October-fest: a fledgling (at best) might spruce up its nest (then take a rest?).

[strictlycaballine]

Welcome to the October 2012 Fledgling Flyers thread. Park your mops, buckets, microfibre cloths, golden dusters and spiders-web-removing-implements here!

A huge "thank you" to Whoknows and Pushme for leading us throughout September!! (Hope you are recovering well Whoknows - take it steady!)

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 along the way.

This little-and-often system is designed so that you can follow a series of steps and routines each day (which gradually become second nature) in weekly designated zones of the house; defining and minimising housework - which in theory should leave you with more time to do other more interesting things instead! At the same time it is intended to reduce that panicky "rabbit in headlights" feeling when you are overwhelmed and everything needs doing all at once. No problem if you miss a day or two; just jump right back in and it will all come around next month again anyway!

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 steps and routines using a three-pronged approach (dependent on the stage everyone is at):

• start or repeat 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.

[And if you are really enthusiastic and have finished decluttering - you can go on to detailed deep cleaning in each zone.]

More info here on getting started, and the flylady system here and here Don't be put off by the barf-tastic language of the site - the underlying system is sound.

All welcome!!

*

Baby-step no. 20 for Sat 20 Oct is a really important one Include laundry in your daily routines!! I find this one really, really essential.

No zones or missions because it is the weekend but for those of you who want to get ahead, we will be in Zone 4 next week: the master bedroom. More info here

Saturday is family fun day

flight plan

Continue to try and jettison unwanted paper clutter for 15 mins per day over the weekend.

G'night all and have a good weekend.

*

To do
Weekly blessing hour even if it takes all day
email lawyer over two boring details
get my head around internet banking
recover from heart attack at £16,000 estimate to replace flat roof and get another estimate
Clean out outside drain which is full of yuck
Resist reading book with the excuse that it can then go to charity shop
Take dog for very long walk so that she is too tired to stop weekly blessing hours
Keep looking at flylady site for inspiration

A To do list to give me a kick up the arse...

-washing-up and tidy kitchen
-Tidy lounge
-Put away washing
-Change DS bed

• Do some delcuttering...books in the loft need attention

-Check UK bank account -Order travel cot Didn't quite get round to it yesterday -Hoover upstairs -Tidy the landing - can barely get out of our bedroom right now -Check that Bridesmaid dress still fits for wedding next weekend -Post thank you cards -weed front garden - we have guests tomorrow!

• Give bathroom a once over

-STEP AWAY FRONT MN AND STOP WASTING TIME!

Ta ta for now BBL

Plus pick up DS bday cake!

And make an apple pie!

Morning all currently sat nursing too hot porridge while DD eats cake she's already had 2 rounds of toast

Only a little list as we will most certainly be going to DMs and having a family fun day and then I have date night tonight

To do:
My laundry
DD laundry
Walk dogs- possibly with DM and her dogs
Routines
Sort out DD wardrobe to make room for the 1000s of jigsaws I have acquired

BBL!

Morning everyone! Sorry for absence but i has been another shit week chez elliepac. DH's toothache has rumbled on all week which means he has mostly been a grumpy bugger and been too grumpy/in pain to do anything which means I have had to do everything which means I am knackered.

On a much more positive note, today is our 11th wedding anniversary. Those of you who have been here a while will know that is nothing short of a miracle after the year we have had. We have decided to celebrate by DH having his bad tooth pulled out which will mean he is going to be particularly happy and romantic all day long.

In true anniversary style I am therefore spending most of the day avoiding him, doing some flying and taking the dc's to the park this afternoon.

Have a good day everyone!

Hi all - sorry I've not been around this week. Full week at work which means I've been out of house at 7.45am and home around 6.00pm (just in time to cook tea). Wings have been drooping along the ground this week....

ellie Congrats on the wedding anniversary - but sorry to hear your day doesn't sound hopeful!

engels and consul - gulp at the lists!

Ok, time to get on

To do list

Go sign wills at solicitors
Visit sick ex MIL and DM/DF
15 min de-clutter
Washing
Try and rescue (some of) my bedroom
Paperwork

Catch you later folks.

Happy Anniversay Ellie. DH and I will be having our own (12yrs) in a week or two. My sister says she'll look after DD overnight so we could nip away but I just want to go nowhere, do nothing and sleep in to (hopefully) past 10am!

Toffee - DS is 19. He's now gone back to work (and won't be back down again until January) so I had to cook my own tea last night

We have friends coming over for the day tomorrow so I need to get on and blitz the house. DH and DD have gone to the park so after I've finished my cuppa the task list reads:

• S/S x 3 inc floors
• Hoover upstairs
• Strip and remake beds x 3
• RR dining room (table covered in paperwork)
• Sweep and mop kitchen floor
• Hoover downstairs
• Decide what we are eating tomorrow and buy ingredients

Oh shit. I have just thought about my to do list for today I think a vat load of coffee is needed. And then a pen and paper. I have 4 categories of stuff to do?
Ds' stuff for away
Car for going away
My stuff for going away
Urgent stuff to be done before going away - watch rental film. i might enjoy this

I need a cleaning lady 3 hours a week to do my weekly blessing but I am not going to get one. There should be a thread written by real cleaning ladies giving people like me advice. I had a one off clean downstairs and it looked lovely. I couldn't let them in the bedrooms because of the clutter. I have stuff from previous jobs; loads of books and paperwork that I put loads of time and effort into and I can't bring myself to throw it away. I did once send about a ton to another mumsnetter but the rest isn't really giveawayable. The hours that I put into those essays, etc and no storage space except under the bed. What do I do?

The good thing about the one off cleaning ladies session was that it forced me to declutter downstairs. I might start a thread asking real cleaning ladies how they go about it.
I have a lavatory in a box in the sitting room. Stylish.

Congratulations ellie.

Consils Ask yourself if you are ever realistically going to use them again? Are you ever going to read them again?

I have all my A-level (for 2 subjects which I now teach) and degree work upstairs and they are waiting for us to finish clearing out the attic room so I can sort them. I?m sure when the attic is done I may well go through it all and decide to chuck it. Really I should follow my advice and just chuck it all now.

When I went travelling and met DH and almost quit teaching, I threw out all of my teacher training stuff and teacher resources. I rejoined teaching 6 months after I quit it and even though every now again I?ll remember something I made and wish I had it, generally I don?t miss anything.

If they?re things you really want to preserve then is digital storage an option?

Updated to do/ta da list
washing-up and tidy kitchen done
Tidy lounge as good as
Put away washing done
Change DS bed done

• Do some decluttering we?ll see

Check UK bank account done Order travel cot done -Hoover upstairs -Tidy the landing - can barely get out of our bedroom right now -Check that Bridesmaid dress still fits for wedding next weekend will do on Monday Post thank you cards done -weed front garden - CBA

• Give bathroom a once over not yet

STEP AWAY FRONT MN AND STOP WASTING TIME! I did for a little bit!
pick up DS bday cake done
make an apple pie in the oven

DS is napping so now am going to enjoy my mocha and last shortbread biscuit (thank you DH!) and then do some NaNoWriMo stuff to get me a bit more prepared!

Happy flying everyone.

That's really good advice engels. I need more of that.

the builders are here again
They are bewildered by our awful clay "soil"
I'm exhausted just watching!

Ta dah:
Stage school for DS
Found some nice rugs for new lounge
Coffee for builders
Visited DH as he's working all weekend
Back home... Washing up
Coffee for builders

To do:
Change sheets and wash them
Make coffee for builders....

* S/S x 3 inc floors
* Hoover upstairs
* Strip and remake beds x 3
Bedding from above washed and out to dry

• RR dining room (table covered in paperwork)
• Sweep and mop kitchen floor
• Hoover downstairs
• Decide what we are eating tomorrow and buy ingredients - off to farm shop now

Hello and good afternoon ladies, its unbearably quiet here ds1 gone to his fathers til tomorrow and ds2 has gone up to visit his family for a week, so its just me and ds3 until dp comes back later so my to do list is:-

clean front room

hoover the rug that ds3 keeps feeding
tidy and hoover hallway
sort shoes out
put the things that belong in the shed in the fricken shed
tidy coats
unload the amazing appliance that is the dishwasher
reload the amazing appliance that is the dishwasher
reboot laundry
tidy hotspots
fill out school application forms
post school application forms
tidy bathroom
S&S
get some cat litter and cat biscuits
possibly do a bit of shopping while I'm at it if dp comes back before 7

That's all I can think of so far, will check back later with some sort of organised form of house. I hope.

So far I have done

clean front room
hoover the rug that ds3 keeps feeding
tidy and hoover hallway
sort shoes out
put the things that belong in the shed in the fricken shed
tidy coats
unload the amazing appliance that is the dishwasher
reload the amazing appliance that is the dishwasher
reboot laundry
tidy hotspots
fill out school application forms
post school application forms
tidy bathroom
S&S
get some cat litter and cat biscuits
possibly do a bit of shopping while I'm at it if dp comes back before 7

You would not believe how much work that was, dp's phone is dead so I cannot get hold of him at all. And I have just realised that ds2 has snooped in my room and found ds1's presents, ds2 is also a blabber mouth and will bust a gut to tell ds1 that he's got everything he's asked for, hopefully he'll forget all about it by the time he comes home.

Gossip - the tantrums you are describing are very similar to DS1 at that age, except that DS used to be violent towards me too, which was an added bonus . We sought help from CAMHS, used a strict reward-chart scheme with zero tolerance for any hitting etc. and it did get better. The meltdowns can still happen, but not so much now - and he is never, ever violent . Your DS sounds as if he has some similar issues to mine. I presume your other DC are not so difficult because they don't struggle with the same problems. Like Swan, I am full of admiration for your calm attitude.

Happy Anniversary, ellie . I like the way you are celebrating!

Managed to get some decluttering done today by getting DS1 to walk round to the charity shop with me and dispose of (between us) four bags of old clothes . Then MIL, who had come for the day, offered to take the last bag (which we hadn't been able to carry) to her local charity shop for us, so I am now five bags lighter. There is actually a space in my bathroom cupboard at last!

Must go and cook dinner before the DC start filling themselves up with junk food instead. Sorry for lack of personals.

I've crossed off everything on my admittedly very small list! Decluttered DD wardrobe and have transferred across all of the jigsaws, threw out 2 bags of rubbish too!

I need to fold our laundry and at least put mine away, if not DDs too before date night.

BB tomorrow!

toffee he has been diagnosed with adhd, they want to assess for asd, but want him on meds first, I think I may have to go back to gp or ring camhs and see if they can sort something without meds. He used to be violent towards me and at first I had no idea what to do but then I decided every time he did hit out at me he would be sent to his room for the rest of the day and not even be allowed down for food, it was taken up to him and the wii would be grounded for a week. it worked well he hasn't hit me for a very long time.

I have since done the application forms, and dp is back, so will hopefully be shopping soon.

Ah, that explains why my ASD alarm signals started buzzing at your post . Sorry you have been through all that. It sounds as if you coped brilliantly in sorting it out yourself.

Washing machine has broken