Flying through summer with Flylady ☀️

[HazelNotHungryLC]

Summer is here! Or is it?? 🤔
It's time to get our homes in order for the chaos that is the summer holidays!

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 day. 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, it's a new website! 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. There is a paid version and a free version. I use the free version. The missions haven't been updating on the app (although I should admit I haven't looked at it in a couple of months.. 🫣)

Links are below 👇

Daily missions (for the zone we are in):
https://www.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!

We went to the park with a stream. My 8 year old asked for a toy boat for her birthday as she remembered her one from when she was 2 or 3 years old than broke but we took it to the park on a string then so she wanted to relive her younger years....she called it a core memory (inside out reference). We also went to the playground. For her 7th birthday the only thing she asked for was a baby teddy from in the night garden.

Always a park with a stream sounds lovely, and perfect for a toy boat!

We did a lot of lounging around and dozed off many times 😆
I did, however, complete 2 LOLs.
DH & I also finished cleaning up from the BBQ, putting serving things away etc.
I also rotated DW, handwashed dishes, vacuumed and mopped.
We got in the hot tub tonight, so hopefully that'll help with the aches and pains.
Back to work tomorrow, it's been a lovely 3 day weekend!

Monday marks the beginning of a new week, which means a new zone. The kitchen.

Monday's mission: https://www.flylady.net/daily-mission/20260706-zone-2-mission-1-monday-your-kitchen
Spend 15 minutes scrubbing your stovetop. Remove any knobs you can, wipe everything down. No need to try to get it looking new again, set your timer and stop at 15 minutes!

Baby Step 6: set your timer for 2 minutes and tackle a hotspot. This can be anywhere in your house. A hotspot is a top of a table/edge of the couch/countertop in the kitchen. It is a place where things get put down and forgotten about. Maybe mail gathers by the door, or kids artwork gets put on a side table, along with other things.
Do what you can in 2 minutes, throw away rubbish, put away things that don't belong. You'll be surprised at what you can do in 2 minutes!

Monday is also home bleugh day. Run the vacuum around, quickly, empty bins, change sheets. Spend 10 minutes in each room, if you can, an hour total. This can also be spread across the week if it helps.

Hotspots is a Habit I try to do daily as part of my morning routine. Except I set it for 3 instead of 2 as, 2 was frustrating and that extra minute actually allows me to clear some mess...we create lots of mess.

Always it's good that you came up with a solution that works. 3 minutes is still very doable to get something done.

Tuesday is plan & play day.
Plan something (whether it's meals or a party etc.) Then fit in something for you that you enjoy doing.

Tuesday's mission: https://www.flylady.net/daily-mission/20260707-zone-2-mission-2-tuesday-your-kitchen
Clean out your cutlery drawer. Get rid of the crumbs that may have ended up in there.

Baby Step 7: lay your clothes out for the next day.
This is a very helpful baby step for me, especially waking up and leaving the house before anyone else wakes up.
I usually take my clothes on their hangers into the bathroom, ready for me to put them on in the morning.

Don't forget the other baby steps!

YesTaDas:
🌺 worked all day
🌺 came home to a power cut (was off for an hour total, but it came back on 20 minutes after I got home)
🌺 made dinner
🌺 rotated DW
🌺 wiped countertops
🌺 watched a couple of movies as I had the house to myself
🌺 went to bed late (I should have only watched one movie 🤦‍♀️)

Today:
☕️ had one cup of coffee

To dos today:
🧑‍🩰 Barre workout (I've tried it once, thanks YouTube, loved it, then got sick and not done it again!)
🧑‍🩰 2nd cup of coffee
🧑‍🩰 get dressed/ makeup/ hair/ ready for the day
🧑‍🩰 LOLs (sheets, towels etc)
🧑‍🩰 vacuum
🧑‍🩰 mop
🧑‍🩰 bleach bathrooms
🧑‍🩰 clean carpet & rug
🧑‍🩰 take some things out to the camper, ready for camping this weekend

MIL is coming over this morning, so I want to get some of this list done before she gets here. She'll be here for a couple of hours while her dog is at the groomer. He'll then come to the house for a few minutes, so no point in doing floors until this afternoon. He sheds like crazy. Even after the groomer!

Oh I forgot. I still have to figure out meals and go grocery shopping. I have to get some healthier foods in the house!

Thank you for the new thread Hazel. I barely noticed the start of the new month in the excitement of school finishing. My focus atm is the front room with the occasional foray into the garden to do battle with the triffid-like growth of absolutely everything, thanks to the weird weather.

I am so sorry for being AWOL! It's been a crazy couple of days!

Tuesday I ended up cleaning my carpets, they look so much better now! I also vacuumed really well (had to, with cleaning the carpets!) & mopped. I didn't get much else done.

Wednesday I worked all day, then came home to no electricity again (was off for 2 hours this time). Thankfully we have a gas stove now so I was able to warm dinner up on the stovetop.
We started loading up the camper, as we're camping this weekend again.

I still have to go grocery shopping 🫣 I hate it!

So to catch up (even though it goes against flyladys "you are never behind"):

Wednesday is anti-procrastination day.
https://www.flylady.net/daily-mission/20260708-zone-2-mission-3-wednesday-your-kitchen
Clean out your fridge! That way you are better prepared to make a grocery list. (Ugh, grocery shopping).

Baby Step 8: start on your control journal. Preferably use a 2 or 3 ring binder with lined paper, or use a notebook of some kind.
Start out by writing down the morning and evening routines. I would use one page for each, as they will be added to as we move along the month. You will also add after work/ school routine as well.

Baby steps so far:

Morning:
☀️ get dressed to shoes
☀️ check flylady website/ app/ Facebook
☀️ look at your sticky notes for the baby steps (or just check your new control journal)
☀️ look at your positive affirmations, banish those negative thoughts
☀️ 2 minutes clearing a hotspot (or put this in a different area of your day - wherever it works for you)

Before bed:
🌜 shine your sink
🌜 lay your clothes out for the next day

Yesterday got caught up with the dishes which had been neglected since a very challenging weekend that sapped every ounce of my energy.

Small amount of fruit had to be thrown out from the fridge. I dug an ancient tub of soup out of the freezer and it was lovely, especially as no cooking eas involved.

Tidied the packaging that had been thrown in a corner of the kitchen. Will pass much of it on to DD, who does a lot of vinted and similar.

TeenGirl very dispirited at lack of summer jobs around. So I’m trialling paying her nmw to do the heavier work around the house and garden. It’ll make a huge difference to me if we can both sustain our efforts.

Thursday is errand day.

Thursday's mission: https://www.flylady.net/daily-mission
It's not posted yet for me, but if you refresh it, it should update.

Baby Step 9: 5 minute room rescue.
Pick a room, set your timer. Put things away, tidy cushions, fold blankets etc.
If you don't know which room, just stay in the zone we are in, or aim to tackle the messiest room, or if that's too overwhelming, tackle the least messy or smallest room.
Since we're in the kitchen this week, you could work on clearing the countertops. Wipe the countertops down when you're done with the dishes & shining your sink.

Scourgify I'm glad you found the thread!

It sounds like a great plan to "employ" TeenGirl. It sounds like a win-win situation.
DH came up with a plan for DS earn extra money and help with chores. He would probably be more motivated to do more if he didn't have a paying job already!

Well done with getting caught up with dishes, hopefully it'll be easier to manage, and I'm hoping your challenging weekend is completely behind you now.

Been thinking about our fish and garden as we're away 2 weeks in July. A very friendly family have moved in opposite so may ask them to feed the fish and water the garden. There's 2 teenager girls, maybe 12 and 14 but I'm not sure. They did tell me. I'm thinking we could offer to pay them but wouldn't know how much. My expectation is they would happily do it but may not accept payment (parents that is).

Always I think it would depend on how much they would actually need to do, but if it was me, and if there's not much involved, I would want to pay them £15 each, for 2 weeks. But it really depends on what you could do financially.

We are in our way up the mountain for the weekend.
I'll not have any signal, unless we go to a couple spots for a few minutes.

Before I lose signal, I should probably update where we're at, since I keep dropping the ball!

Friday was clean your car and bag day. It's also date night.
Saturday is family fun day
Sunday is renew your spirit day.

Baby Step 10: the power of 15 minutes. Set your timer and tackle something, like a daily mission or declutter or tidy.
Baby Step 11: write inspirational quotes in your control journal
Baby Step 12: 15 minutes digital declutter. Set your timer and delete those unwanted emails, texts, pictures etc.

Friday's mission: https://www.flylady.net/daily-mission/20260710-zone-2-mission-5-friday-your-kitchen
Check your cleaning supplies. Add whatever is needed to your shopping list.
There are no missions on the weekend.

Afternoon!

How are we nearing half way through July!

Crazy busy month here with all the summer school events etc!

I also have CHAOS right now! And my garden needs attention to. I'm going to have to focus on inside first I think!

DC have 8 days left in school and we go on holiday in 2 weeks so its all go go go right now!

@Alwaysgrowing my DD and my local friends DCs have done a lot of cat-sitting for each other over the years. They started at £5 a day (two visits) when they were about 14, then upped it to £5 a visit (£10 a day) when they were a bit older(16+ ish). Visits took about half an hour by the time they’d walked round, unlocked, fed etc, locked up and gone back again. It was a lot cheaper than getting a professional cat sitter. When they were younger and I was going with them to make sure they locked up etc they didn’t get paid but it was reciprocal as we all did each others.

Morning all

Sunday is my day of the week where I don't leave the house and try to get shit done for the coming week. This is my last full week in work until September. Happy days.

Ta da so far ....
☀️ shower room ceiling cleaned
🌈 hot bath to soak my dodgy shoulder