Flyladies keeping on top of the household in August, it’s going to be a hot one.

[ExtremeDecluttering]

Well, at the start of July it was hot, at the end of July it was still hot (for most of us anyway) and here we are in August with no change in sight, but hopefully we are acclimatising a bit. And now we have holidays, children at home, all the changes of routine.

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. I have taken one for the team but use a junk email address I will check them periodically and report anything interesting / useful
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.
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!

Most of this is copied and pasted from previous months but is all correct, I do get the emails and do use the free version of the app, plus the new look but somewhat sparse website. There may be odd days I don’t post but the links do update overnight so click back to the previous ones.

@ExtremeDecluttering thanks for posting that.
We're going out tomorrow so I'll pick up on Tuesday.
I can't remember who recommended it but I've got a copy of Sink Reflections from ebay, very useful.
I've finished my kitchen declutter 💪
needs a good scrub now.

These are easier to read unticked ✅

Flylady also posts this kind of thing on the app

And this

Ta das:
🍯 LOLs x4
🍯 rotated DW x2
🍯 handwash dishes x2
🍯 baked zucchini bread x3 batches (6 total)
🍯 wiped countertops down multiple times
🍯 put everything away when done baking
🍯 ran the stick vacuum around kitchen, dining room and living room
🍯 made DS some chamomile tea with honey, per his request. He's starting to come down with a cold and doesn't want to be sick on his birthday (next Saturday)
🍯 made myself tea and honey

I gave one of the zucchini bread to our neighbour behind us, she loves it!
One will go to ILs, one will go to my work, DH will take 2 to his. We will still have a couple, so may put some in the freezer, as well as more zucchini I need to use!
DH bathed the dogs while I was putting everything away, so they're not stinky anymore!

I'm not exactly feeling like I'm getting a cold, but also not quite well. Not sure if it's just being done with the steroids and antibiotics or if it's to do with the weather changing. Quite drastically.
Either way, I've had 2 cups of tea today and plan to be in bed early again tonight. Not wanting to go to work tomorrow!

Morning,
I have had a lie-in and tackled the paraphrasing for the week. Then I’m handing over to @mixedpeel thank you for stepping up.

Zone 5 Mission #1 Monday (Home Blessing Day) - the Living Room

Spend 15 minutes getting rid of anything that does not belong in your living room. Look critically around it as if you were a visitor, sometimes we stop noticing our own clutter. Out it goes!

Zone 1: Mission #1 Tuesday (Plan and Play Day)

Back to Zone 1. This Zone includes the Entrance, Front Porch and the Dining Room.

Today your mission is to sweep your front porch, shake out your door mats and wipe down your front door. Reward yourself with a glass of water wine.

Zone 1: Mission #2 Wednesday (Anti-Procrastination Day)

Take 10 minutes to get rid of the hotspots that gather in the hall/porch area. The junk mail, newspapers, shoes, jackets etc. Throw anway any rubbish and put away the shoes and coats (can’t remember when I last wore a coat).

Zone 1: Mission #3 Thursday (Errand Day)

Dining room today. Take 15 minutes and work some more on your de-cluttering as we. Throw away / put away. Keep reminding yourself that you are going to change your home 15 minutes at a time - the power of 15.

Zone 1: Mission #4 Friday (Clear out your bag and car / date night)

There seems to have been a glitch in the system as the mission is the same as Wednesday. So if any more hotspots have appeared, put them out. Maybe focus more on the dining room as the porch/hall has had two days.

Babysteps

the link is here with links to all the babysteps towards the bottom of each page

https://mymerrymessylife.com/flylady-31-baby-steps/31/

Babystep 31 is - Congratulations you made it! Now is a good time to review your routines, do you want to make any changes for next month? I want to add in a few self-care ones, exercise mainly, apart from the swimming I have let it slip this summer - too hot.

I have mentioned this before but some of us are using the Finch app (free version in my case) for motivation, it is another tick-box app where you can customise and find friends, it is quite motivating and we use variations of our MN names so we can “friend” each other without risking our privacy, we don’t chat there just give each other little nudges of encouragement, I find it quite cal;ming, if anyone would like to join on there my friend code is J887G2EKFR and my “name” is Edie.

Thank you all for the companionship on here this month, I’ve really enjoyed it.

@CherryogDog it was me re Sink Reflections, I also bought a secondhand copy at the start of the month but haven’t read it yet. I lent my last copy to a friend whose house is considerably more cluttered than mine about 10 years ago and guess what, I’ve never seen it again.

@HazelNotHungryLC hope you start feeling better soon, take it easy if you can and get that early night.

@PeonyBulb thanks for the screenshots, I don’t use the app much since I started getting the emails, they are full of essays and testimonials too but some of it is definitely worth reading and the ticklists on the app are very helpful (only issue is that if I pick up my phone I am likely to drift onto scrolling instead of doing).

@ExtremeDeclutteringThanks again for the weekly Missions. Much appreciated.

I searched for the Finch app and even looked up Hinch app but my iPhone doesn’t have it.

Oh, it should be in the app store, I'm Apple.

Last night I added citric acid to my washing machine drum on a hot wash and into my dishwasher powder / tab chamber and both are now fresh and clean. In particular my dishwasher which just had a smell about it I couldn’t pinpoint. The filter is clean as are all the dishes but there was a faint lingering smell which is now gone.

@ExtremeDeclutteringok thanks I got confused with the pet part but I have that one

Luckily it’s not raining and breezy today but we’ve been hanging up the tent ⛺️ to its best advantage to dry out all the various parts over washing line, trees, chairs, clothes rack thingy, and just airing all the poles and pegs. DC came back from a festival where it rained a lot but not as bad as some of the festivals this weekend.

Here’s the link to the September thread: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/housekeeping/5573147-september-flylady-fledglings-inspired-to-make-a-fresh-start-at-the-beginning-of-a-brand-new-term

Many thanks to @ExtremeDecluttering for running the August one, and for the support for how to open and run the September one.

I have been sorting my daughter's bedroom today it's taken hours but was needed and hopefully she will be happier in there. I have a bin sack of rubbish and loads for the charity shop. I have also been catching up on washing after our new machine arrived Saturday, and keeping up with swish and swipe, and have put cillit bang on the mould in the shower.

@ExtremeDecluttering I don't understand why the missions change tomorrow, do we never get a full week on the living room or does it rotate?

Thanks everyone for your help so far, I still have a long way to go but already feeling that my house is looking better

@Frumpyunicorn It always changes on the 1st of the month so it just depends when that is. If you look back at July the 1st was a Weds so we only got three days in Zone 1 but the 31st was a Friday so we got a whole week in Zone 5.

Thank you, that's helpful I wasn't understanding how it worked