April Fledglings Fly into Spring, Get That Clutter into the Bin

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

Welcome to the April 2012 Fledgling Flyers thread. Come and join us for a bit of chat and a lot of housework (or possibly the other way round).

A huge "thank you" to SanguineChompa for leading us through March

If you're house is a mess and you are strugging with C.H.A.O.S. (can't have anyone over syndrome) and S.T.U.F.F. (something that undermines family fun) then this is the thread where we (loosely) follow the step-by-step Flylady housekeeping system (in our own, unique, relaxed style) with lots of chat and support along the way.

We advise not signing up to receive the Flylady e-mails as you will be inundated! All the information you need will be linked here on a daily basis. Feel free to browse the Flylady website as well, links below

From the first of the month, we will be following Flylady's tips on restoring order to our homes, and as we are all at different stages we will be using one of the following methods:

• repeat or start baby steps

• repeat baby steps + do 15 mins a day decluttering in the current zone

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

More info here and here!

All long-standing members, intermittent returnees, lurkers and newcomers welcome!!

Well, who's the April Fool for being up at this time on a Sunday morning?

This is the one day I have with No builders and No pupils. What happened to the school Easter holidays you may ask? I have 5, yes 5, pupils so keen they are coming for private tuition tomorrow.

So am I going to have a nice renewing my spirit day today? Nope! Think it's a crisis clean / tidy sort of day so pupils can walk through slightly wider channels of junk to get to the temporary kitchen to learn. Start with dresser I think (English dresser, not some US bedroom piece) where the piles of paper may be concealing some bills that need paying.

Right, I'm officially back and no joke, new day and all that. Slightly behind already as still in bed while dh up downstairs with dd, ds still asleep having decided to wake for a night feed last night, thought we had that one cracked, rubbish. First task, washing machine on and ironing put away from last night. I also ordered paint last night for the spindles on our never ending hall, stairs and landing project, so feel a sense of accomplishment as been deliberating for months, hopefully this will spur dh on to get it finished.

Ok, Im up but not dressed yet
What I have to do today:

1. Dw- empty it
2. Wm- empty it and put on another load
3. Get out clothes horses
4. Clean washing away
5. Hotspots- mantlepiece, kitchen table coffee table

Dd1 heading off to my mums for the day, but the sleep terrorist (dd2) will still be here throwing books at me :o pm will have to work around her. Though dp is off today, first time in ages so might go for a walk in the botanic gardens too :)

Morning all ... not quite as bright and early as planned ....but it was hard to leave my duvet behind this morning.

Day one of baby-steps and day one of my new diet and exercise regime too. Dh isn't really with me on this so I'm going to need a will of iron ...

Bitchy btw - meant to say last night that there is an entirely separate book (other than Sink Reflections) devoted to health and exercise called 'Body Clutter' written by someone who isn't Flylady but closely associated. Several people on here have found it helpful, and I think the main message is good (ie same as Flylady - you have to "finally love yourself" blah blah blah to make a difference) and although there are exercises (written ones) that you do at end of each chapter, I would have preferred a more prescriptive baby-step approach, ie day one - drink an oj and walk fast for 15 mins around park, day two - eat a grapefruit and hop, skip and jump for 30 mins etc etc.... whereas book a bit more generalised than that. As I say though, loads of people on previous threads have said it worked for them and I'm sure they will advise.

How are all of you?

Thanks for thanks Justgettingonwithit - it really was my pleasure (and my house is in much better shape too although still loads to do). Lurk away - that makes eminent sense - absolutely horrible to have that hanging over you. When do you find out? Do you have anywhere else you can go/visit in the interim? Feel on your behalf. Any luck with Shelter or CAB? It really doesn't seem right that this can be imposed on someone (especially when child involved). Crossing all fingers and toes and sending positive thoughts ..

Honu (thanks for espresso - lifesaver this morning) Crikey - absolutely no chance of a day of rest then. Could you possibly escape for just one hour to go for a walk/do something you enjoy? Good luck with the crisis clean/paper mountain!

the waffler hope spindles do the trick and that you can catch up on sleep tonight. Good luck getting launched on first day of Flying ...

Right, I'd better get on...big day at church .. dd involved... is going to take up most of the morning

Ta da:
Morning routine, inc wm, dw, s&s
Visit office cleaner and pay
Prep Sunday lunch

To do:
Church
Finish two supernanny projects
One hour attacking boudoir
Exercise!!!
Meal planning!!
Afternoon/evening routine
Early night

Have a lovely Sunday everyone!

x post

MadameMessy good luck on day one! Arf at sleep terrorist and enjoy your walk!

Morning all, I'm sneaking back in to return to the thread if you'll have me. I'm officially unemployed again as temp contract ended on Friday but that means that I can now attack house which has been extremely neglected over the last few months.

Have written a long list of what must be done over the Easter hold but priority today is the following

• find driving licence as need to renew photocard.
• find other Id for trip to supply agency to register for work tomorrow.
• washing. Washing and more washing
• tidy hotspot at end of sofa
• take dd to dance rehearsal tonight

Hope everyone is well. I can see there are still lots of oldies about and quite a few newbies too

Yay! MC good to "see" you! Good luck with your list today.

Good morning oldies and newbies .

Today is a getting-ready-for-the-decorator day. That means a house crisis clean and preparing the sitting room (books off shelves, etc). Would like to tackle the shocking state of our bedroom, but I'm afraid it's going to be a dumping ground for a bit longer. Also need to do some washing and feed and exercise the boys. Lovely sunny day here.

Hope you all have a good day.

Right. I'm up (but not dressed ) and I need to:
S&S ensuite
Trip to tip
Trip to Homebase
Make lasagne

Not planning anything really exciting as want to spend time with DH & DS today, however I will dig out my control journal and check it as well as updating home routines app - and set alarms on it!

Will kick back in to cleaning/tidying tomorrow; weekends are crap for routines I find.

PS - just call me Carpe! T'is much easier on the typing!

Huge wing flaps to Toffee - good luck with crisis clean!! Sunny here too now!

and to Carpe (still haven't worked out who you are! ) agree that w/es and routines don't really mix ...have so far spent the time I was meant to be attending to the boudoir, making a Hama bead tree ...

Waves to all! Had a nice day with ILs yesterday and parts of today have been excellent...

Not much flying but had a shiny kitchen to show off - ILs hadn't seen it since the new one was fitted in the autumn. Have survived today without killing the boys and had a nice dinner.

anyone?

Hi all. Thanks for the support in March SC and thanks for taking over this month whoknows .

I have been up to my ears in birthdays and parties (mainly DD but others too). DDs craft party went well until DS (who had been pretty tolerent of DDs 2 day birthday frenzy) finally had enough. Consequently all the Mums turned up to find my two fighting furiously . Never mind.

Have visited friends today .
Work tomorrow.

BB Tues.

I'm back, will catch up properly later when the DCs are in bed, thank you for looking after the thread SC.

Well, our bedroom is now well and truly a dumping ground, but the sitting room is empty and ready for the decorator. Sifting through all the clutter does make me realise how much we don't need. And seeing a virtually empty sitting room also makes me realise how much easier it would be to keep things clean and tidy without 'stuff' everywhere.

Also did lots of white washing ( at whites flapping in the sun and breeze) and replanted the front window box, which had been looking a bit sorry for itself. Oh, and cleaned the windows.

The telly has been put away so that it's not in the decorator's way, much to DS2's dismay. However, he listened happily to an audio CD once he realised that television was not an option. It will be interesting to see how we get on without it for a few days (am not going to become telly free though - couldn't bear to miss the next season of 'The Walking Dead'!).

DH and DS2 are having a 'rolling potato fight' downstairs so I think I may have to intervene.

Big achievement today - managed to get DS1 out to the playground! (He has anxiety issues, for those who don't know, and has been stuck in the house for weeks). It gave me hope that we might manage a holiday abroad after all (small steps and all that....).

Must do bedtime routines now...

ok first day failures...
nesbit: clean washing away, hotpots
ta da: dw & wm, clothes horses out, walk done and some shopping done

but, I have great plans for the week :)
tomorrow I will:
do morning routines of dw, wm s&s
hotspots
mealplans

during the week, I will:
clear out dd1s clothes for freecycle
washing to laundrette?

hope everyone had a good day? am off to study a bit :(

Evening all,

We've had a lovely weekend away visiting relatives in another part of the country and DH and I managed a couple of hours child free shopping and lunch this morning before we headed back. We tried Yo Sushi! which was a new experience for both of us, it was good fun and tasty. Since getting back - nothing! CBA. Pressure's off with no school and no work for me tomorrow.

Honu - an early start for you, just as well you had the espresso machine to keep you company

TheWaffler - welcome back, still being in bed at 7.40 on a Sunday morning doesn't seem to unreasonable to me.

MadameM - arf at sleep terrorist. That list doesn't sound bad for a Sunday.

MakingChanges - welcome back, been wondering how you were. I had to do my driving licence a couple of weeks ago, got it done at the Post Office in their special booth that does it all for you, all very efficient, licence appeared back in 3 days - with the worst photo of me I have ever seen in my life!

Carpe - are you a namechanged regular?

SC - I'd rather be doing Hama beads that housework any day.

Blue - thank you for the

Scatty - I'm always glad to get the DCs parties out of the way.

Toffee - that's brilliant about DS1, you must be so relieved.

Back in a minute with some links (if I can remember how)

Oh, I meant to reply to Trying's question from yesterday. We had a shelf incident in DD's bedroom a couple of weeks ago, an entire set of shelves came away from the wall, the contents (which was slightly more than a couple of cuddly toys) slid gently to the floor and the shelves fell forward a bit and came to rest on 2 toy boxes. Luckily the shelves were screwed to the brackets which were screwed to the wall rail things so the whole thing stayed in one piece and didn't do any damage apart from the holes in the wall but the room did end up knee deep in books, jigsaws, cuddly toys and board games. We didn't want to replace the shelves till we have redecorated so it has all had to be rehomed elsewhere, but thanks to 2.5 years of decluttering I have managed to absorb about 90% of it into the rest of the house (the rest is being got rid of).

Monday 2nd April

Aaargh, the FLylady website has completely changed since I last did link posting! None of my bookmarks work. It seems to be possible to get information in advance now, which is good. I may need to investigate a bit more.

Our Babystep Get dressed to Lace Up Shoes. I don't do this, some people find it useful, some don't. I can understand the logic, but I don't feel it makes much difference personally.

Sneak Peak for the Week Sneak Peek

Mission Mission

Our Focus for Monday is Home Blessing

And our Habit of the Month for April is Make Your Bed

Ok i give up. I totally suck at the early night babystep. ffs I was going to go to sleep at about 10:30pm. I was super tired. And yet i am still here at half one.
I need someone in rl to tell me to go to bed cos i am crap.

monday:
pj day
pack for ds
sort out kit used today
sort out kit for ds' return to training
figure out what to do for tea

erm....

meh too tired to care. night.

Hello all, I am rejoining after getting half way through Feb and giving up. I hope you will have me back! I am still on April 1 here so sink shining to commence after kids in bed.

Well, did I do all that tidying yesterday? Of course not! I have acquired a neighbour's 16.5 yr old son who wants to earn money towards driving lessons when 17 and who, while clueless on the topic, is helping me garden. Yes, he is helpful but needs training and supervision, so of course I had to be out in the lovely weather instead of indoors tidying .

However, I come down this morning not only to the chaos but the realisation that one of today's pupils is brand new, never met me, and his mother may be shocked by the mess rather than impressed by my algebra . And I do have just a smidgeon of pride and a wish not to be thought a total slattern.

OK then, large expresso in hand and off I go. BB tomo

Morning all.

Glad you had a lovely break Whoknows - no probs about looking after thread and thanks for links! (Flylady website is much easier to access now isn't it - organised much more logically than previous mind-splat. I was pleasantly surprised.)

Honu if she has half a brain, she'll be more impressed by your algebra!! Good luck with everything you have on today. (I'm also guilty of sloping out in sunshine yesterday and abandoning my list. Glad you could catch some rays though!)

A big hello to Jnice!!

Bitchy I could have written your post. I meant to be in bed by 10.30 pm last night (day one of good intentions). Absolutely no reason why I couldn't have been - but for the fact that my rear was stuck to the sofa watching seriously rubbish telly. Reallly stupid on my part. Am now bleary eyed and late and cross this morning. Must do better. We ought to become one another's "night watch" buddies ...!!

That's great news about your ds Toffee (well done on your productive day too)

Huge waves to Messy Scatty (glad party went well) Blue and everyone else ...

We are trying to leave to go on hols this week but dh has loads to do in office so dd is going to a ballet/theatre workshop (arranged at last minute) today and possibly tomorrow, when hopefully we can leave ...

But because I was sort of in "holiday" mode - if not actually on holiday - I let the routines slip last night and this morning overslept horribly and have been
rushing around trying to find ballet shoes, hairpins and bun nets and generally being shouty And I'm not even dressed yet and it's 9.30 am over here That's half the mornign gone already ...so stupid when meant to capitalise on fact that dd is out of the house ...

And didn't get as much done yesterday as intended. The lure of the sunshine got me in the end ...had fun though ...

Yesterday:
Church done
Finish two supernanny projects half way
One hour attacking boudoir NOPE
Exercise!!! done lovely long walk in sunshine en famille
Meal planning!! NOPE
Afternoon/evening routine done
Early night NOPE

• made a Hama bead tree and dd and I finally finished those morning and evening motivational charts ready for next term (perfectionism - moi?) They've taken a ridiculously long time.

Today:
Rush around madly and organise dd's stuff for dance done
Empty washing machine and hang up blue wash
Morning routine inc dw on, wm on, s&s - not even dressed yet
Put ironed clothes away
Seriously tackle boudoir
Home paperwork - urgent
Quick supermarket shop
Order/buy French book for dd's Easter reading
Food planning
Exercise
More ironing
Drop off dry cleaning
French study
Take down dd's art project that is half falling off wall and decide which bits to keep and which to junk
Finish writing up yesterday's diet and fitness log ...
Afternoon/evening routine
Start packing
Early bed!

Tally-ho everyone! Have a great start to the week!! Sorry for the essay ...

• clear dining table hot-spot

• wrap four presents

sorry - if it doesn't get written down ....

Hi, first post -v relevent topic. How come the smallest member of the family creates the most mess!!