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.

Cristiane well done for a very cheery sounding date night for one. I hope your husband feels better soon. I'd like to join you if I could, (jealous of tea and chocolate)

At this end, bah humbug, date night, what date night?! Sodding DS (7m) refuses to go to bed, DH on his blackberry in kitchen starting what looks like it will be a hard weekend's work (on top of stupidly hard work this week already). So it's a frazzled me and a grumpy baby Mnetting on the sofa. My carefully prepped date night supper is languishing uneaten.

On the other hand, routines are coming together OK, I've even managed 15 mins decluttering the bin car, and wiped the mud spatters of the hall walls radiator front door and bannisters. Hit a couple of hot spots, done the odd room rescue and put all christmas decs in the attic.

Onwards and upwards (to bed, perchance to dream, fat bloody chance). Better luck to the rest of you.

Today has been pretty productive. I managed to do the dining room even pulling out the little unit DD's TV sits on an hoovered behind it! As this is also the room the toys are stored in I managed to tidy the bookcase/DVD rack and put away the new Xmas toys. We have a bureau in there that is fit to bursting so I envisage that I'll tackle a drawer at a time to clear out/organise it properly.

The coffee table got cleared too though looking across at it there are now a number of glasses languishing on it. [grrr]

Other tasks:

• Up and out to school on time - even managing to cook DD's requested scrambled egg
• Xmas books, CDs and DVDs put away on shelves alphabetically
• Laundry in, out and hung up
• Ironed a few bits for DS
• Veg prepared for tea before school run
• Took DD to her swimming lesson and found out the new swimsuit she got for Xmas is too small!
• Sink shined and kitchen wiped down. This drew a comment from DH so I mentioned that I am trying to get into new routines and that can he help even if it's only to tidy away his own crud!

As he's away working all week, Friday is a night that it's nice to be together again as a family - even if he is watching tapped episodes of The Bill

I think we are all doing fabulously and should give ourselves a big pat on the back

I put some things on my home routines list that I haven't started yet today and I can't bear going out to car in this wind and rain! I am officially still on baby steps though so am forgiven.

Kitchen is shined though and I made a chocolate cake for my friend with caremalised flaked almonds for the topping. Yum!

Hello All :)
Have been lurking on thread as I tried Flying quite a few years ago and would like to get back into it.

I've tried to read quite a bit of the thread but have a couple of questions.

Are we supposed to make a list each day of what needs doing or do we list things after we've done them? I'm worried my list will be toooo long!

Also, with the Hot Spots - is it like the 15 mins thing, we just do 2 mins then stop?

Sorry if these are daft questions - I'm so tired at the moment my brain isn't working as it should be!

Many thanks to you all for your inspiration and to Toffee for her leadership .

Right

Failed on the hotspots I think. My entire house is a hotspot.

On the plus side, I have an empty laundry bin (and two others not empty) Not sure of the state of the sink. I shined it earlier. Starting to get a little OCD about the sink though. I was shining it earlier and while shining the taps I accidently turned the tap on into my shined basin. Grrrr. Weirdo. DH has not noticed the shine on the sink.

The house is looking a bit tidier than it normally does on a Friday though. Normally it is way past a good clean. Sitting room could do with a quick hoover, but it's not its normal manky state.

Did I mention I found the bread knife? Well an oven tray has gorne missing. We only have three of them, so it's pretty noticeable. Oven trays have their own place in a cupboard so it's not like we throw them any old place. Borrowers? I have always said, tidy up and you can never find anything!

Bathroom looking nice still.

I think we are respecting the place a bit more.

Evening all

Well I've not got as much done today because the Xmas decorations took blinking ages! However we now have a less cluttered house just by taking them down. Hoovered sitting room (no choice as it was strewn with tree needles!)
Given bathroom and ensuite a little clean - more than a swish and wipe but not a full deep clean
Exchanged some Xmas pressies for correct sizes etc
Returned library books
Returned some stuff I'd borrowed from a friend
Gave some outgrown clothes to a friend for her ds
Made dinner for dc
Made dinner for dh & myself
Dealt with hotspot in kitchen
Kitchen clean and sink shiny

I suppose not bad after all
But no car cleaning and no date night as dh was working this eve

Well done to all of you flyers, I agree that a pat on the back is in order!
lugholes I'm very impressed at you running in your lunch break!!
Motherofmadhouse sorry I'm only learning so not too sure about how long to do hotspots - mine thankfully haven't taken me more than about 10 mins even on day 1. Oh and you do write to do lists, even if only 3 chores on them (I think that's right!)

Good evening, I managed the basics today but not much more. Luckily just after I'd failed to convince the children that they wanted cheese on toast for tea, dp phoned to say we could get takeaway.
i really need to get back to some kind of menu planning.

changebags it sounds like progress is being made to me- just keep noticing the bits you are achievning, and the hotspots wil gradually get smaller.

Motherofmadhouse - you aren't the madhouse of old fly threads I assume?

The list thing is whatever works for you. Some like to tick things off (I always include things like get dressed and feed the children in my list as I'm pretty likely to achieve them so am guaranteed some success), some prefer to just report after they've done things. Some do no lists at all.
You could try the list of three - just pick three things you think you can get done in a set period and come back once they are done, with three more.

Hotspots - yes, two minutes, similar to the 15 min thing.

If you stick with the babysteps it will all build up gradually.

Cristiane Mmm, cake.....

dizzy Yes, pats on the back all round. It sounds like you are being very sensible and realistic re the tine it takes to declutter. No point pulling everything out at once.

perish Also finding too many posts to comment on them all! Going to stop here, and do date night with dp as he's just put a film on and made me a cuppa. I'm a cheap date!

Motherofmadhouse:- I only spent 2 mins on each of my 2 hotspots (kitchen bench next to fruit bowl and fireplace) and it is amazing what you can get done in 2 mins!

Today =swish and wipe bAthroom but not been home since 7.30am! Looking forward to waking up to shiny sink (but not the hangover that comes with white wine!). Still need to sort Xmas decs into loft tomorrow - eugh!

achieved a fair amount today in no particular order

done
supper from storecupboard, trying to use up everything for Jan
washed door mats (and broke washing machine
changed our sheets
decluttered 2 bags of rubbish from our bedroom
decluttered dd's bedroom (mostly to playroom
posted thank yous
put more xmas stuff away in a large hamper
chopped up xmas tree and took it out of house in a large sheet to avoid needles!
swept up pile of spruce needles, then I gave up,more to do tomorrow to beat the needle pox

booked Any Junk for 18th Jan
decided to get rid of ds2's mattress and use the spare mattress which is cluttering up dd's room - hooray!
washed kitchen floor after leak from washing machine
sink
food compost emptied
recycling out
table wiped
floor swept
hall rescued again
cr*p in porch dealt with

AND THERE IS SO MUCH MORE TO DO....won't think about it now...to bed

Toffee thanks for the thread, hopeyou feel better soon.

Thought things were slipping here as couldn't be arsed tonight and watched a DVD with DH instead. Then I come on here and that's exactly what I should've be doing
And have swish and wiped, and DH and I have just washed up the overflow stuff that wouldn't fit in the DW - just so I could shine the sink.
Onwards and upwards!

Wow aren't you all being successful!!!

at libby discovering she's doing the right thing by ignoring housework and watching telly with DH!

I see 'date night' was tricky to achieve for many of you. Same here, as we were both too tired to watch the film and decided to watch it tomorrow instead. Then DS1 wanted a cuddle and I fell asleep with him and have just woken up. So that was a very romantic evening .

Perish - I have the same issue with my sink too, as I always do my make up over it, so it tends to get sprinkled with powder and blusher and needs its daily swish and swipe.

Thanks for the flowers, Motherofmadhouse . In answer to your questions, you do hotspots for two minutes only. And you make a 'to do' list for the next day every evening. We started doing 'ta da' lists on this thread because we found it encouraging.

Cristiane - sorry your DH was not up to 'date night'. I think an alternative date with yourself is an excellent idea though. The chocolate cake sounds yummy, by the way.

HeyNonny - sorry your baby son wasn't settling to sleep . I hope you managed to get some peace eventually.

dizzy - glad you had such a productive day. I agree that we all deserve a pat on the back.

changebags - I know the feeling about losing things. I have lost a casserole dish . I've had it for years and I just don't understand how it can have vanished into thin air. I am very of your empty laundry bin. Didn't know such things were possible!

Haagendazs - can't believe you say that's not bad - excellent, I'd say! Afraid no car cleaning achieved here either (always DH's job and he was busy).

Jas - sounds like you are one of few of us who had a proper date night, even if you were a cheap date! Hope you had a nice time.

The foxsbrush - I agree - it's amazing what can get done in two minutes. And it's such a short time that there is really no good reason for not being able to do it.

Bubbles - enjoy your shiny sink when you come down in the morning (hangover-free, hopefully).

Swanthing - wow! So much done. I agree - focus on what you've done, not on what needs to be done, or you'll get the 'rabbit in the headlights' feeling.

I strongly advise any of you without timers to get one if you are going to stick with Flylady. I bought one of these from Amazon (although mine has a 'reset' button which isn't shown on this type ) and find it invaluable.

Right, going to check out babystep for tomorrow. Back in a min.

Saturday, 7th January - babystep 7 - this is such a useful one and I now do it every night: before you go to bed, pick out what clothes you are going to wear the next day and lay them out. I also do this for the children and always pop their socks into their shoes (they will, of course, one day grow up and be confused that their socks don't miraculously appear in their shoes overnight anymore).

Keep practising your previous steps - you are creating new habits by doing this. I would focus on getting dressed first thing, keeping your sink shiny (especially last thing at night) and spending two minutes a day on your hotspots.

Saturday is Family Fun Day - enjoy the day with your family. There are no missions at the weekend. Today's reminders (Flylady's 'Flight Plan') are here.

Hope you all have a nice weekend.

Morning all! Have been good at flying all week, but it felt wrong to do stuff last night, so just got an early night and now I regret it no shiny sink, in fact dh didn't even put his plates in the dw and usually he's pretty good!

To be fair, I did an online shop and it was delivered last night, but I forgot to tell DH, so he was probably quite shocked when it all turned up and he hadn't put all of it away!!! On the plus side- at least I don't have to brave sainsburys today!!! I'm definitely getting back on top and doing my babysteps today. to whoever it was who mentioned the sock fairy!!!

Have a good day everyone- reading through your posts is motivation enough for me to keep going!

Morning Katy.

toffee thanks for posting that baby step.seems very useful. I think it would actually help DH too. Planning and sorting and working out times and where he needs to be when, all of that is so lacking. D worry he thiks of me as a terrible nag though. Mind you, with his depression it is hard to know what to do.

ToffeeWhirl

Thanks for taking the time to post all this up by the way :) I suppose we kind of had date night - we had a bottle of wine and watched The Bank Job. We should start watching films though.

I had a fit of madness yesterday and signed up to another OU course. So from January 28th I'll be a full-time student equivalent. Yikes. Suppose I better get some pot noodles in. I will have to be extra organised (and a time traveller).

Morning!

Haagendaz, Jas, The Foxbrush, Toffee - Thank you all for your replies, I think even in my chaotic life I can find 2 minutes to clear a hotspot :o

I will start adding that to my daily list.

Jas Nope, afraid that wasn't me :)

Have a lovely weekend all.

Morning

Family fun day today.
Or in my world, change all the beds day, as I swapped the days round to suit me.
I will also be:
~taking dd1 to buy another school bag
~cleaning the fridge
~tidy ds/dd1s room and clean floor
~empty dd1s old room of junk and maybe get started on painting it

Madhouse - I thought not - but FLY always has room for another mad house!

Todays babystep.... this is something I have never done. I live in jeans and tshirts, and have enough school uniform for the dc to wear clean each day so don't feel that I would benefit from getting it out.
I have started working now, and only have on uniform, so need to make sure it is washed and dried for each day though.

Toffee- wow I am impressed that you have time to post that lot as well as sprout socks in shoes. Thanks for the Argos link- may go look at that.
Yesterday ta-dah: laundry, ironing, decluttered cook books, christmas decs boxed,
Today to do: decs to attic, change beds, long walk for me, hoover upstairs.
Was it bitchy who talked about the power of three- when I get 3 things done, I feel I can justify a cup of tea and MN

can I join you? We live in a vvvvvvv tiny 2 bed cottage (we didn't think about the logistics of children 5 yrs ago and now stuck in neg equity).

I have recently been made redundant so am now a sahm (yey!) but was back in full time for 2mths before christmas and trying to rework our routine and stop co-sleeping which started because of 2 months of illness from nursery causing multiple wakings which were hard to cope with while working (I bf) - so the ckeaning has gone out the window of late and we have lots of stuff to sort out - oh and he co-sleeps for naps too (which is when I mn etc) which cuts down on available cleaning time so I have a lot to work on!

Thank you Toffee and all of you for being here. :)
Babysteps day 7, nearly fell of the wagon yesterday. Fatal mistake of reading other parts of MN for way longer than I thought I was, and then realised we were late to set out for Epiphany party, but as a token when we fell in late, shined sink, wrote habit list, (am beginning to be able to write some shorthand without the chart, yay!) and did the two tiniest hotspots in kitchen even if untimed. (whole place is a hotspot!) It was a minor slide, I will not beat myself up, or consider myself on the road to giving up. I am not.

This is going to be a bit of a hectic weekend because everyone?s holidays end Monday, we?re not organised and I want us to try, everyone else wants to panic. Swimming against the tide a bit.

Christiane I don?t know if this is useful, but I?ve found taking the attitude of it?s me who needs to plan etc in the beginning, was a useful way of slowly getting others used to the idea at least, that there was actually a need, and it started to rub of a bit. (not enough mind) Depressions a rotten thing for all involved.

I'm back on the wagon,
Shiny sink,
Washing away
New load on
Dw on
Tidy kitchen
Made all beds
And relax!

You are not behind! I don't want you to try to catch up; I just want you to jump in where we are. O.K.?

That is on the bottom of every FLY lady email - most of us don't get the emails, so worth reminding ourselves here occasionally

Welcome maddening We bought a small 2 bed house, too, and 15 years and three children later, dd2 sleeps in what used to be our dining room!
Decluttering is the way to go - we don't have the space to keep things we don't need. Always an uphill battle in this house (dp hoards tools and as we have no garage they all get brought back into the house every night after work)

Morning!

Family fun day? Sob not for me. Got to work on the accounts and vat return today. Dh taking the younger girls out for the day. The older girls are off with friends. All having fun but me. Feeling very sorry for myself.

Tada list:

Up and dressed to shoes
Made bed and tidied bedroom
Swish and swiped upstairs bathroom
Shined sink

To do

Put away dry washing
Hang up load
Put on 2nd load
Hang 2nd load
Empty and refill dw
Hoover
Dust
Work

Best get on. Have a good day all!