New Year, Fresh Start with Flylady

[HazelNotHungryLC]

Are you looking to finally getting into a new routine with housework? Something simple to start that can be easy to add to over time? Flylady may be the answer for you!

This is a long running thread, but we are a friendly bunch and all are welcome to join in.

Do NOT sign up for the Flylady emails - it's an excessive amount sent every day.

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. 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

There are 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 notifications (although I only have it for when the zones change). You can also modify the tick lists to suit your home & lifestyle.

Links are below 👇 if I happen to not add links in time, they do update at midnight for you. I am in the US, 7 hours behind the UK, so I'll do my best.

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/

So many busy people getting stuff done! I started the day with great intentions, then got a bit distracted in the afternoon, forgot to look at my list and had a sleep instead. I mostly puttered in the end and listened to my audiobook.

tada -
Empty boxes to the empty box storage bit under the attic stairs.

Quick bathroom tidy. Found five unopened tubes of toothpaste in the living-room hotspot, took them to bathroom.
LoL and tumble-drying.

Found glue stick on the actual stationery shelf. Then used it to glue a craft thing. And put it back with the craft-y stuff.

Twenty minutes in back garden sweepng.
Tidied my wardrobe and found a couple of things that I'd forgotten about.

Tesco online order.

Now sitting with diary and notebook hoping to ward off distraction and muddle.

Tada
🩱 evening routine
🩱 lol hung on heated airer
🩱 quick tidy in living & dining room
🩱 oh made bed and tackled kitchen
🩱dd2 reading and bedtime routine (she is still currently awake in bed , back to school on Thursday is going to be tiring and she is already anxious about it )

Currently sat in my room waiting for dd2 to settle, I'll be waking her up early tomorrow to help her get back into routine - with the promise of taking her for a hot chocolate and hopefully a walk if the weather is on our side ! I won't be doing the planning once I go downstairs - I'm going to watch Netflix instead 🤪

@SingToTheSky I have listened to atomic habits but may give it another listen as I've forgotten a lot of it . How beneficial are you finding meditation? Well done for you po3's 👏

I can't remember whether I asked you before but what book are you currently reading @TheMainCharacter ?

@Shannaratiger poor ds , how is he now ?

Thanks @HazelNotHungryLC , I'm off to look on Amazon for one similar! Your to do list is a long one today !

@cosypompoms doing a 24 hour fast is absolutely amazing ! Well done 👏

@ItsieDitzyBitsOfOnionInTheSoup thanks for the recommendation, I have put it on my list for the month of December! Good luck with the bins ! Have you got a kind neighbour that will let you chuck some in their bin ?

Welcome @Hatty65 and @flexigirl I do a mixture of flylady and tomm - I don't complete the home blurgh on a Monday , I use tomm instead 👍

@Scourgify well done for garden maintenance! I haven't even thought of garden maintenance yet - although it hasn't stopped raining for what feels like weeks here !

po3.6
❗️spend some more time on uni work
❗️gather some rubbish in my room
❗️write in my journal

Once I’ve done that I’m going to post my ta da list, put something on Netflix and then go to bed.

Welcome Flexi and Hetty

I'll be ok Snow it's not too long now

Ta-da's:

❄️Morning routine
❄️Reading
❄️Decluttered
❄️Monthly planner
❄️Took bag of donations to clothing bank
❄️Pottered around doing a bit more to an art project
❄️Curated my YouTube watchlist
❄️Exercise
❄️Evening routine

@TheMainCharacter hiya 👋. How's your 16yr old doing now. It's flown for me.

Ta Da's:
🌟 Hit the Gym
🌟 Library visit for healthy cookbooks
🌟 Washing Mountain reduced to a tiny hill
🌟 Meal plan done
🌟 prep Gym bag for tomorrow
🌟 Bank rec and budget for 2024

I'm really pleased considering I had a terrible nights sleep and have been in some pain, feels quite productive. Back to work tomorrow 😪 😫.

I’m thinking of giving it another listen too searching

I enjoyed my meditation today, I want to try every day even just for a few minutes.

ta da
✅emailed uni tutor
✅changed Cagbunny litter
✅reading
✅updated diary
✅5m meditation
✅cleared my desk (we won’t mention the rest of the room or even the floor underneath said desk 😳)
✅booked tesco
✅LOL1
✅read uni book
✅bit of work
✅LOL1 in dryer
✅LOL2
✅uni stuff online
✅hung up LOL2
✅collected a bag of rubbish in my room

12:30 and can't sleep! just worrying about DS. His chest loosened a bit by lunchtime but still not great. We're going to drive him in today to be on the safe side.
I'm just not sure that college is the best place for him right now. Maybe he'd be better working e.g. at Tesco's which me and Dd loved working at because really nice supportive people and no stress i.e. your told what to do and you just do it so no worrying. He needs to get work experienced sorted out for his course so hoping he can do it at Tesco's and see how it makes him feel. I just want him happy again!

DH has hospital later as well to see the neurologist because his swallowing and choking issues caused by the Parkinson's are getting worse which is very upsetting especially for the dc's.

To Do

Washing dc's towels
Dust and quickly hoover hallway now the empty boxes have gone into the recycling bin
Finish sorting food cupboards throwing out food that no body wants to eat anymore and are past there Best before dates. Does anyone else have family members who eat the same foods for ages so you get a good supply in and then they decide they don't want them anymore! 🙁

Anyway I'm going to read a book for about 10 minutes then try to get some sleep!
Sorry for the prattle but it helps to put my thoughts into words and I know I won't be stressing anyone out on here.

@flexigirl flexigirl there are some people on here who do a combination of flylady and TOMM, whatever works best for you!
@Hatty65
Welcome to the thread👋
Ditzy 😂 re: hand pic
searching is lovely when the DC finds good friends that they want to spend time with 😍
Scourgify that looks like a productive day, even with a nap!
Ambi it looks like you have made a good start! Getting your gym bag ready is definitely being your future friend and makes life easier. What do you do at the gym?
Sing meditation is good, I have only really tried it a couple of times. I really should try it again
shannara I hope you got some sleep 😴

Ta Das for the day:
🍓 booked hair appt for DS
🍓 LOLs x6, including towels & sheets
🍓 put clothes away
🍓 vacuumed main floor
🍓 bleached bathrooms
🍓 bleached grout on bathroom floor white again
🍓 took some Christmas lights down and rearranged what's left
🍓 swept doorsteps
🍓 knocked on neighbour's door to let them know about fence getting done tomorrow & Thursday
🍓 put note on remaining fence panels to leave them for the neighbour
🍓 empty spare bedroom, ready for painter tomorrow (I helped DH)
🍓 grocery shopping (just a few things)
🍓 washed Jeep
🍓 more handwash dishes
🍓 rotated DW
🍓 treated the wood on the dining table & sideboard
🍓 put away a few more decorations and food serving items from NYE

I got everything done I wanted to and more!

Wednesday is anti-procrastination day.
Wednesday's mission is to spend 15 minutes in the entryway, putting things away, like coats, shoes, mail etc.

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

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

Haven't even rtft yet but putting a post here for some accountability. There's no rhythm here at home yet. Cleaning is sporadic. But there's potential and I'm hopeful.

Ok here goes. It sounds like as I'm new I just spend 15 min each day decluttering in the relevant zone. So today is entry/porch/dining.

Cleared the dining room and hallway of random recycling. I'm terrible for procrastinating over disposing of packaging as I'm often not sure if it's recyclable, and I cannot stand the sound/feel of ripping cardboard. So it skulks in corners. It's only half a tadah as around here they skipped a bin week entirely for Christmas, recycling only goes every fortnight anyway so they go tomorrow for the first time in a month. Which means I currently cannot fit any more in to the wheelie bins. So there's still a recycling stack but it's at least all ready to go into newly emptied bins tomorrow.

Good morning everyone ☕️

Tada
🩱1 LOL finished and hung up
🩱2nd LOL in the washer
🩱reclaimed kitchen sink baby step no.1
🩱quick hoover in dining area and kitchen
🩱breakfast
🩱breakfast pots
🩱everyone washed and dressed
🩱dc beds stripped (with their help) next set of bedding chosen (need to wait for sheets to wash and dry before remaking)
🩱quick tidy of bathroom
🩱karchered upstairs windows and opened to air out upstairs
🩱15 minutes decluttering landing area - tackled the odd sock baskets , chucked some that no longer fit , paired what I could . Once I've tacked the dry washing pile , any odd socks that are leftover will be thrown out . I want to reclaim the top of the drawers on the landing so I can put something nice to look at on there- not sure what it'll be yet though 🤔

I'm about to make some lunch , afternoons tasks are :

⛄️take dc for a hot chocolate at our local cafe
⛄️ 30 minutes on laundry (today will be gathering 2 days of uniform for dd2 and ironing them , if any time left over , folding dry washing)
⛄️ decide what to have for tea , buy anything needed from the shop when out for hot chocolate
⛄️ fill in calendars and diaries for the next half term

Welcome @ProfessorplumBilliardroomCandlestick 👋
Yes, you are spot on! Also, where you are starting out, you'll want to check out the baby steps. These are for building your routines (morning & evening). The first one is to shine your sink.

For all you newbies out there, the following links will help you build your routines:
Today's baby step:
https://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/day-3/
Yesterday's baby step:
https://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/day-2/
Monday's baby step:
https://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/
Detailed lesson on shining your sink:
https://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/flying-lessons/shine-sink/

@HazelNotHungryLC thanks for the links. I'd have no clue what day it is otherwise.

@ProfessorplumBilliardroomCandlestick I love the first bin day after Xmas!

@Searchingforsnow great list!

✅ food shopping done
✅ hula hooping
✅ made a giant pan of vegetable soup
✅ frozen going over bananas
✅ washed and changed our bed
✅ tidied front door area
✅ lol
✅ dehydrated some kale and spring greens

Re: food shop... Our house is quite full of food but I had to get about 20 things from Aldis so I was looking forward to a cheap week and it came to £70! No luxuries, no nappies, no meat, no alcohol. The till man said prices had gone up by 56% in Aldis

Trying to make a white plastic sink shine is feeling pretty futile at the moment. Does anyone have any tips? It's currently fizzing away with bicarb and vinegar but it doesn't seem to have made much of a dent!

Just a quick check to see if this posts.

pompoms process have jumped over here too, but over the last year. I used to be able to do a weekly shop for the 4 of us for $100-130. Now, for 3 of us, I'm lucky if it's under $200!

professor I honestly don't know, mine is stainless steel. Occasionally I'll use glass cleaner on mine, could be worth a try 🤷‍♀️
As long as it's clean and you're happy with it, that's all that matters!

Scourgify I can see your post, are you having difficulties posting?

Shanara yes, only ever buy a week's supplies here for a certain person, to minimise waste

Scourgify I can see your post fine

Professor be careful, a lot of things will eat through plastic! FlyLady isn't about perfectionism, it's about letting go of it. By all means find something to make your sink look better if that's what you want to, but don't feel you're failing if your sink doesn't shine. I should think plastic actually needs polishing with some kind of industrial device, perhaps an attachment for a drill, to get out all the microscopic scratches and smooth the surface so it shines. I take "shining the sink" to mean "getting all the washing up done and cleaning the sink so it's hygienic", which does make a big difference to my happiness in the morning when I'm not greeted with crusty dirty dishes clogging up the worktop space next to the sink and don't have to clean the sink first eg if I wanted to do hand washing clothes

56% is a massive price hike Pompoms

How's the health kick going Hazel? I noticed all the emoji's are fruit so does that symbolise healthiness or does it mean you are hungry after all? or perhaps I need to stop reading so much into everything! 😂 . I was forced to low carb today when I discovered my 3 week old scones, that I'd finally got round to eating, were mouldy. So instead I flicked the furry and slightly-suspect-looking blueberries into the bin and ate the rest. Sometimes I wonder how I'm even still alive

Ta-da's:

😴 Extra sleep
😴 Very late morning/brought forward evening routines combined
😴 Cleared out the fridge
😴 Exercise
😴 Took in delivery, unpacked and put away
😴 Watched my neighbours fireworks display
😴 Lit some candles and listened to Christmas music

Hazel thanks for the tips. I opted for loo bleach (using bathroom scrubber not the washing up one!) and it made a decent enough difference I'm happy with it.

Itsie thanks for the re-interpretation of the rules. That does help - to be honest, perfectionism is definitely something that holds me back in a "what's the point" sort of way.

Ditzy it's going well. I chose the emojis to match my infuser ingredients, I couldn't decide on anything else 😂
I love eating low carb, it suits me best. I don't know why I decided to overindulge at Christmas in the carbs as I feel like crap afterwards.

professor I'm glad you found something that works!

ta da
✅collected glasses and bought a printer
✅team meeting
✅went to cinema with DS, Cagletini and some friends - Wonka is bloody brilliant we all loved it!
✅5m meditation
✅booked an art lesson for Cagletini
✅bit of reading
✅set up new printer and printed some stuff for Cagletini to do tomorrow

Being back at work properly hit me hard today I have to admit (DD1 felt the same about college, she’s tired and overwhelmed). Nice afternoon though. I’m also really pleased that when I felt myself getting really stressed I decided to do the meditation thing.

Sing I'm glad to hear you're enjoying meditation, hopefully it will help with your stress levels. Could DD1 also benefit from meditating?

The only ta das I did today was work all day, cooked dinner (salmon, yum!), loaded the DW & wiped the countertops and sink.
I will get my clothes out for tomorrow though. My lunch is ready.

Thursday is errand day.
Thursday's mission is to check to see if you have any holiday decorations on your door or front porch, if so, spend 15 minutes taking them down & putting them away.
I still have my Christmas wreath on my front door with no plans to take it down yet <shhhh> 🤫

Zones: https://www.flylady.net/d/zones/
Baby step #4: https://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/day-4/