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 we have the exact same issue with the draining board.

I really struggle to do anything in the evening. I'm plumping up the naughty corner cushions as.i hadn't even got my clothes ready the night before. I grabbed some clothes off the floor to wear and after I should have left for work I was grabbing my uniform. On a work day, it's just pack my uniform....or I could pack all my uniform on a Monday and keep it in my locker.

I will build back up my habits. I'm using pregnancy as an excuse, but a few minutes a day daily habbit is definitely something I should be getting back in order before I have a newborn and more of an excuse.

We've got less than 2 weeks of the summer holidays, and im not looking forward to it. My DH is in a good mood, working in a school he has the summer holidays off and he somehow finds spending all day with the kids relaxing. Then I'm back to doing some school and nursery drop offs and off work for mat leave end of October.

Hi @Namechangerextraordinaire1 baby steps is the best place to start. I'm still working my way through them and only vaguely follow the zones

Am so intrigued by this Flylady business. Mind if I dip in and see if I can stick to it? Baby step 1 being shine my sink, so do I just do that tonight?

Ooh I'm a bit ahead of the game. I washed my bathmat and batbtowels two days ago (as I knew we were due pouring rain after that; the novelty is already starting to wear off!) I also decided yesterday to go through all the bathroom supplies and clean / tidy / update etc.

I also went through my freezer in something of a rage after opening the door the other night and a dozen pointy frozen ice pops slid out and hit my foot (surprisingly painful)

I've done some pantry shuffling too.

DW on and I am about to prep some dinner for tonight so I don't end up grabbing crap from the freezer again like I did last night.

Happy Friday!

I did some errands which turned out to be longer than planned. I bought some items online which were then subsequently reduced online. So I then bought the reduced items online. So when I collected all the items from the local store I returned the more expensive original ones and put the rest in the car. Then I went for a browse in the shop and saw reduced items of other items I’d just collected and bought full price. So I bought the reduced items and went back to the car to return the more expensive items.

Having some lunch and coffee and will sort out and clean bathroom shelf and trunk at the bottom of my bed. I’ve washed and replaced a few towels and cleaned the shower. Will sort out all bedding to give to DC for uni and what to keep and what to throw out.

I’ve been going through all the towels and larger sheets and pillow cases. Binned some and am refreshing others in the wash and dryer for DC to take to uni. DS already has his but DD will likely require more and in various sizes. Whatever they don’t want I’ll bin as I know which ones I’m keeping at home. A few have hair dye on them but of course no point throwing them away in case DD dyes her hair so can just use those again. And do I keep some for emergencies like mopping up larger spills. I suppose the hair dye towels can be multipurpose. I unearthed loads of other items too some of which I’ve binned and others I forgot I had so I’m unsure really what to keep.

Good work @PeonyBulb that sounds complicated on the reduced and full price items but worth the effort. I had a huge clearout of towels and bedding a couple of years ago and it was very satisfying. DS had new for uni but DD just took one set of her home bedding, she didn’t want anything new.

Tada!
✅cleared draining board and cleaned it and sink
✅cleaned birdbath
✅emptied DW and made an effort to fill as I went along today rather than dumping stuff on the side
✅two LOLs washed and line dried, just need sorting now, included towels and bathmat
✅menu planning (this is very rare, it is one of my biggest organisational fails, fussy family who all go out in the evenings a lot)
✅main food shop (DD put it all away)
✅bathroom - cleaned flat surfaces and all around the toilet, outside, inside and behind
✅garden - brought garden waste bin round from drive, cut back brambles
✅cooked dinner
✅filled and ran DW, DH managed to handwash a frying pan
✅sorted out cupboard containing plastic tubs
✅picked up receipts from car floor

DD has a new JL Duvet set and sheet (amongst items I collected earlier today) for uni and bought her own duvet set too. She also has a fairly new bath towel and she can choose from what I’ve just washed and dried to take along as extra. She’ll have to leave something here to use for the holidays or use what’s available. I bought DS new duvet covers etc after he started uni as his bed was a strange 3/4 double size so items were either too big or small. I have less sheets than I thought actually but now have new ones I collected today along with new pillow cases. Discovered I actually have loads of pillowcases so can give DD as many as I can foist upon her. I always use 2 pillowcases, one being the pillow protector because actual pillow protectors tend not to be 100 % cotton.

DW, LOL, cleaned shower, bathroom and kitchen sinks. Clear out earlier. Cleaned kitchen counters as I went along. Did not sort out bathroom shelves as planned.

I’m impressed by you two @ExtremeDecluttering and @PeonyBulb

✅ DW emptied, reloaded, put on
✅ LOL washed and drying, previous load put away
✅ click and collected last of school uniform
✅ some general tidying upstairs and downstairs
✅ DH cleaned the WC
✅ cleared draining rack and cleaned and polished the draining board and sink and taps as per baby step #1. 15 mins work and it’s got some very tough limescale still but most of it is really gleaming now, satisfying.

What does tomorrow bring??

@hollyhocks2nothing impressive about me
unfortunately as I’m very lazy truth be told when it comes to cleaning and tidying but I’m trying my best in my haphazard way.

I've stalled a bit because I'm having a fibro flare up, so it's fed not dead here.
I mentioned before that I've sorted all my towels out, I like thin, not too soft towels, and have kept the nicest set, the rest have gone as dog/horse towels, the nearly new ones have gone to charity.
I had left my toilet brush (yes I'm one of "those" people 🙃) soaking in bleach.
On top of the cistern so no one could kick it over.
But DP managed to knock it off in the middle of the night.
And mopped it up with one of my nice light blue towels. Which now looks like my tie dye jeans from the 70s.
I get that it was an accident, but when he said it was just a towel I could have throttled him.
That's his attitude, just my carpet that he walks on in his filthy shoes, just fixtures and fittings covered in his black greasy finger prints.
Rant over.
Happy flying everyone, 💐 and ☕️ and 🫂 for anyone in need.

CherryogDog

I had left my toilet brush (yes I'm one of "those" people 🙃) soaking in bleach.
On top of the cistern so no one could kick it over.

Hope you're feeling better soon 💐
I won't bother with the whole LTB thing - that's for the rest of MN, not Flylady.
I was just going to say that to clean loo brushes (obviously I'm one of "those" people too), I put a generous amount of bleach in the loo itself and soak the brush in there so it can't be knocked over. I usually do it overnight or when we're going out for a while because my B (who I don't intend to L) is guaranteed to want to go when I've just done this.

Afternoon! Will catch up properly later. Saturday is Family Fun Day, no missions but try and keep routines going.

@CherryogDogyou’ve convinced me to keep more towels now for this exact reason. The accidental mopping crisis. Except I’ll have words as to which towels can and can’t be used. We each have a different coloured designated bath towel. And the other towels are for hands, hair etc. I keep mine in my room once they’re dry.

I also put bleach down the loo and let my toilet brush sit in there to clean whilst the handle rests on the side.

I have to collect an item but don’t want to go into town on a busy weekend so will go in on Monday. It’s awkward to park at this specific store due to parking restrictions plus it’s a heavy item.

<klaxon>

https://amzn.eu/d/01binxy0

One of Flylady's books is on Kindle 99p deals today, I have just downloaded it.

@ExtremeDecluttering I just listened to a bit and it forced me out of shame and guilt to properly clean some skirting boards and door frames that were bothering me. Surprisingly quicker than I thought it would take. There’s more to do but baby steps as it’s more of a deep clean than just a quick spray and wipe.

@CherryogDog that is one of my biggest gripes with my DH, that he just does things without thinking of the consequences, eg using spray suncream in the bathroom and leaving the floor like an oil slick, leaving the shower curtain half out of the bath so water pools on the floor (and has eventually gone through the sealant and made the edge of the flooring look black, we really need to sort that but we are tempted to gut the whole bathroom and that’s a big job). He has also got suncream handprints on the black interiors of his car door I noticed this week.

Anyway, I am starting to appreciate that he does do some housework now he can’t do any with his broken arm, or driving, or shopping or laundry or cooking. I am tired out. But the house is looking better this week thanks to Flylady, if anyone thinks they might like a go at thread-leading in future, I have been doing it on and off for years and it always makes quite a difference to my motivation levels.

Sunday is Renew Your Spirit Day. I have booked myself a slot at the local lido in the morning, it closes for the winter after the bank holiday weekend and I have been enjoying going this summer (I’m a member of our local sports centre and their chain took over the lido this year which has meant free entry and I have been making the most of it with the hot weather). Anyone else got any plans for Renewing Your Spirit? I’m off to put my swimsuit and towel ready for the morning.

I grumble about my DP and our differences over cleanliness, but he's great in other ways.
He gets up early, always brings me tea and coffee in bed, cooks most days and does the heavy "grunt" work with the horses. He'll always help me if I need something.
Once the menagerie is sorted we're off to a nearby town to have a mooch about, rummage in the charity shops and a walk through the park that's beside the canal.
Happy Sunday everyone!

Morning all.

Lido sounds amazing @ExtremeDecluttering it's the one thing I truly wish we had around here. Enjoy!

Renew your spirit day. Hmmm. We go wandering our favourite market on a Sunday so that always feels quite nourishing. I am also going to watch a movie with DD later. Making the most of the time we have left of school hols. We may light the fire tonight and have hot chocolate. I'm also going to make a simple sunday dinner for myself (DD is veggie) and totally indulge in a mountain of roast potatoes. Oh, and apple pie bars for afters 😊

I've joined the Christmas cleanalong for more cleaning accountability and inspiration.

Have a good day all.

Morning, back from the lido, had toast and coffee and just waiting for the washing to finish so I can hang it out, no particular plans for the rest of the day but I do have quite a pile of admin. The lido is starting to feel colder, I am planning to go again on Weds but that might be it for this year, it closes soon as it is unheated.

Someone mentioned HG mould spray on here I think, I bought some last weekend and am tackling the bathroom grouting/sealant, it has need more than one go so far but its definitely fading the black spots and whitening everything else. Right need to go and empty the DW, sweep/mop kitchen floor and generally tidy up.

@CherryogDog mine is pretty good on the whole too, he does more than me of kitchen clearing up, sweeping and vacuuming etc but I work PT and him FT and I do all the household admin, he doesn’t really do any of the mental load stuff which irks me a bit at times because iit feels like I take all the responsibility for getting everything right. And he’s incredibly untidy but he is kind and generous and will always step up in a crisis for both us and my parents (and his own family).

@ExtremeDeclutteringI’ve always used bleach soaked kitchen towels for the mould on sealant on the shower tray. Comes up lovely and white the next morning. However I recently bought HG mould remover and Astonish mould remover to upkeep it so the mould doesn’t return as fast as it does. Because I read that bleach doesn’t quite remove the mould even though it appears to disappear.

I had to go into town to collect a delivery. Then had a browse around the shops and met up with a friend

Hello all. We've been away this past week (Scotland) so not a lot of cleaning done other than swish and swipe the toilet and basin etc at the self-catering place. The best things were 1) all the cleaning was done way before we went, so only needed to swish and swipe the bathroom, put breakfast dishes and go; and 2) the nicest thing was coming back to a clean and relatively tidy home. Feels like a reward! Second laundry load on the go and bed changed, as well as stuff unpacked and put away. Definitely sticking to Flylady and keeping on top of it all.

Everyone has been so busy!

Cherry the bleach/towel situation would probably make me LMS! 💐 it's a good thing your DH makes up for it in other ways.
I've noticed when we have others over that other people's DC aren't always respectful of others items, let alone their own things. I think those DC might turn into your DH by the sounds of it!
I would never think to do some things that others do when coming into my home, and would be thoroughly annoyed if my DC were like that.

Rainbow your renew your spirit day sounds perfect! What is the Christmas clean along? I feel like I need this in my life!

ED I had to look up what a Lido was, that seems to be all that's here, but the pools are heated. They usually close for the colder months, but one of them now has a cover on it (that can be opened up for hot days), and will be open year round! I really should get motivated to start using it as swimming is such a good workout!

Yesterday we had a BBQ for DHs birthday (which is tomorrow), and had a few people over. I got quite a bit done before everyone showed up, and after everyone left last night:
🥳 vacuumed & mopped twice (before & after)
🥳 S&S both bathrooms
🥳 cleaned out the fridge to make room for more food
🥳 baked a cake
🥳 LOLs x2 (blankets from the couch)
🥳 rotated DW x2
🥳 handwashed dishes x2
🥳 put birthday banners up (& had to fix the one in the front as the wind picked up 🙄)
🥳 wiped tables and benches outside (kept food inside as the weather was not cooperating!)

Today I've already got a few things done:
🎂 S&S main bathroom
🎂 rotated DW
🎂 put away some of DHs gifts

I still have a few things to get done today. Mostly putting things away and laundry. I have more zucchini bread I need to bake, and have to go over to the fair booth today, for a couple of hours, to clean it.
I also tweaked my back yesterday and it's hurting a lot, so trying to be careful of that also.

You are all doing so well! ❤️ @HazelNotHungryLC be careful with your back. I have a sore foot and keep overdoing things with that. Welcome back @PamelaColmansMustard coming back to a tidy house is lovely.

Today I have done:

✅2 x LOL (DD took in, I need to sort)
✅swept and mopped kitchen floor, also mopped bathroom floor
✅emptied DW, shined sink and draining area, put away hand washed items, washed some more that had appeared overnight (DD after work in the pub)
✅made a proper to do list of admin jobs for the week
✅had two short snoozes in the garden (it has been a really busy week)

Sneak Peek for 24 - 29 August - Master Bedroom

Zone 4 Mission #1 Monday

Dusting! Do the flat surfaces then get a feather duster and do the walls, ceiling, door frames etc.

Monday is also Home Blessing Day - an hour of emptying bins, running the vac round, quick dust, etc

Zone 4: Mission #2 Tuesday

Decluttering accessories, costume jewellery, hair accessories, scarves, belts, etc. Charity shops would love most of these, even odd earrings etc for scrap or crafting.

Tuesday is Plan and Play Day

Zone 4: Mission #3 Wednesday

Declutter 27 things from your wardrobe/drawers. Tee shirts, ballgowns, whatever you don’t wear, get rid, charity shops take rags or maybe try Vinted for the better things, I have started using it recently and it is quite addictive.

Wednesday is anti-procrastination day - things you have been putting off

Zone 4: Mission #4 Thursday

Toss your underwear! Odd socks, tatty knickers, bras that have seen better days. We have a bra bank in a shop in our town for the better ones.

Thursday is Errand Day

Zone 4: Mission #5 Friday

Take 15 minutes to declutter your dressing table Put things away, get rid of empty containers.

Friday - clean out your car and handbag and then date night or however you prefer to relax on a Friday night.