The Fledglings' nests will be clean in 2013!

[superfluouscurves]

(With many thanks to Jdub for title inspiration!!)

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.

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 (although some Fledglings find the compilation e-mails helpful)! 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 Flying lessons. Here's the launch pad for more experienced fledglings. Don't be put off by the barf-tastic language of the site - the underlying system is sound (and you may discover a few of our subversions of the vocabulary along the way).

Huge thanks to Lauren for being our incredibly reliable and organised shining star in the East and leading us throughout the very busy month of December!!

Happy New Year Fledglings!!

All welcome!!

x post

You are on a roll Bitchy!! Good luck with 'the talk' ...

Hahahaha :(
i have a babysitter and i am running away tonight. And he is going to have a shock tomo. I am done with this crap and he will discover that he has no free time or thoughts tomo. Then perhaps he will be too busy to be so fucking rude.

Nearly fell off the thread completely in the back to work madness.

Busy day here.

Ta da:-
Tidy whole house
Clean whole house
Lots of washing

Small list with big content. Am buggered.

Spent the afternoon with dsis. Her surrogate is now 37 weeks and my little niece/nephew will be putting in an appearance very soon. Lots of happy teas I expect. Have given her all our baby stuff since I am absolutely positive there will be no more babies chez elliepac. Lots of decluttering in one easy step. (for those of
You who don't know, dsis had cancer of the womb at 30 before she had children and had to have full hysterectomy, a lovely lady is growing a baby for her and dbil).

Anyway, am going to finish the sophisticated dinner that is fish fingers mash and beans. Best not post that on any what's for dinner threads

How exciting for your sister Ellie.
Ta da list:
hoovered, including all the little crevices and bits which generally get ignored
decluttered
cleared hot spots
cleaned hob
sorted and transported to various places all the piles of stuff that have been sat on the sideboard for months.

Feel knackered TBH.

so so so happy i started flying... unexpected and unannounced visit from mil today and was so proud of myself

shiny sink, bathroom and kitchen floors cleaned this morning
heating on ( she always moans about how cold our house is)

kitchen counters clear and clean, food shop done so had plenty of milk, sugar and teabags

tumble drier on so house smelt clean!!??
all beds made and upstairs hoovered surfaces decluttered

i could go on but i just felt so good !! this would not have been the case pre flylady!!

Bitchy have fun tonight, I wouldn't want to be in your Ds's shoes tomorrow.

Ellie how lovely for your Dsis, and how exciting

Updated Done
Bedrooms tidy,
Windows scraped
Washing
Library
Watching repeats of Stargazing Live (DD doing space at school & Brian Cox is cute)
Dinner
Wash up, shine sink

Evening, just a quick one from me while I have 2 mins (its usually these 2 mins that I do a hotspot or a quick blast, but Ive decided to come on here)

tada

• turn washer on
• dry laundry
• Go to Parkrun and try to run 5K under 35 mins
• put laundry away
• wash up 2X
• Shine Sink
• Hotspot

not doing

• 5 Min room rescue
• jigsaw with DD1 (going to do tomorrow)
• Help DS do his homework (going to do tomorrow)
• 15 min declutter

So tomorrows list

• 5 Min room rescue
• jigsaw with DD1
• Help DS do his homework
• 15 min declutter
• Bedding
• wash up 3X
• Shine Sink
• Hotspot

Have a good evening everyone.

Ta Da
Up and Make beds
Feed cats
get breakfast
laundry
Shower and dress
Swish and swipe
Clean litter trays
Take out rubbish
Menu plan and write shopping list
Food shop
Polish and dust
Glass shelves, tv, mirrors etc
Hoover
Mop
Cook dinner
Stray items
Clean kitchen
shine sink
bring in shoes and rack from lobby
hoover lobby (after communal areas were painteds yesterday)

That was my whole list! Well, apart from the ironing, but the night is young and I've still got a little bit of energy.
ds's friend is here for a sleep over. he's been here for an hour and won't stop shouting. Just about to sit him down and remind him of the rules of my house.

Tomorrows list
Normal routines
Any ironing I don't get done tonight
Homework with the ds's
Make up sandwiches for the week
Dedicate the day to the boys

I think I have taken on way too much, and now I am driving, I am out of the house a lot more!! So i need a good kick up the bum to make me more motivated, I do know that dp's mum will be visiting soon so I had better make the effort some where !!!

Evening everyone. Hope everyone has had a good day. It's snowing here!!

ta da part II:
involving: yet more tidying of kitchen, dw, sink area, surfaces etc done (but now needs doing again)
picking up worst of stuff in sitting and dining room half done
tidying playroom NOPE
cleaning downstairs sink and loo *done
hoovering downstairs done
having a bath done
organising hall done
finally removing packed Christmas decorations to roof!! done

• tackled a few cobwebs in bathroom with a long handled duster thingy, ironed enough clothes for two days, entertained unexpected guest, played Trivia questions and restaurants with dd, made rabbits bed a bit warmer with extra hay etc Prepped healthy snack supper for dd and me that took all of 5 mins (taking full advantage of dh's absence!).

Bought myself small bunch tulips as a reward. And had long chat with dd's godfather who kindly brought her back from playdate (I am not confident driving in the dark [pathetic emoticon]). Fortunately, he is the kind of guest who kindly says mess makes him feel at home

How brilliant (and exciting!!) for your sister and the whole family Ellie!! And I'm slightly cynical about the menus on those "what's for dinner?" threads ...does no-one (except me) eat leftovers or the odd plate of beans on toast anymore?

Yay you did it Doublemum and Goth! Well done both of you

Hello ep1977 are you a namechanger (sorry if you are a newcomer and I've missed you!). Great the system is working for you!!

Well done re: your list Lilleth and for having the discipline to run in cold weather

Wow - golden feather duster goes to Silvery today - and her humungous lsit! Good luck with shouty visiting child.

An impending visit from family usually gets me worried motivated Gossip I'm sure you'll get there!

Right - determined to get early night tonight - so going to post steps - then watch 30 mins of wallpaper telly and crash.

G'night all!!

Baby-step no. 13 for Sun 13th Jan is here An important one: the introduction of daily missions!!

No zones or missions on a Sunday, but just for info, we will be starting in Zone 3: The Bathroom and One Extra Room next week (January 13-19).

Sunday is renew your spirit day

Tomorrow's flight plan will update automatically.

Hope everyone has a restful Sunday!

Just tried to catch up on the thread and now my head is spinning!

Friday is my one day at work so very little flying going on their. As for flying when I have three (or should that be four when counting DH) little boys under my feet that is a struggle.

Tada
Two loads of washing and one load of drying - stupidly put in turquoise jumpers in with white polo shirts so now have off white polo shirts so...
Went shopping to buy colour run remover!
Another load of washing with white polo shirts and colour run rumover.
Spend silly money on a new piano
Filled dishwasher
Put away two loads of washing

Todo
Fold drying
Iron
Quick tidy round before bed

Oh boo cleaning the bathrooms is my most detested task. I might need to be out of the house A LOT next week.

And the ironing is done
30 second dance party! [whoop] [whoop] [whoop] [balloon] [balloon] [balloon] [wiggle] [wiggle] [wiggle]

Marking place. Starting baby step number 1 tomorrow!

Welcome DrRanj

Hands large to Silvery

Goth
It feels good. Must try harder not to fall so far behind. But, best of all, I've now got all day with the boys tomorrow

Well, early night sabotaged by dh who has rung several times in past hour! Don't blame him in circs though.

Good news is that I have profited from being wide awake and cleared three big hotspots: dining room table, tiny side table, big side table. Yay!!! (More of a major job than it sounds post Christmas ie cleared once-a-year things off them like bowl of walnuts/cracker innards saved by dd/dh's specialist cheese knives/candles saved from advent wreath etc etc). It feels so good to have some clear surfaces at last and get rid of all the crap!

Tomorrow:
sort laundry room
ironing
washing
rabbits
wrap presents for office b'day
thank you letters & cards
supervise dd hwk

Loris yes, you are doing well to get anything done! If you don't mind, may I ask about your piano and what sort you have bought? (Have been toying with the idea of taking the plunge myself.)

Arf at Doublemum

Cheers Silvery and Goth!

Now that I have re-found my Flying motivation, I am reminded how one small task accomplished leads one on to the next ...

A warm welcome to DrRanj!! (Or if you want to keep pace with date - you can always double up baby-steps ... or just leap in where you are at ... whatever suits best!) Any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Right, going to bed a second time now as dd will be up at crack of sparrows as usual. G'night all.

Evening.
Yeah i know baby step 17 early night. it doesn't happen ok. so meh.
can't sleep. too much stess in the day. not helped by playing good samaritian tonight to some poor kid that had wrecked his car. Ice and inexperience i expect were probably the cause. Kid ok other then shock, which tbh you would expect in the cirumstances. Actually I am very thankful it was no worse, I have no medical training and the thought of coming across some of the accidents that have happened on that road in the past is something i am trying to avoid. Needless to say, despite a lovely evening out my mind is running amoke and sleep ain't bloody happening.

madwoman I thought of you this evening when the car thermo was showing a novel -5C. You wouldn't even blink at that cold anymore would you. surprising how unprepared the uk is for the cold. they are getting better in this area though, i suspect the gritters will be out shortly to do the road. Grit no use in the temps you have if my understanding is correct.

Ds was up in the night. he seems to have screamed whatever was biting him in the ass out of his system and i encountered one very calm little boy. We have a nice little chat and hopefully this mood of his will carry on into the morning. His plan of action is fairly simple and he is fully aware that really i am not a morning person. well atm Neeeeeeeeed to sort this going to sleep at a reasonable time thing.

Rambling completely and utterly. so nah nah nah nah

Ah, we do have a lot of grit - it's just used to provide traction in the ice, though - so essentially because the ice doesn't melt for months, the grit embeds into it, and the ice and grit combo becomes the new driving surface. better than driving on sheet ice, anyway! (Your poor wee kid in the accident would probably have agreed. Hope he's okay. I've had to help out at a few accidents, and it does get the adrenalin whizzing.) I've had the four wheel drive on for a week, as we've had quite a lot of fresh snow. It always takes a few days for the highway to get cleared, and the other roads never do.

In the spring, they have huge vacuum trucks that drive round the road and suck up all the gravel debris, and it gets recycled for the following winter.

That is, except for the ton or so of stuff that gets stuck in my entire family's boot treads, that they leave all over my house for me to vacuum up and not recycle, or alternatively stand on and swear profusely. (Although not as bad as the 3 month procrastinating glass shard. )

Tis a balmy -13 this evening. Was -18 this morning and we went skiing. It was freezing, and my feet were very unhappy.

Enjoy your Choc x (although banana better for inducing sleep...)

I already have my own sort of routine that I hardly ever stick to completely, which would take me further up the baby steps anyway, e.g. I already lay my clothes out and do a load of laundry a day etc..,

So I sort of had my own plan in place (not heard of fly lady before yesterday!) but it was poorly executed and I have a bit if an all or nothing approach to it...

So I am going to carry on what I am doing, but start at the beginning with the baby steps, so gradually it will all merge together and become a more unified and consistence routine, well that is the theory anyway! I have lots of assignment deadlines coming up so haven't got time to do much right now anyway...

For those of you who work/study fill time, how do you get time to do your "morning" routine?! I am out of the house by 7.15 on weekdays, so it is going to have to carry over to the evening anyway surely?! Then by the time I finish that it will be about time to start the before bed routine I reckon!

Madwoman, where do you live ?

DrR - you talior it to what you do. I posted my morning routine earlier and essentially contains throwing food at ds, him getting dressed, me getting up, lunch box made and getting out the house. it works for me. Have longer taskes other places. Others have longer morning and shorter afternoon etc you make it fit to work for you!

madwoman ouch bet that is nastier then standing on lego