August FlyLady Thread: No rain Au-Gust of wind will stop us from getting our shit together!

[CabbageBearGoat]

Welcome to the August FlyLady thread! What the heck is FlyLady, I hear you ask. Well, FlyLady is a reliable and flexible system for keeping on top of housework, one thing at a time. It splits the house into zones which we work through week by week, and there are daily tasks designed to tackle everything in sequence. This is a long running thread, but we are a friendly bunch and all are welcome to join in at any time.

We’re trying something new this month as August is a busy one. So, instead of daily updates from thread leader we’re going to stick with just this front post with all your links and information in, and general chatter and updates from here on out.

For people completely new to the system, there are Baby Steps, which add one thing at a time to start off good habits and routines. 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. Time is inevitable. There's no escape. 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".

This month in particular I would really recommend you download the app and get to using that as you can modify the app's tick lists to suit your home and lifestyle. FlyLady is flexible.

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

Common thread acronyms/phrases:
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

So here we go. Here are your links, which update when needed:

Flight Plan (Today at a glance): http://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/
Launch Pad (Quick links): http://flylady.net/c/lp.php
Weekly Sneak Peek (This week's tasks at a glance): http://flylady.net/c/sp.php

Daily missions: (each week is the same - hyperlink for more info).
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)

Thank you for running the July thread and setting up this one!
Hopefully after my camping glamping trip I'll be able to post more often. But that won't be until next week.

Thanks @CabbageBearGoat I agree about the light-touch thread leading for August, we all need a bit of a break sometimes. Hoping to have a blitz over the next couple of days as things have slipped a bit here but it’s so hot.

Here ☀️🥵 ☀️ Thanks Cabbage
This heat though 🌇 💀⚰️

Very happy to be in the "Entrance, Porch and Dining" zone for the rest of this week. Tomorrow our front door is being replaced, along with the half-height windows to the side. Wouldn't have minded so much if the internal bits were original/features but they're not to us. The current front door/closed porch is our biggest problem in the winter when it comes to moisture ingress and heat loss as the internal bits are all single glazed, a little damaged, and the external bits are falling to bits, swell up etc. Not great in the heat either as the closed porch becomes a tiny greenhouse, and there's nowhere to leave parcels. So out they all go, giving us a storm porch and a modern door and windows (but returning to 1930s style). We also have a new doorbell push and wireless extenders that flash as well as ring... I'm very very excited.

So, with that project means that clearing the porch and entrance hall is a must, to give the professionals enough space to work tomorrow. Hopefully I can fit the extras tomorrow evening before family arrives late evening for the weekend! Busy. But there's something about family staying that puts both me and DW into "visitor cleaning mode" and we could do with that extra push.

This morning's wins:
Brought in wheelie bins
Cleared the "put this in the car" stack by front door
Removed plants and accessories from porch
Emptied dehumidifying boxes x3
Shredded the shredding stack
Emptied kitchen bins
Emptied lounge bin (already!?)
Created (daycare) nursery comparison spreadsheet
Completed start of month finance admin
Put away clean towels
Organised single bed sheets
10min starter-tidy in B2 (temporary guest room)

Phone happened late but it did happen. Took mum out yesterday but really it was too hot for me and i was on the grumpy side. I have to go pick up the new meds. A bit about them because they are not meds to be taken lightly but my GP is good and we made the dose as low as possible with the view to lower if reasonable.

I really need a kitchen day but despite this morning's thunderstorm it is still a bit too hot and humid for my comfort zone. Am helping a friend with watching a small child whilst they run a parent to a hospital appointment so don't want to burn out today tbh.

Placemarking! Hoping August will go better than July.

No thunderstorms here, just humid sticky drizzle this morning.

Lol done and kids are fed and alive. Not sure much else will be achieved today.

Afternoon wins:
LOL completed + put away
Airer cleared and put away
Organised jumpers drawer
Loaf in progress in breakmaker
CabbageCat flea and worming treatment done
Booked 2 more (daycare) nursery visits

No thunderstorms here either, though we did have a bit of rain this morning and have had a smidgen of a breeze this afternoon which has been nice.

Thanks @CabbageBearGoat 💐for this and July’s thread. Really enjoy your posts 😄

Have been battling with the front hedge this week. Got wet this morning with the smirr, so I retreated inside and discovered the olympic sport of speed-climbing on youtube.

The DVDs are slowly being allocated to their owners or to the donate/sell pile.

Phew. A long day. But the door is in, the works peeps have gone and I'm enjoying the quiet before BIL arrives late this evening. Hallway stinks of sealant. But it's beautiful. My done list today can be summarised into "faffing about downstairs so I could be near if they had questions / offer drinks etc", so:

2x washing up, all put away
LOL done and put away
Vacuumed conservatory
Tidied conservatory
Mopped conservatory
Vacuumed kitchen
Dusted fireplace
15min tidies of lounge
Household admin
Copious sudoku and murdle
Washed and ironed every tea towel we own

I used to do the tea towel thing annually in December when all the seasonal linens came out - keeps them flat at the edges for neater storage. Hasn't been done in ~3.5 years so it was very satisfying to give them all a good going over today!

Hoping you all had great weekends! Our new door setup is in, family visit went well and now we're playing catch up with housework. Hoping for a good week.

Today's wins:
3x LOL
Washing up
15mins weeding
Bins emptied
Sheets changed
eBay postage and listing admin
Household admin
Collected prescription
Fixed a computer problem
Swept conservatory

Totally distracted by Olympics, I’ve done very little over the past week, so I’ve got a bit of catching up to do with schools starting to go back next week.

Front garden is reasonably tidy. Back garden is improving slowly, with the path to the garage swept regularly. House is reasonable, garage and shed I know what’s there and can work through it at my leisure. A unexpected bonus is that I seem to be a bit stronger physically and less wobbly.

Best of all, I worked out a daily routine that works for me and, fingers crossed, should help me meet the Teens’ needs with as little overwhelm as possible for any of us.

To start to do today -

A general tidy of shared spaces, mostly bathroom, utility, kitchen.

Meal plan and straighten up fridge-freezers. Restrain myself with tomorrow’s supermarket order.

Box up all my unfinished projects. Basically a slow stash-and-dash, with masking tape labels.

Clear living-room flat surfaces, especially paperwork on coffee table and settee. File, don’t pile.

Double and triple-check uniform.

Get outside before the rain starts.

That is the goal isn't it, the getting the system to work is the gold standard.
I sat down and looked carfeully at the daily focuses because they were not working for me. I also looked at the swish and swipe as that is also not working for me. So i now have a clean bathroom x2/wk on my daily focus list and have dumped the fun day and renew spirits day. I have 15mins of something to renew spirits on my daily to dos.
Yes i know the fat fairy would be rolling in her neat tidy house, but i bet she wasn't living in a building site juggling caring/building work/chronic illnesses.

I have got the 1st load of laundry running for the day. We have laundry day rota in the house. Mine is tuesday, sat and sun. someone else has mon and fri, and the other one has wed, thurs. Ds just pinches time from me to run his or gives me his. It works well for us. Especially as i get the house laundry (towels/tea towels/old towels/paint sheets/sofa throws etc etc).

I over slept this morning, apparently i needed it. And am going for a walk in nature shortly. I then get to come home and tackle hard the kitchen. I am looking forwards to finally reclaiming the kitchen back from building work chaos. Just got to finish training the people in the art of returning stuff to the kitchen, prepping stuff for the DW (aka rinse it off) and putting things away. And no not holding my breath on that being a speedy fix.

I need to spend a good 45 mins or so at the allotment. it has kinda got away from me whilst looking after the injured one who dislikes being a patient. Funny thing is they finally learnt howt o be a patient and follow advice and they have made sinificant improvement fast. I mean who knew that would happen

Hope you are all having the productivity that you desire and the amount of rest and relaxation you need.

We are on our way back from camping. We've seen lots of wildlife this trip, some close up, which was actually a little scary (it was a moose, we were all on foot and it had seen us) 😳. We also saw a couple deer, one not that long ago as it ran in front of the truck as we were leaving.

I was able to relax, but also got frustrated as SIL & BIL didn't do shit to help cook or clean up. I felt like a servant and had enough by Sunday. I had a couple nights of acid reflux, so I'm ready to get back to normal routines, food & my bed!

We still have a lot to do when we get to the house as far as unloading the camper and laundry, but first we have to take showers and get to DSs school for registration for next school year. I really wanted to be back home yesterday, but oh well.

Hopefully I'll be able to add a ta da list later.

Well, what an eventful day. We got back from camping to find water in the basement, not much, thankfully. The kitchen sink was slow to drain before we left. It was not resolved. So emergency plumber visit later and it's fixed! If course we paid through the nose for them to come out today. Oh well.

Ta das:
🥵 camper emptied
🥵 showered
🥵 floor dried in the basement
🥵 all laundry sorted (there's so much!!)
🥵 2nd lol in washer
🥵 watered my plants

Still to do today:
🙄 bathe dogs
🙄 figure out lunch for tomorrow
🙄 2 more LOLs
🙄 pull weeds, although more specifically, trees (poplar tree shoots from the tree we had cut down)
🙄 another shower

I'm tired. It's been a long day. I woke up at 7am and it's just gone 7pm here. 😴

I am going to make a renewed effort with Fly Lady. She's worked well for me in the past and I've joined these threads before but then I sort of got side tracked. I'm hoping this thread will keep me focused and hope you all don't mind me joining in.

To do today
☀collect prescription
🌞 take DH for scan appointment
🌞 plant up hanging basket
🌞 make appointment for car service & mot

Sorry replied went wrong

Thanks for the new thread Cabbage and for last month too.

Hope the porch upgrade went well Cabbage

It's been hot and humid here too Dragons and I've struggled to do much in the way of useful things either. Hope your new meds help

Newbies are always welcome here Marple

That's a full on day Hazel. Hope you slept well and recovered. Your SIL and BIL need a poke with a big stick

Congratulations on cracking the daily routine and decluttering Scourgify. It's lovely when things all come together

Hope you manage to get back on track in August Dilly

I've mainly been focusing on self care because the weather has not been favourable towards me.

Ta-da's:

🧭 Morning and evening routines kept, although it's been a struggle
🧭 Car cleaned inside and out
🧭 Handbag kept decluttered
🧭 Haven't done any major decluttering but have focused on using things up fully so I can get rid of the container, unpacking things and getting them stored properly so I can get rid of the packaging and using what I already have to avoid bringing in new, even if what I already have isn't ideal
🧭 Kept on top of weekly home blessings
🧭 Bought a few bits of home décor to improve the place
🧭 Been trying to get out in nature as much as possible to mentally relax
🧭 Making slow progress on a few projects I need to complete
🧭 Keeping up with the weekly planning

Goals for the coming month:

💙 Got sucked into SM a bit and now want to detox having remembered how toxic it all is
💙 Get on top of paperwork
💙 Clear off all the hotspots
💙 Finish at least one project
💙 Keep decluttering
💙 Keep on top of the garden, which isn't looking too bad right now

Stay safe everyone. Trouble has allegedly already started in this area so I am taking the wise decision and hibernating. I should run errands but it could take me through areas that are on "the list" so i am going to procrastinate and do those tomo. yes yes i know anti procrastination day but safety first.

ta da
have a look at email account and start working towards inbox zero (nearly 1000 in there - whoops)
sort out training meetings for the rest of the year
figure out what is for tea
check that mine have wise plan for tonight - they also plan to hibernate

to do
a WHOLE heap of kitchen stuff

DS and I have just had to negotiate one of the areas on the list for an appointment, it was OK but a bit of an atmosphere and we avoided walking through the central hotspot (but were only about 100m away).

Anyway, home safely now, we are going out tonight but we are in a small town and should be OK.

Sorry about the flooding @HazelNotHungryLC but glad you got it sorted.

What trouble is going on dragons & ED?

Welcome back @MissMarplesNiece 👋 I recognise your username

Ditzy they may need more than just a poke! I know what you mean about SM being toxic. I actually haven't spent much time on fb since 2020! I do still have my account and post about once a year, but that's pretty much it! I don't scroll on there anymore. It's a time waster.

I did get everything else done that I needed to, thankfully.

@HazelNotHungryLC I’ll send you a pm.

Family are due to arrive back from holiday on Friday, to city where trouble is anticipated. They’ve had no signal, so I texted them for a heads-up. I’m concentrating on getting the house and garden nice for them coming back here over the weekend.

Very cold spells in the garden today, so did a mixture of stuff. Tesco delivery away as soon as it arrived. Coffee table is cleared off, decluttered stuff is in boxes and bags in the hall for disposal. Some branches trimmed and chopped up for garden bin. Utility and kitchen are a work in progress. Doing more of the same tomorrow.

Yesterday I did all of my to do list except plant hanging basket, which can go on today's list. Mind you my list was very short.

Today's to do list:
🌞 plant hanging basket
🌞 diabetic eye check - which will then mean blurry vision for a couple of hours so may be out of action 🙁
🌞 Go back to chemist because items were missing from my repeat prescription order when I collected it yesterday. I foresee a long struggle while they insist I got the items and I explain over and over that I didn't
🌞 Empty "broom" cupboard of items that can go to tip next week.

Marple I hate when that happens. I always open the bag and check now before I leave. My old pharmacy was a devil for putting in substitute cheaper versions of what I'd been prescribed and which were less effective.

It was mainly MN Hazel I decided to post on some other threads this past month but got bored of it already, this place is just full of trolls and arguments, I'm sticking to this thread. FB I never used except marketplace to sell and then I decided not to sell but to donate, so there became no point to it any more. I used to do Instagram a bit but then I read this magazine article which said how to grow your Instagram account and become an influencer (and make money I think was the aim) and it said one of the ways was to randomly ♥️ or follow people so they'd notice your account and maybe follow you back. So I got cynical that anyone actually liked my pics and decided it was a waste of time.

I hope your family don't get any trouble from the riots tomorrow Scourgify.

I had a duvet day and did nothing useful today.

Ditzy a duvet day is needed sometimes! Did you enjoy your day?
I never could figure out Instagram 😂 I had created an account, added pictures, couldn't find them again and gave up!

Thinking of you all, especially those of you in troublesome areas or know of others who are.