Welcome to the May 2017 fledgling Fly thread!
Feel free to park your mops and buckets here from the 1st of the month!
This is where we attempt to declutter our homes and follow the 30-step wisdom of Flylady (minus cutesy barftastic language and a surfeit of e-mails) with lots of chat and support and mutual motivation (and 
of course) along the way.
More info available here, here here and here.
As usual we will be following a three-pronged approach - and don't worry - we are all at different stages. (Some of us are still stuck at the decluttering stage after quite a few years 
):
1 - repeat or start baby steps (again!)
2 - repeat baby steps + do 15 mins a day decluttering in the current zone
or
3 - reinforce babysteps and/or do daily missions
And those of you who have decluttered and are really enthusiastic can throw some detailed cleaning in to the mix as well!
The idea is that we focus on short, ring-fenced, daily bursts of activity (steps and routines) that will help our homes run (more or less!) on "automatic pilot" allowing us to do far more interesting things instead!
This is a very long-running thread so we may appear cliquey but we really aren't! All newcomers, long-termers, lurkers and intermittent returnees welcome!
Helpful pointers: No perfectionism allowed! If it took a while to create the current C.H.A.O.S. (can't have anyone over syndrome) in your home, then it will probably take a while to reverse the situation (you can't clean clutter!). Small steps are the key! And you are never behind: just jump in where you are at!
Any questions, don't hesitate to ask!
Good luck!
Find cleaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Housekeeping forum.
Housekeeping
Gather ye dusters (fledglings) while ye May, for soon we shall be Flying ... !
Slurrycart · 28/04/2017 09:36
May I join you please? I've been looking on the April thread, but I have no clue how it works. I'm a busy mum of 3, my youngest decided to arrive early smack bang in the middle of a kitchen refit and is a true Velcro baby. My home is now chaos rather than the organised chaos that I like it to be. I only get maybe 5-10 minute windows of opportunity to scoot around - it'd be nice to have a bit of focus back rather than wandering round in a state of panic, only to never actually achieve anything 
Of course you may Rosabella! A warm welcome to you! Sounds as though you have a lot on your plate atm. Congrats on your new baby - enough to cope with by itself - never mind building work too!
Suggest you take a look at here and ignore the cutesy language (the underlying principles of the system are sound). Have a look at the baby-steps (yuck, hate that phrase too) and perhaps have a look around the site, and the launch pad.
Each day (or the night before) the thread leader (which will be me in May) will let you know which zone of the house we are in currently and then will post the baby-step, and the mission for that day. You might like to start with just familiarising yourself with baby-steps, or perhaps do a mission per day. The important thing to remember though is you can't clean clutter - so doing 15 mins decluttering in the current zone is also a good strategy - adapt the system to suit yourself and your indiv home though. Good luck!
Whey hey Whoknows there you are! Great to see you! 
Right everyone, it's wagons roll again for the month ahead. (Hope this works from the depths of the countryside! Haven't had time to test it properly as yet!)
First though, most importantly, huge thanks and 
to Cotswold for judicious, efficient, encouraging, and altogether fab thread leading throughout April . (Particularly good of you Cotswold having done it so recently too!)
The links for tomorrow, 1 May 2017, are as follows:
The summary for Monday 1st May (available on the Flylady website here under "Today" and via the flight plan, which should update daily, can be found here ).
Newcomers: you may find these Flying lessons helpful. Also read the instructions for getting started! and how the weekly zones are organised here.
Baby-step no 1 for Monday May 1st is here. (Read and scroll down.) Shine your sink!
We will be working in Zone 1 this week (April 30 - May 6): : The Entrance, Front Porch and Dining Room here.
Spend 15 mins decluttering in the current zone.
When you have finished decluttering, the detailed cleaning list (if you are at that stage) for Zone 1 is here.
Monday's mission is here. Spend 10 mins in Zone 1 gathering up stuff (jackets, shoes, papers, junk) that not be there and either chucking it away or returning it to where it belongs.
The daily focus for Monday is the weekly home blessing hour or "home bleugh" as we call it. 10 mins spent on each of seven essential tasks. (Newcomers: some fledglings find it more convenient to spread these tasks out during the week. And many of us find that each task takes longer than 10 mins!)
The monthly habit for May is moving in May!! A good one that I intend to try and follow!
Daily reminders (which should also update automatically) are here.
Good luck fledglings - wishing everyone a productive Flying month - small steps at a time!
Enjoy your May Day holiday everyone!
Yay, hullo Cag! You have enough on your plate atm [footstool] [fleecy throw]
Ok, I think I understand how it works although I'm guessing it'll take a while to get into new habits. Can I ask what a swish and swipe is and you're ta dah please
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I am going to have yet another go. I can't be any worse at flying in May tgan I was in April 
Just checking in to say thank you for a brilliant April thread Cotswold . Banks for starting the May one SC. I'm happy to repay the favour and do the odd night of links if it helps if you struggle with wifi etc. at any point. Welcome Isabella .
That originally said 'It starts with a holiday, how good is that?!' but the last line seems to have disappeared. So it looks like May will be as successful as April for me weeps with laughter and slurps more wine
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