Light Fixtures – Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

Stand in the middle of your living  room and look up. How does your light fixture or ceiling fan look? Today, get out your step ladder and extendable duster and clean your overhead light fixture. Make sure you have a spotter while you are up on the step ladder. If you have any burned out bulbs, replace them while you are up there.

Have a great day!

.

Zone Mission – Spend 15 minutes dusting your overhead light fixture

Weekly Home Blessing Task: Declutter Paper, Magazines, or Newspapers for 10 minutes anywhere in the house.

 
Menu Plan for Thursday: Baked chicken and salad

Routines:

Home:
  • Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
  • Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
  • Swish and Swipe
  • Start Your Laundry
  • Decide on Dinner
  • Check Your Calendar
  • Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.

School:

  • Do a fun hands on science experiment today.
 Afternoon Routine:
  • Eat Lunch
  • Clear off One Hot Spot
  • Reboot the Laundry
  • Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
  • Drink Your Water
  • 15 minutes of loving movement

Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)

  • Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
  • Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
  • Put things at your launch pad
  • Shine Your Sink
  • Clean Off a Hot Spot
  • Go to Bed at Decent Hour

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Moving Around – Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

Today, you will need to recruit some help for your mission. We will be moving the living room furniture around and clean under it. You might decide on different placement of furniture as you do this, but don’t let your perfectionism take root. Remember that it is furniture, and you can always move it around again. The goal today is to take care of the dust bunnies under your furniture.

Enjoy your day!

Zone Mission: Clean under the furniture

Weekly Home Blessing Task: Windows and Mirrors (I use my FlyLady purple cloths for this and no chemicals.)

Menu Plan for Wednesday: Spaghetti and Sauce (spaghetti squash for mom) and salad
 
Home:
  • Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
  • Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
  • Swish and Swipe
  • Start Your Laundry
  • Decide on Dinner
  • Check Your Calendar
  • Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.
  • Clean out your refrigerator. Toss the science experiments.
  • 15 minutes of loving movement.

School: Don’t forget to do the fun stuff in your school day. Get out the crafts!

 

Errand Day: Do your errands and grocery shopping this afternoon.

 Afternoon Routine: 
  • Eat Lunch
  • Clear off One Hot Spot
  • Reboot the Laundry
  • Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
  • Drink Your Water
  • Write up a menu plan for the next 7 days. Check your pantry and freezer and make a grocery list. This habit will save you time and money. Try out some new recipes with the slow cooker. It will save you time once you start back to your school schedule.
Family Fun: Take your children for a walk.
Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.) 
  • Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
  • Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
  • Put things at the Launch Pad that you will need first thing in the morning
  • Shine Your Sink
  • Clean Off a Hot Spot
  • Go to Bed at Decent Hour

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Fall Fling – Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool
   

Today’s mission should be quick for you since you usually do a quick dust of the living room each week. Today, you are going to detail dust the living room. This is when you move things around to dust the whole surface and not just around them. Dust up to the ceiling and down to the baseboards and around the perimeter of the room. Use your timer and only do this for 15 minutes. Turn on the music and include your children. Remember that it does not have to be perfect.

If you find things that you don’t need while you are dusting, put them in your giveaway box. It’s time for a Fall Fling!

Have a wonderful day!

 

Zone Mission: Detail dust the Living Room

Weekly Home Blessings of the Day: Quick Dust and Vacuum

Menu Plan for Tuesday: Chicken strips, vegetables, and salad

 

If you need more help with organizing your home and homeschool, you can download  The FlyLady’s Homeschool Teacher and Homeschool Student Control Journals for free.

Set your timer for 15 minutes for the Home Assignment and 15 minutes for the School Assignment
 
Home:
  • Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
  • Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
  • Swish and Swipe
  • Start Your Laundry
  • Decide on Dinner
  • Check Your Calendar
  • Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.
  • Clean out your refrigerator. Toss the science experiments.
  • Spend 15 minutes loving movement.

School: Look up some Presidential trivia with your children

 Afternoon Routine: 
  • Eat Lunch
  • Clear off One Hot Spot
  • Reboot the Laundry
  • Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
  • Drink Your Water
  • Write up a menu plan for the next 7 days. Check your pantry and freezer and make a grocery list. This habit will save you time and money. Try out some new recipes with the slow cooker. It will save you time once you start back to your school schedule.
Family Fun: Take your children for a walk.
Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.) 
  • Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
  • Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
  • Put things at the Launch Pad that you will need first thing in the morning
  • Shine Your Sink
  • Clean Off a Hot Spot
  • Go to Bed at Decent Hour

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Decluttering Your Way to Peace – Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

    

How are you doing with the Zone Missions each week? Even if you have not done any all month, you can jump in the week and start today. We are going to declutter and detail clean in our living rooms this week. The missions are short and sweet. I know as a homeschool mom you don’t have a lot of spare time to do a deep cleaning mission. I try to give you quick missions that will help you improve how your home looks. Think of it as getting the best bang for your buck using your timer and focusing your energy on a small mission at a time.

If your children tend to play in your living room, work on reminding them to pick up their things daily and put them away. This will help you keep your living room company-ready, or at least close enough that you can have your living room ready for company in 10 minutes or less.

The Habit of the Month with The FlyLady is to get rid of paper clutter. Spend 2 minutes a day getting rid of paper clutter. You can do this!

Zone Missions: Living Room
Monday – Declutter the Flat Surfaces

Tuesday – Detail Dust the Living Room

Wednesday –  Move Furniture and Clean Under It

Thursday – Dust the Ceiling Fan / Light Fixtures

Friday – Put Out Some Fall Decor

Menu Plan for Monday – Lasagne and Salad (Chicken and Salad for Mom)

Weekly Home Blessing – Wash the Sheets

Daily Routines:

Home:
  • Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
  • Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
  • Swish and Swipe
  • Start Your Laundry
  • Decide on Dinner
  • Check Your Calendar
  • Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.
  • Daily Movement for 15 Minutes

School: Pick a President for your children to learn more about


Afternoon Routine:
  • Eat Lunch
  • Clear off One Hot Spot
  • Reboot the Laundry
  • Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
  • Drink Your Water
Family Fun: Take a nature walk today.
Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.) 
  • Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
  • Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
  • Put things at the Launch Pad that you will need first thing in the morning
  • Shine Your Sink
  • Clean Off a Hot Spot
  • Go to Bed at Decent Hour

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Walk/Run Method and Cadence – Getting Fit

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quote-2

 

Walk/Run Method

 

When you first start running, you will likely find yourself alternating running and walking. You will also hear the term “interval training” in referring to the walk/run method. This is a widely accepted method that you can use as long as you like. I saw many people use this method during my marathons. Most ultra runners use this technique to help them finish races from 31 miles to 200 miles. I have seen people walk/run many different kinds of distances at races. It is not failure to walk. If you meet your goal by alternating walking and running, you are a finisher. You can start out with walking to warm up and then running as long as your body will allow (for many people this can be 30 seconds or less). Then you walk to 1 to 3 minutes for recovery and run again. You want to work your way up slowly. If you run too much in the beginning, you increase your risk of injury. I would suggest total training times of 15 to 30 minutes when you first start out. The bulk of that should be done walking. Many people use this method successfully to prepare for a 5K. Just be sure to give yourself 10 to 12 weeks to build up your time on your feet. Your goal is to not get injured and discouraged during your training.

 

Cadence

 

When you are running, you will find a cadence, the speed at which your feet move, that works for you and is comfortable. I would suggest that you use an app on your phone to help you find your natural cadence. Then, you can experiment to see how you can change your cadence to increase your speed. If you watch sprinters run, they use really long, quick strides. For the average runner, you can increase your speed by taking smaller, faster steps when you run. More steps per minute translates into a faster pace. I am a short person, so I already have a short stride. I found that if I quickened my landings and shortened my strides I could run faster, and it was easier on my body. When I use a longer stride, I land harder, and it hurts my joints more. Try smaller, faster strides and see how it changes your pace.

 

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Last Zone Mission in the Bedroom – Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

 

Happy Friday! This is your last day this month for a Zone Mission in your Master Bedroom. Today we are going to detail clean under the bed. If you don’t keep anything under there, this will go fast. Keeping the dust bunnies from taking over under your bed will help you sleep better at night. You will have less dust in the air. If you do keep stuff under your bed, keep it minimal, so you can do this quickly each month. I hope the missions this week have helped you bring peace to your master bedroom. You deserve a clean, pleasant place to relax and sleep.

If you have children at home, ask them to clean out under their beds, too. It might be more involved for them, but use the timer and help if you need to help them out.

Have a great week-end!
If you have any questions or tips, please email me. I enjoy hearing from my readers.
Zone Mission: Spend 15 Minutes Cleaning Out Under Your Bed

Weekly Home Blessing: Take out the trash, Sweep, and Mop.

 
Menu Mission: Rotisserie Chicken and a salad.

 

Routines:

 

Home:
  • Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
  • Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
  • Swish and Swipe
  • Start Your Laundry
  • Decide on Dinner
  • Check Your Calendar
  • Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.

School:

  • Round up this week’s paper. File what needs to be file. Purge what needs to go away. Check your lesson plans for next week.
 Afternoon Routine:
  • Eat Lunch
  • Clear off One Hot Spot
  • Reboot the Laundry
  • Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
  • Drink Your Water
  • Loving movement for 15 Minutes

Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)

  • Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
  • Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
  • Put things at your launch pad
  • Shine Your Sink
  • Clean Off a Hot Spot
  • Go to Bed at Decent Hour

 

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Dresser Drawer Declutter Mission – Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

Today’s mission is meant to be short and sweet. Keep that in mind when you start. I want you to use your timer because you are going to want to dig in deeper than you should for one day. I want you to declutter your dresser drawers for 15 minutes. I don’t want you to dump your drawers, and if you only get through one drawer or even part of it, that is progress. You will keep at it each month, and it will go faster and faster until you can check all of your drawers and declutter in 15 minutes for all of them. But if you have neglected your drawers, and they are full, it is going to take time and persistence. Your goal is to have drawers that open and close easily, so you can put your folded laundry away in minutes. I have done this for many years, and I still find things to declutter each month. Sometimes I only get rid of a few things, but it keeps my folded clothing manageable.

If you have children at home, you can also do this with them, but use the same principles.Only do this for 15 minutes. You can go back another day if their drawers are overfull and messy. Your goal for them is the same as yours. You want them to be able to put their folded clothes away easily. No one wants to continually live out of the dryer and laundry baskets. You can make it fun with the timer and some music.

Have a great day!

.

Zone Mission – Spend 15 minutes decluttering a dresser drawer

Weekly Home Blessing Task: Declutter Paper, Magazines, or Newspapers for 10 minutes anywhere in the house.

 
Menu Plan for Thursday: Baked chicken and salad

Routines:

Home:
  • Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
  • Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
  • Swish and Swipe
  • Start Your Laundry
  • Decide on Dinner
  • Check Your Calendar
  • Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.

School:

  • Do a fun hands on science experiment today.
 Afternoon Routine:
  • Eat Lunch
  • Clear off One Hot Spot
  • Reboot the Laundry
  • Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
  • Drink Your Water
  • 15 minutes of loving movement

Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)

  • Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
  • Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
  • Put things at your launch pad
  • Shine Your Sink
  • Clean Off a Hot Spot
  • Go to Bed at Decent Hour

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Decluttering Your Closet – Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

In Western North Carolina, we have finally had some cooler days, and that has caused me to start switching my clothes around from hot, summer clothes to cool, fall clothes. While I am doing this, I am decluttering. If I did not wear something this summer, I decide why I didn’t wear it. If I can’t come up with a valid reason to keep it, I put it in my basket to donate. I also do this in small steps with the boys. Most of the time, we are decluttering their clothes because they have outgrown them. I also take this time to declutter worn out shoes. I just want you to spend 15 minutes today decluttering in your closet. I do not want you to dump it all out. Just start and work for 15 minutes. This can be done once a day until you have your closet switched over to a new season.

Enjoy your day!

Zone Mission: Declutter in your closet for 15 minutes

Weekly Home Blessing Task: Windows and Mirrors (I use my FlyLady purple cloths for this and no chemicals.)

Menu Plan for Wednesday: Spaghetti and Sauce (spaghetti squash for mom) and salad
 
Home:
  • Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
  • Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
  • Swish and Swipe
  • Start Your Laundry
  • Decide on Dinner
  • Check Your Calendar
  • Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.
  • Clean out your refrigerator. Toss the science experiments.
  • 15 minutes of loving movement.

School: Don’t forget to do the fun stuff in your school day. Get out the crafts!

 

Errand Day: Do your errands and grocery shopping this afternoon.

 Afternoon Routine: 
  • Eat Lunch
  • Clear off One Hot Spot
  • Reboot the Laundry
  • Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
  • Drink Your Water
  • Write up a menu plan for the next 7 days. Check your pantry and freezer and make a grocery list. This habit will save you time and money. Try out some new recipes with the slow cooker. It will save you time once you start back to your school schedule.
Family Fun: Take your children for a walk.
Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.) 
  • Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
  • Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
  • Put things at the Launch Pad that you will need first thing in the morning
  • Shine Your Sink
  • Clean Off a Hot Spot
  • Go to Bed at Decent Hour

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Do you suffer from allergies? Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool
  

Do you suffer from allergies? Keeping my bedroom decluttered and dusted has helped my allergies. I use the FlyLady’s feather duster, and it grabs the dust when I am dusting. The boys take it outside for me and shake it out well. Then, I store it upright in a flower vase on a bookcase. This keeps dust mites and moths from eating it. If I stored my feather duster in a dark place, the mites and moths would eat it.

I always start high in any room when I am dusting, and I work my way down. When I am detail dusting in a Zone, I will move things around. I usually end up rearranging things to freshen up the look of things. In my bedroom, I also dust the exposed areas of my wooden bed.

Having a decluttered and well dusted bedroom helps me sleep better at night.

Have a wonderful day!

 

Zone Mission: Detail dust the Master Bedroom

Weekly Home Blessings of the Day: Quick Dust and Vacuum

Menu Plan for Tuesday: Beef Roast, vegetables, and salad

 

If you need more help with organizing your home and homeschool, you can download  The FlyLady’s Homeschool Teacher and Homeschool Student Control Journals for free.

Set your timer for 15 minutes for the Home Assignment and 15 minutes for the School Assignment
 
Home:
  • Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
  • Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
  • Swish and Swipe
  • Start Your Laundry
  • Decide on Dinner
  • Check Your Calendar
  • Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.
  • Clean out your refrigerator. Toss the science experiments.
  • Spend 15 minutes loving movement.

School: The next time you are out doing errands, start looking at the political signs that are around and take note. In a few weeks, observe this again with your children. Make it a game and have them count signs on one street.

 Afternoon Routine: 
  • Eat Lunch
  • Clear off One Hot Spot
  • Reboot the Laundry
  • Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
  • Drink Your Water
  • Write up a menu plan for the next 7 days. Check your pantry and freezer and make a grocery list. This habit will save you time and money. Try out some new recipes with the slow cooker. It will save you time once you start back to your school schedule.
Family Fun: Take your children for a walk.
Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.) 
  • Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
  • Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
  • Put things at the Launch Pad that you will need first thing in the morning
  • Shine Your Sink
  • Clean Off a Hot Spot
  • Go to Bed at Decent Hour

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Creating Peace in Your Bedroom – Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

   

The most peaceful room in your house should be your bedroom. (Your children should also have peaceful bedrooms, too.) The best way to do this is to declutter it. Your bedroom should not become a storage room, but that is where the stuff we don’t know where to put ends up. So this week, let’s concentrate on delcuttering and detail cleaning our master bedroom. We want to have a peaceful place to sleep at night. You can adapt most of these missions for your children to do in their rooms, too. Use your timer and turn on some fun music. When you are doing today’s missions, remember that anything you pile stuff on is a flat surface.

The Habit of the Month with The FlyLady is to get rid of paper clutter. Spend 2 minutes a day getting rid of paper clutter. You can do this!

Zone Missions: Master Bedroom (and Master Bathroom)
  • Monday – Declutter the Flat Surfaces
  • Tuesday – Detail dust the Master Bedroom (wipe the counters in the Master Bath)
  • Wednesday –  Declutter in your Closet (Declutter one area of the Master Bathroom)
  • Thursday – Declutter 1 Drawer of Your Dresser (Wipe down the shower walls or tub)
  • Friday – Detail Vacuum or Sweep Under Your Bed

Menu Plan for Monday – Fish sticks and Tater Tots (Chicken and Salad for Mom)

Weekly Home Blessing – Wash the Sheets

Daily Routines:

Home:
  • Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
  • Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
  • Swish and Swipe
  • Start Your Laundry
  • Decide on Dinner
  • Check Your Calendar
  • Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.
  • Daily Movement for 15 Minutes

School: Talk to your children about your state and local elections


Afternoon Routine:
  • Eat Lunch
  • Clear off One Hot Spot
  • Reboot the Laundry
  • Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
  • Drink Your Water
Family Fun: Take a nature walk today.
Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.) 
  • Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
  • Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
  • Put things at the Launch Pad that you will need first thing in the morning
  • Shine Your Sink
  • Clean Off a Hot Spot
  • Go to Bed at Decent Hour

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