Fledglings Fly into July!

[BlueEyeshadow]

Welcome to the July 2012 Fledgling Flyers thread. Park your mops, buckets and microfibre cloths here!!

A huge "thank you" to SanguineChompa for leading us throughout June!!

If your 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, support and wine 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.

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.

All welcome!!

Apologies for starting the thread so late - it took SC lobbing the duster at me to make me remember it's July tomorrow (and I've blatantly cut and pasted her OP too)!

The first baby step is to shine your sink! See here for the Fat Fairy's tutorial...

No mission because it's Sunday. But here's the flight plan for established flyers

Evening all,

Body clutter - FAIL! I am 5lb heavier than I was when we started up a few weeks ago, so it's back to it next week.

Flying - not too bad, managed most of the rest of the unpacking today, just the holiday crate left (the box with all the random toys, chargers, torches, bin liners etc left to do, plus put away the clean washing).

Everything else - a nice day on the whole. We all got up and went to the PYO farm this morning, dodging between showers (have had some massive ones today, including thunderstorms). Luckily I got my 3 loads of washing from yesterday off the line this morning before it all started, although the 4th lot is hanging soggily out there still. Then back for Sainsburys/lunch/F1 watching/jam making, plus my parents popped round for a couple of hours and we managed a barbecue tea. Plus plenty of Olympic watching in between and arguing about which bits to watch, this multi streaming via the red button is causing more bother than it's worth in our house

Rather worryingly, my mum told me that the Dr thinks Dad has Parkinson's. I have suspected this myself for several years TBH, so no real surprise but a bit upsetting. He has to see a specialist for confirmation. My mum worries me though, she resists all conventional medicine very strongly, and will always go for the alternative option first, she lacks the ability to assess risk properly and thinks all prescribed medicines are going to give you serious side effects whereas natural therapies won't. I think she will cause a lot of stress to everyone including herself over anything Dad is prescribed.

Anyway, I think I am going to have the same sort of day tomorrow as you MC, DH is at work, the DCs are going to my parents and I have a much needed day to myself to catch up with everything.

THanks for the link to that book Toffee

PA - yikes at the rat! At risk of making you even more homesick, I would say that this holiday (and our similar one on the IOW last year) have been our best family holidays to date. A lovely campsite with lovely families in the surrounding caravans, the DCs all played beautifully, the adults all enjoyed lots of wine round the campfires in the evenings, and we went to lots of beautiful places too. I keep thinking I must know the island pretty well now, but we just keep discovering more great places to go and have already got a list for next year of things we didn't get round to this year.

SC - we watched the opening ceremony on Iplayer after the DCs went to bed last night so we fast forwarded over all the other countries. Don't think I would have been able to stay awake all that time otherwise.

WhoKnows - ((hugs)) So sorry to hear about your Dad. It's horrible to have a fear like that confirmed, even if it's not a complete surprise. I hope your mum is not obstructive in his need for medication.

MC - thanks for your kind words about DS2. Am crossing my fingers the situation gets better soon. He told me this evening that he wants a goldfish as his pet. He says goldfish are more interesting than dogs . (I think it's just that they are safely behind glass). I hope you and DH manage to get some time to yourselves. It makes such a difference. We are still feeling recharged from having just one night away.

Enjoyed another lovely walk on the Downs with the dog and DS1 this evening. She transformed from a laid-back dog into a playful dog once we were out - she had DS1 in fits of laughter as he ran around throwing balls for her and having a tug of war with her over a long sock-like toy thingy. Every time we go out, we meet other dog walkers, some of whom we already know. DS1 said, "It's very sociable out here, isn't it?" The good thing is that he is happy to join in with the chat because he doesn't feel under pressure and he's always interested in other people's dogs and likes to ask questions.

Came back home and remembered to water neighbour's garden for them. Five minutes later, it poured with rain. Did bedtime routines and tucked up DS1 and dog on their makeshift bed on the floor, as DS1 is still insisting on sleeping with her. I just hope she doesn't have fleas...

I have loaded the dishwasher and cleared up the kitchen tonight, as I was getting too lax with that. I have to be up and ready by 9 tomorrow as a woman is coming to clip the dog's hair. I am discovering a whole new world of dogdom.

Night all.

Hello all :) Still guiltily following and not doing. Have sneaked off from 'clutter clearing' to admit - I'm really bad at it Trying to clear house for letting agent to come and look at tomorrow, moving into new house in a fortnight and don't want to take piles of rubbish with me.

How do you guys do it? How do you get ruthless with all the:
a) random bits of paper that might be important
b) little gizmos that might 'come in handy' some day
c) sentimental stuff like cards etc
d) books - I love them so, so hard to get rid of them :(
e) lovely shoes that you never wear

How did you GET TOUGH??? We have a baby coming soon so there will be even more junk potentially! . Any tips appreciated!

I am still learning, Angelico. I'm rubbish with all the random bits of paper (shove them in the kitchen drawer), little gizmos (same drawer), sentimental stuff (carrier bags in our bedroom), books (don't ask) and lovely shoes. All I can say is that I really wish we'd dealt with all our clutter before we had our first child as we found it impossible to find the time to declutter once we had a child (and then, just as we were getting some time back, went and had another one!). I also wish that we hadn't transferred so much of our clutter with us when we moved. In your situation with the letting agent coming to view, I would shove everything into carrier bags with the intention of going through it all when I had time later (which is why I have a lot of carrier bags full of stuff that I never look at).

The 15-minutes a day thing really does work though, if you can bear to take it slowly. I put sentimental stuff into a big box, so that at least it's all together and can be sorted out one day.

One thing that now inspires me and helps me to be more ruthless is that we had to properly declutter our sitting room to have it redecorated and now it's so easy to keep clean and tidy. I want every room in my house to be that easy.

Sorry not to be more help. There are some excellent books on decluttering which other fledglings have recommended - I'll try and remember one.

Good luck with the new baby, by the way .

Found one! No More Clutter by Sue Kay.

Also, I do try to live by William Morris's maxim: "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful". Probably easier to manage in his day, mind you, before there was quite so much clutter around.

Morning all. Quick list dump. I will catch up later.

• pick up parcel from post office.
• post office to post letters.
• local shopping centre for a few bits
• hobbycraft for a box
• drop dd off at dance camp
• 15 minutes bedroom hotdog
• bathrooms (I will get these done today, they have been on my list for a week)
• update cv to send to agency
• contact school as still have not been paid for last three weeks of term
• declutter at least two drawers - I'm going for three piles- sell, throw and keep and I'm going to be ruthless.
• pick dd up from dance camp and take to swimming lessons.

-15 minutes declutter top of stairs hotspot.

• Hoover car

I know there is more but these are the main things I want to complete today.

Bedroom hot spot not hotdog silly autocorrect

Morning all,

Angelico - I agree with Toffee about the WIlliam Morris thing, but it is hard. One of my best strategies is to allow only a fixed amount of space for anything eg shoes, books. We have bookcases on the landing where the grownup books are kept, they are not allowed anywhere else, so once they are full you have to start getting rid of a few. Same with shoes, we have everyday ones on a rack, the rest under the stairs and I have two plastic crates in the bottom of my wardrobe for out of season / rarely worn ones, once the crates are full something has to go. It is hard, but liberating too. Getting a Kindle has proved to be a great idea WRT book clutter, I know its not the same but it really helps. Also declutter in small steps, eg one drawer at a time, not a whole room.

Right, must get moving and off the computer

I too have lovely shoes that I do not wear and knackered, dog-eared shoes that I do wear. I still haven?t found a solution yet but have managed to throw away 2 pairs of worn out sandles this year!

My biggest problem is getting sucked into the computer what I?m doing right now!)

Toffee I went for a lovely walk through the park yesterday with a friend who came down from Utrecht. I miss being outside ? DH never fancies a walk and I?d gotten out of the habit of going on my own. Great that being out with the dog is helping DS1 so much. I hope that DS2 gets through his fear (sorry, non dog family here so no advice!).

whoknows Sorry to hear about your DF. I cannot imagine how you must feel Sending you a big hug.

MC geocaching sounds awesome. I would love to do it but don?t know if it has reached the Netherlands yet! Good that you and DH can get some quiet time together.

Am loving the Olympics, but also missing my red button sc ! At the mercy of BBC one. I HATE watching with Dutch/Belgian commentary, I want to see the British athletes, not the Dutchies I;ve never heard of!

Hope you?ve managed to get some rest bitchy

PA at rat. This is why I am not suited for tropical climes!

ellie I have managed to eat my weight in junk this past weekend (all part of the Olympic celebrations!)

Confession time?.I didn?t do a single load of washing last week

It felt so warm here that it was impossible to do anything other than lie in a heap. It was even ?too nice? to garden
Time to get enthused about decluttering again. Aims for today?

Washing-up
Put away yesterday?s washing
Spend 15 minutes on lounge table (hotspot!)
Get 2 loads of washing done, dry, away
Take bottles to bottle bank
Supermarket
Get rid of clothes that I sorted out months ago and have been sitting under the stairs in a black bag
Start sorting loft ? toys down for DS, old clothes away
Cut back creeper in garden
Collect ILs post and water their plants

Bought ?no more clutter? (as recommended by you all, but thanks to sc and toffee for shoving it back into my consciousness!) and starting reading last night so am in the mood to get going!

Waves to everyone I?ve missed!

Have been a bit slack with MFP the last few days. Bbl (well, soon) with body clutter ? getting the scales out!

Morning all, just a dump and run this morning before mindees arrive!

The races were fantastic a really good day and the weather stayed nice, mcfly played afterwards which aren't normally my choice in music but they were surprisingly good. They played queen songs- obviously realised their audience wasn't going to go for their stuff I was surprised at the amount of bored looking children that were there though! I wouldn't have ever considered taking DD there!

To do:
Home bleugh- beds stripped and remade bedding in wash
Clean windows and doors
Food shop
Family gathering for a cousins birthday
Clean fridge
Make banana loaf with over ripe bananas
Do next months budget
Walk dogs
Shred

BBL!

lauren am just about to tuck into the banana bread that I made yesterday!

Aaaargh! paid dearly for my week of sloth and guzzling - put back on the 0.7 I lost the week before! Back up to 68.3kg!

Engels have you tried the BBC website? You can see all 24 live feeds there. We live in the sticks with poor broadband but it is still good to watch.

Thanks for the tips! :) Bought the Fly Lady book last night and another one as otherwise I use FlyLady website as excuse to webhop. Of course the books are all part of MO - I read the book, feel better about having done something (ie reading about clearing clutter, not actually clearing clutter), have a cup of tea and add clutter book to ridiculous exploding bookcases. Am a muppet

Must get tough! x

don't think I can access it honu as am outside the UK (can listen to BBC radio on iplayer but not access video). They are doing some streaming on Dutch national broadcaster I think so will have to look at that!

Have waited in all morning for the doggy hairdresser, only to realise she is coming tomorrow . Oh well, at least it got us all up and ready by 9am.

Ta da list so far:

Up and dressed
B/fasts
DS1 cajoled into taking dog out for a walk (novelty wearing off )
Consoled grumpy DH (woken up by 5am delivery lorry again - I slept through)
Unloaded d/w
Reloaded d/w
Wiped down kitchen counters
Tumbledried last night's washload so we all have stuff to wear today
Put rubbish out
Swished and swiped in bathroom

Just off to deliver both boys to their respective best friends' houses, who conveniently live opposite each other on the same street. Back for lunch later, probably bringing DS1's friend with us.

MC - I really want to try geocaching as a way of getting the boys out. Also, I think it might be good for map reading skills (can tick off the geography list for DS1). Any tips?

Waves to everyone else. Have a good day.

Morning all! Apologies for lack of posting but the reception up here is even more shocking than usual and I am really struggling to post. This is the 4th attempt

Today's babystep is to think about errands and read up about errand day. Apologies for lack of links but am posting on phone.

Hope everyone is ok! Just been swimming and pondering on what to do today, hampered by the fact i want to watch the diving this afternoon.

Monday is Home Blessing Day

Mission - sofa Diving

Babystep - routines and look at your calendar for next month and put birthday to-dos on your errand list, here is the relevant link routines/errands.

Ellie - hop you don't mind, I really needed to have a good look at the links today to motivate myself, so have posted them here on your behalf.

Thanks whoknows. Sorry about lack of links, wasn't expecting to be away this week. Sorry.

Thanks for the links whoknows! Will add Hoover and wipe sofa to my list- mine doesn't come apart. Sorry to hear about your dad

of your roast dinner yesterday toffee I turned up to collect DD from my mams in the hope of a nice roast dinner and was offered a bacon bun- so not the same I'm also of BBQ whoknows- my 2 favourite meals are BBQ and Sunday roasts

I am loving the dog stories toffee and it's so nice to hear about the positive effect he is having on DS1!

What is geocaching mc?

Welcome to angelico!

I'm also having to catch up on washing engels! What is it with nice weather that makes you really lazy?! My house is a dump and I'm blaming the sunshine

Lauren and Toffee Geocaching is like treasure hunting with a navigation system. I have a programme on my Iphone but I also have a separate navigation aid thingy that DD uses. Though the app or geocaching.co.uk (Or maybe com I can't remember) you can find the location of caches all over the country. You then use the coordinates to find them. The fun is finding them cos they are usually hidden, then you have to put that you have found them and in some there are little toekns or small toys that you can swap. DD loves it and she battles to be the one to find the caches. You have to try and no let others know what you are doing though, which was easy yesterday as the caches were all in the deeper forest areas where only dog walkers were. However on holiday a few months back one of the caches was under a bench at a bus stop. YOu end up in fields, woods, all sorts of places. On holiday we were in church yards, down a canal path and in a cows field to get on top of a disused railway bridge.

OK updated list.

-DD is back home as dancing camp cancelled but I am annoyed as they didn't let us know so DD got there before she found out. A very disappointed DD (and me as I was looking forward to me time)

• Letter posted
• Parcel collected
• Booked tickets for york course at end of month
• Shopping done
• First layer of trifle made and cooling
• 2nd load of washing done
• email account cleared
• contacted school again about lack of wage. No answer on phone so another e-mail sent.
• Played with dd and her playmobile for a while but I think she is happy playing on her own to be honest.
• rubbish removed from bathroom and sides cleared ready to wash down.

Right back to it.

Wow mc geocaching sounds great! I'm definitely going to look into it- that's something my older mindees would LOVE!

As an aside- how do you clean the inside of your washing machine? I wipe the rubber rim every few uses with a dry cloth but there's like an orange mold in the crease? I do a 60 degree hot towel wash every few days and have tried running it empty with just the detergent in? I want my shiny washing machine back!!

Take a look at this. I just did a search and there are over 2000 geocaches in Sheffield alone. I know there are about 20 less than a mile from my house. Some have nothing in as they are too small, you just log that you hae found it.

Click on the learn tab to learn more

www.geocaching.com/

Lauren - I run a 60 degree wash with towels or sheets a couple of times a week, plus about once a month I do a 90 degree wash with half a bottle of vinegar (Sainsburys Basics, 13p) which keeps it all fresh. I also leave the door open whenever it is not in use (which might not be practical for you, depends on location). I think that is the single most important thing though, I closed it yesterday and it smelled musty this morning, which it never usually does.

The other thing that made a big difference was switching away from eco detergents back to Fairy tablets, the soap drawer and filter used to get disgusting with Ecover liquid, now they never need cleaning.

Engel - I think i agree with you. I am not suited to these climes either!

I have got used to the lizards, though and now think they are quite sweet. - I was freaked by them to start with.

Mr Rat update...... sleepless bloody night!! It sounded as if Mr Rat has a harem of wives and they are all the Dugger families of Ratworld! DS slept on the floor in the lounge, well, he lay there for some of the night, but sleep was a far off dream. I lay like a board on the bed. At one point I kicked DH and asked him to be my knight in shining armour and go and kill the buggers a rat for me. Apparently too hot for shining armour he donned boxers and wellington boots and went armed with a broomstick. He made enough noise to wake the dead every neighbour within a mile. He jumped back into bed quite pleased with himself as the gnawing had stopped........for about 2 minutes, then the rat family was back to gnawing again.
Anyway a lovely Cambodian rat man came this morning. Apparently he is only ever called by "the white people" cos Cambodian's just accept their friends . 5 hours later we returned home to some dead rats! Yay!!! DH then freaked and said that there was no way he could move them, so I had to scoop them up and throw them over the back fence. RESULT!!
Hopefully we will sleep bit tonight.

We could do with some running water too. Its very hit and miss, just like the electric. But for the past 2 days the shower has just dribbled. Not good when it is so hot and sticky.

I can sort of join in your body clutter from here. No scales, but I can go on number of chins and I do believe I have a few less than I had 2 weeks ago in UK!

So, has the weather broken there, yet? Internet is a bit hit and miss here, too. (I am beginning to think everything is! ), so I have not been able to do too much scrolling.

Waves to everyone, esp toffee, SC, Ellie, Whoknows, MC ,....et al........