Lexical Light

Day 22: CoziFlyLexical HMP, Flylady Zone List 5

This week we're in Flyaldy's Zone 5: Living Room (& Front Room).  From the Cozi List Library I added the Zone 5 List to my Cozi Calendar & promptly changed it. Flylady has the week split into two zones due to the start of the new month. I'm sticking with one this time.  (Such a rebel.)

I divide the zone lists into an Declutter & Organize section and a Clean, Dust, & Vacuum (or Wipe Down) section. (I throw in a Misc. section on Zones that need it.) Here's the resulting list for Zone 5:

DECLUTTER & ORGANIZE

• Book baskets
• Book shelves
• Dog table
• Entertainment center
• Filing cabinet
• Game cabinet
• Understairs close

CLEAN, DUST OR VACUUM

• Back door, inside and out
• Ceilings
• Ceiling fan
• Front door, inside and out
• Furniture: bookcases, entertainment center, fireplace mantel, piano, table
• Move funiture and vacuum
• Under couch and chair cushions
• Windows: blinds, inside panes, sills
• Walls and baseboards

I'll try the "Choose Your Own Adventure" method for the kiddos to start with on this list and see how it goes.

(Truth in blogging: I published this on 2/28/12, but backdated it would keep the Monday post pattern.)

Day 16: CoziFlyLexical Home Management Project

We haven't done Zone Work since last Thursday, due to lots of activites and a school holiday. I was expecting that, so it's not frustrating. I was ready to see how today would go.

 

 Reflections

 1) Work creates character building opportunities in the kiddos and myself. 

2) I found something else to tweak on the list. Oy. I'm letting go of it and will repost it next month, instead of going back to tweak it this month. 

3) In addition to my Zone Work with the kids, I need to add my own Zone Work, if possible. 

 

Results

Yesterday I didn't plan specific jobs from Zone 4 list. I wanted to let the kids choose their own and see how that goes.

The kids seemed to do a good job of managing themselves. Admittedly, I haven't followed up. I did see one kid come down with a bag of trash. I definitely know what one did. The other two, I'm pretty sure did what they said. 

I did no Zone Work because I was character training.

 

Ready for tomorrow with the same plan as today. Let the kids choose what they will work on. It seemed to work okay today. 

 

Randmoness:  If a 3 year-old Smith kid's pants keep falling down, she'll take them off and go down the RRHS hall w/out them. Thankfully it was a small hall and it there were only dance moms there. 

Day 15: CoziFlyLexical HMP, Tweaking Flylady Zone 4 List

Today was President's Day. The kids were off from school. We purposely didn't do Zone Work, only Daily Duties.

My main goal today is to change Flylady's Zone 4 list to meet our needs. Zone 4 is the Master Bedroom, Master Bath and Closet. (I was happy to see it also included the Master Bathroom becuase I spent last week's bathroom zone time supervising, not cleaning my bathroom, but I'll leave it off the list since the kids will use the list too.)

First, I went to Cozi's Flylady's Zone 4 List in the Cozi List Library. I added the list to my Cozi calendar with the handy-dandy "Add to Cozi To Do List" blue button at the bottom of the list.

Then I choose  to add these items to a "New List" at the bottom of the box that opened in Cozi.

Time to edit the list.

Simply click the title of the list and make the changes. I like to add the zone description to the title so it will print on the calendar. Because I'm not going to have all my kids work in my bedroom & bathroom this week - though that's a great idea - I'll change the list name to Zone 4: Bedroom and Closet. 

Because my room and closet need to be delcuttered, I'll add some of  Flylady's decluttering tools to the list. That will help the kids learn them.

When changing the list, I need to decide whether to group items by task or area. In my Zone 2: Kitchen list, I did it by task. I think I'll do the same for Zone 4. However, because there's so much more to declutter, instead of areas I'll list Flylady's Decluttering Tools with the understanding that they can be used in each area of the room. (I think Kelly had some Mission for kiddos, but I didn't find them all on the site. Check the Flykids Challenge square on Flyladyh's Launch Pad.)

Here's what I came up with for this round. I'm sure I'll edit it for next month. (No bullet points in Cozi, but it makes it more concise here.) Actually, I edited it just now during the cutting'n'pasting from Cozi.

DECLUTTER AND ORGANIZE (I usually alphabetize, but this is a priority.)

• 27- Fling Boogie (27 items trash, 27 items to donate)
• Hot Spot Fire Drill (clean off area that tends to ignite clutter)

CLEAN, DUST, ETC.

• Ceiling fans
• Cobwebs
• Furniture
• Lampshades
• Under the bed
• Windows: blinds, inside panes, sills

CLOSET

• Declutter
• Organize
• Vacuum

  MISC.

• Empty trash
• Flip mattress

For tomorrow, I'll have the kids choose from this list what they want to do and I'll work in my room, with the 3 year-old in tow. I'll have the kids note what they did on the Zone 4 sheet.

Timewise, it will be tought to fit in the Zone Work tomorrow. I'll have them do it right after lunch because I start my "bus route" at 3:45.

Randomness: Got a monkey off my back tonight. Spikos, the rec league vball team I play on, won our second game of the season. They won the first w/out me. Why is this noteworthy? A few seasons ago we moved up a division, coming off an undefeated season, including the playoffs. In the new league we have only won two or three games overs several seasons. Ugh.

I haven't been playing very well. The only game won was won w/out me. Connect the dots. Okay, I know it's not all my fault, but there was some pressure tonight when I found out we were playing the same team they beat w/out me.

Thankfully, we won. In 3 games, but we won - and had a good workout.

Maybe I should give Auggie Garrido, the UT baseball coach some credit. On the way to the game, I heard a clip from him on sports radio. He was talking about trying to hard and not having fun. Both have a a negative effect on a player's performance. Perhaps some of that got in my head.

(That's a lot of randomness righ there.)

Thanks for reading.

Dork alert: I really published this on 2/21/12 at 12:46AM, NOT 2/20/12 AT 10:06 PM and felt the need to add this disclaimer. Truth in blogging, people.

Day 11: CoziFlyLexical Home Management Project

 Ummm...this will be an easy post. We didn't do Zone Work today due to errands, a napping preschooler, the evening schedule, and not being able to get in our cul de sac a different times during the day.  I contemplated trying to squeeze it in, but didn't. The work will still be there.

We probably won't get to it tomorrow (Friday) either. Don't see it happening on Saturday. Oh, well. We made some progress and we can hit this area again next month.

Reflections

1) It's okay to not get stuf done sometimes.

2) I need to add something to the Zone 3 list, but I can't remember what it is.

 

Nothing done here. I'll just leave this here for reference next month.

Results based on yesterday's  plan.

1) Clean stickers off back of bathroom door, if we get Goo Gone. (or whatever it's called)

2) Dust bannister. 

3) Straighten kids' bathroom. (Crazy how that gets unkempt.)

4) Change air filters. (One register is in hall.) 

5) Take ladder out of upstairs halls. 

6) Declutter bottom of hall closet. (Maybe I can do that baby step.)

Day 10: CoziFlyLexical Home Managament Project

(We're in Zone 3 this week. I adapted it to Bathrooms and Halls. See my Lexicalized Zone 3 List for ideas.)

 

Had to be adaptable today. Delayed getting started a little too long. Start time was too close to departure time for a music lesson. Two kids were downstairs already, so just got started with them. Kid who had lesson get started on Daily Duties he could knock out quickly before we left. Other kiddo will do 15 minutes later. Worked out okay.

How did it work out, you wonder? Wonder no more. 

Reflections

1) 15 miutes doesn't seem like long, but I guess it will add up. It's simply spreading the work out. Interval training, if you will. 

2) In addition to lassoing the herd, I also have to plan what to do with them. It's just another aspect of managment. Or crowd control.  (It's all relative. haha.)

 

Results  (based on yesterday's plan)

1) vacuum upstairs hall

2) vacuum stairs

3) clean downstairs bathroom door, including get stickers off (Worked on. Still need Goo Gone. Add to shopping list for tomorrow.)

4) work on hall closet (Hesitant to tackle this, know it's more than a 15 minute job.) (hahahaha)

5) clean white board on bottom flight of stairs

6) take blue locker to van (Decided to wait on that. It has stuff in it.) 

Added: 

7) Change light bulb & clean fixture in downstairs halls. (One of the kiddos suggested that.)

 

Ready for tomorrow with this list.

1) Clean stickers off back of bathroom door, if we get Goo Gone. (or whatever it's called)

2) Dust bannister. 

3) Straighten kids' bathroom. (Crazy how that gets unkempt.)

4) Change air filters. (One register is in hall.) 

5) Take ladder out of upstairs halls. 

6) Declutter bottom of hall closet. (Maybe I can do that baby step.) 

 

Randomness 

Oops. Guess I should go water my tulips. Apparently they like daily drinks, according to the little thing in the soil, which also has this tidbit from John Lennon, "Love is the flower you've got to let grow." My initial reaction after reading that? To edit it. There must be some replacement for "you've got to." Not that it matters. John seemed to do just fine without me. 

Day 9: CoziFlyLexical Home Management Project

(What?! Zone Work done and blog posting at 3:20pm? Get.Out. A small thing in the big scheme of things, but I'll enjoy the small victories.) 

I really wantd to take a nap today. Squeezed in a doze while watching waiting for a kid to finish lunch. Decided to rally and gather the crew. It took a few minutes, but I didn't get frustrated. I got the ones started who were down here. Again, it went pretty quickly. 

This is how it went down.

Reflections 

1) My son is amused by my inability to change the hall lightbulb without a stool. 

2) I need more Goo Gone to get the foam flower sticker off the back door. (Add it to my HEB shopping list in Cozi.) 

3) I need to add few hall fixture things to Jack's to do list on cozi. 

4) It would be handy to clean the light fixtures whenever we change the bulbs. Brilliant! 

 

Results (Per yesterday's plan. Crossed off items are done.)

1) sweep edge of carpet at baseboards (Took entire 15 minutes.)

2) vacuum upstairs hall  

3) vacuum stairs 

4) clean mirrors on vanities and doors 

5) clean downstairs bathroom door, including get stickers off  (Worked on.)

6) change lightbulb in upstairs hall, clean fixture 

7) change lightbulb in master bath, clean fixture 

 

Ready for tomorrow with this list. 

1) vacuum upstairs hall

2) vacuum stairs

3) clean downstairs bathroom door, including get stickers off

4) work on hall closet (Hesitant to tackle this, know it's more than a 15 minute job.) 

5) clean white board on bottom flight of stairs

6) take blue locker to van

 

Randomness

In honor of Valentine's day. Consider the difference between saying "Our God is love" and "Our god is love." 

Until next time. 

Day 8: CoziFlyLexical Home Management Project

(Observent readers may have notice Days 4 and 5 missing. I didn't post those days. I may get to them later. Maybe not. The point is to keep going with the experiment. I won't post on weekends, so there will always be that two-day gap in the numbering. You can breathe easier now. ) 

 

Today I gave the kiddos the choice to do their work right when we got home or later after I worked out. (We had to run to the store after school, so I knew they would want some downtime.) As expected, they opted for later. I told they better coopate quickly when I called them down. (Not that they don't always ask "How high?" when I say "Jump!" 

Additionally, we were on a tight schedule, so I wasn't sure how that would work out. Turns out it went okay. They camee down fairly quickly when called and worked without balking. Good job, younglings. 

Now for a more detailed analysis, because that's what the public wants. 

Reflections:

1) Can't sweep in two places with one broom - had to adjust for that. 

2) Kids are responding well to Zone Work. 

3) Yesterday's 15 minutes went quickly. 

 

Results: (Per yesterday's plan.) Focused on kids' bathroom & downstairs bathroom.

1) wash the rugs (Done.) 

2) sweep and mop floors  (Done.)

3) clean toilets (Done.)

4) sweep edge of carpet at baseboards (Not done. Broom issue.) 

5) vacuum upstairs hall (Not done. Brrom issue.) 

6) vacuum stairs (Not done.) 

Bonus: added clean tub (Done.) 

 

Ready for tomorrow:  (This is too many, but would rather have too many than not enough.)

1) sweep edge of carpet at baseboards 

2) vacuum upstairs hall  

3) vacuum stairs

4) clean mirrors on vanities and doors

5) clean downstairs bathroom door (get stickers off back) 

6) change lightbulb in upstairs hall, clean fixture

7) change lightbulb in master bath, clean fixture

 

Thanks for playing along. 

CoziFlyLexical Project: Tweaking Flylady Zone 3 List

Planning for week 2 of the CoziFlyLexical Mashup Project started with tweaking the weekly zone list.  

 If you need to the get the list from Cozi, do this: 

Thanks to the Cozi List Library, it was simple to add the list to my calendar. To find the list, got to Cozi.com and type "Flylady Zone 3 list" in the search bar at the top of the Cozi.com screen.  Choose the link to the list. Scroll to the bottom of the list and click the blue "Add to Cozi to do list" button. 

If you're logged into Cozi, you'll see a dialog box asking you to choose a list to add the new list to. You can also add a new list. (Look for the plus sign under your list of lists.) 

You can edit the list name or items later, either by typing on them or going to the Change icon at the bottom of the list. 

 Once you have the list, tweak it to fit your home.

The Zone 3 list is a bit overwhleming, so I made some major changes to it. I expect I'll add more later as we progress, but for now I simplified it a lot.

Instead of  "the bathroom, extra bedroom, children's bedrooms, office and laundry," my list is simply "bathrooms and halls." Also, because there were so many changes, I just chose "clear everything off this list" from the "Change" tab at the bottom of the list box. 

Flylady "swishes & swipes" in her daily routine, so she doesn't include "clean the toilet" or "clean the tub/shower" in her zone list. We need it on our Zone list. I'll also include it in the weekly Home Blessing Hour, but we didn't do that this week, so we'll catch it in the zone list. 

Here's my Lexicalized Zone 3 List: 

(I'll alphabetize it with the drag and drop capability of Cozi.)

BATHROOMS (Master, Kids, Downstairs)

• Wash area rugs
• Sweep and mop floor
• Straighten drawers and cabinets
• Wash shower door
• Clean medicine cabinet and undersink
• Recycle empty bottles
• Clean mirrors 
• Clean toilet
• Wipe down cabinets,  doors, door jams and walls
• Clean shower or tub
• Clean sink and vanity, including light fixtures

HALLS (Upstairs and downstairs)

• Sweep edge of carpet at baseboards (gets stuff out that vac can't get)
• Vacuum upstairs hall and stairs
• Dust banister
• Clean light fixtures (replace bulbs if needed)
• Dust ceilings
• Wash doors, door jams, walls, window sill
• Declutter and organize hall closet
• Put up stuff kids have put in hall
• Declutter and organize bookcases

 After creating the list, I then cut it down to 4 items to focus on tomorrow, considering these things:

• the location of each task (so kiddos don't run into each other)
• each kiddos ability (choose task for each, though I'll still let them choose)
• tasks that need to be done most (either by funk-factor or it's-bugging-me quotient)
• the time-limit of 15 minutes

And the winners are:

1) wash the rugs

2) sweep and mop floors

3) clean toilets

4) sweep edge of carpet at baseboards

5) vacuum upstairs hall

6) vacuum stairs

Day 8 results of our experiment will hopfully be posted tomorrow. Pop some popcorn. 

Day 3: CoziFlyLexical Home Managment Project

Oh, no! The streak ended at two days. Wait...what? Day 3 is here! (The crowd goes wild.) I didn't squeeze writing in during the day, so I had to choose between putting Mia to bed or eeking out a post. Well, if I put her to bed, I'm usually down for the count. So, here I am writing the day after, which means when I say today in the post, it's really talking about yesterday.

(Note to self:  get a draft started each day. It's easier for your brain and the momentum is helpful.)

 

 

A few things came up today that could have derailed us. Due to a hair appointment and drum lessons, we got a later start than usual. Then I had to decide whether to do Zone Work before or after I went to Curves. I opted for doing the housework first because I have to get 5 people involved, versus just myself and an assigned Mia watcher for the work out.  I knew it would be a challenge to get a workout in, but I made it, barely. Yea us!

Here's the wrap-up. . 

Reflections (Theme from the Jimmy Fallon's JB skit in my head.)

1) Writing the daily focus on the whtieboard was helpful. 

2) When planning ZoneWork with a crew, consider if they will get in each other's way or not. 

3) Note tomorrow's tasks on back of printed Zone List. 

4) Note tweaks to Zone List on paper. Add them to Cozi either daily or at end of week. 

 

Results:  Per yesterday's   prep list, the breakdown of planned vs. done. 

1) Clean behind & under buffet. (Done.)

2) Dust & wipe down windowsills. (Done. Added clean inside of window above sink. "Clean outside of window" will be added to Jack's To Do List on Cozi.)

3) Clean microwave, insde & out. (Done. Took entire 15 minutes! Ew. Will clean under either later this week or next time we're in this zone.)

4) Clean outisde of trashcan, washer, & dryer. (Done. Funny how I enjoy seeing the outside of the trashcan clean. Who knew.) 

5) Organize cabinet containing plastics. (Not done due to proximity to the microwave.) 

(Editor's note: I'm playing with the format of these posts. Today's tweak:  the nouns in bold on the list were done. I'm also trying out different post titles.) 

 

Ready for tomorrow: 

1) Organize "plastics" cabinet. (Couldn't do it yesterday due to proximity to microwave, which was being cleaned.) Wondering if this is a two-person task.  

2) Clean front of large appliances.

3) Clean exterior of cabinets. 

4) Clean wall under calendar. 

I took a minute after our Zone Work to make this list so it would be fresh on my brain. My Zone Lists will be tweaked as we go, tailored to our family's ages and abilities and our living space. Cozi makes it super easy to do that. 

Randomness: Seeing "Visualize Whirled Peas" at the end of the Super Bowl half-time show would have been epic...and more likely than world peace.  Next best thing - having the basketball player formerly known as Ron Artest on the field ala "Where's Waldo?"

(Randomness feature added today because...well, because I can. It's my meager attempt to spice up the "what I cleaned today"  nature of this series.) 

Day 2 - Lexical Light, Cozi Calendar and Flylady Mashup Project

 

Day 2 is done. Act like I've been here before.

 

 

Reflections

1) Getting 15 minutes of concentrated work out of the kids and myself feels like an accomplishment.

2) The kids transition into their Daily Duties pretty well. If we can be consistent, it shouldn't take more than 30 minutes each day for them to do their  Zone Work and Daily Duties. (Heh-heh, I said duty.)

 

Results

 Here's what we did compared with what I planned to do, as noted yesterday's  post.

1) Organize pantry. (Done. Thought it would take longer. Could've been sorted a bit more, but it was good.)

2) Clean garage door. (Done. Door from laundry room to garage. Looks much better. Needed a little coaching & elbow-grease teaching.)

3) Dust ceiling, light fixture, & other tall places. (Done. Even put globe back on light above sink. Can't remember how long that's been naked.)

4) Wipe appliances & cabinets. ( Not done. Replaced with cleaning behind trashcan, which is next to garage door.)

Added:

1) Cleaned wall behind trashcan.  

2) Cleaned top & a bit behind buffet. (Continue tomorrow.)

 

Ready for tomorrow with this list: (Write on whiteboard.)

1) Clean behind & under buffet.

2) Dust & wipe down windowsills.

3) Clean microwave, insde & out.

4) Clean outisde of trashcan, washer, & dryer.

5) Organize cabinet containing plastics.

 

KLONK!  ZLOP!  POW! We're going to KNOCK THIS OUT! (That's my brain under the influence of a 1966 Batman episode.)