Flying into September - a new term for the Fledglings

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

Welcome to the September Fledgling Flylady Thread.

This thread is for people with CHAOS (can't have anyone over syndrome). We follow Flylady, the website with a mission!

All are welcome on this thread, experienced flyers and newcomers alike.

We try to follow the commandments of Flylady as we run our homes, loosely anyway. In between there's lots of chat and support as we go through our daily lives. We have coffee, cake, and a naughty corner for those who want to chat but CBA with their house some days. However you follow it, this thread is designed to make your life a little easier and more fun.

For those who are new to the system (and those needing a refresher), there are several aspects to the system:

1. Babysteps. These build a routine. Some are really useful, some are downright odd and some are, quite frankly, there to be ignored. They build a good foundation though.

1. Decluttering. Flylade is evangelical about clutter. In order to feel good about our homes we need to ditch the clutter. Flylady divides the home into zones, week by week and repeating monthly. As well as babysteps, we have to declutter in the relevant zone. Once that is achieved we move on to...

1. Missions. Also in the current zone, these are targetted tasks to tackle one particular aspect. One a day, they vary month to month.

1. Deep Cleaning. Once we have completely decluttered (some of us seem to be stuck permanently on that stage) there are deep cleaning lists for each zone. Achieve that and your house will be spotless!

One last thing - the Flylady website encourages us to subscribe to her emails - one word - DON"T! You will be overwhelmed by them. Instead come to this thread every morning and the relevant links for the day will be there waiting for you except when the thread leader has been on the

A big thank you to Bitchy for last month, and also for doing this Sunday's links as I am off camping.

Well, I was heading for the naughty corner but if it means watching Friends I'll fly instead! .

Babystep for Sunday is Make your bed as soon as your feet hit the floor. I don't agree with that one, I like mine turned back and aired instead, but it does usually stay that way all day as I don't get round to making it properly, so long as it's neat I don't mind. Actually it doesn't stay neat anyway as it is used for sorting laundry, tidying, reading with the DCs and as an all round day room, I definitely don't subscribe to it being a tranquil haven I'm afraid.

I agree with Whoknows - beds need airing before making. But i tend to air it until i walk in from the school run, flick the duvet back and then cover it in whatever needs to be done (paperwork/filing etc) It doesn't tend to stay tidy.

I went to bed when ds did last night and am feeling a little bit better. Ds is still being challenging. Although less so then yesterday. The kitchen light has failed, I need to sort out the junk room so that an engineer can get into it tomo evening. The house is tidier but messier at the same time and I am feeling fed up with it all. So much that needs to be done. And I am kinda fed up of having everything go wrong when the other members go away so i am left dealing with it

To do
change fluorescent lightbulb in kitchen
make ds' lunch box
tackle ds' room
get ds' clothes put away
return furniture to lounge
write urgent to do list for Monday.
Laundry
unload dw
reload and run dw

Need more coffee before I get moving and then to tackle ds on his room.

Have been menu planning this morning. Trying to budget - spend less and waste less. We have some old Tesco vouchers, so we're going to use those up.

Our bed rarely gets made . It's either airing or covered in washing.

Heeeeeelp ...

That should really be heeeeeellllooooo as it's my first time posting.

We are In chaos and desperately need sanity dose from you lovely mumsnetters.. I have the home routines app, but can't seem to gt anything done from list as DS likes me to play with him and I feel guilty every moment I don't at weekends because I work outside the home mon-thurs (FT compressed hours)

DH at launderette - everything I pick up will be drop in the ocean...what shall I do first?

Welcome Stillwearingoddsocks. The chaos will have taken a while to build up (speaking from experience here!) so will take a while to diminish, so don't panic. Small, focused, consistent steps are the way to go. Sounds as if you are making a good start by getting on top of the laundry.

Today I would: play with your ds without guilt and have a look around the Flylady site particularly here and here. Then get stuck in to the baby-steps until they become second nature. (Some of them you can ignore - the thread leader will highlight the important ones.) Don't bother with Flylady e-mails or you will be inundated. Don't waste time on negative looking back/or feeling guilty, just concentrate on the baby-steps going forward and establish some basic routines. Then start decluttering again little and often each day (you can't clean clutter) and you will find that things start coming together and the cleaning will be easier.

Of course, if you are raring to go this afternoon and want to make a more emphatic start to boost your motivation you can always do a a crisis clean!!

Good luck - the language on the site can be barftastic and offputting - but the underlying system is sound.

Forgot to mention this is useful too

Glad ds feeling better Bitchy

[takes tray of and to Trazzles Jess Nicknacks and Zing in naughty corner/recuperation wing]

Agree with Whoknows and Bitchy about airing the bed before making it

Glad your friend's visit went well Toffee

Not a bad day so far. Caught up with laundry (2 cool white washes) + uniform wash and managed to find a patch of sunshine to dry it in but clouds are threatening. Polished dd's school shoes. 30 mins dictée with dd (I'm learning all the vocab with her this year for my benefit as much as hers).

Went to mass, and made yet another veg soup for lunch whilst listening to ARcher's omnibus (amused to find that even though I haven't listened to it for about 4 wks - all the plot lines are still the same).

Re-threaded top of dd's welly boot with boot-lace that she'd pulled through [sigh] and darned badly the hole in her school jumper pocket she'd made by pushing a sharp pencil point through it (double sigh)

Dh has just taken dd to green area where she cycles and he walks so I'm going to renew my spirit with a bubble bath/pedicure. Then out for long walk again with dd on bicycle if she's still feeling energetic.

Hope everyone is enjoying their Sundays!

Ellie you may have resorted to dryer but if it makes you feel any better, I put the central heating on for 2 hrs yesterday without dh knowing (Have learnt from previous years not to let this house get too cold early on - convinced I can save money by capitalising on warmth from summer ifyswim - well that's my theory and I'm sticking to it)

You can see where ds has been in his room. It is starting to look a lot tidier then it was. which is a brilliant start but would have been so much better without all the accompanying yelling and shouting.

Also can't change the kitchen light as someone has managed to paint it and the light fitting is stuck shut.

Am finally going to go get that shower i have been trying to get since around 10am this morning. Been a long day so far.

house is tidy, clean and washing up to date
no ironing to do
i miss having children at home -ds2 is 24 today and 150 miles away sob

ta da
attempt to change light but get thwarted and have to leave it
unload dw
1st load washing on
discuss attitude and behaviour and choice of words/tone of voice and it's effects with ds on numerous occasions
help ds to focus on what needs to be done in his room
drink too much caffinated coffee
half load the dw
sort out rubbish to be taken out
sort out recycling to be taken out
sort out next batch of charity shop stuff
sort out stuff for going to the tip
internet stuff
List of important stuff for doing tomo
Get shower that was wished for

((hugs)) for blueandwhite.

Oh crap, lost a filling and it seems to have taken half the tooth with it :(

So so cold can. Not. Move. From. Couch

Bitchy I am off to dentist tomorrow, too. First check up in over a year....hate dentist......dreading it already!!

Blueandwhite - I, too am feeling very down about the empty nest. DD1 is 160 miles away, DD2 is 90miles, DD3 is about 8 miles, DH and DD4 7,500 miles away and DS is about 8 meters!!! As long as your DS is happy then you can feel proud he has spread his wings.......that's what I keep trying to convince myself, anyway.

Great nephew's christening today. The church was freezing!! Went into shop on the way home to stock up on a few winter clothes for me and DS.

Absolutely no flying done here this weekend.....maybe I will start again tomorrow.

Frantically busy weekend - the DC's school celebrated their 150th birthday with a 3 day extravaganza, and being on the PTA it feels as though I have been on my feet for the entire 3 days. This has led to my house getting quite untidy and a washing backlog the size of Mt Everest. The washer and dryer are chugging away as I type and I am about to fire up the iron.

DS1's birthday tomorrow so I won't get that much done, but if I can just get downstairs looking straight it will make me feel much better.

Up until an hour ago had had the most lovely sunday. DN was a delight and we all enjoyed squidging his gorgeous baby chubbiness. And he slept....all night. Well until 6am, but that I can cope with.

After DN went we watched a film, had a picnic lunch and then whiled the afternoon away playing Monopoly, lego building and crafty stuff. DH joined in when he got back from work. Twas lovely and culminated in a beast of a Sunday roast (beef) and homemade chocolate sponge and another film.

Then DS decided to give me the scariest moment of motherhood by falling down the stairs from top to bottom. I caught the end of it and he was rolling over and over. Was sure he was seriously hurt. Thankfully he's not. Shocked and will have some corking bruises in the morning but ok.

A small may be in order.

I can breath through my nose again!

can I get a whoop whoop?

Breathing is always a positive zing

Sorry....have a whoop, whoop

Urgh need a list.

To do list for monday
post office - passport
dentist - missing filling
rubbish out
recycling out
crisis tidy study
book after school club for wed
laundry
pick up dis-infectant
sort paperwork
unload dishwasher
reload dishwasher
wash the pots
house bleurgh (as much of as possible)
take bed apart and put stuff into storage
remake bed.

I am sure i have forgotten stuff but will have to wait until tomo to figure it out. night.

Thanks steamedcabbage for the encouraging words & welcome. I'd love to get on top of it all so weekends could be just for play & board games & walks... Did crafty stuff & lots of super hero acting out in between 15 m bursts of frenzied activity...

Cheers for making me welcome - right - DS asleep so up and at 'em....xxx

Welcome stillwearing.

Evening all, and welcome to Stillwearing, I see you have already had the basics explained to you.

Busy Flying and other stuff day here today. Been carrying on with the big decluttering effort, have taken practically everything out of the DCs bedroom tonight, and changed their sheets, will go back in and do a thorough clean tomorrow before they start messing it up again. Still got a big pile of laundry to sort but that might be postponed. Also been out choosing a new car for DH, so that took most of the afternoon. Then DD's swimming lesson.

Ellie - your day sounds nice, although I can never watch films with the DCs (our tastes do not overlap), but what a shock for you at the end, hope DS isn't too bruised. My DS did that when he was nearly 2, it was a real heart stopper.

Jemima - that sounds hectic, I'm on the PTA too, just been typing up minutes, which due to myself and the chair using (presumably) different versions of Word (she does an agenda with notes for the meeting, I rewrite it into minutes, took about an hour to sort out the formatting when it should only have taken 10 mins.

Bitchy - hope you're OK, reading between the lines things sound a bit full-on at the moment.

PA and Blueandwhite - sympathies over empty nests, it's a long way off for me still but makes me feel sad just thinking about it.

I put the heating on for a bit today, the house felt so chilly and we weren't doing any baking or roasting to warm the place up. It was lovely picking warm towels off the towel rail for DDs swimming lesson.

Very tired and still got things to do, so going to stop there and find you all some links for tomorrow, night night.