Flylady Thread: Fledglings flying into Sunny September

[DillyDeclutter]

It's September, a good time for a fresh start! 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 has a different mission for the zone we are in.

Daily focus:
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: 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. Although there are some issues with the website and app right now, so bear with me!

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

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

Thanks dilly

I am looking forward to this all kids in school or above era! This is the first time in 17 years I won't have had a child under school age (yes, this is insane)

Currently waiting for little dc to tidy bedroom so I can hoover it. They are being rewarded with trip to the park

I am mid way through washing / drying / naming uniforms ......

Oh my word 😱😱😱 that’s overwhelming.

So entrances/porches all week….? Are there specific things to do? (Mine should probably be nuked).

We are finished with school now but DD is off to uni in three weeks and I'm back as a school governor for INSET day on Thursday. DS is graduating in September so he is properly out of education now.

Last week I went through thousands of old photos on a nearly dead laptop (they are backed up) to shift them to cloud storage lots of ones of my two at primary school, awww.

@suitcasesarepacked

So entrances/porches all week….? Are there specific things to do?

There are daily missions for each zone. I think they're different as each zone comes round - so today's will be different from the next Tuesday in the porch/entrance zone.
I quite like following these as it means little extra jobs get done in these areas that I'd probably forget otherwise.
The thing about Flylady that I like is being told what to do and not having to think.
Funnily enough, DH finds that hard to believe...
I don't normally use Facebook but managed to find this which I think is today's mission:

Today you are to sweep your front porch area around your front door. Shake out your welcome mats and wipe down your front door. This makes a huge difference in how your home looks.

I do the mat during my usual downstairs home bleurgh but I will wipe the doors and windowsills down.
Hope that helps a bit 😊

Yes, I think she probably has about 10 missions on rotation in each zone so they come round every few months if they really are not needed too often (e.g. decluttering old make-up) or most months for things like tidying your bedside tables.

Hi Fly-tastic people! I've been off these threads for too long, so hopping back on as September always feels like the start of a new year for me (maybe especially as I work in education)
off to catch up with all of you. I've done my 15 mins declutter today, and next on the list is fold the clean laundry.
yesterday I spent a whole day de-grossing my son's pit of dispair bedroom while he was out, would have liked to pace it but he was out that day (and yes, should have got him involved but honestly it was painful enough without him, he struggles with getting rid of things..... and now he has a place that he can relax and is easy for him to keep clean.)
I really need to do that on the rest of the house!!! Baby steps...

suitcases it really can get overwhelming, that why she suggests staying with the baby steps. Those are what build your routines (morning, afternoon, evening). Once you have established your routines (could take months), then you move onto the daily focus and weekly zones.
You can pick and choose what works for you though. We don't judge here!
Flylady is against perfection, "better than it was" will do!

Welcome back Captain 👋

Popping in to say hello 👋 Will I stay or will I head back to the naughty corner for September, who knows, I may stick to the routine for more than a week this time !

So much has happened over the summer , I got married , went on holiday and had some great family time . The house is looking a little dirty for itself and I'm ready to get back into the routine (although the 2 days back at work this week already has me on the countdown to October half term 🤪

Dd1 is off to uni this month so it will be a busy and emotional month so a little structure will help ! I am going to start by doing the evening routine :
10 minute tidy
Clothes ready for tomorrow
Empty the kitchen sink & put dishwasher on
10 minutes laundry
Showered & hair washed

Hoping to be finished and in my pjs for 9 to catch up on bake off ! (Hopefully it will be on catch up by this time )

I hope every one is doing well and is healthy .

Everything on the list completed ✔️

I couldn't watch the great British bake off because it isn't on catch up yet so I'm off to read 🙂

Oooh congratulations @Searchingfordaffodils ! DD and I did watch Bake-Off, she's off to uni soon too and I will miss watching TV with her.

My routines are as follows (bear in mind that my DCs are young adults).

Morning
Try and get up before anyone else
Feed cats
Check phone
Open back door for a bit of fresh air
Drink a cup of hot water
A few exercises (stretches etc)
Swish and swipe bathroom
Hang out laundry weather permitting
Get packed lunch out of fridge
Get ready for work and go

Evening
Unpack lunch bag
Prep next day's lunch
Put out anything I need to take to work on the hall table
Few more stretches
Load of laundry on
Diary
Clean clothes away
Clothes out for next day (sometimes, especially if I need to be smarter)

Oooh, congratulations on your wedding Searching

ED you'll have to video chat with DD while watching TV! Even just once a week.

Ta das:
🌻 dentist
🌻 took dogs to groomer
🌻 put away 4th of July decor (yes I know that was a while ago now..)
🌻 washed the half wall surrounding the stairs (top and outside stairs)
🌻 washed the walls going down the stairs
🌻 washed the walls in the side entryway (our main entrance)
🌻 put out the autumn decor
🌻 LOLs x7, the odd loads like blankets from the couch, bedding, towels etc.

I still need to do my bedtime routine..

pmk

Congratulations searching! welcome to everyone who has found us so far.

Wednesday is anti procrastination day. Do something you have been putting off. I need to research and buy a new laptop, I have had the budget set aside for some time and i will need it for a side hustle in mid September. Will I do it? Possibly not . . .

Today's mission is to spend 15 minutes decluttering in your dining room. No more, even if it's chaos (mine is!)

Today's baby step is to explore the website. Don't forget to also shine your sink and get dressed as soon as you get up! http://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/day-3/

Good morning everyone. I've skim read.... I've pulled out my control journal I've not looked at much during the school holidays. Inside I have listed the baby steps and my routine in it as well as some inspirational quotes. I've decided I will pick up from baby step 8/9 as 8 is the control journal. Step 9 is 5 minute room rescue. Fly lady says pick a room you can't walk through that you didn't let visitors on and clear a path. We recently have a room like that as stuff has been tidied to the attic room. Stuff that should leave the house...

@DillyDeclutter have a look at Costco for your laptop? We just got what is apparently a good one from there (DH is in charge of tech in our house as I'm slightly allergic to tech 🤣) for our son's sixth form computer. It seemed pretty reasonable!
I've got a load of laundry on the go and I am going to have a crack at my eldest's room today while they are at school - I've been given permission to go through his wardrobe and have a cull. The glamour.
Also have 2 hours of on site training for my job today.
have fun all!

Morning all

The thing i have been putting off - taking the little dc for hair cuts ✂️ can I achieve this? Maybe .....

Congratulations Searching!

I did manage to prepare well on Monday night, it really helped to have my clothes sorted and my "PE bag" (running gear) ready to leave the house, but left work late yesterday, didn't eat until gone 9pm and that was that. Got some rolls out of the freezer for lunch today, picked out my clothes for this morning and did a bedtime yoga before bed though.

Our cleaners usually come on Wednesday but they are off sick, so my husband didn't do his usual Tuesday night tidy and we're going to have to do the basics at some point.

Hope you all have a good day!

Ta da so far
✅️ got dressed
✅️ made bed
✅️ LOL on
✅️ recycling bag out for collection
✅️ made dc hair appointment

@DillyDeclutter we've just bought DD a laptop for uni. We went for mid-range, she doesn't need a high powered one but we want it to last. Spec = i5 chip, 16GB RAM, 477 GB hard drive. You could drop down on the hard drive if you will be mostly using cloud storage.

Checking in. Anticipating another month of good flying downstairs and bathrooms then falling off the wagon as soon as we get to bedrooms etc. Ah well, it all helps.

Thank you for the congratulations ❤️

ED I understand how your feeling about missing the little moments spent together , lots of phone calls and FaceTimes will be needed , sending you a hug 🤗

My anti procrastination task was to email a club that dd2 has decided to give up so they can take her off the books , I've been meaning to do this for a couple of weeks now (the club closes over the summer). I've feel better for sending a nice email rather than not showing up to the class .

Apart

Sorry I hit post before finishing !

Apart from the email, ordering dd1 some birthday things , the only other tadas is the basic stuff ( clothes out, food cooked and pots washed) .

👋 Cabbage good to see you again! Just keep doing what you can, eventually you'll get the whole house done!

YesTaDas (that I forgot to add):
🌻 put away some coats/ jackets from the entryway
🌻 wiped down the doors (back door and side door)

Ta das:
🍁 worked all day
🍁 started on the pie DS requested for his birthday on Friday
🍁 wiped countertops down (DS rotated DW for me)

Still to do:
😴 take a shower
😴 get my clothes out for the morning
😴 get to bed (before 11pm haha!) I have less than an hour!

Morning

Cabbage I am the same with upstairs vs downstairs!

Today is errand day, run some errands so your weekend is free for fun. I'll be doing the supermarket shop.

Today's mission is to spend 15 minutes (no more!) decluttering the areas visitors first come into. Not having the worlds biggest house, for me thats the porch/conservatory and the kitchen, we already did the first earlier this week so I'll be in the second today.

Today's baby step is to write out your new daily routine (shine sink, get dressed) on a post it and put it somewhere visible http://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/day-4/

Torrential rain forecast here (good really, the pond in our local woods has virtually dried up) but I'm very behind on the washing. Oh well, tomorrow looks better.

Thanks for the laptop advice, I put it off again and did all the mending instead. Maybe tomorrow!

Our dog has an upset stomach, hopefully the tail end but it's his first day home alone with DH working in a school so I'll go home at lunch to check. He woke us up at 5am needing toilet, had gone at 11pm, normally he is fine 7-7 overnight.

This morning tadas:

Got kids breakfast, had myself a healthy breakfast too of poached egg on beetroot.

Unloaded dishwashers

Did not put TV on for toddler who was out of bed same time as us.

Got DD off to her first day at school, told her how to sort out her button, smart shirt collar and elastic tie rather than do.it for her. She's in year 3 and it's smart shirt instead of polo.

DH did the bags and lunches, tied DDs hair and took toddler to my aunts for the day.

My antiprocastination will be book dentist as we're overdue and missed an appointment.