Remember, remember the fledgling Flyers: dusting, and decluttering a lot..

[DarknessSoothes]

Come one come all, fledgling reunite. 1st of the month and we survived the fright. Bonfire month and lets burn though the housework to prepare for the festivities of December.

As from the 1st we will be babystepping, mission and deep cleaning our way out of the C.H.A.O.S. (can't have anyone over syndrome).

For newbies and those who need reminding here is the principles behind the babystep system.

The basic is this:

1. Do the babysteps.
2. When you do the babysteps with consistency add in the missions
3. When you are doing the babysteps and missions as a habbit tackle the deep cleaning.

This thread is a mishmash of people at different stages. The lists can look long, but look carefully, some of us are reposting lists and parts of lists from day to day.

Our motto is this: Do not strive to be perfect, Progress is progress and anything is better then nothing and my personal favourite part of the fly lady system is you are never behind, just jump in and start from where you are.

So on that note here we go. With much thanks to Ellie who lead us with amusing roundups last month.

Day 1: Babystep 1 - How to shine your sink

Mission here - this will update overnight ready for the early fledglings

Tuesday's reminders are here: It's planning day

And for those of you who are eagerly awaiting christmas here is the flylady's crusing into christmas page. Personally i did some of this last year and done some this year and it does take a chunk of the stress out of christmas.

Well now that I have suitably scared you, see you all tomo!!

Washing
Dry clothes
Washing up
Up and ready
Dinner
DD's Room
Make Ds's bed
school and college stuff together
Rubbish out
Ironing
Put clothes away
Bathroom
Toilets
SS
Sweep and mop kitchen
Hoover
Brush stairs
windows
living room
Dust and polish

Well done on your list molepom. Looks like you've had a fairly productive day too, Darkness.

Welcome back SC, good to see you again! Being greeted by a depressing sight on your return sounds all too familiar; sadly but not surprisingly, no elves had been to sweep away the chaos while we were in London.

Toffee So good to hear about your DC; it must be a huge weight off your shoulders.

Hope you're feeling better soon, MC.

Spent virtually all afternoon out, as I went to the stationery shop with the DDs after their piano lesson to buy some paper for DD1 to make a poster about London (she has to give a talk at school) and we ended up going to the hairdresser's on the spur of the moment too. Spent the rest of the afternoon at a friend's and returned to find... the chaos still there.

Studiously ignoring the mess in the hope that it will go away, I've spent most of the evening invoicing three jobs - though did multitask by eating dinner and watching TV at the same time.

Must go to bed now, even if it won't be the early night I was hoping for (I slept quite badly last night). Am hoping to wake up with renewed energy and vigour to tackle the chaos tomorrow! No work, medical appointments, speech therapy or runs to distract me, so I shall have no excuses. Friends' visit is drawing nearer and the room where they'll be sleeping is the worst of the lot...

Oh my life. I cannot even begin to compete with these lists and i have no tales of small animal poo so my presence is entirely superfluous.

Had a fab weekend, didn't want to come home. Lots of fun, fireworks and bracing walks on the beach.

Am off to bed. Am pooped.

Rubbish day here, will start afresh tomorrow.

Don't worry ellie - my list's a bit rubbish too. In fact so much so that I cba even to post it

Well done to everyone who's done better than me, and hooray for recovered small animals

Need to do some more paid work now, but still cba!

Yeah well based on past experience, that is the only long successful list. Will be back to the naughty corner as usual as of tomorrow.

babystep is to start your control journal

mission in this sneak peak

Tuesday is planning day

Welcome home SC - was stir-up Sunday the day I am supposed to make Christmas cake/pud? If so, the ingredients are in the cupboard waiting so you haven't missed it. Distinct case of cba but must do it or there will be no time to feed it
Must do some flying tomorrow, house looking far too grubby for 3 boys to tell their mums about on Thursday!

Thanks for the lovely welcome back. Makes the holes in the walls not so bad after all

Glad you had a good time too Ellie

Have just done a search Mummy and it looks like we are ok - according to this site anyway, Stir Up Sunday listed as 20 November.

Try not to worry too much about the house on Thurs btw - am sure the boys will be far too busy playing to notice - save your energy for cleaning up afterwards

Thanks very much for linkies Darkness and seriously, BE PROUD of your completed list. You too Molepom !!

My sentiments entirely CatherineWheel

Hope you manage to get everything done that you set your sights on tomorrow Linzer

Waves to Pushme et al

G'night

lots of guests at weekend here...soo

very glad to see cleaning lady this morning, as it meant I was able to go to work not wade through saucepans. As usual I was dreading her arrival as it meant tidying everything, but it turned out alright....

Judaism week at school. So reading to children about Old Testament heroes in library.

Dh at home today (something wrong with tendon in his foot , so he sent me off for a nap at 2pm and moved playroom round for me as I had been muttering that piano was about to expire if it leant against the freezing draughty fireplace any longer [piano tuner confirmed that its joints were stiffening, this afternoon]

dd went to ballet. Ds1 researched Blake, Arthritis and Angels for English...[homework????? very odd...is it some alphabetical challenge) and argued. I walked backwards and forwards from Scouts and Ballet...shopped cooked, read stories,flaked out.

Monday is usually much much worse so I'm relieved Dh was here to help today.

SC still, it's home! I asked the children if they wanted us to change the kitchen (which is terribly shabby and dysfunctional) and they looked at us in horror! For some reason they want a new car as they think this mght be solution to the still lost CAR KEY and havign to walk everywhere...My nerve is breaking, I am going to have to get the car taken to be re-initialized.

Awake at stupid time, which, inevitably will mean me being a zombie for the day! Oh noooooo!! LOng day ahead. Off to see if I can get some more sleep, but if I dont return before work I'll be back later.

Right can't sleep. Brain has been far too busy. Tonight I should have the nn ChaoticDarkness... So I thought that I would take the time to do the round up as I expect i shall sit down and fall asleep post school run.

Oh Bollocks, not done a round up since thursday.

Right then. First things first Hope you all have enjoyable bonfire night celebrations!!! As for the lethargy I suspect it must be as a result of half terms and late nights. Here's hoping for the rediscovery of motivation and will to fly.

Madwoman I seem to recall you having a scarily efficient day last week. And you have been around enough to know this really is a passing phase

Linzer reported a disappointed DH who couldn't find big bags of stamps, and a mess that refused to tidy itself away no matter how much time she ignored gave it.

There were lots of kind thoughts for PMPY and her ds. Hope he heals quick and you have recovered from the shock.

SC had a weekend away, as did Ellie both enjoyed themselves until they returned and reality of home met them at the front door.

PA and SC were pleased to report no more poo issues wrt small furry critters. Although PA is worried about the neighbours' view on her DH's sanity.

molepom seems to be the quiet, regularly scarily efficient one. of consistency.

Ellie had the best ta da list this week short, sweet and saved on the washing up.

Toffee had a mixed school trip with ds2 before the weekend but has seen remarkable progress in ds1. Yay for ds1!!!!! Glad things are settling down for him.

Star of the roundup goes to OneMore who has made huge progress in decluttering 55 out of 70 boxes pst when you are done I have about 15 boxes that need declutter.

Swan has been driven crazy by that eternal safe place. In which the kindle and car keys can be found. However, in the hunt for said items she has sucessfully been decluttering.

Now wrt to that previous supreme efficency of madwoman, she declutter and rehome the desk ecosystem and was concern over the safety of DH with the first major snow fall of the season. Thankfully he turned up safe and well but I still have serious snow

CheerfulYank jumped back on board although with being in the middle of renovations, i suspect she is either incredibly brave or a tad optomistic. yeah sorry perhaps next month with a more serious leader might have been a better plan Good luck to you!!!!

CatherineWheel is a namechanger, although I will probably get confused. Even my own name changes have been know to confuse me in the past regular old fledglings may remember thread leader nc debarcle

Blue was gently pottering away with achievable length lists, and pondered the great problem of crafty stuff storage.

lauren was further inciated into the mn way. You did sign the disclaimer when you joined mn right?

NickNacks made the most of her DH's day off and offer to take stuff to the tip for her.

DWMummy popped in and invited us to join her in her incredible journey.

Nettie had been kidnapped by rl again and had a day of doing nothing which quite frankly in my opinion skipped the nothing part.

PA reminded us of the importance of not turning you back on food when there are teenagers in the house. Did DH come home in a better mood after being someone else's problem?

SC and DWM were discussing stir up sunday. aparantly 20th November so there is time to feed the christmas cake. But as no one in this house likes fruit cake, I think my sponge might be a bit furry made on this date

Quick clarification for OneMore and the other newbies to the thread. During the week there are the babysteps, and missions. The weekend is just the basic routines that are built up from the babysteps see today's babystep which shows the start of this However, some on the thread find it suits them better to do the home bleurgh or at least part of it on the sunday. So it really is about fitting it to suit your life.

Wow. Round up would appear done I guess I will post a quick list and then grab a couple hours sleep before the craziness of the day starts.

PMPY noted that this month is meal planning month. Iirc there were several helpful links that people were using a while back. Are they still being used? would you recommend them?

The list:
Empty car
Hoover car
Clean Upolstery
Clean glass
Wash car
Put car back together
check tyre tread, fluids, lights etc.
Laundry
finish off ds' room (bedding)
Nap
Ds to training (shockingly the kit is already ready to go. Makes a change - especially as the swimming kit for tomo was sorted today too )
EARLY NIGHT.

It's not morning yet. I haven't been to sleep yet. Besides medicinal brandy or some such is supposed to be good for shock

Hope you managed to get some more sleep PA

Wow darkness thanks for the huge roundup!!

Right, so list today:
Mission (cupboards really need doing so this is great )
Hoover
Wash kitchen floor
Wash up and shine sink
Wash load *1
Playgroup this afternoon
Walk the dog

Well...here goes another day!

I wish I could take credit for some of those things but DD did a lot yesterday as she was angling for something (turns out she wants to help out at the book fair for the next 3 days which means a lot of messing about, picking them both up from school, walking back to drop her off then dragging me and ds back out to pick her up again).

I'm not going to college today as didnt sleep a wink last night because a)I'm coming down with something and b) either the guttering on my side of the semi or next doors down pipe is dripping and it's loud. I went into the loft thinking it's my roof but nothing is leaking there and it's louder right in the corner of the dividing wall and the outside wall in my bedroom so I think it's the next doors down pipe.

So today, I'm going to do a bit of shopping, pick up an airer to help with the mountain of washing, put some pennies in the bank..there was something else as well...something that I needed to get but cant remember.

I'm going to try to do a bit of housework today but I really need to sleep. I cant go to college tired and use the machines, I'll end up cutting my arm off or something.

Hope you manage to sleep DS and thanks for the round up.

Ok, so I managed most of yesterdays list. Todays goes:
breakfast
sink
kitchen hot spot
make emergency app at drs for dd2
catch bus and take both into nursery for photos
hopefully take dd2 to drs
what's for tea?
2 loads of washing at home inc our bedding
living room hotspot

That should do me in for today! I'm not trying to be superwoman, I'd fail miserably, I just need to have a kick up the bum to get everything done. DH is quite good but he has already forgotten how tough it is to get things done with a 2yr old and a 5week old! But, as he works a ten-hour shift, I do like to have something to show for my time at home.

Good luck everyone!

Thanks for the round up, Darkness.

Well, didn't manage to tackle the bedroom yesterday thanks to exhaustion from lack of sleep. So the bedroom is my job for today. Unfortunately, DS2 is having a sickie not well, so he's at home as well. I know he's very bored at school and suspect this is behind his insistence that he's ill. He does have a rash under his mouth, but seems fine in himself. Anyway, at the moment he's in his room, playing and listening to a story tape, so I should be able to get on with some work.

DH has just done the washing up .

Hope you all have a good and productive day.

hi all

Have got to the bottom of our mould problem we think and have put the bedroom back to rights after washing everything down with special solution and painting some other special stuff on to the backs of our wardrobes, walls and drawer bottoms. Had a window seat made and fitted in Friday in our lounge and as i wasn't thinking straight didn't move all the bedding and cushions etc out the way and the wood dust got everywhere - ggrr - so had to wash everything and hoover everywhere (the guy only finished at 8.30pm so i didn't get to bed until late and DH was out with the lads so no help) Anyhoo all done now and looking good. My bed feels even more fantastic now we're back in our bedroom and good nights sleeps are resumed.

Have done a huge pile of ironing this morning whilst listening to Christmas tunes on ipod.
Feather dusted my kitchen - wow it so needed doing especially around the velux windows.

That is all I have accomplished so far as phone keeps ringing etc.

Hope you are all okay

OMG I thought I was the only one who's been listening to Christmas tunes!

Thanks for the round up - ooooooh! Star of the Round up! that has a great ring to it! Just as I was starting to feel despondant!

Don't worry everyone, menu planning will be my downfall. Usually I open the fridge and make it up.

(last night dh 'I thought we were having quiche and salad?'
me - "Well yes but then I opened the fridge and realised there was no salad"
dh "I'll just cook myself some pasta")

Must say when I look back at last week I'm actually rather surprised with myself. I'd already forgotten all my hard work and was wondering why I'm living in such chaos.

Real chaos. Like hunting around for underwear, socks etc for myself and children all over the house everymorning!!!

The remaining boxes are now stacked up in an alcove and have been left there since last week. Thinking of buying some snazzy material to cover them up with a make shift curtain while I get round to organising the every day bits of housework again. But then that would be another to do.

Anyway, it's funny how you soon get used to 15 boxes and don't notice them at all after a while!

TO DO
1 - ignore remaining boxes and get house back on track.
2 - Menu plan
3 - Work out how to do italics, emoticons etc when posting on mn.

Morning all,

i'm in a mood with DH. Its taken me over twohours to get the kitchen straight as nothing has been done whilst I've been ill. He said its because he was looking after DD. I manage this all week and dtill manage to keep the kitchen clean. He'd also put away a cake tin without emptying it. It's a cgood job i checked it or it would ahve been horrid next time we used it. Yuck!!

Been to shops and done a full shop as well and now first load of washing is in too. I'm beginning to flag though as I think I've done too much so I'm going to answer a few e-mails and relax for a while.

Other jobs for today

• 2 more loads of washing
• Take library books back to library
• DDs parents evening
• E-mails
• Another job app
• Find hospital letter for DDs appointment tomorrow
• An hour (not very fly but heyho) in Spare room.
• Take a look at mission if have time.

Right I think I'll get some lunch whilst I'm having downtime and I'll try to catch up on thread.

Goodness me you lot can chat :)
I go AWOL since Thursday and you have filled up 6 pages

Still feeling quite rough but have been keeping it all together as had busy w/e and yesterday was DS's birthday.
DWM - I had 3 x 6yr old boys plus DS round here yesterday. They were very loud and ran up and down the stairs a lot but ate well, were polite and all had a lovely time.
I spent far too much time moving boxes and 'stuff' so they had a decent play area. It was most depressing to move most of it back last night. I REALLY need to declutter.

Toffee - quite at school trip. DH went to Legoland with DD's year last Summer term (yr 3). Groups were of 4-6 depending on make-up of group with a parent/teacher/TA to each group. Everyone knew exactly who they were responsible for and who they had to chase when they ran off/fish out of the fountain (twice!)/etc. Is there anyone you can raise it with?

PMPY - Sounds like DS is on the mend, :) at finding out he can chew bandage off. How are you though? It is HARD WORK looking after an injured child - emotionally and physically, take care of yourself.

Got a very small list today as need to shake off this cough/chesty thing/mouth ulcers/zits/etc.

• Pack up and post ebay things (decluttering with financial rewards :))
• Take more photos for ebay
• Washing away
• Curl up on sofa and read
• Bank work cheques
• Sort out dinner
• Ironing later so DC have uniform
• Early night

Need hot choc first :)

Feet - I have been thinking about raising the subject of safety on the school trip with either the head or the teacher concerned, but was hoping to get some other parents on my side first and haven't had a chance to speak to anyone about it yet. It's a bit awkward because I'm basically making a complaint about the TA (unless it was the teacher's decision) and I don't particularly want her to know that it's me making the complaint. But it has really put me off letting DS go on a school trip with her or that teacher again.

So sorry you have been under the weather, Feet. Hope you feel better soon.

Makingchanges - sorry your DH wasn't up to the task! I suppose he just isn't used to doing both childcare and housework, as you are. I hope it has made him appreciate more what it is you do on a daily basis. Don't do too much, now, or you'll get ill again .

Justonemore - If you really want to get into menu planning, I recommend Menus4Mums which, in spite of the iffy title (well, it probably is mainly mums doing the cooking, but still...), is very useful. I like the fact that they tell me what to cook five days a week, so I don't have to think about it. The recipes are easy to cook and usually only take about half an hour. Plus they do useful things like getting you to cook a double batch of something to make into a different recipe later in the week. Also, I feel less responsible if nobody likes the recipe because somehow it isn't my fault!

LadyinPink - wow, you have been busy! Glad to hear you are getting a good night's sleep again now you are back in your (de-moulded!) bedroom.

Lady and Molepom - you can't listen to Christmas tunes yet - you'll be all Christmassed out by 25th December. Having said that, i must admit that I am already planning Christmas , thanks to looking up fake snow for DS2's Club Penguin party. Take a look at this to get inspired!

Lorelais - I think you are doing fantastically with your lists and two little ones .

Molepom - oh, not getting sleep is hell. I'm still recovering from only getting four hours' sleep the night before last. I can't function the next day. Hope you get enough sleep tonight and that the bug doesn't materialise.

Well, I have battled valiently against the clutter in our bedroom and I have managed to clear a space, but I am defeated by the bags of papers and DH's piles of books to sell (sound familiar, Swan?). But at least I have made some inroads. Have also arranged to return two items of clothing that I don't want, something I have been putting off for ages. For some reason, making the phone calls and repackaging them seemed too much like hard work .

DS2 has been bouncy and jolly all day, so clearly not ill. I think he decided he needed a bit of home education today. He has done some literacy (listened to story tapes and made sentences with magnetic key words), done some science (attempted to change batteries in a toy phone and work out why it still isn't working), done some maths (taking pennies from the pot beside our bed to add to his wallet), practised debating ("Why I should be allowed to watch telly all day") and is currently studying science fiction (watching an old episode of Dr Who with DH) .

Just off to make some bat cookies with him from a Hallowe'en cookie kit we haven't used yet. So we can add cookery to his list as well.

I think I might need to study oenology later .

waves limply from naughty corner ....

back when I have some Flying to report

Hawls SC back to join her in the naughty corner and not only have I not slept but I have not done any flying either. Feckit or ?