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!

In revenge for DH making me help clean the car when we finally got home late afternoon after another trip to Ikea (it did need it, but the house badly needed tidying too), I've sent him out to do the weekly food shop. He has also annoyed me by putting the washing machine on - I know I should be grateful, but it's always left up to me to hang up the washing and I'd rather he'd waited until I had a bit more time to do so. And to cap it all, the dryer is now full of little black bits that look like dirt/soil (but are probably just part of the mats from the car that DH decided to wash).

Flying-wise, I'm ashamed to admit that I've done little more than empty the dishwasher (and that wasn't till about 4 pm) and it's getting to that stage of the day when I really can't be bothered any more... Actually, I have done some decluttering too and have thrown away about 30 of the DC's DVDs (mainly CBeebies programmes that my brother recorded for them). I was getting increasingly fed up with them all lying around and the DC not bothering to put them back in their cases, so have put the latest 15 or so into cases and got rid of the rest.

Have just realised there's only half an hour until bedtime and the DDs still haven't done their piano practice, so that's next on the list (am allowing them to watch one last episode of Charlie and Lola before they start).

Very tempted to sweep everything up that's lying around and put it all into black bin bags... really must make more of an effort with the decluttering next week.

SC Sorry to hear you're feeling ill - not what you need on top of your family crisis. Hope you manage to get lots of rest and are on the mend soon.

I've actually managed enough today to call it a list:

Got up and got dressed
Made bed
shined sinks
2 minute hot spot (kitchen side where paper breeds)
15 minute declutter in bedroom (bedside table)
pruned wisteria (I know it isn't really flying but it needed doing)
I also looked after 2DDs who were off school today as well as doing a full days work (self employed work from home)

I didn't get round to the kitchen floor though. Perhaps tomorrow!

Hi I've not been in for a few days, I'm sooo tired atm but i always get like this when DH is on lates (4pm-midnight) I find myself lounging around with him all day (or we do things like shopping in town, out for lunch) so nothing gets done. Then all evening i have kids, dinner, bedtimes, bottles, tidying to do all by myself so i flake out in front of the TV. I also stay up later in an attempt to wait up for him.

Not sure how i get out of this routine but i have kept on top of things just not moved forwards. He's out tomorrow too watching Rugby so kids and housework again for me!

Sorry I'm feeling the whole 'poor me' at the moment but i'll get over it!

Hope you are all well- sorry to read about lots of poorly IL's

well, i've had a what is generally known as a crap day.

This morning I had an unfortunate enciunter with a well known local character who threatened to kill me, so I've had the police dealing with that. Then just as I was starting to cook tea we had a power cut, which is not the end of the world as we have a woodburner and a gas cooker, but still v.inconvenient, came back on after an hour, it was quite nice making pancakes by candlelight with DD. Also my back is killing me and not expecting DH back till after 8.

On the plus side I spent. very satisfying 10 mns reorganisi g my pan cupboard. I was getting fed up with non of it really fitting and the door always being half open, when I had one of those moments of clarity and realised that all the ones we use daily are at the back and the ones we hardly use are at the front and in the way, 5 mins later and they are neatly stacked, all fitted in, and the ones we use most are at the front. Not much other Flying though.

evening all

OM meeting up with friend sounds good

ogre at scarey encounter. Hope you're OK

linzer I'm nevr quite sure if DH's attempts to help are actually more help or hindrance!

Frnchfancy list looks very good indeed - well done

niknaks I'd be useless if me or DHG worked shifts...I cant cope with changing routines at all!

swan yay for finally departing builder..hope evening goes smoothly

pinkcushion tackle garage...BRAVE !!(if it's anything like ours!)

leo Hope youre enjoying your ecloths!

wendy hello! How are you doing?

OK...well most of afternoon was spent trying to placate an increasingly tired/grumpy/downright naughty DS2...sigh

have however been for 4 mile run...and now feel better

Pizza for me and dh tonight...bedtime in progress for various dc...bottle of wine just opened...all is well with the world!

am thinking nice walk at country park and picnic in car of weather allows...fingers crossed

BBtomorrow

walk and car picnic is plan for TOMORROW obviously ...not now LOL Plan for now is DC to bed followed by wine and pizza for us LOL

well, I have been disco-dancing

arrived with tantruming ds2, who then wet his pants (well only a bit) a great start to the Disco [not], but luckily the lights were loooow. Dd demanded fizzy drinks (despite teeth and fizzy anythin embargo) ds1 refused to dance for quite some time because he thought he was too cool.

But luckily in the end, everyone danced and cheered up, including misery mum me

Ogre, hope police can reassure you. I know people can say extremely threatening things just as a matter of course, without any intention of doing anything but just the poison of someone even saying things is enough to make one feel sick and horrible. Powercuts can be occasionally fun, but usually just make one fed up, partly because you don't know how long they are going to last, and can't pretend to be a Girl Guide.

nick join the tired and miserable Friday night splinter group.
french you are not meant to be doing missions till you've completed the Babysteps! I haven't mopped our floor for a month - this evening, without fail - I WILL MOP IT. or the middle at least. I've swept it every day of course..

A cheery Friday night faction too OFM enjoy the feeling of a mop free evening!
BB Sat afternoon

ooh have just spotted ...of course I have now passed well beyond and am now heading into ...but will be useful for the future!
Now going to TURN OFF PC and have nice evening with DH

I forgot for the first time in about a year this week I completed all the missions!

quite often severql weeks go by when I don't even click on the mission link or even know what zone we are in, so this is a real achievement for me. What I did was go to the sneak peek page on Monday and wrote them all on my to do list, this works much better for me than chEcking them daily, I just fit them in as and when, did the tap, the bin and the appliance wiping all in about 10mins yesterday.

DH is back now, so I am ensconced on the sofa with nurofen taken and a , will be sending DH out for and takeaway later.

OFM and Swan thwnk you for your kind words, it was scary but he is well known for this kind of thing locally and It is all just talk. Police came quickly and were v.helpful. Just glad DCs were safely at school at the time.

OOOO I'm loving

I'm a addict!

Well done Ogre on completing all the missions! I'm still at the mad de-cluttering stage so missions are being done off and on, mainly off!

Just popped in to say thank you for very kind messages which have cheered me up no end.

Still feeling wobbly but got my appetite back tonight (feel ravenous in fact). As luck would have it, dh and I felt at our worst at different bits of the day so we were able to cover school runs and cooking/looking after dd between us. And thanks heavens it's Friday!!

Poor you Ogre sounds like you have had a dreadful time of it today

Linzer my dh is banned from my laundry

OM hope your dd's migraine is better and that cobwebs ds is on the mend too

Glad your ds is eating again Leo

and hope that your ds2 is ok now Toffee

Wishing anyone else unwell or under the weather a speedy recovery.

Sorry no more personals. Going to force myself to empty dishwasher and shine sink and then I'm heading for the sofa ....

Huge waves to everyone else!
Night all

Evening everybody . I am thinking of posting a red cross on the door of the thread lest we infect the rest of mumsnet with our various ills

toffee

SC and her DH are both on the poorly list. And also on the poorly inlaws list, which seems very unfair all round.

PA is feeling and sounding very healthy and lively. It is probably just as well as she has a very ambitious international supper for 100 planned. Quite jealous as I am the only one in, couldn't be bothered to cook and ended up with beef spread sandwiches for tea . The problem with meal planning is that if you go off plan you don't have anything to eat!

Star is going to the hairdressers and has sworn of flying for the day

swan has finally got rid of her builder , and not before time as she found him 'rescuing' her newly cleared clutter from the bin

leo is awash in a sea of sicky washing . Hope your DS is feeling better this evening

OFM Had a very productive morning with the lenght of list usually only seen from ihate

wendy popped by to say hello

pinkcushion has been organising her kitchen cupboards. I did mine a couple of weeks ago and found packets of lentils from 2005

OM has had a lovely chat with an old friend and has tickets for Twickenham tomorrow

Linzer has sent her husband to Ikea for a second day in a row as a punishment. Need to go to Ikea myself but have been putting it off for about a month. I wonder whether I would get away with sending DH instead...

Frenchfancy has managed a true flylady list complete with hotspots and decluttering . She has also been pruning the wisteria - I always count the car and gardens as rooms under the flylady system otherwise they would end up completely neglected!

Nicknack is tired and feeling a bit sorry for herself. I hope you manage to get a good nights sleep tonight and feel better tomorrow.

Ogre has had a rubbish day, which has included being threatened by a local nutter and a powercut . On the plus side she has satisfyingly reorganised her pan cupboard and completed all the weekly missions for the first time in quite a while Congratulations Ogre!! I quite often manage only the missions, usually on a Sunday evening when I panic that we are about to switch zones and the previous room is still a tip

I have had a busy day at work and am feeling a bit fragile around the edges as I can't see how I am going to get everything finished in time to have this baby! I've made a list this evening of the work things I really need to do before the beginning of next week and have properly frightened myself with the length of the list. My midwife is also talking about brining my section date forward, which is a bit scary.

On the plus side I have managed my routines and cleaned the kitchen (except the floor - again ). I think I will go and have one of my 1-2 units of alcohol to celebrate!

Oops, sorry toffee I seem to have accidentally deleted your roundup! I hope your DS1 has had a nice stress free day today and that you are not too exhausted from DS2s early morning nosebleed!

Evening all, No time for personals, just popping by for update before bed - will catch up tomorrow.

Had an interesting day - lovely morning, followed by being 'attacked' by a student - quite scary and was a little shocked by this.

Needed a take-away by end as this all meant paperwork - Had a takeaway from local Rib place - saved £10 by getting take-out and found out they do take out fudge cake - Yum.

Also parcelled up and posted book, been to shop for stationery. Sent three e-mails to uni (before I left this morning - I'm liking being organised), 2 x washing and planned this weekends lists of definate to-do's (Just need to work out which day to do then on). Didn't manage my 15 minute room hotspots through.

Back tomorrow

Just realised I haven't posted tomorrows babystep!

This one probably isn't necessary for most people as it is to delete all the flylady emails which hopefully you didn't sign up for in the first place!

No missions tomorrow (although I am promising myself I will mop the kitchen floor), and Saturday is Family Fun Day. Enjoy!

The house is a mess. I was out for most of yesterday (not a lot of 'home ed' taking place for DS) and then fell asleep early with DS2. Didn't do any Flying yesterday and have a friend coming to stay today, so will have to spend Saturday doing a crisis clean rather than having any 'family fun'.

I did post here yesterday, but it disappeared .

PMPY - LOL that I fell off the round up! I thought maybe I was in disgrace for not coming back yesterday .

Makingchanges - being 'attacked' by a student sounds horrible - poor you! ( Ogre had a similar encounter, did you see? Must be a full moon or something).

Still - glad to hear you are on the mend. Sounds as if you and DH have had a tough time.

PA - hope the International Supper went well. It sounds a great idea.

Swan - hurray for you that the builder has gone! I remember that lovely feeling of having your house back to yourself again. I see you have been celebrating by disco dancing .

Leo - glad DS is getting better. Enjoy your shiny sink (thanks to new e-cloth).

Cobweb - hope you are kept awake by DS's croup again tonight.

Chuckingit - get well soon.

OFM - hope you get to enjoy your walk in the park and picnic today.

Star - what's this about new hair? Hope you are pleased with it.

Wendy - hello!

Pink - enjoy your organised kitchen cupboards. I'm with you with regard to eight-legged creatures. I would stay well away from that garage, if I were you.

OM - my DH is going to Twickenham tomorrow to visit his mum. I will warn him that you and thousands of other rugby fans will be clogging up the roads! (Hope you have a good day, though).

Linzer - my DH used to put his washing on at about 10 o'clock, which meant there was no time to dry it and it would start to smell and need washing all over again. I would have to explain, over and over, that you had to include time to dry it as well and 10 o'clock at night wasn't the best time to start that process.

Frenchfancy - wow! Are you superwoman? An excellent list, a full days' work and two sick children to look after. Please tell me how you do it!

Nicknacks - sorry you are so tired. Hope you get to catch up on sleep this weekend.

Ogre - about horrible encounter. Hope you feel better about it soon - it's so upsetting and frightening, even when you know it's just 'talk'. On a more mundane level, congratulations on completing all your missions and on organising your pan cupboard!

I should go back to bed, but I'm wide awake now. The breadmachine is being very noisy - is it meant to be clunking like that ?

Thanks for all who asked after DS. I had to take him to the dr to ask for a long-term 'sick note' today, then I took him to the library for a bit, then home. He reminded me that Friday was 'Golden Time' at school, so I let him enjoy the same at home this afternoon. Combined with our time out this morning, that meant he had very little 'education' in the traditional sense today, but he did enjoy a stress-free day. DH had said he was going to watch a historical film with him this evening, but it turned out to be 'Star Trek' .

Have been sent some work, but I'm afraid I haven't even looked at it yet (luckily, the deadline is a long way away). Still pondering how to fit it in with everything else. I'll have to be ultra organised and on minimal Flying duties, I suppose.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Cobweb - I meant 'hope you are not kept awake by DS's croup tonight' .

Morning all,

I'm looking forward to a nice lazy day at home today - and to finally getting some Flying done! Not sure I'll manage to do a proper crisis clean with the DC around, but I did manage a quite successful version a month or two back when I followed them from room to room, tidying and decluttering in whatever room they happened to be in. Hopefully they won't need me with them the whole time, so that I can crisis clean in rooms - such as the kitchen and my bedroom - that they don't play in much.

Toffee Gosh, you're up early/late - good luck with your crisis clean and enjoy your friend's visit!

Makingchanges Sorry to hear about the attack; it sounded very scary.

PMPY Well done on your routines and good luck with your work list - even if the length of the list is a bit scary, I find that I start to feel better as soon as I start crossing things off my list.

SC Am impressed at you shining your sink despite being ill. I hope you went straight back to bed afterwards!

Nick I'm also very excited about the new smiley - almost (but not quite) as excited as I was about ! I don't manage to get much done when DH is around either, one of the reasons why I've been so unproductive this week.

Ogre Sorry to hear that you've had a rather frightening experience too. And well done on the missions - I can't remember the last time I got all of them done and quite often don't look at them all week.

OFM Hope the weather is good enough for your walk and picnic today. DH would be very happy if I turned off the computer and gave him my full attention in the evenings - I do try.

swan Glad to hear everyone cheered up after dancing.

frenchfancy I'm also self-employed (I work freelance) and really struggle to combine work and Flying, so you're doing better than me already! (If I do a full day's work - well, full morning's and full evening's, as the DC are home from school at midday - virtually nothing else gets done. Am working on this, however!)

The DC are now all up and demanding porridge, so must go! Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Gosh I'm way behind! Will try and catch up a bit later. For now: on the plus side this week I have met my goal of not crashing on the sofa after getting kids to bed. So now I need to add in a new goal of extending BBR a bit beyond filling the dishwasher. Tidying up downstairs is the next most important thing for me I think.

Getting clothes ready would help too - and I know it's the key Fly thing - but as I've failed to do it many times for the past 12 years of Flying off and on it has reached monumentally impossible proportions in my head now - need to get some more baby steps in place first! So this week's goal: timed tidying to be added to BBR.

House is trashed again - end of the week is always difficult - so today will be a timer / 27 fling day until I have made some headway.

not enjoying Saturday morning without dh partly because I still feel completely exhausted from pile-up of trouble over last few days including AF.

Cancelled catechism class yesterday (today's class) as there are two other people leading with me, and they can take over, but accidentally e-mailed wrong e-mail address, and then my befuddled brain sent e-mail to only one helper, so now worrying that they don't know I'm not coming....AARGH feel veryunprofessional not to have found cover for childcare, and that is stressing me further...

DEEP BREATH

however, ds1 has dressed showered breakfasted and gone off to Beginner Strings Orchestra with some prompting
ds2 has had breakfast (although he's already had a tantrum about not needing to wash - ever
dd is lying low, but not sure when she is going to start getting fractious
have tried cleaning sink - it looks terrible LOL

Morning goes like this
Choir
Football/Violin
Concert at Music school for ds1 and dd
lunch????

put children in front of tv and crisis clean too like the rest of you, then, I think... then ds2 friend coming round

Builder has just re-appeared LOL!!!
such a cheery soul, it's a morning wake-up (to put some paint somewhere he had missed..)he's gone now...

now some coffee I think...and re-tackle the sink and bin

Good morning all!

Could someone explain/link to crisis cleaning please? I presume it's when you've lagged behind a bit and need to everywhere a quick going round. Is it a specific way though? Thanks

I have heeded advice given to me a few days ago and now have a very short list!

Crisis clean!
Kids homework
play battleships with DS1
s and s bathroom
empty DW
lunch
wash uniforms and hang to dry
sort a babysitter
Dinner
early night (yes it does have to be scheduled!)

TMI? Sorry!

Nicknack - Here's a link to Flylady's crisis clean. It's good because it keeps you focused and stops you getting bored.

Trouble is, I can't find my timer anywhere. It's hidden in the clutter somewhere.

Hope you manage your early night tonight .

Thank you Toffee !
lol @ lost timer - ironic?