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.

I'm having a mixed week so far here. Our washing machine broke on our return from holiday so I will have about 6 loads to do when our new one arrives Saturday. We also have guests and no dishwasher (everything has broken at once and the dishwasher is going to have to wait a few months) which makes things more difficult. But generally things are much better, the swish and swipe is really helpful my bathrooms are so much cleaner, and the house in general is starting to feel much better. I haven't fully cleared the cluttered sides in my bedroom but have made good progress. It is the room that tends to get neglected so I am really pleased that I am finally working on it.

@HazelNotHungryLC I agree proper cooking takes a lot of clearing up. That is part of my issue this week as after cooking and hosting I am tired, my dh did the clearing up last night but I had to finish off this morning and wipe the surfaces. It is easier now though my kitchen is not so cluttered

I think swishing and swiping is the perfect springboard to do more cleaning. Because that simple, daily task allows your mindset to introduce regular cleaning of other areas. Well it is for me anyway. Not as much as I’d like mind you but I feel more in control of the tasks that are required.

As for the DW if I know I’ve got another load waiting to go on later ie after cooking then even if the DW isn’t as completely full as I like it to be I now turn it on so it’s ready for the next load of dishes so they’re not piling up in a queue. I’m not hung up on the DW having to but full to justify turning it on.

After I use the espresso machine and let it cool down I make sure I empty the grounds and give it a wipe.

Crumbs are wiped off immediately after cutting bread. All my bread is either sourdough or from the bread maker so lots of crumbs or from being toasted.

My ceramic hob is wiped down as soon as it’s cool enough. With a spray I made up of water, fairy and vinegar. So nothing dries on ready for the next use.

Air fryer gets washed after each use because I hate the idea of oil residue that’s hardened on and impossible to shift. It looks like new still after being in constant use for well over a year or 2 now.

When my washing machine broke my neighbours gave me their keys to come and go as I pleased to use it for a couple of days.

I’ve just refreshed a sourdough starter from the fridge so rinsed off all the utensils straightaway otherwise once it dries it’s impossible to shift.

I’ve sprayed the sinks, left in for 20 mins and am now off to wipe.

@HazelNotHungryLC Ha yes it worked really well actually. Although I suppose the fluffy parts of a duster would have got inside the mirror frame ridges better but I’ve only got a short fluffy duster.

I've done swish and swipe in the bathroom for a couple of years now, maybe more - it's become part of my shower routine. Teeth cleaned, wipe basin and tap, clean toilet including seat, cloth in the laundry basket, have my shower. Later on I started cleaning the shower area (over the bath) while in there, it's a lot easier to reach the tiles and fittings. It's worked well; but the rest of the house got left until it really needed doing - or we had visitors coming. Then I would spend hours at a time doing a really good deep clean. I enjoyed that, actually - it was like a workout but better than the gym, and it did a lot for my mental well-being too; but then the dirt and clutter just piled up again, so the cycle started again.

It's early days still, but I'm much happier with a tidier cleaner home. Just hope I can keep it going :) I've also noticed my husband has cleared all his stuff off the table bar his laptop and coffee mug - result! Yay!

This morning I was up first so made drinks, fed the cat then decided to clean the furniture legs in the living room using a kneeler to scoot around the floor while wiping them. As I scooted past the settee on all fours I looked up to see the cat sitting on there, looking at me with an expression of total bewilderment :)

After S&S earlier I took everything off a bathroom shelf. Cleaned it. Binned unused items. Put them in categories of hair, face etc and put them in plastic containers back on the shelf.

I do have a new bathroom mirrored cabinet in the loft after DD pulled the last one in too herself during a bath when she was little and luckily the window sill caught it. We haven’t been brave enough to put the new one up in case it falls

You are all doing so well! I’ve been doing the links on these threads for many years and can’t remember last time everyone was so productive on one of my months ❤️

@Frumpyunicorn commiserations on the DW and WM situation, that happened to us at the start of the covid lockdowns and we panicked and had to order replacements because we weren’t sure if an engineer would be able to come out, The tumble dryer went that year too, I guess we bought them all around the same time when we moved here originally.

@PamelaColmansMustard I do the same re cleaning behind the bath, we have a shower over ours so I do that when I’m in there, much easier and everything is wet anyway. Just don’t use bleach….

@PeonyBulb that is a a really good kitchen routine you’ve got there, I can only aspire to such high standards! I need to train my family re crumbs. I haven;t used my sourdough starter for a few months, we get a loaf from the milkman every Saturday now and then buy some midweek, I’d like to get going with it again though. I get it out of the fridge and revive it every few months if I haven’t been using it.

@HazelNotHungryLC how are you feeling today?

@CherryogDog that’s so annoying about the noisy man. Hope you get a good night tonight.

I have undertaken my most hated job and cleaned the dishwasher filters, just yuck, shouldn’t leave it so long. Apart from that mainly just the usual routines today, I did take the photos for Ebay but I need to consult ChatGPT as to whether to sell my items as a bundle or separately, that is anti-procrastination in action as I have been meaning to do this for months.

I can breathe! Thank you for asking ED. I do think I'm starting to feel some of the side affects of the steroids though. My stomach is really bloated all of a sudden, but that's it, very uncomfortable though.

I'm at work today though. I'm not sure if I'll have any ta das to share later. I'm usually too tired after a full day of work.

I cleaned some weird things earlier. The inside sides of the dishwasher door. I fully cleaned then sprayed polish on the wooden bath tray which has seen better days and was full of DD clutter. Looks like nearly new now which I’m quite surprised at. Clutter on it binned or put elsewhere. Then I had to clean the polish off the bath after spraying the tray. Then I sprayed polish on the banisters.

I only really regularly wipe 2 of the 3 sides of my kitchen tbh where we cook and where the sink is. My kitchen has appliances and clutter I do use all over the place including the kitchen table which has had DD DP hamster on it all week to be collected in the next couple of days. Very cute docile hamster. I scrubbed the limescale off her metal water spout and properly cleaned the bottle which looked clean but I wanted to make sure I gave it full wash.

i put the bread machine away in a cupboard now but everything else needs to stay on the side. My slow cooker is now in the loft but I use every appliance regularly. I did reorganise everything not so long ago to make space. It’s not terrible but it’s not super neat. Maybe I need better cupboards or something. I try my best.

I’m wiping the surfaces constantly now because we had a mouse. Then a dead mouse. So I don’t want any food or crumbs on the sides apart from avocados which go brown in the fridge. Hence hamster on the table to keep her food from being alluring to any possible rodents. I feel that if I see another mouse I’ll likely pass out.

Morning!

Babystep 27 “what’s for dinner” - an important one and one I all too often fail on, we all come and go randomly (DH and I work flexible hours, DD works in a pub, DS is th eonly one with fixed hours) and we all go out in the evenings on the spur of the moment all the time (for walks, to the allotment or gym for me, whatever) so we are frequently standing around at 6pm trying to sort out who is eating what and when. But this week I did do some planning and the corresponding shopping, yay!

https://mymerrymessylife.com/flylady-31-baby-steps/27/

Zone 4: Mission #4 Thursday
Toss your underwear! Odd socks, tatty knickers, bras that have seen better days. I did this not too long ago but my knicker drawer needs a sort-out, I MArie Kondo’d my drawers about three years ago (rolling all my knickers up) and kept it going till very recently when I got overwhelmed by a laundry mountain (didn’t stick to a load a day) and shoved a load in without rolling, plus so me socks by mistake. So maybe I’ll rectify that. the drawer with vests, nighties and gym tops in has gone wrong too. But pleasingly my tee shirt drawer is still impeccable. It has made a huge difference - the tee shirts are vertical so I can see every single one of them and I have lots - I live in dresses in summer but wear a tee shiirt pretty well every day from about Sept-May.

Thursday is Errand Day - I need to go and buy dry cat food

Then for tomorrow:

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.

@ExtremeDecluttering Yes, bleach doesn't make the most pleasant-smelling shower gel lol! The other thing to avoid is soaking stuff in the bath with Steradent - I did this with the rubber mat and the damn thing slipped when I got in - ended up on my back in the bath with the shower curtain and pole on top of me. And a few large bruises. Lesson learned.

Bathroom s&s, no laundry today as not enough for a load, dishes done, floors swept downstairs, living room floor swiffered, just waiting for the thunder and lightning we've been promised. We live on a busy road with trucks trundling down so sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. The rest of the day is now free to enjoy; I'm thinking of going through my quilting fabrics and storing them a bit better, then finish off my sewing projects, mainly mending a skirt; if there's nothing else that needs the sewing machine I'm going to pack it away and create some space for the knitting machine, and get the yarns knitted and out of the living room.

Have a good day all.

@PamelaColmansMustard ouch! My other issue with the cleaning while in the shower method is that I am as blind as a bat so unless I keep my glasses on it can be a bit hit and miss.

@PeonyBulb your kitchen sounds similar to ours, we have three counters but one is a breakfast bar with stools and gets used more as a workspace especially in summer when we mainly eat outdoors (we have French windows from kitchen to patio, this is a lovely feature but means less counter than if we had a normal window there, we also have a back door at the side of the kitchen). The other two are either side of the cooker, one is where we do all the food prep, the other is quite cluttered with appliances, fruit bowl etc and doesn't get wiped as thoroughly, but I like the appliances out, don't like minimalist kitchens so it works on the whole.

@HazelNotHungryLC glad you are starting to improve, hope the bloating goes down soon, maybe try peppermint tea.

Morning 🌄 everyone 👋
I'm ahead of the game with bedroom and bathroom.
So today I'm starting the kitchen declutter, beginning with the larder.

I'm pleased to say that while I was out with the dogs DP cleaned their room, plus the patio where they toilet.
I did thank him, while inwardly being cross with myself because no-one ever thanks me for doing any cleaning 😁

Happy flying everyone!

Everyone is slipping on part of the floor that had polish sprayed on it when I did the bannister. Next time I’ll spray on the cloth then wipe

LOL, DW, S&S. Cleaned ice cream machine in preparation to attempt pistachio ice cream. Made a tunnel for the hamster fashioned out of kitchen roll tube and toilet roll tubes.

That’s what happens with DH and his spray sun cream @PeonyBulb I have told him to spray onto his hand first if he’s using it indoors but preferably to go out on the patio as it isn’t just slippery but I hate the fragrance of it.

Anyway, Friday, that’s come round quickly. I have emptied the DW, cleared and wiped the draining board and sink, dinner is planned and we are all ready for the new day. Just need to put some washing on. Our babystep is to take some time for yourself - I have to drive DH to work in a minute (because of his broken arm) nso I am going to take my diary and stop for coffee and an email / diary catch-up, which is one of my regular Friday habits as it’s my day off work. Just trying to think if there are any nice places for coffee between his work and home, there is one I know of but it’s a bit of a detour.

I got stuck into my larder cupboard yesterday, found so much out of date stuff, took a long time.
I've got one shelf left to do, plus get the wire drawers removed so I can clean the bottom.
At some point there's been some "melted" carrots in the top drawer, and it's gone all over my baking stuff. Which was out of date anyway (lock down polenta anyone?) 😳
DP kept wandering in and grumbling about what I was getting rid of (8 yo tin of spinach? Nothing wrong with that!)
I did empty most of the tins for the recycling but drew the line at the Cullen skink soup.
It's a shocking waste of food, but now everything is tidy and I can see what I've got hopefully I can keep on top of it.
Two LOLs drying.
Back on it over the weekend.

Sorry, forgot to post the mission info earlier, that’s the benefit of doing a week’s worth on Mondays that you can still scroll back up.

Zone 4: Mission #5 Friday
Take 15 minutes to declutter your dressing table Put things away, get rid of empty containers. I’ve decided to do my sock drawer instead, I have a LOT of socks of all different sorts, hardly worn any all summer but will need them again soon. I have also booked a tip run for later so I can get rid of a pile of accumulated clutter from the side of the house.

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

I haven’t got into the habit of posting here regularly.

I’ve just read through the thread, and can see there’s quite a few newbies like me. It’s really interesting to read people ‘thinking aloud’ about what’s working for them and how much of this is psychological. I said when I first joined that having cleaned the kitchen cupboard doors as part of a mission, I might well find myself quickly wiping the odd spill there and then, which is exactly what has happened! But as I also said in that post, I’m not feeling pressured to do it to ‘keep it up’, because I know it will come round again at some point. It’s hard to explain what a shift this has been in my mindset.

Similarly the bathroom missions. I didn’t do them all because that week didn’t really work out time-wise, but the room already looks way better with what I did do, and I’m doing a swish-and-swipe on the sink and loo everyday just because I want to and it takes no time at all. I’ve just been using some clean loo roll to do this, and then flushing it. We don’t have a laundry basket in the bathroom, everyone has their own in their bedrooms, so I’m not sure about using a cloth daily as I can’t picture where I’d put the dirty ones. What do experienced swish and swipers do?

We’re pretty good with laundry in this house - young adult kids do their own, DH does his gym stuff separately and often puts other clothes of his in by choice as he uses a special sports detergent which reduces pit-whiff. I just do mine along with whatever of DH’s ends up in our joint laundry bin. Have been folding and putting away the same day for many years now, having learned it’s the best way by far for me. Even now if a basket of dry washing hasn’t been put away by bedtime that day, it then becomes a fixture wherever it’s ended up and I step round it, pull things out to wear or forget things are in there and wonder where my favourite navy trousers are…

Loving my clutter free surfaces (I boxed up what remained of my trinkets a couple of weeks ago to achieve this, after chucking out quite a lot). A friend popped round at short notice one evening this week, and it was the work of moments to wipe the tv cabinet (which had already got a bit dusty - old house, live on busy road, have dog and skin-shedding people living here…) and the top of a shelving unit in the kitchen, thus giving the impression of reasonably clean living quarters. I decorated the top of the unit with a few choice items from my box, and because they’d stayed clean too it all looked rather lovely if I say so myself!

@mixedpeel Yes! I even wrote a list to myself of why I now love the flylady method, sad as that might sound. I love that I no longer need to worry about stuff - if I see something grubby I can either do it now, or wait until that zone comes round. The house is visitor-ready...it could be cleaner, of course it could, but it's enough - and better than being visitor-ready, it's a cleaner pleasant space for us to live in. I have time for things now instead of wearing myself out doing a deep clean that will be back to square one in a few months. I've started to love our home instead of feeling dissatisfied with it. We also live on a busy road in an old house, with our cat, and an open fireplace; we all shed dust but I'm getting on top of it.

I've said this upthread but I feel better mentally than I have for a long time, and you can't put a price on that.

@PamelaColmansMustard I've said this upthread but I feel better mentally than I have for a long time, and you can't put a price on that.

Couldn’t agree more!

@ExtremeDecluttering I really like your ‘sneak peek’ idea of putting a week’s worth of daily missions up. Hope it takes some of the thread leader pressure off too, knowing the rest of us can scroll up even if you don’t get time to post each day.

Hope you’re continuing to breathe more easily,@HazelNotHungryLC . Just about the most important function of our bodies, so we need to keep it working as well as possible.

@PeonyBulb, I can’t be the only person secretly hoping your daughter’s hamster hangs around in your way on your kitchen table as I’m loving the updates. Hope no one else has slipped on the polish ambush area.

I’ve since mopped the floor so no more slipping. DS fell flat on his arse the first day. Oops. And will spray polish straight onto the cloth in future then wipe the banisters. I have a feeling the stair carpet has some on so will have to use my Vax again.

I went to Lidl earlier with DS and they had the exact size plastic storage tubs I wanted so I bought 4. One is on the bathroom shelf with flannels and reusable make up remover wipes.

They also sold these really handy large drawstring storage pouches 83cm x 40cm which fold very flat. I bought for DD for uni. I thought there were 2 in the bag but alas only one. Picture just shows the different colours. I might buy more tomorrow if I have time and can be bothered. I also bought a small cooler bag that DD might like for uni. She’s currently at a festival using my new larger cooler bag from Regatta in their sale which is actually brilliant, you can blow air into it and it keeps items much colder for longer than my old hard plastic cool box. I also bought another tote cooler bag from Regatta which is better for carrying items to the beach and park. (They’d sold out so I bought the one you blow into but the tote came back into stock so I got it) But I used it today for ice creamfor the first time to put my fridge food shopping in and that helped a lot actually so very useful.

As for cloths etc in the bathroom I put them in a plastic washing up bowl in the bath tub. I use kitchen towel after spraying the toilet with disinfectant cleaner and bin it. Or I use flash wipes on toilet and bin those.

LOL, DW. Picked up prescription.

DD DP hamster is still here and DS and his GF who’s staying the week have been giving him lots of cuddles and his GF loves animals so keeps popping in to watch her.

I’m having one of my exhausted days and yesterday was a slow day too.

I get carried away in the Lidl middle aisles so I made myself put stuff back at the checkout.

mixedpeel I am breathing much better, but I'm still on an antibiotic and steroid. The true test will be after the weekend, when I'm done with both of them.
I am feeling exhausted though, and a little bit of a sore throat (which is a little concerning after reading the info on the steroids 😱). So I'm having a cup of chamomile tea with honey before I take a shower and put myself to bed early. I'm just so glad it's the weekend!

Pamela your list for why you love flylady is actually a good idea. It's good to have a reminder of why we do things.

@mixedpeel I am finding the same, only doing a little bit at a time makes it seem more manageable and it means I am noticing little things more, and then as it is getting cleaner (and less clutter) it is easier to maintain. So I am feeling much more on top of the kitchen and bathroom, although I still need to work on other areas of the house. The real test will be when work and school is back in full swing in a couple of weeks.

Morning, Saturday is Family Fun Day, no missions, but a good day to catch up on any odd jobs that don’t fit into weekdays (we tend to change our beds today rather than on Monday as part of Home Blessing), however won’t today as it is raining steadily.

I will come back later to catch up with the chat.