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.

Ah, that makes me feel much better, QueenMaeve .

*Flying I am impressed with your paperwork organisation. I am drowning in paperwork (although it is hidden in drawers).

I am going to get a then am going to have a go at some more jobs.

I need to:
feed the cat
wash up some more (never ends)
laundry
get DC ready for bed
chill out hopefully!!

Evening ladies
I popped in on the other thread but my beautiful dog was seriously ill and I chose time with her over cleaning.
Princess Moli left us exactly 1 week ago (almost to the minute)
But today I have started to fly by cleaning & shining my sink.
I cleaned the bathroom, dusted & hoovered all through and had a "room rescue" (?) of DS's room in that I found the floor!!

I've piled up the clean clothes that are dry, in going to iron them tonight so I don't have the usual 2 hrs worth on Sunday night.

Haven't gone beyond shining my sink yet so am waaaaaay behind you all

But I must get organised and what better way to deal with the most painful bereavement I've experienced so far?!

mummynic . So sorry.
swan I am writing down your menu plan.
toffee I am writing down your paperwork routine.

Done:
school/work
lidl
laundry
S+S
swimming/football/ballet kits ready to go

mummynic - sorry for your loss there is something therapeutic in cleaning. I hope it helps in a small way.

I am new and plan to start in earnest with day 1 baby step on Monday. So you're not behind me

MummyNic I'm so sorry to hear about your lovely dog. I remember from the previous thread how you said she was struggling. Hope you are coping.

Well my DD2 who I was struggling with has surpassed herself today. The DC were having some blueberries for a snack and I went upstairs to get some things came back DD2 had stamped the blueberries into the beige/caramel carpet. I'm beyond dismayed, cross, fed up! I bet FlyLady doesn't have destructive toddlers. HELP!!!!!

MummyNic
Sorry to hear about your dog. I lost a pet cat 3 years ago so I can understand how upsetting it is.

I have been trying to Fly (doing babysteps) for a while and still struggle with the shiny kitchen sink. Am good at *some of the other babysteps though.

FleeBee about your carpet. I also have a cream carpet (not by choice) and a toddler so know how they don't mix!

The baby steps start again with number one on 1st of each month. (Just easier to remember what number we are on that way!

I am off to bed soon as I was up quite early.

I will jump right in on feb 1st then

I too have cream/beige carpet in our rented apartment. It's awful. I have berry stains from my 4 year old. He loves to eat frozen berries (strange child) and dropped a couple that were not noticed and melted into the carpet. We need fly lady help here with 3 boys and 2 not so tidy grown ups in a small, 3 br apartment!

Flee years later all I can say is...carpet v. children and the children have won! Shortly after our new stair carpet was installed, dd (okay she was 9) decided very sweetly to bring me a cup of coffee in bed that she had made all by herself, cue coffee stains all up the stairs where it slopped over. I'm immune to stains now. Nail polish, felttip, coffee, paint, cream, chewing gum, mud, the list is endless. I do hate mud though, it is AVOIDABLE.
I suppose it is fun for a toddler to see a carpet change colour though, I suppose they are too little to know you can't wash carpets in a machine.

MummyNic what a sad week for you. Hope you have very happy memories of your lovely dog.

lugholes I like the sound of ingoings and outgoings. The art of classification is the thing that I find difficult about paperwork, too many files and it becomes a nightmare to put everything way but a file just saying HOME is too vague. At the moment the only file which is always where it should be is the Boiler file (next to the boiler)
Scatty had a good system which was just one concertina with the year on it, with everythng filed in categories. I use that now, as it is only way to keep track of too many bits of paper. And start afresh each year. I also just stick all school/afterschool activity/calendar stuff/trip notices on a nail in kitchen, much easier than a pile or a file.

I've lost my passport though, and I know that it is somewhere with all the certificates etc I made for ds1's Secondary application. Last year. Somewhere in all that filing is a brown envelope but where?

done
kids to bed - stories etc, read to ds1 to make him listen to more highbrow stuff that he can't be bothered to read
dd violin practice
ds1 homework x 1
got cross with dd for starting to make a space boardgame at 8.15pm

tidying kitchen and now trying to prepare catechism stuff for tomorrow.

28th January - babystep 28 : remember to take care of yourselves. Eat right, drink your water and get enough sleep. You won't have the energy to get everything done if you don't look after yourselves (no mention of how to manage if you are up half the night with wakeful babies or toddlers though ).

There are no missions on Saturday, so just get through those routines, then go out and enjoy some family fun. If you can .

Mummynic - so sorry to hear about your lovely dog .

Thank you for the kind words. Beginning to cope now so it's time to keep busy. She was really suffering on the last day so I am mentally content..
Emotionally I'm very delicate

But my sink looks nice this morning

Morning all,
Not sure if anyone is around this morning. I am planning to potter around doing a few jobs this morning then have "family, chill out time" this afternoon.

So this morning I have:
breakfast
got dressed
made beds
put 1 x washing in machine
emptied living room bin

To do:
clean table and various other small jobs.

This morning I have: showered & dressed.
Washed up breakfast dishes
Done & hung out 2 loads of washing
Emptied fridge of out of date rotting stuff.
Welcomed Ocado lady (a rare treat but I had £20 off!)
Put shopping away.

That's it for today as we have a Christmas party tonight.

Pleased with myself though! This is exactly what I need

Oh, cleaned the fridge too!! Big task as its a love American style one.

Would have a cupola but my DS has moved my tea caddy

This morning is a ?bang!? day. Went to bed last night in a lot of pain, woke up very early this morning 'bang!', literally unable to sit up. Had to be put upright like a little old lady. An awful lot of pain killers and coffee later, I?m able to move, but only just. It was a day full of things that had to be done of course, and have had to lie here ordering others around, so they get to were they have to be, and everything physical will all now have to go on to tomorrow. Very frustrating. Am looking at what I can do, and trying to plan that ?alternative for these situations? routine better.

BlackCat pottering and family sounds like a good plan.

MummyNic I?m so sorry about your dog.

You?re having an end of Jan Christmas party? Intrigued. :-)

Oh dear JustGetting, Is it your back? You have my sympathy.

I need to give myself a kick up the bum and get on with my list.
I keep just sitting playing on the computer so after my I will make a start.

I need to:
Get washing out of machine and hang to dry
clean the table
do a meal plan/shopping list
wash up.

BlackCat fundamentally it's a nerve problem that takes out one side of my body. I have back and joint problems on top.

Computer games are the work of the devil. :o

Oh, JustGettingOnWithIt, that sounds horrible. You poor thing. You sound as if you have been through this before. Do you know how long it will last? I'm so sorry you're in pain. Any chance of getting stronger painkillers from the dr? (Tricky on a Saturday though ).

BlackCat - maybe use the 15 minutes trick? It is so hard to motivate oneself to do boring, repetitive jobs.

MummyNic - I am also intrigued by your Christmas party....

Well, poor DS1 couldn't get to sleep till 2am this morning, thanks to his new tablets, so is wrecked today and couldn't face our planned 'Family Fun Day'. However, this has been an unexpected bonus for me, as DH has taken DS2 out and given me strict instructions to relax and not do 'jobs' . So now I am back in bed with the computer and today's Guardian and may even have a little nap before he arrives home. I have been feeling really tired this week, so maybe I will have more energy if I allow myself this time.

And I am following today's babystep by taking care of myself!

Hope you all have a good day.

I have almost stopped flying!
Nothing in zones done this week, haven't done any washing since last weekend, no de-cluttering, no daily sink shining.

BUT this morning kitchen is now spick and span, lounge is good, I need to load the washer but I am looking after my mum (alhzeimers) so can't really do much. I am not even dressed, I am on here and she is reading the junk mail out to me "two for £2, what does that mean then?"

I will get dressed as soon as dd takes over!

I'm intrigued by the party too!! It's my DH's work, their Christmas party is always end of Jan

I think, as the company pay for all the staff (only had to pay for my own meal) they are savvy tight and get a good deal with the hotel (relatively up market chain) because it's Jan and not Dec.

It'll be crackers and everything

Toffee it's where I pay for all the good days, which happen because of a cocktail of strong painkillers and other drugs, so only real option upwards leaves me a total zombie unable to care for dependants. It's a bit pot luck how long it takes to sort out, 1 to 3 days average. I'm set up so I can put together slow cooker meals etc, but you can imagine what happens to the place meantime.

It's why I need a secondary system that allows my 'downtime' to be used more effectively and efficiently, as half my good work falls apart on a regular basis.

MummyNic can I be nosy and ask if they have a Christmas tree as well? (There has to be a business in 'Christmas isn't just for Christmas')

membership good luck. :-)

JustGetting - that sounds awful . I hope you can use your 'downtime' for resting, not just for delegating.

MummyNic - that's crazy! What a tight-fisted bunch!

Membership - looking after your mum is much more important than flying. It must be very tough. I hope you get a break soon.

Not sure if there was a tree last year.. Will let you know tomorrow.
It is very tight but they wait until after pay day so people aren't broke for it, maybe that's the excuse...

Hope you get over it quickly this time justgetting

Usual day of football/swimming/dancing but had an unusual urge to dust the blinds .