My absolute spending limit is £20 total for the silly bits, so the cheaper the better, though I don't like to waste money on rubbish.

Hope everyone has a good week xxx.

wendywitch

ionafan maybe get him a nice notebook to go with his pen then he'll have a ready made computer like we had back in the day! 😃

Today DD2 and I are doing my parents food shop so I'm waiting to hear from her so I can get ready. Probably won't be til half way through the morning.

I asked her to help me with sorting the charity stuff and she said she would. She also said she'd help with some of the garden but we'll wait and see if that happens.

After that I hope to work through the list, I'm off to load the dishwasher now

TTFN

Fayolle

Good morning

Thank you for the lists. The house is telling me that I really need to be in this week. I cleaned the bathroom yesterday afternoon and broke the back of the ironing pile. After a particularly splashy bit of cooking last night, I also had to clean the splashback and cooker hob, so feeling smugly in for a kitchen day. I wasn’t happy to open the fridge and find the temperature had gone up to 17 degrees! Cue frantic checking that the (stuffed) freezer was still ok (it is 🤞) and shifting of all perishables into the small kitchen fridge. First job today is to see if the drain is blocked.
The builders have arrived and are busy prepping in the LR. I have paint samples to choose from - I’m thinking a radical change from the beige look that we moved into, 20 years ago.
Towels have just finished swishing in the wm. I’ll get them out then it’s Operation Fridge. Have a good day all.

roundtuit

Morning all xx

iona- you know me too well 🤪 No need to worry - my unicorns will let me know if I start to err too much towards normality 😉.

This time last week I'd just been told there been a change of plan, I was now first on the list, and could I change into the robe and stockings ASAP. Today I'm sat in my LR savouring a brew and looking forward to a second week at home recovering. Tempus fugit.

I will attempt to do something from the list each day.

To Do Today List

• WUDUPA
• Decumb toaster
• Clean sink

Have a good day. Love to all.

Rxx

Honey_Bear

Thank you for the lists Natty and Valli. I will also pick and mix things from today's list as ideally I'd like to have the spring cleaning in the kitchen finished.

What I wish I'd had at 18 - a calculator, but I don't think they'd been invented by then! Pencils, a lot of pencils and a pencil sharpener. Handkerchiefs (thank you Valli, yours are still going strong and much appreciated). A bar of chocolate.

I need to plant more basil seeds as I think the newly sprouted ones got sunburn yesterday and died. I remembered to plant some chives though and we're due a bit of rain this week so that should keep them sprouting. Everything's growing furiously which makes me happy. I have enough parsley and mint for once.

Valli

Good morning all

I have some 'free' time this week so I plan to actually fly. I have S&Sd and vacuumed etc but not actually properly cleaned a room for a few weeks blush.

I am out on Thursday on a coach trip to Lancaster and Morecambe which will be interesting.

I might clean the Vallimobile…but would need to do that before tackling the kitchen. Decision decisions. Last time I cleaned a car it was written off the day after.😪

erm Iona… cof cof … statue?

ionafan

>…my children say I lived in the age of the dinosaurs! I found a photo of me in 1994 with (a statue of) one of my relatives, probably taken at Alton Towers…

Valli, "statue" was probably the wrong word but I couldn't think of anything better at the time! Alton Towers used to have a lot of sculptures/large-scale models of dinosaurs. Somebody insisted on taking this photo, which I found in one of my old albums among pictures of their rollercoasters:

Thank you wendywitch and HB for your helpful suggestions xx

I have thrown open the windows for fresh air, cleaned the kitchen apart from the floor (which I shall do later - see below), FUPA DH's dry laundry which was hanging in the utility, checked that my pension had gone into my account and updated spreadsheets, and welcomed Rosie back from her walk with L.

I need to make some phonecalls, send some emails/text messages and write a card, print out some posters and laminate them, hoover upstairs and down, and start work in the garden before lunch if possible.

roundtuit

WUDUPA ✔

I fed the birds and refilled the birdbath and hedgehog's dish. I've washed towels and tea towels and pegged them out. Bath mats are now swishing.

P & S called for coffee.

Rxx

MinnieMousesMummy

Good afternoon all,

My list for today

• Paid stuff (covering in kennels, website admin, invoices, shopping)
• Feed the animals and walk the dog
• Ironing scrubs for this week
• Spend an hour on uni admin
• Laundry x 1 load
• Dust the living room
• Hoover the living room
• Take animals to the vet for their vaccinations
• Load DW and switch it on
• Make food for DDs family meal for her 15th birthday (we always have party-related food)
• Feed the animals and walk the dog
• Take DD up 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.

Valli

🤣Ionafan - you had us all going there…

Bottom drawer in kitchen emptied and removed from runners. Lost stuff retrieved and all wiped down. Left open to dry.