Declutter Flat Surfaces in Living Room – Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

 

You started the week off by decuttering the flat surfaces in your living room. Today, we are going to end the week cleaning off the flat surfaces in the living room. I assigned this mission twice in a week because I know how easily things get piled on the flat surfaces in our living rooms. If we have more than ourselves in the house, it happens usually as soon as a surface is cleaned. So today clean off those flat surfaces one more time, and over the next week, be intentional about maintaining these surfaces. Remind people to put things away instead of dropping them on the first available flat surface. Use your decorations and pictures to keep nice things displayed on the flat surfaces. Keep up the great work!

 

Have a great week-end!
If you have any questions or tips, please email me. I enjoy hearing from my readers.
Zone Mission: Declutter the flat surfaces in your living room (If they look good, pick another area in the house with cluttered surfaces.)
 
Menu Mission: My menu plan for today is Rotisserie Chicken because it’s grocery shopping day. I will serve it with a salad and fresh veggies. 
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:

  • Sort through your school materials from this year if you haven’t already done that. Record information that needs to be recorded. If you have a high school student, add information to the high school transcript.
 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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Change Your Living Room Decor – Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool
If you have been reading my emails for a while and doing your regular missions each month, your living room should be fairly clean. So today, I want you to change your decor around. Maybe you have a picture you have been meaning to hang. Maybe you need to freshen up your plants. Maybe you need to switch out your silk flowers. I use silk flowers because I am terrible at keeping house plants alive. I can take care of my family, but I am not good at remembering to water plants. So I have silk flowers for decor. Maybe you need to freshen up your throw pillows. I am sure you can think of one thing to change with your living room decor. If you do change something, let me know when your husband notices!

Zone Mission – Change the decor in your living room

Menu Plan for Thursday: Spaghetti for the boys; low-carb for the parents with 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:

  • Look at back to school sales for needed school supplies.
 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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Move the Living Room Furniture – Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool
Let’s move the living room furniture around and clean under it. While you are moving it, see if you can put it back in a different arrangement. Sometimes, it freshens up the look of the room to move the furniture. Enlist the help of your family for this mission. Don’t move the furniture by yourself. Enjoy your day!

Zone Mission: Clean under the living room furniture.

Menu Plan for Wednesday: Spaghetti and Salad for the Family (Low carb for me: Chicken)
 
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: Work on your lesson plans and pick the start date of your school, if you have not done that already.

 

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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Detail Dust the Living Room – Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool
Today we are going to set the timer for 15 minutes and detail dust the living room. You can play beat the clock and do it in less than 15 minutes. I don’t want you to spend more than 15 minutes on this. If it takes longer than 15 minutes to detail dust your living room, you may still have too much clutter. I do a quick dust in my living room weekly, so the detail dusting does not take very long. I start up high and work my way down from ceiling to floor. I get the ceiling fan and baseboards when I detail dust. It generally takes less than 10 minutes each month to detail dust. Doing the detail cleaning in short, daily missions is designed to help you spend less time cleaning your house.

Zone Mission: Detail dust the living room. 

 

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
Menu Plan for Tuesday: It’s our youngest child’s birthday, so he picked fried chicken legs and macaroni and cheese. For the adults, we will have a lower carb meal with chicken breast and a 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.

School: Work on your lesson plans..

 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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Detail Cleaning the Living Room – Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

It’s the last week of July. Can you believe it? Most of us are looking at those final summer activities and getting ready to start our homeschooling back. I tend to start early in August, so I have flexibility throughout the year. Some years, I have started as late as Labor Day, so there is not right or wrong start date. You just need to pick one! That is your homeschool assignment today, if you have not done it. If you have done it, check the local back to school sales for any supplies you might need. Don’t impulse buy because they are cheap, but sincerely look to see if you need anything that is on sale. You should also check on your state’s tax free dates. Many states do that this time of year on school supplies, computers, and children’s clothing.
This week we are working in the Living Room. Let’s make it a pretty and inviting place for our family and friends.
Zone Missions for the week for the Living Room:
 
Monday – Declutter Flat Surfaces
Tuesday – Detail Dust
Wednesday – Move Furniture & Vacuum or Sweep
Thursday – Change décor around
Friday – Declutter anything else that does not belong in the living room

Menu Plan for Monday – Crock Pot Chicken (This will be a week of many crock pot meals.)

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.

School: Pick your start date for school and check on school supply sales.


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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Clean Under the Beds – Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

 

Today’s mission is to clean under your bed. If you have been reading my posts very long, you have heard this before, but it bears repeating. Don’t store a lot of stuff under your bed. Sweep or vacuum under it monthly. This will keep the dust bunny colonies from forming and taking over under your bed. It will make the air in your bedroom better to breathe if you don’t have a lot of dust under your bed. I have a laminate floor in my bedroom, and it is so easy to keep clean. For years, we had carpet, and that caused my allergies and asthma to stay flared up. Set your timer and get busy! You can do this!

 

Have a great week-end!
If you have any questions or tips, please email me. I enjoy hearing from my readers.
Zone Mission: Clean under all the beds in your house. Assign each person to do his or her own bed.
 
Menu Mission: My menu plan for today is Rotisserie Chicken because it’s grocery shopping day. I will serve it with a salad and fresh veggies. 

DOWNLOAD the PDF Calendar JULY 2016
 
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:

  • Sort through your school materials from this year if you haven’t already done that. Record information that needs to be recorded. If you have a high school student, add information to the high school transcript.
 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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Declutter 1 Drawer – Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

Today, your mission is pretty simple, and it should go fast. Just pick one of your drawers in your bedroom and declutter. If you do this each month, you will get all over your drawers decluttered over the course of a few months. Many times, I do a little decluttering in my drawers as I am putting away laundry. It just takes a few minutes. The goal I have for all of our clothes drawers is that they are easy to open and close, so we can put away the laundry quickly. The part of the laundry process that we put off the most is putting away laundry, and that is usually because we have too many clothes and no place to put them away easily. Have your children go through one of their drawers, too. Make this a quick game for all!

Zone Mission – Declutter 1 clothing drawer

 
Menu Plan for Thursday: 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:

  • Look at back to school sales for needed school supplies.
 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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What are you putting off? Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool
What have you been putting off? The FlyLady has designated Wednesday as Anti-Procrastination Day. Set your timer and do that one thing that you have been putting off. You will feel a weight being lifted off your shoulders when you just dive in and do it. Since we are working in our bedrooms this week, take 15 minutes to declutter the stuff that has accumulated on the shelf or on the floor of your closet. Make it quick and painless. I enjoy using my closet so much more when there aren’t things falling on my head when I open it (or falling out from being piled on the floor). Each month I pull a few things from the shelf or floor and put it in the donate bin. This helps so much! I never pull every single thing out of my closet at once. I just systematically work my way through it. When I get something new, I donate at least one thing, but most of the time, I try to use the 1:2 ratio. If I bring in something new, I get rid of two things. This greatly reduces the amount of stuff in my house.

Zone Mission: Declutter the shelf or floor in your closet.

Menu Plan for Wednesday: Spaghetti and Salad for the Family (Low carb for me: Chicken)
 
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: Work on your lesson plans and pick the start date of your school, if you have not done that already.

 

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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Declutter Flat Surfaces – Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool
You are probably wondering why I am asking you to declutter the flat surfaces in your bedroom since I asked you to do that yesterday. Well, I know many of you have more clutter on your flat surfaces to deal with, and I also want you to count the bedroom floor as a flat surface. Today, I want you to deal with anything that is piled in your room on a flat surface, whether that be on furniture or on the floor. Work toward not using your bedroom as a the catch all place. Make places to put the things you want to keep. Give away the things you do not need any longer. You can make your bedroom a sanctuary and bless yourself with a peaceful bedroom.

Zone Mission: Declutter the flat surfaces in your bedroom. 

 

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
Menu Plan for Tuesday: Taco Tuesday with a side 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.

School: Work on your lesson plans..

 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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Detailing the Master Bedroom – Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

Welcome to a new week! We are going to have our missions in the master bedroom this week, but if you have children at home, I want you to use these missions with them, too. My teenagers got a jump start on their rooms on Friday. We will just say they unpacked fro our trip in a very creative way. (sigh) But all is well now, and they are starting the week off on the right foot. Our bedrooms can be a catch-all for stuff that does not have a home. This week, I want you to find homes for that stuff or give it away. If you have a stack of magazines or books, you might need to purge some of them. If you have clothes in a pile, sort through them. Give away what does not fit. Be ruthless in decluttering your bedroom. You want this to be the most peaceful room in your home. Bless yourself this week with a clean bedroom!
Zone Missions for the week:
 
Monday – Declutter Flat Surfaces & Detail Dust
Tuesday – Declutter the Flat Surfaces (including the floor)
Wednesday – Declutter the Closet (floor or shelf)
Thursday – Declutter 1 Drawer
Friday – Vacuum or sweep under the bed
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.

School: Stop by the library and pick up some books to read over the 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
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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