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!

Good afternoon everyone.

Welcome chottie I am also clueless about TATT but I am tired after yesterdays Halloween fun so my brain may not be fully engaged.

So far today I have been catching up on the school work I should have been doing during half term. I am getting there but it is a slow process.

I have also made the most of the unseasonable warm weather by getting two washloads out on the line and walking the dog to blow some cobwebs away.

I am not feeling excited about Christmas yet either SC

I think TATT is Tired All The Time.
Hi Chottie I'm just starting out. Will you be following Fly Lady to the letter?
I decided to buy myself some slippers. I think it will help me feel more 'dressed' (plus my kitchen floor is freeeeezing come Winter) but I just can't bear the thought of wearing actual shoes around the house.

Mercury last year I treated myself to a pair of White Company bootiess (I used a code to reduce the price) and they have been so cosy and warm. I wash them in the machine and leave them overnight in the airing cupboard to dry.

Hi terry no I don't think I will be following FlyLady to the letter. I like the shiny sinks and also decluttering by groups such as shoes, handbags, scarves, books etc.

Evening all!

Hi to TerryDolittle, Chottie and Itmustbealime - welcome to the thread.

Alice you do sound quite unreasonably organised!

ellie - Sorry to hear about your friend.

DH has now joined us at my parents' and tomorrow we're heading home and back to normality.

Will try to start round-ups tomorrow once we're home but for now here are the links...

Babystep 2 is the controversial dressing to shoes. See previous discussion!

No missions at the weekend. Sunday is renew your spirit day

Arrrgh, only just joined thread and it's already at 56 posts and links for Day 2 slacker

SC for last month and for Blue for November. Am I still doing December and if so, would you like the Christmas Flying links too?

Done
Beds
Laundry
Library
Refuse & recycling out
Laundry hung out!
4 hours at Art Village leading children's craft session, (much busier this week) We made jam jar lanterns as there is a parade tomorrow night.
Shopping
Fetch in laundry
Dinner
Washing up & SS
Put bargain Halloween lights into vase, so all I need now is some twiggy stuff!

Will now catch up on thread.

Welcome back Ellie so sorry to hear about your friend.

I'm not googling TATM now is it like dragon butter?

Today has been hard work. Lots of fun but the festival theme was not published and had I know we would not have gone. Ds is in aspie meltdown and threw a fit in primark when he discovered adult onsies don't have feet and that he is now pretty much an adult size. My temper and nerves are fractious. On a plus note he is stocked with enough clothes to last us to december ish time by which point he will have grown again, and will need new clothes, but it didn't cost a fortune.

I am not googling anything. I am too fucking tired.

I should do stuff tonight. CBA. Goodness knows what will actually get done tomo but shit loads needs doing. I might post a list later if I can't sleep but I think a very early night might be called for. Tomo might be renew your spirit day but I suspect in this house it will be back to school homework finishing off hell kinda day.

I have forest green skirting boards, looked fabulous with a creamy kinda wall colour. Bastard to get rid of though. But didn't look old and tired as quickly as white skirting can do

ta da
Met DSD to get her new bus pass
Started finding out about making covers for chairs
Took stuff to the tip
Washed last of work clothes
Put my clean clothes away
Decluttered bathroom sink

to do
Somehow manage to do proper menu planning (didn't get done yesterday!)
Adjust Tesco order
Shine bathroom sink
Pile DCs' clean clothes ready to put away
Hang wet clothes

KNACKERED

I am back. There was far too much going on last month and everything went to pot but things can't continue like that so I am determined to get a grip on everything before then end of the year!

We had BIL, SIL and 3 nephew/nieces here last week so I had to surface blitz the house before their arrival. Yesterday was spent in a flurry of pumpkin carving and costume making for me whilst DH blew the harddrive on the laptop so all my "stuff" is gone as DH only ever backes up his own!

Today's Ta Da

• wash load in and hung to dry
• emptied dishwasher
• visited an old friend to collect her DDs old clothes I have to turn into a memory quilt
• de-halloweened the house
• pizza, popcorn and DVD night with DD (DH out)

Evening all, feathery waves to newbies Lime, Terry and Chottie

Warning to you all, I'm on the and this is my third attempt to write a post!!!

Ta da
Wash load on and hung up to dry
Dishwasher
Emptied all bins
Bed made
DS's bed sheets changed
DS bathed
Cat litter boxes done
Mopped up small lake of cat pee all over my entrance hall - sodding cat has shite aim
Went to town to a book signing by DH's favourite author - so that's his present sorted for Xmas

We've got Christmas present planning and buying well underway and I have most of my cards bought. So feeling ok about Christmas for now.

Laters

Thank you for all the welcomes.

Bitchy forest green skirting with cream walls actually sounds lovely. I had a deep red radiator once and however hard I tried with removing/painting over the red, it just ended up a sickly pink colour. (sick face)

I've spent much of my day picking up sweet wrappers all over the house from Halloween goodies. Really must get these kids on board with tidying up after themselves!

Just a quick post as I'm shattered and crawling in to bed. Welcome to all the newbies.

Almost had a bad mum moment today. Dd had a birthday party to go to and I only remembered 40 minutes before it was due to start! I had to call her in from playing out, get her changed, make myself presentable, dash to the shop to buy a present and card and then drive across town - we just made it. I must get in the habit of checking the calender in the morning.

We also went to watch a fireworks display with our neighbours which was great. My spirits are renewed but as usual I haven't done nearly enough flying. Oh well it will all still be there in the morning

Hello I've been dipping in & out and reading posts for a couple of months but outing myself - was enjoying being a more active member of this forum months ago and need that kick again!

Not much flying done recently!

Woohoo finished my to do list! Meal plan is pretty solid for the first half of the week and then have frozen stuff (as in frozen veg etc) and bulk cooked stuff - the key difference is that tomorrow we will be cooking up some stuff like bolognese and soup. We still have a way to go but sooo tired right now. We never seem to manage this stuff properly!

Today we had a second wave of Halloween costumes, as they had an "event" at ds2's Drama. I am so impressed by the variety of witches and goblins..in our day witches wore just black, not silvery grey lace with pink ribbons or green embroidered taffeta..
toffee sounds a bit like our road then! Luckily the teenagers were few and far between. I did enjoy it though (having made hardly any effort) the children look so sweet and are so excited to be trapsing around in costumes (the neighbouring children I mean rather than my own) So seldom do neighbours come round uninvited that it feels rather a treat. If only I could recognise them over the next few days..as they are essentially disguised.

done
dd's friend was here till 12 noon and I gave her mum a cup of tea when she came to pick her up
I managed to properly tidy the kitchen and playroom as I had a clear run first thing (ds2 at drama and teenagers asleep)
Decluttered drawer in the hall, two bags of rubbish including playroom
food compost in bucket
rubbish out
tidied bookshelves
put all the stamps in one place
all the stationery in one place
all the paperwork to be dealt with in one place
all child related SEN professional stuff in one place
cleared up Halloween stuff, carried it upstairs to put back in the loft
sorted laundry into clean piles, put in children's rooms
dd did science project
ds1 did some more homework
ds2 was very tiresome but he was out of the house for three hours at drama at least (possibly too much fun as he came back loud and screechy)

reheated food for supper

Tried to get ds2 to do a big jigsaw, in the end dh and I were hooked..I'm still doing it ds2 not interested (he used to love them)

Watched Dr Who in clean tidy playroom

Dh still working hard after business trip tying up loose ends, so not in a very good mood but cooked and bought a lovely breakfast for dd and her friend (croissants/bacon etc) and chatted to boys over course of day. ds2 is so loud he is giving dh and I a headache. We tried to work on his interrupting by using a phrase "Mind The Gap" but all that happened was a torrent of some Gangman style mashup. So that was a mistake. Need a better phrase that does not summon forth theatricality.

Hi all

Just jumping in to mark my place so I can come back later to post properly! I had a dream about shiny sink last night and took it as a sign!

Will come back tonight once the kids are tucked up to read through and post properly.

Seriously needing a good clean and declutter before Christmas - the state of my house is currently making me feel ill!!!

Morning all! Newbie here, just start down with a cuppa and this popped up in Active Convos. Quick scan through (ok, I will RTFT later) and this looks like just the thing for me.. No least because, pure coincidence, my sink is currently enjoying (?) a bleaching and the rest of the house is bugging...

Off to find out more about the Grand Plan. See you soon!

Good morning, good morning.

A wonderful lie in this morning. Am just about to pour my sorry self out of bed and into the shower in the vain hope it might liven me up a bit. I have done a deal with ds that involves swapping minecraft video access for completed homework. But it can with a reminder that if he thinks my standards are high for homework than his teachers are much higher.

Lounge still has a seriously in progress look so need to kinda get that dealt with. Plus there is all the back to school stuff. Then there is the gotta get this done urgently paperwork kinda stuff. People gotta eat and this needs creating and kitchen discovering afterwards. It starts to look kinda daunting.

But i was thinking, at the start of the year i set myself 2 flying targets. To get rid of everything that was just being stored but needed sorted, and to cull off unfinished projects. I am not going to achieve either by the end of the year, BUT the progress on stored stuff is huge (think 4 rooms hoarder style reduced to 2x 1/2 rooms) and wool stock that had been sitting there for too long with no purpose intend has been cleared. As much as I am not happy with the result as I want it all gone and done and I am a perfectionist I do have to admit that there has been some significant progress particularly in view of various health issues. So i can do it. just need to stop thinking about it and do it...

Morning daydream, watchingout and Bitchy. I've left some strong coffee on the bar....

Bitchy, I like your idea about having flying goals, but like you, I think I'd be in danger of making huge practically unachievable goals. I would really like to make either the dining room or the spare room a usable, pleasant place to be, not a bombsite/dumping ground.

Not planning on doing a huge amount this morning:
Make beds
Unload dishwasher
Complete nursery paperwork
Online shop
Two loads of laundry

Off for more coffee....

done

Changed bed
vacuumed and dusted bedroom
ironing
shopping
mixed two Christmas puddings (now just sitting overnight before boiling)
exercise class
made some cakes

DP is cooking tonight, so I'm planning on doing some knitting :)

ta da
Dressed but not to shoes!
DD homework/spellings
Unpacked shopping properly with DH
Two washes
Finished family craft project

to do
Hang wet washing
Get DCs to put their clothes away
Bulk cooking (aaaargh - but really must do it or my week will be hell)
Quick tidy in bedroom

Evening all. Quiet day here today. DC's at stbxh's last night and tonight. Still find it a bit odd without them. Have pottered around, caught up on some tv, done some school work. I think i might need a hobby ( not crocheting before you say it bitchy .) Any bright ideas?

Welcome to all those joining.

I will be back later with a list. But need to issue a warning to the newbies
DO NOT read it, do not get overwhelmed by it, do not be impressed by it and do not try to copy it. It is not the fly lady way, it is not a good thing. It means that 1. I have drunk too much coffee and will not sleep. 2. I have having a bit of a massive burnout and 3. I will not be able to function for the rest of the week and thus not even maintenance stuff will be done ergo the house will fall apart.