Hello,

Long-time no blog. I’m not sure what happened in 2019 but the blog wasn’t something I managed to do.

I did manage to put out a lot of content on Youtube (and lose followers) – Luckily, I’m not looking for YT fame.

At the end of 2019, I found myself like Alice, down a rabbit hole but instead of the Cheshire cat and Mad Hatter, I found the FlyLady cleaning system. I haven’t watched any of the FlyLady herself but I discovered Steph the Secret Slob and Diane in Denmark. I use the FlyLady Website but it’s not easy to navigate and it’s a bit click heavy and I seem to find more pages every time I look at it. It’s a rabbit hole in itself.

I’m a hoarder or well no, Ok yes probably. When I find something I like, I buy multiples. Clothes, food, accessories. I also like keeping things for best and with every clear out I seem to end up with less space.

The FlyLady system has a lot of elements but I feel like I can adapt it and take on board the part that works for me. I am still very new to it but most of the things I’ve read so far have clicked.

Me and Marie Kondo work in parts but I bought her book and I haven’t ever been able to bring myself to read it. It makes me feel anxious at the thought of it. I have Marie Kondo’d my Wardrobe and that worked as a massive declutter but I’ve never felt able to apply the theory to the rest of the house. One of those reasons is this isn’t my own house. I share it with my parents (Yes, I am a million years old and I have no plans to move out)

When you start the FlyLady system they recommend you follow the 31 baby steps. I started these but I skipped ahead. I was raring to go. This might be a mistake, but I was itching to declutter.

One of the big things with FlyLady is that you split you house into 5 zones and concentrate on that zone for a week.

The rest of the house isn’t neglected as you have a weekly routine where you still do some key housework tasks but you only spend an hour in total on these as my gran calls it you have a tickle round. This includes things like vacuuming and dusting but it’s not full-on moving furniture out or pulling out every item in a room and the idea is once you have decluttered and deep cleaned everywhere this is enough to keep on top of the home and when it’s that Zone’s week it’s not a huge effort to give it a bit of a deeper clean.

There is also a daily routine list, you can put on this anything you need to do daily but should include Shine your sink, dress to shoes (I don’t do this – I’m up and out in the week but at weekend I dress to socks. I hate wearing socks. I normally walk around with these in a pocket and only put them on at the very last minute, so this is my compromise). On the website, it does mention having a Morning and evening routine but I’m out the door at 7am so I have just created a daily routine and tick them off as I go. As I go further into, I might split them out but for now, it’s one.

Daily Routine

My daily is very simple I’ve made a tick list in my control Journal and while it looks like a lot it doesn’t take long and I like to tick them off.

Clean loo & Bathroom sink – This is just wiping them over and making sure there is Duck Fresh disk in the loo

Kitchen Sink – Rinse it out and give it a quick bleach spray, our sink is white and quickly discolour which is why we use a bleach spray. I will look into other ways of cleaning it in the future.

Dishwasher – stack and start

Make Lunch for work – I have good intentions but usually end up buying lunch so having a tick is a nice feeling.

Dust Bedside Table - my dumping ground so helps me to keep it tidy.

Tomorrow’s Clothes – This is something that I’ve always half done but I’ve been putting out underwear as well as outerwear which isn’t something I’ve done before. It’s not perfect but the couple of time I’ve not liked or felt happy with the top I’ve picked out it’s been easy to grab another top without having to think of a whole new outfit.

Weekly Routine

This isn’t really in place yet, it’s mainly been cleaning round in the bathroom, but I will revisit this as I work my way around the zones and work out what chores to add.

Zones

Zone one – Porch, stairs and Dining room

Zone two – Kitchen

Zone three – Bathroom

Zone 4 – Bedroom

Zone 5 - Livingroom