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.

Ok, I'm in. We had a (small) house fire two and a half years ago and loads of glasses and stuff are still covered in smoke from it , I think I need a kick up the backside. Now off to find the and try not to think about it until tomorrow...

Fold and put away the mountains of laundry in our room - done
Wash whites & put them out to dry - done
Tidy away junk from kitchen table - done
Clear & wipe down kitchen surfaces - done
Get dd to write her thank you cards - done
Pay online for next term of school meals - done
Arrange play date for dd next week - done

Feeling very smug. :) I have even squeezed in a couple of extra tasks that weren't planned, but the real test will be when I go back to work on 9th January. I really hope I can keep things going!

Have a great new year everyone!

I'm just working on clearing out my living room, where I put all the contents of my built in hutch, plus all the leftover Christmas wrapping. If I can just get this one room clean and vacuumed before I have to go to work tonight, that would be great. :)

I would like to join too please. Ive been doing a version of fly lady/ organised home for a year. Born out of an awkward encounter on the doorstep (seems a few of us have them )
i have my morning and evening routines down to a tee now and an almost uncluttered home. I don't get the zones though so this year i want to embrace that plus clear the stored baby stuff from the garage.

For anyone starting this my life is massively less stressful, i can invite anyone in at any time and my home is now lovely. It did take a full year to get to this though and slow and steady will win the race. The skip last year and a manic declutter which actually filled the skip also gave me a great head start.

Decs are down and in the loft and the lving room was stripped and detailled cleaned today so i am ready for the next zone.

That's so great to hear Molly! :)

I emptied the toy storage in the Living Room today! I out some of it to go to a charity shop and then put the rest back!

That's really encouraging - thank you Molly. I'm impressed and motivated by a lot of you, slightly despairing with myself as I had intended on doing lots of deep cleaning over the last 2 days (not flying just getting order before I'm back in work) but with one thing and another, got sod all done.

Comforting myself with the fact that it's not jan yet and I still haven't messed up.

Am in all on my own tonight as dh is a musician and is out gigging. On a plus, this is the first NYE in 4 that I haven't been pregnant so I can have wine if I want (yay!!)

A massive happy new year to you all. Thanks so much to all the experienced flyers (sorry can't recall names and am on phone) for the advice and encouragement

Sorry if I am a doser- will there be a daily thread with each babystep or do we stay here? Thanks.

Clara I think there are so many of us on here it would make sense to do a daily thread for each babystep, but I am not running it, so not really up to me!
Toffee has already posted the first links for tomorrow, and I am happy to repost tomorrow morning so they can be found.

I think by Tuesday when people are getting back to work and kids are back to school it will be clear if a daily thread is needed or not.

Clara, each day the babysteps (and the other one's too) will be posted on this thread by Toffee She did pre-empt tomorrows earlier this afternoon I expect she will be nursing a hangover in the morning but it will normally be done first thin in the morning or last thing the night before. HTH.

X-posted Jas, sorry!

Do Toffees posts get highlighted (and so much easier to look back for)?
I have MN set to ancient mumsnet style so it doesn't for me. If so it would obviously make much more sense to leave all the links to her.
Sorry.

I'd like to join too. Need a kick start and flylady emails are a littke overwhelming! Started with shining the sink a coupke of days ago but taking decorations down and cleaning living room has made the place feel much bigger and cleaner already! Now back to some bubbles to celebrate new year early!

Thanks Pos and Jas.

Got a Flylady email today asking if I knew where my keys are. Am beginning to wonder if she is DH in disguise...

Hello - HNY
Ready for tidy 2012

Yes Jas Toffee's are green for us who move with the times! It has been agreed that she will do the step posting to make it clearer for everyone.

Clara does your DH normally dress in a tutu??

I'd like to mark my place too....need serious help in sorting my messy house out.
Cheers and Happy New tidy house Year to everyone!

Please can I join? I live in CHAOS & can really relate to lots of things already said on this thread. I will be looking at FLYing with a baby & welcoming in a FLY 2012! I'm off for a wee Hogmanay drink & to welcome in the new year (but might switch on DW - good intentions n all!)
Happy New Year!

I will tentatively join. However, my house is in a much worse state than yours.

From my place on the sofa I can see:

Various toys
A bag full of sorted coins (my effort towards decluttering)
Two baskets of laundry
The pile of odd socks
Left over wrapping paper
Various bits of OU staff
Half a box of crackers
The tired christmas tree
Fallen baubles
The corner pile of crap
The couch of crap
A pile of DVDs
Mantlepiece - a pile of last years chrimbo cards plus other crap
and that's without the dirt/dust

I mean, Flylady's Hotspot is every surface in my entire house FFS. I look at a surface, eg, the top of the shelf next to me and it is cluttered.

Example of top of shelf

Highly sought after Waitrose bum/face depending on your outlook cream. Not sure when this was last near a bum or a face or why the FFS it is downstairs.

A phone waiting to be the next phone

Sweet wrappers

Choc coin wrappers

A pen

Random CD/DVD

A chrimbo card

An ad about Takwando (sp)

Some of those corn starch crafty things

And there are hundreds of surfaces around the place like this. We are the fucking Mr Trebus of Western London...

Welcome tootsweets changebagsandgladrags I have been flying for well over a year now and my house is far from perfect. Flylady will give you ability to attack the clutter one babystep at a time.

Happy new year everyone.

(had a closer look at mantlepiece. I can see last year's advent calendar poking out)

I must be the worst. 15 mins is not even going to make a dent :(

Kitchen not too bad, 15 mins in kitchen will make a difference...15 years in lounge. And FFS Flylady counts living room and family room (which is our dining come play room) as one zone. Faints.

But I can hear people now. Why FFS are you bleaching your sink when your living room is uninhabitable?

Happy New Year! Forgot to shine my sink so I'm crawling into 2012 but will be flying high from tomorrow onwards! Pmsl at the uninhabitable living room but shiny sink comment (have visions of me inviting guests in, asking them to be careful of all the trip hazards and health and safety issues in the hall and wanting them to view the shiny sink!)

you'd be surprised the difference having a shiney sink makes. it is actually inpsiring. I am quite clearly drunk so typeing is at a fail. but fuck it. you horrid lot have managed to post nearly 225 post on the january thread before the rfirst [shcock].

Today is the first. your mission if you chose to accept it is to shine your sink. and if you think you know how to shine your sink read the fat fairy;s instructions and then do it again hide in the corner

today's to do list is going to be realistic
go to sleep
shift paryting hangover
fucntion
go back to bed and sleep off the rest of 1st jan

hth.

Night dont disturb me unless you have broken something or bleeding to death the naughty corner is mine

That was the first time i've crawled out of my bed on Jan 1st after an early night and no wine and I had managed to shine the sink. There are not many benefits of a horrid cold but I guess I can count that as one of them.

changebags The only reason my lounge is not the same as yours is that I moved in September and all the stuff is still in boxes in the garage. I am planning on getting it done just one box at a time.

Right now however I'm having a cup of tea and a bowl of porridge while guarding my sink.