Flinging our way through the chaos: February’s Fledgling Flyers

[LinzerTorte]

Welcome to the February edition of the Fledgling Flyers' thread.

If you're living in CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome), this is the thread for you! We follow the tips on the FlyLady website in an attempt to restore order to our homes, but advise against signing up for the e-mails; all the information you need is on this thread.

Each day, I'll be posting the links that will enable you to do any of the following:

• start or repeat babysteps

• repeat babysteps and do 15 minutes a day decluttering in the current zone

or

• reinforce babysteps and do daily missions if you have finished decluttering.

More information about the babysteps is here.

So please join us - there's always plenty of chat, , cake, encouragement and the occasional to help us on our way!

Marking my place for tomorrow.

Going to start with the babysteps from tomorrow (hope it doesn't drive me completely mad!)

Dedalus, you know as well as I that I have the patience of a nat. And I haven't been driven mad by the babysteps yet. although i have yet to manage a whole month of the beggars

what are the baby steps? I've signed up for the emails, but cannot for the life of me understand how you would read all that and have any time to do housework. If I had lots of time, my flat probably would look like a show home anyway! Honestly, there's so much flowery waffle on the website I lose the will to live after a couple of sentences. I just need something succinct. Can anyone help?

Hello all

tasmanian There's a link to more information about the babysteps in my OP - here it is again. As it says on the website, the babysteps are one of FlyLady's concepts for getting your house in order; there's one for every day of the month and they focus on helping us to develop new habits. If you're new to the FlyLady system, you only really need to worry about the babysteps at the moment - every day, I'll post a link to the day's babystep (usually the evening before).

As I said in the OP, you can ignore most of FlyLady's website (and I would definitely recommend unsubscribing from the e-mails); I'll be posting links to all the information you need. And yes, we do tend to ignore or find alternatives to her flowery language; we concentrate on the most useful bits of her advice and take the rest with a pinch of salt.

Report on Flying for the last few months:

Morning Routine - gets done OK if I remember to follow the checklist

Afternoon Routine - fail

Before bed routine - see Afternoon Routine

Laundry - got this sussed - Yay!

Sink - mostly OK

Swish and swipe - loos have never looked so good

Bed at a reasonable hour - I could fall asleep by 8pm but have to get DH to bed first and he is unwilling to go to bed before 10.

Cleanliness - it has dawned on me that I no longer wish for a cleaner! Whilst not fantastic the house is basically clean most of the time - which it wasn't before I started regular home bleugh.

Handbag - 5 mins every Friday and it is sorted. The system works, but only if I can actually manage to establish the routine.

Clutter - FAIL, FAIL, FAIL!

Not only is tomorrow another day, as Ms O'Hara said, it is a new month. I can see from the above areas for improvement!

Evening everyone and welcome to one and all, fledglings old and new - WhoKnows, Honu, lauren, Flying, Neenook, feetheart, Lifebegins, Bitchy, Toffee, scatty, Lady, swan, Blue, DWM and Dedalus from the old fledglings' thread, thewaffler, poeia, BlackCat, WannabeMeg, Chestnut, JustGetting, slowburner and membership from last month's thread led by Toffee, newbie tasmanian* and anyone else lurking. Waves and apologies to anyone I've missed!

**

Links for Wednesday, 1st February

Your first babystep is to shine your sink. There are detailed instructions on how to do so here. This is a babystep that I go back to time and again when I'm feeling overwhelmed and not sure where to start, as having a clean and shiny sink really does make a big psychological difference. Once your sink is looking shiny, it inspires you to get the kitchen looking equally good... and then the rest of the house. That's the theory, anyway (and there's definitely something to it).

If you've already completed the babysteps and have moved on to zone work, our zone for the three remaining days of this week is Zone 1: The Entrance, Front Porch and Dining Room. You can either spend 15 minutes decluttering in this zone or do the mission.

Tomorrow's mission is here (scroll down to Zone 1: Mission 1 Wednesday): clean the fingerprints and smudges off the walls and windows in your dining room. That reminds me that I really must get round to ordering a magic eraser...

Wednesday in FlyLady's world is anti-procrastination day. Time to make those appointments, write that e-mail or make that phone call that you've been putting off!

**

Ok, fresh month fresh start.

Overall I have a clean and tidy house and have done since Christmas which is amazing. I still put our clothes each Tuesday for the 3 days at work, I know what is for dinner each night, the kitchen table has been clear of crap assorted junk mail and rubbish because we have a tablecloth on it all the time. Laundry is put away as soon as it is dry, the airing cupboard is used to fluff up linen and ensure thick clothes are dry. All bathrooms are deep cleaned and all surfaces dusted weekly, all floors hoovered twice a week, beds made daily. Nappy bin also emptied every other day, recycling put out twice a week and sink shined everyday with clear worktops before bed.

Brilliant.

This month I want to get on top of the clutter, we have a lot if things boxed up as we are in rental between buying a new house and i am not sure where to store those boxes but I'd feel better I I could sort through them and decide what is for keeping and what can be escorted gently off the premises!

Evening
I am mostly lurking, but still trying to FLY. I have dp at home which makes it harder for me, but am hopeful that he will be back to work soon.... [worried]
I am in awe of working mums though - I am now working (not many hours) and find it hard to fit in FLYing aound unpredictable hours. Another project for the next month I think...

Thanks for the welcome and the first link, Linzer. I was considering leaving my sink tonight because I want to catch up on sleep, but the first babystep has made me reconsider. It does feel so good to come down to a clean and empty sink in the morning.

Welcome to the thread, Tasmanian. We all feel like you about the Flylady website, which is why this thread exists. If you stick with us, you can follow the babysteps to establish your new routines, but you don't have to wade through daily emails or the purple prose on the website. Also, we are very good at chatting off topic .

Honu and slowburner - it's really encouraging to read how much your houses have improved with Flylady's help. I am pretty good at sticking to my basic routines, especially the before-bed routine and swishing and swiping of the bathroom, but I'm hopeless at keeping up with the laundry. I have a pile of whites that have been on one of the dining-room chairs for three days now . I can't put them away because they need ironing, but I never seem to have the time to iron. I could do a bit tonight (probably will, actually), but that means losing more precious sleep. And that's the other babystep that I'm rubbish at - going to bed at a decent hour.

How do you both keep up with it? You seem to have that sussed.

On the subject of shiny sinks and early bedtimes, I should go now. I was just combining eating my dinner with MN-ing.

See you all tomorrow.

Reporting for flying duty 30 months in to the fledglings from a sparkling home . < links arms with feet and bitchy.

jas i work full time as a teacher plus middle management role within school and have 3 dc's ages 37, 8 and 3. The only answer i have found is to lower my standards. In all seriousness, flylady has given me routines which i know work when done properly but also the knowledge that all is not lost if i don't shine my sink. Pick your battles wisely is my advice. I will hide washing piles in my bedroom if i can't be arsed to do it but i always make sure clothes are out for the morning amd the kitchen is tidy to getup to.

Having said that have done feck all tonight. Year 9 parent's evening equated to a 12 hour day so have eaten and collapsed. Back tomorrow.

Had no idea you had a 37-year-old 'child', Ellie . That's quite an age gap between your three!

Hi all, have decided to update my name just in time for the new thread, like it??

Toffee - sleep? You and me both!!!

How does a day vanish so fast??? I feel I have hardly managed to get anything done at all.

Done
Breakfast with DSs
School and nursery run (with both throwing tantrums )
Skype with sister (for a bit toooo long )
Collect GumTree purchase
nusery run to collect DS2
3x loads of washing
Grocery shopping
Put new e cloths into bathrooms (and give a quick swish!)
School run to collect DS1
Dismantle bed and re-assemble in spare room
load and unload dishwasher x2
15 minutes x 2 tidying in kitchen (with a very shiny sink )
Dinner with DSs
Homework routine
Bed and bath for DSs

To do:
Put clean linen onto my bed
Go to sleep!!!!

Um. I do not iron. Ever.

I don't iron either! Off to bed now as i am an expert at early nights!

BB tomorrow!

But the whites are all crumpled, slow . I think they were left in a heap on the chair (I blame DH!). So I will have to iron them.

I think I need to try harder to whisk things out of the t/drier quicker so that they don't get crumpled.

Hi there everyone - I've moved over from Toffee's thread.

I have managed to keep my sink shiny throughout Jan, my bathrooms now look good, plus I find I'm making an effort to try to keep the house clean and tidy. I still can get easily distracted by things other than housework, but I shall carry on and aim to improve a bit more throughout Feb.

I'll hopefully be back with gusto tomorrow- having a hard time in RL at the mo so apologies for disappearing act in January.

Will post a list in the morning and personals tomorrow evening.

elllie - My standards are already pretty low!

DD1 asked what the ironing board was when she was about 6! The iron is only used for hama beads in this house....

Another fresh start here, I have been doing routines and home blessing quite well, also decluttering, but not getting on very well with the detailed cleaning, so that is what I want to do this month.

Laundry - I do keep on top of that, even more so since I got the DCs involved, at bedtime I take the day's clean washing up to my bed and sor it into four baskets, one each and we all have to put our own away. The DCs need help with stuff that has to be hung up and I do have to sort their drawers out because things have been just stuffed in, but it makes it more fun doing it as a team. They are also now tasked with putting out their own clothes for the next day. I have actually stopped bothering doing that for myself most of the time now as I know that everything I need will generally be clean and in it's place [smug emoticon]. I do very little ironing though.

Day off work tomorrow (working Friday instead) so going to start Feb as I mean to go on with a list:

Morning routine
School run
Friend here for coffee
Go for a run
Pop to Sainsburys for odds and ends
Detailed zone cleaning / mission
Paperwork

I must tell you about my new improved paperwork system (no one in RL is interested funnily enough). I have had a pretty decent filing system for a couple of years, but it all went wrong at the pre-filing stage, getting dumped in piles as it arrived, then being put into a three office tray thing which was always overflowing and never got completely emptied, it was also hard to find anything in. So, I have replaced it with one of those wire mesh upright magazine file things instead, which takes up much less space and looks neater. Every day I pick up all the paper that has come into the house, deal with very urgent stuff immediately and put EVERYTHING that can't be immediately recycled in this holder. Except notes from school etc which get stuck on a pinboard next to the calendar.

Now I know where everything is (don't have to root through 3 overflowing trays) and I can pick it up and take it to the table or sofa for a sort out really easily. Once a week I sort it all out, do anything that needs doing, move anything that needs filing or shredding out to the right places. It looks much better and feels much more under control.

Oooh, slowburner I want to be like you....

Off to bed now, but early start at work tomorrow as I managed to lose 3 hours work about 15 mins before I finished today and the accountant is coming tomorrow at 9 - so will post tomorrows list now and get back to you all tomorrow evening.

One load of washing - through to ironing (can't help it) and crucially putting away
Beds made - will be at work by the time everyone else is up so DH's job tomorrow
Dinner planned and made
Hwk/reading/piano practise routine
DS2 and assorted friends to Beavers
Lunches made for next day
Dog walked
Swish and swipe bathrooms

Will try to do zones on a Friday as I don't work on Fridays

Ok, I'm in. A bit unsure whether I'm really cut out for this, but need to do something to get my house in order. I'm quite looking forward to seeing my shiny sink in the morning rather than last nights dishes!

Marking my place but having a very wobbly time at the moment as FIL in hospital after a mild heart attack, and a very dear friend died this morning after battling cancer for nearly 3 years.

I did manage to shine the sink and set the dishwasher going before I fell into bed, and have washing m/c on delay start so there'll be a clean load ready for the drier when I get up. So hopefully won't start the day feeling too overwhelmed.

Baby steps.........

Morning all,

cq for you.

Just thought I should introduce myself for those who don't really know me:

I have been trying FlyLady since around August last year. I am still doing Babysteps and haven't quite got into the decluttering side of things yet.. I am seeing improvements in my house especially this last few days.
I have a DS 8 and a DD 3 . DD has just started nursery in the mornings last week (which took me a while to get used to). I am finding now though that I can get on with jobs while she is at nursery --as long as I don't get stuck MNetting for too long--.

I am also on another thread (pointy sticks thread) where they are doing babysteps so will pop in now and again here. Just thought it might give me a bit of extra support/encouragement by being on here too.

I was on the old thread towards the end of January so a few of you might remember me from there.

In honour of starting the babysteps I've just speedread the link with Flylady's 'How to shine your sink'. And what was at the bottom? February's Habit of the Month - Declutter 15 minutes every day! Since I failed with my NY resolution of 10 mins/day this is a massive mountain. Think I may need some handholding here.

I like Whoknows paperwork system. Paper clutter is as bad as all the other clutter here, and, apart from the bulging files, it fails as stuff comes into the house - so I may try your idea.

Laundry - - we have economy 7 (cheap overnight) electricity so I set d/w and a load of washing in the evening to run v early in the morning. I'm up early so move washing to drier (still cheap elec) and it's out and folded (so v little ironing and that done at 3am when can't sleep) by breakfast. Yesterday's washing put away from airing cupboard to bedrooms and today's into airing cupboard as part of morning routine. Varies in the summer when I line dry if possible. We mostly manage with one wash a day but delicates/woollens/accidents tend to get done while main wash dries and then hang around rather and spoils beautiful system.