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/

Oh hills I feel for you. February is a long way away 😪 I hope you don't react too badly to the shots, please be kind to yourself and get some rest in.
cat I love days like that! It's especially nice when everything is done early enough that you can rest as well 😍
Scourgify it sounds like you've had a busy few days
sunny good idea to not clean up so late. I hope you were able to get some rest in after that long day
Ditzy we've seen them all, but it's been a few years. We've forgotten quite a few details and things that happen! I miss bonfire night. Haven't experienced it since we moved in 2006 😪
Sing how are you doing today? You had a busy week last week!

Ta Das:
🍷 work (busy day)
🍷 braved myself for the mess before walking in the door 😞
🍷 vacuumed master bathroom
🍷 bleached master bathroom
🍷 DH vacuumed main floor (at least the walkways) 🙄 don't think he did a thorough job, but another mess will happen tomorrow 🤷‍♀️
🍷 hung our normal curtains up in the living room and dining room (mostly DH)
🍷 located DS's smart clothes for his concert on Wednesday, his belt was buried 🙄 but I found it
🍷 currently enjoying a glass of wine before needing to move more stuff into the master bathroom

So the main bathroom is a bit of a disaster right now. They are working on painting it, and I don't like the colour I picked out 😭 so that'll mean I'll have to repaint both bathrooms soon (the same colour is in both rooms). Also he's painted the tile the wall colour (it was already painted previously) and not white. I actually didn't realise he was going to paint it!

I'm ready to have my house back! But not sure when that'll be.
So wine it is.

I'm be back soon with links.. 🍒👋

Hi everyone I'm back. I took a week off as was poorly then it was half term so rejoining now and hitting the house hard today. Thanks to @EversoDetermined for the thread back then.

@MercuryRising I recognise your name wether it's from here or other threads so hello 👋

Thanks to @HungryHazelEyes for this thread. Just reading it through now but what does BRC mean?

I'm still doing my daily hulahooping of 15mins which was my September challenge to myself. Also the cold showers are still a daily thing.
My November challenge is to add beans into my porridge. Sound vile doesn't it but you don't know they are there as I've batch cooked them and whizzed them up with the food processor.

We've also decorated the kids bedroom over half term. I'll give you a laugh now. I said to the kids 'let's draw all over the walls before the wallpaper goes up, come on more drawing, make it massive!'. Then when we held up the paper we could see the drawings through it!!! So one minute we had perfectly ready walls and the next we were rubbing out pictures for two hours. 😬 H took it well...far better than I would have!

Hi all!
I'm rubbish at keeping up with posting 😒
It was my youngest's birthday this weekend so it was spent celebrating with minimal flying but I am jumping onboard the wagon from today.
I will sit and catch up on the thread this evening once the small two are in bed.
Ta das so far this morning:
DW emptied and refilled
Tumble dryer emptied and refilled
Washload on
Kitchen tidied (I need to get into the shining my sink habit)
Pasta boiled for my lunch
Quick bath

To do :
Make beds
DC's lunches
Hoover
Swish and swipe of bathroom
Put clean washing away
Recycling out
Wash hall floor

Hope everyone has a good day 🙏

pompoms BRC is Box/ Bag of Random Crap. Usually from a dash and stash session! Or in my case, I don't know where this should go so I'll put it with the other stuff that I don't know where to put 🤦‍♀️

A bit of a delay with links tonight, I fell asleep on the couch!
Tuesday is Plan and Play day.
Tuesdays mission is to go through a shelf of your pantry (or food cupboard). Check dates, check to see if it's something you'll use. Add to your shopping list if you're low on anything. She mentions checking for ingredients for Thanksgiving. It doesn't feel like it, but there's not much time until it's here. I know it's not in the UK, but it's something I'm going to need to plan for, and very soon!

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/

pompoms your wall drawing story made me laugh! At least it'll be a memory you can talk about with them for years to come 🤣

Bare minimum done the last few days as I have been working 12 hour shifts and out the house for 14 hours. DH has been keeping on top of the laundry and I think I cleaned the bathroom once as no one would ever think to do that 🙄

I need to get to work in the kitchen tomorrow. The cupboards are bursting at the seems and putting dishes away is like playing Jenga. I need to let go of things to make my life easier.

Hills hope you don't feel too unwell. Sorry to hear about the house. I find it really hard to motivate myself if there's work getting done in my house so you are doing a great job

Pompoms that's the kind of thing I would do and then 🙈 Annoying, but a nice memory

born amazing how others seem to not notice when the bathroom needs to be cleaned 🙄 it happens here too!

Ta Das:
🍁 LOLs x6 (including sheets, towels & dog beds)
🍁 general tidy of main living area
🍁 vacuumed main floor & stairs
🍁 quick mop of main floor
🍁 bathed dogs
🍁 cleaned mirror in main bathroom
🍁 kitchen countertops cleaned
🍁 quick dust of living room
🍁 virtual inspection complete for more funding
🍁 took DS over to get his new glasses picked up and old ones repaired
🍁 put some things back on shelves where painting has been finished

I'm tired, it's been a busy day. Only 2 more days of work this week, then I've got a 3 day weekend 🥳
DH & I were talking about once the house is finished. I suggested we finally peel off the remaining plastic from the fridge 🤣🤣 (it's over 2 years old now!). He suggested a party! (Which is more realistic for us).

I'll be back soon with links 🍒👋

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/

Wednesday's mission is to shine your sink, the very 1st baby step. She does have complete instructions for it, but whatever works best for you. I like to use a brillo pad on my stainless steel sink (scrubbing gently), other times I use a foaming limescale remover and a green scourer. Afterwards I rinse and wipe it dry.
Nothing beats walking into the kitchen 1st thing to see your sink shining!

The shining the sink mission was very successful for me today - came on here, saw that and decided to do it before I posted...ended up doing 1.5 hours of housework 😀. All basics really - basic vacuum throughout, swish swipes clean of the bathrooms, downstairs loo done to a slightly higher standard, full tidy including cushion rearrangement, DW, LOL, bins etc.

That as the power of knowing someone was coming round later (who would be going upstairs)...They've been and gone now.

Now that challenge of building on this and getting some deeper work done. I see we are in zone 2 (kitchen/pantry). Always loads to do there. Guess I should start on the FL list (3 at a time) rather than sitting here feeling overwhelmed:

1. Empty refg/clean thoroughly
2. Clean microwave inside and out
3. Clean stove/oven (full job (dismantling door etc) takes ages but think I will put the pyrolytic on and clean the racks...)

Hello are you welcoming imposters? I’m not properly following fly lady but I do love a list! I joined flylady over a decade ago but found it all very confusing and didn’t really ever understand what I was supposed to be doing on any given day 😳 I think I mainly found the website too wordy and iirc had to click through to several different pages to get to various bits? And the sheer volume of emails was overwhelming! I have mainly kept the baby steps going since then though.

So I kind of have my daily routine of stuff that happens every day, then I clean one room/set of rooms a day (bedrooms/bathrooms/hall and stairs/dining room&family room/living room), and my youngest has just started school so in theory I have a bit more time to focus on the little pockets of clutter/dirty corners that build up despite the daily/weekly stuff. And this is where I think fly lady will help as I can use the zones to focus me.

Can I hop on or would you rather keep the thread fly lady specific?

@TheMainCharacter it sounds as though you would fit in very well here, we follow Flylady but not strictly at all (unless you choose) and talk about all sorts of other random stuff too. Some also follow other methods too. All are welcome here.

Hi there @TheMainCharacter absolute welcome as this thread will help you and you can give us ideas.

Yesterday:
✅ cleaned the whole house top to bottom except bathroom
✅ ironing
✅ changed all beds
✅ 3 lols washed and dried and put away

We have full recovery in the house after half term!

Hop on board @TheMainCharacter . I have not done flylady in at least a year. bastarding building site of a house drama. Totally agree about the emails, we recommend not signing up for them. Flylady has just redone her website again, no idea what it is like as my anti-virus has blocked the snot out of if for being "dangerous" because it doesn't have the right piece of expensive digital paperwork I did like the last format as she had a flight plan summary of everything for the day so it was collected together. I am hoping that was kept. but living through the last major update nothing is guarenteed.

Welcome @TheMainCharacter 👋 you are more than welcome to join in the chat! There is also a flylady app that I prefer to use that has a fully customizable tick list for each zone as well (the app is free). It is good to have other ideas as well as I'm not so sure there's a one size fits all for keeping on top of housework, so feel free to share your routines!

Thank you all 😀

Today so far
*Morning routine
*Dusted and hoovered hall and stairs (we have a lot of stairs!)I mopped all the hard floors yesterday so didn’t need to today.
*Quick middle of the floor hoover through downstairs
*Ten minute tidy of all the random crap dc have scattered throughout house. Ok that’s a lie, SOME of the random crap. Still have aqua beads and Halloween sweets lying around in living room and a tub of orbeez/hot wheels/complicated track arrangement in the kitchen.
*Cleaned toaster and microwave
*Wiped over kitchen cupboard fronts and work surfaces

• Finished yesterday’s LOL in tumble dryer (nothing is drying at the moment!) folded into piles ready to put away

I’ve kind of ground to a halt now. Still need to clean the glass panelled door in the hall but it’s a fiddly and soul destroying job!

Hi @TheMainCharacter - I get the impression most people in this thread dip in and out of the the official FL routines (I've only been following it very loosely but slowly trying to embrace it a bit more).

Very pleased to say my zone 2 work has gone very well!

1. Empty refg/clean thoroughly ✅
2. Clean microwave inside and out ✅Also, as in the same area cleaning the shelves, coffee machine and toaster. ✅
3. Clean stove/oven - pyrolytic currently on and the racks etc and soaking in a solution of biological washing power ready for some brillo padding later ✅

Also been keeping up with the basics (laundry/DW etc) ✅

I've got to get ready for the hairdresser now and I've got a piano lesson this evening so realistically (apart from finishing off the oven racks, more basics, a bit of shopping and cooking dinner) that is me done for the day. Really quite pleased with myself for a change 😁.

I particularly enjoyed cleaning the toaster/coffee machine as realised it must've been a month since I did it last time (and DS made such a fuss about it - definitely weren't as dirty this time round). Also, looked at the kitchen window and realised it didn't need doing this month as still clean.

Feeling rather rough and had a life admin thing that came up.

ta da
dw unloaded, reoaded, run
2 loads of laundry through the wash

Next up is a round of late meetings. Honestly I don't wanna but as a grown up I am hoiking the big girl panties and heading out.

Good luck with the meetings Hills

Welcome to the thread Character

That's an impressive cleaning list House

Congrats on reaching recovery status Pompoms

Thanks for the sink cleaning tips Hazel. Mine, whilst clean, never actually shines because I CBA buying whatever it is FlyLady says to buy to shine it with

Ta-da's:

🦨 Morning routine
🦨 Tidied hallway, bedroom and living room
🦨 Exercise
🦨 Decluttered
🦨 Made decisions on the best way to do something going forward
🦨 Measured up for some new bedroom furnishings I'd seen, realised they'll be way too big for my room (this place is small) and from the description they aren't actually the colour they look in the photos, so didn't order them
🦨 Ordered a beauty box as a treat instead

To do:

🦡 Evening routine

Ok, I am still alive. It's all systems go planning the house move here.
I've kept up with all my routines, including laundry. I swear it's procreating in that basket!
All seems to be set and organised for the move, so now I am just hoping the sale will conclude smoothly and without surprises. I want wine.

Oooh fingers crossed for you Elf 🤞
Ditzy I just use whatever I have on hand! Are you still looking at getting new bedroom furnishings?
hills I hope your meetings went okay and didn't drag on
home oooh, great zone work! It looks like you've also been able to fit in some self care, that's always important.
character (is it okay if I call you that?) You've made a great start, no need to get it all done in one day, do a little at a time, we always make our way back around again next month

No ta das today. DS was performing in the band concert after I got home from work. Which we love ❤️ he's very talented and I'm very proud of him!
Painter finished up today (other than a few little jobs he'll come back for) so I can start to put more things back in their place around the house.
We just need the flooring to get done and we can get back to normal! Of course it's probably going to be done in a couple of weeks - during Thanksgiving 🙄 we're not looking forward to that!

Thursdays mission is to clear the countertops. Set a timer for 15 minutes and clear the clutter. Find a home for the small appliance that is barely used (I know that can be easier said than done!), just try to clear the countertops as much as you can. They are easier to keep clean and use that way.
Thursday is errand day.

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/

Hi all,
Not caught up with thread I’m really behind! Been a busy week with lots of appointments and I’m not managing to fit in nearly enough work or uni hours!

Monday
💉reading and maths with Cagletini
💉work
💉had flu jab/booked blood test/cancelled other appt
💉bit of window/clothes shopping

Tuesday
🛒booked Christmas Tesco delivery (phew!)
🛒walked to town
🛒had blood tests
🛒read a chapter of uni book
🛒bit of work
🛒met DS and dropped him off at a meet up

Wednesday
😁walked to dentist and had appt
😁visited garden centre on way home
😁bit of work and catch up with line manager
😁bit of reading
😁took DS to meet a friend while I caught up with my friend
😁filled in some forms
😁choir

I should probably do a power of three but I’m so tired I’m just going to finish caffeinating myself and get ready for a meeting in an hour 😳

@HillsBesideTheSea I’m with you on the building site of a house. 7 years in on this house 😭but thankfully the main body of the house is mostly done and it’s the granny flat that is in a complete state at the moment (no grannies are being harmed in the process). Well done on making it to your meetings and I hope you feel better soon.

@HungryHazelEyes thanks for recommending the app, much easier to navigate!

@HouseorHome I’m seriously impressed that you tackled both the fridge and the oven in one day! They’re both ‘big’ jobs in my mind so I’d never do both at once!

Feeling really cold today so put my onesie on over my clothes when I got home at lunchtime. Of course then we immediately had three deliveries in quick succession so had to answer the door looking like I’d got out of bed to do so 😳

Dones today

• morning routine
• dust dining room and family room
• hoover dining room and family room
• quick hoover through downstairs
• yoga class
• lunch
• dinner prep
• clean kitchen windows
• clean kitchen blind
• pull out oven and clean underneath
• clean sink caddy
• clean top of extractor hood, couldn’t face doing the filters 😳

Next up

• hoover crumbs from bottom of larder cupboard (I only emptied and deep cleaned this last week 😡)
• pack dc swimming bag (and snacks)
• school run and swimming lessons (at least it will be warm in there!)

Anyone got any tips for cleaning a composite sink? My mum has one and it’s lovely but since I copied her and got one myself I’ve realised that hers has a coating on that seems to repel stains and mine doesn’t seem to so is slightly orange tinged from tea/coffee/tomato sauces etc despite being wiped out every day. Not sure if I can bleach it?

Thanks @DitzyDaffodils and @TheMainCharacter - I surprised myself! The oven definitely isn't super clean though - it is just much better than it was (helps that the oven has the pyrolytic function - so I was just cleaning the racks really). I'll aim to clean it properly next time we're in zone 2! I'm loving the clean organised fridge today though! 💫

Probably not going to manage anything today as long day at work (7.30 - 7.30) - I'm just having a late lunch now.

What kind of composite is it @TheMainCharacter ?

I would try barkeepers friend (the powder not the cream) first, if you haven't already.