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!

Morning all. Haven't managed any flying so far today but I do plan on making a start in a little while. DS2 and DS3 have horrid chesty barkscoughs, runny noses, high temperatures and are off school and nursery. This doesn't stop them running around and arguing though . They are currently playing Dr Who in the kitchen and argung over which of them is going to be "The Doctor"

Can anyone tell me which products and cleaning tools work well for cleaning cream porcelain floor tiles and wooden laminate to a)clean them and b)leave them looking shiney? I'm using a steam cleaner at the moment but it delivers far too much water and my floors end up streaky and full of water marks. So they look worse than they did before I washed them. I have to go over them again with a microfibre mop to dry them but I cant help thinking that there must be an easier way of doing this job.

TOFFEE & SWAN regarding fractions etc look out for posters in poundshops etc. I found a really good one for my DS years ago and it makes sense of fractions/percentages really well ~ it helped me too the posters tend to be quite big but as they are laminated you can use whiteboard markers to scribble on them too.

OK, I'm off to work soon, have a good day flying peeps!

CELESTIAL thanks for the & , as I was getting ready I remembered something I wanted to share ~ DH & I don't do mornings very well so at 7.30ish today we were in the kitchen when DH realised he had put on a pair of MY jeans!

anyway, we have a man here sorting out our front door, the kids food is sorted for the day, my packed tea is done and I really should get going!

thx needed that.

colourarc love advice on fraction posters. (dreading maths homework failed gcse 4 times ) ( why oh why am I surrounded in bank recons and figures when I failed standard maths 4 times )

Managed to get conference paid for and some personal banking done too.
Still to sort out student loan deferment and tax credit people.

linzer gosh sounds like an interesting morning there too.
makingchanges v impressed with your progress. I'm spurred onto getting moving but stuck at work. Ah well maybe later.

Better get on. My recons not looking too clever at mo! [beer]

Thanks for good wishes for friend. Wasn't the actual decree nici bit in the end but a few things that needed to be clarified before it went to court. Judge was lovely, H didn't turn up, all over and done in 5 mins (although 45 min wait to go in was hard) Friend awarded costs, told her idea of access was more than reasonable and judge was rather dismissive of her H's attempts to stall things. Very, very relieved friend and large coffee and cake to calm nerves afterwards :)

Nettie - just about to do bank recon stuff here too. Shame I don't like beer, not sure will help either but its a tempting thought. Wonder when a chocolate emoticon will appear :)

nettie I got a C, but it doesn't help... and I could never do anything with Accounts.
P.S. I only got a C because I had a very very good teacher who saw I was mathematically challenged. toffee it's all in the 1-1- teaching!

Maths teaching is very different now to how I was taught (although that was in the Dark Ages!)
I am currently doing a Maths Workshop thing at school for parents of Yr3 and 4 children which has been a real eye-opener and very helpful - long division and multiplication is completely off the scale in how it is taught now compered with how I was taught

Another Maths 'O' level struggler shows her age and disappears back to do battle with figures - I wasn't here M'Lud, I was reconciling the bank statements, honest :)

Hi can i join?? i cleaned my kettle today

Yes of course you can Snot - may I call you that? I cleaned my teapot yesterday.

Maths - aargh. I went to a meeting a while ago about Maths teaching in KS@, with a little bit for Yr 2 (DS's Yr). There we were, a row of scientists, accountants and all sorts of supposedly numerate people, totally out of our depth. I like to think I am good at maths (my A level is one of my proudest achievements, even if it was a grade E) but no, didn't get it at all. Oh, and yes, it was 'o' levels for me too [dark ages emoticon].

Colourarc at the jeans!

Hi Snot I'm a new flyer here too (3 days old infact) and i'm finding being here soooo valuable.

Today I:

Dressed to non lace up black satin slippers
Emptied and restocked the dishwasher
Made lunch for snivelling ill DS's
Added lunch dishes to breakfast dishes in dishwasher
Cleaned the George Foreman Grill (George's rule in our house states...the person to use it cleans it!)
cleaned and tidied the kitchen
vaccumed all downstairs rooms
Cleaned and washed breakfast and dining table
Put on a washing machine load
and I Flew I cleaned the entrance hallway
Vacuumed and aired the rug at front door
washed the skirting in the hallway and washed down the front door and [ever so proud of myself emoticon]

I'm now enjoying a tropical flavoured berocca

thank you. it will take me a little while to put names to the posts.

celestialstarlight, you have been busy today! id better get off here and go sort the laundry.

Recons hit an all time low and am all alone, phone won't stop, door won't stop. What can I do but chat to you lovely ladies

So glad not the only mathematically challenged one here. Im afraid yes afraid, cold sweat, if someone asks me to work something out there and then

snot welcome love the nickname.

Staring at bank statements praying for clarity!

thanks nettie, quite appropriate in this house, am hoping going to get a few weeks break of dirty bums before dc4 arrives as dc3 is being potty trained.

my clothes situation has been put to the bottom of the list as i need to clear one of the bedrooms. all toys, clothes and cluttler needs to be moved into another room as dp will be putting this www.pine-design.co.uk/page23.html up when he gets back. it is taking up my whole tidied, hoovered and polished livingroom!

Just popping in to update my list, there is some very busy ladies in here! Thanks for the {biscuit} and its definitely needed right now!

today list
Upsairs morning routine done
do last load of washing done
strip DC's beds and wash done
declutter 'dining room' done and very cathartic it was too!
wipe round kitchen
tidy DCs room and remake their beds
school run done
DCs tea
DCs bedtime routine
mine and DH tea
fill dishwasher
sort out and put away laundry from yesterday started

So not doing too bad. Hope to get the whole list done today, but I've now decided I don't like the layout of the dining room and I'm in the middle of moving it round!

Hello everyone

Ok to run through this morning's list:

Wash kitchen floor, wipe round surfaces and shine sink done
Clean bathroom done
Clean porch as instructed done
Hoover downstairs done

I am quite at myself

Just popping to say I've had a very busy and productive day but don't have time to list.

Haven't done porch. Too cold out there today (horrible day - dull, wet, windy). Will leave that 'til the sun is shining!

Have been going through paperwork and found TWO returns Next Directory haven't credited back to my account

I went to a Maths Workshop Feet and Who all about making Maths Fun . By the end of it I felt physically sick from the tension of trying to follow what was happening. However - give me algebra and I'm happy!

Have banned telly this afternoon, taken ds2 and others to ds2's piano lesson, done some reading with ds1 from extracts on ILoveReading booklist website Toffee - have you come across this?

Found that ds1 is more suited to reading the 9 year old booklist than the 11 year old one though

Ds1 feeling a bit shellshocked by fact that his two "best" friends are going to different, much more academic school.

bbl dd is here!

Quick post before I serve up tea. Very short list today , mainly because I had a sleep this morning after DH and DS were out this morning . Anyway ...

Morning routine done
Collect DS from DM and take to playgroup done
Sleep done
S/s done
Make bed done
Clean washing away done
Collect DS done
Lunch done
Zone cleaning done
Zone mission done
Find out car insurance stuff done
Unpack DS bag done
Menu plan done
Washing in machine for tonight done
Clean fridge done
Allotment done - got first lot of broad beans in
Cook tea doing
Tea
Bedtime routine
Evening routine
Make bread
Make palmiers
Playgroup accounts
Phone DM

Oh dear, falling at the first hurdle here.

Only managed to clean my sink today and only then because it hadn't got dirty after cleaning it yesterday.

I have managed to go to Sainsburys - does that count?

I suppose I could go and do 15 minutes declutter now before I start on tea and go out this evening.

I will try harder tomorrow. Some of you seem to be well into this already and I have yet to make it a habit. I will though..... eventually.

Oh minor domestic drama too. Opened DS2's curtains this morning to find on of the inner panels of his window had broken. No idea how. Have delegated finding a glazier to DH who has contacts. Don't think it was DS2 - I think we would have know if he had done something. He wouldn't have been able to hide the guilt. Also a window pane downstairs just went once so we have precedence!! At least the replacement will be cleaner than the only one.

Hello all!
have calmed down slightly since yesterday! Sorry for the rant!

Not yet read today's thread, but shall later.
DD slept well last night again!
Am tired though! I struggled to sleep! Think i was still a little too angry!
How is everyone today? Hope everyone is having a good day! Is really cold here

So, today's done list, not very much:
Both up, washed, dressed, fed (several times), dishes done, tidied kitchen, shined sink. Was about to go for walk to see chickens and horses when neighbour came in for a , so was to see her but :( not to go for a walk with DD, and she has only left, so now to dark! :(
Hoovered, tided up most rooms, cleaned out cultery drawer , scrubbed sterilised , replied to various emails, texts, FB messages, Mn messages, threads, and chatted to couple of people on-line. Put new amber teething necklace on DD , printed out some forms to fill in, opened mail, wipe down kitchen worktops, and............... i found a dead bird!!!

Back later on, shall read thread, and post again no doubt! xx

That was meant to say 'scrubbed steriliser'!

MissJ - at you finding a dead bird and wondering if it is THE bird or a different one

Swan - do you mean [www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/this one?

I'll try that again

This one - www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/