Springing into April - Flylady style

[BloomingHazel]

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. you have been warned! 😁
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: do/did not lose my shit

There are more, but I can't think of them all. 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.

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

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

Hello, could I join please? I'm very new to Fly Lady so don't really get all the acronyms yet (although the post at the top was really helpful!)

But I need some accountability to keep on top of my housework.

This morning I've:

Started the dishwasher running
Vacuumed and mopped the utility room, living room, kitchen and dining room.

I still need to vacuum upstairs and mop the bathroom floors but DH and DD1 are still asleep.

Good morning ☕️

Thanks for the links @BloomingHazel ! It is rather quiet in here , hopefully it's because everyone is out having fun rather than drowning in a pile of washing !

Welcome @GameOfJones 💐

The rain is annoying! I'm guessing when I'm back to work next week it will be glorious sunshine ☀️ although towards the end of the week looks better ! Fingers crossed @Scourgify and @EventuallyDecluttered !

@EventuallyDecluttered hope you've enjoyed your time with ds . The thought of dd1 going to uni next year terrifies me !

I have been doing little slots of decluttering in the zones , we have so much stuff though it seems to not even be scratching the surface. Must remember it took years to get like this , it'll take a while to get it to how I want it to be . More things are leaving the house than coming in so that's got to start making a difference soon!

Thanks for the consolations for dd1 , she has rebooked her test and been going out in her car with oh and has a couple more lessons booked , fingers crossed for next time ! She's got around 5 weeks or so to polish her skills.

To do :

🐢30 mins decluttering kitchen windowsill and drawers
🐢wash and do the morning routines (I enjoy pottering around in my pjs when we have nowhere to go !)
🐢 prep the tea (roast dinner today so it'll be time consuming)
🐢 I have friends coming over about 1ish so I need to check I have enough drinks in and some biscuits .
🐢 friends are coming over with their kids so I'm guessing lots of tidying up after them all 😳

I better get going and make a start - hopefully I'll be on with lots of tadas later !

Listening to a radio adaptation of “The Woman in Black”, and I’ve just got to the bit where he arrives at Mrs Drablow’s house and there are papers everywhere. He has to sort through it all even though he knows most of it will be irrelevant. Then he opens a cupboard, papers spill out on top of him. He says “Did you ever throw out a single piece of paper in your life, Mrs Drablow?”

I will not become Mrs Drablow
I will not become Mrs Drablow
I will not become Mrs Drablow.

Gets off the settee and does something about it….

How did the wedding go Hazel?

Welcome to the thread Jones

Funny the things that inspires us Scourgify. I've been watching someone cleaning hoarded houses on YouTube, makes me feel better about my slight excess, but also makes me go tidy/clean/declutter

Hope you have a great afternoon with your friends Sunny

Ta-da's from the past week

🌻Morning routines
🌻Weeding and planting
🌻Home blessings
🌻Shopping list
🌻Decluttering, managed to fill another bag for the charity shop
🌻Bought new crockery because I've accidentally broken so much now there's hardly any left
🌻Tidied living room
🌻Dealt with the post hotspot
🌻Evening routines

Am I ok to join in this far through the month please?

I'm just recovering from a bad chest infection and have zero motivation to clean or tidy so this thread popping up feels like a sign.

@StartingOverInMy40s yes, welcome, you too @GameOfJones .

Flylady works on a monthly cycle but it doesn't matter when you start as everything comes round again pretty soon.

ED I can relate with the quiet, although I'm sure it'll be a lot more of a change once DS has left the house as well.
scourgify & ED I'm hoping for dry weather for you 🤞

Welcome @GameOfJones 👋 please let us know what you have questions about, we will gladly explain 😀 Just jump on in, starting with the baby steps. We do it all over again next month so if anything is missed this month, you can get it done next month. You've made a good start so far today!

sunny it seems you were right about having fun/ enjoying dry weather. I'm so glad I didn't break the long running thread! It does seem like you're making good progress, even if it seems slow. Try taking before & after pictures. Or look through pictures from a year ago to see if there's a change, it might surprise you. The little changes do add up.

ditzy the wedding went well. Better than expected actually. There's bad blood in the family and a couple of attendees who were there were on their best behaviour, so no drama. Others just didn't go because of those attendees and didn't want to cause a scene.
It was a beautiful day, and discovered the reason for that particular day was the partial (where we are) solar eclipse!
You've had a busy week too, it's nice to get outside from staying in throughout the winter.

Yes of course @StartingOverInMy40s just jump in where we are in the kitchen! The good thing about flylady is you are never behind!

A couple of pictures I took of the solar eclipse..

Oh wow @BloomingHazel. DH and I saw the total eclipse here in 1999 and it was incredible, will never forget that.

Amazing pics Hazel. I like to think the solar eclipse will bring their marriage extra luck. My garden is very neglected and I need to spend a lot more time out there

I don't remember the 1999 eclipse ED, was it in the UK? I wonder what I was doing, nothing exciting or I might have remembered

Hi StartingOver, this is a very motivating thread, hope it helps you

Today's ta-da's:

🍀 Morning routine
🍀 Decluttered
🍀 Food shop
🍀 Reorganised the clothes in a chest of drawers
🍀 Bought some stationery organisation things
🍀 Tidied a living room shelf
🍀 Cleared out the fridge of out of date and mouldy stuff. I don't usually have any so I've been a bit disorganised there

To-do:

☘️ Studying
☘️ call bank
☘️ read novel, trying to do one chapter a day
☘️ exercise
☘️ evening routine

Hello!

apologies also been quiet here too. Drowning in the Easter holidays currently with both little ones at home and a flying visit from the uni one. 4 year old has learnt how to open the safety gates that were great for keeping him, the 2 year old and their mess contained … so mess has exploded all
over the house over the holidays… counting down the days until we’re back to normality ! Trying to take them out but wet weather is curtailing plans.

Over the past few days I have managed to go through littlest clothes and pull out all that was too small, add in summer bits ( 🤣) and sort through the boxes of next size up clothes for both littles ( adding in recent Vinted / sale / passed down additions ) so all looking tidier.

Have also finished off birthday / Christmas shopping ( apart from Santa requests ) for the 2 year old.

And a little bit of me time dying my hair.

The main thing I appear to have done through is tidy up quickly reappearing toy hotspots 🤦🏻‍♀️

@BloomingHazel love the eclipse photos ! Reminds me of the one here way back.

ED I remember a total eclipse when I was at school, it must have been that one.
We had one here in 2017, which I remember well.

Ditzy I think I'm going to need to clear my fridge out soon too 🤔 thank you for the reminder!

Hemax I don't miss the days of having little ones going stir crazy inside! However, we do have some good memories of blanket forts and inside picnics, as well as watching movies on blankets & pillows with popcorn and junk food!

Ta das so far:
🧚‍♀️ took DS to school
🧚‍♀️ cleaned up the milk mess from DS (he tried, but only used a napkin to dry it up, I don't want the sour smell!)
🧚‍♀️ sheets washed, dried and back on bed
🧚‍♀️ 2nd lol in dryer
🧚‍♀️ 3rd lol in washer
🧚‍♀️ clean clothes put away
🧚‍♀️ dressed, makeup on, hair done

Thank you for the welcome! 😁

A couple of questions from me....do people all follow the zones or do you mix it up depending on your work routines or other commitments?

Also the emojis! Do you just pick emojis that you like for your lists? Or do they mean anything? 😊

Today was actually a good day. All floors vacuumed and mopped, a load of washing done and dried (although not put away) and 2 hours in the garden pruning various shrubs. I'm off work at the moment for the Easter holidays so it's more than I'd normally get done on a Tuesday!

@GameOfJones I can't speak for everyone, but I like to use the 🎉 emoji for things I've done in the house, 🌱 for things I've done in the garden, and I've started using 🥳 for things DW has done, because I like to look back on previous posts and see what I've done in the "matching weeks" iyswim. There's no reason to choose one forever, I think many people change it up.

Edited to add that I generally follow the zones unless something desperately needs doing. I like the structure of flylady as it keeps me from getting distracted. Everything needs doing. The beauty of flylady is everything has its time. It'll happen. No need to panic. So I try to stick to it else I get overwhelmed. But I have adjusted some of the rooms in my flylady app where it makes better sense for me. But I stick to that.

@GameOfJones I usually do stick to the zones, but my days get shifted. I do a lot more on Tuesday's as I don't work that day and no one else is home, usually. That's the day I do the home bleugh. I work long hours, so other than cooking dinner & getting clothes and lunch ready for the next day, I really don't do much those days.

Re emoji's, I don't have a specific reason for the ones I choose. A lot of the time I base it off the time of year (eg. October: 🕷🕸👻💀🎃), or how I'm feeling (😴🦥😇🧚‍♀️), but no real pattern for me!

I do like the Flylady app, although I still haven't altered it for my house yet 🫣 I'm a huge procrastinator!

Yeah I’ve edited the app too in terms of rooms and tasks within them.

I’ve also edited my morning and evening routines to fit us better as well

I generally use ⭐️ for tadas and a ❌ for things I’m aiming to get done that day.

I try and roughly stick to rooms but if there are other priorities then they get done before the room jobs

—I don’t stick to zones particularly but I have been doing Flylady for so many years that I know what the mission tasks tend to be and do them either when prompted here or if I see they need doing generally. Also mix up the days as I work Mon-Thur and so more gets done on Fri/Sat/Sun. The weekend tends to be more just the daily stuff, home blessing stuff and laundry, Friday is more decluttering and detailed cleaning for me. Decluttering makes SUCH a difference. We had some house renovations last year and got rid of a lot of stuff which has made those parts of the house so much easier to keep passably tidy ignores piles of junk all over the dining table.

My emojis tend to be the red and green apples on my ipad, I just like them.

Hello! I'm new here too. I could do with some motivation. Paper is my bugbear. I started on chucking some old papers away today (ancient gas bills, etc). Can you please tell me what a morning blessing is, and also evening routine? Thanks.

Thanks all, that's really helpful 🙂

Can I join too? Just going to download the app 😁

Welcome @Pocketfullofdogtreats & @longpathtohappiness

Morning:
☀️ get ready for the day
☀️ read your sticky notes
☀️ check the daily message on the website
☀️ change the voices in your head from negative to positive
☀️ put out your hot spots for 2 minutes
☀️ 5 minute room rescue (clear a path in the worst room)

Before bedtime:
😴 shine your sink
😴 get your clothes out for the morning
😴 put out your hot spot

The above are the routines so far this month, they are the baby steps. However, don't feel like you have to start with all of them. On the link for baby steps you can click on each day for that baby step. You can just jump right in where we are right now as we will circle back around all of them at the beginning of the month.

Welcome newbies 🙂

I've created my own morning and evening routines based on what it takes to make my home and life run smoothly.

My emojis are totally random and picked on a whim.

I started with the babysteps, moved onto the daily focus once babysteps were established (which took an entire year), then decided to go no further until I've thoroughly decluttered which is going to take ages, so I'm not really doing zones at the moment.

My weekly home blessings is a lot more thorough than FlyLady's so I mostly don't need the missions and there's also areas where my standards are frankly lax, so I generally don't need those missions either 😆

Wednesday is anti-procrastination day.

Wednesday's mission is to clean out your fridge. Take out expired, rotten and mouldy food and wipe down the shelves with a damp cloth.

Baby Step: https://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/day-10/
Continue your routines as usual, but add a 15 minute timer to your day. Today you will grab a bin bag, go around the house, picking up rubbish as you go and take it out to your wheelie bin when the 15 minutes is up. Then set it for another 15 minutes and put your feet up with a cuppa and a book/ magazine/ MN.