If tidying your home is your New Year's resolution, Flying with us could be the solution

[ToffeeWhirl]

Welcome to the January Fledgling Flyers' thread. A very big thank you to BlueEyeshadow and IceColdBitch for guiding us through the busy Christmas month.

Are you living in CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome)? We know the feeling. We follow Flylady's routines, which aim to help you take control of your home, tidying and decluttering and setting up daily and weekly routines that keep your home looking presentable. We also chat quite a lot and swap tips on coping with housework and mess.

From the first of the month, we will be following Flylady's tips on restoring order to our homes. There are three methods, depending on whether you are new to the system or have been following it for a while:

1. Babysteps
2. Babysteps + 15 mins daily decluttering in current zone
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.

Oh, and don't - really, really ^don't^ - sign up to Flylady's emails.

The first babystep will be posted on 1st January 2012.

Happy New Year.

Poeia, I signed up to the website when I first started years ago and it's really not worth it.
Although, I think you can change the email settings so you get 1 a day but they really are a pita and crap, you can get everything you need without signing up.
People here who have done this for a while will be able to answer any questions you might have.

Poeia, I signed up to the website when I first started years ago and it's really not worth it.
Although, I think you can change the email settings so you get 1 a day but they really are a pita and crap, you can get everything you need without signing up.
People here who have done this for a while will be able to answer any questions you might have.

Thank you all for the advice - will NOT be signing up to the website!

recursivemoon what are E cloths?

I am pretty Eco friendly and in fact was popping on to ask what products people used. I have used method and Ecover in the past although since moving I have started to use limescale stuff in the toilets. Also what do people use to get watermarks off the shower glass? I've tried lemons, limescale stuff, elbow grease. Nothing working.

Monday's babystep is one that divides the fledglings: get up and get dressed to lace-up shoes .

Why on earth should we get dressed in lace-up shoes? Flylady believes it motivates you to work and gives her slant on it here. The shoes have to be laced up so that you can't slip them off easily and revert back to your slovenly ways .

Make sure you shine your sink before you go to bed!

By the way, Flylady recommends that you buy yourself a timer so that you can set yourself small tasks, usually for 15 minutes (I see Buckminster is using one already). This makes the job seem much less overwhelming. I find it a really useful tip. For instance, I used to struggle through all my ironing at once and feel I had to finish it, which meant I often put off starting it in the first place. Now I'll set my timer for a reasonable length of time, knowing the timer will give me permission to stop.

For those who have graduated from the babysteps, Monday is when we do our 'Weekly Home Blessing'. Set your timer to do 10 mins each on the following: vacuum; dust; mop; polish mirrors and doors; purge magazines; change sheets; empty the bins. More here. Just to reiterate - those still on babysteps, ignore this for now.

This month's zone is in the entrance, front porch and dining room. Monday's mission is to spend 15 minutes tackling the hotspots in your dining room.

Liveinazoo - thanks to you (and your neighbour) for the tip on bicarb of soda and lemon juice.

Jas - thanks for making the very good point about Flylady not being a quick fix. As you say, it's all about building up new routines.

I need fo something downstairs is all open plan which I dislike as means I got to be tidy though the new dishwasher helps

Hi, I am naila,

I.haven't shined my sink :( there was too many dishes and I don't havr a washing up bowl and the kids had managed to crumble wheet a bix everywhere.

But I intend to tomorrow. Along with getting dressed. I will do make up and flip flops.

So if we.are fledglings do we just do Tue babystep, and carry on the rest as usual? Or do we do the 15 min thing and the mission as well? And what is a zone?

Thank you for this thread, I needed it.

I'm in. 1st of Jan and already 14 pages on this thread. Yikes. Am in the US so 6 hours behind most of you. Off to shine my sink.

really need this motivation. Can't see much carpet these days :( hope you can help me

Good morning

poeia I get one email a day used to get hundreds. If I'm in the mood I read them if not I delete.

My list

Get up dressed to pretend uggs
Did homebleugh Friday to get ready for new year so I'm going to tackle 2 hotspots in kitchen/diner
Get school stuff ready including money and nursery stuff too.
Get dh up for bathroom perusal in shops (he been xboxing all night so don't like my chances of doing this without nagging)
Ds opticians
Cook dinner chicken drumsticks and potatoes, veg
Dd swim lesson

I think that will do nicely.

Have lovely days

I'm off to blindly search for my glasses must be here somewhere (currently have phone stuck to end of nose to enable typing)

I thought I'd unsubscribed to FlyLady's e-mails but checked my e-mail account yesterday (it's one I don't really use for anything else) and discovered that I'd subscribed to the daily digest instead and have over 3000 e-mails. I thought I'd deleted all the previous e-mails too, but obviously not.

slowburner I get up between 5.30 and 5.45 am so that I have an hour to myself before I have to wake the DC - it gives me time to have breakfast, MN, have a shower, get their snacks ready and start emptying the dishwasher (if I have time) in peace.
e-cloths are great as you only need water. More info here.

naila Just do the babysteps. Fledglings are the ones who have done the babysteps (a few times) already and have added more stuff. If you are new to FLY you just do the babysteps to start with.

I use an egg timer for the 15 mins - I don't allow myself out of the room I am working in for those 15 mins and get so much done, as I am prone to filtting around the whole house and not finishing anything otherwise

Morning.
I don't do lace up shoes either. I use flip flops, but tbh if I know I'm not going out again (so when I get home after shopping or park etc) I put my pjs back on, is a habit I really can't seem to break!
When we get in, it is the first thing I do, go straight to the bedroom and put pjs on.

I do my weekly home blessing hour on a sat/sun. Didn't manage the hoovering though because I ran out of hoover bags, off to town today to get some more and hoover later.

Ta Da
Get up and make bed
Get boys up and make beds
Get breakfast

To Do
Swish and swipe
Shower and dress
Boys to get dressed
Take rubbish out
Load washing machine
Go to town
hoover
15 min zone detail (not doing mission today)
washing machine on
sort dry clothes
non iron clothes away
start dinner and fill sink
10 minute tidy at end of day
boys in bath
finish kitchen
lay out clothes
remove make up
shine sink
2 min hotspots

is that everything???? Hope so!
happy FLYing

Naila - don't despair! Flylady says you are never behind. Her philosophy is all about focusing on your achievements instead of despairing about how much you haven't done. If you can manage it, shine your sink today. It feels good just to have a clear area if the rest of the house is messy. As you are new to the Flylady system, you only need to do the babysteps, which I will post here daily. These help you to establish new habits in your daily life so that by the end of this month you will have new, efficient routines established.

Re: zones - Flylady divides the house up into zones and each week we concentrate on a different area. This week we are in zone 1: entrance, front porch and dining room. That means the missions and decluttering take place in this zone. Gradually, as the weeks go by, you are tackling each room in your house.

Forgive me not replying to everyone, by the way, but this thread is just too busy! I am reading everyone's posts, though, and will reply to any specific questions.

As I keep banging on about shiny sinks, I shined mine last night. I even buffed the taps. The rest of the kitchen is a bit of a mess and the hotspot in the corner is now covering a whole kitchen counter, but it does feel good to have a clear patch in the middle of it all.

Am going back to normal routines this morning, in preparation for school tomorrow, so I have dragged myself out of bed and woken the children up (though I think they might both have gone back to sleep again ). My 'to do' list for today is:

Cup of tea done
Get dressed (not to lace-ups, but will concede to indoor sandals)
Wake children up again
B/fasts
AM routine - unload dishwasher, reload it with b/fast stuff, put a load of washing on, empty kitchen bin, sort recycling, tumbledry and put clothes away
Weekly shop
Kitchen hotspot - 5 mins on this
'Home blessing' - quick tidy and clean of the house (1 hour max)
DC write last of their thank-you letters
School stuff - uniforms, school bags, PE kits, stationary
Ironing - 30 mins
Visit friends this afternoon
What's for dinner? Thai chicken curry from Menu4Mums
Bedtime routine (get DC to bed at decent hour for school tomorrow)
Before-bed routine (lay out clothes, etc)
Bed at decent hour myself and set alarm for next day

If I have time, I'm also going to start taking down the Xmas decorations. Just want to get back to normal now.

Hope everyone has a good day.

I think its the relentlessness of it all that`s the hardest e.g.
Yesterday I did a big kitchen clean up.
Then cooked a roast dinner and it all needs doing again!
Would love the house to myself for a few days at the moment...

Onwards----
unload dw
reload dw
clean surfaces and cooker top
empty bin
put out recycling
do washing
put out compost
change some beds etc etc

and breathe and smile!

Good Morning all,

Yesterday i managed to get all the christmas decorations down, sorted packed and away. That was quite a job on it's own.
Today I have got up to a shiney sink again and it does make a difference to how you feel going into the kitchen.
Aim for today is to get ready for school/work tomorrow and some de-cluttering in DD's room and my study/junk dumping room.
I also want to get some cooking done for the week and help DD finish her Christmas thank you letters.
Oh and walk the dog
and get some laundry done.
Crickey I suppose I should get off MN, shower and dress to my slippers!

Have a good day all.

Toffee Thanks for the thread.

Hello to Jas (who I haven't spoken to for ages) and openyerlugholes. Feel free to message me with the name I used to know you by if you want to oylh. :)

I was just flicking through active conversations and found this so I'll join in if that's okay. I've made a lot of progress since first being on the FLY threads but I need to keep going.

Toffee Thanks for the link to menus4mums. Will be having a look through that later. I menu plan, have a ring binder of all successful meals and I normally try to sneak 1 new meal in a week, but am getting bored and stuck for ideas.

ToffeeJust looked at that site, not gonna sign up because I don't want to pay for it

How do you shine your sink if it's a white ceramic one? I usually just scrub mine with a scouring sponge and washing up liquid. Is that enough?

Off out to buy cleaning products today as running low and need rubber gloves too (I get bad eczema on my hands if I don't use them)

:
I took down all of our Christmas decorations.

:
Apparently DS found and ate ate a small piece of plastic holly from the tinsel this morning, then choked and was sick. He seems fine now though.

How about Resourceful Cook instead, Silvery? It's free. I just like Menus4Mums because they try to save you money by using supermarket bargains and save you time by getting you to bulk cook something to use later in the week. And I was so fed up with planning meals that it's quite nice to be told what to cook for a change.

Or you could sign up to the Menu4Mums newsletter and get a free week's plan so that you can see what it's like.

Iwasagnome (love that name!) - I agree about the relentlessness. The word 'drudgery' also springs to mind. Like you, I feel as if I could get so much more done if everyone would just leave me on my own in the house for a day, but it's not going to happen. At least the Flylady routines help you to feel a bit less hopeless about it all.

Good morning to Imblet, TheHumanCatapault, cq, Lindor, Jas, Coosnettle and Linzer.

I forgot a very important step on my 'to do' list today: swish and swipe in the bathroom. I do this every day and it's one of the most effective babysteps.

Also, good morning to Dalrymps and Recursive. That's awful about your DS, Recursive. Thank goodness he's all right now. How scary.

Re: cleaning a ceramic sink, Dalrymps, there's a link here. Use a creamy cleanser, nothing scratchy.

Thanks Toffee, it was scary at the time. He wasn't himself for about 10 mins before he was sick, and he did look like he had something stuck in his throat. It was such a relief when he was sick and I saw the holly (bloody tinsel).