This week’s Flylady Zone/declutter (2 zones)

Another quick check-in from our staycation with an update on this week’s Flylady zone cleaning and decluttering! Hope you are all enjoying some sunshine wherever you are in the world. Beautiful sunshine this morning when I had my breakfast swim down at the sea but, this afternoon, as I type this, the rain is pouring down outside!

Picnic breakfast swim – best start to the day!

But on to our zone cleaning – working in zones 5 and 1 this week! (Last week we were working in zone 4, the bedroom.) If you’re new to Flylady, remember that the key to your success is being consistent with each part of the system, before adding in new elements. First comes your daily routines (Morning and Evening). Then you add in the Weekly Home Blessing Hour (the upkeep clean of the “high traffic” areas of your house). And once you feel comfortable with those (= being consistent!) can begin to add in some Zone cleaning. (I have Zone lists in my Hygge Home folder (Flylady Control Journal), including ideas for pampering and gardening by zone (you can see them here.)

My “Hygge Home” Flylady Control Journal – zones 5 and 1 this week

This is a split week with two zones, because we are crossing from one month to the next. When I did my Weekly Home Blessing Hour (see Monday’s post), I spent a few extra minutes when I was dusting and vacuuming in the living room (zone 5), getting right into the corners and underneath the furniture. That eliminates the need for me do those tasks in my detailed clean of the area. I also took a few minutes to take a look at the room and see if there was anything which could be decluttered or put away, or moved to a different area in the house (sometimes we get used to things being there…). I also checked through our DVDs and games, and found a few to declutter. Plus some candlesticks which we won’t ever use. Woo hoo, it all adds up!

This week’s second zone is Zone 1 (the entry, hall, dining room). Last time when we were in this zone, I did quite a lot in the hall/entryway, so today I wanted to concentrate on the dining room. My husband has been using it as his makeshift office during Lockdown (since the beginning of March). Today I gave the windows a quick “skoosh skoosh” clean/removed the insects from the windowsills, dusted the corners and ceilings, then wiped down the baseboards. A short but thorough vacuuming session (there were quite a few spiders’ webs) so now the basics are done. I’m not exactly sure how long I spent because I was engrossed in an audiobook (a great way to forget the time!) but it was probably just 20 minutes in total. It really doesn’t take long to get that clean feeling!

And to finish, I replaced the felt pads on the bottom of some of the chairs and the footstool (made by my Dearly-Departed-Danish-Father-in-Law). Done – feeling accomplished!

If you want me to “clean along with you”, you can find my YouTube cleaning and decluttering videos here.

Don’t forget that one of the essential parts of the Flylady system is looking after yourself. Which is just as important as taking care of your family and your home. Take time for yourself, every single day – it doesn’t have to cost money or take a lot of time and energy. I enjoyed putting on a few drops of Eau Dynamisante by Clarins (a scent I’ve been using every summer for the past 30 years) after my morning swim. It never fails to put me in a summer mood, whatever the Danish weather! And I’ll enjoy a “virtual escape” to a Seaside Hotel tonight (another episode of the Danish TV series Badehotellet – watching the entire series is one of my summer goals).