Decluttering in Small Steps = Success

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Dear Friends,
Happy Monday to you all today! I pray you had a wonderful weekend. I enjoyed the beautiful weather and spending time with family and friends. One of the boys wants to change bedrooms, so we will be doing that over the next few weeks.
When you have a home project, it is so much easier on you if you can stage it out over several days or weeks. Since he wants the room painted, and it needs new flooring, we started with packing up loose items and moving the furniture away from the walls.
When you are doing a project in a well-used room such as the kitchen, you might have to be creative in how you work on the project. I have gone through burst water pipes that caused issues in five rooms of our home at one time.
Here are you missions for the week:
Zone 5 Missions: The Living Room
Monday – declutter in the Living Room for 15 minutes. Find things that you are not using and toss it or give it away.
Tuesday – go sofa and chair diving and see what treasures you find.
Wednesday – have a Hot Spot Fire Drill in the Living Room. Pay close attention to your family members after you do this. You can work on reminding your family to put things away when they are finished with them.
Thursday – declutter items that have slid under the furniture today. Clean around the baseboard and vacuum under the furniture.
Friday – finish off the week with one more quick decluttering session in the Living Room and do your detail dusting.
Set your timers for 15 minutes and then take a break when it goes off!
Weekly Menu Plan
Monday – Chopped Chicken and Walnut Salad
Tuesday – Basalmic Chicken
Wednesday – Mushroom Pasta
Thursday – Corn dogs and tots
Friday – Take out
Enjoy your week! Keep your routines simple.
If you have a Family Room in addition to your Living Room, you can divide your time each day between the rooms for 7 minutes each, or you can alternate each day what room you detail clean.
As you go about your week, remember to check your smoke detectors, air filters, and any other maintenance things that should be done monthly.
If you have not cleaned out your dryer vent in a few months, this week would be a good week to do that, too.
Your Home Blessing for today is to wash the sheets.
Your Zone Mission for Monday is to declutter in the Living Room.
My menu plan for Monday is apple and chicken salad.
Have a blessed day!
Siggie - Tami Fox

Family Fun Day is an Important Part of Your Routines

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Getting Organized:
In your Home and Homeschool 
 

 
Dear Friends,
Happy Friday! What do you have planned for fun this weekend? I don’t want you skipping this important part of your week. You need to relax and have fun with your family. If you have been slacking off lately and been project minded, I want you to plan something.
Some of you don’t like to plan your fun activities, but it helps you actually take time out of your schedule to have fun when you have something you have been looking forward to. Look around your area and see what’s happening!
Spring brings out lots of fun outdoor activities, and there might be some things going on in your town that you did not know about. You can also just plan a trip to a local park or place to hike.
We need down time and play time in our lives, and so do our children. They need to see you make a priority of family fun because they have seen you work hard around the house. You are setting the example with including family fun as a part of your week.
You can have a game night or a movie night at home if you don’t have great weather yet. I know that my Northern Friends are a little behind the season change. I start getting excited when the flowers and trees start blooming, so I want all of you to get excited with me!
How did your zone missions go this week? Was this the first week for any of you to do them? There is no shame here. I want to cheer you on when you develop your routines.
Today’s Zone Mission is to declutter the top of your dresser.
Your Home Blessing for today is to empty the trash, sweep, and mop.
My menu plan for Friday is take out.
Have a great weekend!
 

Slow and Steady

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Getting Organized:
In your Home and Homeschool 
 

Dear Friends,
Happy Spring to you! Aren’t you glad I am not telling you it’s time to do a big spring clean at your house?
The awesome part about The FlyLady system using Zone Missions and Weekly Home Blessings is that you are deep cleaning your home in small steps all year long.
Think back to a time when you did the big, mega cleaning sessions. How fast did things fall back into the same mess? The problem with the mega cleaning session is that you burn out and don’t want any part of it for months.
When you do the small, detail missions, you feel energized and enjoy seeing the small progress. You also maintain the areas in small steps and don’t fall apart nearly as bad. Even with a lot of children at home, I was able to maintain areas once I started using the zone missions consistently.
Zone missions are so easy to implement. They are almost so easy that you don’t think they will make a difference. They absolutely do make a difference, and if you have been struggling with them, I want you to purpose to do your zone missions next week. You can start with today and build from there.
Each morning is a new start, and I don’t want you to try to do all of the missions at once. Only spend 15 minutes on a zone mission. If you missed one, then buck up, you can just move on to the next one or replace the next one with the one you missed.
Zone missions are designed to help you build the routine of daily detail cleaning and decluttering. They are not meant to be done in bulk.
Enjoy this beautiful new season and jump on into today’s mission!
Your Zone Mission today is declutter items from the top of your night stand.
Your Home Blessing for today is to toss paper and magazines.
My menu plan for Thursday is soup and sandwiches.
Have a blessed day!

Decluttering from your Closet

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Getting Organized:
In your Home and Homeschool 
 

Dear Friends,
Today’s mission is for you to do a simple decluttering project in your closet. This is not an all-out dump stuff from your closet in a pile project. Use your timer for 15 minutes.
Look at the stuff in the bottom of your closet, pull out the things that you are not using or wearing. Decide if the item needs to be thrown away or given away.
If you have a lot of stuff in your closet floor, have your box for donations handy, and also have a black trash bag handy. It’s time to toss the worn out shoes.
I know that telling you to toss old shoes might have hit a spot for you. But your old worn out shoes are taking up valuable space in the floor of your closet. You need to have space for the shoes you do wear.
You also may have some shoes in there that hurt your feet. Why are you holding onto them? If they are in good condition, put them in the donation box.
What else do you have in the floor of your closet? What can you part with in order to have more space for the important items?
Your closet is an important part of your master bedroom, and it will help you organize the things you need to have easy access.
Yesterday, I switched out my night table for a different one that we had. I ordered a piece of glass cut to put on the top since it is a wicker table. I am so happy with the results. This is something I have wanted to do for a few months, and I just jumped in and did it since we were working in the bedroom this week.
If you have children at home, I want you to ask them to bring you anything from their closet floor that can be donated. Check their closet yourself and see how it looks.
Your Zone Mission today is to declutter items from the bottom of your closet.
Your Home Blessing for today is to wipe windows and mirrors.
My menu plan for Wednesday is mushroom pasta.
Have a blessed day!

Letting go of your Excess

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Getting Organized:
In your Home and Homeschool 
 

Dear Friends,
Today’s zone mission is designed to help you manage your clothes. Your mission might take place in your bedroom, but it may start in the laundry room or wherever you might have baskets of clean laundry.
You are going to work with your pile or basket of clothes today. You need to put your clean clothes away. If you do not have enough room for the clean clothes, you need to declutter some of the clothes you have in your closet and/or dresser.
Get a box that you can put donations in as you work. Set the timer for 15 minutes and start purging clothes. Many of you have three or four sizes of clothes. You might have maternity clothes or nursing tops, and your youngest child is over age 10. You need to bless someone with your excess clothes.
As many of you are entering warmer weather, really consider the winter clothes that have hung in your closet this year, and you have not worn them this season.
If you start to talk yourself into holding onto some of the clothes, don’t think too deeply about it. Make it your mission to really thin out the amount of clothes you and your children have.
A mission for your children today would be to ask them to bring you five things that they cannot wear or do not wear. Add these to your give away box.
If possible, fill up a box and donate it this week.
Your Zone Mission today is to declutter clothes and put away any clothes that are in piles.
Your Home Blessing for today is to dust and vacuum.
My menu plan for Tuesday is basalmic chicken.
Have a great day!

Quick and easy bedroom missions

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Getting Organized:
In your Home and Homeschool 
 

Dear Friends,
Are you ready for short and sweet decluttering missions that will help you make your Master Bedroom look and function better for you? You will be surprised at how you will love seeing your bedroom at the end of the week after you get rid of the clutter.
If you have children at home, use these same missions for them!
Here are you missions for the week:
Zone 4 Missions: The Master Bedroom
Monday – declutter for 15 minutes in the master bedroom. Turn on some music and set the timer. Then try to find 27 things to throw away, put away, or give away.
Tuesday – deal with the clothes pile in your bedroom (or the laundry basket that is full of clothes). Try to find some things to throw away or give away.
Wednesday – Today you are going to focus on the bottom of your closet. Pull out the things that you can either give away or. (Yes, some of you have shoes in there that just need to go in the trash.)
Thursday – Declutter the top surface items and straighten your night stand.
Friday – Declutter items from the top of your dresser and detail dust. Sweep or vacuum under your bed, too.
Set your timers for 15 minutes and then take a break when it goes off!
Weekly Menu Plan
Monday – Chopped Chicken and Walnut Salad
Tuesday – Basalmic Chicken
Wednesday – Mushroom Pasta
Thursday – Soup and Sandwich
Friday – Take out
Enjoy your week! Keep your routines simple.
Your Master Bedroom is your place of respite. It’s where you go to rest. You deserve a bedroom that is free of clutter and peaceful. Once you declutter and maintain your flat surfaces, you will see a difference in how you feel about your master bedroom.
Your children’s bedrooms might be problem areas. The best tip I have shared about children’s bedrooms is that you have to be specific when you give them a zone mission. You cannot simply tell them to go clean their rooms and expect that they will do what you are thinking in your mind.
This week as you do your missions in your bedroom, specifically tell your children what they need to do in their bedrooms. Some of them may need to start with the floor or a section of the floor. Some of them may need to go into their rooms and simply pull out trash for 15 minutes at a time.
Your children may be pack rats and have things shoved under their beds. This is not an easy mission, so I would recommend that you have a reward for the end of the week for them getting their missions accomplished in their bedrooms this week.
You also need a reward for dealing with the clutter in your bedroom. Let go of your perfectionism and the need to hold onto everything. Think of how you can bless someone else with your excess clothes or shoes that are in good condition.
Look for a ministry that is collecting clothes or shoes and take them a nice-size donation at the end of the week.
Your Home Blessing for today is to wash the sheets.
Your Zone Mission for Monday is to declutter in the Master Bedroom.
My menu plan for Monday is chicken and salad.
Have a blessed day!

Finishing Up this Week’s Missions

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Getting Organized:
In your Home and Homeschool 
 

Dear Friends,
Are you ready for the weekend? If you have not finished your zone missions for the week, I want you to do what you can in 15 minutes today.
If you have busy weeks sometimes, I want you to still try to get in two or three days of Zone Missions. I know that co-ops and field trips sometimes happen and through you off on your missions.
The thing I do not want you to do is to hold all of the missions to do on Saturday. Saturday is your family fun day. It’s not supposed to be your big project day. You have spent many years doing big projects on the weekend. Start protecting your weekend time and plan some fun activities!
If you are not budgeting your time to get the zone missions done daily, I want that to be your focus area for the next two weeks. Once you start seeing the benefits from the daily missions, you will want to keep up that routine.
The first step to any new routine is the hardest. It gets easier. I will give you a real-life example. I have been swimming for a long time, but I don’t like keeping my face in the water and breathing by turning my head to the side.
Learning this skill is muscle memory, so this week, I am making myself practice my side breathing in the pool. I don’t love it, and it is not comfortable. But I am going to keep practicing it.
Your routines are muscle memory, too. As you build your daily habits, you will start to find yourself doing them without thinking about it.
Your zone mission meets up with your home blessing for today. So use the zone mission time to declutter 27 things from your home. Focus on throwing away stuff or putting away stuff.
Today’s Zone Mission is to mop your bathroom floor and do a 27 Fling Boogie.
Your Home Blessing for today is to empty the trash, sweep, and mop.
My menu plan for Friday is take out.
Have a great weekend!

Let’s Talk About Your Morning Routine

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Getting Organized:
In your Home and Homeschool 
 

Dear Friends,
Since I have some new readers, I want to talk about your basic morning routine for a few minutes. This is a good reminder for those of you who have been doing your routines for a while. You can do a little self-check as I review the parts of the morning routine.
Are you setting the example in your home and getting dressed down to the shoes first thing in the morning?
As you establish this habit, encourage your children to move along with their morning routine as well and get dressed first thing each morning. When my children were little, I made it a point to be dressed before they got up. Sometimes it was hard. Sometimes it did not happen. For the most part, I was successful!
Then I taught my children the following routine:
  • Get up
  • Go potty
  • Wash hands
  • Go to the kitchen table for breakfast
  • Brush teeth
  • Wash hands and face
  • Get dressed
  • Make bed
They still follow this routine, and they are much older now, though don’t tell them I mentioned the potty thing. (smile) Give your children a legacy of habits and routines!
If you are not getting your bed made during your morning routine, I want you to try to remember to make it as soon as your feet hit the floor each morning. It will take a bit of re-training on your part, but it makes such a difference when you go back into your room later and the bed is made.
I make my side of the bed while my husband is still in the bed. When he gets up, he makes his side of the bed. Isn’t that great team work?
After my shower each morning, I give the bathroom a quick swish and swipe. It’s become such a habit that I find myself wiping down counters and sinks in hotel bathrooms when we travel.
Another important step in your morning routine is to check your calendar. Sometimes we forget we have an appointment, so it helps to check the calendar. While you are checking the calendar, check the menu plan to see if you need to lay something out to thaw.
Then, you are ready to start a load of laundry. This can be a quick thing to start if you pre-sort your laundry as people take their baths/showers.
If you have not mastered your morning routine, write down the 6 parts of it on a sticky note and post the list somewhere visible throughout the morning.
Your Zone Mission today is to shine the bathroom sink and toss the anything that you do not need.
Your Home Blessing for today is to toss paper and magazines.
My menu plan for Thursday is fish and a salad.
Have a blessed day!

Don’t put off to tomorrow

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Getting Organized:
In your Home and Homeschool 
 

Dear Friends,
Welcome to some new readers who have signed up in the past week! I am happy to have you join us as we declutter and bless our homes!
Wednesday is a special day. It’s anti-procrastination day! Do something you have been putting off. The guideline is to only spend 15 minutes or less on it. This is not an all-out day to dump clutter and sort.
We are deep into March now, and if you have been procrastinating your tax return, this is your reminder to get on with it. You have a little over a month to get it finished and filed. If you need to make an appointment with your tax preparer, do that do. Nothing lights a fire under you like an appointment to get your taxes done.
Your zone mission in the main bathroom today should not take long, but I want you to do it with care. Today you are going to go through your medicine cabinet and look for expired items. Be careful how you dispose of them.
Many pharmacies and police departments have a way for you to dispose of unused and/or expired medication in a lock box in their lobbies. I have seen them in many pharmacies, and I know our county sherriff’s office has one as well.
You do not want to flush or trash expired prescription medication. You can use kitty litter that has been soaked in water to dispose of medications. You would just use a black trash bag to hold the wet kitty litter and dump the medications in the bag. A hospice nurse taught me that.
Your other mission is to go around the house and look for things to put away. Call it a reverse scavenger hunt. Find one thing that needs to be put away. When you put it where it belongs, look for something in that area that needs to be put up. After you put that item away, find another one. Do this for 15 minutes and see what you can put away.
Your Zone Mission today is declutter expired medications, and then go through the house and find things that need to be put away.
Your Home Blessing for today is to wipe windows and mirrors.
My menu plan for Wednesday is soup, sandwiches, and a salad.
Have a blessed day!

Are you ready to play today?

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Getting Organized:
In your Home and Homeschool 
 

Dear Friends,
Good morning!
Happy Tuesday! How is your week going with the time change? Have you updated all of your clocks? It’s funny how such a small change can feel like a really big change.
Today I want you to wash your bathroom trash can and put in a new liner. You other mission around the house is to find things to donate. Put them in your donation box and take them out to the car. The next time you do errands, you can drop off the donations.
Tuesday is also plan and play day, so sit down and do a few of your paperwork items. You can pay bills, or do your budget updates, or menu plan. Check your basic supplies in the kitchen, bathroom, and laundry room.
After you finish planning, I want you to do something you enjoy and PLAY!
If you don’t keep a running grocery and supply list, it is a great way to keep track of your needs on a regular basis. I keep a list on my fridge. I have taught my children to add items to it when we run out of stuff. It does not guarantee that I will buy what they put on the list, but it is helpful for me.
My menu plan is also posted for everyone to see. I remind them to check the menu plan before they start fixing a meal. Boys have a tendency to eat everything in sight, and they have been known to eat food that I had planned for a future meal.
Teach your children the skills of menu planning, shopping (and budgeting), and cooking. It is an invaluable skill to have in adulthood. My grown children all do well with cooking because I always included them when they were growing up.
Keep your zone missions short and sweet! You are doing a great job a little at at time.
Your Zone Mission today is to shine your kitchen sink.
Your Home Blessing for today is to dust and vacuum.
My menu plan for Tuesday is sloppy joes and a salad.
Have a great day!