Hot Spot Mission – Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

 

 

Happy Friday! We all have a place or places in our homes that attract things to be put down. These are our Hot Spots. Each night, I deal with one of the hot spots in my kitchen. It’s my island in the kitchen where I do food prep. It’s a large, flat surface, and it attracts clutter like a flower attracts a bee. My evening routine has a 2-minute declutter mission each night to deal with the island. I am looking at it right now, and there are several things that I need to put away as soon as I finish this email. So I want you to figure out where you have a Hot Spot in your home. Each day I want you to spend 2 minutes dealing with it. Today, spend 15 minutes identifying the Hot Spots and deal with them 2 minutes at a time. By dealing with your Hot Spots daily, they won’t have time to get out of control. You want peace in your home, and this is one way to help you achieve that.

 

Have a great week-end!
If you have any questions or tips, please email me. I enjoy hearing from my readers.
Zone Mission: Deal with your hot spots on your flat surfaces

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 or end of school year picnic.
 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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Fifteen Minute Room Rescue – Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

Your mission today is to do a 15-Minute Room Rescue. Set your timer for this. Pick a room in your house that needs a quick declutter session. Get out your FlyLady Declutter Kit, if you have one. If not, get three boxes and have one for give away, one for throw away, and one for put away. Turn on some music and have fun making the room look better. If you have homeschool materials stacked somewhere in the house, use this time to deal with it. As homeschoolers, we have a lot of papers and materials. It’s coming close to the end of the year, and it is time to sort it out. A lot of it is trash or can be recycled. Some of it can be passed on to someone else, and the smallest amount of it can be put away for another child. Don’t hold on to materials that your youngest child has used. It is easier to decutter school materials at the end of the school year rather than the beginning of the school year.

Zone Mission – 15-Minute Room Rescue


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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Quick Menu Planning – Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool
 

You will see an example of how I do easy menu planning. I have a FlyLady calendar with big blocks, and I bought some small sticky notes. I use my marker and write down 10 to 14 menu ideas. I can rotate these throughout the month. Once I cook a meal, I move the sticky note to a later date on the calendar. I have a list of menu ideas, so if I want to make some changes, I have a quick list to refer to.I also ask my family for ideas, too. If something happens, I can simply move the sticky note. No guilt! I plan my menus a week at a time, and then I make my grocery list by store, since I shop at 4 or 5 stores per week. I don’t coupon shop, but I do keep up with prices. My family helps with meal preparation and clean up, so by menu planning and shopping ahead, meal time is easy in the evenings. I use my slow cooker a lot, and I will be doing another batch of freezer cooking in the near future. This year it will be a gluten-free menu!
Zone Mission:
For your zone mission today, I want you to detail clean the shower and tub.

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: What do you need to do to finish the school year? Paperwork? Testing? Pick an End Date? Spend 15 minutes working on things to end your school year in an organized manner. I am working on setting up a field day with my local homeschool group.


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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Declutter the Cabinet in the Main Bathroom – Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool
Happy Tuesday! Let’s declutter the cabinet in the main bathroom. Set your timer and work for 15 minutes. If you have a lot of stuff in the cabinet, do not pull it all out. Just work with one thing at a time. Throw out anything that is trash or expired. Spend a little time each month doing this, so you will know what you have on hand and what needs to be replaced.

Zone Mission: Declutter the Main Bathroom Cabinet

 

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: Work on wrapping up your school year. Go through your books and make a list of what you need for next school year.

 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 Main Bathroom – Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

 

Hello! Today we start in a new zone for the week. We are going to detail clean in our main bathrooms and one extra room in the house. This is your chance to work in one of the rooms of your home that you find it hard to get to each month. With doing a daily swish and swipe, you should not have a lot to do in your main bathroom, so take a look around your house and see where you else you need bless.

 

Zone Missions: 

Main Bathroom & 1 Extra Room
Monday – Clear off Counters & Wipe Down
Tuesday – Declutter Cabinet
Wednesday – Detail Clean Tub/Shower
Thursday – 15 Minute Room Rescue
Friday – 15 Minute Hot Spot Fire Drill
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I will be speaking at the North Carolinians for Home Education in a few weeks.

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

How to Clean Out Your Refrigerator – Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

 

 

Happy Friday! Once a week, I clean out my refrigerator. This usually coincides with trash day and grocery shopping day on Friday. Sometimes I will do it on Thursday evening. But I do it weekly to keep things fresh and tidy in there. If it is cleaned out regularly, you know what you have on hand. You also get rid of things before they become science experiments. With growing boys in my house, I do not have as many leftovers as I have had in years past. But I still have things in there that sit too long and need to go. I want you to clean your refrigerator out one shelf at a time. You might have to do this over the course of a few days if it has been a while since you cleaned it out. Start with the top shelf, and then work your way down. Wipe one shelf at a time as you go along. Do not take everything out at once. I do not want you doing this mission for an hour.

 

Have a great week-end!
If you have any questions or tips, please email me. I enjoy hearing from my readers.
Zone Mission: Detail clean the Refrigerator

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 or end of school year picnic.
 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

Declutter a Drawer – Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

Your mission today is to declutter one drawer in your kitchen. Do not dump the drawer unless you are dumping the whole thing into the trash can. Set your timer for 15 minutes and take things out a few at a time. Have a place for things to be given away, things to be put somewhere else, and trash. You can pick any drawer than needs attention. Last month, I did my flatware drawer. I bought a new organizer for it, and I resorted everything. There were several things that just needed to be tossed. .

Zone Mission – Declutter one drawer


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

Decluttering in the Kitchen – Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool
 

Today we are going to work on the cabinet we started yesterday, or we are going to pick another cabinet to declutter. If you have a plastic collection in one of your cabinets, this is a good time to match bowls and lids. You will find that it is like matching socks, you will not come out with the correct number of each one. Just do the best you can and donate the ones that do not have mates. I also wanted to mention to you that your menu planning weekly should be continuing. I use pencil and sticky notes on my calendar I switch meals around according to seasons, but I try to keep it simple and easy. The boys and my husband help with the cooking, and it is much easier if I have a menu plan and have grocery shopped..
Zone Mission: Declutter one kitchen cabinet.

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: What do you need to do to finish the school year? Paperwork? Testing? Pick an End Date? Spend 15 minutes working on things to end your school year in an organized manner. I am working on setting up a field day with my local homeschool group.


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 One Kitchen Cabinet – Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool
Happy Tuesday! Today we are going to pick 1 kitchen cabinet to declutter for 15 minutes. You can make this a game and involve your children. I am the short one in my house for the most part, so my taller boys will hand me things from the top of my kitchen cabinets. Sometimes we find things that I put up there when I got married 26 years ago. We have a good laugh out of that, and then the item generally ends up in the give away box. There are a few things that I have held on to for sentimental reasons, but for the most part, if I have not used it in 26 years, it is likely that I am not going to use it now.

Zone Mission: Declutter One Kitchen Cabinet

 

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: Work on wrapping up your school year. Go through your books and make a list of what you need for next school year.

 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 the Kitchen – Getting Organized

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Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

 

Hello! This week we are going to focus on our kitchens. The kitchen is the heart of the home, and it is where we spend a lot of our time. In my home, we do meal prep, eat, do school, and work in the kitchen. Even though I shine my sink daily and take care of the hot spots, I still need to detail clean monthly in the kitchen. Each of the missions should take you 15 minutes or less each day. I don’t want you to pull everything out of your cabinets. If you have a cabinet that is over-full, spend a few minutes each day this week purging. Small, consistent steps and detail cleaning monthly will help you maintain your home.  Today, let’s declutter the counters and wipe them down.

 

Zone Missions:   Kitchen
Monday – Declutter Counters & Wipe Down
Tuesday – Declutter 1 Cabinet
Wednesday – Declutter 1 Cabinet
Thursday – Declutter 1 Drawer
Friday – Clean Out the Refrigerator
This week, I will be in Sandusky, OH, and in June, I will be speaking at the North Carolinians for Home Education Conference in Winston-Salem, NC.
 

Read HERE about the events I will be attending this Spring.

 

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

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