A warm welcome to @WattTheHell (excellent name I must say!) If you’ve read through most of the thread you will have gathered that we are a mixture of absolute newbies, relative newbies and more experienced fledglings, so you are in very good company!
I’m fairly new to actually posting on the thread, but have dipped in to read it off and on, and I realised last night that I haven’t always made the start of Flying as clear as I could have. While every day will have a baby step, a daily focus and a mission, there is no expectation that newbies Do It All. In fact no one should be trying to Do It All - Flylady is all about how eventually we will have way more success by getting into ‘good enough’ and ‘little and often’ mindsets.
With that in mind, welcome to a new week everyone! Here is babystep 14, start using a calendar https://mymerrymessylife.com/flylady-31-baby-steps/14/
I have always needed a calendar I can actually see, so we’ve always had one up in the kitchen. When the kids were younger it was one of those family ones with a column for each person. It really did help with seeing what was going on. What I found I didn’t notice after a while was all the birthdays and anniversaries etc I’d also noted in one of the columns. They were always there so didn’t stand out in the same way. I suppose this makes two points: use whatever system actually works for you. Nowadays you can make fantastic use of tech with shared google calendars and the like, but whichever calendar it is, it’s only worth the information you feed it! So Other People really do need to put their stuff on too. But secondly, everyone also needs to actually look at it. The information is useless if no-one actually takes any notice of it. So if your lovely kitchen calendar with birthdays inscribed in your bestest handwriting isn’t drawing your attention, find a different way to remember them!
Monday is Home Blessing/Home Bleugh day
As discussed earlier in the thread, I belatedly realised that Flylady is acknowledging that along with all the sink shining or 15 minute missions, the whole house does actually benefit from a quick surface clean every week. Hence her idea to whiz round and hoover every room on a Monday. This won’t convenient for everyone, but the point still stands - try and spend 10 minutes in each room over the week on a quick once over of any floor or surfaces you can see. Change the bedding and empty all the bins. It’s the regular ‘ticking over’ cleaning that I for one have never really been in the habit of, and leads to real build up of mank and mess if you don’t do it.
New week, new zone! We are now in zone 3, the main bathroom and one other room of your choice
The other room can be different each day, or the same one. Take just 5 minutes each day for a stash and dash (another useful Flylady phrase), sorting through a corner or surface where piles of random stuff have built up. Bit by bit you will put things back where they belong. For some things this will be the bin or recycling!
Mission 1
A grim but necessary mission today; wiping down behind and round the toilet - it won’t take long but is easily missed until it’s really not very nice…
Pick a room for stash and dash, and start with a 5 minute collection of any rubbish or recycling.
Read on for a sneak peek for the rest of the week. I will post them again each day so skip if you’re already losing the will before 9am on a Monday!
Zone 3: Mission #2 Tuesday
Clean out your bathroom bin. Not just tip out the rubbish, but put it into the bath and fill it with hot soapy water. Leave it to soak for a few minutes and then give it a thorough scrub all over, inside and out. Let it dry in the bath and then return it to its rightful place before someone trips over it trying to have a shower. You can feel great that it’s cleaner than it’s probably been since you bought it!
Your mission for the Stash and Dash space is to spend 5 minutes finding anything for the charity shop - those usable things that you don’t need or love anymore.
Zone 3: Mission #3 Wednesday
Check medicine cabinets. Throw out empties and take out of date/ no longer needed meds back to a pharmacy. As you pick things up, quickly wipe the shelf underneath. No need to get everything all out at the same time.
For the stash and dash room, spend 5 minutes returning waifs and strays to their rightful home. You know what’s happened: someone’s coming over so you quickly chuck everything you can see in a corner and then it ends up languishing there permanently. Who knows what delights you’ll find today?
Zone 3: Mission #4 Thursday
Shine you bathroom sink, taps and surfaces. Use whatever bathroom cleaner you favour and get these areas really sparkling today.
A repeat Stash and Dash: look again for recycling or rubbish. As you’ve peeled back one layer earlier in the week, more may have been revealed. If not move to another room.
Zone 3: Mission #5 Friday
The final day of zone 3! Mop that bathroom floor. However you choose, either an actual mop or on hands and knees with a cloth, just some lovely hot soapy water and get into all those edges and corners. You’ll feel great when it’s done, and it won’t take long because bathrooms are rarely cavernous.
In your Stash and Dash space do a 27 fling boogie in the space. This is the first mention of the 27 fling boogie - I’m not sure if it will come up as a babystep. Anyway, just zoom around grabbing 27 things to throw away, give away or put away! This week we’ve found how a quick 5 minute stash and dash every day can really make a difference.