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!

MrsMcJ Loving your Clocks forward list. We?ve all been to dentist already this year so we?re already ahead of the game

Thinking about you at the funeral and wee baby?s family. Such a terrible thing .

Linzer Chicken Pot pie sounds delish! Do you have a link to the recipe?

Toffee Hope DS is feeling better soon

Swan Your shopping tactics are genious. I like your style

Systems I want need your desk. Kitchen table is in use at the moment only because I have banned all computer related items from my dining room following decluttering of that zone a couple of weeks ago. Dining room now looks ?very tidy and sparkly-- like a dining room and not a cluttered office. Downside is kitchen table is forever being monopolised by everyones laptop [grrrr emoticon]which messes up my lovely decluttered kitchen

Whoknows Grrrrr at lost roundup

Lost er nope....I?m lost. But intruiged to find out.

So earlier than usual start for me today. I?m impressing myself!

So far...
Breakfast done and dusted
D/W loaded and on
S/S
Cleaned kitchen worktops
Cleaned cooker hob
Cleaned microwave

Still to do...
Mission < totally dreading this as there are 4 bathrooms/toilets in my house> Arrggg where do I start. May procrastinate for a while and do hpouse blessing instead [hmmm]
Ironing
DS lunch
DS nursery
Dinner
Evening routine

Good luck with todays mission everyone. Have fun!

Whoknows lol@ lost suspicion

Can I join in as well please? I have been trying to FLY particularly since the birth of our little boy last summer. He's just having a nap so I'll get going on my list in just a minute.

Get dressed to shoes.
Make bed.
Bathrooms.
Hall.
Laundry.
Review timetable for the rest of the day.
Quiet time.
Think about dinner. (Fishcakes from the BLW book tonight so need to make them)
Shine sink.
Daily tasks (Weekly Home Blessing today).
Zone cleaning (Bathroom & Office).
Kelly's Mission.
Emails.
Exercise.
Plan tomorrow.
Lounge.

Hello! It is a lovely Spring morning here, and I am dressed...
and the children are at school with relevant pieces of paper and carbohydrate

otherwise

done
piano scales (this is my Lenten promise, namely, to give up not doing my scales)
s & s first thing
one load of laundry
computer updating all its settings - can I get back Microsoft Office I wonder?

Today'splan - a random assortment of things to do, not really a proper plan
urgent
clear out car as Beavers/Scouts run tonight
swop ballet shoes for right size
iron a ballet teeshirt for ds2
go to Shopping Centre and buy presents for twins'b irthday tomorrow
internet
order new summer weight duvet for us and dd
order new hoover bags
plane tickets for Eire! (several dates)
housework
hang up new clothes in my wardrobe
tidy kids rooms briefly
hoover kids rooms
hoover bedroom upstairs
leisure
make cake for small family birthday par
quickfix
organise saucepan lids and put them in one place!!!
change sheets (at least one set)

Systems
one firm decision can change everything for the better

I meant your desk! I need one but which room, that is the question?

hello mrsG

Morning all. It sounds like everyone had a busy weekend.

DD was playing in a concert so DS1 went off to a friend's house and the rest of us went to watch DD. When we opened the programme we were horrified to discover that DS1 was supposed to be playing!

DH shot home to get the instrument and DS1 from friend's house, whilst I explained the situation and everyone waited for DS1 to arrive.

DH and DS1 got stuck in traffic and DH decided that they would never get there in time so let DS1 get out and go back to friend's house. DH arrived at the concert to find everyone still waiting for DS1.

Both DH and I v grumpy all day as a result of this fiasco. DS1, when interrogated later, said that his teacher had said something about a concert and to seeing DS1 at 5pm but DS1 had not know what he was talking about so didn't bother asking or saying anything to us.

I feel so embarrassed and annoyed as I am trying to be more organised and still found myself in this situation.

Oh well. Onwards and upwards. We have a guest coming on Tuesday night so I'm going to concentrate my flying efforts on getting the spare room ready, menu planning and big food shop and then getting the routine flying stuff done.

@ funambulist DS. Oh My! I feel your frustration. Although it is very very funny

Funambulist how awful for you - but it does sound like school could work on their communication there!!

Quick skim through thread, though only from last night. 'Hello everyone' is about as close as I'm going to get at personal messages though I did :o at dancing husbands.

HUGE relief here this morning as had email from Japanese friend to say she is fine. Puts life into perspective.

Need quick list as this week is a little insane - 2 sets of Parent's Evenings to attend plus refreshments to organise for both, planning for Mother's Day and Spring Fayre (have to spell it that way as that is what banner says!!) plus order everything needed for tenant's bathroom so builder can sort it next week. Anyone know where I can find good quality but cheap taps?

• Email round to get people to help with refreshments - done
• Bit of work - done
• Morning routine
• 5 mins Room Rescue in living room
• Hoover living room, hall, stairs, landing
• 15mins in DD's hovel room

Can't think beyond that so will get on and see what happens.

Had to interrupt Flying and not-very-urgent paid work to do some urgent-and-needs-to-be-done-today paid work. Still, it's done and sent off now and I do get an extra hour to catch up this afternoon while the DDs are at their piano lesson.

Welcome MrsGangly.

Celestial I can't link to the recipe as it's one that was in a magazine, but I'll PM it to you. It was very easy to make and the DC did like it (DS actually asked if I could make it again), but they'd overindulged in biscuits that morning so didn't want much lunch!

Talking of lunch, must go and get it ready - the piano lesson starts at 1.10 pm, so it's always a bit of a rush beforehand (particularly with DD1 not out of school until 12.45 pm).

Thankyou Linzer I'd love that although I have just put on my "fat jeans" to find that I can't get into them . I now officially only have 2 pairs of trousers that fit me So that's it! I'm off to find a thread under the "being slim whatever" topic to join. Wish me luck....

Linzer hope your DH didn't wake you up too early and he caught his flight ok MrsMcJ thinking of you today and the little ones family funambulist definitely bad communication on the schools part

DD is poorly so off school and I am at her beck and call so no flying today. Still feeling stiff and have a cracker of a bruise on my bum but think no lasting damage luckily. Toffee hope your DS is feeling better soon too.

whoknows my DH is always saying to me to write any lengthy post in word and copy and paste it as i too have lost many posts due to mn being offline etc - so frustrating i could scream. I so empathise

I often just copy my post before I try to post it (Alt + A to highlight all of it and then Ctrl + C to copy), although it doesn't help if your computer then freezes (as happened to me recently; I'd even managed to copy the post into Word but still lost it as I couldn't save the document).

Lady Glad to hear you're on the mend. I once managed to fall downstairs in the middle of the night (thought I was going into our bedroom but was actually at the top of the stairs!) banged my knee quite badly and could hardly walk the next day.

Celestial That's one of the reasons I don't like trousers - you can feel every pound you put on. (Not to mention the fact that I can never find any to fit - I need to grow a couple of inches, I think.)

erm..... well...

was planning on flying alot today but ds woke up looking terribly pale and wheesy. By 9:30 he had perked up. He is going to school this afternoon. but it has put an interruption into my day. especially as there is other people lurking in the house poorly. Totally destroying any wish to do anything. Must go do washing and ironing.

Just having a break, so will post and carry on.

Morning routine done
Hotspot done
DS to playgroup done
DH to work done
Washing up done
RR house - living room, kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms done
WHBH done
Washing on line done
Clean washing away done
S/s done
Casserole from freezer done
Wash dusters done
Washing in machine for tonight done
Look up missions
Zone cleaning
Missions
Collect DS from playgroup
Playgroup paperwork
Post letters postbox & village
Take DS to playground or somewhere
Garden
Phone insurance company
Sow seeds in pots
Handwashing
Cook tea
Tea
Bedtime routine
Evening routine
Our finance
Something from paper file
Check bills to pay

All a bit of a fiasco here today. I am meant to be working and was hoping to send something back today, but I have both DC here. Was up countless times in the night with DS2, who was sick again but is now up and about. Trying to keep him entertained, home ed DS1 and fit work in around everything. I feel as if I'm not doing any of these things properly. And the boys keep wanting food, which is driving me mad! Why do children need to eat so much?

As for the house...oh dear. It looks like a tip this morning. But DS1 has a friend coming over later, so we will have to sort it out beforehand.

My plan (what there is of it) is to give the boys their lunch, get DS1 doing some more work, cross fingers that DS2 keeps himself entertained, do some proofreading, then do a crisis clean before friend arrives (and enlist DS1's help).

Sorry for lack of personal messages.

Toffee I feel your pain. Was late picking up DD1 before the piano lesson as I had to answer an urgent query from an agency that I work for. Arrived back hoping to be able to spend an hour tackling some of the chaos, only to find that the agency has sent me yet more work in the meantime (which they'd like me to do today - have told them that tomorrow morning is the earliest I can manage). Oh well, will make a start on the tidying while I'm waiting for them to confirm the job - but my attempts at Flying seem doomed today.

Another here with a sick DC :(

DD is 6 months and has D & V so no flying here just washing and changing her with cuddles the rest of the time. DH is finishing work at 3pm so i might get a bit done later.

Sorry!

Hello everyone!

Sorry to have been awol. First time I have really and truly not been able to keep up with thread.

Very, very busy here with dh away so much supporting pils and I'm also busy sorting out logistics of dd's first holy communion (godparents in different countries).

Had lovely half-term break in the end though and packed w/e seeing friends. Lovely spring weather. House and laundry reasonably under control!

Big news > have finally, finally, finally conquered master bedroom/boudoir. All spick and span. On to pit that masquerades as home office next. It's a horror!!

Very unusually for me, I'm going away on business for a few days from Tuesday, so this will probably be my only post this week but just wanted to say:

Thanks to Whoknows for posting the steps and sympathies over lost posts - SO frustrating when that happens

So glad your dh is OK Miss J Having watched Red Nose Day documentaries about Kibera slum and news coverage of earthquake/Tsunami in Japan, and all attendent misery, it really does make one feel truly ashamed about complaining about the small stuff

[From way, way down thread] Minda yes, how did you guess ? Had imaginary "dehydrated" horse as a child. Was like a tiny tea-bag you could carry around in your pocket. Then all you had to do was immerse it in a bucket of water and it would inflate to full size!! Very convenient for beach holidays!!

A warm welcome to thread to MrsGangly

Hope your dh enjoys his trip over here Linzer - let me know if he needs any "local knowledge"/restaurant tips etc etc. I'm around until late afternoon tomorrow.

Waves to Lost hope your ds feels better as day progresses.

LadyinPink hope you and your dd recover quickly

Yay great to see you Mini-M, hope mini-Minis are thriving!

MrsMcJnr sorry to hear about the funerals you are attending - both so terribly

PA snurk at drunken dancing dh's (my dh - rather annoyingly - is a really good dancer. I am utterly crap and try and hide in a corner at those sorts of events!)

Toffee How is ds2? Hope you are both managing to rest today

Swan and Toffee I AM boring and ancient all for convenience and tend to buy three of everything in SAME colour for entire season (or two!) All my former clothes-buying interest/appetite has gone in to buying outfits for dd!! Much more enjoyable than dressing myself!

Pushme doubt if you are reading this (you have much more important priorities atm) but just wanted to say we are all thinking of you and your new ds and hope you are recovering well!!!

Feetheart wishing you strength for all the school events/volunteering

Huge waves to Nettie Ihate Celestial Systems
Funambulist Balinderry Makingchanges Gone Alice Molly Snot MrsSharp Nicknacks and all those I've inevitably missed.

See you all next week. Happy spring Flying!!!

x posts NickNacks hope your dd feels better soon

Glad your ds2 is a bit brighter today Toffee but sorry to hear about the work/home juggle/struggle.

Have given up on work for the day following an email saying I had a week till the deadline . So now I'm going to start on a crisis clean, whilst Flyboy tackles his bedroom. DS2 is watching telly.

Wish I could find my timer though. It was so useful when I was crisis cleaning.

Funambulist which just goes to show they should put things in writing! It drives me mad when I hear a "version" from my los which they either forget or garble. The teachers should get the children to write things down in their homework diaries then and there if there is no formal information.

Still it does sound as if he was worth waiting for

done
bought presents
found that Easter is not when I thought it was
checked plane tickets but gave up thoroughly muddled by Royal Wedding etc/dh plans
dw
rubbish
more washing

SC enjoy business trip, can't be worse than sorting the home office Well done on bedroom, hurrah! [slinks off and looks at her own bedroom in dismay - what's happened here then?)

I'm feeling grumpy and tense and just all over the place today - will tackle car as an antidote

Toffee the baby birds cheeping from the nest for endless snacks, I'm hungry I'm hungry, I suppose it is true, but just drives one demented. Crash course in sandwich making for ds1?

Good idea, Swan. I did make him cook the sausages for lunch though. I think he realised it was going to be quicker to do it himself.

He tidied his bedroom in about three minutes. I sent him back up, saying it couldn't possibly be done. Then he argued with me that it didn't need hoovering because he'd hoovered it last week. He did it all eventually, though.

Sorry you are feeling grumpy and tense. Too much to do, maybe?