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!

Push best wishes, and lots of jelly babies(a friend put these in a hospital hamper - they were invaluable , chocs, sandwiches, custard and other natural tranquillizing forces for first few days in hospital P.S. Admire new baby and don't do much else for next few weeks.

Today I need to do a 3 hour Home Bless, as house suffering from indifference over w/e and it is beseeching me for some tlc.

Visit to cousins and their similar age children was great - I love Stoke Newington. And saw old friend too. Sons thrilled to see Arsenal Stadium. Dh not in best of moods though on the way home and I felt a bit depressed by evening at how we seem to misunderstand each other constantly Also at how loud our children are compared to gentle but steely cousin's, it is definitely the parents that make the children loud - no getting round it...

Morning all,

Hope everyone had a great weekend. Don't MN much on the weekend as a rule but did have a quick peek at this thread.

Had a hugely productive weekend involving MAJOR decluttering in DD's room. Glad it's bin day today! Have already been in and made their beds this morning as it looks so lovely and clean and tidy in there.

Also mopped out the porch as couldn't move on to the kitchen this week without finishing last weeks task! Oh the guilt!

Taking DD3 out this morning. The amount of flying that gets done later will depend on whether she has a nap or not.....

Will list when I get back.

P.S. have read everyone's posts (you have all had lovely weekends enjoying spring!) just think I had better crack on before I get inadvertently waylaid sucked into internet

toffee I too made a vegetarian curry - cauliflower and chickpea for Sat; dh said it was delicious - also v. v. economical compared to takeaway

Still last week's missions appearing for me too, WhoKnows. I got as far as looking up the first kitchen mission in my control journal (dusting the ceiling, light fixture and top of fridge the week that I printed it out), but FLYing has now been rudely interrupted by the arrival of some work.

swan my house too is suffering from the morning after the weekend before - need to do some room rescues before I can start WHBH

So, DS is at playgroup, DH is out the door, I've fortified myself with a , so now need to post my list and get on with it -

Morning routine done
DS to playgroup done
DH out of door done
Recycling & food bin in done
Bin in
Washing up
Washing on line - yayy, a sunny day at last
Rr living room
RR bedroom
RR bathroom
RR DS room
RR kitchen
S/s
WHBH
Make beds
Washing in machine for tonight
Handwashing
Zone cleaning
Zone mission - when I've found out what it is
Collect DS
Allotment
Garden
Paperwork item
Our comp finance
Playgroup invoices
WI accounts
Cook tea
Tea
Bedtime routine
Evening routine
Phone DM re arrangements for Friday - I've won tickets for a Craft show
Shopping list for tomorrow

[Waves from behind a stack of filing ...]

Crikey, I know that feeling PA,
good luck with it all!!!

Nettie trying to think of jokes that combine baking and gymnastics - swiss roll is all that I can come up with

Waves to Swan Linzer Molly

What a beautiful day! waves all round!

To Do:

laundry on
sort my clean laundry
lunch half prepped
top up shop done
15 min declutter in bed room

kitchen all week is DH's responsibility! I will help as needed ~ it's small and we have little spare space ~ hoping it will be painted so we can have (delayed) Pancakes on Weds!

The trays I made last week for DD have worked a treat ~ no bits on the floor!

I might get some me time later today

have a great spring day all xxx

Morning everyone. Not sure what is todays mission but one of mine is to delimescale my two shower heads.

So far i have:

Weekly shop done
Hung out washing done
An hours work in office (work from home) done

that is all.........

Need to hoover throughout.
Wash floors.
Clean both bathrooms.
Plan tonight's dinner (no idea as yet)
General tidy up everywhere.
Shine sink in kitchen and utility.
Do more work in office and take DD to drama after school.Homework with DD.
Be sexy wife to DH when he comes home from work with lovely cooked meal on table and clean and tidy children ready for bed

Can.I.Do.It?......... I.Hope.I.Can!

Update so I can see where I've got to:

Morning routine done
DS to playgroup done
DH out of door done
Recycling & food bin in done
Bin in
Washing up done
Washing on line done
Rr living room done
RR bedroom done
RR bathroom done
RR DS room done
RR kitchen done
S/s done
WHBH done
Clean bath and surrounding tiles done
Make beds done
Washing in machine for tonight done
Handwashing - doing
Change kitchen cushion covers done
Change kitchen wallhanging done
Zone cleaning
Zone mission - when I've found out what it is
Collect DS
Allotment
Garden
Paperwork item
Our comp finance
Playgroup invoices
WI accounts
Cook tea
Tea
Bedtime routine
Evening routine
Phone DM re arrangements for Friday - I've won tickets for a Craft show grin
Shopping list for tomorrow

not much work done, a lot of catch-up phonecalls
sort finance partial
tidied kitchen nearly
hall decluttered
recyling done
playroom *rescued
frontroom rescued

now need to go out on urgent errand, as I don't think I'm ever going to finish the HOME BLESS and I think I need to escape from the minutiae. I've made a list but there are so many things on it, that it is causing PANIC

SC sorry about your holiday, I think dcs are much more phlegmatic about home half terms than you might think - especially one filled with the nice activities you have in mind. Holidays can be a source of stress and mess on departure/return I find! Even when someone else does all the cooking/chambermaiding.

Aaargh! We went away for the weekend and for some reason this morning the bloody house was even more cluttered and crappy than when we're here all the time

One load of laundry on the line, one in the machine. Downstairs floors brushed, stuff unpacked.

Toys to tidy (except that will have to be done when ds2 is in bed, because he keeps emptying all the boxes

Dinner to make, ironing to do tonight, kitchen floor to wash.

4 mile walk to fit in before collecting ds1 from school, so slacking off for a bit now!

Thanks for kind words Swan but have had last minute reprieve! Yippeee!! (As usual dh's movements extraordinarily hard to determine in advance - schedule forever changing) but it looks like we are going away for a couple of days after all ...long story... off tonight ... thank the lord laundry fairly up-to-date. See all you lovely fledglings in a few days ...

Pushme will be thinking of you tomorrow xxxxxxxxx

Waves back to Colourarc and everyone else ...

Hello all,

sorry for not posting at the weekend. It was pretty busy and we had visitors on Sunday. On the plus side both DH and I did a bit of tidying up before the visitors arrived and, as I hoovered and mopped on Sunday, I feel like I'm already ahead with Monday's house blessing.

Done list

swish and swipe up and downstairs
washing on
dry washing taken off driers (but not sorted or put away yet
DS2 taken to and from music exam. (He came out smiling, phew.)
sink shined (and draining board cleared and descaled, I really battle with limescale, things only stay shiny for seconds it seems .)
shopping
hotspot
dishwasher unloaded and restacked
exercise - I walked home after DS2 music exam. It is a lovely sunny day here, really springlike

To do list

The rest of the houseblessing
Put away dry washing and hang out wet washing.
Do school paperwork
15 mins declutter/kitchen mission
Hotspot (again!)

If poss

Menu plan for the week
Clean hob

What exam/grade was your ds2 taking Fun and what age is he [nosey emoticon - none of my children have taken exams yet though on varying grade levels. I think ds2 will be the first with a Piano Prep test (which you can't fail the others keep airily saying they are various grades but I'm not quite sure....

back from one errand (ballet shoes and leotard), still another to do (pharmacy) Have unfortunately run out of money (ballet shoes are £££££ so will have to raid moneybox before getting prescription [grr]

Doodle yes, funny that the mess elves come out to play

I'm not getting any paid work done here, but at least I've had a good morning with DS1.

Done:

B/fasts
Unloaded d/w
Lunch box
DS2 made his own bed!
School run
Put sheets in w/m
Read to DS1 ('Spiderwick Chronicles' - we are both enthralled)
Break
Put sheets in t/dryer (no washing line at the moment)
Hoovered throughout
Cleaned windows (helped by Flyboy)
Swished and swiped in bathroom
Flyboy tidied and hoovered his room and made his bed
Marked SATs test whilst DS1 finished the maths one (I now know what he needs to work on, so that's useful)
DS1 worked on his fish topic (with help from me)
Lunch

It will soon be time to fetch DS2. Maybe I can get a bit of work done whilst he's watching telly .

Push - thinking of you!

Hi swanriver, DS2 was doing grade 3. He's 10.

swan I absolutely refused to take any piano exams for years and years (my first piano teacher was against them, which helped). Finally changed my mind for some reason, scraped through Grade 7 and then failed Grade 8 - probably a good thing that I hadn't taken any exams earlier, as I may have been put off playing the piano years before.

swan I buy Ballet shoes from the ebay stores and they cost around £5 plus a bit of postage (i tend to buy 2 or 3 pairs to make postage worth it plus her feet grow so quick). Just sold a pair of used ones on ebay for £2.50 so you recoup a bit of your money back. HTH

Hi all
Finally sat down after a hectic morning and afternoon of cleaning and decluttering. Gotta say though, I'm still in awe at the length of some of your lists ladies!

Celestial Information about the weekly home blessing hour (awful name - someone on this thread came up with the much improved "home overhaul") is here.

Ah I see. Thanks Linzer Oh my...Without realising it I have already blessed my house

Well, have nearly got to the end of the washing mountain - that's about it today as had Welsh lesson this morning, hopefully will do better tomorrow

Thanks for all the welcomes

DD1's friend cancelled (DD1 was a bit vague about whether she was actually coming or not, but we called round and there was no one in) so we invited another friend over, who was luckily able to make it at the last minute. Have been making Thomas the Tank Engine cupcakes, which the DC are busy decorating at the moment. FLYing has fallen by the wayside (as is always the way when I have work on, even if I'm not actually working) but the job is due by tomorrow afternoon so I should be able to get back to it soon.

Neenook Croeso (again, but in Welsh this time ).

Hello lovely people! Had a fantastic weekend, the first one in ages where I haven't started the weekend already feeling defeated. Went out on a playdate Sat morning, then had another one at our house Sat afternoon - in between which got the house to 'company-ready' in only an hour which is a miracle in itself. Best bit was that dp tidied up the kids' bedrooms - that was where I had flung all the toys amassed during the week's decluttering frenzy, and they were very, very bad - can't see the floor bad. He did a grand job and for a brief moment the whole house was tidy!

Hasn't lasted quite, but this week I am going to slow down on the decluttering (to avoid crash and burn - feeling a bit shattered tbh) and focus on developing routines to maintain this.

Sorry no personal replies, will try and catch up on thread later x

School report: Although Coldheartedbitch has talked about making a concerted effort towards flying since the start of the year, there has been little or no evidence of actual progress. If anything she seems to think that thinking about improving is sufficient to actually make improvements. Until Coldheartbitch actually puts some physical effort into making the changes she will continue to FAIL at flying

nuff said.

PMPY good luck tomo!!! thinking about you.