October's Fledgling Fliers: Seasons of Mists and Mellow Flyfulness

[elliepac]

This is where from the 1st of the month, we attempt to declutter and follow the 30-step wisdom of Flylady (minus cutesy language and a surfeit of e-mails) with lots of chat and support and mutual motivation along the way. (More info available here )

Humungous thanks to our previous thread leader Blue for navigating us all through the August school holidays...and for doing it so consistently and well!!

As usual we will be following a three-pronged approach - and don't worry - we are all at different stages. Some of us (SC stares at feet) -are even embarrassingly stuck at decluttering stage after two years

• repeat or start baby steps (again!)

• repeat baby steps + do 15 mins a day decluttering in the current zone

or

• reinforce babysteps and do daily missions if you have finished decluttering.

DH let me sleep in this morning . Just getting ready for DS1's appointment. DS2 is going to spend some time with his Grandma whilst we are there, which he loves.

Lauren - I hope you're right.

Ellie - sorry to hear your purse was stolen. It's awful to think it was taken by someone who knows you. I hope he/she feels guilty. Hope you have a good time on your family trip. Good idea to get the house sorted first. I didn't manage it before we went away last Thursday and it was horrible coming back to an untidy house. Gets you off on the wrong foot.

SC - I'm sure your Flying skills will shine through at work! DH's new business premises have shared loos and a kitchen and they are not in the - ahem - best state of cleanliness. I was sorely tempted to go in there with a microfibre cloth the other day.

Thanks for the daily links, Ellie. Swishing and swiping is one of my favourite steps and I do actually get comments on my shiny bathroom from visitors. I even notice other people's unshined taps when I go to other people's houses (how sad am I ).

Off to check out the mission now.

Er, yes, today's mission (in master bedroom) is sorely needed in this house. Might need more than 15 minutes though...

Well due some emotion shit that needed dealing with, and complete emotion exhaustion the list for yesterday and today looks like this:

Unpack car done
Bedding wash.
Shower and up (need stuff out of car to do so) done
Clean car out
Training done
Wash car outside
hoover car
Laundry 2 loads done
put ds' finished homework into his homework folder.
Look through the new lego catelog done

5 min room rescue in my room
5 min room rescue in bathroom
Surface clean bathroom (will need a deep clean next week -yuck)
remake bed
Sort out training kit for monday - including a flame fix.
EARLY Night.

list for monday:
Early training
laundry
wash upolstery and clean inside of car
finish project now marked urgent
Get project washed.
15min declutter my room
clean the bathroom incl bleach floor
tackle the landing lose clutter (ignore box of stuff)
Big burn of stuff needing doing.
Shower
early night

Complete and utter fail on list and functioning. Had not long been awake joy of ds being away for a few days but have a thumping headache probably as a direct result of the trauma of the last two weeks which has been hellish and eventful.

So I am going to slowly work my way through the lists tackling stuff slowly in short bursts with lots of coffee and no functioning. So much that needs to be done. So little energy and absolutely no energy to give a shit today. or see the point. actually I shall be over here ---> in the naughty corner. sod it.

Hope you have productive days!!!

Btw Can i take over the thread next month or Dec if no one has volenteered for it yet?

Nicknacks - born in the 80's

I got a degree, got my first job and bought my first flat in the 80's, even my 'baby' sister was born in the 70's

Darkness - how long have you got on your own? Sleep first, action later I think.

ellie - hope dentist was OK

Busy start to today. Ta Da:

• Run, with a hill
• Take car to be serviced
• Walk home up same hill via a different route - we live at the top of said hill!
• Buy bread, milk and eggs that I had forgotten on online order
• Swap children - I now have 2 x 5yr old boys here, weapons are featuring heavily
• Washing, S&S

To do:

• Park with small boys/scooters
• Toad in hole for tea
• Listing more stuff on ebay (13 items on, 1300 to go!)
• Phone builder to ask where the bl*y quote is - do they not want the work at the moment
• Ironing if I don't get too carried away with ebay

Right boys to park.......................

I am flying at the flying today. Will do ta da list later but feeling very positive. Have survived the dentist but not the potential bill for what needs doing. That's what you get for going private i guess. I think sorting my teeth out will be a long and expensive process but he was a very nice man, i would be if i made as much money as hr is going to from me.

Better get on. Back latet.

Hi all,
popping in to say 'what flying' and laugh at Ellie's 'Weekly bleuch!'
Nicknacks Oh you poor thing, you missed out on enormous shoulder pads, distressed denim and grolsch bottle tops on your doc martins! (nicknacks looks relieved )

The party seemed to go well, although half of them (6) didn't want to do 'organised' games and completely ignored me when I tried to rally them for musical statues. My own ds is included in the unruly rabble ignoring me (so much for supporting mummy! ) It was a bit like kitten herding with kittens which had all had 10 espressos to set them up for the day. Only two boys had scratches and bumps by the end.
We now have bags of sausage rolls mixed with birthday cards and bits of paper so quite a bit of sorting out. DS is back at school tomorrow so need to sort him out something to wear.

So to do
washing out - done
schooliform for tomorrow
washing up
empty all bags and find home for or bin contents
get washing in
sort out foreign currency prepaid card

I have a question about prepaid debit cards to use abroad. Does anyone have any recommendations? I have been recommended fairfx, but I did a search on money supermarket and found a card called ICE and one by the Newcastle buiding society called the Escape card. Now I'm confused. I'm just about to check Money Saving Expert to see if there are any ideas on there....

Today's ta da list!

Dusted
Washed up and dried dishes
Cleared kitchen hotspot
Dusted
Washed down sofas
2 lots of washing (3rd is in washing)
Decluttered / general tidy in my room
Walked to the shop for more cleaning products
Playgroup this morning, painting at local library this afternoon
S&s in bathroom
Convinced boyfriend he should walk the dog AND make tea tonight

Still to do:
Sweep and wash kitchen floor
Hoover whole house (bungalow so all one floor)

Prince Charles is at our local library today I didnt see him though which is a shame, he could have finger painted some bats with us!!

rowing Have never heard of prepaid debit cards, but could you use your normal UK debit card to withdraw cash abroad? We worked out that it's about the cheapest way of changing money when we come back to the UK.

rowing We used a Visa one when we went to the States and it was fine.

Rowing - there is a section all about it on MSE, we took out a Halifax credit card to use abroad (for cash as well as credit) this year based on MSE recommendations but it took a few weeks to process the application. Some debit cards are EXTREMELY expensive to use for withdrawing cash abroad. When I started a thread about it quite a few people recommended the prepaid credit cards, but the info is always changing.

Have done practically no flying today and feel like the house is descending into CHAOS again. Actually, I know it's nothing that a few hotspot blitzes won't fix, but CBA...

Still, on the bright side, we survived the first day of half term without any actual bloodshed and I'm going to Zumba in a bit to work off some frustration!

Waves to all. BBL.

. it's all gone CBA this week. routines have slipped, home blessing hasn't been done, piles of clean laundry are piling up in the bedrooms. Oh well, start again tomorrow.

List update

Unpack car done
Bedding wash.
Shower and up (need stuff out of car to do so) done
Clean car out
Training done
Wash car outside
hoover car
Laundry 2 loads done
put ds' finished homework into his homework folder.
Look through the new lego catelog done
5 min room rescue in my room
5 min room rescue in bathroom
Surface clean bathroom (will need a deep clean next week -yuck)
remake bed
Sort out training kit for monday - including a flame fix.
EARLY Night.

list for monday :
Early training
laundry 3 loads done
wash upolstery and clean inside of car
finish project now marked urgent
Get project washed.
15min declutter my room
clean the bathroom incl bleach floor
tackle the landing lose clutter (ignore box of stuff)
Big burn of stuff needing doing.
Shower 1hr and half soak in bath with book
early night

Not on either list but actually got one
Sort out all of the recycling to go out done
Sort through the board games to see what is no longer in use/broken and cull
put out 2 hotspots in lounge done
Declutter in the study 1hrs worth done
Sort out ds' kit for later in the week done

So tomorrow's list looks like this:
Blood tests
Bedding wash.
put ds' finished homework into his homework folder.
5 min room rescue in my room
remake bed
finish project now marked urgent
Get project washed.
Big burn of stuff needing doing.
Shower
Early night

List for wednesday:
finish decluttering in Study
Clean car out
Wash car outside
hoover car
wash upolstery and clean inside of car
Deep clean the bathroom incl bleach floor
tackle the landing lose clutter (ignore box of stuff)
early night

Thus basically Tuesday and Wednesday lists are a rehash of sunday and mondays [dispair] ah well at least something got done.

Impressive ta-da list Lauren!

Glad dentist went well Ellie.

Darkness - hope tomorrow is better.

Night all.

hello to all!
well today has gone alright, thanks in part to arrival of kind cleaner who cleaned for three hours and I cleaned/decluttered/purged ahead of her! So we made progress (6 hours of cleaning would make a difference I suppose!)

Master bedroom much tidier
bedrooms hoovered (after yesterday declutter)

took kids out at 1pm
we bought some school shoes, and some more books to support ds's learning (I need to find more out about Caesar have bought a v.excitign looking book about the Roman Republic aptly called Crossing the Rubicon)

did some homework
read my book on How To Talk To Children So They Listen and Listen So They Talk...keep returning to this, it is as good as any therapist, to make you realise what you are doing wrong. Never praise and then add But [good tip that)

generally a very nice relaxed day, which was entirely due to tidyish house.

Still mountains of washing. Ds2 wet bed Twice yesterday, His and Ours. Dh awake most of night, I retreated to dd's bed.

darkness my car is an absolute disgrace again
hope you can regenerate whlst ds away.
Blue arf at surviving without bloodshed. If mine are dressed by 1Oam on the first day of halfterm I feel I'm surviving! For once they all trotted out of the house quite happily without murdering each other on the doorstep.
Ds2 made himself several toasties, dd was painting a mug to bake which reminds me I've left it in the Oven! Help

Morning all! I am on my merry way to North Wales today. I have a bit of flying to do before I go to ensure the place is left tidy but was a good girl yesterday so nothing too strenuous.

Your babystep for today is learning about routines.

Your mission is here.

Have a good day everyone!

Quick round-up before I finish packing!

sr had 6 hours of cleaning in total but 3 of them were her cleaners . Getting a cleaner was the best thing I ever did. Fact.

darkness posted the most mammoth list ever! She also volunteered for next month upon which I will take her up!

whoknows stumbled into the naughty corner and was giving sage money advice!

laurenaium wins gold star of the day! It'll wear off, she's new ..

toffee had a lovely lie in, extolled the virtues of the swish and swipe and revealed inner judgey pants over bathroom taps.

rowingboat had a successful party and a happy bunny rabbit!

sc was not only flying at home but also at work.

That sucks!

Have a good day everyone!

Ooooo gold star

at inner judgey pants over taps!!

Swan - i read that book about once every six months when I have found myself slipping back into shouty mum mode. I really struggle to not do the "but" thing.

Better go, not done anything useful yet today.

Swan - I would love to regenerate whilst ds is away. Although I suspect the best I will be able to do is to be slightly less broken.

Anyhow Starting the how I mean to go on - infusing with caffine Have decided to go with the bold cross out style list today for a change.

Blood tests
Big fry up - just cooking
Bedding wash.
put ds' finished homework into his homework folder.
5 min room rescue in my room
remake bed
finish project now marked urgent
Get project washed.
Big burn of stuff needing doing.
Shower
Early night

Now to eat breakfast. Can't beat a big fry up on a cold windy autumn morning.

Ooo must remember to go buy a pumpkin too. Must NOT forget!

Hi all,

Ellie you do get around don't you! Wales bach!

Swan that book sounds very interesting. It's nice to have an approach to problems rather than mentally scrabble around trying to think of something threatening or appealing to dangle in front of children.

To do - going to put times on this so that I don't get side-tracked

continue to sort out bits and pieces from party
morning routine -
kitchen s&s, sweep, wash up 15 mins total
bathroom s&s, sweep, wipe DONE
washing up/out 10mins
new load 3 mins

Phone Kalixa about weird account thing happening - done
vitamins 2 mins
vacuum 10 mins
5 min room rescue sitting room
15 minute anything - organise walk-in cupboard
clothes away 10 mins
get a babystep
Measure a bit of skirting board for the bathroom 10 mins
Collect ds and his friend and take his friend home
dinner - sausages and squash

Thank you for the info about the cards. I have found a couple of cards which I am going to use. one is for a big transaction the other for general spending. One is Kalixa, which doesn't charge for card transactions, and seems to have a good exchange rate, but is 2.25 for atms, the other is fairfx which only charges £1 for atms, but has a high fee for transactions. So one is for just taking out money and the other is for a big transaction which I don't want to be charged for.
My own: Halifax debit card, is described as the 'card from hell' on money saving expert, it charges for everything and gives a rubbish exchange rate.

Oops just noticed the recycling needs to be put out as well - add to list
and hotspots got two now. Does everyone do hotspots twice?
I was thinking one in the morning and one in the evening would be OK?

Erm usually i ignore hotspots. I have been lurking on the computer far to long but have set up a most satisfying spreadsheet. Got another one to set up that will be more depressing then satisfying but hey ho.

Must get on with project.

Hello!

Quick list and then I'll be back for a chat after lunch.

Wash, dry and remake our bed
Hoover upstairs
Clean bathroom
Make lunch
Empty DW
Another load of laundry on
Make dinner
Clean laundry away
Mop kitchen floor
Science experiments with DS's