Part 2 of: If tidying your house is your New Year's resolution, Flying with us could be the solution

[ToffeeWhirl]

Welcome to Part 2 of the January Fledgling Flyers' thread. There are a lot of newly dedicated Flyers on Part 1 of the thread - I hope they all find their way over here to Part 2. We are following Flylady's system to get our houses in order, whilst ignoring her twee language.

Flylady's routines 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. On this thread, we motivate each other, chat quite a lot and swap tips on coping with housework and mess.

There are three methods of following Flylady's system, 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: your sink. It seems crazy when the mess is piling up everywhere else, but it works.

Hi, I am quietly lurking and trying to keep up with flying!

Does everyone REALLY have a control journal? Also does everyone have a tumble dryer? I don't, so in winter we do have a 'wet washing hanging around' stage.

I LOVE these steps

Put out your Hot Spot for two minutes. Just pick one!
Five-minute Room Rescue (pick any room in the house). Set your timer and go!
Spend 15 Minutes decluttering each day. You can?t organize clutter!

They are really helping me to get a little at a time done!

Yay I found you!
Marking my place for later as I sort of fell off the flying wagon when I went away. Managed to shine the sink and get back on top of the washing but nothing else.
Lalou I use dry e cloths on a damp sink to dry it and keep it shiny, or use them slightly dampened on the bathroom sink etc for swish and swipe. I don't wash them after each use (but use disposable wipes or loo roll on the toilet itself).
Hope everyone has a good Sunday

Hi jetstar! I don't have a paper control journal but an app on my phone that does the same job, called Home Routines which does all the stuff you need to FLY like lists for days, details of Zones and a timer...

I didn't have a tumble drier until a year ago when we moved house, no room in the old place for one. We don't use it in the summer and hang the washing outside. But I remember the winters of airers and clothes on radiators Do you have outside space for drying? The laundry parts of the routines must be hard if your air drying stuff as it doesn't necessarily dry overnight, I guess?

Hi jetstar I do have a control journal but don't have a tumble drier. It broke ages ago and dh has just, 5 minutes ago, moved it out of our utility room to take to the tip. Not getting another as is far too expensive to run.

I find if I do two loads of washing every day without fail I keep on top of it and can get everything on one clothes horse, two occasionally.

So glad the tumble drier has gone. Off to assemble the shelving unit and clean and organise the utility room. And that's all I'm doing today!

Hi all, feeling a little better now, I have, showered, got dressed and made the bed.
Just having a coffee.

I don't have a tumble drier either and have to make do with airers in the winter.
My yard is a bit too shady to use at this time of year.

I have a control journal (on paper in a file). I also add recipes from magazines to mine.

Hi all.

I have a tumble drier and probably couldn't live without it . I have never actually got round to making a control journal .

Today:
dragged everyone out for a bracing walk.
bought coffee and yogurt
further reorganising of DDs room
DC finished homework

Tomorrow is my birthday so Dh and I are having a day out while dc at school .

I couldn't find you all
I have been doing well, keeping on task and not wasting time on here.
I tried to post a long update to the old thread so will restyle it again later.

scattyspice Happy birthday for tomorrow!

I caught up with last weeks zone at last and have just done some more cleaning in the bathroom .
Sink is shiny! (in bathroom)

For the rest of today I need to tidy the kitchen a bit more and get things ready for the morning.

Evening - I've been out most of the day so not much FLYing done here.

Re control journal.....no I don't have one really. I do have my routines written down and find it helpful to have them up on the wall in the kitchen

Tumble drier.....reading that comment spurred me on to going out in the dark, bringing in almost dry washing, and hanging another load out. If it is dry I have washing on the line! I have airers all over the house but dry thin/large things outside first if at all possible. The sheets I've just hung out aren't needed til next weekend, so I can risk them getting rained on, and if I try and dry bedding inside I have to fold it so much to fit it on the airer it takes days to dry, and I have water dripping down the insides of all my windows.
It is a never ending problem for me, but I have no space for a tumble drier (and they cost too much to run) so I manage. (Just)

Hi all,

KatyJ26 ~ I'm so so not superwoman, but I am finding enjoyment and some measure of satisfaction for the first time in my life in having a clean and tidy home! We still have four big nightmare areas to declutter on an industrial scale; small bedroom which is full of boxes of books, the garage and the shed. We moved in the summer and I'm only just getting on top of everything.

DD is a terribly bad sleeper, and last night was no exception. Sunday is 'his' turn for a liein so dd and I blitzed the kitchen and at 10 when DH got up I went back to bed and they,went out to the shops.

Jobs completed;
Kitchen sink shined
Dw unloaded
Kitchen floor hoovered and mopped
Rest of house hoovered
All three bathrooms cleaned and toilets bleached
Upstairs and downstairs dusted
Mirrors cleaned
All toddler eating things cold water sterilized
Toys sorted and some put to one side
All bins emptied and disinfected

Tonight /tomorrow I need to ;
Wash down highchair with milton
Clean oven
Put a copy of the next fortnights food onto fridge door
Post letters
Clear out dd's old clothes and vacuum pack them
Bake birthday cake for friend.

Happy flying!

We do have a tumble dryer but it costs so much to run I only use it for the king size duet covers and sheets. Our family bathroom is ace to dry things in as the radiator is a double and its like a sauna :)

I had my parents to stay for the weekend and my mum (who is an excellent home keeper) remarked on how impressed she was with the house and I'd washed, ironed and made up the spare bed. I normally hand her crumpled clean sheets on arrival, saying make it yourself - haven't had time.

My mum even wants e-cloths now - they're the future!

Can anyone remind me of the room rescue? Not been able to find it on Fly website. Thanks in advance

room rescue

Well done on your mums visit FleeBee
This is useful too on occasion- I still have a crisis clean every so often.

Just marking my place. Still trying to fly, and not doing too badly though I haven't stuck rigidly to the routines. Downstairs is looking good, need to do some serious decluttering upstairs. 15 minutes at a time!

Hi everyone, can I jump on board too? I've finally finished reading every single post on this and the organization thread, took this to be essential homework before I start proper tomorrow! what zone is it? I've been doing some decluttering, and feel like making some headway, fortunately, I retrieved the magic eraser that has been sitting unopened for 4 yrs (next to the box of lakeland cleaning sticks for small awkward places - also unopened) in the cupboard under the sink, from the charity bag I've put together, having read earlier posts, I understand it may come in handy for my 2yr old with a penchant for crayons and walls.

I attempted to flying a number of years ago, when I bought the book but never really got off the ground - I'm hoping this thread will keep me on track. I've downloaded the chore app for androids that have yet to investigate and need to put together my control journal, without faffing about what stationary to use (can get quite dribbly over a nice notebook or pen). I'm mat leave until May and hoping that will get some embedded systems in place before I go back, and like an earlier poster, would like systems approach to rub off at work.

Quick question, how do you get the 'new' version of mumsnet so toffeewhirls posts are in green, have I missed a button/update? Although most of mumsnet usually done on phone whilst feeding, so may not be available?

Looking forward to flying with you all - off to feed ds, see you tomorrow

thewaffler Master bedroom next week
If you click the "customise" link at the top of the page you can change the settings. It is probably not the same on a phone though....

I also don't have a tumble dryer, but have got one of these www.lakeland.co.uk/21736/Dry-Soon-Heated-Tower-Airer (never posted link before so apologies if it doesn't work) I also admit to being sad and a bit dribbly at the lakeland catalogue... although expensive initially, this has been worth its weight in gold, especially using reusable nappies. You can layer up a couple of shelves, with stuff laid out flat and it will dry over night, with the added bonus of keeping room.warm and smelling nice (clothes wash, not nappy!)

Thanks jas, will have a look

Make house work fun!

I have had to turn mine into a game as I was very immature before moving in with my now DH lol.

I survive my week and have a sparkly clean and tidy house by playing the following 3 games:

1; walk around tidying, when you leave room a to go to room b, have a look round room a and see what needs to go to room b, or can be dropped off en route. By lunch time everything ends up in the right room and is easy enough to put away when you walk into that room

2: race against the (microwave) clock/kettle. Each time you use something which has a sort of countdown see how much washing up/cleaning/putting away you can do before the countdown finishes. Don't feel obliged to carry on once the countdowns finished, leave it for the next round!

3: not really a game but I set myself the task of cleaning one room a day when DS is asleep.

I'm now a sucker for a clean and tidy house, if you'd have seen me 3 years ago you'd realise the changed woman I've become!!

I'll join this thread again from the other fledglings thread.

done
clothes out for tomorrow
sink shone
worktops wiped...

a brief reprieve from usual chores as (Yr 7)ds1 ill and at home tomorrow so we don't have to get up so early and check he has everything for 7.30am.

Plan for tomorrow, will make it now whilst feeling positive

post cheque
hang up clothes in my wardrobe
do Art homework with ds if he is feeling up to it
eat leftovers
meal plan, and do an Ocado order for first time in a year...[sigh]
get ballet things ready for dd ballet, check tights washed etc
Volcano poem ds1
order raised bed thingies and more purple gravel for front
order yellow roses for side alley
catch builder and book him for 2 weeks, ask him to fit loo seat ASAP if he can
start on some sewing, so I can continue it in evening instead of going on the computer!

That's right - I go away for the weekend and you all jump ship to another thread! Nice to see we have a new couple of fliers and that us "oldies" are ticking along.

Back from Mum's this evening and have already put a load of laundry in which will be hung up before bed. DH has signed the paperwork and it will be posted off tomorrow along with 2 Ebay parcels. I even unpacked our bags and put all the unworn clothes away!

Toffee - In relation to DS, he accepted a place on a course he didn't really want just to go with his GF of 2 years {Young love and all that}. He admitted at Xmas he's unhappy and we started to look at possible alternatives including him having to reapply to start afresh at something else in Sept! BUT in the meantime they have split up and as they share a flat we now have to try to sort all that out too. :( There will need to be a lot of talking done but as he's in a very delicate state it won't be easy for anyone. Hope the thought of the sleepover treat helps with your DS

Monday, 23 January - babystep 23 : plan your afternoon routine.

Today is the day you spend one hour cleaning your house - just 10 minutes on each task (dusting, vaccuuming, emptying bins, etc). The day's reminders are here.

This week's missions are in the master bedroom and today's mission is to tackle under the bed. Please let us know what odd or interesting things you find under there. We could have a competition for the most remarkable thing (who was it who found a bottle of champagne under there last time?).

Yet again, I have failed miserably at the 'bed at decent hour' babystep .

See you all later.

If it is any consolidation Toffee. I have completely failed at that one too.

However, i am ahead as I have spent the day gutting and reconstructing the two bedrooms. Ds' needs a few items putting away and hoovering. Mine needs the floor finishing. Tons of stuff has been removed from both rooms. And my clothes have finally made it away because i can actually access the units they need to go in.

However, am in full meltdown mode and meh.

Hope you all get a reasonable night's sleep as possible. Have good flying weeks.

Morning all, Just popping in before I get started on the "school run".

Love the name KickAssBitchy. Hope you got some sleep last night.

Right, I'd best go and get dressed etc, catch ya'll later.