Flylady's fledglings spring clean your nests! March '16

[Greymalkin]

First of all, a big thank you to Fuzzpig for leading us through the February thread, (you can hung up your duster for a bit now!)

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 support and chat along the way.

The FlyLady link is here Don't be put off by the twee language of the site – we all agree that the underlying system is very effective.

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 swamped with her marketing and testimonial nonsense. 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):

• start or repeat baby steps
• repeat baby steps + do 15 minutes a day decluttering in the current zone
• 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.

There are three key points to keep in mind throughout:

• No perfectionism allowed - this is harder than you would imagine and many of us on this thread struggle with this one.
• You are never behind - just start where you are and anything you do is progress.
• 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.

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 ‘ta-da’ lists but don't let that worry you. Do what you can, anything is better than 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.

Here's the launch pad for more experienced fledglings.

Don’t let it put you off if we appear a bit cliquey, we really aren’t. Some of us have been on here for years – but all lurkers, intermittent returnees, oldies and newcomers very, very welcome.

Yes, yes it is!

And on that note I'm going to switch the WM on. Honest

Yep, all progress means you are moving forward. Grab any wins you can, size is not important here.

I have had a bit of a break from the laundry this week as we've had nowhere to hang it up to dry. However most of the cardboard has been deposited at the tip and DH has just taken two chests of drawers to the charity warehouse. So I'll have more room to dry which is a good thing as I'll have another backlog now

Good call about the possible paracetamol headache, I've had those myself in the past. She did manage 3 or 4 days clear but I suspect it is a sinus headache - she is pretty snuffly and seems to be going down with another cold. Not that painkillers work very well on my sinus headaches so cold compresses are also being used.

Better get on with some tidying ...

Sympathies on the laundry backlog. Is there any room anywhere for a tumble dryer? I'm not exaggerating when I say it's changed my life. We have a heat pump condenser which is really efficient and didn't need plumbing in or venting or whatever it's called.

So I put the wash on - this is all non-tumble-dryable stuff so will hang it out when it's done. Then have a small wool wash. Other than that I've, erm, put some DVDs away. Small wins indeed!

DVDs all done, washing hung out and wool wash in. Gathered two bags of stuff that need to go back to other people. I should make some dinner now. Ugh. Effort.

Hello everyone,

I couldn't agree more that doing something, no matter how small, is progress. Sometimes the getting started bit is the hardest of all!

TaDa
Cats fed
DS taken to nursery
Took DH to pick up car at the rental place
Quick top up shop
Collected prescriptions and dropped off some old meds for safe disposal
Trip to post office
Watered house plants
Dishwasher
Made beds x2
Washing x3

• x1 Tumble dried, folded and put away
• x1 hung up

More DIY:

• Unblocked pipe in en suite hand basin
• Fixed wobbly loo seat in en suite
• Re attached the hook on back of bathroom door
• Put drain unblocker down the kitchen sink
• Re attached the keyhole cover on front door
• Securely attached the bunting in DS's room that keeps falling down
• Gathered up all DH's tools from random places round the house, put by back door for relocation to the garage

Tidied all the coats in the hall Spent several hours updating the company accounts Fed cats Collected DS from nursery

Once DS has gone to bed I plan on watching some trashy TV whilst doing some sewing repairs.

BBL with the links

Evening.

Well done on the DIY grey

ta da
Morning routine.
Washing.
Vacuum floor.
Mop kitchen.
Work.
Pony
Dogs.
Chicken.
Tea.
Internet banking.
Chat with DS re exams et all.
Wipe kitchen surfaces.
Take off all 'cushions' from furniture and vacuum/wipe over. (this was my living room task today)

Hi all,

I'm quite hot on my email account. I have a yahoo account and have different sub folders such as car insurance, online banking, utilities, etc. I then spam all random stuff i don't want nightly.

My ds had a fever last Friday and chesty cough and then last night i got a sore throat then had the sweats all night and then woke up with the chesty cough myself. Been so tired today with ds still not too well himself so he has been super clingey today. Not done much housework today. The house feels really germy at the moment i want to slosh some bleach around the house but that'll wait until tomorrow now when hopefully i feel better.

Done:
washed dishes
made beds
changed ds sheets

Thats about it

Flightplan for Wednesday 30th March

We are still in Zone 5: The Living Room

The next mission is to excavate your sofas and chairs fish out all the stuff that gets lost behind the cushions.

Our next baby step is to look ahead to next month and organise getting birthday / anniversary cards and gifts

Habit of the month is getting dressed to your shoes. A tad controversial on here, some do, some don’t… (I certainly don't)

Wednesday is Anti-procrastination day - pick a task you have been putting off, roll your sleeves up and JFDI (just f*^@ing do it!!)

I do have a condenser tumble dryer, just need to use it more but yes, not everything goes in it anyway shuffles offending non-tumble clothing into recycling bag

DD now has earache, looks like she might be going down with another ear infection - will keep an eye on it.

As for tomorrow's mission - our suite has fixed cushions so nothing gets behind them. Will vacuum the crevices instead small win.

Wow Grey that is a fab list

And so agree with Einstein and others about progress being progress and just doing something for 5 mins or 15 mins, being so much better than doing nothing at all! Indeed doing something for 5 mins often generates sufficient momentum to do 15 mins and so on (even on one's most weary of days I find).

Celeste you did really well to get that done when you were feeling so poorly and looking after an ailing ds Hope you all feel better soon!

Ditto Caglio and Einstein !!

Congrats on your achievements too Needastrongone

And more [start] to everyone who has carried on when sleep-deprived, or when feeling under par, or when looking after poorly youngsters!

And more sympathies re: the laundry back-log Cotswold! It's such a ground-hog task isn't it? I have not done any laundry (usually do at least one load a day) for 3 days owing to illness + visitors and now all the laundry baskets are bursting! It is so demoralising ...!

Feel reasonably OK now (stopped baking 30 mins ago) but felt hideously weary today. Dh back at work so I took guests out for morning and then to lunch then waved them off to Eurostar. Hosting birthday tea here tomorrow (different set of friends) so despite wanting to lie down and die, gave myself a stern talking to and kick up the rear and managed the following in the end:

Ta da:
rousted dd out of bed and nagged her in to bath
nagged dd to water Easter garden (her own creation! and it is now sprouting! )
animals
dog walk
morning routine inc dw, wm, s&s
out with guests
lunch with guests
packed sandwiches/cake for guests/waved guests off etc
watched dd dance three of her latest choreographed creations to very loud music!
with the help of dd, finished wrapping up 15 Easter presents and dd Easter drawing for office which dd then delivered (and some for visitors tomorrow)
wrote two thank you e-mails for Easter presents
wrapped two more presents
found balloons and balloon pump
found party napkins, cups and cake board
stripped two beds (more to do tomorrow)
sorted linen for bed-making tomorrow
thorough cleaning out of rabbit room
re-jigged bouquet throwing out old flowers and adding a few new etc
carried laundry downstairs
dw again (including baking trays and food containers returned by friend)
wm again x 2
supervised dd squeezing blood oranges with rather forceful machine attachment thing (and tried to ignore the pulp which landed on the kitchen cabinet doors, the kitchen walls, the floor, and on the outside of the bin and then cleaned it all up when she wasn't looking !)
dd made jellies with fruit and fruit juice
found cake tins
lined cake tins
baked Mary Berry's chocolate malt cake
made choc malt butter icing icing and wrapped it up carefully and stored it in cool place downstairs
wrapped up cake carefully and stored in airtight tin

(thankfully, despite a heavy work load, dh did two of the three dog walks today and also did a quick dive to the shops for me and also put together a quick supper of leftovers which was v gratefully received!)

DD very up and down atm. She is exhausted from all of the stress of last week I think. Because of visitors, I haven't had time to mention that her school is in the area where all the police raids were carried out on Friday (which was an awful day as it happens).

DD was in a maths lesson when gunfire was heard. The children had to go downstairs with their form teachers and were locked in the salle d'etudes while other teachers formed a cordon outside (bless them). Two explosions followed. The police then came in and said they had put more reinforcmenets around the school. The headmistress handled it very well and we heard afterwards that all the precautions were "preventative" but it would have been slightly easier and less stressful for the dc (and for us who heard about it on the news) to have known that at the time but I suppose it all happened so fast they only had time to react to the immediate events! DD said that some dc were cyring, others weren't at all bothered, but she wanted to be alone so she sat by herself in a corner and she was understandably agitated afterwards. (She couldn't stop pacing up and down when she got home.)

Because I was ill and then we had guests; we haven't really had time to process all of this and as a result I think we are all a bit ratty and exhausted.

DD held it together pretty well in front of thev isitors (apart from one uncharacteristic outburst during an Easter egg hunt fhs) but her behaviour was very testing tonight. She came in to the kitchen to say goodnight and I could tell she was hiding something (which turned out to be her Ipod which is not allowed upstairs). She tried to lie to me and pretended it was something else. And when she eventually told the truth, I confiscated it (which is the agreed rule). Then all hell broke lose and she has gone to bed sobbing . And I feel horribly guilty because of the context of the above etc etc. Not a great end to the day frankly.

Sorry for the essay! Waves to all!

Now I have calmed down I shall do the following:
empty dw
fill dw
lock up and lights off

G'night all!

x post

hope your dd feels better soon Cotswold (earache is horrid)

SC in some respects it is more important that you stuck to the rules even if dd didn't like it. Stability of rules can be very reassuring when everything else is a bit out of control. Tears can be good as an emotion release too. Tbh I think if I had been in your dd's situation I would the benefit of a good emotion releasing cry. of course dd will just think you are mean because that is the kid way but still Sorry dd was caught up in the middle of the chaos and unsettling events. And if it helps ds sometimes just has to scream it out of his system, so we end up in a how on earth are we arguing about this intense argument.

Lack of sleep is making my brain hurt. Ds is now on holiday but it always take a few days at least for my routine to settle out and normalise. SO. so. tired. night

Thanks for taking time out and posting that Einstein . I read it at about 5 am (fitful sleep!) and it made me feel a sod of a lot better. That's a good point about boundaries and in fact dd and I were able to have a calm talk about Ipod use this morning and how it is getting out of balance again. We have still taken it away for the day as a "discipline" though!

[We also had a chuckle about dh who joined Instagram so that he could keep an eye on dd's use of it. Every so often (and being short of time) he, um, posts pictures of, er, grass. And then, um, another picture of grass. What he hadn't realised was that these pictures of grass were going out to all of dd's Instagram contacts including two or three of her old teachers! ]

Very sorry to hear you are so sleep deprived atm and hope that a bit of child-free time will allow you to catch up with r and r and a bit of crafting!

As for Flying ... .

I have attended to animals, dw, wm and taken the dog for a quick walk.

Lovely cleaner whom I have "borrowed" from the office for 2 hrs is currently doing a thorough home bleugh on ground floor.

DD and I are doing bathroom, loos, bedrooms and landings. Then cake decorating. Then getting ourselves ready. Then table setting. Then guests.

Hope everyone has a good day! And all who are feeling under par, or whose dc are ailing, are starting to feel a bit better!

Hope all the poorly Fledglings and Mini Fledglings feel better soon! [lemsip]

Oh goodness SC what an awful experience for DD :( I agree with Einstein that you did the right thing by sticking to the established rules, as it shows that while outside is chaos, her home is steady and predictable. I also agree that sometimes children, without being aware of it, need an 'excuse' to release their pent up emotions. Actually I dare say adults may do this too! :o Anyway, hope you can all go easy on yourselves.

Not planning any Flying today. I got half dressed, dragged my sorry arse downstairs and made myself do a quick bit of panic tidying before letting myself on the computer. And then when I did, I discovered that the new pupils (for whom I was vaguely tidying) are in fact ill so won't be coming until next week. I think today will mostly be spent feeling sorry for myself and mainlining caffeine in a futile attempt to stay awake. And sorry Fat Fairy but I'm getting back in my jammies! I will try and do my 5 minute tasks throughout the day but I'm not expecting much of myself!

Can only agree with the other posters about sticking to the rules, a bit of security in what must be an unimaginably difficult time for you, SC.

DD has rallied, still sniffly but the ear seems better - which I am thrilled at, partly because the doctors are so hard to get an appointment with. Wasn't looking forward to that.

Have been tidying this morning and got two loads of washing hung outside as the weather has been lovely this morning, bit duller this afternoon but I think it will still dry a bit.

Made pizza for lunch - I was just going to stick it on a bread roll but then DD fancied trying some. Tried a quick base recipe and it was not a success - far too salty - but I ate it anyway. Watch my blood pressure soar

Onwards!

Glad DD is on the mend!

I have done precisely nothing all day.

After I posted I turned the telly off and the kids and I have just done a full hour of tidying :) :) we turned our focus to the massive cupboard under the stairs. Just pulled out what we could reach (it's THAT bad ) and chucked out loads of recycling, found a few things to offer to my home ed buddies with younger DCs, put various things in the right places. Yay! I am tired but feel energised if that makes sense. Having a rest for a bit while the DCs play (DD unearthed her skateboard) and then will try to continue.

Glad your daughter feels a bit better Cotswold, earache and toothache for me are absolutely the worst type of pain.

SC, I can but echo what has already been said by the wise sages on here. Routine and boundaries will ensure some semblance of reality for you all. DH has recently joined Facebook and is completely baffled by being tagged, feeds and notifications

Working day when I wasn't supposed to be has thrown things out of kilter but..

ta da
Vacuumed.
Changed washing over.
Dogs.
Pony.
Chickens (full clean)
Took the horsebox back to the farm after having been worked on.
Been to the tack shop for a few items.
Living room - polished the lamp and floor light that are completely lovely but all crystal droplets and a PITA.
Used the feather duster for cornicing in the living room.
Wiped over the ornate mirror, all the cracks and crevices in the living room.
Wiped over the curtain rail in living room.
Organised an organic meat and veg delivery.
Changed supermarket shop.
Gentle reminder to DS to revise.
Messaged DD, who returns from snowboarding tomorrow.

to do
Tea and tidy up.
Watch Holby City on catch up

[Waves cheerily from sea of crumbs, easter egg boxes and withered daffodils]

all well here, just back from sortie to Ireland with two 14 year old girls. They behaved beautifully and had fun.

however, on our return dd threw a packet of loo rolls at dh (spattering food all over him as he sat at dinner) because he criticised her Easter egg sharing habits...cue row. dd now sulking, dh apologised to her; she tore his apology letter into tiny fragments. SC it is not easy is it. Luckily this time we all ganged up on dh and told him not to be so rigid about sharing (he has an obsession with kids sharing - why would they????) Today is calm though; air flight yesterday and seeing her brothers yesterday after an absence (nasty shock?) did not help dd's mood.

I did nothing over Easter and feel ALL THE BETTER FOR IT . I think I scrubbed lots of black mould off some walls of a damp cottage, but otherwise...just country walks, stripping beds and loading dw. My mum was being a control freak over meals (which were mostly Tesco's finest ready meals) so that was quite easy A few family dramas though, which are fine because one is not implicated, if it is in another person's house, thank goodness.

Ds2 and I have been to a big sociable swim meetup this morning, and walked plenty.

Some great lists here lately! I don't think I've posted a list at all this month.

I managed around one more hour just now - definitely at my limit now so going to just sit and sort through the last few bits from the bag I'm sorting through. DCs have been quite helpful running about putting the things I give them in the right places, in between playing. It seems to work better that way - I do the mental work of deciding what to do with everything (they find it so hard, and I can't blame them because they've NEVER lived in a tidy home :() and they do the physical work that I am not able to do. Teamwork! :)

Of course the house looks no different whatsoever, as all the clutter was stuffed into the cupboard before, but I know I've done a decent amount so I'm pleased. :)

Mind you I just realised I have never lived in a tidy house either! :o Still, we are all learning together.

Welcome back Knitting - glad you had a good time away, sorry about the family strife though. I dread the teen years. I do wonder if DD's rather highly strung childhood means she's getting it all out of her system early... but somehow I doubt it

We actually had a funny moment over Easter holidays. The girls were making meringues in my mother's kitchen (who as I say is a control freak about meals and food and tidying up although ironically her kitchen is very dirty under the tidy bit) I rang her up in the middle of the mould cleaning and said I hoped girls were not making too much mess, and as my mum is a bit deaf this ended up in her screaming down the phone, THEY ARE NOT MAKING A MESS at me!! Meringues delicious in aga, although my Dad burnt the first batch.

Mmmm meringues! :o Now I'm hungry

Did tidying this morning still much more to be done and played with DD this afternoon. Actually managed to get the washing off the line before it got cold and dark and put some of it in the dryer to finish. This is a rare event.

DD continues to rally during the day but fade when it is time to go to bed, when she complains about the headache Due to the furniture building the bed in the spare room is inaccessible so DD is in our bed with DH and I am in hers which is a raised bed, watch me leap like a gazelle in and crawl like a tortoise out in the morning.

Need to go shopping tomorrow for various bits of food and gifts. They are predicting frost tonight. Wish the weather would make it's mind up!

Flightplan for today, Thursday 31st March

This is our last day in Zone 5: The Living Room

The next mission is a detailed hovering session so getting right up against the skirting boards and if you can, under furniture.

Our next baby step is a bit unclear from the waffle, but it seems we are allows to unsubscribe from the FatFairy’s emails

Habit of the month is getting dressed to your shoes. A tad controversial on here, some do, some don’t… (I certainly don't)

Thursday focus is errand day Any task to be done outside of the home: grocery shopping, tip runs, dry cleaning, doctor appointments, that sort of thing.