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.

Hey everyone, feeling quite pleased with how I've done so far today.

I'm trying not to do too much and haven't tackled any decluttering yet.

No swish in the bathroom today but I only did it yesterday aft and its still sparkling so will continue with that tomorrow.

Have shined my sink
Cleaned the hob and oven doors so it's all shiney now.
Folded clean washing
Cleared pots away and put dishwasher on
Wiped table and surfaces

Also got dressed and fed the boys breakfast and lunch and fed the dog etc.

Feeling more in control and less ashamed. It might be cluttered but at least parts of it are clean!

Day 4, a bit of a set back with storm damage last night adding to what needs clearing up, and can only get at some of it, but a shiny sink regardless.
I really don?t need to add to the clutter with post it notes, so am writing habit reminders in diary in shorthand (which I need to learn for work) so either I?ll get reminded or at least improve the shorthand! :o

Am going to try and do some extra to kitchen and more filing later.

Having a very productive day here...a,ong with shiny sink and dressed to shoes have also done 15 mins of ironing, plus 15 mins decluttering. Also washed the 3 pairs of wellies which have been sat outside our front door for 3 days. Dd back at nursery today and DS had his first 'settling' session which went well...feels glod to be ba k in a bit of a routine.
Apologies for typos, dp's laptop has pa ked in so he is using mine for work,meaning I am left with this blackberry tablet thing...longing for a real keyboard!
Just read this back and doesn't sound so productive but it is for me!

My ta da list:
To loads laundry washed and hung
Breakfast done and away
Dishwasher unloaded and loaded again
Made enormous loaf of bread, too big for my breadbin (twit)
Scraped paint of walls after pink crocodile painting session
Coffee with chum whose DD started undecorating my tree
Tree now nearly dedecorated by me...

To do:
Embarassing quantities of bottles to recyling
Tea with another chum
Finish Chrismas decs away
15m declutter
Find IPOD so I can start running before DCs wake at 7. Yuk.
Phone calls while kids are napping

Thanks again for inspiration.

Poeia, do hope your DS enjoyed his first settling in. Impressive achievements indeed. My DS will have his first session soon, going to same nursery as DD, so we're in the same boat. I can only imagine the peace (and productivity) of a house to myself (but only for a couple of short months until I'm back to work, eek).

HeyNonnyNo thank you, he really enjoyed it. They have a webcam thing which I watched him on,and he was holding hands with the others and skipping around, so definitely a promising start. He'll settle for a week the next wed will be his first whole day. I'm sure it helps that his big sis goes there, he is familiar with taking her etc, so fingers crossed will be the same for you too.

Although I had to wake DD up this morning to go back to school, we got up, dressed, breakfasted, hair brushed and up and out the door with all needed gear (including dinner money) and there before the doors opened and with minimal chivvy-ing (sp?) which was a great start.

Other completed tasks today are:

• quick supermarket run and letters posted
• load of washing in, out and hung up
• taken DS's girlfriend to train station
• took and collected DS's laptop from repair shop
• made 3 admin type phone calls which included an appointment to visit a new Junior school for DD tomorrow
• quick visit to the dump to get rid of 2 huge bags of plastic bottles and
• afternoon school run

We know what we are having for dinner and I will make sure my sink is shined again before bed - which still hasn't been before 1am which was one of my NY resolutions!

Just touching in, loving clean sink. Has made me finish dishes each evening as always used to leave a few things for the morning

Today's a little bit hard as its my day at work. But we were all up dressed and ready by 8am. I have hoovered, made beds, done bathroom, dishwasher, have dinner cooking and will do another washing load tonight. Must remember to shine my sink tonight and spend 15 tidying the boxes in hall

First day back at school for us, out the door with all bags, uniform, shoes and no shouting!!!

Sink was still blissfully shiny from last night, lots of impressive lists - to-do, shopping etc. Made some calls on my list while UK still in business hours.

Walked the dogs then ran 5 miles and now having a leisurely breakfast with MN and have ground to a halt. It's all going pear-shaped. It's 12.30 here in Texas and the one really important thing I was suppsed to do today was sign the kids up for swim lessons. And the swim office shuts at 12. Kicking myself very hard.

However, will not let it knock me back, off for a quick shower and then declutter the hall cupboard and take all outgrown shoes & sports stuff to the thrift shop on the way to school. An at least I know what we're having for tea. SO not too bad really.

Thank you to Toffee and all other posters, this thread is really helping! I am mostly sticking to babysteps plus a bit of decluttering but the house looks so much better even with just that. I think it somehow resets my brain to 'tidy mode' so I make more of an effort to generally keep things tidy. Just have to maintain momentum now, there's a long way to go in this house!

Wow you lot can talk a lot! Everyone is getting on so well with flying. Shiny sinks all around the world!

toffee I was actually singing in the rain Was early and no-one else around so sang at the top of my lungs whilst I splashed through the puddles. Great fun!

House looking great. Everything done for the night so off to slob and watch telly. Night all!

toffee sprinkled bit bicarb.2hr later still stink so added few drops lavender oil.30 mins later bobs yer uncle whiff free
got bit ironing done and found hall floor.made paths through kids rooms to beds.will do bit more on that tomorrow.
sinks still shiny
anyone got tips for contact dermatitis?my hands are get sore.gloves arent helping as when it starts react to every bloodything.my desire for clean house stronger than painful cracked hands but anyone can advise would be grateful as gp just offers steroid creams and id rather not if poss

Liveinazoo - I replaced all liquid soaps with bars of soap and my hand eczema has improved a lot. Also wear gloves when outdoors as much as possible, the cold aggravates cracking.

Heynonnyno hope you get some sucess, they soon get the message and it will free up better quality time for them. Tbh i'm a big fan of free play.

Morning routine done, then out for play date.
No mid day jobs today i took the dog for a long walk as DH still off. I love walking in the rain.
Evening routine done, quick mop toinght.

Ironing sheets and muslins.......madness.

I'm also an aldi microfiber cloth lover, colour coded here.

Have been flying and working today - what a nightmare!!!! However, still feel motivated and am enjoying feeling like I'm at least tackling the house! I got all the kids stuff ready for school/cm tomorrow as soon as I got back and did 30 mins of washing, dw, clothes away etc while they watched Ben and Holly. Bed at 7 for them, so now I have a bit of time to myself (I know I should probably do some more housework, but I need a cuppa and a sit down!)
Well done to all of us newbies who have not given up yet and a massive thankyou to all you very efficient and highly inspirational old timers!!!

whoknows hadnt thought of gloves outside.its cold and windy.doh!thank goodness someones on the ball!ive dug out some neutrogena handcream and am going to slather that on in the hope it minimazes some damage while i sleep

liveinazoo, I sometimes get contact dermatitis on my hands too, it's such a pain. It seems to flare up when my hands are particularly dry, and when I'm particularly stressed . I find that lots of cream (pretty much anything, Vaseline is good), then a pair of cotton gloves on at night helps a lot.

Just popping in to see how everyone is.

liveinazoo - glad to hear you found a solution to the whiffy cupboard! By the way, I'm not sure if this will help contact dermatitis, but when I had sore, cracked, dry skin on my hands, my local pharmacist recommended cheap aqueous cream (cost about 99p) and told me to wear soft cotton gloves after applying it at night. My hands healed within days.

openyerlugholes - at you singing in the rain. I watched that sequence from the film with my DC at Christmas. DS1 loved it (I think DS2 was a bit young to appreciate it).

Sorry not to reply to anyone else - DS2 is calling. BBL.

You would have been if you had actually heard me Toffee. Can't sing (for toffee haha) and having earphones in and music blasting wouldn't have helped my intonation...

I need to get the utility room done this week. Running out of time and am in the office over the next few days. Think I will probably have to work all weekend too (vat return to do). Will take me a two to three hours to complete and don't think I can spare it. So frustrated. And if I don't get it done this week I won't be back to that zone for another 5 weeks gah!

Morning routine done! It more consists of:
Up, empty dishwasher (put on previous night)
Get kids & self fed & dressed
Get dry washing off airer & fold, take to bedrooms
Hang out washing (put on previous night)
Make school lunches/days snacks
Five minute blitz of each bedroom (air, make beds, keep washing, general tidy)
Swish & swipe bathrooms
Lick'n'polish vacuum

And all out the door before 8.30am! Never would have thought it possible. The nice thing is that any of the last three steps can be postponed if I'm really pushed for time.

I have ignored post it notes (more clutter!) and instead put all my jobs on Chore Checklist... Can recommend it for any other android users! Seems to be really good so far.

Evening routine is sadly not so wizzy, I am normally too knackered to do anything other than collapse on the sofa! Sink is still shined tho :)

Liveinazoo - are you allergic to lanolin? I find this common ingrediant that is supposed to be so good for the skin causes my skin to crack and split horrifically. Removing this from soaps that I use has stopped this.

Have just found a downside for being more housewifeish. Today I also cleared my purse/handbag of loads of random receipts to find this evening that 2 bottles of coke I bought the other day expired in Oct 11 so haven't the receipt to return them! Maybe I can use them to clean the loo / drains /something

Ooh, receipts. I kindof love receipts .

We put all of our receipts in a plastic box, then file them away in a ziplock bag at the end of the year. On the plus side, we could probably find any receipt that we needed. On the minus side, we have about five years of possibly pointless receipts .