Clearing the cobwebs to make everything sparkle - Flylady style

[HungryHazelEyes]

Welcome to this long running thread, we may seem clicky, but all are welcome to join in!

Do NOT sign up for the Flylady emails - it's an excessive amount sent every day.
There is an app that you can customise to suit your schedule and home that I highly recommend.

There are Baby Steps for starting out, add one thing at a time to start good habits and routines.
There are 5 zones that we will rotate through, don't worry about finishing it all this month, it'll come around again next month! Flylady is NOT about perfectionism!

Daily missions: each day of the week has a different mission.

• Monday: Home Blessing (or as we call it, home bleugh)
• Tuesday: plan & play
• Wednesday: anti-procrastination
• Thursday: errand day
• Friday: clean car & purse out a week. It's also date night (with your significant other, or friends, or yourself!)
• Saturday: family fun day
• Sunday: renew your spirit

Common acronyms we use:

• LOL: load of laundry (washing is certainly NOT funny!)
• DW: dishwasher, we are not rotating wives by any means, although an extra pair of hands could come in handy sometimes 😆
• LMS: lose/lost my shit
• DNLMS: did not lose my shit

I'm sure there's more, feel free to ask us to explain something. I'll try to update links every day, although if you can, it's worth downloading the app, you can even have it send you notification.

Links are below 👇 if I happen to not add links in time, they do update at midnight for you.

Launch Pad: https://www.flylady.net/d/new-links/
Zones: https://www.flylady.net/d/zones/
Baby Steps: https://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/

Born one of the best things I ever did was to get rid of the junk cupboard. I made it a home for some things: basic tools, lightbulbs, candles, spare chargers (but only if they fit current devices), spare set keys, batteries etc. For everything else either it had a more suitable home elsewhere or I didn't need it at all. It totally stopped the whole thing of not knowing where to put something so put it in the junk cupboard. It forces me to put things away

Ta-da's:

✨ Morning routine
✨ Cleaned the car
✨ Exercise
✨ Gardening
✨ Phoned my friend for a chat
✨ Took in delivery, unpacked and put away
✨ Tidied the living room which was a mess
✨ Evening routine

Joining in with the bin convo. 2 weekly here, alternating general bin and recycling, and crikey, that's just about living on the edge. I make fairly regular trips to the recycling centre if it is a particularly 'cardboardy' week. Bane of my life. Can't imagine having it 3 weekly, sounds like the stuff of nightmares.

Hazel happy belated anniversary!
Ditzy how are you finding going zero waste?

I've been keeping on top of all my routines (basically endless laundry, cooking, tidying, and kitchen sort outs).

Dining room is ok actually. I just need to do a bit of deep cleaning and antibac all nooks and crannies. We are finally shifting into house moving mindset, so I might dial down proper deep cleaning until we are settled in a new home.

Now I am all about putting plans in place for carpet shampooing and deep clean of a new house prior to moving, so at least I am starting with a clean slate so to speak 😁

Elf deep cleaning before moving into the new home sounds like a great plan and wish I would have done that.
Ditzy having a home for everything is a good idea. I love the phrase "a place for everything and everything in its place" or something like that!
dahlia welcome to the thread 👋

The discussion about the bins is eye opening! I miss having recycling at home (there's none here, unfortunately), but would not be able to go 3 weeks between it being emptied!

We had a great anniversary and we are fully celebrating it this weekend. We're going to stay in a hotel Saturday night. We will be doing a wine tasting as well, which I'm looking forward to 🍷

Saturday is family fun day - so go do something fun!

As predicted I have no ta das. None. Zilch. Other than working all day. Although, I am currently painting my nails!

Friday
😶quick tidy up in living room as a friend came over
😶quick tidy in bathroom
😶cleaned kitchen counters and sink
😶checked some work stuff for colleague
😶LOL
😶went to pub with friend
😶uni work
😶LOL in dryer

Felt rubbish yesterday so my child free day wasn’t nearly as productive or relaxing as it was meant to be, but it was nice to see my friend as I haven’t properly spent time with her for ages 😊 also she knows me really well and I don’t feel the need to get the house really tidy, but it did feel good to have the motivation to improve it a bit rather than just thinking “what’s the point it’s awful anyway”. Having so much stuff leaving the house in the skip and charity donations has made a big difference 💪

First LOL is on and I’m going to do a bit of uni work - concentration is rubbish lately so small chunks it is 😁

Haven’t caught up yet but I can see more newbies, welcome! <waves>

Re bins we have general rubbish collected every week and recycling every other week.

Exactly my thinking @Searchingforsunnydays - I can't think of a time when signalling felt passive aggressive but I can think of many times when someone didn't do it [waiting to overtake a car] when it would've been useful. I dare say the driving instructors words have been twisted a bit! I didn't drive until I was 24 (although I made an attempt at 17). Mainly a matter of being able to afford it/living in a city for uni for 5 years too - so freeing when I could finally do it (and a relief - getting to my new job would've taken 1.5 hours rather than 15 mins without a car!).

This week has been pretty intense at work so overshadowed things a bit. My only ta da's yesterday were not drinking alcohol, cleaning the dishes up straight after dinner and going to bed early!

Hope we don't go to bin collections every three weeks! Our bin got 'lost' [went in the back of the bin lorry] a few years ago and they replaced it with one of the smaller (140L) types, which has been fine but wouldn't be for three weeks. Rest of neighbours still have their standard 240L bins, and most of them only have 1 or 2 people living in their family houses now - we're very much in the minority still having DC living at home (only 3/20 houses do now) yet we have the small bin.

Would love to come back later and say I've done some zone work...

Friday tada :
🎆took dd1 to the hairdressers, dd2 , ds and I went to the cafe next door for breakfast- dc had a luxury hot chocolate which was so huge it looked like a pudding in a cup ! I had drink envy watching them drink theres whilst I sipped a cappuccino 😂
🎆 dropped dd1 off at her friends
🎆 visited a friend to take birthday gifts round
🎆 visited MIL
🎆 finished morning dailys
That was all really yesterday, dd2 is poorly so lots of snuggles on the sofa - we even had a chippy tea so it was a lazy evening !

Todays action plan :
hoover out the car
Start the uniform ironing ready for next week
15 mins on dining room / landing
OH is doing football and shopping as I have little velcro (dd2) stuck to me with her feeling under the weather
I'm hoping to get lots of dd2 scarf made whilst we're under the blanket watching films !

I hope everyone enjoys their Saturday!!

I hope you start feeling better soon @SingToTheSky , happy that you're feeling more calm when visitors arrive - seeing things leave the home makes a huge difference doesn't it !

Ooo wine tasting sounds fun @HungryHazelEyes !! Enjoy your night away !

Sounds like a good action plan @DomesticElf ! Have you got a moving date ?

I am the same with the junk @Bornlazy ! I am slowly chipping away at it though - the system really helps and each month revisiting the zones means building on progress consistently. Each month gets easier . Sounds like you made progress yesterday!

Hope you are relaxing now after all that cleaning @HillsBesideTheSea ! Sounds like you had lots on .

Welcome @Dahliasrule - I too have junk drawers / cupboards/ piles 😂 they are becoming less and less athough my progress is very slow ! Welcome to the thread, lots of support on here 💐

My entire house feels like a BRC/junk pile a lot of the time! It’s gradually getting better but it does feel endless.

H and the girls have left for dance classes, I should have breakfast and move the laundry on

Ta da: Scrubbed tiles/grouting in shower with a scrub mummy and Cif whilst in shower; put laundry away; bit of tidying

Action Plan:

Wash front door and windowsill onto front
Vacuum porch
Completely tidy dining room & porch
Clean downstairs loo thoroughly
Sort out cushions on sofa (It is a very big corner sofa with a lot of cushions...I stared this a few days back)
Use spot washer carpet cleaner to clean part of sofa (another dog issue)

I haven't been doing zero waste for long Elf. About a year I suppose. It needs a mindset shift. I've mainly been focusing so far on not bringing things into the home unnecessarily.

Eg now the sales are on I went shopping and filled my online basket, carefully curated it to ensure I wasn't buying duplicates of things I already had and that everything would work for my lifestyle. Then I stopped. I thought about the available space and decided I didn't want to fill any of it up with this new stuff. I thought about one-in-one-out and didn't want the headache of deciding what to declutter all of a sudden when the parcel arrived. I thought about all the packaging I'd have to dispose of. And I put everything back on my wishlist. This is unheard of for me, I'm the type of person who has whatever I want as long as I can afford it. I'm not gonna lie, it hurt. But the planned purchased were unnecessary. There's a bit of me that's relieved at not having to deal with the resulting waste

I'm choosing things in shops based partly on what packaging it comes in. I should have clarified, the recycling bins are collected weekly it's just the main bin that's every 3 weeks. That's the important one as far as I'm concerned! It doesn't matter if recycling sits around a while, it's the prospect of maggots in the main bin and not having enough space for non-recyclables that bothers me. So I'm not happy. When shopping, recyclable packaging is going to take an even higher priority now when choosing which of a thing to buy

Things like getting books from the library helps. There's no piles of them everywhere, unread, because there's a deadline for taking them back. Same if you borrow something from someone instead of buying it, you want to get it back to them ASAP

I'm going to start using baking trays instead of silver foil. I really don't need the extra work of cleaning them, but I don't have to put them in the bin after use unlike the foil

As part of my decluttering I'm using up all the cloths, sponges and products from the back of the cleaning cupboard that have been languishing there because they're not my favourites. Going forward I'm going to use one product that can be diluted into a spray bottle or bucket and that will be used to clean everything except the dishes and clothes. I've obtained washable cloths that can go in the washing machine with everything else. No more bin waste from disposable wipes or cloths etc

When you start thinking about it there's lots of ways you can avoid waste. It takes time for new habits to form though and for the ideas to come to me in the first place

I’ve found you again and I’ve pinned you so I won’t lose you again lol. Haven’t done much today, felt a bit off in myself but I did vacuum after not doing it for a few days, didn’t take me that long which was good

@DitzyDaffodils wow you've made some massive changes! The shopping one is something that I need to take on because I do like to shop but I don't get rid of a lot therefore we have a home full of unused 'junk'. There are a few things I have changed though, swapped from shower gel to soap , we have a local zero waste shop so our hand soaps get refilled . I have tried the refillable fabric conditioner and washing up liquid but I didn't like it.

Hope you're feeling a little better @JewelleryCat .

Saturday Tada
🎆All uniform and work clothes ironed , I timed this and it took just over 2 hours so I'm hoping I can plan my week better .
🎆 Filled in the family calendar ready for the term , sorted childcare when needed , checked with oh that he was ok with everything .

I didn't do much else , I was planning to do the car and caravan but it rained ALL day! dd2 is quite poorly so lots of snuggles were needed ! I did have a lovely shower with no interruptions though , so that's a bonus 😂

Todays plan is to prep for the week , the weather is good so waiting until about 10 to start hoovering the car and sorting the caravan . Then of course there's the roast to cook and the daily's to do. Tonight we'll be looking out at the fireworks, eating hot dogs and swishing sparklers !

Saturday
👌LOL
👌uni work
👌hung up wet clothes
👌maintenance wash on WM
👌walked to DSD’s house for party

Something strange has happened...... OH has cleaned the caravan, prepped the dinner and is now hoovering out the car !! Which has left me to
🎆 spend another 30 mins on the dining room declutter , this means that although there is still stuff to declutter in cupboards and drawers , on the surface it looks tidy and will be easy to do the home bleurgh each week !
🎆 dailies

I've still got some washing to sort but going to spend the afternoon with the kids (well dd2 because dd1 is at work and ds is on his Xbox 🤦‍♀️)

Happy Sunday everyone

Ok so motivation is not really a thing today 😑 would like to spend the rest of the day in bed watching stuff but must at least move things forward with uni and house 😑

po3.1
❗️Check stuff H put in dryer is actually dryer safe 🙄 and put next wash in with it
❗️New LOL
❗️Uni work for a bit - I know my focus is rubbish today so anything is a bonus

We had a long convo on Friday about Getting Stuff Done. He has been moving everything out of the caravan, and was planning to store it in the garage or shed. Where no doubt it would be my responsibility to stop it getting mouldy and damp. So I said it's all going into the attic bedroom along with the ends of carpets and abandoned shelves from the actual attic. And neither of us wants to clamber up and down the attic ladder much more.

I swept and wiped down the paintwork in the vestibule. There's no storm doors, and it's a source of major draughts all year round, along with lots of dust and rain. I got a bit of a shock when I started on the paintwork to realise just how manky it had become. Still to do the glass in and around the door and the living-room door. Probably get that done later today.

Cut back hedge nearest door. I manage about a metre at a time over several weeks, so that's a work-in-progress.

Understairs cupboard is almost ready to be a proper office for me. There wasn't much to declutter, not much call for secondhand ring-binders. Mostly it's all on shelves in the living-room. Will keep trying.

I'm working out how much it would cost to move house, and persuade himself that it should be spent getting this place suitable for us getting older.

Sunday
🎆LOLs (I think 3 but H did one of them, I lost track)
🎆drying
🎆uni work
🎆put Cagletini to bed

It looks like a lot of you have been busy this weekend!
We had a great time away, including having dinner with DD 😍
We got the Halloween decorations all put away and harvest/ Thanksgiving decorations up.
We just finished the evening with another Harry Potter movie (Goblet of Fire).
I just need to get my clothes out for the morning and take a shower before bed.

This week we are in zone 2, the kitchen.
Monday's mission is to clean out under the sink. Use up or throw away the cleaning products you don't use. Organise it to function better for you. While there, make a list of things you are running out of.

One thing I haven't mentioned yet is this month's focus - menu planning. Plan all your meals, write them down, create your shopping list from that, checking what you have in already first of course. Get other people in the house to come up with ideas, or better yet, have them volunteer to help cook.
Try to get into a good habit of this, it does get easier over time, especially if you already have a list of meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner). I need to revisit this and create my own list. I always plan to cook enough to last 2 dinners and lunches, although sometimes it doesn't work out that way.

Launch Pad: https://www.flylady.net/d/new-links/

Zones: https://www.flylady.net/d/zones/

Baby Steps: https://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/

Welp just got confirmation that house is going to be a disaster until february. <sigh>
massive massive flare up over the weekend. Expected as i pushed myself well past broken. But it took all my energy to get washed and dressed yesterday.

Today i get my flu shot. So i do not expect that i will be functioning for the next three days.

Idk what happened today but I had a cup of coffee and I haven’t stopped until a few hours ago. Vacuumed, swept, wrapped presents, wiped surfaces, did a bit outside before the light faded

Hope everyone had a nice weekend 🙂

Tada
🎆 morning routine
🎆 everyone of to school & work
🎆 work (extra hours, dreading where I'm going to fit the cleaning in 🤪)
🎆 tea
🎆 dd2 homework
🎆 15 mins decluttering kitchen side
🎆 I started cleaning the living room but dd2 decided to build a fort to do her homework in so I gave up on that idea 😂😂 all packed away now but I am not starting to clean now , it's been a long day .

I didn't sleep too well last night so I'll be off to bed soon .

Well done Cat I hope the result of your efforts spurs you on to maintain it

A fort Sunny 😂 oh well you tried

Sorry for the bad news re house Hills

We're going to start watching the Harry Potter movies too Hazel, never seen them, just need to get the last one now

Scourgify congratulations on managing to head off the pointless and impossible task of trying to stop things stored outside from going mouldy

Ta-da's:

🌧️Morning routine
🌧️Exercise
🌧️Arrange for digital photos to be printed
🌧️Reading
🌧️Decluttered
🌧️Evening routine

Yesterday it was all about fireworks 🎆