July Flylady Thread: Would July-k to join us?

[CabbageBearGoat]

Welcome to the July FlyLady thread! Need guidance with routines and keeping up with housework? This is the thread for you! FlyLady is a reliable and flexible system for keeping on top of housework, one thing at a time.

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

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

There are Baby Steps for starting out, which add one thing at a time to start off good habits and routines. If you're new to FlyLady, start with these. If you are not ready to start these at the beginning of the month you can set your own Day 1 as today and keep track by following the Baby Steps linked below.

After Baby Steps you can graduate to Zones. There are 5 Zones that we rotate through in the same order every month, week by week. Don't worry about finishing it all this month, it'll come around again next month! Flylady is NOT about perfectionism! The system is designed to compensate for those days which don't go to plan, as it all repeats. As FlyLady says herself, "You are never behind. Jump in where you are".

Daily missions: (each week is the same).
Monday: Home Blessing (or as we call it, home bleugh - a quick whizz over basic cleaning)
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 (something to recharge your batteries)

Common acronyms/phrases we use:
LOL: load of laundry (washing is certainly NOT funny!)
DW: dishwasher (we are not rotating wives!)
LMS: lose/lost my shit
DNLMS: did not lose my shit
BRC: box/basket of random crap
Mount Washmore: self explanatory

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 (useful for when the zones change). You can also modify the app's tick lists to suit your home & lifestyle. FlyLady is flexible.

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

Launch Pad (Quick links): www.flylady.net/d/new-links/

Flight Plan (Today at a glance): flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=-60

Weekly Zones (With this month's dates): https://www.flylady.net/d/zones/

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

Placemark, placemark, get your placemarks! I'll be back in full on Monday - see you then.

Thank you to Hazel for last month's thread. Here we go! This is my first time leading the thread so I'm looking forward to seeing if it helps me keep on track better 😁

Thanks @CabbageBearGoat you’ve got this! Thanks too to Hazel for June’s thread.

Hiya . . . please may I join?

I've got family coming to stay in August and I really need to get on top of my housework

I don't think I need to start with the babysteps as I already do the basics (washing up, laundry, emptying bins, keeping the kitchen and bathroom clean) but I definitely need to get into a routine with cleaning each room properly

I've done Flylady in the past but somehow lost my way . . . I spent ages compiling a Control Journal ~ I think I was better at the theory than the practical!

I've been trying to de~clutter but can't see much difference yet so am hoping that joining you on this thread may give me some encouragement & accountability !!!! Many thanks

@KnitnNatterAuntie absolutely join us! Welcome welcome. So on the one hand it sounds like you have a routine down which is the basis for the baby steps - so you're already a graduate! On the other hand, some people find the initial decluttering that the baby steps encourage plenty to deal with, so keep an eye on yourself and be prepared to take a beat and just do the one thing at a time if you need it. It can be tempting to do a sort of "feast or famine" approach to housework - as opposed to more of a "slow and steady wins the race".

Personally, I think I started with a bit of a combination of baby steps and occasional zone work when I first came to FlyLady in January and that worked pretty well for me. It kept my enthusiasm up by really seeing the results of cleaning, but I kept it pretty casual.

Looking forward to seeing how you get on!

Placemark, thank you for the thread! And thanks to Hazel for last month.

I'm OK at the baby steps, I'm here for the random deep cleans. June was/is my first month and my car and handbag are significantly cleaner than they have ever been before!

I've also just spotted the link I used for launch pad is the old one! Curses. So here's the new one (FlyLady website has had some changes and many links are broken!): http://flylady.net/c/lp.php

Welcome to your second month @DillyDeclutter ! Gotta start somewhere, and a cleaner car/handbag are great places to see a difference.

Thanks for the thread Cabbage and thanks to Hazel for last month

Thank you Cabbage for running the July thread. I love the title! 😍

Welcome, one and all, to July. Habit of the month for July is Swish and Swipe of the bathroom: www.flylady.net/d/habits-of-the-month/july/

Swish and Swipe is of course part of the recommended morning routine. The idea is that you 1) swish cleanser/brush around the toilet, and 2) swipe a cloth over the mirror, sink and any taps (FlyLady recommends keeping window cleaner and cloths in the bathroom to keep this easy).

For making the loo cleaning super efficient, FlyLady also recommends filling the toilet brush holder (heavens! Toilet brushes on Mumsnet!?) with cleaning fluid of some kind so it's always ready to go. Not recommended for those with kids, pets or sentient houseplants.

I can really get behind this month's habit. Our bathrooms are relatively old (80s at best guess?) and I think the age of the suite is why we have such issues with limescale/stains in one in particular - horribly stained since we moved in a year ago with very little progress. For a Swish and Swipe to be truly effective here I needed to find a way to fix that. Last month in bathroom week I tried those "limescale prevention blocks" for the cistern which clearly weren't strong enough as the stains remained. This weekend, lightly complaining to DW that "swish and swipe" would only go so far in Limescale Central, we bought some seriously strong limescale removing toilet cleaner (Harpic) and some anti-limescale fizzy block things (Bloo). With both of those, and some serious elbow grease from DW, the loo is now gleaming! So I'm all set, and delighted

And happy Monday, FlyPeople!

The week ahead:
Here’s your weekly links, keeping it nice and simple starting the month on a Monday:

• Zone 1: Entrance, Front Porch & Dining Room: class="break-all" href="http://www.flylady.net/d/zones/zone-1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.flylady.net/d/zones/zone-1/
• Zone 1 Detailed Cleaning: https://www.flylady.net/d/zones/detailed-cleaning-zone-1/

FlyBabies: Your task this week is to start to declutter these areas. Set a timer for 15 minutes a day doing literally anything in these three rooms. You might not see a big difference, but resist the temptation to do more than 15 minutes. Then we're veering into dangerous burnout/overwhelm territory. The trick is to make this so easy you can't imagine NOT doing this every day for the rest of the month - get it? If this area is already decluttered (and is it... really?) then head over to the detailed cleaning list above and spend your 15 minutes doing some of that instead.

Today's To Dos:
Baby step: The first step in building your routine is to shine your (kitchen) sink in the evening. The general idea is to get it all clear of any washing up and visibly clean, though the limits of this might depend on your sink. This is so you don't have anything but clean to greet you in the morning, ready for a new day.

FlyBabies: 15 minute declutter of Zone 1

FlyExperts: (is that “Flexperts”?) Today's zone tasks are in the porch area, with strict instructions to shake out floor mats, and give the front door a bit of a swish (see what I did there, in swish month?). This is a nice quick 15 minute jobby to brighten up the first thing you see coming home.

Daily mission: Home blessing! Change bedsheets, empty bins, and with whatever time you have left in the hour, vacuum something. Preferably a carpet of some kind.

Good morning! I'm up bright and early and have made my to-do list. Priority is to take some de-cluttered items to the charity shop and buy a few salad-y bits for dinner tonight.

I don't have a porch, but I do need to change my sheets, get a load of washing done and vacuum my bedroom so I'm off to do that

Will return later with my 'Ta-da' list . . . .

Proper Zone 1 link: https://www.flylady.net/d/zones/zone-1/

Not sure what happened there...

Thanks @CabbageBearGoat we've been out all weekend and therefore zero Flying, on the other hand we haven't been creating much mess either. Back to it today.

This morning I've been busy, but taking regular breaks. I dont know where this energy is coming from but I'm loving it. Maybe this is the 2nd trimester boost? 20 weeks now.

DW changed all the sheets and totally cleared the "entrance" hallway over the weekend and we replaced the doormat, so we're ahead of schedule and I decided to reinterpret entrance hall this week as the utility which has the back door. This is the room we acquire the most random clutter things and can get a bit neglected. So here are the wins from this morning:

• Shook out back doormat and swept up
• Pulled out washing machine and dryer, swept behind
• Installed utility countertop batons
• Put away toolbox, cordless drill, screwdrivers
• Wiped down microwave
• Put away stack of tea towels (?)
• Replaced batteries in clock x2
• Sanitised WC door handle, pull cord, taps and loo flush handle
• Sanitised back door handle and dustbin lid
• Put up decorative plates in kitchen
• Emptied ensuite bin
• Swish and swiped x3 bathrooms
• Morning routine!

Placemarking.
Completely fell off in June. Hoping to do better this month so that I’m in some kind of order before the kids break up (although both teenagers being off already is causing havoc in the kitchen 🙄)

Afternoon wins:
Finished installing utility countertop
Reinstated bread maker and accoutrements to said counter
Breadmaker on
Refilled bread-making sugar
LOL on
Home admin
Car admin
Measured garden parasol base
Ordered new doorbell/repeater/chime
Prenatal yoga (15 mins)

And now I'm going to celebrate a shockingly productive day by sticking myself in front of Wimbledon/Euros for the rest of the afternoon and into the evening. Soup with homemade bread for dinner!

You've achieved a lot today @CabbageBearGoat

My to-do list has changed as the day progressed, so things that I've done are ~

Stripped and remade my bed
Done of load of washing
Taken some decluttered stuff to a charity shop
Taken a load of glass to the bottle bank
Tidied and weeded the garden
Done a load of 'life admin' which needed doing at the beginning of the month
Bought groceries
Ironed a lot of t-shirts and tops

I haven't done the dusting and vacuuming yet ~ it will have to wait till tomorrow 😞

I feel your pain, DS is home from uni and DD has finished college and the food bills are through the roof and the kitchen a permanent state.

It's Tuesday!

Baby Step: https://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/day-2/
Get dressed to shoes. This is a bit of a contentious one if you're a "shoes off" kind of household, but the general idea today is to be ready to leave the house at any given moment. Maybe "dressed to shoes" means slippers. Then, don't forget to finish your day with shining your sink!

FlyBabies: 15 minute declutter of somewhere in Zone 1

FlyExperts: We're across all three rooms in this zone today, putting out fires. The message for the week talks about clearing the dining table and making it beautiful. Hallway filled with piles of shoes? Piles of junk mail? Piles of letters to post? What about piles of magazines? Those piles are your target for the 15 minute push today. Maybe I'll just call today Plan and Pile...

Daily mission: Plan and Play! This seems to now just be called Planning, but to be honest I think the Playing is also important so I'm going to leave it in. Plan menus, activities, checking things that might come up this week. Are you an eBayer like me and need to set aside time for packing and posting? Do you need to make new listings? Today is that day.

My sympathies for those of you with teenager and children's holidays to contend with. We've intentionally invited BIL to stay over in August as that always makes us tidy things up beautifully 🤣 definitely not the same level of stress but I think having a sort of deadline helps for these things.

My to do list today includes another loaf of bread as yesterday's came out seriously tiny. Cute little dinner loaf, mind. Not sure if the yeast has bought it or maybe I always used to make a "large" not "medium" like I did yesterday... So I'm going to try a different flour and Large today.

Morning ladies! I am hopping back onto the thread after being MIA for few months (Elf in disguise here 🥸), but I have been flying.
Looking forward to catching up with you all.

@CabbageBearGoat thank you for the new thread. The only thing that i have found to shift limescale in toilets is cheap coke but you do need to let it sit for quite a few hours to have the best results so not great when people are home and under foot

@HazelNotHungryLC thank you for running last month's thread

I decided to put a running list in my journal - person looking over shoulder "that your list for the month" me looking at the 3 page list "nope, just this week" Person backs away slowly... There is a whole heap of small stuffs to be done before the weekend but we are on track to getting things sorted so that the building work chaos will be gone by the end of the month. And i cannot wait.

You're all very welcome. As ED had mentioned, being thread leader helps to keep on track and stick to flylady. It also helps to not be super busy with other things, like a wedding 😆

@KnitnNatterAuntie welcome to the thread! It definitely helps that you're already doing the baby steps
Character & ED isn't it frustrating to have teens making messes and not cleaning them up?!
Mc good to see you back! How's everything with you?
Dragons I'm pleased to see that there is an end in sight with your building work. It has been going on a long time!

Not much flying has been done the last couple of days. I'll make up for that today though.

To dos:
🐶 get dressed & ready for the day
🐶 take dogs to groomer
🐶 bathe dogs
🐶 bleach both bathrooms
🐶 grocery shopping list
🐶 grocery shopping
🐶 take DS to try on riding gear for his dirt bike (we only bought him new stuff last year but he has grown again!)
🐶 video chat with Mum
🐶 laundry (the camping laundry has been done, so it's just the day to day stuff now)
🐶 vacuum
🐶 mop
🐶 sweep front step
🐶 wipe front door
🐶 clean glass doors & mirrors
🐶 call MIL about 4th of July (we have no plans yet!)
🐶 take Jeep over to get the alignment done on it

I should be back with some ta das later. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get everything done today though 🤷‍♀️
🍒👋 to everyone!

Oh there is more building work to do. But this phase will be done.

Today has been a struggle. Bad night's sleep, back is mad at me, overwhelming to do list.