July 2014: fledglings follow Flylady's tuition (don't forget your pamper mission)

[ToffeeWhirl]

A big thank you to slackcabbage for superb thread leadership throughout June, as well as a great intro which I am going to shamelessly borrow from now.

Struggling with C.H.A.O.S. (can't have anyone over syndrome) and S.T.U.F.F. (something that undermines family fun)? In that case, you need Flylady.

Flylady is a system for managing housework. Starting with babysteps, it builds up into a routine which becomes second nature. In theory, once you are used to the system, you will have a tidy house you are not embarrassed by and plenty of time to get on with more interesting things.

Flylady banishes the panicky "rabbit in headlights" feeling when you are overwhelmed and everything needs doing all at once. If you fall off the Flylady bandwagon, it’s no problem: you just jump back in where you are and carry on.

Don't sign up for the Flylady emails as you will be inundated! All the information you need will be linked here on this thread on a daily basis.

From the first of the month, Flylady's steps and routines will be listed here on this thread.

Flylady uses a three-pronged approach (dependent on the stage everyone is at):

1. start or repeat baby steps

1. repeat baby steps + do 15 mins a day decluttering in the current zone

1. reinforce babysteps and do daily missions if you have finished decluttering.

(And detailed deep cleaning in each zone for those who have made real progress – not sure if anyone has reached this pinnacle yet…? I certainly haven’t).

More info here on getting started (but ignore step one!) and Flying lessons. Here's the launch pad for more experienced fledglings.

Try to ignore Flylady’s purple prose (hard, I know) - the underlying system is sound!

Three key points to keep in mind:

1. No perfectionism allowed - this is harder than you would imagine.

1. You are never behind - just start where you are and anything you do is progress.

1. It didn't get into a mess overnight, it won't get tidy overnight - accept it will take time to get on top of things and you will be happier.

If you are new, then trying to spend 15 mins decluttering and doing the babysteps is the most you should expect of yourself. Lots of us here like posting our ‘to do’ or ‘ta da’ lists and they can look quite scary. Don’t be put off.

If all else fails, try the power of three – just pick three things that most need doing and focus on those.

And if you have visitors coming over this afternoon and need a quick fix NOW, try Flylady's crisis clean.

We all know each other pretty well on this thread and some of us have been around for a long time, but all lurkers, oldies and newcomers are very welcome!

Swan - home ed trial sounds promising .

Well ds has begged off training and agreed to a silly early bedtime so I now have an evening off. Which means I can continue to tackle my room

To do
More Laundry
shopping
take recycling out
book hotel still not done it
put in order for stuff for ds' sensory box yep ditto that not done thing
discover bed - in progress, slow slow progress

ta da
ds to school on time
two drawers in chest of drawers in my room which tend to junk have had their contents emptied onto my bed. i will probably end up regretting this
re-arrange clothes to be in one unit - in progress
collect laundry from about and collect in one place
start packing the activity bits and bobs bag for our holiday
start collecting too small clothes together ready for handing on
spend 35 mins decluttering my room - aka pulling out more than io can put away in the hunt for missing paperwork
empty car out
1x laundry
WM on for 60C cleaning wash - bloody tissue in pocket that was missed hmm
sort out stuff for car
sort out plans for end of wk
Sort through an cull what i am not likely to wear again clothes - 1 drawer's worth
dye hair
Declutter the top of the chest of drawers
Another load of washing through machine
sort out ds' kit for training
meeting in next town
30 mins decluttering in my room
folding
ironing
Third load of washing through machine
Move 3 pieces of furntiture to check the wire connection to aerial (really sporadic digit signal which is really annoying.
Swear about the stupidly proportioned rooms in this house.
put in amazon order

Dizzy Happy Birthday to your ds, that must be exciting to have one all grownup and needing a present sent as a parcel

hyper poor you

Have just dropped ds1 at the theatre to meetup with his Irish cousins, I took dd as well just to say hello for an hour. Cousins seem to meet up with more people in one week in London than I see all year Tomorrow they are off to Hampstead Heath, another place I haven't been for quite some time (rather like the West End Anyway DSis in good form, very kind, and ds1 was thrilled.

Well home edding day was a bit of a mixed bag. We got an enormous amount done in a very short time, but then [drum roll] there was a LOT of extra time that ds2 didn't quite know what to do with...except immediately ask to go on the computer [sigh]

Although, today wasn't really a very good trial as he was meant to be ill and therefore couldn't really go gallivanting off somewhere interesting.

I am finding it very interesting to see how much my default setting is to get him DO things rather than him knowing what he wants to do himself... I need to step back a lot. Although he seemed to like our schedule..

The other thing I noticed was how much more relaxed I feel with him here, rather than waiting for him to come home and "explode". Ah well, will see how tomorrow goes..

Well i started a job, it has turned out soooo much bigger than is realistic to get done in one day, unfortunately i need to get it finished tonight going to be a late one. Vat of bitchy's special brew anyone?

evening all
dizzy well done for sending off ds present
swan when I home ed'ed dc it took a while to settle into it and find the right pace iswim
toffee how is ds 1 today? any better?
bitchy good luck with big job. Hope it doesn't take as long as you think

Right, I need to focus for tomorrow.

To Do:
ensure dc up and dressed at reasonable despite no school
breakfast
clear breakfast
DW on
hang out washing
reboot laundry
quick tidy round ahead of cleaner
welcome cleaner!(and explain why there is an unexpected houseful of people!)
Show cleaner how to use new hoover
take littlies out to library then playground to get out from under cleaners feet
return home hopefully just after cleaner finished
lunch for all
despatch dc to various complex childcare arrangements
go to work for 2 hours ( had appointment that couldn't be cancelled at short notice )
return home
water plants if it doesn't rain
washing in and away
contemplate once again possible outfits for littlies for dress as celebrity day on Friday

bbtomorrow

Hyper promise you won't clean too much before the cleaning lady comes, it is easily done [sigh] hope tomorrow goes smoothly with work

done
I have ironed a ginormous pile of ironing, courtesy of having ds2 around all day (he sends me ironing vibes
I think I have enough clothes for ds1's trip on Friday (5 days away including uniform changes
I have also eaten 3 Flakes (courtesy of some triple pack

and the football is on again. Dd has disappeared to bed in disgust, and ds1 needs to be picked up from station soon...

Evening all.

I would hereby like to thank the wise fledglings. Today I took bitchy's (i think) advice and sodded off the housework and went out for the evening. Took the dc's to the local country park for a good walk/scoot/play and had a fabulous evening.

Flying wise have done a scoot round of the house and some washing but that's it.

Going to catch up with the thread now.

Evening, wow the thread has moved on loads since Sunday!

We're in full holiday mode now

Monday we went to a talk by Cressida Cowell (How to train your dragon author) she's really lovely. I wonder if she MNs? We got front seats at the talk so ended up at the back of the queue for the book signing, but the 2 hour wait was worth it. Dd and her friend was nearly as excited as us parents
Then a quick rush home and out again for a Sisters of Mercy gig, yes he's old (the young guitarist was very fit) but I got 2 people away from the front, the audience was a bit mature for a proper mosh pit
Then DH & I got kebab and pizza on the way home, not done that for years! (10 years)

Tuesday was a slow start but my neighbour and I swapped childcare so we could each go shopping without our respective little angels. And I defrosted my freezer.

Today I completed the banner for Woodcraft and then gave the flat a good vacuum.

Tomorrow we're back at the Croft, hopefully building a pig pen! And at some point I need to finish some job application.

Off for

swan well done on ironing. I am trying hard to resist my pre-cleaner cleaning urges

ds1 (aged 16) has just announced he needs a yellow onesie for scoutastic camp that he is going to on Friday lunchtime (he is a Young Leader)
Now I'm sure that I wont have any trouble locating such a thing for a fully grown 16 year old boy between now and Friday morning (not to mention all the usual to do plus work)

X posts ellie and goth
ellie country park sounds lovely
goth you have been busy!

hyper yellow onesies and celebrity outfits!!!!!!! Aaargh - how do they think up these things? (the funloving organisers of this world I mean) I would be tempted to send everyone as members of Royal family.

So far tonight i have completely disassembled a room having shoved the junk out the door with a broom, moved a load of heavy furniture to find the source of a problem, fixed a wiring issue, rearranged all the furniture in the room, spring cleaned under the furniture with the exception of the bed and tidyed the bed that was under stuff from earlier. and I am about to sweep the rest of the junk back into the room so that I can go to bed and the bathroom is accessible again. tomorrow's job? yeah that will be deal with the rest of the mess and crud that i will be sweaping back into this room in 5mins. But at least I have a bed to sleep in now AND strong pain killers cos my back hates me for being lazy and not emptying the bed before moving it it was physically impossible to empty unless I wanted to spend at least an extra 2hrs on this tonight

Vat of is open and on the naughty corner bar, strong liquer too for those who require or wish it!

Evening all!

Did a minor house bleugh and some ironing this morning, lunch out with a translator colleague so then had work to catch up with all afternoon...

Have been having fun Michael Gove this evening.

Yellow onesie by Friday morning! hyper - can you make him track it down himself?

swan/SC - ka-rib-diss I think.

Hmm, that was meant to say slapping Michael Gove ...

Thanks Bitchy

Slap Michael Gove here!

Thanks for fixing the link Toffee! Don't know how I screwed that one up so badly. :)

It's time for Babystep Number 15: learn the power of 15 minutes. Newbies: if you haven't bought a timer yet, buy one now! I find mine invaluable.

Thursday is Errand Day.

Thursday's mission is to scrub your kitchen counters.

A full timetable for the day is here.

DS1 is actually a bit cheerier today, but that seems to be because he knows DH is coming back earlier. He played football with DS2 and myself this afternoon (finally, some Vitamin D!).

Had a nice day, with family here for lunch. Took DS2 to the beach for ages afterwards - he was very happy just building castles and a sand pier .

Must work on my OU assignment now, so no round up tonight. Sorry.

That Slap Gove game is quite addictive, especially like that it tells you how many other people are slapping him too. They could do the whole cabinet, hours of fun for all the family.

Shattered but wide awake tonight. Went on field trip with DS's class, involved clambering up and down river banks, walking up a very steep hill and back down again, building bridges, all good fun but tiring. We are lucky that the perfect location for all this is only 10 mins drive from the school, so at least no long journey.

Then home from school, unpacked and cleaned ourselves up, made an early tea for the DCs, packed DD up with snacks, water, script and a huge bag of costumes for drama group at 5, home again, took DS to trampolining, went for a walk to find a geocache with a fellow trampolining mum friend while the boys bounced, about 3 miles walk in total, back home, DS made me play cricket for 15 mins before I fetched DD. DCs watered and put to bed, 3 packed lunches made, going to work for a rest tomorrow.

Butterfly trauma! DD got one of those kits where you look after caterpillars till they turn into butterflies for Christmas, we have been watching them for the last few weeks. They emerged from their chrysalises (?) 2 days ago and immediately caught the cats attention, so their habitat had to be moved into the glass fronted dresser. Decided it was time to set them free tonight, so took them outdoors and released them, one landed on the ground and a cat came prowling so we shut the cats in the house till it had flown away, a little sad to see them go.

Got back from trampolining and heard a commotion in the kitchen, DS was yelling that tortie cat was coming through the catflap carrying a butterfly in her mouth. Oh no! Shooed cat off, luckily DS is a master at gently capturing small creatures so he managed to get it outside and place it high up in a flowering bush, but it stayed there till night fell, one of its wings was slightly damaged, hope it survives. The whole thing has been educational but a bit traumatic!

Oh an I did 15 mins of ironing while watching the footie just now. Need to change my flag again .

Morning all,

Slept like a log again, and am just feeling so much brighter in myself. Managed to get DS out to nursery with absolutely no yelling, even though he was playing up - I just couldn't manage it calmly before, so I'm delighted with myself!

Today I have some washing to do, some organising and an interview with a recruitment agency. But first work!

Have a lovely day!

Butterfly has gone this morning, hopefully flown away to pastures new not keeled over and died.

Feeling grrrr at DH this morning - he went camping to the British Grand Prix at the weekend, did unpack most of his stuff when he got home, but the duvet and pillows he took off the spare bed are still just sitting dumped in the middle of this room (this room being the middle room of a Victorian terrace and therefore the thoroughfare between kitchen and rest of the house. Ah yes, it's because I mentioned that he would need to wash the covers before putting it all away.

feeling rather cba and sore after last night's furniture moving activities. Still have a ton of stuff to do on the room. And the sun is making the windows look really mucky. Could someone apply some suitable words of encouragement and a boot pretty please. I probably should take a rest day but really want to get the room finished as it will be sooo much more restful.

to do
laundry
folding
ironing
put clothes away
move games shelf
mountain of general clutter and crud on the floor
hoover
put handwarmers away for the summer
hand washing
post letter
sensory box stuff order
book hotel
Hairdresser appointment

Looking forward to a trip to the hairdressers later, going to get a hefty trip which should help make me feel a little more light headed .

Morning all. whoknows I feel your pain - my dh regularly leaves a path of destruction behind him - I find that I swing between waiting for him to do it (blood boiling in the meantime) or just doing it myself. At the mo I'm trying to do as much as I can myself as he's working long hours and I'm having a break from work. We are both much happier and relaxed when things are organised and clean and tidy so I try to "let it go......let it go..."
Ta das today.
1 load of washing on the line
Kids off to school with packed lunches
Tomato side shoots picked out
Kitchen, dining room and conservatory hoovered and mopped
Bathroom cleaned and descaled the shower
Up, showered and dressed

To do
Go to bank and close an old account
Post letter so that dh can do a driver awareness course - lucky boy
Empty dw
Go and buy garden canes and plant out pumpkins and rosemary
Write a menu plan for next week (the freezer is chockablock so need to chomp through it)
Sort out travel insurance - hopefully shop for best deal
Buy cake tins
Order candle making stuff
Hoover rest of house
Wash sheets
Attend scout agm tonight
Sort kids dinner
Think that should do me!
Oh and also hopefully get into bikini and enjoy the sun for an hour this afternoon.
Have a great day everyone!

I have done 15mins on the floor, and an hour on crochet. I couldn't remember if I had taken pain killers so didn't dare take any for fear of accidental overdose. Can't function at this pain level so slowly slowly is the order of the day.
Going to go get my hair cut and try another 15mins of floor clearing (you have to bend as there is not enough floor to sit on yet) I suspect there will be a flurry of activty after 3pm when I have taken pain killers and they have kicked in No relief this morning but sometimes that happens even if i have taken pain killers. Roll on 3pm when I know i will be ok to take some.