Show Me Your Living Room

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Getting Organized:
In your Home and Homeschool 

    

Dear Friends,
How did you do with the Zone Missions this week? I want to see your progress in your living room. Email a picture to me at Tami@TamiFox.com.
Each week I want you to see progress in your home with these missions. I also want you to feel a shift in how you view caring for your home through these missions and Home Blessings. While you will always have things coming into your home, a few minutes of decluttering each day will help you tame the
clutter monster.
Look at clutter like balancing your checkbook. If you always bring stuff into the house, you need to keep a balance by getting rid of things you are not using any longer. If you bring in 5 new things, you need to get rid of 5 to 10 old things. You always want to get rid of the same amount of stuff or more.
If you are living with a lot of clutter and are frozen in your tracks, I want you to consider making a pact to not bring anything new into your house unless it is food or medically necessary. Just buy the things you truly NEED and not buy the things that you want for one month.
During that month, I want you to spend 5 to 10 minutes a day bagging things up to give away or trash. Some of you are holding onto “stuff” so you can have a yard sale. Yard sales are a lot of trouble, and I do not recommend you have them.
Many of you are holding onto stuff to give to just the right person. This stuff is taking up valuable space in your home. Spend a few minutes in each room in your home and pretend you are a real estate agent. You want to stage this house to get it ready to sell. What would you keep? What would you get rid of?
Take some pictures of your rooms and closets. What can you do to maximize your space and lose the cluttered feel?
The bottom line is that you need to get rid of stuff. You are holding onto things that no longer bless your family. You need to release these things and bless someone else with your abundance.
Send me some pictures of your living room or family room! How did you do with your zone missions this week?
Today’s Zone Mission is to do a Hot Spot Fire Drill in your Living Room.
Your Home Blessing for today is to empty the trash, sweep, and mop.
My menu plan for Friday is take out.
Have a wonderful weekend!

Look down and all around for dust bunnies

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Getting Organized:
In your Home and Homeschool 

    

 
Dear Friends,
Today we are going to work on the lower part of our living rooms. Yesterday we worked on the higher parts of it. Today we are going to detail clean the baseboards, the corners, and under the furniture. Enlist help for moving the furniture.
One of the big benefits of decluttering and detail cleaning is that you do not have to work hard doing your Weekly Home Blessings. One of the big stumbling blocks you encounter to vacuuming, sweeping, and dusting is that you have to spend precious time picking up stuff before you start.
Teaching your children to pick up behind themselves and putting things away once or twice a day will make a huge impact on how your home looks and how easy you can start your Home Blessings.
Your home will start to feel like you are staying in a vacation rental as you do your zone missions. You will take care of the nice little details and feel joyful doing it.
Play games with your children as you do your missions. Teach them that blessing their home by picking up and decluttering is a joy! You have the ability to help your children look at home blessings a whole new way.
If you find your attitude is slipping toward a negative zone, then stop yourself and remind yourself of the happiness you feel when you look at your shiny sink in the kitchen. You want your whole house to make you feel this way. When you change your attitude to a positive attitude, it will spread to your family.
Many people have commented on my social media posts about lack of support from their husbands. I will tell you what I have heard The FlyLady say many times. “Change starts with you. Your family did not sign up for FlyLady.” So you will influence their changes by starting with you.
As you move your furniture today to clean under it, think about other ways you might arrange your Living Room furniture.
Your Zone Mission today is to detail clean the lower portion of your living room.
Your Home Blessing for today is to toss papers and magazines.
My menu plan for Thursday is lasagna and salad.

Have a great day!

5 Fun Things to Do With Your Family

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Getting Organized:
In your Home and Homeschool 

    

 
Dear Friends,

Are you enjoying your summer and having fun with your kids?
One thing I have worked on this summer is having fun with my kids and getting in movement, too. When it’s hot outside, you might have to be creative in what you do in order to not get too hot, but I want you to have fun this summer. Make memories!
Here are 5 Fun Things to Do with Your Family:
Go swimming or have a water play day.
When the temperatures soar in the summer, we like to play in the water. We have set up water games in the yard, gone to a mountain creek, or gone swimming. You want to teach your children water safety, and one of the best ways to do that is to expose them to water. If they do not know how to swim, sign them up for swimming lessons.
Go for a hike in the woods.
We live in the middle of the woods, so the boys and I have ready access to walking in the woods whenever we want, but I have also taken them to various state parks and the mountains to hike in the forest. It’s a lot of fun to get out into nature and learn about trees and animals. By using shady paths, you are also able to stay cooler on a hot day.
Go fishing.
If you live near a lake or a stream, get some fishing poles and simple gear and go fishing. My boys love to fish, and I enjoy watching them fish. When they were little, it was more work for me to supervise them. Now that they are bigger, I can sit in the shade and just admire their catches as they reel them in. I also walk around a little bit as they are fishing for extra movement in my day and to talk to each of them as they are fishing.
Go biking.
Do your kids have bikes? Do you have one, too? Get out your bikes and helmets and go for a ride! Last week, my son rode his bike for 3 miles while I ran 3 miles. We had a lot of fun outside, and we both got in some good movement. We go to local places that do not have car traffic for safety purposes, and we pack our water bottles and go out and enjoy the ride.
Go bowling.
What about indoor movement? Some bowling centers offer inexpensive rates for kids to bowl in the summer. We have gone bowling on days when the temperature was too hot or when it was raining. Bowling is great exercise and a lot of fun. It builds muscles and coordination.
Your Zone Mission today is to dust the tops of doors, windows, pictures, molding, ceiling fan, and the tops of your curtains.
Your Home Blessing for today is to wipe windows and mirrors.
My menu plan for Wednesday is chicken with a salad.
Have a blessed day!

Decluttering Flat Surfaces Will Bring You Peace

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Getting Organized:
In your Home and Homeschool 

    

 
Dear Friends,
How are you doing on your decluttering journey? As you continue to clear and maintain flat surfaces, you will start to feel peaceful in your home. Anxiety will start to melt away as you look around your home and enjoy the scene before you.
Some of you are seeing the fruits of your labor in decluttering, and some of you are just starting your journey. No matter where you are in your decluttering journey, you can enjoy your progress.
My home is going through a process of purging and moving things around as one of my children is moving out after getting married, and another child is moving into the vacated bedroom. We have been working on stages of moving, much like a puzzle.
There are days when things might sit in an area until we can make a decision on where it goes. So my house does not look perfect. Overall, it looks great, but if you wanted to be picky, you could find things that need to be put somewhere else.
Letting go of my perfectionism has allowed me to be patient when we move things around, and when we move one person out of the house. I know the end result will be great, but it might take a few weeks to get there.
This approach allows me to steer clear of burn-out, and it keeps me from yelling and screaming about things being in my launch pad area or wherever they have landed temporarily.
When I prepared for my spring speaking trips, my launch pad area had things in it for several days. It was a part of my process, and when I returned home, I put everything away.
Using my routines and my zone missions help me declutter and purge a little at a time without stressing me out. Wherever you are in your journey, I want you to feel less stress, too.
Today, I want you to look around the Living Room and declutter anything that sits on a flat surface that does not belong. Use your timer for no more than 15 minutes. You can do your detail dusting as you move through the area.
Your Home Blessing for today is to dust and vacuum.
Your Zone Mission for today is to declutter items from the flat surfaces in your Living Room.
My menu plan for Tuesday is spaghetti for the boys. Veggies and salad for me.
Have a blessed day!

Decluttering Missions in the Living Room

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Getting Organized:
In your Home and Homeschool 

    

 
Dear Friends,
Welcome to Zone 5! We are going to declutter and detail clean the Living Room this week. If you have a Family Room, you can split the missions or do the missions in both rooms. If you have guests, they typically end up in your Living Room, so spend a few minutes each day this week decluttering and detail cleaning.
Here are your missions for the week:
Zone 5 Missions: The Living Room
Monday – Go Sofa and Chair Diving
Tuesday – Declutter some of your decorative items
Wednesday – Dust the tops of things in your Living Room
Thursday - Dust and vacuum lower items
Friday – Hot Spot Fire Drill in the Living Room
Set your timers and then take a break when it goes off!
The missions this week are designed to be short and sweet. Don’t let your perfectionism hold you back from starting or allow it to keep you working in the area for hours. Set your timer for 10 to 15 minutes and abide by it. Don’t restart it or ignore it. Remember that good enough is good enough.
On Monday, you are going to go sofa diving and chair diving. Pull the cushions and see what treasures you can find, or you can assign this to one of your children. I let my son keep any loose change that he finds, so he does this mission for me monthly.
On Tuesday, your mission is to declutter extra decorative items from the Living Room flat surfaces. Keep out the things that have special meaning for you. Put away the rest. This will make your weekly quick dusting to go much faster and easier.
On Wednesday and Thursday, you are going to divide and conquer to higher surfaces and the lower surfaces.
When you do the higher surfaces, dust the tops of the doors, ceiling fans, tops of pictures, molding, windows, corners of the ceiling, and the tops of your curtains.
When you do the lower surfaces, vacuum the corners and baseboards. Enlist the help of your family to move the furniture and vacuum under it.
On Friday, your mission is to do a Hot Spot Fire Drill in the Living Room. Throw away, put away, or give away anything that is in the living room that does not belong in there. Keep this mission quick!
You can do these missions. I know you can.
Your Home Blessing for today is to wash the sheets.
Your Zone Mission for today is to go sofa and chair diving.
My menu plan for Monday is grilled burgers for the guys and salad for me.
Have a blessed day!

Show Me Your Progress in Your Master Bedroom

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Getting Organized:
In your Home and Homeschool 

    

 
Dear Friends,
How did you do with the Zone Missions this week? I want to see your progress in your master bedroom. Email a picture to me at homeschool@flylady.net.
We spent this week doing zone missions in our master bedrooms. Yesterday, I told you that I want you to feel successful with your missions. As you develop the habit of doing a small zone mission each day, it will get easier.
You will also start seeing that you have less to deal with when you are decluttering. You just have to take the first step and then be consistent with doing these missions each week.
During the summer, you do not have the pressure of a homeschool schedule, but other activities can take up a lot of your time. You will need to be quick and efficient with your missions, so you can develop the habit now rather than later.
Some of you may homeschool year round, and that is okay, too, but you can use your breaks throughout the year to work on consistency with your zone missions.
My zone missions are a part of my day because I have practiced them a lot over the years, and I want the same for you. I found it easier to practice the zone missions in the summer because I was under less restraints with my schedule, and I could use fun outings to encourage the boys to help me.
When we transitioned into our school schedule in August each summer, it was easier to keep the habits we had worked on that year in our daily routines. I used this summer training to let them work on their skills in sweeping and dusting and in doing laundry.
When my children were small, I used little check off lists with pictures, and each summer, I changed them as needed and added new things to it. As they got older, I used a mix of pictures and words. After they mastered reading, I used check off sheets with just words. It helped them to know there was an end in sight as far as their routines. It kept me from continually giving them one more thing to do.
Send me some pictures of your master bedroom! You can also send pictures of your children’s rooms, too. How did you do with your zone missions this week?
Today’s Zone Mission is to declutter items from the shelf in your closet.
Your Home Blessing for today is to empty the trash, sweep, and mop.
My menu plan for Friday is take out.
Have a wonderful weekend!

Finding Joy and Happiness in Your Bedroom

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Getting Organized:
In your Home and Homeschool 

    

 
Dear Friends,
This week we have been decluttering in our bedrooms, and I hope you are starting to see a difference as you declutter. I want you to feel joy and happiness in your bedroom as soon as you walk into the room.
When you lay your head down at night, I want you to feel relaxed and peaceful. The way to get to that point is to declutter items from your bedroom.
Today’s focus is your nightstand. I want you to spend 10 minutes removing the items that you don’t need beside of your head at night. Then, I want you to dust your nightstand and dust any items that are remaining on it.
Your nightstand is the last thing you likely see at night, and it is the first thing you see in the morning. You deserve a decluttered surface beside of your bed. I have a lamp, lip balm, lotion, lavender oil, a book, and my phone plugs in near me. When I go to bed, I keep a water bottle on my nightstand as well.
Keep the things on your nightstand and dresser that you need. Resist the urge to use these flat surfaces as storage for items. Put out some of your favorite pictures on your dresser top.
If you decluttered items from your closet yesterday and don’t have a place for these things, deal with them today. Find a place for them, or put them in your give away box. My give away box for the week is getting full, and I will donate the items on errand day on Friday.
If you have children at home, ask them to bring you anything from their nightstand or dresser top that they don’t use anymore. You might not get anything from them, so check their room later after you ask them to do this. I encourage my boys to use their top dresser drawer to hold the little things that they would normally put on top of the dresser.
Some of you may not have been able to fit in your zone missions for the week, so here is a recap.
  • Declutter and trash items from your bedroom that do not belong in there.
  • Attack the clothes pile.
  • Declutter and organize the bottom of your closet.
  • Clear off your nightstand.
Spend 5 minutes per mission and see what a difference this makes in your bedroom. Have a trash bag and a donation box handy. Your missions will go faster if you have something to put things in as you declutter. I want you to have joy and happiness in your bedroom!
Your Zone Mission today is to clear off your nightstand.
Your Home Blessing for today is to toss papers and magazines.
My menu plan for Thursday is pasta and salad.
Have a great day!

How do you measure success?

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Getting Organized:
In your Home and Homeschool 

    

 
Dear Friends,
How do you measure success in your home and with your zone missions?
Recently some of my readers have mentioned how they feel about their progress with zone missions when they are not able to complete everything on the list.
When you are new to The FlyLady system, you need to celebrate the small progresses. If you have never done the zone missions, then doing one or two a week is a success. Then you build from there. If you start with 5 minute zone missions, you can work your way up to 10 and 15 minute sessions.
If you have never established a routine for your Home Blessings(sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, dusting, changing sheets, taking out the trash, and decluttering magazines), you celebrate the successes in doing one of them at a time. Use your timer and try to keep each one to 10 minutes.
The reason The FlyLady has us practice one Habit per month is to help us slowly work on the Habits until they are a part of our routines.
If you struggle with your Before Bed Routine or Morning Routine, work on one of them at a time. Your Before Bed Routine will set you up for a successful start to your day the next day.
As you are working on your routines, I want you to celebrate your accomplishments with me. Share your progresses even if you feel like you are falling short. Forward progress is PROGRESS. I remind friends of this frequently when they say their running is not progressing like they want. Moving forward is progress whether it is fast progress or slower progress.
Pick something today that you have been wanting to do and do it. Use your timer. Turn on some music. Have fun. Celebrate your success! Email me and let me know what you did today.
I want you to feel successful with each step of your progress.
Your Zone Mission today is to clean and organize the bottom of your closet.
Your Home Blessing for today is to wipe windows and mirrors.
My menu plan for Wednesday is leftovers with a salad.
Have a great day!

The Power of 5 Minute Missions

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Getting Organized:
In your Home and Homeschool 

    

 
Dear Friends,
As I am getting my house back in order after the wedding, I am finding that 5 minute missions are a great way to get back on track.
On Monday, I had bedding to wash from 6 beds. I also had other laundry, and I wanted to put things away that came home with us from the wedding.
It was also the first day of our zone missions for the Master Bedroom.
The first I did was write down some key things I needed to do. Then, I used my timer and switched from one mission to another. This meant that I broke up my Master Bedroom mission into three 5-minute missions. In doing that, I was able to throw out a trash bag full of trash from one of the closets. I also added to my box of items to donate. I was ruthless in purging.
With many loads of sheets pulled from the beds, I used the 5 minute missions to keep the laundry going and was able to get all of the bedding washed, dried, and folded. I decluttered in the linen closet last week, so putting them away was a breeze.
My kitchen counters had accumulated several things from the wedding, so I did a 5 minute mission just to deal with the hot spots in the kitchen. I used another 5 minute mission to unload the dishwasher. A third mission was all I needed to do the dishes and shine my sink.
Next, I checked the entryway for more items from the wedding, and I used a basket to contain the items I needed to return to the bride and groom when they return from their honeymoon.
Using my timer and my list kept me focused. I took little breaks, and I sipped my water throughout the day. I also had several little computer things to take care of, so I was able to have little sit-down breaks, too.
You can accomplish a lot of things using your timer and following the 5-minute rule. It made a huge difference in my day and in how my house looks tonight.
What did you accomplish yesterday?
Your Home Blessing for today is to dust and vacuum.
Your Zone Mission for today is to attack the clothes pile in your room. This is also a great mission for your children.
My menu plan for Tuesday is taco soup for the boys. Veggies and salad for me.
Have a blessed day!

Are you ready to tackle the clutter in your Master Bedroom?

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Getting Organized:
In your Home and Homeschool 

    

 
Dear Friends,
Welcome to Zone 4! We are going to declutter and detail clean the Master Bedroom and Master Bathroom this week.
How does your bedroom look right now? Take a quick picture of it. I want you to be able to compare the difference at the end of the week. I have also found that photographs show you where you have cluttered areas.
Here are you missions for the week:
Zone 4 Missions: The Master Bedroom
Monday - Declutter & toss unused items from your bedroom
Tuesday - Attack the clothes pile in your bedroom
Wednesday - Clean & organize the bottom of your closet
Thursday – Clear off the top of your nightstand
Friday - Declutter items from the shelf in your closet
Set your timers and then take a break when it goes off!
If you have a Master Bathroom and did not detail clean it last week, I want you to spend 5 minutes a day doing missions like we did last week in the Main Bathroom. I want you to have a lovely bedroom and clean bathroom.
On Monday, take a trash bag into your bedroom and just toss any trash or paper that needs to go away. Watch for papers with identifying information. You will want to shred those items. Then go into your Master Bathroom and toss old cosmetics and lotions. Use your timer and toss as much as you can in 10 minutes.
If your kids have a bathroom, ask them to bring you anything that needs to be tossed. That way you can check to see what they are tossing out. Then send them on a trash mission in their bedrooms. Give them a box or trash can and see what they bring you. Have a goal to get rid of as much trash and junk as possible this week.
Your bedroom can become your haven of rest!
Your Home Blessing for today is to wash the sheets.
Your Zone Mission for today is to toss trash from your bedroom and master bathroom.
My menu plan for Monday is grilled burgers for the guys and salad for me.
Have a blessed day!