Flying high in July (or trying to!) - the FlyLady thread

[TooStressyForMyOwnGood]

A warm (or cooling with our current weather) welcome to the July Flylady thread. This is a lovely friendly thread where we loosely follow the Flylady system (see the Flylady website ) in the hope of having organised homes and lives.

Every day the thread leader (me this month) posts links and missions from the Flylady site and also some friendly (!) personal comments. This is quite a ‘talky’ thread but we try our hardest not to be cliquey and new members are very welcome! I will do my best to keep track of everybody .

Please note that Flylady is (understandably) keen for people to click on her site so please do have a look around the site and the links. On the website there is information for beginners. You can also sign up to the Flylady emails but we would advise caution as there are hundreds of them.

We post our achievements (ta das) and our to do lists and any other general chatter about life / flying.

Information on getting started: www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/

The launch pad is also a good starting place:www.flylady.net/c/lp.php

Fly stands for Finally Loving Yourself. The general idea is that short bursts of tidying / organisation are more achievable than marathon efforts. Flylady advises 15 minute bursts is effort but you can tweak this to fit your own circumstances.

Be kind to yourselves, jump in where you are and be careful not to crash and burn!

The first day of the month is Sunday. Since it’s a weekend there is no official mission or zone work, unless you want to of course.

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Here is the daily summary for Sunday (also available on the Flylady website at flight plan which should update automatically each day).

I assume we are going into zone 1 next week which is the entrance area. However this week we have been in the living room. The Flylady website can take a few days to update the zones when the month changes so I will have a good look at it tomorrow and Monday to see where we are.

The link to the current zone and missions is [[http://www.flylady.net/c/sp.php#missions here].

Re. zones, do what works for you. I don’t always stick to the zones myself and do what works best at the time, with varying degrees of success!

Spend 15 mins decluttering, or whatever you can manage, in Zone 5/ zone 1.

When you have finished decluttering, the detailed cleaning list (if you are at that stage) for Zone 5 is here.

daily focus

missions for the week

Flykids mission

Once I figure out July’s habit I will let you know what it is!

beginner babysteps.

Happy flying everyone.
**

Ive try this page www.converse.com/uk/en/product-care/product-care-faq.html

The best idea I've seen to keep the Chair of Doom free of clothes,
was in the thread sc found.
You have a section in the Wardrobe specially for "clean once worn clothes".
At least that way, clothes are not mixed in and will save washing jeans, trousers and sweaters etc every time.

Btw. This is only for my own clothes, obviously it won't be practical for Dc or folks with young Dc.
Sorry to have gone on about it so much today but was trying to solve the problem of my untidy bedroom.

I have found this evening has run away with me. Didn’t get back from gymnastics until 7:15 or so and have not yet managed to get everything tidied away. Links next...

*
Here is the daily summary for Tuesday (also available on the Flylady website at flight plan which should update automatically each day).

We are in zone 1 this week which is the front porch, entrance area and dining room.

Re. zones, do what works for you. I don’t always stick to the zones myself and do what works best at the time, with varying degrees of success!

Spend 15 mins decluttering, or whatever you can manage, in zone 1.

When you have finished decluttering, the detailed cleaning list (if you are at that stage) for Zone 1 is here.

daily focus

missions for the week

Flykids mission

July’s habit is swish and swipe which is a quick daily clean of the bathroom.

beginner babysteps.

Happy flying everyone.
**

Argh so we haven’t decided everything at all because the website has different stuff to the actual Ikea store. FML.

First world problem I know. But. STRESSED 😡🤯😱😭😖🤬😩

Hi,
Phew you lot have been busy.
I had a brilliant weekend weather was extremely warm. Long drive on Friday after school as I had to go to two shops on the way to buy the weekend food. Discovered that if you ask you can get free ice for one of those bags so fish kept fresh for the hour drive I had to do. There is no where to buy fish in the village or surrounding area. I can order it from local butcher but I can't get down their in time as after 4 pm when leave work.Had BBQ on Saturdayand Sunday we had a lovely plate of leftovers as only two of us there. I left earlier than usual and went to an NGS garden. A bit late getting there but they gladly let me in and said stay as long as I liked. Four acres of beautiful garden and fantastic views. Had an elderflower drink in the garden too. If you haven't tried NGS gardens do have a look on their website. The gardens are opened once or more times a year and range from £2:50 up to £5 and some are quite large and fantastic. They don't mind you taking photos either. I usually just ask at beginning and then shoot away. Sometimes I use a close up to make a card with. Very handy for blank cards.
Then I chose a lesser used route and had a lovely drive home. No traffic! I saw those going south nose to tail.
Ta da
Put washing on. I have a trunk which gets clothes thrown over it. Tops I wash every day but try to get two days out of skirts, leggings, trousers. Can't always manage that at school.
DD arrived home last night with her stuff this house is bulging.think we are going to transfer some to brothers.she hasn't been home since 2010 except for holiday. Going to be an interesting few months!
Right I am getting up for cup of tea...parched.

Sounds as though you've had a great trip Bower, will make a note of NSG gardens!
That's a nuisance regarding the Ikea catalogue Cag, hope you can sort it all out.

Ta da
Fed cat and Buffydog
Empty dw
Water planters
Swish and swipe

To do
Quick Dust
Vacuum

Not much else today as very busy.
Keep cool Fellow Fledglings

Morning. (Feeble waves!). Feeling rather unwell today. Woke in the night really hot and felt as if I couldn't breathe - thought I had had too much sun or something - but now have really bad sore throat, feel bunged up and weak and out of it. Gah! Have so much to do!

Mind you - still bouyed up by result of match last night - it was such a thrilling finish! Everywhere erupted around us when the final whistle blue! Horns were blaring, people singing and shouting, total joy! (I am supporting England tonight as well of course!!).

Oh that's so frustrating about Ikea Cag how strange it's a different range?! Bloomin' typical!

Glad you had a lovely weekend Bower!

Stegasaurus. Oh please don't throw in the towel. You achieved a fab list yesterday! It's rotten your dp isn't being supportive.

Waves toHills, Toostressy (ta for links) I've Honky and everyone I've missed!

Meant to say, glad you found a solution to limbo clothes issue Honky it's good to analyse sometimes why an area is re!ainibg consistently untidy!

Honu I also loved your post about your son's jacket

Forgot to wave a warm welcome to Cassandra!

And Zoo if you are lurking , hope you are ok x

what I should be doing
painting

what I am actually doing/done
dealing with ds who has injured himself doing stupid stuff. again.
screaming at rather large spiders that were hanging out in some damp washing
washing on line
quilt (literally the quilt) is in the washing machine
15mins in my room

It is going to be one of those days isn't it I have no temper left and it is already too hot.

Forgot ta da list yesterday but my acheivements were sticking a wash on, and surviving ikea. And paying rent and emailing piano movers.

SIL has given us a date her DW can hire a huge van and they have lifting equipment etc. So main moving day is 21st. Still going to move more stuff over in the meantime though.

This morning I've done more washing and am now dragging my sorry self to the park for a bit of fresh air while DH does sports club. Tap later, last one with horrendous journey woohoo!

Still need to finish Tesco order and ikea order. No idea what we are doing about meals for the next few weeks TBH life is chaos and I have zero energy. It is too hot and I am stressing. Feel like I'm undoing all the weight loss too.

Aargh at potential spider willies Hills (or whatever those "darked on" threads are on about)
Hope your ds is ok?

God I feel rough.

Never have I felt more grateful for the fact that I forced myself to clean kitchen and bleach sink and all of that last night, when I really didn't feel like it.

Which leads me to ponder on this "being kind to yourself malarkey" that Flylady goes on about.

Now it could be my Irish Catholicism speaking ... could be high temp speaking n all but I am always a bit ambivalent about all of this.

Yes, one doesn't achieve much if one is constantly negative about one's efforts, and striving for unreachable perfectionism, and you don't look after yourself properly. All of that I suppose is what "being kind to yourself" means.

But equally, just taking the boring example of the sink last night, another huge side to it is self-discipline and self-control and NOT being "kind to yourself". Most very successful people I know are successful because not only are they hard-working but they are self-disciplined with it.

If I was "being kind to myself" last night I would have left the washing up for this morning and headed for bed earlier.

But in another way I was "being kind to myself" because it really helped me to start the day.

Sorry. Just rambling.

Is any of this making sense?

I suppose I am trying to sort out what does "being kind" to yourself really mean? As an adult, I obviously know it means not being impulsive and doing something demanding and difficult early on in order to gain the benefit later. But what is the correct balance?

x post!

Hang in there Cag! You are doing magnificently!

Also - whoo hoooo to moving date!!!!

Hello all.

How annoying about ikea issues Cag. SC, I have no idea what the balance is either! Hope you feel better soon.

Glad you have a solution to clothes issue Honky. Hope your day improves Hills! Glad you had a good weekend Bower. Keep going steg (and everyone else!).

I have done a bit of decluttering but not nearly enough so going to get back to it.

Ds is not allowed in school, has created me a crap ton of extra work because I have to tame the dungeon

I have lost my rag completely and pretty much only uttering swear words. Not going to be my day. Plus the bastard spider that got screamed at is somewhere in my room lurking

Oh he is mostly fine, it is muscular and will recover fairly quickly in time.

Thanks for the welcome everyone.
Scoop I wonder if there's a balance between being kind to your present self and future self. So cleaning the sink was a pita for last night's scoop but a nice start for this morning's scoop
If it's too much for your present self leave it to me future self's problem! Though that's how things get cluttered I suppose. Hmmm I started out with a great theory but lost it at the end

So yesterday and so far today I cleaned the whole fridge, unpacked and got the laundry washed dried and taken in but not put away. Zero from the fly lady list 😣. Though I did have a read of the website.

Then I got a phone call from the hospital to say that a procedure that my baby was to have done next week is happening tomorrow. So we have to repack and head back to the city to be near the hospital, it's an early start tomorrow so we need to be close. So while we focus on baby the house work will remain undone.
It's a routine and quick procedure but I hate the thought of my little boy having an operation but he needs it so that's that

Agh, I can't keep up with the thread or the house at the moment!

SC I think "being kind to yourself" means exactly the kind of avoiding unattainable perfectionism that you described. So shining the sink is attainable, but obsessing over every tiny little water mark or bit of limescale maybe isn't? And shining the sink when you're a bit CBA is good discipline, but shining the sink if you're utterly exhausted and it'll push you over the edge is being unkind to yourself...

Oh, Cassandra, missed your post - all the best for your baby's op.

Cassandra wishing you and your little boy all the very best for tomorrow [flower] How old is he? I suppose with the operation being early on in the day, at least you have less time to worry, although that's easier said than done. Will be thinking of you xx

Also Cassandra the beauty of Flylady is that it often motivates you in to doing something even if that something is not in that zone or in the links for the day. (A bit like re-arranging the onions in the veg rack in to to neat lines as a student when you had exams - it's displacement activity )

Arf at spider lurking with intent Hills

Sorry Blue - thread is very fast moving - I am deffo responsible for rambling on too much.

And thanks for yours and Cassandras views about "being kind to oneself".

I reckon I was wondering whether Flylady system is an elaborate way of tricking us in to being self-disciplined while encouraging us to think that we are being kind to ourselves ifyswim

But I take both your points about balance!

Summary of this particular line of reasoning = if I have time to natter on and ponder this sort of stuff then I probably haven't got the balance right

Argh, meant to be for Cassandra!

Ta da:
dh walked furry early as I had shamefully slow start
emptied dw
hung up overnight washing to grill on terrace
packed up another parcel
carried dirty laundry downstairs
two more loads on
folded towels and pants
nagged asked dd to write thank you letter again
had a look for flags - without success - ordered more
more gate & fencing debate with dh involving drawing complicated designs on backs of envelopes
liaison with builder (in a strictly professional sense )
made more chana masala for later in week

To do:
so much I am a bit "rabbit in headlights" but think I shall tackle boudoir next

Feeling rather rabbit in headlights myself! 🐰💡🚘

Nice time at the park as a new friend was there too. I feel knackered though.

Dryer is on but I need to put more washing on, going to attempt 4 loads today in total 😳 so we can put it all away tomorrow. I also emailed the housing association about collecting something, so tomorrow we have to go over there to let them into the new house. And I gave DD’s hair a trim.

And now to go and make a very late lunch

Today can be summed up with "not going to plan"

some one send minions and strong pain killers...

Strong medication on its way Hills

[minion might need more persuasion ]