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Housekeeping

Find cleaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Housekeeping forum.

It's September so the Fledgings Fly, as we wave our clutter bye bye

805 replies

WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 30/08/2012 21:22

Welcome to the ongoing Fledgling Flyers thread for September, thanks to Bitchy who kept us posted through August.

Right, most of you should know how this works. It's a three pronged attack.
Phase one: The babysteps master these and you will be working like clockwork.
Phase two: Adding in Decluttering this will help you keep on top of the amount of stuff contributing to CHAOS.
Phase three: Missions Targeted activities to keep the chaos at bay and starting the deep cleaning.

The golden duster of Flying is stage 4: deep cleaning. This is for most me anyway, somewhat unrealistic and in theory you don't need to worry about it until you have finished decluttering that's never then. Just do it if you want to.

Now for those of you who are completely lost, lets rewind a bit.
CHAOS: Can't have anyone over syndrome. We've all been there

The fly lady approach works by breaking the house down into tiny activities which you do repeatedly until they become habit and don't feel like chores any more. The house is split into zones, each zone is tackled for a week before moving on and comes round again at the start of the next month.

There are lots of experienced Fledglings on here, hence lots of advice and support and chat about anything except housework some days. the main thing is that you can post any time you like even if you haven't lifted a finger around the house that day because with Flylady you just pick up again the next day and off you go again.

We advise against signing up for Flylady emails as they can lead to a great deal of clutter in the Inbox, each days steps will be posted on this thread to save you having to find them yourself.

In the meantime here is a link to the Flylady website for anyone who would like a browse.

Getting started Remember - don't subscribe to the emails!

OP posts:
WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 11/09/2012 21:36

Evening all,

Welcome to the thread Lookingfor, small steps is the best way to start, whenevr I have had a lapse from Flying I tend to start in the kitchen as that is where I seem to spend most time apart from sitting at the computer.

I'm tired out, Tues/Weds/Thurs are my busy days with work and the DCs after school activities, although we have cut back a little on activities since last year thank goodness.

DH seems to have picked up on all the extra Flying activity, he is doing more tidying than usual at the moment. I have never really explained all this in detail, he knows I have some sort of system and witter on to you lot about it but that's about it. I think I actually need to write down some of my routines for him for when I go into hospital he's not going to know what's hit him

Thanks for the Wine Toffee

Arses - I ignore my hotspots a lot of the time TBH, but I do try and do one or two a day. I think one of the rules of FLying needs to be that you are always looking around for something you could move / put away / throw away. It is very easy to become blind to the clutter when you live amongst it, I know we all step over stuff on the floor routinely and ignore piles of receipts and c oins on counters. Try and look at your room as if you were seeing it for the first time.

Another good tip is once you have cleared a hotspot to put something lovely in it's place, such as framed photo or vase of flowers , then you are less likely to just dump crap there again.

OP posts:
WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 11/09/2012 21:39

Links for Weds 12th

Delete all the FLylady emails from your inbox. Or not if you haven't subscribed. Maybe delete all the other clutter from it instead.

Mission - clear out your medicine cabinet. Chuck out all the out of date stuff, add replacements to your shopping list.

OP posts:
WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 11/09/2012 21:39

Oops, MN got stuck and I appear to have posted twice.

OP posts:
ChitchatAtHome · 12/09/2012 01:28

Lauren - hope date night went well!

WhoKnows - well you chose an appropriate name for the thread, what with eliminating all your clutter!!!

Just finished my work, and am about to collapse into a heap in bed.

Haven't even LOOKED at my evening routine, let alone attempted it. All I had time to do after the DSs went to bed is quickly prep some dinner for DH and myself, scoff some down and start working. Aah well.....

Feeling sore, so a quick hot shower, then off to kickboxing again tomorrow morning!!! (And hopefully some Flying Grin)

laurenamium · 12/09/2012 07:29

Morning all Grin date night went well again for those that were asking! Grin

To do:
School run *2
DD and mindee to playgroup
Show potential new mindee around
Playdate with friends and their children
Walk dogs
Routines
Missions that I haven't yet done
Put my laundry away

That will probably be all I have time for but incase I get any spare time- start decluttering DD wardrobe!

swanthingafteranother · 12/09/2012 09:13

lots of lovely horse talk on here...rapidly gaining on the dog lovers Smile

I am walking neighbour's terrier this morning [just thought I'd mention that Blush as her daughter is not very well

First thing
done
row with Dh who was moaning about his work again, but made it up
ds1 to school, with lunchbox
dd to school with questionnaire about how to make Maths more fun...I found a suprising number of things to put down - cooking, measuring for sewing, budgeting, geometrical models...none of which the school do, alas, and I doubt any school would get time to do..so it's back to incomprehensible sums which I personally can never do Sad

off to Family Therapy meeting now with ds2 (strategies to deal with ASD in family life); Dh has taken morning off work to fit it in. So far she hasn't really said anything which was that helpful, so I suppose in the end it will be us who have the lightbulb moment, rather than her instructing us, alas, but it helps just that DH has to attend these occasions.

ShiftyFades · 12/09/2012 09:23

Haven't been on for a few days but have been shining my sink and keeping up with laundry!
Today:
Ring planners to see the affects of the potential new guidelines (but as we are extending 50% I don't think we'll be able to go out further)
Sort out accountancy membership (was due 1st Sept Blush)
Delete emails at home
Ironing.

Sorry for the lack of personals Blush

rowingboat · 12/09/2012 10:25

Hi all have got some time to fly this morning so thought list!

Have to go and sort out my car it's full of junk so that's on the list
Also morning routine - s@s kitchen and bathroom 10
Wash up 10
Shine sink (go on then!)
Make a start on sorting out bill fiasco with property factors
5 min room rescue sitting room
Clean sofas 5 mins each
Washing out (looks out of window at clouds suspiciously)
Meeting relatives this afternoon then work so that will be that I reckon
When I get home will read a baby step not doing shoes in house one though!

BlueEyeshadow · 12/09/2012 10:54

Morning all. Normally my house bleugh day today, but I have work to do as well as needing to take the car to the garage... So shouldn't be MNing really. Oh well.

BitchyDragons · 12/09/2012 11:01

ta da
school run
make jelly
start making tea and revert to making shopping list.
Play hunt the bank book :(
have a veery long chat with the mother
PLay hunt the important bit of paper Hmm
Lose both games and think fuck it.

Current out for shopping. Hopefully will locate said items later when I hit my room to finish it off.

ToffeeWhirl · 12/09/2012 11:04

Swan - I hope the family therapy meeting goes well today.

Lauren - for those of us who have been married for a hundred years for a while and struggle to remember new romance, it's nice to hear about these things Grin. Glad it's still going well.

Morning everyone else.

Have put a the d/w and w/m on. Apart from the usual morning routine, that's it so far, as I have been working with DS1.

Main housework aim today is to hoover up the spiders that are appearing all over our ceiling .

rowingboat · 12/09/2012 11:12

Hi again
Back again and it's not too bad
Oh actually, no. I have realised I have still got stacks to do wah!
Having quick coffee than making a start on sitting room

Also morning routine - s@s kitchen and bathroom 10 x
Recycling out x
Put some stuff in bag for charadee shopsx
Wash up 10x
Shine sink (go on then!)
Make a start on sorting out bill fiasco with property factorsx
5 min room rescue sitting room
Clean sofas 5 mins each
Washing out (looks out of window at clouds suspiciously)
Meeting relatives this afternoon then work so that will be that I reckon
When I get home will read a baby step not doing shoes in house one though!

rowingboat · 12/09/2012 11:14

Toffee just read your post! Hoover up spiders! A aargh! That sounds ghastly. Will they live?

strictlycaballine · 12/09/2012 11:15

Morning all

Can see your sink shining from here Shifty Grin

Yes, loving all the horse talk and trying not to feel very envious of Castlelough and Lauren (despite high shoe and hay bills). Only have two years to go in which to achieve lifetime dream of horseownership + veg patch. Don't now how I am going to achieve that in the middle of a city but haven't quite given up yet ...

Lauren great that yours will be ready for winter dressage season after all she's gone through!! Like the sound of your book corner btw...and glad date night went well!

Castlelough must be really exciting to see yours shaping up so well - roll on end November (really miss going to point-to-points regularly in UK - only trotting here) Did manage to heave myself up to to a long-suffering (heavy weight) cob over the summer and we ambled along while dd was slightly more dynamic on her borrowed pony ...

...good incentive to lose weight (me,not the cob Wink)

Whoknows hope you manage to get a bit of respite from busy week today

A warm welcome to Inspiration

Chitchat hope ankle feeling better

Swan sympathies over maths miseries (good ideas those though!) and hope meeting even a little bit productive

Arses info re hot spots (baby step 6) here Flylady says 2 mins a day but in reality it's probably 10 . Have two hotspots (downstairs anyway - upstairs one giant hot spot) - dining room table and basket that gets junk thrown in to it in kitchen. Really does work if you keep on top of them daily, zero tolerance, preventing junk attracting more junk and all that.

Arf at item 7 in your ta da list Bitchy

waves to Mymums Toffee Madwoman Feetheart Ellie Rowingboat and everyone else I've missed

Had great start to term last week but this wk not going so well. Took dd to doc yesterday (off school for dizzyness, fatigue, general malaise - bit of school anxiety thrown in there as well) and it turns out she is underweight. Well, she is highest height for age but lowest percentile for weight on normal scale (only just on normal scale). She has grown 10 cm since 2010 but has only put on a kilo in that timeSad. Knew she was thin obviously (she eats quite well and is normally a whirl of energy) but feel like the crappest mother in the world having doc point it out to me Sad

Heigh ho, better get baking some flap jacks or something ...

Huge wing flaps to one and all

rowingboat · 12/09/2012 11:15

Blue hope the car hasn't got anything too expensive to get done.

strictlycaballine · 12/09/2012 11:16

Whoppers over here Toffee ... you should see the one in my laundry ..Grin

MsOnatopp · 12/09/2012 14:12

Hello

I arrived first on July's thread then disappeared for most of Aug only popping in once or twice.

Sorry, I have had family and new man around for the last month so been busy.

Well all panic was on a couple of weeks ago. Landlord came!! Shock

Lovely newDP helped me clean up the house for the visit and I am keeping on top of it now.

Depression has really really shifted since I first joined this thread and got determined to sort myself out!

To do
Make meatballs for cooking later - done
Put on white wash - done
Do last night dishes - done
Tidy lounge - done
Sweep lounge - done
hour of study - done
put white wash to dry
dinner
clean up dinner
one more hour of study

BitchyDragons · 12/09/2012 14:59

Good news on the depression MrsOn.

I am having a mare of a day.
On the fuck up list for today we have:
Lose bank book and important letter - both need to be found asap
burnt a pot black in the bottom
Slight burn to hand when I forgot that the handle was metal and thus hot
Burn the leeks I was starting to make dinner with so had to restart
Burn the cheese toasties I was making for lunch

I feel like a zombie caught in headlights. See this is what happens when I get a good night's sleep. Hmm

Will be back with a ta da list which will include the fuckups.

MsOnatopp · 12/09/2012 15:11

Here Bitchy, you need this Brew

ShiftyFades · 12/09/2012 15:38

Glad you can see my shiny sink SC Grin

Ta da:
Sorted most of accountancy body membership, relying on others now.... Sad
I have to have it, you require me to have it, so why am I faffing about with approvals?!! Lol
Rang planning, their take on the possible new rules is very much in our favour... But we've decided not to wait. Builders are due in a couple of weeks, it's not fair to delay them for an extra 3 feet... Is it?! Confused
Best do some real work... Yawn... Is it time to go home yet?! Wink

Jamillalliamilli · 12/09/2012 15:51

Hi to LookingforInspiration and Get knitted

Yesterday morning I tried to re hang curtains.
Curtains are not hung, and I?m now not at home and laid up in bed, trying to ?banish negative voices? and take advantage of being out of action and get lots of paper stuff done.

Castlelough so glad your horse has survived and found you!

Lauren well done on the dating.

ChitChat hope your ankle?s recovered enough to kick things!

Shifty many of us struggle with personals, I?m only managing today because I?ve flattened myself! Great name btw.

WhoKnows congratulations on the de clutter, there is hope for us all!
Swan I think a lot of the time it?s about recognising what the problems are, and that they?re real. (Wants strategies for surviving being solitary N/T surrounded by ASD)

Mymums Hope DS?s birthday went well.

Arses fervent minimalism reverting to rampant materialism That?s horribly familiar! Brilliantly put! Smile

Blue Good luck with car.

Bitchy also laughing at item 7. Grin

Toffee those are free h/e resources you?re hoovering. (also hopes for their survival)

SC Sympathies, It?s easy to not realise when they?re very tall and elfin like, and grow weekly.
I have the most beautiful iridescent green and also gold spiders in the garden. The most beautiful and unreal creatures, the green is the same colour as the scarab beetles.

MsOnatopp Congratulations on both fronts! Smile

Waves to Madwoman, RowingBoat, Foad , Lauren, Mymum, orangeyes, Ellie, Engels, Feetheart, Nettie, NickNacks, and anyone else I?ve missed. (Aren?t there a lot of us? Shock)

BitchyDragons · 12/09/2012 17:16

Actually I think I need [bed]
Done very little of what I actually needed to do today.

ta da
school run x 2
make jelly
start making tea and revert to making shopping list.
Play hunt the bank book sad
have a veery long chat with the mother
Play hunt the important bit of paper hmm
Lose both games and think fuck it.
Into next town for shopping
burnt a pot black in the bottom
Slight burn to hand when I forgot that the handle was metal and thus hot
Burn the leeks I was starting to make dinner with so had to restart
Burn the cheese toasties I was making for lunch
Make tea (saved before that was burnt)
2 loads of washing washed and dumped on dining room table
Afternoon routine
Sort out focus for tomo. (Major report to finish researching and write)
Take embroidery picture out of frame and soak to see if can shift weird stains that have appeared
DW filled and running
Ds taken to swimming lesson lovely mum
Think there is one fucking huge list of things that have been neglected and consider writing a massive room by room to do list so that I can see and cross off jobs as they are done.

If I can be arsed I will write that list later but going to bed early feels very appealing. It is very tempting to take a nap and set alarm for chucking ds into bed at his bed time. However as he is going to bed at 7pm tonight and that is 2 hrs away I will settle for crap tv or a book for a bit. And perhaps my last load of laundry to be done.

ToffeeWhirl · 12/09/2012 19:37

Grin at "those are free HE resources you are hoovering". You'll be glad to hear, JustGetting, that they are still there - for now .

BlueEyeshadow · 12/09/2012 21:35

Evening all.

Ta da list for today in Bitchy's manner:
Bed stripped
Sheets washed
Got to school before they opened the door - always a sense of achievement!
Forgot spare pants & trousers for DS2 who inevitably had an accident...
Wait ages for TA to hunt down emergency ones to walk home in
DS2 to music and CM
Hang washing out
Work
Car to garage - just a quote for insurence co - v. minor scratch caused by idiot reversing into parked car
Dusting
Ironing
Lunch
More work
Hoovering
More work
Collect boys
Realise washing has been out in the rain all afternoon
More work
Tea for boys
DH gets washing in cos he's wet already from cycling home
Washing in tumble drier
Remake boys beds
Long, slow bath and bed time for boys
More work while DH cooks
Dinner
Clean kitchen
Finish work
Come to moan on MN!

Toilet training DS2 isn't going too well, but he managed 3 wees on the toilet today. [proud]

SC - sorry to hear about DD, but don't beat yourself up about it!

Waves to all!

BitchyDragons · 12/09/2012 21:48

Grin Blue. when you write lists like mine they soon get long don't they Wink

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