Spring into action: Flying into April, a flylady April thread

[Positivepositron]

Welcome to the April thread. This is my first time starting a flylady thread. And I've been doing flylady about a month but very are many on the thread who are years in.

I'm cutting and pasting Hazel's great intro which explains everything:

Whether you're starting to build a new routine, stuck in a rut, or been around for years, join us on the Flylady thread. I'll try to keep us on track for the month, with baby steps, daily missions and weekly zones.

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:
🩷Entryway, porch and dining room
🩷Bathroom & one other room
🩷Kitchen
🩷Master bedroom & master bathroom
🩷Living room

Don't worry about finishing it all this month, it'll come around again next month! Flylady is NOT about perfectionism!

Daily focus: each day of the week has a different 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 😆
• S&S: Swish & Swipe (wipe the bathroom sink & toilet)
• 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, if I can get them to work, she's updated the website! Although if you can, it's worth downloading the newly updated 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 👇
Daily missions (for the zone we are in): https://beta.flylady.net/daily-mission
Baby steps (on a different website, since the link isn't working on the new site yet): https://mymerrymessylife.com/flylady-31-baby-steps/

Feel free to ask any questions you may have, some of us have been doing Flylady for a very long time, as well as others just starting out. We may have other things to add that we have found works for us that could help you too!

Average sort of day but I got a bit of hoovering done and I've given the bathroom floor a good scrub. Might do five minutes in the utility room in a bit

Tada
🥳 all routines
🥳 didn’t wash hair in the shower, used the extra 10 mins to fold some clean clothes
🥳 school and work
🥳 tea made (went for tuna pasta in the end and cooked some part baked baguettes 😋)
🥳 tea pots sorted and DW on
🥳 dd2 to gymnastics
🥳 30 mins ironing
🥳 for the decluttering task , I cleared the bottom shelf of the bathroom cupboard (I did the top last month) threw nearly a full handy bag out ! Things that had been partly used , put in the cupboard and forgotten about !

I’m absolutely shattered , the vitamins don’t seem to be helping but I’ll keep taking them and hopefully they’ll help 🤞 there’s more I could do but I am relaxing now then going to bed to read at a decent hour. I really could do with doing the house bleurgh but maybe I’ll miss the 15 mins decluttering tomorrow and swap it for some of the weekly tasks 🙂

Morning sending a coffee to those that need it ☕️

tada
🥳 445 alarm
🥳 an hour on paperwork (didn’t get completed what I wanted to, something wasn’t working so had to change tasks, still productive though)
🥳 morning coffee

I have a meeting tonight so a late finish , hope everyone has a good day 🙂

Morning all! Thanks for the warm welcome 🥰

Monday ended up fairly productive although predictably I crashed in the afternoon. Tuesday I was shattered after very little sleep but I’m proud I still managed a little decluttering while dinner was in the oven.

My biggest achievement of the week so far though is that I have arranged a tip run. I’m rubbish at asking for help but I managed to ask my friend as she’s offered in passing before. So on Monday we will go. As I’m out all weekend I’ll try and make the most of the next few days.

Given up on getting more sleep so I should just get up and moving! Would love to train myself to be a morning person 🤣

Power of 3
❗️vitamins and OJ
❗️breakfast
❗️write a to do list… including the stuff I didn’t do on Monday 😳😂

Wiped down the mini fridge and ordered items for my own food plan. Arriving this morning from tesco.

One LoL, then stripped and washed TeenBoy’s bedding.

Tidied and hoovered living-room.

Today more of the same. It’s the turn of TeenGirl’s bedding. I had some thoughts about the kitchen to make it more manageable. The living-room could use more effort.

Flylady app and website don't seem to have updated with a mission.

Wednesday is anti procrastination day! I need to do some paperwork.

Babystep is to make the bed every morning. I do like this habit whenever I go in my room it looks so much nicer with the bed made.

I would be interested in your ideas for making the kitchen more manageable. I feel like the layout of mine makes some cupboards hard to use so things are dumped in them or piled up. I'm wondering if some kind of stackable trays would work in these. Not sure what I'd then use them for. Maybe tea bags in one cupboard. I have a narrow cupboard that's a jumble of different tea bags, vitamins and ground coffee bags and anything at the back just languishes until its useless.
And another corner cupboard where you can't get at anything. I think I need to invest in boxes and trays to make things work better and never have because they are a very boring thing to spend money on.

I've repurposed some plastic baskets into the porch and as I come across scattered baseball caps, woolen hats, gloves, sunglasses etc im putting them in there which will hopefully stop them just ending up stuffed in random drawers or under sofas etc where we can never find them when we need them.

Hello everyone! Thank you for the coffee @Searchingforsparkle I'm just sitting down with one now.

Ta das 🦋

Bed made ✔️
S&S ✔️
LOL washed and in the dryer ✔️
Am dressed inc indoor shoes (plantar fasciitis make this a no brainer ✔
Exercises ✔
Cat medicated ✔
Kitchen counter cleared ✔
Dusted with feather duster (good enough) ✔️

I'm doing my decluttering task in the laundry room, and this off the app

@Positivepositron thanks as always for keeping us up to date.

I have found decluttering the kitchen goes a very long way to making it easier to work in. There's a mantra among minimalists about if you need extra storage for your stuff then you've got too much stuff. ( I am not a minimalist by any means but I really value space so it's a work in progress) I know it's difficult with a family though. And I do have a small emergency food stash as I grew up rurally and it's something my mum always did.

I'm off to sort out my laundry area but I thought I'd share this blog. I find myself inspired ever time I read it:
https://www.becomingminimalist.com/becoming-minimalist-start-here/

My kitchen is an L-shape with the short arm full of clutter. There’s packaging, gardening equipment, instructions booklets, and tubs of “bits” mostly leftovers from ikea wardrobes. Tub of sand and toys to distract the kid who can’t wait for food. Tubs of pretty stones collected from the garden for the fairies.

Not to mention the extra fridge-freezer I bought in a moment of brexit-related panic. There's also a large corner unit that had a carousel that collapsed and I can’t reach into the back.

I dream of a kitchen that has a clear table, maybe some flowers on the windowsill, smells good, and actually looks like a kitchen, 😄 It's a bit dispiriting tbh.

There’s a lot I can do tomorrow. Today was a constant series of distractions. On the plus side, because I keep everything, I could pass a cable onto someone who needed one.

Ta da
🥳 all routines apart from decluttering task (will catch up the time another day)
🥳school & work , stayed late for a meeting
🥳 picked dd2 from Grandmas and taken to gym
🥳 personalised a letter tray for a friends birthday
🥳 packed away cricut and cleared table from crafting clutter
🥳 ironed clothes for tomorrow
🥳 quick tidy

I have only just sat down from that morning coffee ! Absolutely exhausted , loved my time crafting though ❤️ I have treated myself to a small g&t , then I’ll head up to bed soon . No 445 alarm , I’m going to have a lie in until 6 😂

Quick post this morning as off to office in a second. Will post properly later.

Babystep for today: read an email from flylady or an article on the app or website

Mission for yesterday has now appeared:
Which was to wash your rugs and shower curtains etc. And decobweb your guest bedroom.
I don't have either so don't need to worry about that.

Mission for today:
Throw away old perfume and make up. Do a 27 fling in extra room again or if maintaining vacuum or sweep it instead.

I definitely agree that fewer stuff is definitely easier to manage and as I cleared some cupboards I certainly had things to get rid of but I don't mean buying more storage because I haven't got space more that I don't find some of my cupboards useful ad they are. It might be because I'm short and can't really see well except on the bottom shelf. So my theory was if there was a basket on the shelf I could pull out the basket and then see what's in it and get better use. Same in the corner cupboard you can only use the very front of the cupboard.

Im sure some small changes could make it work better for you. It's a shame small children come with so much stuff.

Ta das:
🌼 Made the bed 🛌

🌹 Dishwasher x 1
🌼 Recycling out ♻️
🏵 Sprayed DS2s bedroom floor where dog wee’d 🐕
🌼 Put blankets in washing machine as dog wee'd 🐕
🌸 Opened windows in DS2s room as dog wee'd 🐕
🌼 Quick 5 min room rescue in kitchen though it actually needs a 15 minute room rescue
🌸 Bag for life of stuff to charity

🌻 Posted important paperwork 📫

Today's mission is to clean your bathroom sink and surfaces. And set a timer for 15 minutes and just relax.

Today's babystep is to set a sensible bedtime and stick to it. 🌙 😴 💤

Morning , sending a coffee to those who would like one ☕️

No flying yesterday , it’s my day of working 1 job in the day and a different job in the evening , it was also MIL birthday so met for a coffee. This morning has been a whirlwind because of yesterday’s lack of flying 😩 I haven’t even made beds , but everyone is in clean ironed clothes, everyone is fed and watered and off to school and work on time so I’m not stressing about it and I’ll catch up later 🙂 who’s saying was ‘everyone’s fed , no one’s dead’? Possibly zoos? @BloomingHazelcan you remember ? It has always stuck with me 😂 That is the saying I’m using for today 🥂 have a good day everyone .

It's definitely fed not dead here!
I've got the whole day tomorrow to get some flying done. Hopefully will be reporting lots of TaDas.

Afternoon all.
Not the best day yesterday for me, lost my shit with pretty much everyone in my house! Today is better and have got at least something done. Trying hard to stay away from the all or nothing mindset as I naturally veer towards the "nothing" option.
Tadas today:
🎉Made bed
🎉Cleaned toilet
🎉LOL
🎉10 minutes cleaning surfaces in the utility room
🎉Sweep and mop in kitchen and utility.
🎉Persuade teenage DS to hoover his room (have not inspected yet 😂)

Having a takeaway for dinner. Think it's about wine time.

Searching I don't know who started fed not dead, as it was mentioned before I started posting on the thread! I know zoo did say it quite a bit, but I think all of us have over the years! I haven't seen zoo on here in years, ever since mn updated and made changes, she was having trouble logging on last I remember. I do think of her sometimes and wonder what she's up to now.

It's definitely been everyone fed, no one dead in my house lately too. I seem to be lacking motivation and energy. We just did blood tests at work, so it'll be interesting to see if anything shows up on the results.

Positive bedtime is something I've been working on improving.. for the last several years! Oops 😬

kat sometimes we all just need to LYS! It sounds like today was a better day, so maybe it was needed 🤷‍♀️

No missions today.
Babystep is to go online to read the flylady 11 commandments. Summarised below;

1. Keep your sink clean and shiny.
2. Get dressed every morning, even if you don’t feel like it.
3. Do your morning and before-bed routines every day.
4. Don’t allow yourself to be sidetracked by your mobile phone or the computer.
5. Pick up after yourself. If you get it out, put it away.
6. Don’t try to do two projects at once.

Multitasking often leads to chaos.
7- Don’t pull out more than you can put back in one hour.

Avoid overwhelming yourself by tackling decluttering or cleaning in manageable chunks. Work 15 minutes at a time and use a timer to declutter. This stops you becoming overwhelmed and giving up. Keep the tasks manageable and remember Progress not perfection.
8- Do something for yourself every day, maybe even every morning and night.
9-Work as fast as you can to get the job done. This will give you more time to play later.

Efficient work frees up time for leisure and relaxation.
10. Smile even when you don’t feel like it. It’s contagious.
11. Make your bed every morning.

Hope everyone has a good day.

I got a little bit of flying done yesterday evening, made bed , s&s, gathered all washing and put into bins for washing today, sorted dd2 packing list for residential and started to gather items, general tidy . Just surface things really , I spent most of the evening on the phone to dd1 who is struggling to settle back into uni life after 2 weeks at home .

tada
✨morning coffee and breakfast
✨LOL

Struggling with motivation to get ready so I’ve set a timer, posted here for accountability, once timer has sounded , I will have an hour of getting ready for the day and starting the routines .

I think about zoo and wonder how she’s getting on @BloomingHazel, funny how we’re all anonymous and jump in and out of this thread often but still touch each others lives 💐

Haha - I think I may have started "everyone fed, noone dead"

I do think about zoo from time to time, I think her life had some similarities with mine!

Cag - crazy when they become adults isn't it! My ds1 also turned 18 this year and is going away to uni in Sept!

Anyway I'm here for some weekend accountability ......