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.

Oh dear, everyone sounds exhausted! I think you all need to congratulate yourselves on a good week and spend some time (if you can) doing nice things to reward yourselves now. There are no missions at the weekend. The idea is just to rush through normal routines as quickly as you can (or babysteps, if you are on those), then spend the rest of the weekend doing lovely things. Unless you have vomiting DC or are ill yourselves, of course.

DH and I persuaded DS1 to go to school for half a day, then rushed off to the pub for lunch! So I have had my date for today - except that I am also meeting a bunch of friends in the pub tonight, so that's a double date .

Bitchy - wise words.

Cristiane - DS1 has a long, difficult history, so we are used to it. Luckily, he has made two good friends at this new school, which has made all the difference to him and boosted his confidence no end.

Openyerlugholes - Owch - sorry to hear about your DD's collar bone . Funny you should mention HE - actually, I HE'd my son all last year, as he had a sort of breakdown at the start of Year 6 and I took him out of school. A surprising number of Flyladies have home educated too and they were incredibly supportive when I was agonising over it and when I first took him out of school. DS1 and I had a really good year together and it felt good to be able to nurture him, but the plan was always that he would go to secondary school. The new school are fully aware of his issues and have been incredibly supportive. He had a good start there, seemed happy and made friends. However, daily life is stressful for him (Tourettes and OCD), so the stress creeps up on him and then he suddenly can't cope anymore. We take it day by day.

FleeBee - Bitchy's message is right on target. We all have down days/ ill days/ CBA days, but having the routines means we can jump back in again. Be kind to yourself.

Shouldbeelsewhere - I second the bicarbonate of soda (a trick I learned from Bitchy after DS2 made a Lego potty and weed all over the carpet). Oh, that story about your nephew and the dog is awful - poor, poor family. Well done on decluttering purse and car. I did mention to DH that today was declutter your car day, but he didn't take the bait.

Dalrymps - you are doing what you can and that's the main thing. Don't get stressed about it. I hope you can have a rest tonight and feel better in the morning.

Glad to report that my kitchen is still looking lovely . I have managed to get through my ironing and put most of my laundry away. Also did several room rescues, my whole morning routine and tackled some hotspots. I haven't really spent a long time doing housework, but just five minutes here and there makes all the difference.

In case I don't get a chance to come back later, here's the information for tomorrow:

Saturday, 14th January - babystep 14 - using a calendar - is there really anyone who doesn't use a calendar? I couldn't remember a thing without mine. I use this family weekly planner from Organised Mum. Each page contains six columns: I use four for each family member; one for menus; and the last one for extra info that won't fit anywhere else. It also has a column for things to do and a shopping-list column.

Saturday is family fun day. The day's routine reminders are here.

I hope you all have a happy and healthy weekend!

Hi all! Good wishes to all those struggling to FLY in top of health problems and worries. Carrying on here with baby steps. There have been several days where I haven't done the 2/5/15 min things as I've been working in the evenings and it hasn't happened. But just doing the basics of shining sinks and keeping on top of laundry and dish washing and the odd hot spot means it's ok.

Have just done two 15 min sessions in the en suite and one half of it looks great, really sorted out the clutter and chucked a load of unnecessary stuff. Found a dead fly in between my bottles and pots ewwww! It's not a finished job though as on the other side of the room is a shower in need of a scrub and boxes of books/CDs and bin bags of outgrown baby clothes that I need to sort through. I think we threw it all in there once when we had people to stay Ah well maybe next time...

toffee I really feel for you both. It's good that you have experience of HE and know that it is there if you need it again . My eldest two are now both on apprenticeships despite never attending secondary (and only a few years primary), and are doing well. Youngest two still being HE'd, have never been to school.

I hope the school gives you both plenty of support and that you are able to work through this bad patch.

libby, sounds like you are really making headway!

Just heard that my uncle has died, so another funeral to attend. Taking my mum. Can't believe how many we have been to over the last year.

Should be a quiet weekend. Dd1 away with friends. Dd3 and dd4 are at my sister's for a sleepover party. Don't know what dd2 is doing but she will probably go stay with another of my sisters. So will just be me and dh. What shall we do with ourselves??!

Thanks toffee, my dh emptied and refilled the dishwasher when he got home and tidied up a bit

He's on holiday now for a week so I should regain some energy.

Oooh I love a calendar and have one in our kitchen with EVERYTHING on it. I have this one and it has everything I need. And I'm a sucker for stickers The only rubbish thing is the awful 1950s housewife illustrations but we've drawn moustaches on them and they look better now It is basically the same as the Organised Mum one but with a bit more colour.

The last few days haven't been good but I have just spent the last hour sorting the kitchen and shining my sink.

But the question now is what do I do about my unfinished zone?
Do I abandon it and start the next one when I am supposed to or finish it????
However it is loads better than it was at the start of the week.

Hello. Spending less time on mumsnet as I'm busy with the house.

Did some DVD sorting today. DH can't bear to throw many of them out, so I'm going to put them in the loft with Dispose Jan 2013. If he hasn't opened it by then he doesn't really want them.

Made Jamie's 30 Minute Meals pizza today. Jamie O clearly does not know what a good pizza is like. Shite was too generous for it.

Big job today. Cleaned out my Gmail. I had over 15,000 unread messages (mostly shops advertising sales and all sorts of guff). Am down to 455 unread and 1525 messages in total. Woo-hoo.

Not sure about family fun tomorrow. We were supposed to visit FIL tomorrow but DS2 is ill now. I'll have to stay at home with him.

Have just mopped kitchen floor, no way would I be doing that this time of night if it wasn't for this thread.
I can't afford all these wonderful diary's, organisers, etc, so have made my own on photoshop. I've included the wonderful optimistic column spotted in one of them: 'Unexpected things achieved today.' I didn?t really expect to use it, but today?s is ?potted large box of (overdue) daffodils.?

Toffee ?a surprising number of Flyladies have home educated too.? Another one doing it here. :)
Good luck with your son, and again thank you for doing this thread.

Membershipcard yes. leave the zone. Some fly ladies catch up a mission or two at the weekend, others don't. Start with the new zone on monday. Each zone will come around and the point is to get into the habit of doing the zone missions not to be a perfectionist. it will just get done next time. Although tbh this time around I have done none of the missions in the zone due to being poorly. Not worrying about it will come around soon enough. hth.

Thanks ICB - I had thought that new zones started today but realised that it isn't til Monday so I have done 5 more kitchen cupboard fronts.
This thread is very quiet today Have you all fallen along the wayside or are you all busy busy busy.?

Morning!

Easy day for me today. Not doing much on purpose. Dropping dd3 and dd4 off at my sister's this afternoon but apart from that not much doing so going to catch up on a few things. dd1 and dd2 away with friends and dh working so peace and quiet to dash around.

Ta Da

Up, dressed to shoes
Made bed
Shined Sink
Emptied and refilled dw
Took meds
Posted letters at post office
Collected remainder of prescription
Sorted out receipts
Balanced bank account

To do

Filing
Swish and swipe upstairs bathroom
Swish and swipe downstairs bathroom
Hoover
Dust
Clean floors
Fold and put away dry washing
Hang up wet load
Put on 1st load
Hang up 1st load
Put on 2nd load
Ironing

membership it's usually quiet here on the weekends as there are no missions, so everyone is usually out and about! Not me unfortunately so might as well get on with things.

Considering painting the new coving which is to go up in the bathroom... that's a job well overdue.

oh boy do i need to join.... i need such a cyber kick up the bottom .... working and a 5 year old and noone to help = MESS!

loosinas jump right in! You won't regret it.

Getting on great. Going to cinema with dh tonight yay!

Ta da

Up, dressed to shoes
Made bed
Shined Sink
Emptied and refilled dw
Took meds
Posted letters at post office
Collected remainder of prescription
Sorted out receipts
Balanced bank account
Swish and swipe upstairs bathroom
Swish and swipe downstairs bathroom
Hoover
Dust
Clean floors
Fold and put away dry washing
Hang up wet load
Put on 1st load

To do

Filing
Hang up 1st load
Put on 2nd load
Ironing

wow how do you get motivated to get so much done !!

Ta Da List

Swish and swipe
Dress to the shoes
Wipe down kitchen
Make beds
Tidy hot spot
Room rescue
Re-organise/tidy wardrobe
DW done and reloaded
Rearrange furniture and tidy DS room

To Do
Washing load
Ironing
Tidy top of wardrobe.

Getting there 15 minutes at a time :)

loosinas I've been FLYing for years so I have routines firmly in place. There's no clutter in the house and a place for everything which makes cleaning and tidying a thousand times easier and quicker.

If you do the FLY routines each day - they don't take long - it means you can whizz round as nothing gets the chance to build up into a monumental mess. Creating order out of the chaos is the FLY way...

So although it looks like a huge list it doesn't actually take very long - an hour at the most if laundry is included. Most jobs only take a couple of minutes each. And things like swishing and swiping the bathroom become such a habit that you don't even think about it. You automatically give the bathroom a quick (minutes only) wipe after you have had your shower in the morning and that's it done.

So don't be overwhelmed by some of our lists - the good thing about FLYing is you do things in babysteps - and over time you get to the point where your entire house is organised and easy to look after.

Hope that makes sense!

Yesterday DD and I travelled up country by train to attend nephew's birthday party dropping DS off at Uni on the way!

Before I left I: hoovered living room, tidied round, emptied bins, swept kitchen floor (will mop on Monday), ironed and packed our bits for the weekend and sorted DD's uniform for Monday.

We are back home late tomorrow - probably with a bagfull of DH's dirty laundry!

Hope you all have a good weekend x

I have pulled out and cleaned behind/underneath the sofa. Found my MATB1 form for DS1 (he's five and we moved to this house when he was one).

Thinking about having a reorg in the room. I did look at the nest of cables behind the telly with a view to moving it over the other side of the room. But I don't know what's what (there seems to be a huge amount of cables back there, I think they were having cable orgies). Anyway, so I have left that as a job for DH to do when he gets in.

Am dressed to bare feet. Not going out so not putting shoes on. Or socks.

Sink shining (kinda). Washing up done.

thanks for the advice ! i just dont know how to get to that stage! im drowning in clutter and most of it i cant see me letting go of..... all my sons stuff.... hundreds of books he has and games and stuff etc... im such a STUFF person

Good Evening to you all. I've missed a few days (and a lot going on by the looks of it).

I have been seriously decluttering, right down to getting rid of bedding I'm never going to use again. But I did buy new duvet covers in a sale to replace some shabby ones.

DD and a friend took over the kitchen today for a school project. Making a Roman Villa out of gingerbread cookie dough (baked of course) and sweets......... It didn't have to be gingerbread, but when their teacher said the best previous attempt at making a roman villa had been made out of cake, it fired up their competitiveness.

To say the kitchen looked like a bombsite is putting it mildly, but to give DD her due, they did a good job at cleaning up for kids who are still only 11 yrs.

Part 2 - assembly is to take place tomorrow. Don't think this will make the same level of mess as making the dough!

And I'm really getting to grips with the routines now. I think having had this time not working, it has given time for the routines to bed in before I start working again, which should help in not getting overwhelmed by it all.

Hi. Not much going on here. Recovering from looooong work week but pleased to report sink is STILL shiny! I heard that it takes 21 days to form a habit and started shining my sink on fri 29th dec so just under a week to go.

Mmm, the is going down well tonight. Purely medicinal!

Touching base quickly.

Very little flying has been done the last few days since DH kept the house so tidy on Wednesday. we are all worn out with toddler teething and we all have heavy colds, DH's is clearly worse than mine [hmmm].

Panic did set in when I realised I had forgotten to create a to do list but deep breaths and I made a cuppa and wrote down the weekend jobs. I then did 15 min attack the worse bits and did three (yup really) hours work before getting dinner on and cleaning the kitchen. Then another few hours work this evening. BUT it's all under control, the washing is done and hung up, beds made, clothes away, all I need to do is read a chapter of my book and switch the light out. DH has baby duty tonight. Yay!

Hope every gets some decent quality time to relax, recover and organise tomorrow. I am intending on writing a plan for major decluttering!

Sunday, 15th January - babystep 15 : making your bed.

Tomorrow is a day to renew your spirit. There are no missions. Sunday's routines are here and include a reminder to gather up books and other things that have to be returned next week. Make sure you do your before-bed routine last thing, so that you are all ready to go on Monday morning.

Apologies for quick dashing in and out. Have had a busy, but nice, day in RL and need to get to bed now. Hope to get more time to post tomorrow.