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

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

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!

Glad the glass is out Madwoman!
Aww lovely news Ellie
Evening routine complete gone tonight as had to go out with kids which was lovely so I'll be jumping back in tomorrow

The mouse has left the building. Repeat: THE MOUSE HAS LEFT THE BUILDING!

Oh, and DH is home. Suspect there may be a connection between the 2

Bloody Hell Madwoman. Bet that feels better. I am learning the fine art of stick control this weekend. although this will mean little to most of you, madwoman will understand

Glad you are ok Whoknows, I always feel really rough for ages from anaesthetic. It's a bit of a pita really. Hope you continue to improve in baby steps.

Yay Trazzle

Lauren I hope your evening got better

Ellie that is good news.

Today i went to do one errand and ended up doing a bit of christmas shopping and a whole load of other errands. It was a bit of a weird day really.

Ds is finally in bed. I am just waiting for some nail varnish to dry and then will do the evening routine before going to bed myself.

Hang on a cotton-picking minute... You had glass in your foot for MORE THAN 3 weeks?! Talk about anti-procrastination day .

Glad it's out, and whoknows glad you're ok as well.

Not much flying today though I have narrowed the search for a washing machine. Also emptied, cleaned and restocked our food cupboard, the random cupboard above it, the hall cupboard full of carrier bags. Went BACK to the launderette (having not given me all my clothes back, I went to pick up the strays and inadvertently brought someone's random bits home instead again).

Started to declutter one of the storage boxes.
Emancipated mouse.
Took DD for 8 month check at the HV
Watched Casino Royale and was gutted that ITV cut the swimming trunks scene

Our washing machine was installed on offcuts of the work surface which have now swollen and jammed the washing machine against the work surface so we can't move it . DH has also noticed that the now-bowed work surface has also dislodged the seal at the top of the dishwasher. I'm so mad about this. I cannot understand why some workmen are so flipping shoddy. We absolutely cannot afford a new kitchen . Every piece of workmanship in this house is shoddy whether it's DIY or paid for. Why can't people just do jobs properly.

Bought my Euromillions ticket anyway...

Hi everyone,

After a bit of thinking, Ive sadly decided that I need to bow out of this thread. Much as I love chatting to all of you and getting to know you better, Ive people around that would wish me ill, and if they ever found even one of my NCs the fledgling thread would make it possible for them to find all of my NCs and see pretty much everything that I've ever posted on MN.

I'll miss you all,

Bye!

Oh kickboxer I'm so so sorry to hear that. Obviously the most important thing is that you and your DCs stay safe.

Wishing you all the luck in the world going forwards. Oh, and

So sorry to hear that Kickboxer :( I totally understand. Sorry it has to be like that. Good luck and there is nothing to say you can't lurk even if you don't post. Although lurkers are welcome to post

Kick Ive sometimes thought that, when I've wanted to talk about school/relations stuff and felt a bit exposed. It is difficult isn't it to be fully open, without ending up identifying oneself one way or another. Also personalities are not so easy to disguise are they, however much one name changes. Hope stuff with very emotional school person resolves. I read a wonderful book called Disobedience which is about Orthodox Jewish community in Hendon, and it had this whole discussion about gossip and how is is completely forbidden in Jewish tradition, spreading false witness etc, yet how widespread it is/judging etc, in all closed communities. Very much true in our community too, and yet so difficult to avoid hearing things told from the wrong angle.

Sorry, I may have got all this completely wrong end of the stick just made me think a bit about this little village here too.... where I live.

Well, self employed Dh had his first major tantrum today, screaming at me for telling dd the password on his computer, so she could print something out when he had switched it off. This does not bode well! I think he may need a padded cell somewhere else rather than a home office Do we really need two printers? SIGH. It may come to that.

Anyway he is stll employed for next month, so I suppose I am getting the worst of both worlds...stress and insecurity vibes as well as having to commute and get to office vibes

All children at school, not without a lot of homework juggling at last moment (dd is getting more and more screechy and hysterical about her homework - I can't be late Mummy, and I can't go to school because I haven't finished this... So,why my darling were you not doing it yesterday when I asked...Oh I was just doing x y z...)

Whoknows the anaesthetic alone makes one feel very wobbly. Hope your children are safely at school and you have chance to be peaceful.

Cleaning lady is here, doing a big pile of ironing. I am tempted to send her home after that, just cannot face clearing rest of the hotspots, and I need to go into school library and do some work there

AAGH! I am feeling utterly disorganised this morning, I just hate it when Dh is in state.

Right, will pull myself together and tdy up the kitchen.

I prioritised an early bedtime over my usual bedtime routine last night, with the result that I came down to a messy kitchen and couldn't find any of DS2's school uniform this morning . DS1 is going to do a trial on EducationCity this morning, so I will tackle the house. Crisis clean overdue...

Kickboxer - very sorry you have to bow out. As Bitchy says, you can still lurk.

WhoKnows - really hope you are feeling ok today. Keep resting .

Have been lurking for the week, never seem to find the time to post.

Flying is going well - well, morning and evening routines are - but decluttering is slow. Hoping that the short days and long nights will make me a bit mroe proactive in clearing out the junk. DH and I have vowed to clear out the attic conversion this winter and set up our office there, so we can then clear up the current office and make it into a second baby room spare room. We figured that there's no point clearning up the computer room if we're just then going to have to move it all when we decide to ttc DC2.

have managed to rescue the house from last weekend (I was in the UK and left DH and DS at home).

can't believe it's nearly October already!

Sorry to hear that RL is forcing you to leave Kickboxer. It must be awful that you can't just be left alone - or have the worry of being spied upon :(

I'm finding myself really de-motivated. I'm doing the real basics - DD to school and everybody fed and in clean clothes - but have spent the last week or so just mindlessly filling my days with nothing! I had hoped that a new house would encourage me to want it to look good (and it's not in a bad state), but I think the lack of storage/essential furniture is really the cause. Maybe I need to not think about our tight finances and spend ££ sooner rather than later so that I can get organised like I want it to be and as said before have a place for things to live!

Can I ask, how do those of you with partners, get them to help? DH only cooks but that then leaves the kitchen in a right state with every pan used and surface covered :( I brought up the subject of him putting away after himself at the weekend (instead of just for example dropping his tie on the first available surface) and you would have thought I'd asked him to murder our firstborn. And his excuse for dropping his clothes on the bedroom floor instead of putting them on the stool was that he'd have to move my clothes to get to his

I've made it a rule that he has to be home for dinner (at 6.30) so we can all eat together at the table - instead of on our laps in front of the TV. I'd partially cooked a stew yesterday that he was to finish off when he got home so it would all be ready when DD and I got back from swimming (at 6.45). As we drew up he wasn't home and the phone was ringing to say he'd had a late meeting and was just leaving work . I just couldn't bring myself to speak to him all evening as I just felt so let down. You all probably think I'm being over-dramatic but we've had this in the past that the closer we live to his work the later home he seems to get as in his mind "it's only 30mins to get home".

Enough of the wallowing in self-pity - my sister is visiting tomorrow so best make an effort to make us presentable. BBL with (hopefully) a Ta-Da list

My news isn?t great and I?m trying to be grown up about it but I really don?t feel it, I want to fall face down in the sludge and give up.

Despite all the work, forced downsizing and subsequent disruption and damage, we flooded again.
The worst has receded but an awful lot of hard work?s been undone, and part of me is so tired and so pissed of, it just wants to set fire to the lot.

I'd got one room totally clean comfortable enough, liveable and sleepable in, if camping style, and the loo and kitchen usable all be it building site 'finish' and we were due to spend this weekend transferring everything and hand back ?bed in shed? on Monday, but I now need to try and negotiate with owner (that?s another issue) for now, and money has evaporated so fast.

To do
Call drain people to shove camera down drain.
Get quotes for industrial heaters -demand frequent user points!-
Get rear room curtains down and into bath to soak ends, see if salvageable.
Shirts (that were hanging ironed on back of kitchen chair) into tub, see if salvageable.
Write proper action plan My head's all over the place.
Check English
Prep psychology
(Temped to say stuff h/ed but he doesn't 'do' change!)
See if H/ed file could be dried out and photographed rather than having to rewrite. (was propped against the bloody kitchen door!)
Emergency veg and loo roll shop (penalty for leaving shopping in hessian bags on kitchen floor!)

KickBoxer I hope you find a way around your problems and you get left in peace. Some people just have small lives and too much time on their hands.

Whoknows glad you?re out and hope you recover soon.

Excuse the lack of more personal's. I need to try and get on with things.

ellie - great great news for your CM! :o but I am so sorry for the awful time she has had before that, you just can't imagine can you? :(

madwoman - I think 'fits and starts' apply to most of us on this thread! :o

swanthing I sense you need a little squeezey hug today

Glad your flying is going well Engels

dizzy You also sound like you need a squeezy hug, and Justgetting Sorry about the flood Just :(

My To Do list didn't go to plan yesterday but that is because I decided to tackle the mountain of mixed up papers/documents from over 4 years (literally just in a huge bundle or three. I spent two + hours sorting it into years/important documents/product things/school things etc. I can't believe I got it done! :o What a weight lifted! :o Next year I have vowed to sort it all into categories but this is so much better than it's ever been before I don't care enough to do that this year. :o

So today To Do

Make pack lunch (dinner) for me and DS to be eaten on way home
Get ready and meet friend in town at soft play
Make tonights dinner for lunch (just jacket potatoes)
Tidy up after dinner
Swish and swipe
Tidy up while DS in bath (if I stopped doing this the whole house would go to pot, it's working such a treat!)
Study (seriously, this is on my list every day and I haven't yet studied. Not officially starting for a few days but was hoping to get ahead!)

Ahem,

Today is 28th September and the babystep is to remind yourself to eat drink and rest (going out tonight so should be able to manage this one, although perhaps not quite in the way that Flylady intends).

The mission is detailed vacuuming in the living room but we are paintstripping the fireplace instead

I'm going to struggle to post the links tonight as I'm staying at PIL so for those of you who like a bit of early morning Saturday flying, tomorrow's link is to read the pamper mission No missions as it's the weekend, but enjoy your family fun days

I'm posting from work, so can't really do personals, but for kickboxer, we'll miss you loads, I know that I must be recognisable in RL in this name so I never feel I can be too open using it (tend to either temporary namechange or not post contentious things, which is a shame as mn can be such a great supportive resource).

Also for justgetting the flooding really is a nightmare isn't it. I'm guess you're probably not a million miles from me as it's quite bad a bit further north of here. The house we're in now doesn't flood (too hilly), but our last one was in a floodplain and we have had quite a bit of flooding over the years. I remember how demoralising it was everytime we got it cleaned up and then it happened again . I wish I could do something to help

Yey for ellie's childminder though and also glad to see whoknows is feeling better

Hello and goodbye to everybody else Will try to pop back later but must try and do some actual work!

Oh just :( 2012 doesn't seem to be your year. :( Hope you can get the last round of chaos sorted.

Oh just. I missed the first (?) time but you were cleaning up when I got back. No wonder you just want to crawl under a blanket and give up. Is there anything that can be done? What will the insurance recommend? Are you guys getting any centralized support? I know the same thing has happened here over the last few years and the town have been great - the funding from province took a long time to come through, but it did happen - are you being left to sort it all out yourself?

Home Ed file and shopping is just a kick in the teeth really.

One of my posts from yesterday appears to have been eaten twice. Mn seems to be suggesting I spend more time in rl!

Bitchy - my stick work is ace. And I skate like a demon. But put me in a game or take away my padding and I look like Bambi, and crash to the floor unceremoniously. I think my winter challenge is going to be to work out what my psychological issue is with skating without pads, lol.

I will deffo vacuum the living room. Oh yes.

Um. Is that Christmas prep thang coming up? Was there a linky I missed?

Swan I have a dd who is the same re homework.
Justgettingon what a blow Hope you can salvage stuff
Waves to everyone else

Will look out the christmas fly journal etc for you in a bit madwoman. As for the reason why that is easy! Falling with pads = bounce, Falling without pads = PAIN! Put me in pads and I look like bambi. I like my toepicks have a deathwish

Having a bad day and came on to moan about it, but then I saw Justgetting's post and it all felt rather trivial. I hope you can get the RL help/support you need.

Should be spending time with the boys but they're driving me nuts so hiding on the computer and craving sugar instead. DH is out at a quiz and chips tonight too. Sigh.

. Could i just say how full of sdmiration I am for you, you've had more crap to deal with this year than the rest of us put together by the sounds of it and yet you never whinge, never sound self pitying and always find time to offer a sympathetic ear to the rest of us, I'm not at all sure I would be able to do it.

Due to ongoing behaviour issues my ta da list today is going to contain some interesting stuff:

Ta da
Take the fuse out of the tv plug
put ds' ds and anything techy in a safe place
remove all high level texts books
put ds' scooter away and not in porch
Fold the washing mole hill on the table
tackle the ironing mountain on ironing board
Wonder wtf i have done with my glasses
have long pointless conversation with mother. - time consuming and frustrating.
Clear out the fridge
Sort out shopping list.
Prep and start cooking tea for tonight and the weekend (sausage and mash tonight, cottage pie for the wkend.)
Huge mountain of online paperwork.
Print document and annotate ready for action.
Construct the boredom busting list for ds. (all homework and chores he needs to complete by monday)
2 loads of laundry
sort ds' training kit out
go through emails etc and make relevant calendar adaptations
Put ds' laundry in his room
spend 15mins clearing out old fb stuff.
Transfer my clothes from dining room to my room
Field multitude of random phone calls.
Make important phone calls.
Give up on finishing book before forwarding (relevancy of book has been lost) And package up ready to go when CD burnt.
Search through random bits of stationery bits to find what needed for filing paperwork.
Deal with child

Off colour child into bed early!!!
Hot shower for achy muscles and early night.

Just I agree with what Whoknows said!

Oh My Goodness Just . My moanings are nothing compared to what you posted straight after! How absolutely horrendous for you.

Got my act together this pm so Ta Da list reads:

• S/S x 3
• Hoovered through upstairs (5 rooms + landing)
• Changed our and DD's beds
• Rearranged all my boxes of fabric in littlest room so I can now sew in there
• Took last remaining holdalls out to the garage
• Took box of misc. booze from kitchen out to the garage
• Load of washing in and hung to dry
• DW on and Shined sink (after DH'd cooked)

Need to change sofa covers and hoover through downstairs in the morning, mop kitchen floor and have a 5 min. rescue of both the lounge and dining room before my sister comes.

I'm having difficulty scrolling on this computer, but just to say
Blue sorry you are having a hard time with the boys,hope chips helped. I felt v frustratedby the behaviour of my lot today too, but ds2 was so sweet at bedtime, and ds1 so enthusiastic I feel better now. And dd tidied her room, wow! [she has screeched all day over a variety of things]
Bitchy I like your evil cackles

just whoknows is right, you are always very wise and kind to the rest of us. You are brave to soldier on with the home edding; it must help ds to know you are so reliable (I hope I got that right, and it is ds

Cosy evening here, did the food shopping for weekend this afternoon
Ds1 has to sing in Westminter Cathedral tomorrow with his choir and wear a weird white surplice eek! He looks like the abominable monk!
Dd has been invited round to her friends in afternoon. Ds2 - hmm dunno what we are going to do with him, maybe Dh should take him into town, sometimes all these drop offs nd pickups make you forget you could turn it to an advantage ad possiby go to a Museum, that's an idea....

Lunch out, and more endless discussions with other mums about the Great Secondary School Question, about 40 zillion permutations of bus journeys and other people who like the schools and anecdotes about x y z...honestly I bet they are all exactly the same...

quick Ta Da list before I jump in the shower

2 x sofa covers and 12 x cushion covers changed
r x sofa cover washed and on line
1 x sofa cover in wash
all through downstairs hoovered
kitchen floor brushed and mopped
recycling out
bin emptied
helped DD print out some colouring on pages
room rescued lounge and dining room

need to stew some apples for a crumble for tea and then it will be the Big Kitchen Clean Up after DH has made meatloaf!

Hope you are all having a nice Saturday x