Grab your broomstick and fly with us into the October Flylady thread! 🎃🦇👻

[HauntingHazel]

Cobwebs, witches and ghouls await us as we head into October. The weather is changing (here anyway) so what better time to start, or restart, new routines!

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!

Zones:

1. Entryway, porch and dining room
2. Kitchen
3. Bathroom and one other room
4. Master bedroom
5. Living room

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: 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. Well, they should but there is some technical difficulties on their end while they update the website. You can also check out the Facebook page, she updates that daily multiple times

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

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

Wednesday is anti-procrastination day.

Wednesday's mission is to sweep your front porch/ step/ entryway. Shake out your mats, wipe down your front door. This is the first thing you see before you enter your home, it makes such a big difference!

Baby Step 1: https://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/#google_vignette
Shine your sinks! Empty your sink (preferably do your dishes first), clean your sink using any cleaner you'd prefer, then shine it using window cleaner. Buff it up to make it really shine.
It makes such a huge difference walking into the kitchen 1st thing in the morning and seeing an empty, shiny sink. So try to do this in the evening.

As I had posted on the last thread, today (Tuesday) was a crazy day for me. Nothing went as planned. Hair appt moved to next week, groomer had to change the time for the dogs, messaged by my boss to pick a hoodie for work, by 4pm. Messaged by DH to find some paperwork so he could do some admin on his lunch break (I gladly found it, thankfully!).

I wanted to get my Halloween decorations up, I got started on them..
I did get other ta das done:
🎃 LOLs x8 (but I cheated and did a delay start on the washer last night so it would be done when I woke up. We were behind and DH didn't have a clean work shirt
🎃 started putting Halloween decorations up (we go all out here)
🎃 interrupted by boss..
🎃 more decorations
🎃 interrupted by DH - found paperwork
🎃 more decorations
🎃 took the dogs to groomer
🎃 picked DS up from school
🎃 bathed dogs
🎃 vacuumed
🎃 mopped
🎃 bleached both bathrooms
🎃 put clean clothes away and remade bed since I washed the sheets
🎃 rotated DW
🎃 handwashed dishes & put away
🎃 wiped countertops & sink

I'm now falling asleep, it's been a day for sure!

Morning, thanks for the new thread @HauntingHazel. I put on a load of washing this morning, and thought towels aren't part of any plan or routine? When do you wash towels? I'm just getting my head around the weekly house blessing, is it in there? I also read about laundry being part of the morning routine. But I need a short daily morning routine with my busy life and not adding laundry to a school day when I now take both children.

.

Thanks to Dilly for September, and to Hazel for October.

September saw the Teens at new hobbies / sports, which has meant a lot more ferrying around in the evenings. So routines are getting switched around in order to accommodate them. I’m also doing school drop-off every morning now for very valid reasons and that feels as though it takes hours! Thinking I should completely reset and join the five o’clock club.

Front porch has decorative indentations in the plasterwork, and the spiders love them! I noticed the webs yesterday, but procrastinated as usual. Definitely tackling that today.

I did complete one irritating paperwork task yesterday that had dragged out over weeks due to miscommunication. I had such a sense of relief afterwards, even though I hadn’t been conscious of being stressed about it before.

Thank you @HauntingHazel and also Dilly for last month. I'm away for a few days at the moment but hoping to get back into routines a bit this month, September was crazily busy.

@Alwayslearning25 I tend to do towels on Fri or Sat as those are the days I'm most likely to be at home but it does depend on the weather as I like to line dry whenever possible.

Thank you Dilly for running September thread!

Alwayslearning25 I wash my towels on Tuesdays, when I'm off. It isn't part of any routine or day specifically on flylady. I really want to get into a routine of laundry daily, especially when DS moves out, although we will have him here for a few more years yet. I want to utilise the delay button on my washer! I've used it a couple of times now and it works so well!

Scourgify I would be tempted to leave the cobwebs until the 1st of November! 🕷🕸
I know what you mean about the school run taking hours! I felt like I was at the school 50,000 times yesterday 😞 it was 4 times.

ED I love your new username! I do hope things settle down for you soon.

Thanks for the new thread Hazel!

Too many Cobwebs in this house already i fear, although the dc have collected millions of conkers which apparently keep spiders away so maybe fewer through October.

We have overnight cheap electricity 11.30-5 so I always use my timer, wash goes on at 12 and finishes around 4 (long eco cycle) and I hang out each morning when I wake up. Its a helpful addition to my routine.

@HauntingHazel I have got out of the habit of seasonal namechanges (does anyone remember when MN used to run competitions for the best one?) but seeing yours reminded me. I do tweak my name a lot though.

ED yes, I remember the competitions! I never joined in though as I don't live in the UK, so wouldn't have been able to win anyway.

Dilly that's a good idea to take advantage of the cheaper electricity.

I got a little more decorations up, some I had help with from DH.
I have my clothes out for tomorrow and my lunch is already at ILs as I had taken too much today!
I worked all day so not much for ta das. Leftovers for dinner and DS rotated DW.

Thursday is errand day.

Thursday's mission is to spend 15 minutes in the dining room. Time to clear the table of papers and other things that may end up there. If you're having to move things around each evening to eat dinner at the table, put them away where they belong. But only spend 15 minutes on this, set your timer and go!

Baby Step 2: https://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/day-2/
Get dressed to lace up shoes (in the morning, of course), although we don't wear shoes in our house.
To me this means get dressed and ready for the day, if you have to leave the house all of a sudden, are you ready?
Then, before bed, shine your sink.

Thanks for the new thread @HauntingHazel
I'm still run down and tired. I've got a few hospital appointments in the next 6 weeks, plus DP is finally getting his hernia repaired at the end of the month.
I've cleared my diary of everything non essential, and I'm hoping to spend my spare time decluttering at least, if not cleaning.
I've got a concertina filing system arriving today, I don't have a lot of paperwork but it will mean it's tidy and accessible.
Went to sort out the corner of my bedroom that has become a dumping ground, had a nice surprise when I found just a tiny amount of stuff needing putting away, and the rest was recycling and rubbish.
I'm going to have to fill that corner with the stuff I'm saving for my son to sort through, because it's currently in my study/music room, all my music stands and instruments are currently living in the dining room. Along with the spare wardrobe and big fan, which I tripped over.
The fan can't go away because it lives in the cupboard under the stairs, because it's blocked by the boxes of stuff waiting for me to book a doorstep collection, which I won't do until my son has taken what he wants.
And due to illness, both ends, work schedules etc his visits have been postponed three times.
I have kept up with my LOLs, pot washing, sink cleaning, usual animal related chores. We're all "fed not dead" here 🙂

Cherry it sounds like you have a lot going on right now! It'll be nice when you have a clear space in both your bedroom and your dining room! I wish DH a speedy recovery for his surgery later this month (assuming it'll require surgery anyway!).

Yes he's having surgery, I'll probably have to lock him up because he seems to think he'll be back up and out in a few days lol.
I was in agony for ages after my repair, and his is the size of a melon, mine was like a golf ball.
I had a blitz of the dog room, hoovered, dusted and mopped, washed their bedding, hoovered all of downstairs.
Had to clean the WM filter part way through a wash, which was brutal on my poor knees 😅

We had parent teacher conference this evening, after work, so not home much. Quick dinner of leftovers afterwards and I'm soon going to be ready for bed as I'm so tired tonight!

Cherry I understand the making DH rest. I know of someone who thought he'd be right back to work the next day, but he was very wrong!

Friday is clean out your car and handbag day.
It's also date night.

Friday's mission is to spend 15 minutes doing whatever needs doing in zone 1. Vacuum, dust, 27 boogie fling (literally get rid of 27 things).

Baby Step 3: https://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/day-3/
Explore the Flylady website. You can also look around on the app or go onto Facebook. You just might want to set a timer so you don't get sucked in the whole day!
Get dressed to shoes in the morning.
Shine your sink before bed.

Saturday is family fun day!
We are going to go to a straw maze and pumpkin patch in the afternoon (I'm planning on working on more Halloween decorations).
What is everyone else up to?

There are no missions on the weekend.

Baby Step 4: https://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/day-4/
Write the baby steps we have so far on sticky notes, this is the beginning of your control journal. Place these on your bathroom mirror, fridge etc, wherever you'll see them sshhhh, I've never done this step, the sticky notes would drive me insane!
Shine your sink (before bed)
Get dressed to shoes (in the morning)
Read the Flylady message on her website or app

@HauntingHazel we have a birthday heavy weekend with DH family coming for birthday dinner, then my cousin's DD 7th birthday party at her house tomorrow. Straw maze and pumpkin patch sounds fun. A lot more punkin patches have appeared here, everywhere seems to do one but we are going to the best one in the area, which is only open a week at the end of October. A proper one where the pumpkins have grown on the field they open, and there's a variety, they do a little maize too and a hay bale climbing area/ penned in little kids area with ride ons, and little sculptures with a trail.

The pumpkin activities sound like great fun! My grandchildren live 200 miles away, I'd love to be able to do some fun stuff with them more often.
Maybe I can start a rent-a-granny service lol.
My DP has offered to help me sort the house out this weekend, hopefully between us we should get it organised enough to be able to clean it.
Happy TaDas everyone!

I have found the missing library book while decluttering in the sitting room!

We grew our own pumpkins this year and had a ceremonial picking last week! It was fun but i'm not sure I really understand the pumpkin patch thing. We live rurally so I suppose the "activity together outside" element isn't such a draw for us.

My dc are at the age where weekend classes are a big thing so we have 2x swimming, 2x gymnastics, a birthday party and a drama rehearsal. Not much time for anything else around those!

Commenting, so I can follow the thread 😎

Hi @Tomatotomatoo

I'm struggling to keep motivated, keep sitting down and procrastinating.
I need a few more shelves for my bookcases, won't order them until I know how many.
Upstairs is about 75% in order.
I'm having a rare day when I don't need to venture outside so I should make the most of it and crack on really.
Having discussions with DP about building me a walk in wardrobe in my bedroom, there's plenty of room for one, would be about 12' × 6', and would solve all my storage issues of my vast coat collection and linen etc, as well as my clothes.

@DillyDeclutter I don't suppose my missing guitar stand was with your library book 😁?
I used it a couple of weeks ago and can't find it anywhere.

@CherryogDog my parents live far away so I would sign up to a rent-a-granny. We had my aunt local. She's been a real help and loves children but she's had lots of her own grandchildren recently and she might move nearer them, esspecaly yet youngest as my cousin split with her boyfriend when pregnant.

We're having a difficult time, most weekend plans are off as DD has a vomiting bug and DS has threadworms. So towels and bedding have all gone through a hot wash and we've done loads of hoovering and got worming tablets. But I've not treated DD with her vomiting. Maybe this evening. I'd read up all about the horrible worms and saw one today. Ds had been asking for bum cream past couple of days. He had managed to do it himself one time when we weren't paying attention.

And DD fractured her wrist on Wednesday, so can't easily wash her hands. Poor sausage, she's playing video game with DH now.

Hello October 🎃

Catching up ...