Fledglings polish their pumpkins and do their best, it's time for a Fling Boogie Octoberfest!

[Stewedcoot]

Heartfelt thanks to Engels (and Bitchy!) for leading the thread throughout September (Sept always being a busy one) despite feeling a bit poorly and despite being pregnant. Hope beneficial effects of injections kick in soon!

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.

Flylady link here.

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 something 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!

It's up to you, but 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):

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 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!

Three key points to keep in mind:
(1)No perfectionism allowed - this is harder than you would imagine
(2)You are never behind just start where you are and anything you do is progress.
(3) It didn't get into a mess overnight, it won't get tidy over night - accept it will take time to get on top of things and you will be happier.

If you are new; then trying to spend 15mins decluttering daily and doing the babysteps is a good way to start. Some of us (mentioning no names!) can have scary looking lists but don't let that worry you! Do what you can, anything is better then nothing, and don't judge yourself against others.

If all else fails, a brew + the power of three technique + a bit of support on here can work wonders!

Oh and don’t let it put you off if we appear a bit cliquey – some of us have been on here for years – but all lurkers, intermittent returnees, oldies and newcomers very, very welcome!

Evening all, usual Wednesday activities here.

Done
Beds
Packed lunches
Dd to school
Shopping
Laundry
Planted up pots for steps to house
Vacuum flat
Collected DD
Quick shopping trip to bet her BF a birthday card & present for tomorrow
Dinner
Woodcraft folk
Washing up & SS

Found you all!

Been procrastinating a lot the last week or so due to statement related stress and having a cold and going out with friends instead of tidying but have made some inroads. Re Marie Kondo, I still haven't finished the book and the handbag thing is bonkers, sticking with Flylady's once a week for that. I have done vertical folding of the DCs tee shirt drawer and mastered the 2 second folding of tee shirts (not MK but on youtube) which gets them the right shape.

I need a list for tomo:
Pick up note book
laundry
folding
ironing
put clothes away
book ds a doc appointment
Make ds' lunch, pe kit and herd to school
type up whole heap of notes.
test admin of website
sort out plans for fri-sun
update calendars to oct

There will be more, oh so much more. but can't think of it right now. Not sure what the best plan is but hey ho, that will do. Now to go put swimming kit, training kit and school uniform in the dryer and see if sleep can happen.

Sc dd is only going up to middle school, but it still seems a big step

When I got home yesterday ds had come off his bike and had an egg on his head so nursing him meant the shoe cupboard remained untouched - I will try again tonight.

I have the usual morning bits to do and I would like to get downstairs hoovered and yesterday's ironing put away.

Have a good day everybody. Only one more get up until the weekend

Good morning my lovelies; sorry not to get back on here last night; very unusually was out for the second night running (not socialising, just another boring meeting )

Here's the links for today and will BBL to catch up!

**
***

Baby-step no. 2 for Thurs 2nd Oct is getting dressed to shoes and applying a bit of slap immediately one's feet hit the floor.

(Newcomers, the theory surrounding controversial baby-step no. 2 is here) scroll down!

Today we are in Zone 1: Entrance, Front Porch & Dining Room here. Declutter for 15 mins in this zone.

And btw, if you want to know more about zone-cleaning, I forgot to include the explanatory link yesterday here!

Today's mission is here! Spend 15 mins grabbing things that don't belong in Zone 1 and putting them away!

The daily focus for Thursday is errand day!

The monthly habit for October is getting rid of paper clutter.

And for a summary of the above, see the daily flight plan!

Have a good 'un everyone!

*

I'm just going to keep repeating to myself "I will be good today, I will be good today...."

Yesterday I was all ready to bake cookies, bread, and do some cleaning. And my friend asked forced me to go shopping with her all day instead. LOADS of fun and I actually got some incredible deals on a few Christmas presents which are now safely hidden away in my Christmas cupboard (that the dcs don't know about).

So... I will be good today, I will be good today...

Alice - spending a day with a friend instead of Flying sounds like a very good judgement call . Glad you had fun.

SC - thanks for the links. I like the 'applying a bit of slap' step . Sadly for me (and my family) I am still slapless this morning, but the situation will be remedied once I've had my morning tea.

I do quite like hearing everyone rushing off to work and school whilst I sit here with a cuppa.

Have fallen off the Flying bandwagon this week, thanks to a mild virus/cold, so need to clamber back on it again. Started by making myself put the washing on first thing. Then looked at the full dishwasher - and decided to do that after breakfast.

It's the heart-sinking repetition of it all that gets me. There was a day last week when the house looked tidy, but as nobody else keeps it that way it didn't last long .

Power of three:

Get dressed and apply slap
Unload and reload d/w
Take DS2 out to practise his cycling

It's funny how you read on here about what is bothering someone else and you realise that what is bothering YOU is something different (if clutter can be differentiated Cheers me up somewhat.

So this morning what is bothering me is the pile of washing that I cannot be bothered to put away and has all the underpants at the bottom which we couldn't find this morning DH has unloaded dw thank goodness.

Yesterday I had a technological crisis over joining a Yahoo group (which I couldn't somehow manage due to identity confusion) but today I have solved it! Yay! Dh told me to put all my passwords in one WORD folder on computer. I may yet try that...no doubt I will forget where they are filed though

Two kids in school,
we are booked to go to Vienna this weekend (ds2 and I) which is slightly stressing me out but I won't go into that. We bought guidebooks and yesterday we did a Klimpt texture thingy..

This morning, another beautiful day [sigh] why do I live in London where every walk needs some forward planning??
PLAN
handwriting
social communication lesson
reading book
History (tudors)

Morning all

Sneaking on at work with a quick list to organise my mind for the day.

To do
Tidy decluttered clothes into bags for recycling and put in car
Tidy our bedroom
Lots of paid work
Finish finances
Buy dad' birthday present
activate new bank card
Review governors meeting minutes and send to head )am now unexpectedly Chair of Governors at our school
General tidy round
clean suede boots

Morning, lovely sunny day which has got me all revitalised.

Done
Dd to school
Post Office
2 loads laundry hung out
(Actually got cat to go outside, now he won't come back in and I want to head out)

To do
Finish eating muffin
Go to croft, prepare beds and plant garlic and red onions.
Collect DD
Dinner
Ironing

BBL

Toffee - YY to the heart sinking repetition of it, my two particular bugbears are cleaning the loo and the laundry, specifically the putting away of clean laundry. Oh and the DCs bedroom floor.

On the plus side, DH, while he is not getting involved with the statementing stuff at all, and doesn't really understand it TBH, is showing his support by doing more housework, we definitely don't niggle away at each other about it as much as we used to, I think when I had an operation a couple of years ago and he had to step up it was a bit of an eye-opener for him. But we still can't get past the habit of just leaving stuff out all the time which he and the DCs are very prone to.

My other revelation following the Marie Kondo thread is that you can have too much storage. I have gradually added more and more storage boxes, magazine racks etc to our house over the years with the end result that the place looks cluttered even though the actual stuff is out of sight, so I am working on eliminating them again together with their contents.

toffee Noooooo do not put your passwords in a file on your computer. You will have a major issue if anyone ever manages to hack into it. You are better to have a notebook/list.

whoknows yep yep to too much furniture making the place look cluttered. It is definitely a problem here.

Ds is off school. not well enough for school, not really ill enough to not be at school. He makes a dreadful patient. GP agreed with me that he needs checking out properly relieved not to be thought of as a fussy mother worrying over nothing so he now finally has a doc appointment next week. Hopefully we can get to the bottom of what is going on.

alice think of the shopping as a pamper mission. That way you are still doing important flying

Right power of three is going to go on here too.

Bitchy - it's not me, it's Swan who confessed to doing that. But I did experience a moment of utter confusion when I read that because I do the same thing and couldn't work out how on earth you knew that.

The trouble with keeping a list of passwords in a notebook is that I will undoubtedly lose the notebook. And I don't keep bank passwords on Word, only passwords to things like ConquerMaths, which aren't going to get me into much trouble.

Sympathies on the clutter issues. Our hall is a travesty at the moment: one child's bike, various shoes, coats, bags... And as it's a really, really narrow hallway, the clutter makes it look like a junkyard.

Felt really quite cross at MIL yesterday when she said how lovely and 'cosy' our tiny sitting room is. Not effing cosy, just too bloody small, I wanted to say back. We are all squashed into this tiny, tiny house and it's maddening. But we are lucky to have a house at all, I know, so I try to be grateful for what we've got.

Have ticked off my power of three. Next:

Maths
Titanic studies
Lunch

Sympathies Toffee, we are in a similar boat (Coronation Street style Victorian terrace with 12' square living room and narrow hall). WeE get described as cosy too, but in reality it's cramped and very hard to accommodate guests.

Sorry toffee i clearly wasn't awake this morning.

Ds has settled down a bit, cooked himself lunch and is just generally chilling out a bit. My suspicions seem to be heading to the point where ds is proving them. And ds is beginning to see this too.

ta da
ring doc/book appointment
deal with stressy ds
deal with hoarder mother
supervise ds cooking his lunch
look into furniture rearrangements

Drink coffee. too much coffee. This is not a good thing. Roll on Saturday, no coffee, no stress a complete and utter pj day for me. Can't wait.

No problem, Bitchy - I just had a moment of utter confusion. Thought you were all-knowing for a moment there . Sorry your DS isn't well. Hope you can get an answer from the GP.

WhoKnows - it's infuriating, isn't it? Ours is a narrow Victorian terraced house too. It's simply too small to comfortably accommodate us all, but there's nothing we can do about that unless we move a very long way away, which isn't feasible, especially since DS1 will probably be going to a specialist school ten minutes away (although that still feels very unreal at the moment).

Swan - I have just noticed that you are taking DS2 to Vienna this weekend. That is a home-school trip and a half! Makes my trip to Southampton with DS2 last week (to see the Titanic exhibition) look very small in comparison!

to do

English with DS2 (writing postcards from passengers on Titanic)
House bleugh
Take kittens to vet to have claws clipped (fed up with getting scratched)

Hi everyone

Just checking in. Absolutely glorious weather here for October! Should be going for walks and taking full advantage but like Swan feel fed up of always having to negotiate traffic. Even my dh who is glued to his car has started walking dd to school in the morning when he is here, as the traffic is just ridiculous. What I would do for a country cottage with a gate at the bottom of the garden that opens straight on to fields or a bridleway [ahhhh]... .

Must be lovely at the croft today Goth! and congrats on a v. productive day yesterday.

Toffee and Whoknows sympathies over space issues. I've shared tiny flats and it's no joke and must be even more difficult with growing kinder.

We have the opposite problem but [fervent] believe me a large house ain't always what it is cracked up to be. It can have it's advantages but if it's any consolation, in general, ours is expensive to run, too expensive to renovate (except to turn it in to money-making venture), dark, cold, depressing, impractical, and, atm, thoroughly overwhelming ... .

So here's to the collective dream of living in a mid-sized house that is 'just right'!!

Toffee >"It's the heart-sinking repetition of it all that gets me" it's getting to me this week too!

Whoknows good to hear that your dh is keeping up the good efforts though! More power to your elbow with the ongoing statementing.

Hope the doc can help your ds Bitchy and get to the bottom of it

Pushme good luck with your list and congrats on becoming Chair of Governors on top of demanding job which must take some organising!

Wrt folding thing - wierdly, most of my clothes drawers are absolutely immaculate because I have a bit of 'thing' about it - everything folded in lovely piles etc - it's the chaos all around on the outside and all the stuff that doesn't make it in to drawers that is the problem !!

Vienna trip sounds wonderful Swan! Hope you and ds2 have a fab time!

Good that you had some fun yesterday Alice! We all need time out from time to time!

Ouch Mercury I hope your dd is OK! And yes it is when the time passes so quickly!

Got you Gladhoc and love the sound of your sparkly shoes!!

Blue fervent clutter sympathies - exactly the same here - hang in there!

Top marks for a very productive day yesterday Engels and all that lesson planning!

Great to see you back Dizzy and good luck with sewing deadline! Hope your dd enjoyed her party!

I didn't do any Flying at all yesterday other than usual routines. Spent morning doing volunteering (slot has moved to Wed mornings) and after picking up dd from cooking class (tuna pasta bake this week!) spent afternoon supervising hwk, helping with school project and trying on costume etc, more preventative nit-combing, cooking yet more pasta and attending volunteering meeting.

Today I have been making my way through the washing pile. Normally feel quite energised at this time of the year .. new term... lovely autumnal weather ....getting back to routines etc etc but atm I simply CBA!!!

Sorry, forgot to send big waves to Sootball Feetheart Vivacia Honu Coffeeandcream Nicknacks and everyone else!

Omigod, there IS a bottom to the laundry basket. I was beginning to wonder.

I have found it. I ought to take a picture of it, as I doubt I'll see it again any time soon.

No, Alice, I swear there is no bottom to any laundry basket. I think yours has a fault.

Thanks SC - I'm ridiculously excited about them

Alice, I do not believe you - or you must have a special one, no sort of bottom to be found here...

Ta da

Sink
Swish and swipe
Washing up
2 loads washed and dried
Enormous amount of research into cheese (now hungry)

To do

Put washing away
Get ready to go out without faffing...

See, Toffee says so too so it must be true

I occassionally find the bottom of my laundry basket. But it is a shy illusive creature that needs to be tempted out with a bit of brute force and ignorance. Currently working on finding both the bottom of the laundry basket, the mending basket and the ironing basket. One might exist but all three? that is pure legend. No?

I am thinking that it is a challenge worthy of a greek hero

Sadly, I think it must have been an illusion. Two dcs, two showers, and another load has gone in the washer, and there is a white towel and two white polo shirts waiting in it now for the next white wash. Apparently I haven't offered up enough to the great god of laundry.