If your nest is cluttered and getting you down, join February's Fledgling Flyers and turn it around

[pushmepullyou]

Welcome to the February Fledgling Flyers' thread. A very big thankyou to ToffeeChristmasCake (who will presumably return under her non-Christmas name ) for seeing us through the thick and thin of January decluttering.

All flyers and fledgings old and new are very welcome - we have a fairly relaxed attitude to flying 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.

If you are overwhelmed by the mess in your home, start with just one thing: shine your sink. It's amazing what you can achieve by just doing a bit at a time!

Pleased be warned that my month's leadership comes with a bit of a caveat as I am due to have DC2 at the beginning of March so there is a chance I may disappear mid month! Thankfully Toffee has very kindly offered to deputise in the event of the unexpected appearance of DS .

Apologies to Toffee (and by extension Ellie) for blatant intro plagarising and thankyou to Nettie for the thread title

See you all in February!

pa Ooo enjoy child free time once your free of work

Toffee your poor DS, how awful for you both :( I hope the GP is understanding.

Sterling job StillChucking :)

Right, for me it's a new day and hopefully a better one than yesterday was! List:

Tidy living room
Nursery run
Hoover
Laundry x 2 loads
Subsequent folding
15 minutes decluttering - going to do under a sofa
Nursery run

Hope that's not too ambitious - DD seems less grumpy this morning so here's hoping!

Thank you Stillchucking it - for anexcellent round up - nice to see everyone so busy - still getting to grips with all the new faces - I don't even recognise the old ones!!!

Hope you all slept well!

New list for a new day

15mins shredding
Finish cleaning ds's room
At least 15 mins decluttering - bedside table
Emails/letters
Give bathroom a good scrubbing
Descale coffee machine
Recycle old mobile phones
Make Drs appt

I have the ladies around for coffee this morning - thankfully the house is looking presentable - thanks to my shiny sink. So no last minute stressing about the state of the hhouse - oh joy!

Good morning everyone- hope you slept well.

My list is quite long and I have to make a couple of trips out so decided to combine yesterdays 'errand's day' with today since i can't change todays appts (baby clinic and a friends birthday)

Kids to school
Bath DD
Run DW
Two loads of washing
Dry all washing
Pay after school club
Write card and wrap gift
Deliver card and gift
Write cheque to Beavers
Get DD weighed
Return Vax
Change kids beds
Beaver run
Evening routine
Text a friend who gets back from Egypt today
Basket of clean clothes away
15 mins declutter

On a better note-finally got rid of a single bed we have had stored since last July!
mop kitchen floor (from yesterday)

Morning all,

Have just finished and sent off my paid work, so need to Fly round the house now. Am too embarrassed to post my list as it's been virtually the same all week, but may do so when I can add a few more "dones"!

Woke up with bad toothache and a headache again; having the wisdom tooth out is starting to seem like the lesser of two evils. It was reassuring to hear that you didn't find it too bad, feetheart - no dishy dentist to distract me here though, unfortunately! (Mine is female and in her forties/fifties.) Toothache much better now but headache isn't - and I'm wondering whether that could be caused by the impacted tooth too. Anyway, if it's no better by early next week, I'll make an appointment with my regular dentist.

It's a big day here today as the children get their end-of-semester reports, or rather certificates (it's just a list of subjects and grades, although DD2 will only get an overall grade as it's her first report). DD2 is very excited, DD1 is talking about how unfair it is that DD2 will probably get a better grade than she did in her first year, and I'm thinking that far too much fuss is made over grades here. I don't like the way it's all about grades and would far rather have a couple of sentences telling me how the DDs are doing, but I suspect I'm in the minority. (It's even worse on the last day of the school year, when the children go in just to collect their certificates and are out waving them around at about 8.15 am.)

Nettie Enjoy your coffee.

PA Hope you survive your busy day; I'm sure you'll appreciate your child-free weekend all the more afterwards.

blijemuts Can I be nosey and ask what your name means?

SC Thanks for the fabulous mammoth round-up and links.

Toffee So sorry to hear about your DS; I know how hard you've tried to resolve the situation at school.

Welcome to missjulie, crisptart and any other newbies I may have overlooked.

Morning all,

just a quickie, DH has done a stirling job of keeping on top of the washing up & keeping the sink shiny ~ YAY!

plan today is:
15 mins declutter
make my food for work
go to work!

((hugs)) to Toffee
((hugs)) to any one else who want/needs them

waves to all Flyers, stay busy xxx

Quick post, not posting a list as it takes too long, but I am about to go and make one in my list notebook.

Toffee thinking of you, your DS is lucky to have such a supportive mum, hope the GP is sympathetic.

PA - party at your house tomorrow then? Actually I think you should get through today and cuddle up with your kindle for the weekend.

Linzer hope your tooth and headaches improve soon

nettle - smoke alarms, yes, beginning of the month is when I try to do mine. Did anyone see that report this morning about the huge increase in house fires recently? Going to go and do mine now.

Nettie/Bmuts they have a naturists swimming session at our local pool every week, DH lives in fear of forgetting and turning up at the pool when it is on.......

Morning dear ladies...tis FRIDAY!!! Yippee!!

Today's plan:
get DS1 to school despite getting in at 1:30 am (disclaimer: he is 18!) doneandhewasingoodshape
hoover downstairs
Morning routine done
make lasagne for tonight
mission/zone
pedicure!!
pick up DD and 2 friends for flyer making and distributing and cake baking (try not to take over!!)
WATCH THE RUGBY
PROOF READ MY POST!!

A big hello to all newbies! A bit of advice: try not to do massive amounts then burn out and DO NOT SIGN UP TO FLYLADY EMAILS.

I thought it might be useful if those of us who have been doing this for a while write down the one most useful thing that they do on a daily/weekly basis as suggested by flylady. What do we think?
For me it's the daily 'Swish and Swipe'.

Toffee - so sorry DS is having such a hard time. Are you still posting on your other thread? If there is anything I can do.....

Have a great day all...

LinzerTorte my name was given to me by an old friend. Blij is happy and muts is really a hat that you would wear in the winter,like a woolly hat. Literally translated it would mean Happy Hat but muts also describes a jolly,happy go lucky person who is known to get really quite silly/funny at times.

Ogre,turning up at the weekly naturist swimming session fully dressed is just the sort of thing a 'muts' ,so therefore me, would do

Right,list for today
Turn over 2 rooms,total clean and clear out.
Put on 4 loads of washing/drying
Deep clean kitchen/fridges etc
Dust & hoover breakfast room/ground floor private rooms.
Make our beds
Put mega basket of washing away
Feed/clean animals
Lunch with DH
Dust/clean/hoover cellar so DH can have a rugby watching fest with his pals there (it's a bit of a telly-den/kids hang out place.)
Pick up DS from rugby
Cook T/Eat T hopefully we won't have 3 unexpected friends popping in as we did yesterday and am not sure if I would have enough food in the house today to pull that off. Great fun though.
Mega week-shop

Put small people in comfy baskets and hopefully be able to celebrate with my little German friend who is going for a job interview today. If she doesn't get the job we will drown our sorrows instead

Won't bore you with things I have already done today as must get on. Wishing you all a fruitful flying day

Thanks for the explanation, blijemuts. I can sometimes guess what Dutch words mean from knowing German, but was stumped by your name (although come to think of it, muts must be the Dutch equivalent of Mütze in German). So you're from the Netherlands originally? What brought you to the UK?

OM That's an excellent idea. The thing I find most useful is laying our clothes out the night before - especially the DC's. We used to waste so much time in the mornings when they were too tired to pick out their own clothes but awake enough to object to whatever I chose for them!

Still not managing much flying as I've been sorting out work stuff - invoicing and resending e-mails as my attachments don't seem to be getting through to the agency at the moment. All very frustrating and time-consuming... Must get lunch ready and then it will be time to pick up the DDs - I have to leave even earlier than usual today as I'm picking them up straight from school (a long story that I won't bore you with, but it involves DD2's lost skiing gloves).

Toffee I think you are right that something has to change, and that you have so far done everythign in your power to help him cope with school.

Doric hope your husband got back safely and had no accidents with the campign stove

Feet very impressed by mastery of plumbing and coping with tenants.

not a good morning here
everything feels totally chaotic

to cheer myself up
DONE
kitchen worktops
hotspot
washing in
made my bed
collected pile of ironing for hurrah!an ironing lady coming at 3pm for two hours (friend has lent her) - I think it will make dfference between us being able to have SIL over or not
s & s loo

last night
Decluttered
our bedroom 27 things some as small as sweetwrappers
started decluttering some more paperwork from humoungous piles (tax from 2000)

sink piled with washing in up
dh is brilliant at loading and unloading dw but he NEVER EVER NOTICES SAUCEPANS OR PLATTERS, and claims kitchen is tidy, and I need to go to bed (nextmorning I see kitchen is NOT tidy at all)

Toffee friend who has done Home Edding for 4 years (and has six children, three of whom are at secondary school now) said at first it feels so odd to have them at home - and you are almost looking over your shoulder trying to prove they are "Being Educated", and you feel terribly responsible and serious as if you need to do a replica school day at home, but after a bit you detoxify and do things your way, which can be completely different (think gardening, cooking, shopping, visiting - all of which are completely educational in ways we can't imagine) and quite relaxing!

Morning everyone,

Thanks for the roundup stillchuckingit I you patience :)

I have to confess to skimming over the posts.

todays list
dressed to shoes done
shiny sink had a pile of dishes in it when i woke up DH decided to have a late snack
school run done
dw
washing
put away huge pile of laundry and add to ironing pile
sorting out a mountain of socks (now why can't some one invent a sock pairing maching it is one of the most tedious jobs ever)
wipe down kitchen
lunch
dinner

Very quick post as have spent last 90mins chatting to lovely, recently widowed, surrogate granny neighbour. Great to catch up and need to call in more often.

Swan - don't be impressed by mastery of plumbing, all I did was rant at useless plumber who's fault it was and make him fix it.

List today:

• Trip to dispose of HUGE box that has been in kitchen/diner for over 3 weeks containing a server (thanks DH!)
• Asda shop (where I will bump into half the school Mums - they really should put a cafe in :))
• Zap shopping and put away
• Finish morning routine
• 15 mins x a few DECLUTTERING living room - need to do this properly now having just tried to clean round clutter for my first year on this thread
• Hoover stairs
• Pack up and post ebay stuff
• Wrap presents for various birthdays this weekend
• Get more things down from loft to ebay/charity shop
• Packed tea for DC
• DD to dance class
• EARLY night - got caught up with Active Convos last night and am suffering now

Need to move..........

Ooh, how exciting, we have .

(Actually, I think we may need several large bottles, the rate this thread is growing.)

CHEERS!!!!! Sorry,just had to do it...

Cheers! Although as it's red, I probably shouldn't put it in the fridge.

Let's just drink it instead of putting it anywhere Linzer Hope your headache/toothache improves -

Whey hey!

Don't know why this is so pleasing somehow ... but it is [saddo emoticon]

Thanks for thanks everyone. No probs. doing round-up - it's a good way of getting to 'meet' everyone.

Lunch break:

Thanks for muffin Nettie blueberry is one of my favourites

Feetheart sympathies - don't start about bits of computers dumped around the house ....it's my dh's speciality ...drives me bonkers!!!!

Leo I have sock mountain too

Good advice there from Optimistic -
um, I think getting on top of laundry is the most useful Flylady rule for me - as well as meal planning. Going to bed early would be - if I could stick to it!!

Back later to do proper round up.

In the meantime, have to run errands, including picking up one birthday present, haberdashery, fish for tonight and dd.
Then back to knock this place in to some semblance of shape before the weekend.

Keep going everyone!

Quick update primarily so i can post a hic well it is after 12noon.

Smoke alarms-done
Dc dressed and nurseries-done
Bag ready for trip to friend for coffee after nursery-done
Work am-done uptodate for holiday much as i can be as due to system problems year end still not completed
Dw-nope
Wm-nope
Td-nope but i did put on my Ocado order for when we get back from holiday.
Put curtains back up in newly painted room
Try and sort out stuff already set aside for packing

ogre did see the news this morning and straight away tested my smoke alarms that i should have done yesterday. done now. Keep meaning to sort out escape plan, we had one before but that was before the dc moved upstairs. So we are downstairs and they are up. need to trawl the firesafety website see if any suggestions. We do have an escape ladder but dc wouldnt be able to lift it to attach it to window. hmm.
linzer ouch at impacted tooth, sounds awful. hope you not in too much pain over the weekend.

tried to find an ironing lady, gosh what a lotta money to made for ironing. £20 a pillowcase sized bag which she thinks can squeeze lots into. come back nicely ironed, hung up and folded though. But cant possibly afford that every week. MIL says will have to just get on with it! I said her ds can do it as i do everything else. think id rather go crushed than try and find anymore time to do it myself. I suppose ill just have to get sorted on that front.

my favourite thing about flying is making my bed, i never did this before and now i look forward to do it and very rarely miss a day. Feels nice to go into bedroom and see it all done.

right im off to finish some work.

see you later

afternoon all

sc thanks for fab roundup! I am also finding the most valuable routine for me at the moment is kjeeping up with the laundry...if I let that slip I quickly go under!

toffee poor DS how old is he?
Hope you manage to come up with a workable silution. I agree with swan about Home ed in that we started off very formal...I even did lesson planning LOL but gradually relaxed and also discovered how educational so many various activities could be. DS1 and DD1 went back into school in the top goups for their year so it didnt seem to disadvantage them at all and I personally feel it added a lot to their development in ways other than academic.

feet plumbimg crisis sounds stressful...well resolved!

swan poor SIL. I agree about searching out local classes/mum and baby groups etc...scarey going at first when you dont know anyone, but worth it in the end.
How's DD today? and what a lovely friend to lend an ironing lady!

linzer hope headache better ...I hate dentists

leo socks drive me mad too. All 4 of my girls have white socks...all the same but different sizes (stupid I know...but I can never find enough different plain patterns!) eventually we end up with a HUGE bag of assorted white socks that I cant face pairing and everyone just "lucky dips" for socks in the morning....not good really

everyone else ...HI... I am trying hard with individuals...but this thread moves so fast!!

ok...list update:

6 dc up , dressed and breakfasted done
unload TD done
whites to dry done
dark colours in wash done
S&S up and downstairs bathrooms done
school run done
pop to shop for butter...forgotten today after school
masses of clean clothes to put away!started
clean our ensuite
good tidy/dust/hoover our room done
hoover lounge ansd stairs done
plant iris in front garden too cold and windy
tidy out car maybe!
bake????
easy tea - freezer!
email HR about new working hours next

also spent an hour driving round after school drop off this morning...firstly police had closed a road on way back (??why) so had to come back round the long way and then I had to drive to nearby school to drop off a job application form for DH. Am slightly as he left filling it in till last minute (as always!) so had no time to post it....anyway...

have also done some good kitchen cleaning - surfaces needed a good clean, and hob...

DS2 seems better today which is good - but isnt going to nap (not good!) so will have to now think up creative way to spend next 2 hours LOL

I am feeling unreasonably grumpy today though...hormones maybe...
But will be having large glass (or 3!) of tonight as I have been good all week...so just need to hang in there for a few more hours!

BBL

nettie ironing is highly over rated IMHO LOL I hardly iron anything!!Take things straight out of wash and then either hang out or into TD, then straight out and hung up.Mostly comes out not too bad! DH does his own shirts though since I've gone back to work...

So.......step 1 - I have my sink soaking in bleach!!!

Got a tesco delivery coming in a while, so need to gut out the fridge and the freezer before they come!

What's next?!

Ooh - now we're talking!

OFM I have done the sock lottery before both my boys have grey socks for school and the only difference is the size. I used to always wear black or grey socks but DH steals them and stretches my poor size 4 socks on to his huge size 10 feet how he cannot see the size difference is beyond me. So now i have resorted to buying bright stripy/ spotty/flowery socks so he can't possibly wear them
I have been quite good now and actualy sorted out the sock mountain and put them in the relevent drawers.

Now for the rest of the list...

Think this is the first time since we moved in (15 months ago) that there have been no dishes drip drying!!!

All baby meals and bottles made up for the whole day, chopping board re-oiled, DD had lunch, Mummy had cup of tea, demented cat played with, now am finally away for a shower, before doing the fridge and freezer!

Looking forward to all you lovely, super-organised ladies keeping me right!!! xx