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!

evening all

Pushmepullme thanks for excellent useful roundup....what a great help!

toffee ocado is lovely, but VVV expensive. My sister used it all the time, fraid it's Asda for us LOL

wendy yay for ds...have you been roped in to helping yet???

and have sadly forgotten everything else I read...sorry

am not long back in from work and am shattered tonight!

Before work I managed to:
empty WM
hang clothes on airer
reload and run wm
6 DC up and dressed and breakfasted
Dealt with not pleasent dodgy tummy toilet incident of dd4(leading to dd4 being off school today...)
made packed lunches
tidied breakfast things
loaded DW
Wrote instructions for tea for Nanny
S&S bathroom
School run, collecting DDs friend on the way (her Nan has just died and her Mum is in a bad way ) - meant leaviung 15 mins early...
Work.....long day, but not too bad...
Home - handover from Nanny
cuddling with dc as too tired for much else!
Littlies to bed - in progress!

To do:
Reading with DD3
dd2 to cubs
reboot laundry

I am off paid work tomorrow so may actually browse the missions and try and do some catching up....who knows I may even shine my sink

oh...and I don't even own lace up shgoes...oh other than my running shoes...it's slippers all the way for me!

may come back with a list in a bit....to aid organisation tomorrow...

also have terrible chocolate craving I am trying REALLY hard to ignore!!!

Loving the Dutch - educational! Toffee - SIX BAGS and Chairmum it definitely sounds like time to yourself is necessary.

Urgh I'm soo tired. DP couldn't sleep this afternoon so he's gone back to bed to get another couple of hours in before work, so I've done DS's bedtime, now I have to wash up and clean the kitchen, then when he gets up I'll put DD to bed, then finish today's list.

Tomorrow's another day - and we're visiting a friend in the afternoon so at least we're messing up somebody else's house for a change

Wash up and shine sink done
Washing - load to tumble dry done, 2 loads to fold
Make binoculars for DS done
Post a parcel and pick up shopping done
Make lunch done
Keep an eye on eBay as I am waiting for payment from a couple of people done
Make dinner (think that'll have to be a slow cooker job) done
15 minute declutter

DD waking from a late late nap now so I'm going to dump her on a beanbag and get going in the kitchen, will probably be back later to make sure my list is clear :)

Also OverflowingMum has reminded me to ask - controversial, possibly - instead of lace-up shoes do Crocs count?

Bob are you getting any respite care? So sorry you having such an exhaustng time, sure dd needs every cuddle more than the house. And abig hug to ds too, I'm sure he is getting everything he needs from both of you.

                                         Everyone seems very positive and spring like today...<strong>Nettie</strong> I am confused by your post, who is ds4?

Not a very productive day, with dh here and dd not very happy with her poor sore mouth, she is trying pot noodle just to see whether she can eat that as a treat... We are doing strange modern art with tiles, and laying them out on living room floor, and it is becoming clear that neither dh or I have the least bit of coloursense.
Feetheart you need large white tiles with a simple brown mosaic trim and stone effect porcelain on floor, I promise you Do not do any modern art. Also loo seats should be detachable for easy cleaning. All plumbign should be accessible, not boxed in and tiled over

done
took ds2 to his piano lesson
picked up tiles
went back to B & Q
otherwise NIL FLying

must tidy kitchen a tiny bit - actually cannot face it...

Dressed upto shoes (though I don't wear shoes in doors but did put them on for the school run does that count?) done
School runs done
Post letter which I forgot yesterday done
Laundry done
DW done
lunch done
dinner- jacket potatoes with tuna and salad YUM done
Cleaning dining room walls and windows!
not much else today as need to get in a 3000 assignment for my degree course done by friday. (hmm I will get to it promise)
also managed to sort out DS1s borthday party stuff for later this month- got the invites written out ready to be given out tomorrow and he chose the cake he wants me to bake. Well he actually chose 2 as I said the first one looked scarily complicated.

swan Hope dd could eat her pot noodle. Good luck with tiles

leo LOL re shoes...I always them for school run and to work too....spent today in knee high botts actually so I must be good (slippers on now though )

knee high botts?????....BOOTS obviously LOL

Evening ladies!! Managed to do most of my list today!My 'check in at 10pm guest' arrived early so that's off my list too. Just kids to bed and feed the animals left. Hope I get round to reading for half an hour as really want to finish my bookclub book... Will be checking in early again in the morning. I will teach you all some Dutch now if you like. Before my Dc's go to sleep I tell them to sleep well. LEKKER SLAPEN. Go on you can do it Night night

Hi all
Lunch a good idea but my friend is a childminder so it's hard to get time in the day. I am just about to pop round now (emptyhanded!) to give her a hug - think that will do in the absence of anything else
thanks for all your thoughts!

Well I'm glad my first tip went down well!

Toffee six bags??

And

OverflowingMum six DC's

WOW!

Something went wrong today. Not a lot from my list was achieved BUT I did concentrate on my hallway (it's tiny but de-cluttered and clean) and dining room. It's a dining room/playroom and so I went mad cleaning and tidying up, I re-arranged all the furniture and it's now spick and span.

However nothing else apart from one load of washing was done and dinner has been cleared away and my sink is shiny!

Have learnt a lesson, shorter To Do lists!

Hope everyone had a lovely day! Sorry to hear about your poorly children and sad friends

Good luck with your assignment LeoL

hope your dd feels better tomorrow Swan

and glad you had a more positive day Ellie

Well done with your impressive list overflowingmum

and with your six bags Toffee

Wish I could say it was proper Dutch DoricP My level = woefully poor. Hope you get a good night's sleep tonight!

A warm welcome to BigBadBarry

and well done everyone else for an impressive start to the month!

Sorry - can't stop for any more personal messages - going to watch Michel Roux - waves microfibre cloth at everyone else

Did reasonably OK today (don't know how as I spent far too much time Mnsetting) but anyway:

before work:
morning routine, including dw on, wm on, s&s done
tidy sitting room done
clean out both fridges done

after work:
quick supermarket shop done
school run done
dd lunch done
sort stuff for fortnightly ironing lady and garland her with flowers - she didn't show
master bedroom - major sort and clean!!!! did half yippeeee!!
paperwork NOPE
dd to dentist done
afternoon/evening/supper routine done

Pushme - I don't envy your task tonight !!!

See you tomorrow everyone ...

Blimey this is a fast thread I can't keep up, hope everyone has had a good day, dd feeling a lot better now and my sink was shiney, it is now full of washing up did manage to clear the kitchen window sill of crap though so feeling good about that. Well done to all, you are an inspiration!!

Everyone's lists are putting me to shame. I've finally finished and sent off my work (deadline first thing tomorrow), so am looking forward to a work-, DC- and DH-free morning tomorrow so that I can actually get on with some stuff! (Although I don't want to count my chickens as work can arrive at any time.)

I haven't had much energy today; it's still far too cold for my liking and I've had toothache all day, so if it's no better in the morning I'll have to add phoning the dentist to my list. I wanted to take the DC for a check-up next week when they're off school, but there are no appointments till mid/end of March - am sure they will have to make an exception for toothache, though.

Will be back with renewed energy in the morning, I hope.

oooh just saw this thread and would like to get our house in order....but don't know anything- can someone send me the links? I had a quick look at flylady site and didnt get it?? seemed to be written in v odd English. DO i have to wear lace up shoes? (actually i do- that sounds v square!) and how do i shine my sink? what with?? both sinks?

Wow! So busy here!

Welcome to the new people - I hope I'll start remembering you all soon :)

Jackie - babysteps do work. It can be frustrating at times but all that stuff on the flylady website about the tidy spots spreading is really true!

Toffee - can you see the effect of those 6 bags? I love when areas start to look clearer

All that talk of lofts - I'm trying not to think about mine, or my huge shed full of crap. I'll get there eventually!

Tonight I did everything except decluttering my laundry area, and even managed to have a bath after the kids went to sleep :)

Tomorrow's list (XH has DD for a couple of hours while DS is at nursery)

• phone benefits people (could take an hour if I get through)
• make pizza dough and tomato sauce
• declutter laundry area
• put down bedside cot that's just becoming a hotspot
• get another load of bits out of the shed to sort
• set up basic accounting / receipts system for childminding
• couple of loads of washing
• collect DS from nursery
• make and top pizzas with DS
• quality time with DS

krisskross the links can be found in pushmepullyou's posts. I think you can shine your sink how you like but FlyLady's instructions are here :)

I'm going to score off my 15 minutes decluttering for today - I've had such a long day and I'm really tired. But I'll be going to bed on a clean kitchen, shiny sink and folded laundry, which is really good going for me, so I am happy with that. :)

I think I'm getting the hang of this, but this is a very quick thread and can't keep up with everyone!

Shiny sink has stayed shiny, and we both did 15mins of tidying/cleaning tonight after work, which is great. My list for tomorrow is:

Empty machine
hang Washing out
Work
Sort parking ticket
put chair on freecycle
After work, 15mins cleaning fridge
tidy dd's bedroom and de-clutter, sort out clothes that don't fit anymore to go in loft.
Washing up (and shiny sink of course)
DH does 15mins doing anything that needs doing.

Think that's enough for one day, especially with a 7:30 - 5 work day too!

I haven't really read the flylady website much, there seems to be so much on there.

GOod luck to everyone!

[sneaks in whilst everyone else is having a well earned rest from whole days of Flying]

so whilst dh watched a film with dcs (usually I/they are at Beavers/Brownies - we were very slack this eve I rallied and have
done
kitchen worktops
floors swept
dw loaded
sink shone
washed doormat
shook out front door mat
read dd long story, nearly feel asleep in her bed

also dh did the dreaded recycling this morning, supervised homework x 2 and cooked supper - does that count

dh has now cooked 2nd supper - stirfry for himself so not kitchen not quite so newpin looking...but somehow two children to get to school tomorrow seems relatively do-able without any preparation, so I think I will abandon ship again and go to bed! I think there's some uniform somewhere, and joy of joys builder is not there tomorrow...

see you tomorrow OFM and all

Oh and friend has booked me onto a sewing course on Tuesday mornings for two hours! Very excited. A "How to Use Your Sewing Machine" course...Will have to search loft for 1970's sewing machine, I know it is there somewhere...

fell asleep - I think I do feel asleep too!

And I did "fling" another 7 things today too.

you are all inspiring me. sink is still shiny - yes i have used it since yesterday :) lots done today, am at work tomorrow :( but will hopefully get somethings done before work. although will have to go into town early to find out why my bank card is still not working online

Chairmum remember you can buy pizza bases and passata topping if you are in a hurry and ds will still enjoy doing the toppings. I used to think I had to do everything from scratch and sometimes it was too much for me.

Wait rose / Ocado do organic frozen pizza bases with passata already on, they are very tasty!

Right, better go and start evening routine, been watching Telly / on the phone for the last 2 hours.

evening all tis very very bisy and as much as i have read through im lost, hope you are all ok and managing a wee tiny bitta flying or lots if you

has a very busy day, list wise i have

Clean kitchen - wiped x 4
Make bed-new bedclothes put on
Drop dc off at nursery-done
Me work to redo corrupt transactions- nt done had more crashing despite being sent to sage, followed an hour phone call and it being taken off the server and is now standalone, going to try that for now and see if issues are server related.
Pick dc up/snack/bed-done
Try and find spare energy to pack too-nope not yet
Paint spare room-yes
Put clothes away-nope

i have also taken flylady advise and pulled knobs off cooker to clean, broke 2 but still work. were obviously being held together with 5 years worth of dirt
put vinegar in the dishwasher and put it on for a good old clean as recommended by someone here.
filing at work and washing at home.

im now going to watch charmed and sleep hopefuly.

new day new list.

sleep tight everyone

evening all

faied flyer signing in

hoping to be allowed to join up again