Anyone up for a new FLYLADY thread 01/01/11?

[ASecretLemonadeDrinker]

I did it yonks ago (origional threads ) , have drunk alot of tea slipped since then and really want to start it again as it really seemed to work for me :) I am going to blitz as much as I can before the 1st (tree/decs away tonight etc.) so I am starting as much as I can with a clean sheet :) Anyone a lapsed flyer (or whatever we call ourselves) or wants to be a domestic goddess () as of the 1st?

Morning everyone.
Welcome Cerealqueen - I was advised to just sign up for the "one a day" flylady emails. I do just get one a day but even then I don't really read them. I just stick to the babysteps and where we are directed from there as noeyedear says, and what others say on the thread.
noeyedear the issues that raised their ugly heads will be long running I expect. The upside is I might get to spend a lot more time with my one year old niece who is ADORABLE so there is always a silver lining. I am picked up, dusted off and ready to go today though
I have to say my dh did the basics last night so I didn't get up to a complete mess which has helped me feel I can get back in the saddle today. [love emoticon]
So I have yesterday's missions to complete as well as today's babystep.
Where did the daily mission come from? Interesting!
Saturday's babystep

Saturday's Daily Focus

Yeah, where did these daily focus things come from?!

I'm sat on my bedroom floor feeling slightly overwhelmed... I had to get everything out from under the bed this morning (looking for teddy) so that's all piled up on the bed, plus loads of stuff (mainly shoes! ) which needed clearing out from the wardrobe in the spare room. So I'm going to set my timer for 15min & see how much of this I can get rid of, before having a cup-o-tea and then probably doing some more!

Am impressed with Mr carrots' work! Does this mean carrots will get time to venture into the study today?

Hi there Bessie - I'm having a sneaky wee glass of Pepsi Max and then I will indeed venture into the study [brave emoticon]
I have done the car cleaning thing and it has made a big difference. I also did the pamper myself thing with a bubble bath, face pack, book, did my legs etc and tidied up my feet. Just what I needed after yesterday. I am very happy to make that a weekly ritual
I actually have no ironing to do and not enough laundry to really make up a load although dd is due back from a sleepover later today and that, I suspect, is when it will all change! It still feels good to have a tiny bit of control over the house though.
Right...I am off to the study!

Hello everyone and welcome to cerealqueen.
Just do the babysteps to start with and when you feel like you are making a difference then start on the missions.

I am on a major declutter today. I got the life laundry book and started on the books. I have quite a lot but being ruthless with them all. Its quite intesting to read the book in conjuction with the flylady stuff so am setting timer and doing 15 mins at a time. It is amazing how much you can get done.

Bessie - how are you getting on under your bed? Have to admit I am avoiding that one but did all the drawers (well mine anyway!)

Carrots - that study will be sorted soon you are cracking on with it!

alot of the stuff I found under the bed was DHs, so I suspect he will just put it all back later

I was fairly ruthless in my 15mins & have put lots of shoes, boots & handbags in the charity pile, but had to leave the rest on the bedroom floor as it was time to get DD up from her nap. Will have to do more when she's gone to bed (DH is busy decorating)

Sharon is the life laundry book good? I had it on my Christmas list, but no-one bought it for me . How do you decide which books to throw out? Our bookcase needs sorting, but that's quite low down on the to-do list atm!

Hi to cereal - as Sharon says, just start on the babysteps & leave the missions until later (I still see them as optional) - you don't want to get too carried away & burn yourself out!

Bessie you can work on under your bed the same way as me with the study - just a little at a time. Taking the first step is the worst I think.
Cerealqueen just do the babysteps one day at a time. You will be at the same stage as us in no time. Don't try to do too much or you will get fed up.
Sharon how funny - the Life Laundry book was what I was reading in the bath. I find the Flylady better suited to me really. Maybe once I have gained a reasonable level of calm in the household I will be able to go deeper. Books and CDs are things I would find it very hard to get rid of.
I did 25mins in the study and then ds got fed up without dd here to keep him company and came looking for me to play games with him.
I did whizz round the cobwebs in the kitchen with a feather duster later on but that was it.

Carrots - I agree about Flylady being more suited to me although the principle is the same regarding decluttering. If you keep decluttering the actual cleaning is easy to keep on top of with daily routines.

Life laundry is basically about getting rid of everything you don't need or can justify being in your house. That's how I read it anyway. It has made me think today about why I keep certain things. Habit and pressure from family seem to be my triggers. I mean if I get given something from a member of my family I find it extremely difficult to throw it away even though I may never use it. Does anyone else feel like this? We never had much when we were growing up.

My long term project is to store all our music on an external hard drive and put all the CDs in the loft. When I say long term...by the end of the year!I love books but use the library a lot so decided that if I want to reread any favourite paperbacks that I can order from library.

Sharon we did exactly that with all our CDs last year, as we only ever listen to music on our iPods, it was a complete waste of space to keep the CDs downstairs. We also look a load of the CDs (and some old vinal) to a local second hand music shop.

When I declutter the books (novels), I get rid of anything I wouldn't want to read again. If I find it hard, then I move them to a box in the spare room & look at them again in another 6 months.
Our families seem to buy us lots of books for Xmas & birthdays - I reckon I must get 2 new gardening books every year! And I find them very difficult to get rid of as I feel like I'm being ungrateful giving away gifts. MIL also has a tendency to give us occasional tat (the latest is a wine bottle holder in the shape of a guitar player) which DH (understandably) feels like he HAS to keep. . I need to find a polite way of saying, "if you get the urge to spend £10 on tat, please give it to Oxfam to buy a goat instead" before Christmas comes round again!

That is 99% of my clutter problem - gifts that I never wanted or no longer need but feel guilty about moving along. I managed it in the wardrobe with scarves etc that I knew I would never wear.
What you both say about libraries and hard drives makes a lot of sense though. We have not really got into the ipod thing fully yet but I do have an ipod. We do use our library loads now and rarely buy books so again it is only gifts. You are motivating me though to go a layer or 5 deeper as I go along.
I do like the life laundry philosophy of getting rid of the emotional baggage - I need a level of cleanliness and calm too though. What do you think? Do Flylady and set a Life Laundry task per month or something like that. Reading the book made me feel scared and overwhelmed!

This is an excellent step for a Sunday I feel

Sunday's Daily Focus

I just realised that was our last babystep - am I a little sad for feeling a bit scared now. What do we do now?
I am assuming we follow our routine, do a daily focus and a Kelly mission. Where does the home blessing stuff etc come in?

The Home Blessing Hour

Yay! We did a whole month of FLYing! . Well Done to us! I'm having a bubble bath tonight to celebrate!

carrots I'm sure you'll get an email tomorrow telling you what we have to do next!

It is a bit of a surprise - we have had shiny sinks for a whole month! How amazing are we? Woo hoo!

I have been dusting the house and cleaning windows in the master bedroom and spare room with dd. She wanted to see how the vinegar method worked So now the house smells like a chipper but the bedrooms are all sparkly. I did the bathroom mirrors while I was at it. I reckon that is me half way towards tomorrows house blessing now I know what that is.

I was trying to hoover but dh has the dcs outside washing the cars now and they keep wandering back in with half a forest on their feet so I have given up until they are finished.

DD and I cleaned out the indoor pets though so now I just have to be brave enough to head outside... think I will have a Pepsi first actually!

hi all havent we all done well and how fast has it gone! I have just been taking a look at the website and the flying lessons is a good place for a little refresher on the routines. Wonder what tomorrow will entail. I Will keep up my routines, 15 minutes declutter and kellys missions, I hope we are still going to keep posting on here because this has now become one of my routines!!

I definitely want to keep posting so we can keep each other motivated.

Kelly's mission for Monday

Morning everyone! Welcome to our first day without babysteps. We are flying!

I checked my email today - I signed up for the daily email as I am told if you go for all the emails you get hundreds.
My Flylady email gave me a routine and tasks for today so presumably every day she will give us a job to do if we want it.
I don't know how to link to it without linking to my email but I will look into it on the website.

She encouraged us to continue our usual routines, to empty the dishwasher, do a load of washing, swish and swipe, get dressed to shoes, do a hot spot, do a 15 min declutter, and so on.

The day's zone seems to be the living room and giving it a really thorough hoover, under the furniture if we can.

The most important info was that today is HOME BLESSING HOUR so we have to try to fit that in. I know we all have different days for this according to our schedules so let us know when you have done your Home Blessing and how long it took to keep us all motivated.

Have a good day everyone and keep posting!

Thanks for summarising the email for us carrots!

There will be no vacuuming for me today as I cleaned the filters on the Dyson last night & they're not properly dry yet (very convenient eh?!) But I will be mopping etc, and really must spend some more time sorting out the pile of stuff I've hidden in my wardrobe!

Well I have cleaned both bathrooms really thoroughly, hoovered, stripped a bed, put a load of washing on, loaded the dishwasher and tidied a hot spot. I feel that is a decent start to the week.
I am having my lunch then off to sort and fold a basket of laundry and finally do some decluttering.
The hoovering can wait bessie - I always think those jobs do get done whereas the piles in wardrobes can sit untackled for a very long time if you are not careful - that is why I have so much to declutter now

Bessie I don't think I have never cleaned the filters in the Dyson!

I finally got round to clearing the rubbish out of the car, albeit while waiting outside DS's nursery! Also did my handbag! Not doing home blessing hour until Friday, when I have a long stretch of time!

I mean ever!

noeyedeer you are supposed to do them every 6 months! (just rinse under the cold tap & leave to dry for 24hrs) I never used todo mine until SIL burnt the motor out in hers & the repair man said it was because they had never cleaned their filters!

Do you notice a big difference when they have been cleaned bessie?
noeyedear I think clearing out the car while you are stuck waiting outside nursery, music lessons etc is what this is all about. Using the little moments and keeping everything ticking over rather than doing grand massive cleaning sessions and then nothing for weeks. When I did the car on Saturday I did think that if I had a carrier bag and a packet of babyswipes in the car all the time I could do this when I am hanging around outside activities and save my precious free time for mumsnet something else.