September Flylady: Fledglings inspired to make a fresh start at the beginning of a brand new term!

[mixedpeel]

Whether you're starting to build a new routine, stuck in a rut, or been around for years, join us on the monthly Flylady thread! Flylady has created a series of daily and weekly prompts to help anyone who finds it tricky to get or keep their house clean and tidy. She totally gets it if you feel overwhelmed or don't even know where to start - as do we! The best thing about Flylady is that you are never behind - just jump in at whatever point you are at, and do what you can.

This is a long running thread, but as a newbie myself I can confirm everyone is very friendly and all are welcome to join in. We spur each other on, but also commiserate when life gets in the way and we don't get as much done as we might have wanted to.

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
We usually link to the daily missions (jobs to do in whichever zone we're in) every day, but the new website doesn't seem to be working for me right now. I will keep trying, but they should update every day so you can click the link yourself to check. We will post the missions in the thread too so don't worry about missing anything. Most importantly, don't worry about finishing it all this month, it'll come around again next month! Flylady is NOT about perfectionism!

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

Flylady also tries to help us get into habits so that eventually we do things without even having to think about them. She has 31 baby steps to gradually pick up (on the previous website, since the link isn't working on the new site yet): https://mymerrymessylife.com/flylady-31-baby-steps/

Daily focus: each day of the week has a different focus. It's not all jobs jobs jobs by the way.
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

If you can, it's worth downloading the app (link on the flylady website), you can even have it send you notifications. You can also modify the tick lists to suit your home & lifestyle. There is a paid version and a free version, though the missions haven't been updating on the free app.

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

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 probably more, feel free to ask us to explain something!

mixedpeel you are doing such a great job of thread leader, especially as it's a busier month than we have had in a while. Thank you for all of your efforts! It is very much appreciated.

@HazelNotHungryLC Glad Cocoa is home. Hope she recovers quickly.

Nice catching up on the thread this morning. I also love this time year. Very much enjoyed the first misty day of autumn yesterday. Very atmospheric!

Had BIble study group yesterday so only managed to make tea, wash dishes and top up food shop. But I have been very good at putting my clothes away every day so didn't have a clothes pile to bust.

Tonight will be glad to tidy up my bedside table as it is very chaotic. Too many notebooks and journals. And a pile of necklaces that are on the verge of tangling.

Yesterday morning was lovely @HedgehogNotes , really atmospheric. I'm being nosey, do you study the Bible cover to cover in the group or choose passages at random?

Out at lunch so need to get on; making butter then I'll clear the dishes and shine the sink. No laundry today 😍Happy flying!

Morning 🌄 everyone 👋
I've had a terrible night's sleep, I've got the farrier coming this morning and I fully intend to get back in bed when he's finished, I never intentionally sleep during the day but there's always a first time!
@HazelNotHungryLC 💐 for Coco!
☕️ and 💐 for anyone in need, I daren't have my 2nd coffee because of my knackered bladder!
Happy flying everyone!

@ExpertlyDecluttering and @HazelNotHungryLC, you both deserve all our thanks for keeping the threads going so long. I don’t know when I first found them, but I used to occasionally read them as relaxation, and I’m pretty sure both of you were stalwart contributors and thread runners whenever I peeked in. I think my house has gradually improved by osmosis, but decided last month that I needed to actually post in the thread and find out a bit more about the Flylady ideas. And then when you asked for a volunteer for the September thread I thought it was about time you two had a break from it!

@ExpertlyDecluttering, really glad you had a good time away. The unpacking straight after a holiday or any time away is something I’ve done for many years now, and boy does it make a difference! It is ingrained in me in fact, and I even find it soothing to do. It’s reassuring to spot the ways we have already developed good habits, because it means we can definitely add new ones in.

Hope all those requiring some extra TLC (thinking of Coco, @CherryogDog and @Alwaysgrowing in particular) get it today, and hope @HedgehogNotes does get to the necklaces before they tango themselves into a tangle!

@PamelaColmansMustard At the moment we are working through the book of Mark and doing a chapter a week and we'll eventually do the whole thing - it's only 16 chapters long. When we do longer books we've done a selection of the chapters. Only started the study group in January so are still learning together what works best. At the start we all wrote down either a question or a part of the Bible we'd like to study on a lolly stick. Then we choose a stick out of a pot to decide what to study next. I really enjoy it and find I get much more from the study because of everyone else's thoughts and questions.

@CherryogDog hope you successfully napped!

I have deep cleaned and organised my bedside table. Emptied it all, cleaned it, including wiping inside the drawers! Moved it and vacuumed the extremely dusty carpet beneath it. Threw stuff away, put other bits away. Now it is all clean and tidy and I did it all in the time it took for my roast potatoes to cook.

It's really nice to have just a short mission each day isn't it? Just get this sense of accomplishment and your house is that little bit nicer.

@HedgehogNotes Thank you - that sounds like a nice group. I don't go to a church now, have a very different practice, but do have an ongoing quest to read the Bible cover to cover; have been stuck at Deuteronomy for quite some time now!

So much for my decision not to do any laundry today - the cat was sick on the bed this morning, thankfully while I was getting dressed, so was there to whip the fleece blanket off before it soaked through. In the washer, and dried before we went out. Lit a lovely candle I'd saved for today, smelled great but didn't burn well, I ended up peeling a large puddle of melted wax from under the holder. Ah well! Other than washing dishes and making the butter I've done the usual S&S in the bathroom - and then went through the Flylady zones and have brought mine into synch. Just means it'll be far nicer to be able to join in with the missions in the threads. It's been a lovely day, a quiet autumnal peaceful one.

@HedgehogNotes It's really nice to have just a short mission each day isn't it? Just get this sense of accomplishment and your house is that little bit nicer.

Well put! I enjoyed your description of how you completed the mission - and then got distracted by the thought of roast potatoes… Your point about how little time these things can take is really valid.

I’ve been an anti-procrastination animal today! I had the morning off so:

Walked dog
Cleared DS’s room of the stash and dash pile
Sorted stuff into charity (straight into bag) and keep
Chopped down self-seeded buddleia right on the edge of us and the neighbour’s front garden - into garden waste bin for tomorrow’s collection
Glass bin out.
All recycling out for collection tomorrow, including some Amazon boxes which keep getting missed
Wrote birthday card for colleague tomorrow
Finished DS’s card (we have got into a lovely habit of drawing cards for each other)

After work ta das

Put charity bag into car. Should have time to drop off on the way back from work tomorrow
Took soft plastics to supermarket
Shopping
Cooked tea
Washed up non dishwasher items

To do

Well, I actually haven’t done the bedside table mission. It just needs a bit of a wipe later while my bath is running.

Here is Flylady encouraging us to do 2 minutes whenever we can https://flylady.net/morning-musing/2-minute-miracles

I have a splitting headache so only managed s&s and lol today. But I am on top of the bedroom, just want to give it a really thorough hoover tomorrow. And I think I might be able to manage a couple of 2 minutes challenge @mixedpeel thanks for all the encouragement!

I really need to read this thread daily again because otherwise there’s too much to catch up on and I don’t clean as much as I’d like and then when I get to post I forget who’s done what to write a nice individual sentence about which is nice to do on such a lovely thread. I feel drained with DS issues but am being very present for him. DD is having a great time at freshers week, loves her flatmates, room and has come to terms with the fact that her kitchen / living area isn’t as big as some flats but also not as small as others. We live in the SE and her uni is north one or two hours drive past the midlands so she’s thoroughly enjoying meeting people from all round the country.

Ta Das

💆🏼‍♀️ Hoovered DDs Room
💆🏼‍♀️ Washed DDs Windows, frames and sill
💆🏼‍♀️ Cleaned DDs Desk / Make up table
💆🏼‍♀️ Cleaned DDs Tall Boy
💆🏼‍♀️ Cleaned DDs Mirror
💆🏼‍♀️ Sorted out DDs clothes piled up behind her door ready to wash and dry
💆🏼‍♀️ Swished and swiped bathroom sink as I’d used it for cloths for cleaning DD room
💆🏼‍♀️ Made bread
💆🏼‍♀️ Swept kitchen floor
💆🏼‍♀️ Wiped down kitchen surfaces
💆🏼‍♀️ Swept areas of living room
💆🏼‍♀️ DW and handwashing non stick pans.
💆🏼‍♀️ Cleaned a Sony Bluetooth speaker where the outside is very sticky and after washing it (it’s waterproof) I had to scrape off a layer of the casing where the plastic has reacted to something. The other one is fine so I wonder if DD borrowed it any maybe it went in the sea or something 🤷‍♀️ and that affected it or being out in the sun.

Still not hoovered the stairs. Need to do LOL so will do that now.

@PeonyBulb you’ve got loads done today. Great that DD is settling in well to uni life. On your comment about the thread, I think we all need to feel fine about just dropping in when it suits us. It would be a real shame if it became another oppressive thing on the To Do list rather than a helpful support.

@Frumpyunicorn, sorry to see you’ve got a headache. What do you usually need to do to get rid of it?

Here are the Thursday Things:

Babystep 24: Swish and swipe the basin and toilet (S&S)
https://mymerrymessylife.com/flylady-31-baby-steps/24/
This is another biggie: a daily quick once over of the basin and toilet. Wipe round the basin and taps which takes seconds but deals with toothpaste, hairs, dust and whatever else can collect. Then for the loo, a quick squirt of your toilet cleaner of choice, scrub with the toilet brush, then wipe around the toilet seat. Your S&S will keep this key area of the house fresh and pleasant to use.

Thursday is errand day. I’ve already got the charity bag in the car ready to drop off on my way back from work tomorrow.

Zone 4 Master Bedroom: Mission 4
Yesterday it was bedside tables, now do the same job on your dressing table if you have one. For me this is the top of my chest of drawers. Just get rid of anything that is not necessary, and put as much as is practical away in the drawers.

Aim to keep this space neat and clutter free, you will love to wake up to the flat surfaces in your bedroom decluttered. It’s so much easier to keep up with the dusting this way too.

And here is tomorrow’s final mission:
Zone 4: Mission #5 Friday
Let’s go for a full remake of your bed today, ready for a blissful night’s sleep into the weekend.

Strip off all the bedlinen and if possible flip or turn the mattress. This may be a two person job!

If it’s a nice day you may get the bedlinen all washed and dried today ready to put on super fresh. If not, take your favourite clean set and make the bed up as best as you possibly can.

Tuck those corners properly in and fluff all the pillows. According to Flylady those of you with tumble dryers could try tumbling your pillows for a while with a dryer sheet to freshen and fluff them even more. I’m not sure if this means American tumble dryers are larger, and I take no responsibility for anyone’s decision to try this!

Look forward to reaping the rewards of your hard work with a beautiful night’s sleep and maybe even a Saturday lie-in…

@mixedpeel Yes I did seem to get a lot done didn’t I. One thing just led to another so I ended up doing much more than planned. I had just planned to hoover but on closer inspection it was in a right old state. Also it didn’t feel tedious or anything or seem to take long although it did. I had to use elbow grease spray on the table because there were so many stubborn marks but I feel like I did a good job and it was really satisfying.
I need to lift the mattress and sort out what’s under the bed and give that a good old Hoover too. And I bet I find loads of items that have gone missing from my room. So much easier to tackle now that half her stuff has gone.

I did 2 sets of LOL too so that’s good.

Lovely to see so many TADAs!
I didn't go back to bed, I dozed in front of the TV for most of the day.
Other than horse and dog TADAs I did one LOL.
We're going out today, a country show/plough match, I've got stuff on for a couple of days so I'll finish my bedroom on Sunday.
@PeonyBulb you get so much done! I used to suspect that @HazelNotHungryLC was flylady in disguise, now I'm thinking it's you 😁
@Frumpyunicorn hope you're feeling better today 💐
@mixedpeel posting the weekly missions is really helpful thanks.

First LOL on the go - changed the sheets this morning, would love a new mattress as the old one is ancient and feels like you're sleeping on a choppy sea 😕Bathroom S&S done, breakfast dishes done, some craft stuff packed away in one of those zip up bag/boxes from Amazon, now sitting down to some stitching.

Happy flying!

Had a busy day at work Tuesday and didn't sleep well so my Wednesday day with ds was low key. We stayed home, watched TV, he did some lovely independent play, making jewellery and putting together a construction toy. With him just occasionally mentioning the farm he loves to go to on our day together. The only cleaning was swish and swipe plus emptied downstairs bins. DH normally does lots of housework but he's not so much recently. I have an emotional DD, she's quite in tune with me and I think is spending a lot of time thinking of the new baby.

Working today but Tonight I would like to change our bedding as it's overdue and it can go on overnight.

@CherryogDogI wish. My cleaning comes in waves. I haven’t done a thing today other than the DW and glancing in DD room at what may lurk under the bed.

@PamelaColmansMustardThe slats on my bed gave way twice earlier. And whilst rearranging them I noticed the middle plank they sit on looked to be at the start of possibly breaking off completely so i arranged a stack of books underneath to lessen the fall should that happen.

I cleared everything on the attic stairs recently but DD stacked a load of items from her room on them before she left. I just cant be bothered even though it’ll all take less than half an hour to move it all.

This is precisely why making ourselves do just 15 mins a day of something is useful. Maybe I’ll just try and do the loft stuff

Right well I’ve just taken it all up into the loft and binned what I know won’t be missed or required.

Finally took the tent ⛺️ up along with it so all in all it took me 30 mins.

Hello everyone. I’m going to put Friday’s info here, so if anyone is reading this on Thursday evening you’ve just got a headstart…

Babystep 25: Progress not perfection
https://mymerrymessylife.com/flylady-31-baby-steps/25/
This is such an important aspect of Flying. It’s not about perfection, and something is always better than nothing. It’s really important to notice the progress. For me this month I did a good job on the entrance hall in week one and it hasn’t silted back up. The sink hasn’t been shined every single day, but the pots don’t linger half as long as they may have previously. I’m nailing the S&S most days in the bathroom. And loads more little things. I am definitely making progress overall, even if some days I get very little flying done. Hope the same goes for you!

Friday is car and handbag clean out, plus Date Night
More progress to note here, as car, handbag and backpack are all still in pretty good nick since last week.

And we’ve reached the final mission in zone 4: the master bedroom
Let’s go for a full remake of your bed today, ready for a blissful night’s sleep into the weekend.

Strip off all the bedlinen and if possible flip or turn the mattress. This may be a two person job!

If it’s a nice day you may get the bedlinen all washed and dried today ready to put on super fresh. If not, take your favourite clean set and make the bed up as best as you possibly can.

Tuck those corners properly in and fluff all the pillows. According to Flylady those of you with tumble dryers could try tumbling your pillows for a while with a dryer sheet to freshen and fluff them even more. I’m not sure if this means American tumble dryers are larger, and I take no responsibility for anyone’s decision to try this!

Look forward to reaping the rewards of your hard work with a beautiful night’s sleep and maybe even a Saturday lie-in…

@mixedpeel good idea re fluffing pillows in dryer.

@PeonyBulb I've had this bed since 2009 and the slats still haven't been fastened down! Really annoying because they move. Occurs to me that if I screwed just one slat every day they would soon be done (haven't got an electric screwdriver)

My headache turned into a full on cold so I still haven't been flying this week, but I am having a quiet weekend at home so hoping to get a bit more done then. And I want to clear the bottom of the stairs and hall table which are starting to clutter up again today.

Hugs @Frumpyunicorn , hope you feel better soon.

Hugs @Frumpyunicorn , hope you feel better soon.

@Frumpyunicorni hope you recover quickly

@PamelaColmansMustardI’ve probably had mine nearly as long. The slats on one side have a thing preventing them from slipping but not the other so they occasionally drop down. I feel happy with my book stack solution. I bought DD a new mattress last year which is very comfortable so I’m debating whether to secretly swap mattresses now she’s at uni.

I put citric acid then hot water down my kitchen and bathroom sinks this morning to prevent any blockages. And I’m also buying into the emergency prepping thing so I bought a wind up / solar / battery radio with built in torch and charger for phone 😂 some 5L bottles of water and a few tins of food and extra gas for my camping stove. I feel a bit of a weirdo doing that but thought better safe than sorry just in case. Has anyone else stocked up a bit just in case ?