If you're house is cluttered and you're Mad as a Hare, join March Fledgling Flyers and get it all square

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

Following on from the February Fledgling Flyers thread, welcome to March. This is the thread that follows the Flylady website (loosely) for getting your home decluttered and your housework into routines, whilst dispensing tea and chat freely.

A big thank you to PushMePullYou for leading us through February ably assisted by ToffeeFudgeCake. We had a huge influx of new posters as well, which was lovely, anyone else who is lurking, please say hello, you will be 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!

Ooh, I'm first to sign up!

Microfibre cloths at the ready!

Damn it linzer beat me to it......

i'm in too! does this make me super organised? :)

Marking spot, too.

right im here...going to really stick to it this month.

I'd love to join you guys if that's ok...and I cleaned my sink this morning

Oh blimey, have been avoiding you lot for too long

The state of this house is starting to get me down. Just can't seem to get on top of it. Time to bit the bullet I think!

Bite, even.

Hello all!

Following the amazing difference it made decluttering the living room last week, yesterday I fully decluttered the main bedroom. It has been the dumping ground since we moved in in November 2009 and it has never been properly tidy before. Now it has: one bed; some wardrobes; a couple of chairs; one small clothes pile (I am not decluttering dp's stuff); bookshelves only one book deep; bedside table and dressing tabley bit. One towel rail, one bin. Nothing on the floor, nothing under the bed, no toys lying around. No laundry baskets full of clean washing. LOADS of space! Beautiful view! Refuge from children! Hurray!!

The living room is trashed again but it only takes 5 minutes to put back together now that there is so much less stuff in it, so I have been re-finding the floor several times a day and no longer feel completely swamped by it.

I finally get it. Declutter first, then everything else is easier.

Kitchen next! Kids' rooms will be last - they really are trashed, as most of the clutter round the house was toys and my new rule is, toys go back in their rooms.

Hello

Can I join? I can't access the flylady website on my phone for some reason so could someone please summarise the basics of the three points above? Eg what a mission is?

My house went to pot when I was pregnant last year and I desperately need to sort it out and definitely declutter.

Hello

Can I join? I can't access the flylady website on my phone for some reason so could someone please summarise the basics of the three points above? Eg what a mission is?

My house went to pot when I was pregnant last year and I desperately need to sort it out and definitely declutter.

Also am still in pjs and that habit aint about to change plus I have an actual hate of wearing shoes indoors!!

Also am still in pjs and that habit aint about to change plus I have an actual hate of wearing shoes indoors!!

Hey all, after begining well in Feb, work (as I thought it would) took over with odd hours & stuff so I disappeared from the thread.
March, however, my hours are now set and a routine can be established!
sitting down with a and catching up on a few bits on line.

kids are breakfasted and DH is cooking today
My main task today is sorting the washing and deciding what outfit to wear for a party tonight

happy flying x

Oooo, me please... we just have too much stuff and I need a giant kick up the arse tea and sympathy to help me get to grips with it!

systemsaddict I bow before you... what did you do with all the clutter from your bedroom - get rid of it? I just seem to redistribute things...

I'm definitely going to start! thanks!!! need my hand holding though as I'm terribly disorganised...

Well I didn't do the Flylady 'give away, put away, throw away' thing - and I realised being perfectionist about that has held me back in the past.

I redistributed a lot of crap toys and other precious items into the kids' rooms; put some Christmas stuff in the loft; got up to date on the laundry over the weekend and put all the clean dry clothes in the wardrobe, clean dry towels in the bathroom, clean sheets in the drawer (that alone made a big difference as fabric clutter was a large part of the problem); threw away anything that I could, mainly lots of random papers and half magazines and some old slippers with holes in; took all the mugs glasses etc down to the kitchen; hid some extra books and board games in the wardrobe and an old laptop, some random wires and keyboard etc went in an unused (broken) drawer. So there is still some hidden clutter; but that can be for a later date.

We do have a lot of storage space in this house though, and it is a complete luxury having unused storage space, I'm still learning how to use it! We were in a small house before and there had to be a lot more throwing away / giving away when we were there.

Hello TheUnmentioned, one of us (normally me for March) will post links to the Flylady website every evening for the next days tasks. Have you tried opening the Flylady website via the links on our previous threads or just directly?

The basic principles are

Babysteps - there are 31 of these, one for each day of the month, we are supposed to start incorporating those as daily habits so you do them without even thinking about it. On this thread we don't all do all of them, I for instance will stay in PJs till I have to leave the house.

Decluttering - the FLylady divides the hosue into weekly zones, at the start you are meant to spend 15 mins a day decluttering in that weeks zone.

Missions - each day a Mission in the current zone is posted, if you feel sufficiently decluttered and can do it the good, if not just concentrate on the decluttering. They are supposed to be around 15 min jobs, some are much quicker, some take a bit longer.

Each zone comes round again about a month later.

It helps if your MN settings are set so that the OPs posts are highlighted in the thread, to do this Click Customise on the Talk Page, set yourself to the MN New setting, then scroll down and select Highlight Thread Author, saving both sets of settings.

I'd love to join too....lurked a bit on the February thread, and made the fatal mistake of signing up for the FlyLady emails! I've also downloaded the HomeRoutine app for my iphone....unfortunately none of these things have automatically made my house clean and tidy...looks like I am actually going to have to roll up my sleeves!

Hi I'm not sure if I'll be welcome back here.....
I started off the February thread but failed half way through......Is there much point trying again?

Yes, lots of us do that! How I see it is that I'll probably never achieved full Flylady status, but even doing a bit of it makes a difference, and being on the thread motivates me.

Thanks for that, got a crying baby and a loud boy just now so will look properly later

NickNacks there is definitely a point in trying again; I have been on and off the Flylady wagon since 1999 , each time I make a little more progress. I have to take very small baby steps to get anywhere! (But I was a pretty extreme case to start off with...)

Can I join too please.

I have been trying to declutter and tidy up for months but to no avail. I need hand holding, a shoulder to cry on and a hefty kick up the backside in equal measure and I really need to get on with it as the house is depressing me and probably the rest of the family too and I am forever putting other things on the back burner until I have sorted the house.

Plus it must have come to a pretty bad state of affairs if you are embarrassed by the arrival of the plumber and the decorator because your house is such a mess that you don't want anybody to see it even people who may help to sort it out!!