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!

Just back from Dparents, it was a really nice afternoon.

Had a stressy morning, the laundry has spiralled out of control this week as we've all been out so much and DS went into a total meltdown when we couldn't find his favourite tee shirt (eventually located in the tumble drier) and then told him he wasn't wearing stained jogging bottoms. Added to this I was tasked with meeting one of my mum's friends who I haven't set eyes on for probably 35 years from the station and was worrying about being late, luckily we found her OK.

I was feeling very tired and a bit grumpy last night about none of the relatives coming when Dparents have faithfully trooped hundreds of miles for all their family occasions over the years, but lots of friends came and actually the balance would have been wrong if all the family had turned up too. It probably was better to stick with local people who all know each other to some extent. I enjoyed chatting to them all, despite that slightly uncomfy feeling of not quite remembering who they all were but not wanting to let on! The DCs behaved well too.

Alice - your home decor plans sound great, am of your fabric warehouse. I've never been one for bunting or similar in the house, but I was inspired by one of the Woolly Hug auctions to make the one in the pic for my front window a few months ago, I'm planning various seasonal ones but haven't got very far with them.

My fireplace now.

evening
bitchy hope your day got better
swan yes, it is amazing that you adapt to however many dc you have then take any away and it is all suddenly much easier!
alice that looks lovely
whoknows glad party went ok. love your bunting too

well, we have had a really nice day here on the whole. This has shocked me because for a long time my saturdays have been horrible! (which is sad but true )
Thankfully there was only minimal delivering dc to various places required(ds1 collected from cub camp and taken to training for new summer job) and the weather was so nice we got the paddling pool out which ds2 enjoyed with dd1 and 2. It has helped massively that the cleaner has been on Thursday so I haven't been faced with a complete hovel to have to start sorting today and so for once I could actually spend time in the garden with dc
I managed to finish my book and did some minor gardening. Then we had bbq for tea. all good
need to be a bit more organised tomorrow so time for lists:

Ta Da
6 loads of washing
littlies dry clothes put away
dd1 and 2 clothes sent to room
towels folded and away
shops to buy new tap attachment for hose
set up paddling pool
weeded, de-nettled and pruned bottom flower bed
watered garden
quick shop for food bits
collected ds1 from work training
finished book
bbq for tea
tidy up garden post tea
vacuumed downstairs
steam mopped downstairs

to do:(tomorrow)
take dd2 ice skating, sign up for next block of lessons, purchase pass for unlimited summer skating and visit shop to buy new ice skates.
find purse and rucksack for dd4 school trip on Monday
sort clothes for dd4 school trip on Monday (or is it uniform? check letter)
vacuum upstairs
nag persuade dd1 and 2 to tidy room and put clothes away
strip dd1 and 2 beds and wash bedding
nag persuade ds1 to tidy room
strip ds1 bed and sterilise wash bedding
water garden if it doesn't rain
general laundry
sort paperwork trays - re-organise as system is failing
collect dd 3 and 4 from cub camp

right, off to chill for a bit bbtomorrow

hmm, random sad face there. Tomorrow's list isn't that bad really!

Whoknows Alice what lovely bunting.

Quiet day here as it rained, so DD had a dvd marathon, I'm just settling down to watch the delectable Paulo Nutini on BBC 3 with

Crazy busy week continued, I was going to tackle the massive ironing pile honest then I changed my mind, grabbed a bottle of chilled wine, ordered Dominos to pick up en route and took the family off to a Last Night of the Proms Concert in the local park, which was fabulous. Just got home, DCs enjoyed it but it was another really late night for them. I have promised to get up and feed the cats in the morning so DS can have a lie in.

Tomorrow we are going to the circus, then we are going to slow down and have a relatively lazy week, DS goes to Cub camp next weekend so he needs to get a bit of rest this week. I think this has been one of the most hectic weeks of my life.

Back home at last and DS1 is very cheerful now.

We visited MIL on the way home: she's very frail and hurt her neck in the fall. Frustratingly, she wouldn't let me take her sheets home to wash, which would have been no problem to me. She also admitted that she'd waited two hours after her fall to actually ring for help. She's in sheltered housing specifically so that she can call for help should she need it - then she needs it and doesn't call for help. Argh!

I spent the first two hours at home trying to make the house habitable again because it was such a mess. I don't blame DH because he's had a frantic week with work and caring for his mum, but it wasn't very nice to come home to. Also, so many things are broken or packing up - like the boiler, the flush on the loo, the washing machine (still working, but has a slow leak), which is discouraging.

I did the house bleugh and unpacked all the stuff from the car. Am going to do the unpacking tomorrow.

WhoKnows - I'm really glad to hear that your DParent's party went so well. I love the daisy bunting.

Bitchy - hope you managed to get into the bathroom in the end. It sounds as if your DS is practising for his teenage years already .

Swan - yes, it's funny that two seems so easy after three. Any news from DS1 or has it all gone quiet?

hyperhops - glad to see that you had a happy and productive Saturday.

Alice - lovely bunting. As someone who was hopeless at sewing at school and does as little of it as possible now, I'm so impressed by people who make things like that.

Goth - hope DD's DVD marathon freed you to do some stuff for yourself.

Back in a mo with links.

Tomorrow is Babystep Number 13: choose any mission and do it.

Sunday is a day to renew your spirit by taking time for yourself.

There are no missions at the weekend (except for the above babystep, of course).

The flight plan for tomorrow is here.

G'night all.

Hi wow I've missed so much!

Have been concentrating on weight loss for a couple of months so no time for FlyLady but that's done now and I have a very messy house!

How long have I been trying to get on with FlyLady? A good couple of years and it always falls flat because DH wants a tidy house but will not support me in the tidying. This week he has invented from scratch a genius idea that involves getting the kitchen and playroom back to a base level of clean and tidy every night ( about 15 minutes) then 15 minutes of decluttering in a specified area.

I shit you not.

He's really proud of himself for coming up with this

Toffee I have to confess that there was no sewing involved at all in the bunting. I cut out the triangles from old fleece jumpers (dk blue), an old work shirt of DD's that she gave me to use for material (Tesco lol), and an old shirt of mine that I no longer wear anymore. I cut the triangles from the sleeve sections of the 2 shirts and the waist section of the jumper - so there was already a seam in place that allowed me to thread a blue ribbon through all three, and voila! Bunting! Embarrassingly easy.

The material for the cushion covers is all ready to go now (washed and dried), and hopefully later this afternoon I can start working on it. That will require sewing though, so here's hoping I don't botch it up.

Trazzle aw bless, at least he's on board with it now. Did you praise his ingenuity? lol

Crawling in to wave. Sorry I haven't posted for ages life has been manic! But I am determined to be back on top of things once school breaks up

Yes he won't do it if he doesn't think he thought it all up himself

Ha ha trazzles - always a good tactic! Nice to see you.

Finally on school holidays here. 6 weeks of freedom. Packing for holiday on Wednesday.

Managed a crisis clean of downstairs areas yesterday for ILs visit for DH's birthday so now time to crack on with washing, ironing, list making and packing.

And even managed a pamper mission last night (body butter, face mask and foot attention - trying a mn cider vinegar remedy for bloody verruca).

Have a good Sunday everyone!

Morning all

Not much flying planned for today (nothing new there!)

To do
Hang out laundry
Cook a 'proper' dinner
Go to Croft, move more soil!

BBL

Good morning ladies!
To do today:
Water the plants
Change the bedding (to be washed in the week, I refuse to have laundry round the house from friday onwards till sunday night). I am saving for a lakeland electric rack drier thingy, all my hope is in it!!!
Paint my toes :)
We have a picnic on the green this late afternoon, with all the neighbours from the street, it's a 'bring a plate and a bottle'- I am looking forward to that.

And that's about it, really.

Picnic sounds lovely and chilled kia

Ta da
washing up
wash on
finished dh birthday vlaai/cake
chatted to dm

next on the agenda
pop to supermarket for holiday bits (and dinner...seem to have let stocks run down a bit too much!)
Fold yesterday's wash and put away
start organising kitchen stuff for holiday
ironing

dh is trying to get all his personal packing and route /booking info stuff organised today as he's working the next 2 days and I am free (with a bonus child free day on Tuesday). Our city is heaving with massive international festival this week so hoping I don't have to head into town for any bits. DS desperately needs a hair cut but wondering whether to wait till after holiday. Lastvyear I gave him a rather unfortunate fringe right before our trip so would need to go to hairdresser's and it's so busy! They've turned the sports ground opposite into a campsite (do it every year) so our street has become a procession of caravans.

No plans to get much done today. I've got a dc with a hair trigger on meltdowns today. We've had 2 already, one of which was at DD's house, with nowhere for him to do his "calm down" so it escalated proportionately. Finally got him into the car, where he managed to calm down somewhat, and now he's up in his room for some self imposed quiet time. So I think just keeping things to a minimum today. Definitely not getting out the sewing machine, as the noise really stresses him out when he's like this. So my sewing will need to wait until tomorrow when he's at school.

Sorry you're not having an easy time today, Alice.

Am on a roll today. Managed to get a good night's sleep and, somehow, coming back to the house after a week away gives me the fresh perspective and energy I need to tackle the clutter. So, I have a 'ta da' list:

Breakfasts done
Quick shop at corner shop
D/W on
First load of laundry on
Washing up of excess dirty plates and saucepans by hand
Emptied one cupboard, threw away out-of-date packets, wiped down, replaced fresh packets
Wiped down all kitchen counters
Tidied up kitchen clutter
Put papers together to go through later
Second load of washing on
Discovered I could dismantle cooker hob to clean it (never realised that before )
Soaked cooker plate thingies
Cleaned cooker hob with microfibre cloth and degunging spray

Am just going to keep on going until I drop...

Morning all

Well, I should be doing stuff, but I just CBA. We went out for breakfast this morning to the supermarket (rock and roll, but we needed some basics so it made sense!) and it's a grotty, damp and humid day so I just have no motivation - DH is much the same, but has been roped into building lego with DS while I watch and MNet.

I'm currently looking at the house and feeling unmotivated in terms of decor - it's just so bland and crappy. I'd like to put "nice" stuff up, but I just don't seem to have any inbuilt taste; I have nice pictures but it's limited to one per wall IYSWIM and no "fun" stuff... Doesn't help that the living room is toy central; may have to rethink storage but then DS' room is lacking in storage too, so who knows! Think I'm just grouchy with the weather!

I found out after posting earlier that a friend's 7yo dc fell out of a first floor window last night and is currently in children's hospital awaiting a ct scan, so I will not do any complaining about my child having meltdowns. In the meantime, I will pray her dc recovers completely. (and before anyone asks how it happened, I don't know as obviously I haven't asked her - she is a very safety conscious mum, so I really can't even imagine)

Cba here either carpe

Have folded yesterday's wash and done ironing. Dh has been upstairs since 10, fuck knows what he's doing, but I've come to the end of my patience we ith ds. Managed to get him to sit still while I ironed by putting Planes on. Think I need some childfree time at the supermarket (my life is so glam!).

X post alice how awful. Sending strength and prayers to your friend's dc.

Engels thanks. I do know that the ground is cement under the window he fell out of, so he landed on cement. She's said he has a fractured skull, possibly fractured leg, and his wrist is bandaged and lots of bruising. They're doing a second ct scan to verify there are no bleeds on the brain at this point. Poor boy (and poor family, they're worried out of their minds)

Oh no Alice hope it's all clear and there is a fast recovery.

I've abandoned the living room and am currently clearing our bedroom; I know it's technically kitchen week still, but I'm going nuts with the crap that has accumulated. Actually the clothes and drawers are fine, it's the bits that migrate - contents of pockets and handbags and random bits of technology.

If I'm not back in the week, it was nice knowing y'all! (I may have been watching Nashville)