Time for a bonfire of the clutter? Perhaps not but Fledglings are flying high with the fireworks through November...

[BlueEyeshadow]

Huge thanks to SC (and Bitchy!) for leading the thread throughout October (and to SC for such a copy and paste-able OP)

If you are struggling 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 wine and cake 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 + 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!

Thanks Bitchy that's a good idea but we haven't quite decided on a decorating scheme yet. Plus her aunts/godparents have already bought her cushions/lights/rugs/throws/interesting hooks etc etc over the past couple of years.

The tween years are difficult aren't they?

Ds is actually really easy as he is saving up for something big so is pretty much just having money contributions. He has some books and a blanket (aka blanket gate) in addition so it is very easy

Hot bath and muscles can now physically move. So i guess it is on to exciting tasks like bi-carb bleaching the shower grout/silicon.

Dnephew is easy like that Bitchy saving up for a car, so always welcomes cash contributions. Think dd is going to have to settle for collection of clothes/crafty bits/stocking fillers. She's had big presents in previous years (such as bikes/in-line skates) and a very expensive party last year, plus room renovation next year (hopefully) and so I think that's fair enough!

Just got in from work and checking emails, including today's offering from Flylady, which has truly made me want to vomit, thought I'd share
Today's tweeness.

[Reaches for large sick bucket]

OMG why, just why did I click that link?!

Bleach treatment really did clean up the mold. Just the technique of the applier let it down a bit. It is truely something i did not believe until I saw it.

ta da
get reluctant child to school
sort out meeting with his teacher - she is brilliant!
Banking
clear the big boxed stuff out of lounge
bicarb and bleach the shower
work on blanketgate blanket 2
start clearing out car
deal with child
boil up some handwarmers
pair up plastic tubs with lids
Hang up ds' kit
Food shop

Still a lot of work on the lounge that is needed to be done.

Evening all,

Well, feeling a bit grumpy tonight, phonecalls to the council regarding the now overdue draft statement (or not) have proved fruitless. "Oh, they've gone on holiday, I'll get someone to ring you". If I went on holiday and allowed my work to miss statutory deadlines I'd be heading for the high jump. Anyway, on the basis that no news is good news I will wait till tomorrow and try again.

Tada!,

Yet another session on the OU essay and submitted it.
Work, school etc
A bit of tidying, bit of faffing around with DCs
Brownies trampolining
Bath and headlice check x 2, takes ages with DD's long tangly hair, mercifully none found.

CBA with any more work or Flying tonight, off to watch The Apprentice.

Bitchy - do please enlighten us as to the bicarb/bleach experiment.

SC - what about some nice luggage as you travel a reasonable amount, a decent suitcase and/or backpack? My DCs love having their own pull-along suitcases.

SC ds2 has that plane and still plays with it after 4 years.
They suddenly grow out of toys so treasure any impulse whilst you can!

Done
another mammoth day of playing with 10-12 year olds in the park, preceded by a Home Ed play session in an adventure playground. Slightly less fun for me today - (less of that starry eyed meeting new people feeling) but more fun for ds2 every time because he is meeting people he has met before in previous sessions and they are all being nice to him every time he meets them It is all sufficiently rumbustious that he fits in just about...
We also did LCM and HCF which took us a while to process brain whirrs and clicks so about an hour of Maths in the morning.

Then saw friend to celebrate dd's old friend's 13th ( a very nostalgic moment since I've known her since she was but a twinkle)

Then whisked off a Parent's Meeting. Ds2 is not doing very well on paper/teacher not concerned (I did hear her say to four other parents as we waited that their sons were not working hard enough - for some reason she didn't mention the L [azy] word to us; he was a bit dismal about it all (several D's) but luckily teacher pointed out that The Duke of E award meant he had missed several lessons at beginning of term which would have scuppered his GSCE assessment grades so he would catch up (eventually) I never thought I would hear myself say, well at least he's already reached C in GSCE English (the highest of his scores tbh); Spanish was E Another year and half to go.

Home to fishfingers and crackdown on Watching telly after 9pm - all children in bed asleep except for ds1 who is still on a screen which is exactly what I didn't want but for some reason in exchange for watching I'm A Celebrity dh let him on the dsi..[harrumph] Dh has gone to bed in complete exhaustion after 6.30am start.

One more load of washing still to do and hang out..Cannot face tidying anything though.

Good to hear that a tidy house is possible, WhoKnows! Er, thanks for the link…

SC hope you and DD are feeling better now. Books any good as Christmas presents?

Sounds like a productive day, Bitchy.

Hang in there, Engels - nearly there!

Sounds tiring, swan!

My ta da! list is a bit depressing today (and ties in with the theme of tomorrow’s babystep, although I don’t think the Fat Fairy can be trying to get a child dry at night. A load a day, pah!):
Do load of laundry
Realise it’s come out dirtier than it started
Clean washing machine
Rewash laundry
Do second load of laundry
Get two loads through the tumble drier
Put two loads of laundry away
Tackle ironing pile that’s been there for months
Coffee with friend
Work
Zumba
Clean up kitchen
Sweep up ground in plastecine and play dough

*
Babystep is a load of laundry a day.

Mission is cleaning bedside tables.
**

oh that was the other thing Ds1 was desperate to watch - The Apprentice WhoKnows

I'm sorry about the delay with the statement. So frustrating to have to chase them [How can a whole department go on holiday anyway? - there must be someone accountable?]- I would just keep ringing them until they get so bored of having to pass messages that they do something. Sometimes I think we are all too nice and too polite.

whoknows I actually got asked when i had found the time to replace the previously black grout/sealant. It is like 101% better. Still slight remenance in patches (eg behind sealant which does still need to be replaced) So much better than the chemical anti-fungal stuff that had been bought for the same purpose.

Swan - DS2 loves The Apprentice .

WhoKnows - thanks for sharing that particular gem of Flylady tweeness with us.

Took DS1 to the dietician today. He has managed to edge up from below the 1st centile to the 2nd. Phew. He's definitely eating more now. Am hoping he's going to have a growth spurt.

Am up at this silly hour because I've only just finished compiling DS2's latest project books in time for a visit from the LEA tomorrow (about home ed). I've been told that the woman who is coming is very nice, but I'm still apprehensive. I don't feel as if I have enough to show her for eight months' work.

DS2 spent most of today in the kitchen, cooking recipes from the Usborne book. He even made me lunch (baked tomatoes with egg). I told him he had to tidy up after himself and taught him how to use the dishwasher. Just when I thought (hoped) he'd finished, he decided to make a carrot cake from the BBC website. He did it entirely on his own, apart from me lining the tin for him and putting the cake in the oven and taking it out. He is very proud of the result. We are saving it so we can give the first slice to the home-ed woman with her cup of tea tomorrow morning.

Toffee - that's good news about DS!'s weight. I'm hoping my DS will have a growth spurt soon too, D is about to overtake him, he's been in the same size shoes for 2 years, the paediatrician wasn't worried when we saw her recently but he's desperate to grow a bit and get out of having to use a booster seat in the car. Hope the LEA visit goes well. I want to pick your brain about something, was it you that had a Minecraft party for DS2's birthday? DD wants one for hers in Jan and apart from letting them play it all afternoon I'm a bit out of ideas.

Whoknows if you dare venture onto Pinterest there are loads of ideas on there.

Good luck with the LEA visit toffee the weight gain much be such a relief to you.

Thanks Bitchy - I only tend to think of it as being for crafty things but of course there is so much more to it than that.

ta da
procrastinate. A lot
Drink coffee - not enough

Almost hitting critical mass of caffine intake. One more cup should push me over the edge into crazy busy mode. Which is rather needed today.

Hope you are all having productive stressless days

Good morning

Black day here at StewedCoot Towers. The ruddy hamster has died .

Bit worried about my animal husbandry because he should have lived at least another 6 months to a year... .

Discovered it last night but as dd was already feeling iffy about going back to school today (she's eating, has no temp, the only symptoms are sore thorat and tiredness, so couldn't justify keeping her off another day) we decided to keep it from her until after school tonight when I was hoping to present him to her snuggled up in a shoe box as if asleep, in fragrant hay. [If you are squeamish don't read the next bit .] Unfortunately, his eyes look so wierd and shrivelled that I think it's best we spare her a "viewing". So I've buried him at the back of the garden and fashioned a twiggy cross. Anyway, that's all I've done this morning, wield the Dettol/clean out his cage etc, dug shoe box size grave etc. RIP and all of that ... .

Toffee that is such good news about ds1's weight! You must be mightily relieved and hopefully, it might have a positive effect on his anxiety also. Great that ds2 is so adept in the kitchen too! And judging from your blog, you have nowt to worry about wrt LEA woman. The depth and variety of all your home edding projects are so impressive!

Whoknows that is so frustrating (and inefficient) about the statement. I am so sorry you are being put through the ringer like this. Not fair. And doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the system (even if you had any in the first place).

Top job with the grouting Bitchy! The thought of that sort of job makes me wilt nowadays!

Sorry about all the hard core laundering Blue but well done for ploughing on through.

Swan rumbustious sounds very good indeed!! And admire your energy for surviving parents evening after such an active day. Good that teacher not concerned and Duke of E awards very well worth doing. Also cracking down on bed-times/telly watching here too!

Thanks for all of the suggestions about dd's presents btw (no one say "replacement hamster"....)

Whoknows luggage is another good idea but I'm afraid, out of necessity, she is already well supplied.

Swan may indeed grasp last gasp of childhood and buy that Playmobil plane (she still plays with all the rest of her Playmobil after all)

Blue yes, think books will feature prominently as ever!

Right, need to get on with the big office declutter but urgent letter to bank, packing of parcels, laundry, and soup-making to be done too... but guess I don't need as much light to do those! Had better get on with it.

Big feathery waves to eveyrone I've missed!

castle if you happen to be lurking, hope you are now happily installed in your new home!

Have been mostly just lurking this month as work has been really busy and my housework efforts have involved just desperately trying to keep on top of the basics. But being busy in work means I have clocked up loads of flexi, so today I have used that flexi to take a day off to get back on top of things. Mainly motivated by the fact that I can't bear the idea of putting the Christmas decorations up next month with the house a mess!

My To Do list today :
Laundry x 5 loads (wash, dry, iron, put away)
Tidy whole house
Clean whole house, including the little niggly things like the black bits on the window frames
Sort last few Christmas presents
Finish DS2 and DD's Nativity costumes (Angel Gabriel and a Wise Man)
Bake some cakes for the school fair tomorrow

So far I have:
Tidied, dusted, cleaned windows, changed beds in DS1 + DS2's room
Tidied, dusted, cleaned windows, changed beds in DD's room
Cleaned bathroom
Cleaned downstairs loo
3rd load of washing in machine, 2nd in dryer
Bought a few presents online
Started tidying kitchen

Oh, and my Tesco delivery has just been. Which includes some stuff for Christmas (chocolates, selection boxes for DC, biscuits as a present for the staff room etc).

Am now going to have 5 minutes with a cuppa before getting back to it.

Actually SC it took me about 30mins to apply (at most) and then 10mins to wash off. Absolutely fuck all effort other than to mix up the paste and apply. No scrubbing nothing. It was sooooo much easier than anything else we have tried. I would recommend it!

At it is at this point that i realise I am getting old ffs excited over easy clean grout. What is my life coming to

How do you make this miraculous paste, Bitchy?

SC sorry to hear about hamster. We had one that lived 4 years and another that barely lasted 18 months, so I don't think animal husbandry skills are to blame. Hope books comment didn't come across as egg-sucking lessons.

Toffee hope LA visit goes/went well. Well done to your DS2 on all the cooking, and good about DS1's weight gain too.

So far today I've been trawling round various shops, so at least that's on track for errands day. Also trying to arrange getting the Dyson serviced cos it's making a funny noise and not picking up properly.

I'm going to try this on the grouting in the tiles behind our cooker, they are not mouldy but greasy and grubby and have remained impervious to every chemical I can think of, magic erasers, steam cleaners the lot.

dump a load of bicarb of soda into a tub, stir in some bleach (minimal). Only word of advice would be to ventilate well.

Took about two kitchen use sized tubs of bicarb to get the bottom of our shower done. But I applied it thickly, i suspect you could probably get away with thinner and slightly runnier than how I made it up as the thin layer on the tray worked a treat.