Happy New Year, January's here, fly with the fledglings to get clutter clear

[ToffeeChristmascake]

Welcome to the January Fledgling Flying thread. A very big thank you to Ellie, our intrepid leader, for guiding us through the frantic Christmas month.

We are not strict followers of the Fat Fairy and take some of the babysteps - such as getting dressed to lace-up shoes - with a pinch of salt. We also strongly advise against signing up for the FlyLady emails.

From the first of the month, we will be following Flylady's tips on restoring order to our homes, using one of the following methods:

1. Babysteps
2. Babysteps + 15 mins daily decluttering
3. Babysteps + daily missions

Following the babysteps helps to establish daily routines and build a weekly plan.

This month's motto is: You can't clean clutter! See here for Flylady's advice on decluttering.

If you are overwhelmed by the mess in your home, start with just one thing: shine your sink.

And if you need to sort out the house after the New Year revelry is over, a crisis clean is what you need.

Back shortly with tomorrow's babystep .

(With apologies to Ellie for plagiarising some of last month's intro')

The first babystep for the first day of the new year is to shine your sink.

There are no missions at the weekend, so just relax and have fun.

Thank you for starting the thread and taking over the enormous task of keeping us all in order Toffee!

My NY resolution is to do flying one day at a time. Might not get to post every day (trying to limit my MNing) but am determined to sort my life out which includes getting the house in order.

Back tomorrow with shining sink

Happy new year ladies and happy flying to you all!

Happy New Year to all the fledglings .

Happy New Year one and all.

My head hurts.

Signing in! With a hangover...

No hangover here. Pregnancy is dull!

DH is laying a laminate floor todat. I am hoping to clean the upstairs (witH the 'help' of DD).. Still feeling a bit grotty though so will have to see how it goes!

All cleaned after last night's party! Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone!

I'll be back to flying with a vengeance (I hope!) when we're back home next week, so am just marking my spot for now.

You only have yourself to blame, Ellie

Welcome, Sweet. You will be glad to hear that there are no Flylady missions today. Shine your sink if you feel up to it.

Mine certainly needs it.

DH has bought us a Panasonic breadmaker. He made us bread for the first time last night. There are now crumbs everywhere. However, the bread was very nice and we are looking forward to fresh bread for breakfast this morning. Anyone else have a breadmaker?

Might need to have a crisis clean in the house today, then we are going to walk into town with the boys (giving them the incentive that they can spend their Xmas money).

Hope you all have a lovely New Year's Day.

Droit - I agree that limiting MN is, sadly, sometimes the way to get things done. I try to do my morning routine before I go on MN (not this morning, though. And - ahem - am still in my dressing gown).

Pushme - definitely take it easy today if you can.

Arabella- I'm impressed with your early clean up. Hope you had a good party.

Linzer - thanks for checking in from your holiday. No missions for you for another week - enjoy!

Hi.
Can I join in? I was fluttering from April and doing quite well then got pregnant. During my first trimester madness everything has gone pretty much to pot. So I'm starting again - at least I now know where to start! This morning I shined my sink. Anything else is a bonus - right?

I do need to take down the Christmas trees and decorations today though.

Happy New Year to all.

Welcome and Happy New Year, Camdancer. You have done more than me already today.

Morning all, and a Happy New Year!
toffee, i've got a bread machine but hardly ever use it, the loaves always seem to get stuck in the pan. We went to a party last night in a spotless house, which has made me think about decluttering again this morning and I must admit, I think the bread machine has to go to free up some cupboard space, hope you have more luck with yours!

Better go, DS wants to use the ipad.

Sorry you didn't have much luck with your breadmachine, MrsD. I'm hoping that this breadmaker isn't just a new 'craze' for DH.

I'll bet the spotless house was just made ready for the party. Maybe if you'd opened a cupboard or two, loads of junk would have fallen out.

MIL is doing the washing up again - in dirty, lukewarm water, using the J-cloth I use for wiping surfaces. I thank her, then sneak in afterwards and do it all again.

That's a comforting thought, but it's always like that. Does help that it's twice the size of ours!

Uurgh. my MIL and FIL do all their washing up like that, turns my stomach, we have to put up with it at their house (I close my eyes and think of strong immune systems) , but they come to ours and do it and I wait till they've gone out of the kitchen and bung it all in the DW. They have 3 of us DILs, we have tried and tried to get them to have a DW but they think they are unhygienic because the stuff sits in there dirty all day.

Anyway, I am feeling spurred on to declutter today. DS is up, everyone else is still in bed, DCs managed just about to stay awake till midnight at the party and it was good fun, only a couple of hundred yards from home so we carried them back. I didn't drink too much so am feeling OK. I think the bread machine might go into the understairs cupboard, that way I can get some of the clutter off the kitchen counters and into the cupboard below.

Morning to Sweetandtenderhooligan and Camdancer, welcome on board.

DWM I agree too about rationing MN, I waste endless hours on here if you add it all up. However it is addictive. I think my New Years resolution needs to be to not hit Active Convos for the sake of it, but probably realistically I ought to ration it by time, especially as I am going back to work on Tuesday after 15 months at home.

Happy New Year everyone. Very quiet house here this morning.

Toffee do you really need to ask if I have a breadmachine? Of course I do! Gadget-tastic, me. I do love mine, although go for a few weeks without using it at all, then will use it daily for weeks. I tend to do rolls in mine more than a loaf, just because the loaves are not big enough for my lot, but I can do enough rolls to go round in one go. I did have a go at making a cake in mine once, but it was terrible, although a friend swears by it.

I do not intend to do much flying today. Plan is, actually, to do as little as possible of anything today!! I will start this month with the babysteps and build up. A bit scared of my return to work as I just dont know how I am going to be after not being there at all for 2 months and struggling for the 3 months before that. >

HAve a good relaxing day getting over all the hangovers.

That's a good idea PA, the bread rolls.

Happy New Year . (joins ellie in the sore head corner)

Im trying to catch up with both thread as i have been hoorendously aaawwwffulll all through december. Thx ellie for look after us again.

i have today

shined sink
washing machine on
dw filled
floor swept

we are now off to the park and B&Q, then hopefully a indian meal later if its open.

Hope you all have a great start to 2011 and cant wait to get stuck in with you all again properly.

feeling very proud as have done some and then sat down and done some more. Thats my new years resolution to get my timer going and not spent all day everyday neglecting my dc whilst trying and failing to keep on top of housework!!

good luck with your resolutions if you have any

Hi Ladies,

Happy New Year! Marking my place and will return later to catch up with your already prolific chat .

morning ish I have a thumping headache that is dust, central heating and sleep depreivation caused (possibly aggrivated by glasses) and a recovering child who could almost tempt a stone to pick itself up and hurl itself at him. Life is back to normal in this house then

Have spent 1 hour ironing and done some folding. Sink has some meat defrosting in it so it out of bounds shining wise.

Am about to drag child out for a little bit. he has a book voucher so i thought the drive over to the trafford center would let him sleep without him feeling like he was being a baby for sleeping in the day and give me a break from the whining for an hour or so. Brave the hell that is the trafford centre in january sales and the curl up to catch up whilst he recovers from the shock in the bath.

I will be back to catch up later and i will function better this year

Haaapppppyyyyy Neeewwww Yeeeaaarrrr!!

Whey-hey! Have just seen the last of our guests off (I really shouldn't be quite so euphoric should I?). All chaos here again after last night's rather exhausting festivities and last large lunch together. Dh has taken it upon himself to paint part of the sitting room (Christmas decorations and aforesaid chaos notwithstanding) and I am slightly wary of outcome as he isn't at his most sober but am past caring and have to focus on packing for our trip tomorrow (back for start of term on 10th)and getting as much clearing up done as poss as don't want to come back to complete wreck of a houe.

Anyway, enough inane babbling from me!

Huge thanks to Ellie for looking after us during fraught December and to Toffee for this new year/new decade thread.

A warm welcome to Camdancer and Sweetenderhooligan

Great to see everyone back, especially my Mummy!!!!

Interested to see ref to Fat Fairy's seven achieveable things on previous thread (off to check it out briefly.)

Thanks for all your support during 2010 - wishing you all good things for 2011!!!

Back at end of week!! Mahoosive waves to all ....

Hello ladies, just marking my place so I can give this flying lark a go. I'm not back home until Sunday night, so the sink shining will have to wait until Monday. Got any good tips for a newbie?

So many of us still here! I disappear for a few months and it's like I never went away

I have a breadmaker Toffee. Don't use it much but I have found it makes great dough for hot cross buns!

So far today I have switched the ironing press on, decluttered my stuff in the bedroom, told DH to do his (but he's gone back to bed instead will let him off as he's been working really silly hours but still not putting his stuff away), done 3 rows of knitting, loaded DW and WM. Just need to find the sink now so I can shine it...

Oh and I really ought to use that press, we're running out of clothes

Hello Mummy!!!

A warm welcome to Bessie26. Newbie tips in a nutshell would be:

-start with baby-steps which will be posted by our esteemed thread leader Toffee every morning until they become second nature (we ignore alot of them - but important ones will be highlighted)

• then decluttering (you can't clean clutter)
• then missions

Everything to be done 'little and often' in 15 min bursts. Don't get overwhelmed - small steps at a time - don't let perfectionism or our mad chatter get in the way - and just focus on planned small steps in specific areas and you will start to see a difference overall. Don't subscribe to Flylady emails (you will be inundated) and don't get put off by horrible cutesy language on the Fat Fairy site but do have a general look around here and [[ www.flylady.net/pages/FLYingLessons.asp here]] to start you off! Good luck!