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Housekeeping

Find cleaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Housekeeping forum.

Flying into Spring with icicles on it

266 replies

icypompoms · 28/02/2023 21:57

Hello everyone, iWelcome back to our regulars, and if you are new or returning, a huge welcome to you as well! Please feel free to post or lurk, whatever helps you most.

This is an incredibly helpful thread and the system can be confusing but someone on here will be able to answer your questions and get you on track.

So, Flylady. That mysterious system that promises a lovely clean house! This link is a good place to read about the basic principles, but we strongly recommend ignoring the first bit - do not sign up for emails as you’ll be inundated!

www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/

If you’re new to the system, or are wanting a refresher course, the baby steps may be a good idea. Some are more useful than others, we’ve found, and stuff like affirmations may not work for you, so pick and choose what you want to try. You don’t have to do it all! Perfectionism can be left at the door, we celebrate any achievement here no matter how small it seems (this is why you’ll see our Ta Da lists as well as To Do lists!).

www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/

There are parts of the house called zones, each taking a different part of the month, and missions in those zones to do little tasks we may have neglected. If you don’t feel ready for those though, a good way to start is doing 15 minutes decluttering in that zone! Remember it didn’t get messy in a day so it won’t be fixed in a day either. Slow and steady.

Then there’s the daily focus - each day of the week has a theme, although many of us switch them around to suit our own lives.

Each day I’ll provide the link to the launch pad, which is where you can see what is meant to be done that day (but again don’t feel you have to do all of it! That way lies burnout!).

A couple of principles we talk about on here are:
Future Friend - the idea of doing something today that benefits you later, such as choosing your clothes or making your lunch the night before.
Power of Three (po3) - if you’re overwhelmed, just pick three easy tasks - no matter how small - and forget about the rest until they’re done. Then reassess and decide another three.

Finally a few acronyms:
DW - dishwasher, not dear wife!
LOL - load of laundry, we aren’t finding washing hilarious
WM - washing machine
TD - tumble dryer

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Thread gallery
6
Upsadiddles · 09/03/2023 10:55

Last week’s Tadas:
🙌🏻 cleaned and vacuumed out my car. On a Friday. Very proud of myself.
🙌🏻 removed cushions from
sofas, cleared detritus from
underneath/down the sides, and gave it all a good vacuum. It was grim.
🙌🏻 thoroughly dusted and decluttered living room side table/unit thing, pulled it out and cleaned behind and underneath. Again. Grim.
🙌🏻 organised hand me downs for mini up into sizes and stored them away properly
🙌🏻 generally just about kept on top of routines, mess, laundry, work, school
etc.

YesTaDas:
🤢survived lurgy
🤢kept DC alive and fed
🤢showered
🤢bathed DC
🤢basic clean of bathroom once sickyness abated

TaDas:
🥱 got DC dressed and fed
🥱2 x LOLs done (including bedding from poorly folk, thankfully no escaping vomit to clean on this occasion)
🥱another couple of LOLs sorted and ready to go
🥱 DW going and some bits handwashed
🥱cleaned kitchen sink
🥱wiped 2 out of 3 benches, and the toaster
🥱retrieved various snack and drink requests for poorly DD, none of which seemed to hit the right spot other than the water with ice.

To Do:
😵‍💫make a start on packing, assuming bugs and weather warnings don’t thwart our plans
😵‍💫make beds
😵‍💫clean bathroom properly
😵‍💫iron work and school uniforms so I don’t have to do anything when we get home on Monday
😵‍💫 home bleurgh if I can manage it

icypompoms · 09/03/2023 10:58

@Upsadiddles glad you've found us.

One poorly baby poms here so a day at home away from the constant rain. Middle poms back to school today.

I saw a huge bird in a far off tree earlier and spent a ridiculous amount of time watching and discussing it and trying to look up what it was. It flew off and it became obvious it was just a massive pigeon. Absolute anticlimax of the year!

I think it'll be bare minimum for me today. But will try and finish my book and stick a lol on.

OP posts:
HillsBesideTheSea · 09/03/2023 12:27

Just a flying visit to remind those with littles that want to do the slow adjustment to the clock change thing that you have just over 2 weeks... Clock changes on 2 weeks sat.

Redsquirrel5 · 09/03/2023 17:28

Hi,
Fed up of being chucked off mumsnet and now it is crashing /disappearing before I can even read one post longer than two sentences.

Plans to clean today have gone out the window. However I did some kitchen cleaning yesterday and ventured into the 'room of doom' and sorted for about 30mins.Plan to do 15-30 mins a day. Should be finished by New Year!

I have been baking for a village thing tomorrow. So far have a large Gingerbread and some shortbread which I am eating as it wasn't good enough. Took friend a few slices of Gingerbread as she is incapacitated.

Visited kitchen fitters as we lost some cake liners in a plastic bowl and couldn't shut the draw so he showed us how to get the clips open.Said his wife did it too. Took them some Gingerbread as I promised cake pre Covid and hadn't got around to it. He GAVE me a cutlery drawer when I admired it. It will go in the Baking Cupboard.He said he has sold loads of Baking cupboards since mine. He had it as a Pantry style cupboard but we talked about it and made the lower shelf high enough to fit the Mixer in. The electrician put sockets in and we had concertina doors and a double drawer underneath.
Did some shopping.

No snow here yet bar a few flakes, trying hard and very cold. -2 on Tuesday night.

Be back later DH going without me.

icypompoms · 09/03/2023 19:07

@Redsquirrel5 I thought you meant you been banned by MN for bad behaviour !!!

I had a late flourish here:
✅homemade pizza and sauce for tea
✅lol
✅General tidy
✅s and s
✅sorted recycling
✅showered kids
✅finished book

OP posts:
icypompoms · 09/03/2023 19:14

FRIDAY: www.flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=0&d=1
⭐️ clean out car and handbag
⭐️ mission: clean out a shelf of your pantry. Chuck anything out of date and donate anything in date that you won't use.
⭐️ get dressed to shoes
⭐️declutter 15 mins
⭐️ shine sink
⭐️Reminder: swish and swipe the first time you use the bathroom. Sink and toilet!

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Searchingforsunnydays · 09/03/2023 21:18

Waving to everyone 👋

I have just read through the last few days , some amazing lists ! Sorry that some little ones aren’t sleeping or are poorly - it’s so hard to function on little sleep !

I haven’t got many tadas , just doing the bare minimum to function - cooking , clothes ironed etc . No decluttering 🤦‍♀️ However I’m not stressing about it because consistency is about not giving up rather than doing it everyday so I will get back on it.

Hopefully I will be back with you all properly soon 🥂🥂

Stilllivinginazoo · 10/03/2023 07:52

hillsthanks for the warning- D's and dd2 maybe teens but sleeps so crappy here we need all the help we can get with adjusting bedtimings so somebody /anybody gets enough rest!
<Waves to all>
Anticlimactic day here yesterday-parent carers call regards support for dd2 was better that young minds offerings,but we then remembered deadline for ASD paperwork was upon us and it's never easy writing down what your child can't do....(made worse my tech skills are useless and it was all online copy and pasting onto firms etc so she had to help☹️)
Today's a new day and all that.

Tada-
*Cats fed.
*Wash on.
*Clean behind radiators(exciting times at chez zoo,think I could've knitted a new cat with all the fluff I found!).
*S+s.
*Refresh littertrays.
*Shoo scoutcat out of little cats food bowls (he isn't allowed upstairs as he sprays when anxious and their bowls are in the bathroom) he then had to go out as got antsy with me and sat sulking in a blizzard for 5 minutes..he's now sulking in his basket,no doubt plotting revenge....
*Text D's taxi driver migraines still not fully abated so won't be in(at fuzzy head rather than pain stage so almost gone)

To do-.
Mountains laundry,ring doc over dd2 meds,sort out my room,and do something vaguely resembling home bleurgh.

It is also my little cats birthdays today.sweet cossima and Nellie are officially 6- hopefully pic loaded of them yesterday,Nellie using cossima as a comfy bed!

Flying into Spring with icicles on it
DitzyDaffodils · 10/03/2023 16:17

I've not been feeling so great and done nothing the past couple of days. I'll try to get back on it tomorrow.

Cossima and Nellie are cuties, love a cat pic 😸 Zoo

Thanks for the warning about clocks Hills the last thing I need right now is losing an hour of sleep

Functioning is fine Sunny it's better than descending into chaos, hoping things improve for you soon

I need to check the food Pompoms perhaps I can do that today. Wishing a swift recovery to baby Poms. The tale of the pigeon did make me laugh, perhaps it was a wood pigeon, they're enormous

Red have you gone through your phone disabling anything ad related and locking down your privacy settings? Whenever things have crashed in me it's usually some sort of complicated ad trying to load itself. Clearing cookies, cache and data helps me too, as does updating the device's browser to the latest version

Glad you survived the lurgy Up

icypompoms · 10/03/2023 19:10

not a lot to tick off today
❄️lol
🥶baby group
❄️sent Vinted parcels
🥶delivered friends birthday presents
❄️ tidied car

OP posts:
icypompoms · 10/03/2023 19:13

SATURDAY: www.flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=0&d=1
🦄 family fun day www.flylady.net/d/daily-focus/daily-focus-saturday/
🦄 reminder: morning routines will change your life apparently...I did actually drink my water today and I feel a lot better for not being a dehydrated wrinkly prune.
We are going to build a Morning Routine for your Control Journal or to just post on the refrigerator. Here is what FlyLady does:
1 Get up and weigh
2 Shower and get dressed to lace up shoes, fix your hair and face
3 While you are in the bathroom Swish and Swipe
4 Grab a load of laundry and start the washer
5 Check your calendar for today’s activities
6 Empty dishwasher to start your day
7 Eat something good for you and take your medicine and vitamins
8 Drink your water.

OP posts:
DitzyDaffodils · 10/03/2023 20:09

Morning routine did indeed change my life. I have about 18 tiny tasks in mine that results in starting the day with the place tidy in a basic way and with me clean, presentable and healthy. From that start I can get on with things without being distracted by basics I should have done already but forgot about. I'm so grateful for the concept of the morning routine, although I do find it obsessive that FlyLady weighs herself daily. Doesn't weight fluctuate throughout the month anyway? I find weekly enough to not accidentally put on half a stone without realising it.

Ta-da's:

🪂 Tidied bedroom
🪂 Tidied living room

Not much but better than nothing

icypompoms · 10/03/2023 22:18

@DitzyDaffodils do you remember all the tasks in your head or do you write them down and stick them on the fridge?

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DitzyDaffodils · 11/03/2023 00:59

I wrote them down on a page in my control journal. It's been a year now though and they're in my head mostly, don't have to think about it too much any more. If life gets a bit stressful and I'm all over the place I'll check the list just in case I've forgotten something, which I sometimes have. In the early days I checked the list every day and sometimes didn't know where to start until I'd looked at the list. Now my plants are alive, my post is opened, my rooms are aired, I'm in clothes not pyjamas, I'm on top of laundry and everywhere is tidier. FlyLady says to start with three things, I think it was to get washed and dressed, clean your teeth and brush your hair. Then you add in more things month by month as you go through the Baby Steps. That didn't work for me, I was overwhelmed by the FlyLady system and wasn't sure what I was supposed to be doing. I ended up reading all the Baby Steps over a few weeks, then I wrote my long list of daily shite that needed doing before I did anything else and followed the list until it became automatic. I had many failures along the way but I got there in the end. It doesn't feel like a trouble to do it all now, it feels like normality and my home runs smoother because of it.

icypompoms · 11/03/2023 06:51

@DitzyDaffodils that's a great success story. Flylady would be thrilled to know how your house runs so much more smoothly now.

OP posts:
Stilllivinginazoo · 11/03/2023 07:46

ditzy that is an encouraging story.well done.says she who been here to long and needs take this to heart as I'm no where near that organised
Lol gets done most days,so with messy monsters that's an improvement but I've got a long way to go🤣

I did get dd2 meds sorted,and we had a walk in snow to get said meds which zoolets liked.rememvering lil zoo hates get cold/shutdown was a big win as a mid point hot chocolate kept her moving!
Did about half home bleurgh,today I'm determined to do better!

THATissoooFETCH · 11/03/2023 15:16

Fucking hell i wish i was a fly lady success story. I am still mostly flapping in a circle

HungryHazelEyes · 11/03/2023 15:26

👋 hello, I don't think I've posted for a while! It's been busy here, and really not much flying on my part. Work has been hectic this week, and last night went over to ILs straight after work to start laying their new flooring. It was a long day. I left the house at 6:40am and we got home about 10:30pm 😴
I've just had my 1st cup of coffee, I need to get dressed and ready for the day and then we're headed there again this morning to finish it! DD is coming to help too, so that'll be nice.
DS did the home bleugh yesterday, as usual, so the house is under control, somewhat. Don't peek into my laundry room though!
We change clocks this weekend here, so not looking forward to losing an hour of sleep tonight, although I've been going to bed really late this week, so maybe it won't be so bad 🤔

Hopefully I'll be back later, depending on when we get done at ILs.
🍒👋 to everyone

icypompoms · 11/03/2023 19:13

❄️ lol
🥶 walk to library
❄️ lots of chilled out family time
🥶 embroidery with middle poms

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icypompoms · 11/03/2023 19:15

SUNDAY: www.flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=0&d=1

❄️renew spirit doing something nice for yourself.

Then next week we are moving into zone 3: bathroom and one extra room.

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EspeciallyDedicated · 11/03/2023 21:55

@DitzyDaffodils well done on the daily habits, that’s really impressive. I am doing a self-care habit tracker this month along similar lines, I have it in my bullet journal, with a list of 14 numbered actions on one page and a grid for ticking them off each day on the other side, it is really helping. Examples are drinking enough water, vitamins, several specific exercises, deleting junk emails (I get at least 30 a day it seems), opening the back door for a breath of fresh air first thing every morning etc. Maybe I should start a second one for household habits.

I am chipping away at decluttering, did a smallish tip run at lunch time (old warped baking trays, old shower curtain, broken electric blanket etc). Not much else done Flying wise the last few days though, just laundry really, life has been a bit hectic. DH recovered fairly quickly from covid, so I moved back out of DS’s bedroom, DS is home for the weekend which is nice.

DomesticElf · 11/03/2023 22:36

Weekend, it's finally weekend!
Ta das:
💥Quick home bleugh.
💥Stripped and remade beds
💥Plants watered
💥Fishtanks sorted
💥LOL X3

Need to get with zones a bit better from next week onwards.

DitzyDaffodils · 12/03/2023 01:20

No family fun today because I feel ill 🤧. Off to bed in a minute

Ta-da's:

🧞 Morning routine
🧞 Took in delivery unpacked and put away
🧞 Reorganised stationery cupboard
🧞 Finished off the cupboard of doom, all tidy now
🧞 Tidied bedroom
🧞 Tidied bathroom
🧞 Quick trip to the local shop
🧞 Read my book for a while
🧞 Evening routine

Searchingforsunnydays · 12/03/2023 08:42

Cute pic of cat zoo! Happy that you feel like you are getting somewhere with dd2, the process can be long and emotional!

I hope you are feeling better daffodils? You have inspired me to look at my morning routine - well done for sticking to it !!

hazel sounds like you’ve had a super busy week , I hope you managed a little bit of relaxing in there too .

pompoms brilliant that you can embroider with dd, mine ask me to sit and do sewing with them but I haven’t got a clue , so send them to Grandmas 🙈 there are courses locally but they are expensive!

ed I love the idea of a self care tracker !!

red well done for your progress on the room of doom - I will hopefully be starting mine this week (playroom 😩)

Thanks for the reminder hills!

de hows the unpacking going ?

THATissoooFETCH · 12/03/2023 08:48

Morning folks ☕️

Ta da
❄️ washing drying around house rotated
❄️ random rubbish in bin
❄️ LOL on
❄️ filled sink with non dw friendly bits