Front Porch Declutter and Decorate – Getting Organized

Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

 

It’s a beautiful day in the South, and this week we are working on the areas of our home that visitors see first. After a visitor arrives at our home, the first thing they see is the front porch. In many cases, the front porch is visible to anyone who drives by our homes. Let’s spend 15 minutes today tidying it up. Declutter anything that has accumulated on the front porch and sweep it. You might want to change out flower pots or door wreaths, too. Make it a pretty and welcoming area for your friends and family.

Zone Mission: Declutter and clean front porch and decorate it.

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.

School: How’s the weather where you are? Add some weather tracking to your school day for the rest of the month. Track high temperature and low temperature. Track precipitation. Track the sunrise and sunset.

 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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Working in Two Zones – Getting Organized

Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

 

  
Happy Leap Year! This week we are in two zones. On Monday, we will be in Zone 5 – The Living Room. You will have one day to hit the hot spots and detail dust the Living Room. Hopefully, you have been maintaining it, and you won’t have many Hot Spots to clean. Tuesday through Friday, we will be in Zone 1 – The Front Porch, Entryway, and Dining Room. We will divide those three areas up over three days. On Friday, we will spend 5 minutes in each room doing final touches. After you have been doing this for a while, you will find that you have less and less to do each month if you maintain areas and pick up as you go along the day. The Hot Spot develop because we drop stuff where we are instead of putting it away. If we have a lot of clutter, we have problems finding places for everything. So our spring goal is going to be to declutter 5 minutes a day. I have seen a lot of challenges online that want you to do big projects to declutter. This leads to burn-out and months of not doing anything after the big project. If you develop a habit of spending 5 minutes a day decluttering, you won’t have to do these big decluttering projects. When you go shopping for new clothes or shoes, you need to get rid of the same number of things. That way you are not adding to what you have. You are replacing items.

If you have not filed your taxes, start collecting information this week and set your appointment to get your taxes filled out. April 15 will be here before you know it. 

Here are your Zone Missions for the week for   

Zones 5 and 1 – The Living Room, The Front Porch, Entryway, and Dining Room

Monday – Spend 15 minutes decluttering and dusting the living room
Tuesday – Sweep and Declutter the Front Porch
Wednesday – Declutter / Decorate Entryway
Thursday – Declutter / Decorate Dining Room
Friday – Spend 5 minutes in each room doing final touches
 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.
Weekly Home Blessing Hour:
Spread these out over the course of the week. Put a note on each day of the week with one or two of these per day. 

7 Parts of the Weekly Home Blessing Hour from The FlyLady:

  • Quick Dust
  • Sweep/Mop
  • Purge Magazines or Paper Clutter
  • Change Bedding
  • Empty Trash
  • Clean Windows/Mirrors
  • Vacuum
 School:
  • Plan one fun activity for this 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
Family Fun: Have some outdoor time with your children today. Play. Do some nature journaling. The point is to add some movement to your day. 
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.)
  • Lay anything out 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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Decorate and Declutter – Getting Organized

Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

 

Has does the decor in your Master Bedroom look? Is it time to spruce up and make your bedroom your oasis? Today, I want you to pick one additional area or drawer to declutter in your bedroom. Then, I want you to change the decorations somehow. You don’t necessarily need to go out and buy anything. Look around at what you already have. Do you have some throw pillows that you can put in the bedroom to change the look of your room? Do you have some flowers or candles that you can add? Do you have other home decor that you can move to your bedroom to change the look of the room? Look around and see if you have piles of stuff that need to be relocated or given away. Make your bedroom your retreat. Don’t use it as a storage place.

Zone Mission – Make your Master Bedroom look pretty.

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:

  • Look at your bookshelves. Do you need to do some reorganizing or purging?
 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

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 Declutter Wednesday – Getting Organized

Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool
How does your dresser look? Do the drawers stuffed full? Today, I want you to pick just one drawer and declutter it. Toss the things that you have not worn in the last year. Toss anything that has holes that are not intended to be there. Toss or give away things that do not fit but would be okay for someone else to wear. Last month, I took one day for each of the drawers of my dresser and thinned out what I keep in my drawers. It has been so quick and easy to put away my folded laundry since I did that. If you have children at home, work your way through their dresser with them, one drawer at a time. When I did this, my husband was encouraged to work on his drawers, too. So we had a nice decluttering session with all of our dressers. It’s not too bad when you do it in small steps.
Zone Mission: Declutter one dresser drawer

Grocery Shopping and Errand Day – Take your list, pack snacks, and water bottles.

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: Are you doing a read aloud book for the whole family? If not, pick one out and read at lunch time or in the evening. It will bring a new dimension to your school day.


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
  • Errand day: Make your plan for grocery shopping and errands. Pack water bottles and snacks for everyone. Pack up your library books that need to be turned in.
Family Fun: Plan a fun activity while you are out. I am in the habit of checking for free activities that are going on while we are out doing errands.
When you get home from doing errands, have everyone work together to unload and put away everything.

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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27 Fling in the Closet – Getting Organized

Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

 

How does your closet look? Is it packed with clothes that you don’t wear? Let’s declutter our closet today and get rid of 27 things. You can give them away, or if they are no longer usable, you can toss them. The goal is to get them out of you closet and make room for your clothes to move around easily. It will also help you when you are picking out your clothes to have fewer things in there. Keep basics that fit. Group things in your closet by the type of clothing that it is. I have a dress section, a suit section, skirt section, pants section, and tops. I fold my workout clothes and pajamas. If I have things that don’t fit, I work at decluttering them monthly. If it is seasonal, I will store clothes in my storage area. I keep 2 pair of jeans and 3 pair of dress pants. I have 6 skirts, and I have 4 dresses per season. I wash laundry daily, so I don’t need two weeks’ worth of clothes. For my children, I keep their closets thinned down as well. Since they are boys, they do not have as many dress clothes as I have, but I try to keep them with at least 3 pair of dress pants and one suit each. They have 3 dress shirts and ties. I try to keep 2 to 4 pair of blue jeans per boy. Because they grow so fast and wear jeans out easily, I usually start the season off with 4 pair per boy, and they are usually down to 2 pair by the end of the season. In the summer, I have 5 to 6 shirts per boy with the same number of t-shirts. It works best for us to keep the amount of clothes each person has to a minimum. That helps with closet maintenance and laundry.

Zone Mission: Declutter your closet

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.

School: How’s the weather where you are? Add some weather tracking to your school day for the rest of the month. Track high temperature and low temperature. Track precipitation. If it snows where you live, do some science experiments with snow. Make learning fun!

 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

FB Cover - Tami Fox

Detail Cleaning in the Bedroom – Getting Organized

Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

 

zone-4-bedroom
Happy Monday! Welcome to a new week and a new Zone in your house. This week we will be working in the Master Bedroom. This is the room in the house that we use to stash things when we have company over. It is the room where things that need a place go. This week, we are going to declutter it.

If you homeschool, make sure you are current on paperwork you are legally obligated to maintain according to state laws. Don’t procrastinate if you have to provide a portfolio or other paperwork this spring.

If you have not filed your taxes, start collecting information this week and set your appointment to get your taxes filled out. April 15 will be here before you know it.

Here are your Zone Missions for the week for  

Zone 4 – Master Bedroom:

Monday – Declutter Flat Surfaces and Detail Dust
Tuesday – 27 Fling Boogie in Your Closet. Find 27 things you can give away or throw away.
Wednesday – Declutter 1 Dresser Drawer
Thursday – Declutter 1 Other Drawer
Friday – Clean Out Under Your Bed
 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.
Weekly Home Blessing Hour:
Spread these out over the course of the week. Put a note on each day of the week with one or two of these per day.

7 Parts of the Weekly Home Blessing Hour from The FlyLady:

  • Quick Dust
  • Sweep/Mop
  • Purge Magazines or Paper Clutter
  • Change Bedding
  • Empty Trash
  • Clean Windows/Mirrors
  • Vacuum
 School:
  • Plan one fun activity for this 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
Family Fun: Have some outdoor time with your children today. Play. Do some nature journaling. The point is to add some movement to your day.
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.)
  • Lay anything out that you will need first thing in the morning
  • Shine Your Sink
  • Clean Off a Hot Spot
  • Go to Bed at Decent Hour

FB Cover - Tami Fox

Porcelain Friday – Getting Organized

Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

 

Today’s mission is going to be interesting for you. This is one time I will tell you to pull out the bleach wipes or use some other germ killer. We are going to wipe around the outside of the toilet, so you might want to wear rubber gloves, too. This is probably one of the least favorite of all house cleaning tasks, but it is a necessary task. I live in a house with 4 boys and 1 husband. That’s a lot of males in one house. The toilet in the boys’ bathroom needs to be wiped around the outside at least once a week. The toilet in my bathroom can be wiped around once a month and be fine. Since we put in new toilets that are higher off the floor, I have noticed less mess around the toilet in the boys’ bathroom. Now that you know more about our toilets than my mother, let’s glove up and get the wipes out. You can set your timer or not for this task. I know you are not going to make it last longer than it needs to last.
Have a great week-end!
If you have any questions or tips, please email me. I enjoy hearing from my readers.
Zone Mission: Zone 3 – Detail clean around the outside of the toilet

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:

  • Schedule a field trip for this winter. If you can’t think of one, do some research. See what’s going on close to you.
 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

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

FB Cover - Tami Fox

Detail Clean the Bathroom Fixtures – Getting Organized

Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

 

Today we are going to detail clean the fixtures in the bathroom, and we will also wipe down the baseboards and any other areas that need wiping down. We are only going to be detail cleaning for 15 minutes, so be sure to have your timer handy. I love that I can spend 15 minutes each afternoon detail cleaning, and I don’t have to have big spring cleaning sessions every year. If there is an area that I think needs attention before its zone of the week comes around, I will set my timer for 15 minutes and clean it, too. I do know that messes happen and clutter ends up on flat surfaces regularly. If you add in our homeschooling stuff and being home all day, we do have areas that need daily attention.

Zone Mission – Wipe down the fixtures in your bathroom and the baseboards

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:

  • Look at your bookshelves. Do you need to do some reorganizing or purging?
 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

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

FB Cover - Tami Fox

Closet Clean Out Wednesday – Getting Organized

Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool
Today we are going to tackle the closet in the bathroom. If you don’t have one, you can work on your linen closet. Set your timer for 15 minutes. Start with the top shelf and work your way down as far as you can get in 15 minutes. Toss linens or towels that are beyond usefulness. You might designate some as clean up rags. You also might find linens that you are saving for a special occasion. Wash them and start using them. You ARE special. Decide if there are items in the closet that you no longer use but are good enough to donate. Organize items with similar items. Don’t spend hours doing this project. This is to be short and sweet.
Zone Mission: Bathroom Closet or Linen Closet Declutter

Grocery Shopping and Errand Day – Take your list, pack snacks, and water bottles.

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: Are you doing a read aloud book for the whole family? If not, pick one out and read at lunch time or in the evening. It will bring a new dimension to your school day.


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
  • Errand day: Make your plan for grocery shopping and errands. Pack water bottles and snacks for everyone. Pack up your library books that need to be turned in.
Family Fun: Plan a fun activity while you are out. I am in the habit of checking for free activities that are going on while we are out doing errands.
When you get home from doing errands, have everyone work together to unload and put away everything.

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

FB Cover - Tami Fox

Declutter Bathroom Cabinets – Getting Organized

Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

Today let’s tackle your bathroom cabinets. You might have more than one, so pick the one that needs attention the most. Many of us have a cabinet that stores items we don’t use a often, and likely there are items in that cabinet we have not used in years. So set your timer. Open the cabinet and declutter. Trash the things that cannot be donated. If you have things that can be donated, add them to your donate box. They can bless someone else and open up some storage areas for you. If you have two or more bathroom cabinets, do this as many times as you need to this week to get them all cleaned out.

Zone Mission: Declutter your bathroom cabinets

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.

School: How’s the weather where you are? Add some weather tracking to your school day for the rest of the month. Track high temperature and low temperature. Track precipitation. If it snows where you live, do some science experiments with snow. Make learning fun!

 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

FB Cover - Tami Fox