March of the Fledglings 2015

[Slingclutter]

Heartfelt thanks to Whoknows for running the February thread during such a stressful time for her (and to Toffee for helping out.)

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 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 on Flying lessons. Here's the launch pad for more experienced fledglings.

Don't be put off by the purple prose and 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 might 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 15 mins 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, regulars, oldies and newcomers very, very welcome!

Thinking of Sling today - hope it goes as well as these things can go, Sling.

DD is off school sick so that's part of my plan that needs changing! The house does need a lot of focus anyway so there is plenty to work on even being stuck inside all day. Doesn't help with all the stuff that needs to go to the tip but I'll get to that another day.

Fiz. I too have an unexpected child at home. Not ill but easier than dashing round fetching and sorting tea when I've a guiding meeting to go to this evening.

So my nearly 3 year old is currently playing with the mice from mousetrap while I sort a basket and Tesco crate of stuff in the hall.

15 minutes may be fine when things are more in hand but I've realised I need to finish a task. Otherwise there are 101 half started jobs being done in the house. The laundry pile is a case in point. But as that is mostly upstairs and out of sight, and the stuff in the hall is having a majorly detrimental effect on our home, the hall needs doing more.

So the kitchen in passable from yesterday's efforts. The lounge is fine once the kids toys go away.
Downstairs bathroom is tidy and organised. Just needs a thorough cleaning as opposed to swish and swipe. It can wait.

Stairs need a Hoover, again. Need hall to be tidy to achieve that. Landing is fine. Kids bedroom is fine as long as they remember not to take all the clothes of their hangers and scatter them liberally!

Our room is an utter sty. Piles of laundry to put away and clothes to be got rid of. Dusting gets done occasionally. It is on the hit list of best priority. Then it will be the loft. We had a rodent issue not long ago and I know it's eaten stuff upstairs. I'm tempted to hire a skip and throw everything. I'm not even sure what's up there that we need other than Xmas decs. Lots of toys which were confiscated after a particularly brutal day in the dc's bedroom. And outgrown clothes that I had good intentions of selling on or keeping for the Dts to grow into. Chances are a lot of them have either been nibbled or outgrown by now.

I will need to check proportions etc but off the top of my head I depending on what i gave you for the oat (and how it compares to what i actually throw together) i think it is just a case of take out the egg, no oats or wholemeal flr and replace with 450g white bread. And chuck in a load of cheese - not an exact science. It will depend on the strength of cheese. We only have mild so it takes a ton to make it cheese bread. Stronger will needles to say require less to make the cheese taste. This time around I threw some basil into the mix and it worked really rather well. But I will double check that recipe for you to be sure [useless]

Ta da
Work
A load of adminy type stuff for the management stuff I do
Sort out some coding stuff for ds to start doing - I have just checked and played with it before I sign ds up to it. Looks good and it is nice and easy to do.

As I am feeling a bit off and not 100% I am having a rest day. So I have done Tuesday's job of planning and got my calendar up to date. I have a shit load of stuff that I am procrastinating in doing so I am going to try to get it done at some point. That is the theory. never know in practice. Will have to see what happens.

Urm it should read a total of 450g white flr not an additional 450g white flr. That would not work. Oat bread I think has 150g white flr in it already so it is just replacing the oats and wholemeal flr

Today's hall missions more or less accomplished. Dc home now so no point trying to carry on.

Have emptied hamper basket of 'stuff'. Can now use it for something else, though I'm not sure what yet. But it is a lovely basket and when dd1 was little, was her toy basket. Oh how times have moved on in the soks household.

Mum and dad have been redecorating and decluttering so an old plastic drawer set I donated my dad for all his junk when I moved has been emptied. I've had it back and am using to organise the dc's stationery and our paper/craft stuff. We already have 1 but it's stuffed to overflowing and paper always gets crushed. The new one has two smaller, pack of paper sized drawers so nothing else will fit in them :)

As a result of now having two plastic drawer units, I've decided to move the dc's shoe boxes. They are now at the foot of the stairs and have the dc's names on them so even the little ones can put shoes/hats/gloves away tidy. Drawers are under the stairs where they were. And don't stick out so far. Plus dh can dump his work bag on top of them instead of in dd1's shoe box, which she finds very frustrating.

Still need somewhere to hang coats and book bags but at the moment that's the stair banister and kitchen door. Am thinking of getting some stick on hooks for the side of their boxes for their bags at least.

Have disposed of 3 carrier bags of rubbish. Mostly the kids drawings and old magazines/paperwork. It's shocking how much you can get rid of when you feel ruthless.

Mr Tesco also came up trumps today. I ordered a couple of their cheap magazine files. But they didn't have them so subbed for slightly more robust ones. The idea is I can chuck mine and dh's mail in them and we can look at it from there. Rather than pile it up in the kitchen as currently happens. I can also put dh's papers in there that he leaves lying around then grumbles when the kids inevitably tear/draw/ruin them.

That's a good sub sok was that on tesco direct rather than the groceries bit?

Bah, rather tired now although work was good. Had ages at the park beforehand so that took it out of me (I have CFS and POTS).

DCs transferred the second wash into the dryer for me (I left them instructions, they felt all grown up :o DS in particular is desperate to help with everything so want to make the most of it!) and I did some of the DVDs earlier...

I feel I should know what POTS is but would you care to explain that for me Peg?

I am not sure at which point in the coffee drinking it became a good idea to install Java and get a BASE database set up with over 100 records entered. Whatever point it was, it was too much coffee!!!

A bit of a lost day because DS2 didn't feel well and so we didn't do any home ed. However, I made use of the extra time by tackling the sitting room: I have cleared underneath both sofas (it's a revelation finding stuff there!) and now have two big piles of stuff in the hall ready to be returned to their rightful places.

DS2 says his room feels weird and he wants to make it messy so it feels normal again .

You need a poster toffee

It's not a well understood illness even by many doctors tbh Bitchy :o but thank you for asking it's postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome - it's thought to be an autoimmune disorder but the main thing is that when I'm upright my blood pressure drops too low and my heart rate goes way up. The combination makes me really dizzy and there's risk of fainting etc. It's worse after sitting or lying - you know that 'head rush' type feeling when you stand up too fast, it's like an extreme and slightly dangerous version of that.

Anyway I've finally been referred to a cardiologist so hoping I can get some proper help :)

Right, tumble dryer is done (it sings at me when its finished!) so off I go - and then I WILL finish the DVDs (we have hundreds in total, it's our addiction - actually thinking of a home ed project we can do with my dad - compiling a database!)

Oooo I have actually heard of that. Peg Fingers crossed that you get some help from the Cardiologist.

I am watching saving mr banks. I am in trouble with ds for laughing too loudly and waking him up.

Peg that is exactly the database I have been building today. I am putting books into it. The no of dvds scared me, I think the no of books will horrify me.

Ooh that's interesting bitchy I hope you'll let me know how your database turns out! What are you making it with? [clueless emoticon]

The program I am using is in danger of killing my sanity but i am using openoffice BASE. It'll do, it is not how I would wish it it but it will do I suppose.

So much activity here - very inspiring.

Today I felt quite cheery and managed to sort out all the bookshelves in the playroom and prepare for arrival of new sofa from Ikea next week. I need to do a Before and After picture like Toffee just I'm not really sure how to post photos on here. Maybe that is a job for dd.

Took ds2 to Art session. Did a big grocery shop with ds2 - painless as we had lunch at Morrisons too in honour of him getting through "Art".

Cooked spicy cauliflower florets - boil then fry in garlic and chilli until browned, and served with baked potatoes and salmon steaks. Delicious.

Dh still exhausted atm. Worried about his parents. Worried about ds2. Worried about planning holidays. Hope tomorrow's visit to discuss new room in garden will make him feel a bit more positive.

My sister rang to discuss my plans for my 50th in summer I said I didn't have many - she was shocked. I think I'll just invite anyone I know round to my house in hols on one day (not necessarily even birthday day) and leave it at that. I'm now beginning to wonder whether maybe everyone does something flamboyant and groundbreaking on this occasion - like go camping in Wales or trip to spa or retro teaparty. Anyway - friends and acquaintances over seem like a considerable feat. And worth tidying up for so that is always something.

Mini I am somewhat of a drawer addict. Big ones small ones I seem to accumulate them. I had a fiendish set of mini mini drawers for things like stamps and curtain hooks. But it was all to no avail. I still cannot find anything. Tis like being a squirrel with too many acorns. My latest horror is home ed drawers. An acquaintance said she just tells her son to look in the relevant drawer (when he needs to do his work) I think I just find it calming putting things in them. But nothing much ever comes out of them.

Aaaaargh wrote a big post and iPad booted me out. Reposting what I can before curling up on the sofa, can't even make it to bed!

ta da
Put all DVDs away about half done
2x washing
1x tumble dry
Put dry clothes away all folded ready to do tomorrow - mostly DCs' stuff and they do their own

Utterly knackered and sore, must remember that's par for the course on Mondays and not expect too much. Hoping for an easier day tomorrow with gentle housework. Night all :)

Bitchy but can you find them on the shelf even if they are on the database? How do you physically locate them? I hate alphabetising things like books and tapes as it invariably means that all the boring books get mixed up with the interesting ones and there is no theme running through. But then of course it is difficult to find things [sigh]

Well, as I said upthread my sick daughter slowed progress today, but as she's been mainly lying in bed or on the sofa the mess has not progressed and has improved a bit . She seems to feel better so hopefully will be back at school and I will be able to catch up a bit. Onwards and upwards!

In theory Swan but we still have the odd instant of playing hunt the disk when it is not put away properly.

Thanks for the poster, Bitchy. Funnily enough, I have just ordered more white tac to put more pictures and posters on DS2's walls because they're looking a bit bare.

Peg - sorry to hear you have ongoing conditions to deal with on top of everything else in life. I hope the cardiologist proves helpful.

Swan - it's easy to post pics. Under the bit where you write your post, there are three lines titled: 'Images (up to 6 per day)'. Click on the top line where it says 'Browse' and it should take you to your photos (at least, it does when I do it) and if it doesn't, you just hunt around till you find them. Select the photo you want, click 'open' and the photo should be dropped into your folder, ready to show online. If you preview the message first, you'll see if it's worked.

Your plans for your 50th sound lovely, except I advise ordering ready-made food, otherwise you'll be fretting about cooking when you should be enjoying yourself. I'm glad I had a party, although it was all quite nerve-wracking at the time.

Fizrim - glad your DD is on the mend and hasn't added to the mess today.

DS2 is doing a good job of returning his bedroom to its original state . I have warned him that it will need to be tidied up again when it's turned into a guest bedroom for my mum's visit on Wednesday.

Back in a mo with links...

Babystep Number 3: practise the first two steps and explore Flylady's website.

The missions for the week are here. Tomorrow's mission is to tackle the hot spots in your porch, entrance and dining room.

The daily focus for Tuesday is planning: take time to plan the rest of the week.

Tuesday's routine is here.

Night everyone.

Aaaaaagh. Oftwat..sorry typo..should have said Ofsted today/tomorrow. See you on the other side.

On a more positive note...might have started dabbling in a bit of internet dating and might have lined myself up a hot date

Note:- fuck all to do with flying there

Good luck with Oftwat Ellie You know we need details to live vicariously right?

Thank you bitchy. After a series of short naps in the name of sleep..right now I am in a 'fuck it, I know I do a good job on a day to day basis so bollocks to them' mood. Although when i get to school it will be' shit I don't want to let this fab school and fab head down' mood.

As for the dating...of course. Already had one date...details to follow when oftwat have gone.