Working our way through the babysteps - the new installment of the back to school flylady thread

[Carrotsandcelery]

Hello again everyone! This is the new thread for us as the old one was getting a bit unmanageable.

We do deserve to be proud of ourselves. And perhaps we should reflect on how far we've cone unless we flag next month?

I usually find Thursdays a nightmare. I work long hours Mon-Wed and it's normally a bomb site. Today, much less so - and within an hour I had put out hotspots, cleaned sinks and loos, dusted and vacuumed lounge. DH away tonight, so really looking forward to settling down in a clean house, eating a non-veggie meal with a chickflick and a

How far we've come in case we flag! Blinking iPhone!

Sooooooo? What do we want to do next?

Do we want another month of working through the routines, bedding them in so to speak?

Or do we want to start doing zone cleaning and house blessings etc?

I vote for another month of working on routines and decluttering myself but maybe others feel ready for a bit more.

P.s Does anyone know how to get pink felt tip off a collie? Dd seems to have decorated the dog

I think I'm still getting to grips with the babysteps but on a good day I would try zone work. Just taking it one day at a time at the mo.

I definitely need to do lots of decluttering. That always seems to be the one that I don't fit in but It's one I need to do.

We could stick to what we have been doing and just add a one hour house blessing in at a convenient point in the week. That might be a good compromise for the month. Or we could continue as we are for a month and then do that next month. I don't feel ready for the full zone work and feel that is where our old thread fell to bits.

Oh carrots I really don't think karma is being kind to me today.

After I got off here ds1 had a major meltdown and I really needed to go to the garage to get some gas, which in the end I didn't need.
So it took me 20 minutes to find the gas card, which was in the front pocket of my handbag all along, then another 20 minutes to get ds1 out of the house, after I ended up breaking down for a few minutes in the green, pulled my self together, and went to the garage, via detour to my nan's house, to listen to all her stresses, and think mine are really not too bad. As a result I have only done laundry.

(((((hugs Gossip)))))) If it makes you feel any better I had a wibble yesterday and ended up sobbing down the phone to my poor dad. Karma may have been good to you though Gossip - maybe if you had found your card straight away then something worse might have happened to you on the way to get gas. Karma may have been protecting you

What a lovely thought karma protecting me, I still haven't eaten as I've just spent the last hour and a half trying to make ds2 sleep while I lay next to him, ignoring him and mning, ds1 came up twice with his very loud voice and woke him up, twice! gggrrrrr.
And I'm sweaty and smelly and stinky and starving and moany (sigh).

Another vote for carrying on with babysteps here. I think it'll be a long while before I get onto zone cleaning - or even doing the missions!

Serious decluttering/organising needed here too.

I'm making some progress but I could do 15 mins a day for the next 6 months at least, I reckon.

Oh, that sounds miserable, Gossip. Hope you manage to get some food & rest soon.

karma is always good to us

I could certainly do with another month focusing on the baby steps as I've failed dismally this month

But, I've been doing a bit of a "house blessing" every week since i first started fly lady back in the spring & I'm making up my own zone stuff (bathroom this week, today I got rid of the mould on the grout) so am happy to try to do a bit more fly ladying too!

I guess it depends if having too much is going to make people feel overwhelmed & so get disheartened? I've got my own little list of the stuff I think is important and am happy to see everything else as optional extras, but perhaps not everyone is as lazy relaxed about it as me?

Well, this evening I've been full of beans and really productive.

I've:
made soup
rang nappy shop
made cookies
filed some paperwork
made dinner
prepared breakfast
got pushchair ready for another early departure tomorrow
put out bins
hoovered downstairs
packed up parcel to post tomorrow
written a card
planned dinners for next week
washed up
put out clothes
put away dry washing/rehung damp washing

still to do:

• 15 mins of writing up notes from my course (counts as fun)
• get to bed!

Tomorrow

• 15 mins of sorting receipts
• Sainbury's shop
• freeze soup
• take photos of nappies to sell

Angel The chocolate bribe worked earlier then! Hope you treat yourself to some in RL.

I am practicing the 15 minute timer thing. I want to get good at it in the kitchen first then I can start using it all round the house. I was noticing progress today, so it's just about keeping it up now.

Angel we obviously need to offer chocolate more often

Dh and ds have eaten the whole packet of choc digestives between them - it was a big pack too with a 25% extra on top of that They are both skinny rakes as well. There is no justice in the world (Although maybe karma was saving me from them )

I was still fiddling about with laundry at 10pm and decided that was ridiculous so I have stopped for the night.

Errm, yes I'd very much like to just do the baby step thing for a month, because I've lost focus the last couple of days.

I really think ruthless decluttering is the key to it all, really. Towards the end of the first thread carrots and bessie and I were on, I was trying but it just wasn't working. There was no room for everything.

Also the encouragement... I was thinking, at work the other day, when I asked a colleague to look over something I'd written and they said "Yeah, that's really good, Robot". You don't get that with housework, that interchange of encouragement and praise you get at work (not over the top praise, just the usual "oh, well done" etc). That's what we're all doing for each other and it really helps!

Yes, decluttering and tidying up as you go along. I'm much better at this than i used to be, this morning i managed to clear up properly after breakfast so I didn't get annoyed by the mess at lunchtime.

Struggling a bit today; I've been up since 4.15 thanks to DS. I've just had a nap but I'm now feeling first-thing-after-waking-dopey. More chocolate required, I think.

Ebay have free listings this weekend so I've been looking at the pile of clutter and trying to decide what is worth spending the time listing.

DS is tired, his teeth hurt and is wailing so I'm not optimistic about this afternoon.

I agree, Robot, the encouragement really helps. DH gets fed up of me talking about the housework I've managed to do.

I have been too busy to get near computer today.
I have:
made bed
Breakfast
get dressed
ds to school
been shopping for food
put away food shopping
Cleaned sink
Lunch
took cat to vet(poorly paw)
Just got back and decided I needed a rest (tired emoticon)

Yes I agree, the support/encouragement is a great help.

I'm sorry ladies I am failing miserably today however I have been helping friend still move !!! and we shopped for a bookcase at the local furniture charity project and came out with two bedroom units, a tv stand/cabinet for me and a very beautiful blue leather 3 piece suite in top notch condition for £55 yes you read right, a 4 seater sofa and two arm chairs for fifty five pounds. I am exhausted and very stinky so I am going to drink my then have a nice bath before i go to the boyfriends tonight, yes you read right again, the boyfriend actually wants to spend time with me!! and rang me for once. so after I come back tomorrow I will be doing my babysteps :)

Hi, signing in after a very busy week at work again...didn't get a lot done on my day off as the sun was shining and friends were out for a coffee, (which turned into a mooch round town) so I really have been just doing babysteps and not much else. I am going to do the past weeks missions this weekend, but probably not till sunday!

I have to do some more decluttering, and the next month for me is always the busiest with lots of boring paperwork to sort, so I will have to opt for babysteps too, with a house blessing hour and some decluttering and missions when I can - I have to get the house sorted for when the inlaws come to stay in November - we don't have a ETA yet, but going by past years I will be better off now - I normally spend a week cleaning everything in sight, exhaust myself and then they come and MIL moans about the state of the house and cleans it again whilst I'm at work. (she runs a B and B and thinks our house is filthy because its 160 years old, not a new build with perfect flooring etc). She still will do the same, but at least I will know it was really clean to begin with (or I can just give her a list of jobs that I don't want to do!!)

My jobs for this evening include putting some washing on, finishing off some work emails and eating lovely curry that DH is making, oh, and opening a bottle of red....

Have a lovely weekend everyone, have decided to keep off mumsnet apart from the evenings for 30mins or so, I waste so much time here!! (not this board obv, it's brilliant and life changing and you are all lovely and I really feel I have grown and can count you all in my circle of trust blub blub blub....)

Wish I could take a vow of abstinence (and stick to it!) too, missmakes.

Well, all I have done today is:

• unloaded/loaded dishwasher
• washed up after breakfast
• done one load of washing (but not hung it out).

Er, that's it.

DS is asleep now :) so I've a bit of evening free.

To do:

• hang out washing
• wipe down highchair
• freeze soup
• write shopping list for tomorrow
• go to bed

Evening everyone. Dh has been off today and I have had 2 meetings - one with the doc about dd and one with the school about ds. Talk about stress

Dh and I cheered ourselves up with a little lunch out

We have done the basic lists but no decluttering etc as it has been to busy.

I have been out this evening helping with a fundraiser so there wasn't time tonight either and I am too tired now. There is another event tomorrow so I don't hold out great hope for progress tomorrow. We have a party on Sunday but not until late afternoon so we will have to do the majority then.

I do promise to shine my sink though