Weekly Flylady Thread 2 November 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 - please bear in mind it was written some time ago but Toots, sadly is no longer with us - she is fondly remembered, as are Money Saving Diva, Cycling Yorkie and Mummy's Little Boy.





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) 
Put away as much clutter from the worktop as you can - ideally only frequently-used appliances should be out. Wipe them first!
Clear sides and wipe down - wipe small appliances and caddies etc.  Don't forget the splashbacks or tiles! Got a 'wooden spoon' pot by the hob Or a 'tool' rack? Give it a good clean and wash the tools too!
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 - remove turntable and wash it.
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.
Wipe inside of washer drawer and DW door

Level 3

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 bathrooms

Sign up for Flylady xmas card swap

Sort any November/December (and early January too, actually) birthday cards - get them bought and written.

Wrap any gifts already bought.

Twinkly Tuesday bathrooms en suites etc

Level 1

open windows
empty bins
remove towels etc to the WM
scrub out the loo and wipe the outside of it too

Level 2

scrub hand basins inc taps and under the plug
de gunge plugholes
clean window

If you have an extractor clean the vents!

wipe all bottles on 'display' including soap dispenser

Level 3

scrub shower/bath
wash curtain or wipe screen
dust all round
mop floor

Extras
HHI
binbag dance

Thursday - guest room, spare room, study or a room that needs a reset

Level 1 - clear the deck

open windows - all over the house if you can!
strip bed

clear desk
clear floordrobe and chairdrobe
empty bin

Level 2 - reset

dust flat surfaces
make bed with fresh bedding
clean bedside tables - check lights and lamps wok
vacuum/sweep/mop floor

Level 3 - finishing touches

clean windows and sills and frames
deal with any neglected area appropriately

Extras

S&S bathroom
S&S kitchen
Bin bag dance...fling that gibble

IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING THAT YOU ARE KEEPING 'FOR BEST' GET IT OUT AND USE IT. Best is now - so get the best cutlery out - ditch the grim stuff - chuck the old gardening shoes and wear the new ones! Thankyou to Round for the inspiration. Plus you deserve the best!

Jazee

Morning. Thanks for the list which I will probably look at later.

This morning I want to do some admin then sorting out things to sell on line. I've got some things that have been listed for a while so will delist and take to charity shop later in the week.

Other than that it's dailies, dog walk and meeting up with friends this afternoon.

Have a great day everyone.

MinnieMousesMummy

Morning all, Thank you for the new thread, please count me in or this week.

My list for today

• Get the kids to school
• Feed the animals and walk the dog
• Do paid stuff (3 clients, emails, invoices, social media posts )
• Laundry x1 load
• Attend uni lectures
• Do required course work
• Empty the DW and put dishes away
• Tidy the kitchen and load DW
• Wipe down kitchen surfaces
• Sweep the kitchen floor
• Check banking and update dd's
• HHI
• Take DD to the stables so she can feed her ponies
• Feed the animals and walk the dog

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

Honey_Bear

Morning All!

Excellent list Valli. Up early to do all the things before I took Twiggle to the vet as she needs another prescription issued. Turns out I was right - the previous vet had recorded her weight as 3.5kgs and it should have been 5.3kgs, so I've been under-dosing the poor little scrap with pain relief for six months! No wonder she looks uncomfortable. All sorted now. Vet UK website is offering free p&p with the code PumpkinPost until midnight today - if I can get them to actually apply it at the checkout, which it currently isn't. I've emailed them.

The roofer is here for his final visit I think, so more £££ decluttered.

Need to email the animal rescue place(s) to see if either will take the two beds we've got that we really don't need but I know they don't like bedding put in their supermarket bins, so I'm not sure what to do if they say they don't want them at all. Probably try one of the big charity shops but that means a car journey and I'm keen to just get on with things today.

I need to get Belovéd's trousers hemmed so I can get that clutter off my desk.

Then there's a lot of cupboards and drawers I want to tackle, as well as some admin I want to clear. There's such a backlog ….

Jazee

All planned for this morning is done. Three bags of clothes will be leaving the house. From the list I have wrapped a Xmas present.

SandyShores

I was so excited to have kept flying every day last week that I totally forgot about this week's list - whoops. I went to the gym this morning and then faffed around doing stuff off of my own to do list before I remembered. Useful stuff was done though and luckily some of it was on today's list and I'd also done a bit yesterday - it felt much easier to keep on top of things this weekend.

I've ticked quite a few things on the list already, and I made up lunch for Tues/Weds too. This afternoon, after food shopping I will:

• Empty bin and clean it out - done
• Clean/polish table - done
• Wipe down all cupboard and drawer fronts - done
• Vacuum floor - done
• Vac chairs - done

I've also made small progress towards my tax refund - if I owed them money I bet they would have sorted it by now - and I've added an item onto Fleabay today.

Pollybear

Afternoon. One load of washing done, mostly dried on the line and just warming up indoors before I put it away. Lovely day but quite cold. Met DD1 for coffee and shopping this morning. Over to the chemist this afternoon to get DH's outstanding tablets but they're still out of stock. Come back Wednesday he said. We'll see.

Hope everyone's OK x

Jazee

Additional stuff done today - hoovered through and got rid of the tomato plants in the greenhouse.

BadCat18

Evening all

Feeling a bit better but quite tired, I concentrated on MAD again today, did 10 mins per room, level 1 in kitchen and a quick swish of the bathrooms, washing 2 loads done, 1 dried in TD and 1 on airer, a better day I think, I can definitely see order being restored finally.

DH is out this evening so my book is calling me, see you tomorrow

Valli

i have vacuumed and wiped and dusted and washed down and sorted rubbish into categories to minimise landfill. Offered bubble wrap on a local pay it forward site - I was going to keep it but I don't need 3 sacks of the stuff. Stuff needs to go to CS but I have been ruthless - they don't need stuff that is marked/damaged or won't sell as it costs them to have rubbish taken. I am only taking what I would be happy to buy (and I am fussy lol). One more session should do it.

At home I have got washing line dries - not bad for November when I am not even at home.

Narc0lepsy

thanks for the list.

A fairly garden-flying week last week but we've finished the long flower bed next to the front drive and have started on side beds which are smaller and slightly less weedy.

Went to Body Pump then did Body Attack, which I hadn't done for years. It's a bit fast and furious but maybe it might be the key to winter slinkyness………….unlikely.

Went to Alexander lesson.

Stopped on the way home at the local pharmacy and got a Covid jab on their walk-in. £95…….but protecting Mr N is worth it!!

Sorted out some bank stuff.

Unpacked and set up my new tablet.

Went to zumba.

Hm, not terribly fly-like but the house isn't actually too bad.

Won't be sitting up all night watching US elections.