🍁 Flylady November — Slow Days, Warm Drinks, and Shiny Sinks (title edited by MNHQ at request of OP)

[Alwayslearning25]

Well, here we are — darker evenings, the smell of woodsmoke in the air, and that slightly panicky feeling that Christmas is somehow next month. But fear not, lovely Flyladies — we’ve got this (mostly).

This thread is our little corner of calm amongst the chaos — a place to cheer each other on, share small wins, and occasionally moan about the state of the laundry mountain. Whether you’re shining your sink for the first time or just trying to keep the kitchen table visible for more than an hour, you’re in good company.

The Flylady system is all about baby steps — 15 minutes at a time, routines that mostly stick, and being kind to ourselves when life happens (because it always does). Pop in, post your list, or just lurk with a cuppa — everyone’s welcome.
Let’s make November about cosy corners, tidy-ish rooms, and gentle progress — before December sweeps in with tinsel and mince pies.
Kettle’s on. Who’s flying today? ☕🕯️🧺

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

Cherry that's exciting you're about done with decluttering! 🥳

I hope you're feeling better soon Alwayslearning25

@HazelNuttyElf I'm starting to suspect you are actually Flylady herself, as you always have amazing TaDas! 🙂

More of my charity stuff went last night, my dining room is so empty it's very echoey.
We're having a lazy day today, but will drop the bags of clothes off at some point.

Excellent progress @CherryogDog 🥇

Come back when you are ready @Alwayslearning25

You live in a social whirl @HazelNuttyElf !

Sorry forgot to post yesterday but there are no missions at the weekends. Sunday is renew your spirit day which means doing something just for you, whether it's a small thing like watching a TV programme or a big trip out to the theatre or similar.

Yesterday turned out glorious here so I did two stints at the allotment. Also went into town for Christmas cake ingredients and a few other bits (including under the sink things). Then watched Strictly and the Remembrance Festival.

Tomorrow we move into Zone 3 the bathroom and one other room.

Babysteps - Saturday was to start your control journal. I've been doing Flylady for 15 years and never got round to this but am about to start a new bullet journal and think I might make a Flylady page especially as the website and app are so erratic now. I have taken one for the team and signed up for the emails and my advice is still "don't" as they are very long winded, trying to sell you bankrupt stock etc but some of the thoughts for the day are helpful and the zones are up to date.

Today's babystep is 5 minute room rescue where you make a dent in the worst issues in the worst room. Ours is the landing so I might do that this morning.

While I was looking at the babysteps I found this useful glossary of Flylady terms

https://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/fly-faq/#rescue

Today I'm focusing on clearing flat surfaces. Then planning for Christmas and the rest of the year. Checking my present ideas and what I've got already.

Ah shit .... I went a bit AWOL!

Started this weekend feeling a bit overwhelmed on the Christmas front but feeling a bit better now. Ordered a tree, enforced Christmas list writing and wrote down dates for event etc so that has helped

Catching up with you all now

🤣😂🤣🤣 Cherry 🤣😂🤣😂 I'm definitely not flylady! Yesterday actually went so smoothly it felt wrong!
It must feel weird having the dining room echoey when it hasn't been before. Well done on clearing everything!

ED we really enjoy entertaining/ hosting. I do wish I had more space in the main living area, but we'll make do until we move in a few years.
Thank you for taking one for the team and signing up for the emails. If her fb page is anything to go by, there's a lot!

timoteigirl that sounds like a good plan for Christmas!

THE getting started on Christmas usually helps make it feel less overwhelming, even if all you do initially is write a list, just getting it down on paper can help.
I need to have my 2 DC work on a list. This year is going to be smaller, gifts wise, for everyone. I already have a few ideas, but nothing big.

Took all the bags of clothes to the donation bin today. Had a minor ouch at the amount of money they'd all cost me, but hopefully it's taught me to spend more mindfully in the future.
Just a bag of books and some kitchen stuff to take to the charity shop.
But I'm ready (how many years have I been dipping in and out of these threads 😳) to start keeping up with the flying.

Concentrated on laundry and kitchen. All uniform clean and ready for the new week, and fridge-freezers tidy with gaps appearing. I’m focussing on eating from fridge and cupboard and buying only absolute essentials.

Been reading a few threads recently about elderly parents and downsizing. I don’t want to do that yet, so instead we’re working our way through a massive to-do list. eg electrics are up to code, sorting out some plumbing issues, getting roof checked. No matter how much gets done, there’s still more to add to the list. And always the decluttering. I’m feeling the attraction of minimalism right now.

Morning! Monday means Zone 3, the bathroom and one other room.

The mission today is to check supplies in your bathroom, do you need toilet rool, toothpaste, cleaning materials etc, put them on your shopping list. We only have one bathroom so it is easy here and I tend to just keep an eye on things and replace as we go, but when we run out of toilet roll I tend to plan a trip to Costco.

Monday is Home Blessing Day (or for those that find that a bit twee Home Bleugh). Flylady sets her timer for 10 minutes for each of the following:
Vacuum
Dust
Quick Mop
Polich mirrors and doors
Purge magazines and catalogues
Change sheets
Empty all trash cans.

If you can’t do all this at once then feel free to break it up and do it on different days but it is a good basic weekly minimum.

Babystep today (annoyingly these aren’t in the very long email)
https://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/day-10/

The power of 15 - this is really about using your timer and giving yourself permission to stop. In my case it is also giving yourself a set time in which to avoid picking up your phone. Set a timer for 15 minutes and tackle some tidying or cleaning. Then stop.

I forgot - yesterday I menu planned. It is the one aspect that tends to completely evade me, everyone here has quite different tastes and we all go out a lot in the evnings, often at short notice so it can be overwhelming. Anyway I took my phone to the freezer, took photos of what’s in there and the fridge and sat down to work it out. It is easier with DD away although she often cooks for herself, as does DS now. But it is good to have a rough outline.

When I was a kid we ate the same 7 dinners every day of the week. I'd happily do that, DP hates any home routine/rota. He does most of the cooking.
We do have too much food waste which is something I'd like to tackle.
I want to get a bigger freezer and batch cook more. And have a "filing" system so I know where and what everything is. When I cleared out the freezer there were things I couldn't identify, and stuff that I had labelled that was 4 years old.

We have too much food waste too, we are pretty good about recycling, buying from the fill-up shop, all those sorts of things but food waste is definitely an area for improvement for us. That happened to me about 6 months ago with the freezer when I had a big clear out @CherryogDog - things are better now but there are still some unidentified containers (I think they are stewed rhubarb).

I'm tentatively dipping my toe in the water and saying hello. I tried Flylady about 15 years ago and it did help but I got overwhelmed by the emails! So I'm back to try again, but I want to be more relaxed about it this time!

@Confusedmeanderings hello and welcome!

Welcome @Confusedmeanderings! 👋
Definitely do not sign up for the emails! Just do a little at a time (baby steps), to build your routines!

ED I also need to sort out my freezer. We don't usually have too much food waste, but some weeks there's more than others. I usually plan meal around having leftovers, so each meal makes 2 or 3 dinners. Less cooking!

Cherry we did the same thing growing up! I remember that Friday night dinner was always fish. Sometimes we would get fish and chips, other times mum would make pilchard souffle.

I'm not at work today, so taking advantage of the extra day off.
Today's plan:
🍬 bank
🍬 shopping - to find a new tablecloth, Christmas ornaments (wooden) and wrapping paper
🍬 grocery shopping (including stocking up for Thanksgiving and Christmas)
🍬 make truffles and caramels for Thanksgiving
🍬 make a post on fb to sell my goodies for Thanksgiving
🍬 laundry

Today's Christmas mission:
🎄 27 fling boogie. Carry a rubbish bag of some kind with you around the house, throw away any rubbish you find.

Well I managed to shine my sink! I also:

🎈Cleared the clutter from the worktops in the utility

🎈Swept the kitchen

🎈Figured out where my hot spots are - the coffee table in the living room, the end of the couch, the top of the sideboard in the kitchen and the stairs.

🎈Took a parcel to the post office

🎈Did some admin id been putting off doing.

🎈Decluttered the cabinet in the bathroom

That was enough!

That's a great start confused especially to work out where your hotspots are. It really does help.

Ta das:
🍬 LOLs x3
🍬 put away clean laundry
🍬 bank
🍬 washed Jeep in carwash
🍬 went shopping, only found a tablecloth
🍬 grocery shopping, including buying some food for Thanksgiving
🍬 put groceries away
🍬 made milk chocolate truffle centres, they're now in the freezer, ready to be dipped
🍬 wiped the hob clean, it got really splashed on from me making dinner tonight!
🍬 wiped kitchen countertops
🍬 DS rotated DW after dinner

I did create a ad for my goodies and posted it to fb. I really need to make a little extra money for Christmas this year, it seems really tight. I also need to reign in my spending at Christmas, it's just really hard when I love giving to people. I'm really trying this year. Anyone else?

Well done @Confusedmeanderings and @HazelNuttyElf great lists.

Tuesday is Plan and Play Day. I had a really good planning session on Sunday when I carried forward all sorts of things from my old bullet journal to a new one. I will be overlapping to finish the diary pages in the old one for a couple more weeks till it’s full but I wanted to move all my ongoing lists forward. I have added a Flylady page with a list of daily and monthly focus and babysteps and left one blank for my routines. Never attempted a control journal before, will see how it goes.

Our monthly habit is menu planning, we did stick to that last night.

Today’s mission is to get some cleaner and scrub the countertops in your bathroom and shine the bathroom sink. We have a few shelves as well as a small section of counter and they could do with doing too.

Babystep for today (no 11) is to add some inspirational quotes to your control journal, from the Flylady website or elsewhere. That might be a bit 🤮 or it might be nice, I find it depends on my mood and some of the Flylady messaging is devoutly Christian in nature so that may not be for you. But maybe think about any other phrases that you find positive.

✅️ upstairs bathroom cleaned.
✅️ downstairs bathroom/dog room half cleaned, it was raining heavy and had nowhere for me to put the dogs while I cleaned.
✅️ one LOL washed and hung up, one LOL put away.
✅️ hard floors swept.
✅️ cleaned sink, doesn't shine because it's porcelain.
✅️ advertised a pair of boots and a coat I'm selling.

Nothing today because we've got an afternoon gig.

Sorry, completely forgot to post this morning, will come back on in my lunchbreak and do it.

And forgot to come back at lunchtime too . I’m not getting remimded by the emails as I signed up with a junk address that I only use for MN and a couple of other sites so I don’t look into the mailbox routinely.

Anyway back on track today, Thursday. Which is Errand Day.

Our ‘other room’ today is the laundry area, whether that’s a utility room, part of the kitchen or whatever. Straighten it up, wipe down the sides, chuck out any empty packages. Our WM is in the kitchen, tumble dryer in the garage and we iron in our bedroom so it is all a bit scattered but I will do a quick whizz round all three areas later.

Im still doing my dailies. House is not yet recovered after the weekend, but better than it was.

Done a lot of errands today too! - Just the shopping, LOL etc.

My laundry area was the first Flylady mission I tackled and it made me happy for a long time! I really do need to revisit though, my charity shop/Vinted/tip trip piles are in there and it's got too chaotic.

Hi,
I have taken a little break from the internet, but am back tonight. I managed to clean down the kitchen after cooking better than normal 2 days this week. I've also listed a few items on vinted and a couple of them sold, not for very much, but kids clothes I like to know they go to someone who wants them. I prefer to give them to friends but, I like seeing dds old clothes on a friend's child. But mostly, people don't want them, vitned is saturated, I did.sell a bundle of very tatty baby trousers for £1...I have finally got some sort of system going for clothes I don't want. One box 'to list on vinted'.one for 'listed on vinted'.and a bag to go to the charity shop/clothes bin.
Sadly our clothes bin opposite our house is gone. Dds school did a collection recently I used, particularly for shoes as it was calculated on weight and the school got a percentage of money raised.

Thanks @EnchantingDecoration for taking over the thread, I'll still step back.

Hi @Alwayslearning25 I keep hearing that Vinted is tricky at the moment, I haven’t tried it since last winter, I have gone back to sending things to the charity shop for ease but I have got a couple of unwanted winter coats that I really ought to list now (put them away in spring with a view to selling in autumn).

Anyway, here we are on Friday again. Today’s focus is cleaning out your car and handbag. My bag is OK, my car is decidedly not but it is very wet and miserable out there so that might have to wait. It is also date night, but DH is going away for the weekend so I am planning a date with the telly.

The mission for today is to get some anti-bac spray and go round the house wiping lightswitches and door handles.

The babystep today is using your calendar. There is an essay to read https://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/day-14/

We only really use phone calendars now but the principles are the same I guess (haven’t read it).