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/

Sorry I didn't add links last night.

Saturday is family fun day. There are no missions on the weekend.

Baby Step: https://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/day-27/
Think about what's for dinner, before dinner time.

I usually plan our meals for the week, before I go grocery shopping, but do not plan what day we're having what though.
I do try to plan for quicker meals the days I'm working, since I get home around 6:30pm and the longer meals for my weekends & Tuesday's. I also plan to have meals last for more than one dinner as well as lunches, although that's getting harder to do since DS is a teenager and eating a lot more than he used to! We're starting to have meals only last one dinner, instead of the usual 2.

What do you do for meal planning or want to achieve, to make your lives easier?

Have slightly fallen off the fly lady wagon this week. Pmt plus a bit of an over schedule on the child activity front meant I got little in the house done other than basics.

Feeling a bit better today so have tidied and cleaned upstairs, put laundry away and also been to gymnastics and ballet with my littlest one. Currently about to tackle the downstairs and a small load of handwashing to start. It isn’t looking as bad as it could have been tbh as my partner has kept up his basics too… but still enough to put right !

A little bit of flying done today ! I spent an hour in the bathroom, still need to do the tiles and the floor but that can wait until tomorrow 👍

Also did the usual Saturday, gymnastics, football , pop into town routine . Planning on having a pamper night with dd1 & dd2 tonight , lash & brow tints and nails 💅🏻

Hopefully will be here tomorrow with another tada 🎉 list !!

Sunday is renew your spirit day.
There are no missions on Sunday.

Baby Step: https://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/day-28/
Today's mission is actually pretty fitting. Remember to take care of yourself! Spend 15 minutes reading something for fun 😁

Hemax basics are good too, I'm sure it's better than if you did nothing at all. All fed, no one dead is sometimes what we have to do and get back to it when we can.

sunny that sounds like a wonderful Saturday night!

YesTaDas:
🧚‍♀️ bleached both bathrooms
🧚‍♀️ meal planned for the week
🧚‍♀️ grocery pickup order placed
🧚‍♀️ helped MIL declutter in the storage unit
🧚‍♀️ took a load of stuff to the charity shop
🧚‍♀️ took a couch and huge, full box to the tip
🧚‍♀️ took the lift (hoister) to the storage unit
🧚‍♀️ picked up groceries
🧚‍♀️ put groceries away
🧚‍♀️ started on dinner (family night was at ours last night)
🧚‍♀️ rotated DW x2

I will be going over to help MIL today inside her house, to figure out what else can be taken to storage and what can be donated or chucked. I'm just waiting for her phone call.
There's also a couple of things that SIL will take from the storage unit as well. Hopefully by the end of summer that one will be empty, by consolidating the 2 they have.

Not as many weekend wins this weekend, but all good things:

🎉 Vacuumed lounge, conservatory and bottom of stairs2
🥳 Many rounds of washing up
🥳 Finished 3rd coat of paint on fence
🥳 2x loads of laundry
🥳 Stripped and reset B1 bedding

Hi all. We've had a quiet weekend really, plenty of downtime but also some sorting.

Weekend wins are:

👣 Morning routines

👣 Cleaned the bathrooms

👣 DH cleaned the kitchen

👣 Made a start on decluttering clothes. I've gone through my tops and my underwear drawer. Honestly my underwear drawer was so full I couldn't even close it properly and I don't wear half of it! So I feel better for doing that.

👣 Booked a holiday! We're going to France in the summer

👣 Evening routines

cabbage those are some good wins for this weekend!

Jones a holiday in France sounds perfect right now! That's very exciting 😀

Ta das:
🧚‍♀️ helped to get done things removed from the storage unit
🧚‍♀️ helped put some other things into the storage unit, even if just for the time being as we cleared some space on the floor in the family room at my ILs house
🧚‍♀️ LOLs x3
🧚‍♀️ DS rotated DW
🧚‍♀️ cooked some hard boiled eggs for lunches & snacks
🧚‍♀️ got my clothes out ready for the morning

This week is going to be a crazy week at work. We will be short staffed, but it will make the week go by quickly!

Through the end of the month, we are in the next zone: the living room.

Monday is home bleugh day.
Monday's mission is to put your hotspots out. Spend 10 minutes putting things away where they belong and toss the rest.

Baby Step: https://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/day-29/
Find the weekly pamper mission and think about when you are going to do it.

🍒👋 to everyone. Have a great week!

Speaking of it being the end of the month, are there any volunteers to run the thread for May?
I can't believe April is almost over, this year is flying by so fast!

Hi everyone
We had a fairly successful weekend, dp got the decking jet washed and finished tidying up the garden ready for if the sun ever decides to appear and I got a few things done indoors including deep cleaning the fridge.

Today’s tadas
🌞morning routine
🌞school run
🌞strip and wash my bed
🌞remake bed
🌞grocery shop (was heavier than I realised and was a struggle carrying it home!)
🌞dust 3 bedrooms
🌞vacuum 3 bedrooms
🌞clean bathrooms x2
🌞room rescue x 2
🌞vacuum downstairs
🌞fold and put away lol x 3
🌞hang out lol x2. Put it outside but it got rained on. Are we ever going to have a rain free day again?!? Hopeful sun emoji

next job, decide what’s for dinner

Oh I forgot, the other productive thing we did at the weekend was to get the baby stuff out of storage and list it to sell. One pushchair sold already and two car seats ready to go to the tip. Seems wasteful but they’re both over ten years old

Today's single win:
🎉Brushed the hallway mat of coir, human and pet hair

Tada
🎉 morning routine
🎉 2 minutes tidy of the bathroom and kitchen (literally had 5 minutes to spare this morning so set a stop watch - I got done more than I thought!)
🎉 school run
🎉 work
🎉 ironing for tomorrow
🎉 an hours marking

Still to do
🎉 general tidy
🎉 tea
🎉 hang up washing and fold dry washing
🎉 after tea kitchen clean / lunch boxes and water bottles
🎉 kids club clothes ready for tomorrow
🎉 shower
🎉 dd2 homework
🎉 update calendar

I doubt any zone work will get completed but I'll be happy getting the above list completed 👍

I hope everyone is having a good day so far 💐

I can do it, things have quietened down a bit here now. It would get me posting regularly again, I have been mainly lurking for the last few months.

Thank you ED that would really help me out! I really do appreciate volunteering.

Work is going to be crazy in May, one of my coworkers is having surgery tomorrow (Tuesday) and will find out afterwards if she has cancer or not. If not, she may be back to work after 2-3 weeks off, if she does, she'll be out for a lot longer. We're obviously hoping for no cancer, it's a scary time for us all, but especially her.

Ta das:
🫖 worked all day
🫖 cooked dinner and made a huge mess in the kitchen
🫖 handwashed dishes
🫖 wiped countertops
🫖 scrubbed stovetop
🫖 scrubbed sink

Tomorrow I have a couple appts (hair - me & DS), will work a couple of hours to cover lunches, and will try to get some flying done.

Tuesday is plan & play day.
Tuesday's mission is to hunt for rubbish in your living room. Look under the couch cushions, under furniture (without hurting yourself). Set the timer for 15 minutes and see what you can get done in that time.

Baby Step: https://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/day-30/
Check your calendar for birthdays and special days. Add cards to your shopping list, be thinking about the gift you think they would like. Plan ahead so you're not rushing at the last minute and settling for whatever you find.

cabbage a win is a win! That sounds like it took a long time to do that, correctly it made a big difference.

character that was a long ta da list for basically just the morning!

sunny isn't it shocking what you can get done in a short amount of time?

🍒👋 to everyone

<wanders in for the end of the month>
Hi? Hello?

Welcome back @SleepingIceDragons 👋
How have you been?

I'm currently enjoying my coffee, before I hit the ground running. I got DS to school already.

I'm enjoying the snuggles from these two though..

Remember the building work drama that the deadline kept getting pushed back on. Yeah that deadline is still getting pushed back. The chaos is still periodically breaking me. And I still have days where the house stuff gets done everywhere all at once or not at all because wtaf do you start.

And i tried to make sensible choices and not add a lot more to the to do list but the universe laughed and added it anyways.

I have got to the point where i need accountability really bad, so sucked it up and yet again changed the password so i could come chat. However, if i am getting too here, tell me to sod of back to rl because that to do list is many volumes thick at this point.

Morning snuggles are the best way to start the day imo!

Welcome back @SleepingIceDragons sorry the building work is STILL ongoing, feel free to vent here

@BloomingHazel wouldn’t it be good if I could maintain that for a whole day 😂 I’m always better in the mornings, days like today where I work in the morning I struggle to motivate myself once I get home. I hope your colleague is ok. Fingers crossed for good news.

@EventuallyDecluttered thank you for volunteering, it would have been a struggle for me next month

ta da - in no particular order
5 loads of washing
discovered 2 patches of bench in the kitchen
cleaned cooker top
cleared out 6 or 7 herb pots - think the chocolate mint has died though. So much for unkillable
washed various tubs
washed various pots - 2 sink loads
moaned about 3 different cookings per meal and all the washing up it generates
assisted ds to book a thing
washed the grill pans
cleared out the dead and reanimating from the fridge
used up potatoes that really needed using or chucking - we rarely use potatoes in cooking these days
gathered cleevers for infusions, and lemon balm for tea
folded various piles of abandoned laundry
unblocked (ish) the over flow on the kitchen sink
email decluttering
run to shop because meal planning has been messed up the last few weeks and needed to scramble for whats for tea last minute (sausage mash and onion gravy in various combinations including one lot of sausage sandwiches - allergy cooking is getting easier as finding more everyone can eat meals)
checked in with the allergy exposed one - low green lentils is no reactions so my theory about what was served in looks like but we will go to middle green lentils before high before throwing green lentils into the everyone can eat list.
negotiated laundry and washing up from ds
empty and reload the dw x2

Oh yes I should warn you that i am less of a night owl these days and more of a forced to be morning person.

New Thread

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/housekeeping/5065819-fledglings-flying-may-we-all-conquer-the-clutter