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')

Belated Happy Birthday to Toffee
have been doing lots of desperate Kitchen decluttering today, threw away old herbs and spices, jam jars, wooden spoons, reorganised drawers, did umpteen washloads, cleared worktops,
only really because I refused to do any cooking and served baked beans for supper

and feel a new woman, only I better go to bed or I'll be an old one tomorrow

Thank you all for my lovely birthday greetings. I have had a really good day, with lots of my favourite people and rather a lot of bubbly .

Back to Flying this evening though and have just finished tidying up and doing the evening routine so that I am off to a good start in the morning.

Wish I could do some personal messages, but I really must get to bed or I will feel lousy tomorrow. So, here are tomorrow's tasks:

Monday's babystep is to to read an email from Flylady. If you are following this thread's advice and avoiding subscribing to Flylady (strongly recommended!) then you can ignore this and just practise the babysteps you are already doing.

Monday's mission is here.

Monday is also the day to spend an hour cleaning your house. Spend no more than 10 minutes each on the following: recycle old magazines/papers; change the sheets; empty the bins; hoover all the rooms; mop the kitchen and bathroom floor; clean the mirrors and doors; and dust the furniture. Some of these jobs should take less than 10 minutes.

Right, off to get some much-needed beauty sleep and fight the wrinkles.

Night all.

Morning all,

DD1 is at home today; she had a temperature and headache yesterday, and is complaining of a stomach ache and feeling sick today. Her best friend has the same thing so it sounds like there's a virus going round; am keeping my fingers crossed that the rest of us don't catch it... DD2 was supposed to be going to play with a friend this afternoon, but she's ill too - her mum has just texted me to cancel.

Bumped into DS's best friend's mum at kindergarten this morning, which put all my minor niggles and worries into perspective. Her DH was diagnosed with thyroid cancer last year and finished his chemotherapy just before Christmas. However, the results aren't good and he has been advised to go and see a specialist in Germany, so she's asked if I can have the older two (aged 3 and 4) overnight when she goes with him next month.

Have already spent far too long on the computer, so must get on with my list:

Morning routine
Phone piano teacher to cancel DD1's lesson
Mission
15 min decluttering in "other room" (office/spare room/general dumping ground - needs it far more than bathroom)
Plan English lesson for Wed
Revise weekly to-do list
Recycling
DD2 to piano lesson
Afternoon routine
Thank you letters
Evening routine

Have a good day everyone.

Morning. Hopefully after my second coffee my brain will wake up. had to revise my list for today already

Monday:
Training done
Washing 2nd load on
Pre school routine done
post office
library for photocopying
Pick up new headlight bulb
write, print and drop letter off at school
trip into town and hand paperwork
fabric shop
ironing
folding
rubbish sweep
bedding wash
early night

morning everyone.

linzer it is something like that that does put everything else to the back. thinking of your ds friends parents and hoping for the best. hope dd feels better soon.

yesterday
s/s
dw/wm
clothes away in dc rooms
organised larder
cleaned kitchen doors and plinths
ds used feather duster and dusted all the pictures in the house.

today is THE day

s/s
clean sink and kichen including breakfast off dining table.
dw done by dh
reboot laundry
take dc to gymnastics
start pile of stuff for holiday (or at least a list)
tidy up my bedroom (failed yesterday)
try not to fall asleep dc been up and down all night
find clothes for dnephews for their birthday in pouring rain with 2 dc
10 minutes on wii fit tonight (feeling shameful that i dont use the thing)
drink lots of water and not eat lotsa junk!
test smoke alarms (dh gone a bit mad and we now have 5 smoke detectors) i may be some time
todays dusting cobwebs and cleaning light mission. really want to get moving on these.

I think that will jolly well do. Better get moving.

have lovely mondays.

THE day Nettie?? pass some of that enthusiasm over here please!

Linzer poor lady, she must be really depending on her friends now

Here, new TIDY kitchen is still looking good, and I am just admiring the beautiful Homes and Gardens mantlepiece I have created with junk shop teapot, winter jasmine and SIL biscuit tin, all tasteful shades of dark blue and cream (actually junk shop teapot is pyschedelic purple and yellow)

hey ho but sink is full of washing up, so will zapp that and get on with homebless elsewhere, and then think about other horrid things on my list

IT IS POURING WITH RAIN, dd DID not want to go to school, was crying her eyes out, generally refuseniking and I only managed to get her there by combination of gentle cunning and firmness and by accepting it was better for her to be 15 minutes late than not go to school at all.

Well done on the kitchen, swan. Mine is rapidly going downhill after last week's success - although at least the cupboards are still relatively decluttered and will stay so for a while, I hope.

A postcard will be on its way to you as soon as DS makes up his mind about which one he wants to send!

Lair en stor kopp kaffe for you too. I've just finished my second cup so have no excuses now.

After a few hours lying on the sofa crocheting , DD1 has perked up considerably and hasn't stopped talking for the last hour (mainly about which sweets she's going to be taking into school tomorrow for her belated birthday celebration and telling me about every single sticker in her new animal sticker album). As a result, progress on my list is very slow - but I am determined to get my morning routine finished before I pick up DD2.

So far, I have:
done morning routine up to 2 min hot spot and 5 min room rescue
emptied bins
phoned piano teacher
made chicken korma

Was going to plan Wed's English lesson over coffee, but decided I wouldn't be able to concentrate with DD1 wittering away beside me (currently deciding whether she should give everyone 1 or 2 frogs) so have postponed it until this evening or, more realistically, tomorrow.

Linzer LOL, I think that's why I was determiiined to send dd to school today How brilliant she likes to crochet though! Sometimes one's brain is not in attentive mummy mode Especially on Monday!

Hi all! Will try and catch up on thread later, so apologies in advance for me-me-me post. House was tidy (downstairs anyway) for a brief moment on Saturday afternoon when a friend came round, after spending the WHOLE DAY tidying. 'Twas lovely to get up Sunday to clear floors. I think it is maintainable if I basically spend all my time picking stuff up and putting it away ... hence the need for decluttering I guess! still it's progress.

Goals for this week:

• BBR: Clothes the night before (perhaps associated with Put Clean Clothes Away)
• Decluttering: reclaim my bedroom.
• Stick with gains from last week of meal planning 2 meals ahead at all times, laundry and dishwasher daily.
• Continue tidying up constantly. I did work out a useful strategy of going for the 'low hanging fruit' first - whatever is easiest to put away first (eg stuff that lives in that room just on a shelf not on the floor, etc), to make some progress without too much effort, then the actual carrying things to other rooms seems less overwhelming.

Hello!

Sneaking on at work. Managed quite a bit this weekend and am at least starting the week on a relatively tidy note.

linzer that certainly does put everything in perspective.

List for today looks like this:-

Work
Bank
Boots for support bandage for DH who has twisted his ankle.
Dinner (jacket potatoes)
DS to Beavers
Depress myself by marking mock exam papers
Bathe DD
Make our bed
Washing put away
Washload on
Follow systems lists of things to do because it makes perfect sense .

Back later tonight.

Linzer - sorry for your friend . It's good that she feels she can ask for your help. Your description of your daughter made me smile, especially the "one or two frogs" quandary . Hope she is feeling well enough for school tomorrrow and that the rest of you escape the bug.

Ellie - poor DH! And poor you - does this mean you have to take on extra chores that he can't do? Sounds as if you are doing a brilliant job of combining flying and working.

Systems - am with you on the decluttering bedroom ambition. Am going to stick to 15-mins a day decluttering the bedroom until it's done, even if it takes me a month.

Swan - mantlepiece sounds gorgeous and i'm . Once I've decluttered, I really want to start making the house look prettier. Visited a friend recently who had a dresser full of pretty cups and jugs that she'd picked up at antique stalls. It looked so lovely.

Nettie - good luck with The Day! Glad to hear you will be safe in the event of fire .

Lair - hope the second coffee did the trick. Good luck with your list.

Am really trying to stick to the Flylady routines this week. Both children are at school, MIL is back home and I have no work at the moment, so this is a perfect opportunity to get on top of the house.

Today's list:

S&S done
D/W - done
W/M - 1st load done
B/fast - boys done
B/fast - me (plus vits) done
Lunchboxes done
T/D done
W/M - 2nd load done
School run done
Make beds done
T/D - 2nd load done
Monday house cleaning:
Hoover done
Dust (actually wiped down with damp cloth) done
Mop kitchen and bathroom done
Clean windows and mirrors done
Empty bins done
Throw out papers done
2 mins kitchen hotspot done
Lunch done
15 mins declutter in our bedroom
Tackle kitchen junk drawer
School run
Put dry washing away
Empty lunch boxes
Dinner
Bedtime routine (do earlier tonight - boys keep going to bed too late)
Evening routine
Bed at decent hour

Back later.

decluttering files on top of wardrobe at moment - more mess than ever

Systems - yes - very depressed by tides of clutter that keep bulging out and overwhelming me..upstairs is worst than kitchen

have thrown away another pile of books gettng more ruthless now

Afternoon all..

Had to go and pick up DD from school as she is poorly too...

Well done swan on getting DD to achool!
Sorry to hear about your friend's DH linzer how awful for them. Looks like they are going to need you over the next few months.
Toffee glad you had a lovely birthday - sounds like my kind of party!!

Have done quite well today largely because DH and I had a humdinger yesterday over the sorry state of our paperwork filing system! Yes, he too is trying to do tax filing! Well I had to concede that as I'm at home most of the time and open all the post it is my job to file it efficiently . Have to say I felt about 5! To be fair to DH he is quite right and very undemanding in the 'you're at home you should be doing x,y,z'So am now feeling very guilty!

Anyway today:
home blessing done
weight watchers donelostoneandahalfpounds
Tesco done
Supper
One to one lesson todo
School meeting for DS2 todo
Paperwork todo

Got to go and get on so I can say I've done some to DH when he gets home!!

Update to keep myself motivated:

15 mins declutter in our bedroom done
Tackle kitchen junk drawer
School run done
Put dry washing away
Empty lunch boxes done
Dinner doing next
Bedtime routine (do earlier tonight - boys keep going to bed too late)
Evening routine
Bed at decent hour

DS2 decided to join me as I finished my 15mins decluttering the bedroom and is now unpacking the bag that is full of stuff for the charity shop, with lots of "Oooh, I want this!"

OM - our paperwork is in a mess too. I used to be organised about it before I had children (seems to have taken me 11 years to start trying to get organised again ). Am in the process of putting it all in a box for future filing.

Swan - I'm impressed by all the decluttering going on in the Swan house!

Back later with babysteps, etc.

Hi everyone

Sorry to have been awol

Busy non-Flying w/e (out of house visiting friends Sat and church/riding/out to lunch Sunday)+ massive surge of work at the office and two key players off sick so Flying has taken a back seat again today. Getting a bit desperate because haven't even finished basic post-Christmas/visitors clear up in order to start decluttering iyswim. On positive side, dd seems to have overcome her reluctance to go to school or do her extra curricular stuff. School mornings are a delight and she seems much happier and calmer than before the holiday (phew!)

Toffee sorry I missed your birthday. Belated many happy returns! Sounds like you had a good day. Good to hear your mil is now well enough to go home. And well done you for being such a terrific dil.

Swan You CAN do it (the decluttering!!) More power to your elbow and all that. at your lovely mantelpiece - once I remove the stacks of CDs and small piles of coins from ours - I will do the same!! It's amazing how having just one bit of the house how you like it (however small) really does help + winter flowering jasmine always fabulous - scent to die for.

Good luck with the paper work Optimistle and hope your dd is OK. Banish the guilt! It is much harder trying to track and sort out a household's paperwork rather than just one's own. I'm not sure it IS possible for just one person to do it tbh. Dh and I have spats about this all the time (detailed communication isn't his strength!!). The only thing that seems to work is to have a fortnightly "meeting" where we basic tell one another where we are at and fill in gaps. Even then it is by no means perfect.

CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR WEIGHT LOSS btw! I started my new regime last week and lost absolutely Okg (or g for that matter!) Must do better. It was eating dd's curly whirly what did it

Hope your dh is OK Ellie and that him being temporarily disabled doesn't add too much to your work load

Systems I'll be following your low hanging fruit strategy too! Good luck with yr goals!

Linzer glad to hear your dd1 is feeling better. So sorry to hear about your family friend's dh. That must be so hard for them all. My best friend's mother is in the latter stages of breast cancer atm. They nearly lost her over Christmas but she rallied. It's really tough as she is only in her mid-sixties but at least that is more the natural order of things. It must be even harder for your friend's family when he is the father of small children. Let's hope he finds some life-extending treatment in Germany. Tis good you are there to help. And I agree - one shoudl never complain about the piffling stuff.

Nettie I am impressed by your plinth cleaning regimen. Do you have a Graeco-Parthian kitchen???

Waves to Chairmum all of you lot who are running and going to gym and Wii-ing and weight-watching are making me feel guilty. Especially when you have a baby to look after - that's v. impressive! I must get cracking!

Darts glad the Flying is working and hope you get your technical probs. with computer sorted

Lair congratulations on your completed list yesterday!! Brilliant going!! 4.30 alarm is a alarming. Hope you are OK.

Arabella no apologising! Small is good!!

Feetheart Hope the weekend decluttering went well

PA hope you are not over-doing it girl!!

Must go and slap supper on table.

Waves to Bob Ihate Pushme and all other Fledglings ...

Have a good week everyone!

Monday:
Training done
Washing 3rd load on
Pre school routine done
post office done
library for photocopying did at post office
Pick up new headlight bulb no chance today
write, print and drop letter off at school
trip into town and hand paperwork done
fabric shop done 2 different shops in different towns
Pick up new calander done
Recky revamp of fav. musuem done and frankly disappointed but will withhold judgment until completely finished
ironing cba
folding cba
rubbish sweep done
bedding wash no chance today
early night
Be whined at by very over tired child done x100 Is it bedtime yet?

Sorry my brain is turning to mush and can not comprehend any information tonight. will attempt catchup when i have finished running around like a blue arsed fly tomo. Hope you all have lovely evenings.

Tuesday:
Note for teacher
Letter for school if not done tonight
sound desensitisation work with ds
swimming lesson ds
bulb for car
clear car out
Clean car (hoover insides, wash outside)
Check, top up and replace as necess. in car.

Good afternoon

linzer thx for coffee. ds has already stated we have to find a disney one to send to your DS. Glad dd feeling better, doesn sound lovely frogs and crocheting. chicken korma for dinner here too but its a jar sauce.
swan books is one thing i cannot be ruthless with, even my back catalogue of danielle steels mantlepiece sounds lovely, esp teapot.
systems well done on tidy house for friends visit. I love it when it happens without too much panic induced cleaning
ellie well done on being supportive of dh. must confess im awful when dh is ill or injured. If there is not a tablet that i can give him for it then it cant be that bad.
toffee brill list well done. Gad you had nice birthday too.
om sorry bout your humdinger, if any consolation we had one other day too. But i dont feel its all my responsibility because im at home more than him. If im at home i have the dc and when he is at home (rarely) with dc he doenst manage anywhere near the same amount of household things that i do. Both jointly responsible. Anyway i hope you feeling ok about it all. Well done on weight watchers
sc whats a graco-pjkjkjk kitchen i expect i dont have one as i dont know what it is. sounds like a lovely weekend.
passes lair some good night all, not working here but worth a try!
Huge waves to anyone ive missed.

Today i have
s/s-done
clean sink and kichen including breakfast off dining table-done
reboot laundry-done
take dc to gymnastics-done
start pile of stuff for holiday (or at least a list)-started
tidy up my bedroom (failed yesterday)-made a start
try not to fall asleep dc been up and down all night-not sitting down helps avoid this.
find clothes for dnephews for their birthday in pouring rain with 2 dc-nope
10 minutes on wii fit tonight (feeling shameful that i dont use the thing)-still to force myself to do.
drink lots of water and not eat lotsa junk!-no and only little bitta homemade biscuits.
test smoke alarms (dh gone a bit mad and we now have 5 smoke detectors) i may be some time-still to do
todays dusting cobwebs and cleaning light mission. really want to get moving on these- dusted cobwebs but not lights.
baked 3 batches of cookies.
made ds packed lunch for tomorrow
got dd swim bag ready for tomorrow

off to lay out clothes and test smoke alarms whilst waiting for dh and ds to come back from swimming lessons.

have lovely night everyone

sorry x-posted lair another one here holding hands up in desperation of bedtime. praying for a miracle stay in bed powder for dc's.

hope you have a good night

No battle here. he was so tired he fell asleep on the lounge floor. just about to move him into bed. Early night next job i think. Sooo tired i want to rip the head off everyone and anyone who asks me another stupid question.

I need to catch up with everything going on here, but havent quite managed that yet.

I feel as if I am living in a house full of the living dead at the moment. Constant cough, cough, cough, day and night is driving me insane. I am the only well one!!! Wondering how long that will last for! I am hoping they will all recover before I go down with it, then they can pamper me!!

I have decided that either I have lowered my standards or this flylady really does work and it has become so ingrained in me after 16 months, that I dont even notice I am doing it anymore!! House is passable. Washbins manageable. I am not stressed. BINGO!!!
Even being well under 100% and I am staying on top of things.

Sorry for lack of personal messages, but huge waves to you all.

Can i just say now that i think the expectation of birthday parties for children is the work of the devil, overhyped and deliberately set up to make a parent feel inadequeate, selfish and mean spirited. They should all be banned, outlawed and stopped.

Oh if anyone wants to help with the trivia:i have already been accused of over thinking it

Evening

Have been missing for a few days, as I've had a migraine - 4 days worth, and still not right today. House, in consequence, was sorely in need of attention today. I've skimmed the mass of messages since Wednesday, but doubt I will really get properly caught up (sorry)

Morning routine done
Walk DS to playgroup done a few minutes late
Bins done
Room rescue living room done
Room rescue kitchen done
Hotspot - kitchen table done
Washing up done
Vacuum living room done
Sleep (to ward off head return) done
Collect DS done
Finish WHBH done
Book cat for vacinations done
Clean washing away done
Washing on airer done
S/s done
Make beds done
Walk around village with DS delivering WI stuff done
Shopping for tea done
Cook tea done
Zone cleaning bathroom done ceiling, walls, skirting board, shelves, mirror, bath, inside of window, door, windowsill, bin
Tea done
Bedtime routine done
Evening routine done - bar breakfast setup, but that will wait until bedtime as I'm using the table

My tax return - doing, pulled the main files and checked over them, now need to pull pension stuff. Will do return online tomorrow
DH tax return - YUCK! He's just dumped his file on the table for me to sort, and stropped off when I mentioned bank accounts, pension payments etc (as I know they're not in the file)
Playgroup paperwork - no chance

Evening all, I've been AWOL too, just busy really. Lair have posted oyour party thread. I dread parties and it's a joint one for my two this Sunday, gulp.

Brain has gone blank now, might pop back on later if it starts functioning properly again.

Tax return done - now wait for the refund, not that its going to get me much

Will depart to bed before head kicks in again.

repeatidly.

arrrrrrrrrrrggggghhhhh