Is it October already the fledglings utter? We'll Fly with our broom sticks and start to declutter...

[Slimchance]

If 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 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 zones of the house which are designated weekly; defining and minimising housework - which in theory should leave you with loads more time to do someting more interesting 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!

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 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!

Humungous thanks to Whoknows for leading us through the tricky start to the academic year ....

All welcome!!

Toffee - I'm heading the other way I think, I have been wearing contact lenses very happily for 30 years with glasses only as backup, but having had new of both in the last month, sadly, my vision is probably better with glasses now, certainly for computer use (I'm extremely short-sighted). I have one contact lens optimised for close work and one for distance, which is great for reading, driving etc, but for computer use, which is slightly in between, neither eye is perfect and I have to squint a bit. Whereas with glasses I can see well at all distances even though they aren't varifocals but lose a lot of peripheral vision compared to contacts, plus there's all the inconvenience that goes with glasses (unable to see in the shower, unable to dry hair properly, unable to put on make-up, steaming up, the sunglasses problem). I think the answer for me is going to be contact lenses plus reading glasses for computer work.

OK, need a big to do list today. Decluttering continues, plus moving things to the DCs "new" bedroom shelves, I am still SO pleased with that move, I keep going in there just to look at how much better it is. It has solved the bedside table conundrum for the upper bunk too, as the shelves are right next to it with a shelf at rail height (the bookcases are open at the sides and back type).

Also getting ready for cat-welcoming, picking them up on Saturday. We are all very excited and have been gathering cardboard boxes for them to play in all week.

So, to-do.

Decluttering in lounge (carried over from Monday)
Finish removing stuff from spare room to make room for cardboard boxes and cats.
Shopping list for Ikea trip tomorrow
Food top up shopping
Swimming
Stuff to dry-cleaners / errands in town.
Paid work
Football with the DCs. Sadly DS has decided to "retire" from football. Unfortunately we signed him up for one of the highest achieving U-10 teams in the district (the benefits of hindsight, we chose because his friends went there and training time suited, had no idea they were such a good team) and he has been totally out of his depth, the gulf has widened as many of the others go to other football training too, plus he is at a disadvantage with his ASD. He's done really well, but it is getting him down now. He's going to try the hockey club instead.

Engels - my 9 year old was barely discernible at POAS time too. Fingers crossed!

Trazzle - good idea re the shredding company, I cleared 20 year worth a few years ago but it took 3 weeks. I now use one of those obliterating stamps instead and hardly shred anything, it all gets recycled, much better.

Right. This morning my goal is to

take the violin to the repair shop
declutter car - it is so revolting in there (partly because I have driven it, which is good I suppose)
read my book for Book Club tonight and download from Kindle
Recharge Kindle
write some secondary school dates on the calendar it is blank atm

other stuff. other stuff. make an ironing pile for cleaning lady tomorrow
sweep kitchen floor

done
driven ds2 to school, he has reverted to needing a lift
all bags ready last night
uniform ready last night

okay now, I'm putting on my trainers and long brisk walk to the violin shop so I don't revert to sitting here staring into space and looking at crumbs

Good morning!!
No sunshine here this morning despite a promising start - it is now lashing it down! But my 1985 C&A umbrella will stand me in good stead!!

To do -
buy birthday cards and presents at lunchtime for various kids parties this weekend
food shopping and meal plan.

at home... hoover and clothes away
washing on, and maybe the heating (dammit) to dry everything!

Done: beds made and people where they should be,but that's about it so far!!
Have a good day xx

A lot of yesterday spent fruitlessly trying to change things and head this off, but care situations have come to a head here and as of tomorrow it looks like I will be banging backwards and forwards between three addresses every two hours as the only way of holding it all together short term. It's not a good or happy solution, but it may be better than finding myself randomly forced into crisis repeatedly by things breaking down and being caught up in dealing with the repercussions.

I'm hoping that if I could just be organised enough (hollow laugh) and plan it properly all though it will be a bit stressful it might work better than what's happening now or the alternative.

All home ed will have to be done very early or in the evenings, and nights won’t be spent at home, for around a fortnight, which is going to throw a mighty spanner into already graunching works, so this afternoons plan is to try and get vehicle running properly and get in lots of different shopping for each situation, as the main priority, create different packs or bags for different things, so I can have the right things with me at the place and time, and try and work out exactly what it all means practically and how to stay on top of things.

Jdub your umbrella is nearly as old as me!

ha! It's a damn fine brolly!

Just.

trazzles the first time I wore lenses I was frantically trying to push my head int the back of the chair while the optician came towards my eye with the lens. It's just human instinct to back away from someone trying to shove something in you eye! Have got used to them now but most of the time can't be bothered so save lenses for sport or dressing up once in a blue moon

House is a pit but...
Still feeling pg

Ooh engels...how exciting I have everything crossed.

just, maybe it will be easier with you in total control iyswim

Stupid busy here. Little flying done apart from maintenance.

Am tired.

Tomorrow's baby-step, no 4 for Fri 4 Oct, is the one about post-it-notes that we usually ignore. The theory is that it is meant to form the start of your control journal if you are interested though. So just carry on shining your sink and getting dressed to shoes (or without shoes).

Tomorrow will be our last day in Zone 1: The Entrance, Front Porch and Dining Room here. Spend 15 mins decluttering!

Once Zone 1 is totally free of clutter, you can go on to detailed cleaning.

Tomorrow's mission is 5 mins spent hoovering and sweeping each area of Zone 1.

Friday is the day we declutter our handbags and cars (so you are ahead of the game today Swan .

The habit for October is clearing paper clutter.

The summary of above, also known as the flight plan will update itself daily.

Spent half an hour trying to get the bloody contact lenses in and out of my eyes. It was so difficult. Have another appointment for next week and am already having second thoughts. Do I stick at it? Is is always this hard?

Just - sorry, it sounds very difficult for you .

Big fail for me today on the Flying front, despite good intentions and a list.

Spent a long time on the phone talking to my sister (who is worried about my nephew who has just started at uni but is trying not to show it). (My sister that is, whose trying not to show it, not my nephew .) Then spent an even longer time talking to my sil who is quite isolated looking after fil and needs adult conversation. Then spent time proof-reading docs for dh and the morning was gone. Got a few things done this afternoon/evening including clearing up after dh who has started to become obsessed with bread-making which means anything within 2m of the kitchen counter is covered in a fine film of flour.

So what have you all been up to?

Jdub has been wielding her retro umbrella and shopping for childrens' parties (ditto here except it was sunny!)

Just has been battling with complicated care arrangements and stalwartly preparing for what sounds like a bit of a logistical nightmare to put it mildly

Swan has been getting violins repaired, organising her calendar and doing Friday's task in advance ... all whilst forming literary hypotheses ... .

Whoknows has been preparing a nest for her cats, admiring her newly organised bookshelves and running errands. [Good luck to your ds with his transition from football to hockey btw. Good for him for keeping at it for so long and hope he finds hockey more to his liking. It's always hard when they leave something behind isn't it? Don't mention ballet sniff.

Trazzles has been searching for trousers and arranging for her paper clutter to be kicked in to touch [wonders if shredding companies exist over here] and sorting meds and paperwork for the weekend.

Toffee has been in pursuit of clearer vision and Flying alongside her cleaner.

Picturesinthefirelight has been packing for her ds's trip and collecting birthday cake.

Ellie has been working as hard as ever,

and Engels is excited (as are we on her behalf!)

Hope you are OK Bitchy and big feathery wing flaps to eveyrone else!

'who is trying' - gah!

Sorry, don't appear to be able to write or spell gramatically correct English when on Mnset - can do it in rl though - promise!

I wore rigid lenses for 20 years and when I first switched to soft ones about 8 years ago I found them extremely fiddly to get in and out. Now I can do it with my eyes shut (so to speak). I use my eyelids to sort of ping them out onto my fingers. I think they are the best thing since sliced bread, but as I said earlier I am at the extreme end of the short-sighted scale. Been wearing my glasses today and feel very self conscious.

Just -sorry to hear that yet more upheaval is happening to you and your family.

Trazzle - you are making me feel old, stop it!

SC - thanks for the links, my paper clutter is out of control and long overdue - inextricably linked to my non-decliuttered front room.

Ta-da!

Morning routine
Paid work, ended up doing about 2 hours, then 1/2 hour OU.

Swimming
Town to get rid of a car boot of stuff to charity shop
Online Christmas shopping
Quick dash to Sainsburys
Home to wait for Ds to come home by himself.
Answer door to salesman and let myself be talked into trying organic veg box - anyone else use one of these?
Fetch DD from rugby after school
Dinner
Take DS to football for the last time. A bit sad, but he is certain he wants to give up now.
Home for a bit more tidying.
Phone friend to arrange to borrow cat carrier .

Evening

Well this morning was an actual wash out, got soaked through on the way back from school, then went to Asda with DH, which took ages. BUT this evening I have continued Operation OFTPAHIAW (oh fuck, the parents are here in a week) and did a detailed clean of the bathroom, including washing walls and ceiling. I then had a nice long bath enjoying the brightness.

Glad you were able to enjoy the bright bathroom.

WhoKnows - yes, we have an organic veg box, although it's more about reducing food miles and supporting local growers than the organic side of things. I really like it, but often end up topping up as we get quite a small one.

I've done the Aldi shop, which qualifies as errand day, but very little else today. The spare part for the Dyson has come though, so tomorrow I really need to hoover throughout the house!

Also to do:
Work...
Pick up a few forgotten groceries
Try to talk to DS1's teacher
Follow up emails
Nag remind DH to put cases in loft

I love my contact lenses. It does get better the more you use them. Promise. I have mine in most days. My glasses give me headaches. Long story and even the optician can't figure out why. So i can only wear them for short periods and I just find the contacts give better vision for driving and glasses are impossible when I train.

I have done fuck all flying. I was going to moan about life but saw just's post and decided moaning was pointless and tried to figure out a solution to the shit instead. Some bits have no solution. Some do. So fixing what is fixable is the best solution.

WhoKnows - I had an organic veg box for a bit, but although I enjoyed the feeling of having a surprise present every week, I also found I was throwing unused veg away later. So it depends how good you are at using up odds and ends of veg, I think.

Engels - yes, that's it. The whole thing about having the lenses put in was just so unnatural. The optician kept asking me not to shut my eye, but I didn't have any control over it. It was just instinct.

WhoKnows and Bitchy - good to hear positive stories about wearing lenses. Maybe I need to just stick at it and not give up so easily. I have another practise session next week, so will see how that goes.

It took about a month of 1-2times/wk before I got comfortable with it tbh, my practise sessions were a nightmare. I struggled with keeping eye open and not closing it when trying to get lens close to eye. Now I only poke myself in the eye when ds, choses the moment i am putting my lenses in, to slam through my door and thus through me. i think the best thing was the specsavers policy is that you had to do it yourself. They didn't do it for you so I never had to trust anyone else to do it.

I couldn't keep my eye open either, Bitchy. I also couldn't tell the difference between the lense being the right way round or not. I just ended up feeling very stupid, although the optician was very patient.

Had a good day on the whole. Ta das :

Opticians for me and DS1
Persuaded DS1 to have his hair cut and it now looks ok for school
Flying with cleaner, so house bleugh done
More Maths with DS1 (he worked really hard)
Afternoon nap to rest sore eyes
Collected DS2 from friend's house
Supermarket shopping
Dinners
Bedtime routines
Bed at indecent hour

Pst tbh half the time i can't until i get it in my eye. And which point it is less comfortable if it is the wrong way around. You will get it, just remember all contact wearers have to go through this and we all felt stupid and struggled once.

oh dear. I'm sorry to say that I used to wear contact lenses in my twenties but have reverted to glasses as I just cannot be bothered to deal with the blighters. I still wake up with nightmares about not soaking my contact lenses properly. That was the old days I hasten to add when you had to boil them sterilize them. Mine were hard lenses though - I think my eyes were too bad for soft ones. All my friends and my husband keep telling me to ditch the glasses though

Whoknows I had veggie box, and it was great, fabulous to have that ticked off the shopping list. From Riverford. However, a bit too muddy and a bit too much cabbage for non cabbage family (I love cabbage though) and in the end too expensive considering we needed more tomatoes and potatoes and lettuce every week than the box contained. For someone who is a bit better at cooking than me, it would work well. Excellent for soup, and great recipes. I still get a fruit box from Abel & Cole (dunno why, they must have rung up at right moment), but it lasts only ONE AND A HALF DAYS so not at all economical. We get through a lot of fruit, so we usually buy it from the corner shop (Turkish)

I'm tired - been to Book Club, delicious supper of Ottolenghi stew with dumplings and green beans with hazelnut and orange and minty new potatoes. And then pears stewed in red wine. Poisonwood Bible was book.

Today I achieved

violin
library
washing
homework
long walk
chats x 2
Social life!

We have had veg boxes too. We stopped when Joe was diagnosed as struggle to plan meals effectively at the moment. I miss them. The random veg Jerusalem artichokes I'm looking at you that you would never have bought otherwise! I think we will probably go back to having one. Riverford and Abel & Cole also do meat which looks great although I don't think we ever got meat just chocolate

Today we have community nurses coming and then a meeting with a clic Sargent volunteer who will hopefully be doing a little bit of weekly respite care for me. she's coming to fill in paperwork and meet the DCs. Kitchen needs to be a little tidier by then and bins emptied. I hope she doesn't wonder why I need respite care with DM here but her anxiety makes everything 5x more stressful. When I'm at work she will call roughly every hour about something and when I'm at home nothing gets done.

I love her so much but it's intensely frustrating.

Good morning everyone

Like so many on here, had a period when we had organic veg boxes delivered but I wasn't convinced that the fruit was any better than the stuff I bought at the supermarket (ie pears that were too hard which then went direct to mouldy, bypassing 'ripe') and the odd non-family friendly things it contained such as one Jerusalem artichoke or 2 spears of salsify which frankly did not make sense in terms of time spent preparing ie loads v tiny morsel available once prepped and cooked!

Just about to try a new service offered by a local greengrocer as it happens, which is a weekly box full of bog-standard seasonal veg and fruit, grown locally by her bil. Have to collect but that's no hardship.

As for contact lenses - would love to be able to wear them - but always fail the tear test. Am mercilessly dry-eyed me .

Hope you get used to the new lenses soon Toffee

Goth arf at Operation OFTPAHIAW!!

Blue ditto - my dh is incapable of putting away an empty suitcase without being nagged reminded

Bitchy sorry things are tough atm. I'm with you on the Flying front (ie haven't done any this week!)

Swan v. impressed by Ottolenghi stew which sounds delicious!

Trazzles it must be hard having to support your dm like that on top of doing all the supporting of ds. Hopefully, clic Sargent volunteer will understand situation when she comes. And looking at timing of your post, hope you can catch up on some sleep when she does!

Right, I am going to try and muster some enthusiasm and go and do yesterday's list.

Have a good day everyone!

I have dailys Swan a tiny bit more expensive but more comfortable for me as my eyes are borderline too dry for contacts plus there is no hassel of cleaning them.

Still done no flying. And going out. Stressful wkend for ds so taking today gently with an early night planned.

I have dailies for exactly the same reason bitchy . Cleaning monthlies drove me crazy!

Ta da
Wash on
Wash away
Washing up
Hoover downstairs
Downstairs bins emptied
Coffee table clean
Hob and kitchen surfaces clean
Sorted out flowers
Changed DS bed

Have been mning for a while now. Time to crack on. Going out in an hour!