Bitchy takes on the January Fledgling Thread. Buckle in and enjoy the ride...

[BitchyTakesOnManagement]

Ok. Welcome to the January Fledglings thread. Before we get started we have Some important notices

1. The fledglings are a long running thread, We are might seem clicky but that is what happens when some of us have been on the same thread for up to 5 years
2. We are rather partial to new blood Pull up a seat in the naughty corner
3. Don't assume you can march in and impose your way. We follow the fly lady way and we adapt it to suit our lives and needs. You are welcome to come join us for support and chat, don't assume you know best.
4. There is more to us than cleaning. If you want to be obsessive about cleaning you will find us and and our interpretation of fly lady frustrating. You might be happier else where.

Right, as harsh as it might seem, it is important to get that out of the way as we expect this January thread to be busier with newbies and there has been problems in the past.

So the fly lady system there are rules and we have adaptations.

1. NO perfectionism!!!
2. Something is better than nothing and sometimes good enough really is good enough.

3.This is not about the housework, it is about having more time to do fun stuff. Don't ever feel guilty about doing stuff with the kids over doing the housework. The kids are more important.

And the practical adaptations. We have discussed the Marie Kondo book and the approaches within on previous threads. We are all agree two things: the author does not have kids and that the principles are very good for decluttering and that they can be used to in conjunction with the fly lady system (Marie Kondo to get in control, and fly lady to stay in control). As for the fly lady system there are some of the babysteps and things that are advised that are either "huh, why?" or just don't fit in with the household. We advise a pinch of salt and discretion with a dash of reality thrown in. E.g. if you are a no shoes household then clearly the wearing shoes in the house part of babystep 2 is going to make you go This is where adaptations come in and if past threads are to be gone on this will be discussed and there are various takes on it as and when they arise.

Also for the over enthusiastic newbies to the fly lady site and system everything you need will be posted here in the form of links. There are 3 levels:
Newbie: babysteps - get into these habbit
student: Missions and babysteps once the habits are habit the missions are a piece of cake.
Expert: deep cleaning, missions and babysteps - forget this if you have clutter, seriously.
Oh and for the love of all sanity do not subscribe to the email alerts. Seriously. Just don't.

Jump on board, buckle in and lets kick the butt of January.
Bitchy special brew on the naughty corner bar, natch
do we warn the newbies about the special brew or let them find out for themselves?

There might be a reason I am rather glad the early night babystep is not until day no 17 gotta love insomnia Hope you finally got some peace Goth

Happy New Year to everyone and many thanks to all who run this thread - I may not post much but I lurk heavily (that doesn't sound like the right adverb but can't think of a better one atm)

I'm still around and am OK, DH rather less well. House public areas quite reasonable, those not seen by anyone else a lot less so. Started kondoing which is the only way I have managed to declutter anything at all, but the vast amount of what she politely calls 'komono' and I acknowledge as 'stuff that is not rubbish but is taking up too much real estate' is proving very hard to shift.

Thanks bitchy!

Love the 'my standards are much higher than my housework ethic' knackered - this is me too

The house is a state, but instead of being overwhelmed as to where to start I'm just going to shine sink for now (including quite a lot of washing up!)

Good morning all! Lovely to see familiar names- lots of you!!

We're off out today for a New Year's Day family lunch. Lovely you might think- and it will be because I get to see nice family, gorgeous niece, mess up someone else's house instead mine etc etc. Only issue I have is the host didn't have is all for Christmas day/boxing day and so is doing a full Turkey with all the trimmings malarkey. Why?? I was really looking forward to something different.

It's just me and dd up so far. Need to be out of the house in 2.5hrs and one New Year's resolution is to never go out leaving a mess behind so I'd better get cracking.

Sorry bitchy and goth you didn't sleep very well. Have a restful day of you can. Be back later!

Happy New Year fledglings!
Nt sure how much I'll be on. The parents are visiting from the UKatm and if baby doesn't make an appearance in the next week I'll be induced.

The house will wait until February here.

Hi, can I join in? My MN name says it all. I did FlyLady years ago but failed to keep it up. I keep trying (and failing) to sort myself out. But I'm just going to keep on trying!

My particular challenge atm is that I am doing my dissertation for an MSc and feel incredibly under pressure to just get on with that and not make time for anything else as time is very short. But I am hoping to get an extension for completing it and I really cannot keep on ignoring the housework for another 6 months!

I'm going to get up now and clean my sink (can't shine it as it is one of those awful white ones) and then try and sort my desk out a little!

Enjoy the lunch nicknacks, not sure I'd fancy a full turkey dinner either - but on the bright side you don't have to cook/do the cleaning up afterwards

Ta da
Cleaned out kittens bowl
Fed kittens
Cleaned out fish bowl
Fed fish
Cleaned out kittens litter tray
Fed dd
Been all round house searching for washing up
All washing up done
All dried (hate drying up)
All put away and sink shined

I am done for the day though now even though house still a state (we only got back from spending Christmas with family on Saturday and then dd was sick Saturday night, then I was sick Sunday then back to work Monday and then sick again on Tuesday so things have slipped a bit round here) Dd is with her dad at the weekend so can get sorted then and would rather spend today and tomorrow with her doing more fun things. We are therefore going to the cinema and Pizza Hut

Hope everyone else has a nice day!

Hello,

New here. I'm going to give this try but I do admit to feeling scared.
My house is very small and we're renovating it too so I find it difficult to look at all these snappy steps without needing to run for a cuppa.

I also know that to sort out my stuff I'm going to have to make a bigger mess to start with.

I have looked at Fly Lady in the past and enjoyed singing along - though I've never got into my shoes and I was happy to read that here I'm not expected to.

So, I'm feeling a little at a loss as to where to start now. Shine my sink perhaps? [ Have to go look at the links me-thinks ...]

Oh, yes. Before I go do that, can I just check that the regulars won't shout at me if I don't do as they think I should ?

I'm looking forward to being part of the club but I'm worried about that part ...

Happy NewYear to All

Happy New Year all
Count me in please

Morning all,

Hello Newbies, you won't get shouted at if you don't follow the 'rules' Saymwa the good thing about this thread is that we pick and choose which rules we follow, we may say which ones we think are great/crap but we all do what works for us. We've had people come in going "oh I do it this way" which is great for them, but we muddle along our own way and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Real Life has a habit of throwing spanners in the works.

If you have a bad day, we have a virtual naughty corner with comfy sofas, beanbags, hammocks and a bar and and lots of cake Remember the Fat Fairy says it takes years to make a mess, you won't fix it overnight. And you are never behind.

I think I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. But I must start resetting my body clock for when DD is back at school on Monday.

To do
Put dry laundry away
Lunch
Prep and freeze the bag of carrots I bought yesterday
Start attacking Mt Washmore
Sew in peskies on finished blanket
Watch Batman tonight

Feathery waves to you all, so many new fledglings! I'm going to be hopeless at remembering names

Ta da
Cats fed, guests fed
Guests waved off (I have my house back! Yay!)
Dishwasher unloaded, reloaded, turned on
All pots and baking trays washed up
All beds made
All glass recycling gathered up ready to take to bottle bank.

The best things I have learnt from flylady (aka The Fat Fairy) are:
Do a load of washing every day,
Get your clothes and your DCs clothes ready the night before.
Use your 15 minute timer to tackle clutter (there is a baby step about this coming up soon)

But best of all is all the chat!

Samya Goth is very right, we might advise as to the logic behind some of the babysteps (the shoes one tomo will get an explanation) but we are aware that life is not perfect and different things work for others.

*Goth glad you got to sleep right away. I saw in 7am. had about 4hrs so feeling rough but will grab an early night tonight.

Sink is empty as someone washed up after the celebrations last night and it wasn't me or ds. I might see about getting bleach put in it whilst we blow throw and refresh the air of the house.

I have a list, ds has a list. These are very different views of what should happen today I think the actual day might happen somewhere in the middle. So far he has watched Back to the future 3 and I have watched Bugsy Malone. Homework is now the issue and target. Can anyone say "but mum that's booooooooooooring"

Is there coffee? I might be a tiny bit hungover

At MIL's atm but home later and will do my 15 mins decluttering in the hall/stairs but that will be about all!

Goth, Grey and Bitchy,

Thanks for the help and I'm so happy to find out that the naughty corner has cake - even a bar ! Plus I'm happy and feel reassured now that I'm not going to get shouted at if I don't follow the rules precisely.

Having said that I'm wondering if I should go to the naughty corner now. I decided to do the washing up before shining the sink . It's still my aim to shine this sink after washing up though.

I am going to ask for suggestions about how to deal with a big stumbling block which can come up for me. If I believe that I am doing more housework than my DH I feel angry, stop and do something nice for myself. The thing is that this pattern has been repeated so many times without my DH doing any more tidying or cleaning that things have just mounted up !

Just before Christmas I got really mad with my DH. I now have his agreement ( in theory ) that he will participate more in housework.

Today he's busy doing jobs outside. He did the cooking last night and is mending the car right now and it's really cold. Today I feel ok about us both doing our share but I'm aware that the pattern I described earlier is likely to return.

How do others deal with this type of situation ?

Sending flowers to say thanks for the welcome.

Thank you for setting up the new thread, Bitchy. And for getting us through last month, Goth.

Happy New Year to you all .

Had a busy, sociable evening yesterday, so we are taking it easy today. We left the house in a right mess when we went to bed, but DH did all the tidying up and washing up when he woke up this morning. What a lovely start to the year .

We seem to have an awful lot of bottles to go into the recycling bag .

Off to get dressed now (yes, have been that lazy so far).

How do you sink the sink without clearing out the washing up first? [Baffled] Get they arse out of the naughty corner Saymwa I think what you have struggled with is problematic for a lot of people. But the Fly lady system has this under control. There are the pamper missions. These are things that you do that are for you only! ie something nice. I will look out and see if the site has settled down after last night and is showing the correct things for the correct day and try to find some for you to look at. It is implicitly built into the system, doing nice things for yourself. Every sunday at the bare minimum. Hopefully that will help and if you get the magical solution as how to break the dh thing, you might make yourself a few millions.

Hello and Happy New Year to fledglings old and new :)
I need to get back on board. I think today may mark the beginning of my 5th year on the thread, the house is nowhere near perfect (sorry newbies!) but I do know what works and what I need to do, I just need to actually do it for a prolonged period

Started the New Year with a parkrun so now need a shower then a collapse on the sofa in front of a film or two :) I will try and shine the sink and sweep the mud off the hall floor but that may be it for today - babysteps and all that.

Thanks to Bitchy for taking on the madness that can be January, it's going to be fun :o

Afternoon everyone, it feels like forever since I was last on here-life just took over! But new year and new resolutions! So, feeling brave I tackled the kids rooms today..

Ta das

Cleaned and organised DS's room
gave DD one of ds's chests of drawers
Sorted all kids clothes and got rid of those too small
Unpacked suitcases
Washing and drying
Hoovered house

to dos

Get rid of bags of clothes
Put storage chest in conservatory and reoganise craft stuff
Sort brio out
Put games in chest
Make nice dinner
Collapse on sofa

Happy to know that I was on the right track doing the washing up before shining the sink. Have done both now
Not managed to sink the sink yet though Bitchy.
Do I have to go in the naughty corner again ? I've eaten much Christmas cake this afternoon !

Happy New Year everyone.

I'm joining for the first time. Sink is shined and I've put one load of washing away and another one in the machine. Now I'm relaxing!

Ta das ( like the sound of that Three )
Washing Up - done
Sink - shone
cooker top- cleaned
Microwave - cleaned

To do
A Washing and drying load
Vacuum
Plan evening meal using festive leftovers
Begin early retirement plans ( = start manual on how get hs to do housework - and so by earn millions)
Some ironing

Looking forward to reading the me-time ideas . Hoping that there are more available than just on Sundays

Parking up my mop for the new month and the start of the new year!
Thanks Goth for last month and Bitchy for the coming month!

Welcome to all the newcomers!

I've rebooted laundry a few times today. Catching up on the moving house and pre-washing baby things mountain!

To Do:
Baby step .
Repack my hospital bags .
Dinner, wash up etc
A very little ironing.
Feet up, make some new year phone calls .

Occasional lurker here. I've looked through the site back in the past, and have long since unsubscribed from the emails.

My house needs reclaiming from the forces of chaos caused by 2 small children, a battle of work/ life balance, and an unfinished Phd in procrastination (metaphorically).

My motivation is not to end up on hoarders from hell (my mum is a contender, and has rooms so cluttered you can't get to the door to get in). My general untidiness isn't helping with things like the mission to herd the family out of the house, and I think a little order is needed in life. It's rather a battle with myself having grown up with slogans like "dull women have immaculate homes" on the walls!

This is going to be a tougher personal battle than going from non runner to half marathon in a year...

Bonjour bonjour.

Happy New Year

Saymwa you can only control your own actions. Also, you cannot force someone else to want to do something. Or to care about it.

All you can do is what you want to do. You may find that, as you get your routines in place and things start improving, your OH actually starts doing things too.

Saymwa the principle of FlyLady (one of them) is that you can do anything for 15 minutes. So 15 minutes cleaning, but it also means you can then have, say, 15 mins for a cup of tea and some reading. The down time is as important as the housework.