Remember, remember to Fly through November, but Fledglings will chatter a lot

[BlueEyeshadow]

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 SlimChance for leading us through October and such a copy-and-pasteable OP....

All welcome!!

I'm in!

Hi Baba

I haven't had a massively productive day flying wise but I have really enjoyed the last day of half term with the dcs which is the most important thing
Dd and I made pink fairy cakes which were lovely if a bit sickly.
Ta da
Taken dm to the garage
Made beds
Hoovered
Dw
Shined sink
General tidy up
Cleared living room windowsill hot spot
Made dcs dinner

To do
Bath dcs
Wait for dp to get home
Drink wine

I'm joining, too! I have three centuries worth of decluttering to do....

It's friday, it is past 5pm. Naughty corner is open and stocked with vast quantities of liquor. ellie you have a reserved seat in the comfiest corner!!!. You'll find me in my sofa den.

ta da
shout
have meetings about shouting
sort paperwork about shouting
not kill anyone

All very important things imo.

Glad the naughty corner bar is open. Im in need of wine and dp is still an hour from home - the virtual stuff will have to suffice!!

Thanks for the welcome everyone! I've just tidied the hall, it really needed doing so my first success! No more shoes spilling everywhere or coats getting trapped when the front door closes.
Sink is shiny, but only because I haven't washed up today!

Hi all,

As an ex-very very messy, untidy person who is now extremely tidy (could have anyone over very happily- all areas clean & tidy pretty much all the time!) I just wanted to share something that helped me turn the corner. This might be more relevant to the newbies to the thread than those who have grasped the nettle already!

I just wanted to share this as I tried Flylady first and I know it's useful but I personally struggled to keep up and get to grips with the mechanics. What worked for me was realising that I had grossly underestimated the amount of time it takes to keep a home looking pretty nice all the time.

There was a thread on MN years ago where the OP was bemoaning the fact that they were in CHAOS mode all of the time and how the heck did tidy people stay tidy?

One person commented that they and DH did at least 1 hr each cleaning/tidying/laundry/paperwork per day during the week (so 10 hours total per Monday-Friday) and more like 2 hours each at the weekend. I was as I would have considered one person doing 2 hours per week, like, a lot. :). I tried a cleaner who did 2 hours per fortnight once and was shocked that it looked just as messy as ever a day or two later.

Another person said that they had re-thought the amount of Bottom on Sofa time in the evening. In order to have a clean and tidy house, they did not spend the evenings sat on the sofa watching TV. They watched a selective program or two and the rest of the time was spent cleaning and tidying, ironing, sorting etc.

I was also at that. However I realised that most of the time I did spend sat on the sofa in the evening, as a sort of right or ritual, then I wondered why the house was a state come Saturday morning

What I am trying to say is that it's a mindset, a payoff that when people have a clean and tidy house pretty much all of the time it's because they have accepted it takes a lot of work and time and are prepared to spend a lot of leisure/free time constantly keeping it looking good.

I honestly thought it happened as if by magic and some people were lucky enough to turn out clean and tidy but nobody is! The clean and tidy house people are hoovering high traffic areas like lounges every day/every other day, mopping kitchen floor twice/three times a week, never go to bed without leaving all areas like a new pin and never go downstairs in the morning without leaving all areas like a new pin - making the beds, clearing out all glasses/papers, emptying bathroom and bedroom bins as soon as they are full (I use carrier bags to line these small bins so I just pick it up once full and take it downstairs).

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoy never having that CHAOS panic anymore. It really is nice to have a good looking clean and tidy house :)

Happy November everybody.

Thanks to sc for her usual awesome job last month and to the lovely blue for taking over the 'fuck it's november, where's the year gone, shit it's christmas soon' thread.

I am wandering around in post ofsted daze. Sleep and wine are the order of the day this weekend. Plus the house looks like the zombie apocalypse has started. Plus I have a fuckload of work to do generated by aforementioned ofsted visit.

Onwards and into the bar.

Evening all.

Just flying by with links this evening as I got side-tracked by cross stitch earlier...

Babystep 2 is the controversial getting dressed to shoes one, although it also seems to mention yellow sticky notes, which I don't remember from before...

There are no missions at the weekend, and tomorrow is Family Fun Day in Fat Fairyland.

Big waves to newbies - welcome! - and oldbies alike.

Can I join please?

Even like more that I don't have to start until Monday!

Hi, can I join too please? Though I may need to go straight to the naughty corner! I have loads of unread emails from flylady. I do like sense of the system, but never seem to stick to it.

Someone up thread mentioned the shiny sink is meant to make you smile and I have to admit it didnt make me smile. Nice shiny clean hob, however, has me beaming!

I have far too much clutter and feel constantly in chaos so hoping this thread will boost my motivation.

HeyJudith - thank you for your post. It is timely, as I have spent all day crisis cleaning, thanks to the imminent arrival of a guest tomorrow. It's true that, as you say, the only way the house could remain in this pristine state is more hours spent on housework. I'm not sure I'm up for that though!

If you didn't follow Flylady, did you make up your own routine and how did you increase your hours?

Right, I have an awesome list. It might even rival one of Bitchy's.

Put recycling out
Emptied bins
D/W unloaded and reloaded
Washing on
Extraneous dishes, saucepans, etc washed by hand
Kitchen clutter cleared
Surfaces wiped
Spices cupboard cleaned and rearranged
Surfaces cleared (put as much as possible into cupboards)
Kitchen floor hoovered and mopped
Rubbish out
Kitchen windows washed
Sitting-room carpet treated with Vanish carpet-stain remover
Bathroom sink, bath and loo cleaned
Bathroom floor hoovered and mopped
Bathroom mirror cleaned
Bathroom cupboard cleared out and rearranged
Found lost jeans in bathroom cupboard!
Basket of bottles, make up, various potions hidden in cupboard
Pile of clean hand towels put out on clear shelf
DS1's bedroom - room rescue; changed sheets
Washing put into tumbledryer
Took dirty covers off dining-room chairs and put in wash
Took down Halloween decorations
Packed decorations away till next year
Sitting-room carpet hoovered - the Vanish definitely improved it
Sitting room - room rescue
Cleaned dining-room window
Hoovered dining room and hall
Decluttered dining room
Dusted shelves and furniture
Moved extraneous coats from hall to upstairs wardrobe
Mopped downstairs floors
Lunches
Wrapped present for DS2's friend
Helped DS2 make card for his friend
Walked DS2 round to friend's birthday party
Rang my poorly friend
Emailed uni about course
Put away clean washing
Decluttered basket on landing
Put away all DS2's Lego (all over his bedroom floor)
Tidied DS2's bedroom
Walked round to pick DS2 up
Home for dinner and washing up
Bedtime routine for DS2
Dinner (mine) and

I never managed to tidy our bedroom, but we'll close the door and hope our guest doesn't start nosing around.

DH thinks I've gone a bit crazy and is keeping his distance from me until I've calmed down.

Am falling asleep now - night all.

I wish I had a partner like you mentioned HeyJudith. Mine doesnt do 1 minute of housework never mind 1 hour! I also know you have to put more in to get more out but its demoralising when its other peoples mess the majority of the time. I freely admit that I am lazy when it comes to housework so have no one but myself to blame if the house is a pit!

Baba and Still - I don't go to all the palaver of wasting hot water or have my kitchen smelling of bleach every night but have my own interpretation of a shiny sink which means that the washing up is done (mostly) before bed. I do prefer coming down in the morning to an empty sink than one filled with DH's spotwelded pots!

Today's Ta Da List:

• Up at 6 to take DD to swimming club
• washing load done and hung to dry
• emergency dentist appointment made as DD cracked a tooth on a chew she got last night!
• menus planned for the week *shopping for above bought
• DD back to swimming club
• fish and chips for tea so no pots to wash

welcome to all the other newbies and thinking about joining the crowd gathering in the naughty corner!

dizzy - you were up late! Hope you managed to catch some sleep in the end.

Woken by DS2 (earlier than I would have wished) and very aware that the countdown to our visit from the house inspector a certain relative has started. Have just discovered that I managed to miss out buying an essential ingredient for the recipe I'm making - doh. So will have to fit in a quick trip to the shops somehow.

I have 17 things on my list for this morning .

Oh dear Toffee, hope you don't get too stressed by the visit today. Just hold on to the thought of the lovely tidy house you can enjoy once they have gone :)

Welcome to all the newbies. The system does work though the chat is what keeps me going which is probably why I don't have a show home after nearly 4 years on here!

Really need to crack on with things this month, starting with a clear out/clear up this weekend. Its DS's birthday on Thurs and we have 5 of his friend's coming for tea on Weds. We currently don't have enough room to contain 6 x 8 year old boys - need to get rid of decorating stuff, put HUGE new big cupboard to use, clear living room of as much stuff as we can (an ongoing challenge of me vs DH ) and get DS's bedroom into an acceptable state - it will barely contain 6 small boys when cleared out, it certainly won't at the moment!
DH can be great when 'on a mission' but the usual day-to-day stuff of putting away/picking up completely passes him by - can I really change 47 years of bad habits? I've been working on it for 11 years and often feel like I haven't got very far :(

Today:

• Evict girl-cat and dead mouse - done
• Rest of washing up from last night - got caught up in elderly neighbour falling over drama so had dinner very late and needed some 'calming down and returning to normal time' which did not involve dishes or shiny sink. First day fail!
• Breakfast
• Make bread with DS (new routine to try for Saturdays)
• DS to gymnastics
• Petrol
• DS and DD to take present to neighbouring child
• S&S two rooms (still getting used to that :))
• Clean new front door
• Sweep hall
• Remove wood, ladders, paint, tools, crap from stairs/landing
• Remove paint, tools, crap from new cupboard
• Relocate some of living room 'stuff' into new cupboard - sewing machine, bricks, games, etc
• Clear out other stuff from living room the is NOT going into my nice new cupboard - garage/tip/recycle
• Bolognese for dinner as it's in freezer and easy
• Strictly en famille :)
• Ironing mountain

That should keep us busy.
Hope everyone else has successful Saturdays whatever you are doing.

Morning all and welcome to all those who have joined us.

Post ofsted stress is starting to subside after a decent night's sleep last night. But, despite today being a family day in theory, in reality I have to restore order in the house. Not posting a to do as it is that long i cba to type it but will hopefully be back with a humongous ta da later on.

Have a good day everyone!

Hey Judith hi, and really sorry to be so sour, especially to someone new, and if you stick around you'll see I'm honestly not normally, but I'm not sure what the point of coming onto this thread to say you had good circumstances and realised you had butt on setee time that could be converted into more housework, so you're now loving your house and acheivements, is exactly?

How does the 'leave all areas like a new pin' system work if you can't make the bed because it has to be stripped and the condensation on the mattress left to dry most of the day? or stripped to fold up to make room for living space? or the disabled person in it removed and tended to before it can be thought about? or you’re in a hospital ward with your child and don't know when you'll see that bed again, let alone make it? Or any of the combinations of difficult circumstances people face?

I decided not to post in the early hours of the morning, hoping I'd read it differently after sleep, but no, all I'm left with is if your circumstances are crap and mean you can't live a particular way, and don't have any setee time to turn into housework, then trying to work smarter, not ever harder, will never get you anywhere, you will fail.

Maybe it’s just me and I'm too ill to see it better, but I thought the whole point and ethos of FL was about organising the time available, in the circumstances you have, even if it isn’t perfect, not just being in a position of reasonable circumstances and being able to create more time and 'always leave it looking like a new pin' living?

If there's no hope, there's no point is there?

As said before sorry to be so sour, but it's a new month and I don't need to feel this defeated this early, so I'm saying something instead of just leaving it to eat away.

Morning all!
I woke up early this morning so have done an hour and a half of the five hour online maths lecture I need to do today. Dcs are now up so I need to wait for the library to open to finish the rest.
I'm glad the ofsted stress is subsiding ellie
Only a short to do list today as it is family fun day:
Make beds
Hoover
Meal plan for the week
Iron final items of school uniform
3 and a half hours of maths
Hoover
Cinema with dcs to watch Turbo

Bbl to catch up with everyone.

((hugs)) Just

Judith, you're very welcome to post on this thread but it is a long running one that has lasted because we support each other. There are people on here facing all kinds of different and difficult situations and if you stick around you'll get to know us. I appreciate that you are describing what worked for you but it did sound rather judgmental to me too.

Better fire up the coffee pot after all that. anyone?

Hope we all have family fun today, although not looking promising here...

((just)) you do an amazing job under very difficult circumstances and you should never forget that.

And fwiw I agree with just. The system is about making whatever time you have, work for you. And this thread is about support not judgement and lots of lovely chat with lovely people.

Aaargh! MEN!

That is all.

Okay, side stepping the M-E-N issue.....ta da

Washing on
Coffe table clened
watered dying plantsx in lounge
emptied paper recycling
changed outside bin
tidied lounge
started nano
up with ds since 5am
cry on phone to mum

waiting for mum to skype (have stopped crying). mc complications so have to go back to hospital next week. feeling hideously sorry for myself. DH is not helping by being a lazy so and so Oops, that wasn't side stepping at all.

Sorry for pity party.

Onwards and upwards with a smile on my face