December already! Fledgings will sleigh the pre-Christmas clutter (and eat all the mince pies)

[GoingGoingGoth]

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 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!

Thanks to BlueEyeshadow and SlimChance for the November thread.

All welcome!! And remember that December is the new January!

Sorry that first bit was for Rowing

Hello everyone. I only seem to report in on Fridays which is the day I don't work. Faced with a sea of clutter and mess and am going to catch up on yesterday's posts here before getting the strength to do something about this tip!

Tree is up. Less floor space. And needs a bit of tweaking because I am a control freak

Look forward to reading more posts later today xxxx

Well the chocolate thief is on a rampage and has stolen 12 chocolates across 3 calendars. The kids are blaming the Elf which I know it wasn't. (she vegan for ffs)
I have no idea who the culprit is!

Great evening last night with the Cubs, the stars were out and the wind died down. Very enjoyable. Also looking forward to taking them Rock climbing on Monday.

Ta Da
Up (40 minute late after pushing the snooze button 4 times)
Showered
breakfast x5
packed lunches x5
School Run
tidied kitchen
swept floor
D/w
washed up
T/d
W/m

To do
ironing (massive pile)
organize rota for kitchen duty at rugby (somehow manage to get this job what a mug must learn to say NO)
tidy Hallway

Need the power of 3 today as overwhelmed with what needs to be done.

helloooooooo all, how are you?

ta da
sort out lovefilm stuff
internet admin
put load in tumbler dryer
play musical chairs with the furniture
boil up handwarmers
speak to the mother who is in a particularly chatty mood today and therefore lose hours
sort out stuff for running errands
Sort out training diary
wonder wtf i put the christmas cds
found some but not the one i was looking for. what bloody safe place did i put that in?
sort out phone
Discover a whole heap of stuff that needs dealing with that is an easy job but going to take hours.

Right time to run the errands that didn't get done yesterday.

I have left extra extra strong special brew on the side help yourselves.

Slimchance hahahahahahha LOVE IT!!! Well done!! Our elf was playing dress up overnight - left a bunch of stuffed toys with gold tinsel around their necks like a feather boa, and bow ties.

Morning eveyrone! Lovely bright day here - makes all the difference - literally cannot see to sort/clean in this house when it's gloomy weather well that's my excuse anyway.

Felt cream crackered yesterday but forced myself to cook vats of root veg soup and a lentilly, root vegetable sort of casserole thing with bacon to boost the freezer. And to do laundry. And clean out rabbits. That was about it once hwk supervision/school runs had been done etc as dh was away.

Have done morning routine today + errands such as trip to optician having sat on my glasses and picked up some flowers for a colleague's wife who has just come out of hospital plus delivered small St Nic presents for their dc + bakery run. Plus more speculoos and chocolate St Nic's for my cleaner's dc. Off to do more laundry now.

This afternoon I must complete on-line shopping for godchildren and nephew and DO MORE IN THE HOME OFFICE OF DOOM... Unfortunately, I've worked out that I have to muck up newly sorted boudoir to do this as there is no where to put anything otherwise ... which is a bit dispiriting having just rediscovered the floor in there. But hopefully, once I've thrown out enough papers and cr*p 'stuff', it will all fit back in to office.

Off to concert tonight (if I can get ticketing system to work) where they will be singing English carols). First time in years so am stupidly excited!

DD going through a very difficult phase at the moment - she's very anxious and stressed (thank you VERY much Toffee will pm you today or over weekend) but trying to remain as patient as possible even though it can be terribly wearing (I know that sounds heartless but (in situations where there really isn't anything to worry about, I don't know whether to go in to hearty "you'll be fine, snap out of it" mode or to be more soft and sympathetic). Neither approach seems to work frankly, so you end up feeling a bit helpless.

Off to put on more washing, grab a cup of coffee and catch up with rest of thread.

Big wing flaps to all.

Ta Da
ironing (massive pile) while watching RomCom (which was a love way to spend some of the morning, making ironing less of a chore)
organized rota for kitchen duty at rugby (still to send)
tidied Hallway
Ordered some xmas presents online
dealt with incorrect item delivered

To do
school run
Food Shopping for weekend
Dinner

But off now to spend the rest of the afternoon with the girls, for a coffee around a roaring fire! Taking Stollen with me, starting to feel a bit more Christmassy!

[Not that I ever say ... "snap out of it" ... in reality obviously ]

Arf at mischievous elves Alice and Angry !!

Bitchy sympathies over missing Christmas cards. This is one of the downsides of being efficient and buying things in advance. I can't find a ruddy thing ! [Trying to gather all of dd's stocking purchases in to one box and cannot for the life of me remember where I put them. The present cupboard (where they are supposed to be) would be just too easy of course ... .]

Waves back to Gossip!! How are you doing?!

You can do it Stillwearingoldsocks!!

Rowing arf at compost v rat's nest comparison
Loads of song sheets all over the place here too. Going to put them in plastic wallets in fat lever arch file as Bitchy has suggested.

Yes, the feast of St Nicholas (French) or Sinterklaas (Dutch) is celebrated on 6th December more info here. It's a huge deal in Belgium and the Netherlands and the time when dc get their main presents. Being expats though, I tend to divide dd's ordinary stack of Christmas presents between the two feasts, or it gets ridiculous otherwise - supplemented by chocolate and satsumas and traditional spice biscuits.

A rather controversial aspect to the feast is St Nicolas's "helper" known as Zwarte Piet or "Black Peter". Huge debate going on here. One lot argues that it is horribly racist (which to an expat's eyes it definitely is) and others argue that it is a gentle "harmless" tradition for the amusement of dc. (Belgium - despite being the centre of the EU - is quite small and parochial in reality and is, to my mind, much, much more racist than the UK - it's the least attractive aspect of the country imo.)

Engels Hadn't realised that Sinterklaas arrives on the 5th in your neck of the woods! And (very belated - sorry) sympathies that you are so sleep-deprived and dh not offering proper support . I know how much you have supported him in the past and (if I may say so) t doesn't seem at all fair that that same support is not reciprocated at such a difficult time for you. You are absolutely NOT a failure - you have kept the whole show on the road fhs!!

Fab round-up Goth! Treble arf at "getting more support from your tights" than dh

Paintyourbox Hope you are feeling less rough today and that e-mail response is one you wanted!

Elliepac hope your mum is ok (although arf at retiring to bed with cats!) and your bf too. Saw pics of N. Lincs on the news and it looked awful. Glad you and yr pupils survived scary coach trip unscathed!

Deep repect at ironing 20 school shirts Angry + 5 brkfasts + 5 packed lunches etc and well, living with 6 males !!

Hope you can catch up on much needed sleep Alice

Good to hear you have done so Doris and that you are feeling a bit better

Dizzy sorry life is tough going atm (particularly hard when dh unsympathetic). Small steps and all that .

Sillybilly sorry craft night got bumped again...

Hope the Christmas fair went well whoknows

Waves to Rollermum

Hope you are off the Lemsip now Toffee and feeling better (and your ds1)

YOu too Swan and hope your pils visit went well (visitors - apart from lovely dsis 2 - bring me out in a cold sweat too). Will try just "listening" to dd instead of going in to rallying/solving mode and see what happens - thanks - needed reminding of that.

Waves to Feetheart Just Honu Pushme Lauren Castle Giraffes Jdub Madhouse Mercury Saturn Pictures - all newcomers - and everyone I've inevitably missed

That took a bit longer than expected - kept being interrupted by phone calls - dh keeps sending me boring work that I don't want to do .

Big waves to one and all!

Really well thanks slim, I used to follow these threads before, however gave up as I was trying to cram 3 boys 3 cats 2 adults and 2 houses worth of furniture into one 2 bedroomed house. Thankfully we have moved, and alot of decluttering happened with it, but now xmas is happening and although this house stays tidier than the last one, the clutter is beginning to rear its ugly head so I thought id get back on the band wagon and try and organise my life a lot better esp as I'm starting a degree in Feb and need to be organised and disciplined, and ttcing, so I need your help please.

Just popping in quickly before the school run, but SC, do you know this book? I can recommend it. I actually used it with DS2, not DS1 (there's one on OCD for him) and it really helped. Do PM me though.

ta da
sort out lovefilm stuff
internet admin
put load in tumbler dryer
play musical chairs with the furniture
boil up handwarmers
speak to the mother who is in a particularly chatty mood today and therefore lose hours
sort out stuff for running errands
Sort out training diary
wonder wtf i put the christmas cds hmm
found some but not the one i was looking for. what bloody safe place did i put that in?
sort out phone
Discover a whole heap of stuff that needs dealing with that is an easy job but going to take hours.
Put a load of washing on
take a trip into the the next town, to do banking and shopping
2nd load of washing into the WM
Contemplate the meaning of life
Stand in bedroom and wonder how the fuck to get it tidy
Crawl into office and spend 20mins having a rummage and a sort.
Break the no coffee after 12pm rule
Collect stuff for going to the tip
forget allergy tablet before disturbing all the dust. Sneeze a lot.
Find elastic so can finally sort out ds' new pj bottoms
Discover far far far far too many half finished craft projects. Decided need to put a ban on new projects and cull a load off realises said this last year too
lose hearing in one ear
remove half a dozen plastic bags in various stages of falling apart from office

Hi, I'm bitchy. Turns out I collect stationary. and not just unfinished craft projects

Hi everyone!

Waves back at Slimchance

Having a trying day. DD super clingy and feeding every 2 hours again... Wouldn't normally care about getting stuff done but have guests coming. Gah! So regrouping (during a feed) with a list:

Ta da:
Wash up
Swish and swipe
Hoover
Get DD up and clean

To do:
Eat something!!
Pop to shop for provisions
Get washing out
Put new load on
Vague tidy in lounge
Shower
Clean bath - inevitably bumped every day

ta da
sort out lovefilm stuff
internet admin
put load in tumbler dryer
play musical chairs with the furniture
boil up handwarmers
speak to the mother who is in a particularly chatty mood today and therefore lose hours
sort out stuff for running errands
Sort out training diary
wonder wtf i put the christmas cds hmm
found some but not the one i was looking for. what bloody safe place did i put that in?
sort out phone
Discover a whole heap of stuff that needs dealing with that is an easy job but going to take hours.
Put a load of washing on
take a trip into the the next town, to do banking and shopping
2nd load of washing into the WM
Contemplate the meaning of life
Stand in bedroom and wonder how the fuck to get it tidy
Crawl into office and spend 20mins having a rummage and a sort.
Break the no coffee after 12pm rule
Collect stuff for going to the tip
forget allergy tablet before disturbing all the dust. Sneeze a lot.
Find elastic so can finally sort out ds' new pj bottoms
Discover far far far far too many half finished craft projects. Decided need to put a ban on new projects and cull a load off realises said this last year too
lose hearing in one ear
remove half a dozen plastic bags in various stages of falling apart from office
Go at all the stationary i have found in the office
make the mother of all hot chocolate drinks for ds (marshmallows and squirty cream on top, finished off with chocolate milkshake powder)
15mins more in office
Sneeze a lot more
drink far too much coffee for considering sleep tonight
investigate the office window and try to determine if it is leaking or not, can't tell so put on the daily to do list
put new elastic in ds' pjs
find ds' spelling book that went missing 3 years ago
arm ds with more paper chain paperstrips

Next job a big bonfire.

I remember you from previous threads Gossipwitch!

Great to have you back in the fold!

That's tough Rollermum trying to complete a list with a young 'un attached... . Every small step is an achievement in those circs.

Far too many half-finished craft projects here too Bitchy and realise I said that last year too

Yes we have that book thank you Toffee. Need to dig it out ...will be in touch ... .

Well I've done the on-line shopping bit of my list ! Have finished nephews/nieces/office/numerous godchildren now thank heavens.

I had another good rummage in home office to find Christmas organisation file without success.

And have cleared a load more flotsam from the floor.

Still loads and loads to do though.

Concert tonight, entertaining tomorrow and Sunday - plus dd going to a party then too - so busy w/e ahead. May be only on here intermittently.

Have a great weekend everyone!!

on naughty corner bar (well, it's an hour ahead over here )

[Snaffles to save for once boys are collected]

Big waves to everybody. I have emerged from under a huge pile of work today.

Ta da!
Finished 2 major work projects
Made soup for lunch
Hoovering
More Christmas shopping - nearly finished now
Tiny bit of tidying up
Choir "homework"

Still tons to do, and my parents are coming for Christmas, which will be lovely but need to get the house sorted by then... Babysteps!

Cheers Blue!

SC - great that you have that book already. DS2 really enjoyed it and it seemed to put his worries to rest. He especially loved the 15-minute 'worry time' that we had every day after school, although he only needed it a few times and then admitted he had run out of worries!

My cold has turned into a kind of headachey, wanting-to-lie-down-all-the-time kind of thing, but we are booked to go out to the cinema tonight (with MIL babysitting) and it is such a rare occurence that I am dosing myself up with pills and wine and going anyway.

Hi to Giraffes and paint, welcome home Gossip

Goth can we have oxygen in the 'quarantine corner' please?
I can't even stay awake most of the day let alone fly.

SC we also celebrate St N today, though it’s much smaller, no presents, just gold chocolate coins, sweet food, and stories, to remind those who have (in whatever form) to give to those who haven’t, lest you see your friends and neighbours suffering for want of what you could have done about it.

Swan re what toffee said; “of course you would cope with home educating, if you had to. Don't feel down because of that book. Home educators always put a positive spin on their experience. I'm sure they all have days when their children won't learn or they are just too damn tired to do anything with them, but they don't admit it.”

I can assure you this is absolutely true, though I do admit it!

When you see on my lists things like ‘History, English, Geography, catch up H/ed diary’; on a bad night you can safely intersperse them with:
‘get ds out of bog’, ‘use bog hogging to revisit social rules’, ‘get ds off hackaday and back to geog’, ‘convince ds to stop eating expensive stylus’, ‘use opportunity to revisit behaviour appropriate to situation’, ‘get ds of fascinating but unrelated article and back to Macbeth’, ‘get ds back out of bog’ , ‘get ds to stop chewing headphone’, ‘convince ds that he needs to help update diary too’, ‘apply Heimlich manoeuvre to ds to recover headphone inner piece’, ‘don’t allow self to be drawn into argument’, ‘manage to remain calm in the face of ds in bog again!’, ‘succeed in not wetting self’, ‘accept history won’t happen tonight even though I need it to’, ‘give up and allow ds to remain in bog for 2. 3/4 hours until he’s sated’, ‘note abandoned hackaday article could be used in Dt/ engineering tomorrow’, ‘shove incomplete H/ed diary under mattress’, 'eat.'

When all else fails, I write the date, and ‘learning objectives' and under it 'Parental patience.’ If we’re both still alive, I consider them met.

at your learning objectives, Just.

One of my tricks, if DS1 wasn't co-operating with my timetable for him, was to persuade DS1 to write a short piece about something he'd googled, then I'd date it and pop it in the file. All educational, even if it was about Minecraft .

Well apropos Home edding Ds2 still seems to come out of school every day with a big smile on his face (possibly because it is Friday Apparently he got three hundred merits equivalent of jackpot for attending Voluntary Mass 10 times at Friday lunchtimes I did remind him that Mass is not for collecting merits indulgences but anyway he is in a satisfied sort of mood. And the music teacher liked his "sound waves". He told me he learnt how to draw them from The Simpsons

The house is in that pleasantly tidy post I L state. Thank you IL's! They were lovely last night. Dh has taken them to Philip Glass's Gandhi - I think he was slightly regretting his choice when he set out - perhaps something a bit more popular on a dark winter's night for three oldies.

SC and Alice loving all these tales of St Nicolas and the Elf.
I have painted my saltdough advent candle holder - tiny attempt at joining in!

I am back after the manic xmas fayre I've just been face painting for (seriously you say you can use a paint brush...), dp turned up at 5, the kids messed about for a bit he got them home, picked up the eldest (who had got in from school and promptly sat on the computer, then didn't move at all for the next half an hour until dp got in), they all then went to drop ds1 to his dads whilst all grabbing tea, by which point I had finished, cleared up and was waiting out side, I waited for an hour, because as usual me and my stupid planning didn't work I am now cold to the bone and my back is starting to hurt, but bless my dp, he also needed to feed the ds's so grabbed a mcdonalds en route, of course I am attempting to diet and was horrified at the site of the bag, and hoping he hadn't picked up the usual order of a big mac meal, or worse, nothing at all, he pulls out a salad bowl, with a diet coke, oh I love that man. He seriously is all kinds of awesome rolled into one

Oh and lets not forget that he actually managed to go to work this morning after just 3 hours sleep as he had been up steaming a xmas pudding for guess the weight of the pud comp. If he wasn't so knackered I would be thanking him in kind later.

Gossip