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.

We had approximately 72 seconds of snow here.

I've barely moved from the sofa. Neighbour child popped over but none of them could agree what to actually play so they were just all getting stroppy with each other until she had to go home.

Really should do stuff. Sigh

Good afternoon!
been up nearly 2 hrs already. Working on the other craft project that is not the one I am supposed to be working on. I really really want to get the last 2 blocks of this pattern finished so that I can piece and edge the blanket. Yes I said blanket. I never ever learn. Another blanketgate

I have to confess there are another 4 blankets ish which are started or have the bits bought for them that I want to get finished this year. There is also another list of projects that are ufos (unfinished objects) or usps (unstarted projects). It is a big part of my decluttering plan for the year. Not traditional decluttering but much needed decluttering for me.

There is also laundry and tidying etc that i need to do. I will ignore it to get the squares sorted. Lets just be upfront and honest and manage your expectations.

Reading your post I had the image of you knitting little alien spaceships. I'm quite disappointed that it's not in fact what you meant by UFOs :( :o

Oh there are some alien spaceships in one of the projects.

Links for Sunday 6th March

Our last day in Zone 1: the Entrance, Front Porch and Dining Room

No missions as it's the weekend

Our baby step is to tackle your hotspots

Not sure what a HotSpot is? Find out/remind yourself here

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

Sunday is to renew your spirit

Evening all - not much done here today tbh. I took another triptan and the migraine seems to have finally shifted! So --should- may make an effort tomorrow. Have done more laundry yawn

Fuzz a closed cafe is a thing of sadness. I took amitriptyline years ago for pain relief and had to take it before 8pm (and pref at about 6) or the following morning was a write off.

Am realising that myself tonight Fiz as I didn't take it til 10pm. Oops. Have come back downstairs, going to watch some of the film I bought retail therapy anyone? and then go back up when I'm near to dropping off (usually I doze on the sofa but am apparently having breakfast in bed tomorrow). The silver lining however is that I'll probably sleep later tomorrow morning :o just realised I forgot my other tablet too (am on sertraline which I usually take in the morning). FFS.

Glad the migraine has buggered off at last.

I don't get migraines thankfully but get weird headaches sometimes. At the moment it's like I've been impaled with some kind of stick - I don't mean in a gory horrible way (bear with me!) but it's like a line going from just between my left eye and my nose, which hurts, through my head to the back and where the stick comes out there's a tiny patch that's all pins and needles.

On a lighter note. Yay for spaceships! Especially fabric/knitted type ones :o

Right. Anime time. Hope you all have a great day tomorrow.

Happy Mother's Day to all the thread followers, even if you are outside the UK (grab every chance you can to celebrate!).

I have been lucky, have flowers and jeans/makeup even if I bought the jeans and makeup myself and DD and DH made me cards (DD is the card-making enthusiast, not DH but he gets press-ganged into it) and breakfast in bed which I also bought, can you see a theme. I am having a lovely day!

Head still thumping slightly but fine to get on with things today, need to do a bit of catch-up from the week.

Have a fab day, I'll be back later!

Happy Mother's Day! I hope it's a good one for all.

I was greeted in the morning by breakfast in bed (chosen by me :o maple pecan plait, YUM) and a treasure hunt leading to a gift (Lego! :o). Very sweet. :)

I actually really want to get on with some tidying but will take it easyish. Don't have any plans to go anywhere. Want to finish watching my DVD :o

Having roast lamb for the first time since the oven arrived, I'm very excited.

Have arranged the next trip to mum's, which is good as it's also sorted out some other things in a way - still generally very procrastinatey over the diary! Must do better.

Mother's day here started with yelling and screaming and shouting.Irronically I don't even see ds until this evening. It is not going to get better because ds is having a tough time.

AND I am on my don't assume everyone is celebrating rant this morning. Soo many people I know are finding this time of years soooo hard. Having lost their mother, their child or simply had to go nc due to circumstances. fuck you facebook and your shove it down everyone's throats!

Disclaimer: mood is not improved due to a recent death so mood is particularly frosty to commercialised celebrations this year.

Einstein sorry my post was ill thought out. I put on the other ongoing thread I'm on that I hoped anyone who has a tough time on MD would have a peaceful day today - I should've said that here, too. I'm really sorry you've had such a hard time this weekend.

I had a moment reading FB just now I have to say. I'm a 'just enjoy what you have, if you have it, you don't need to tell everyone all the minute details' type person. :)

Chocolate IS the ultimate answer BTW.

Links for Monday 7th March

We have now moved into Zone 2: The Kitchen

Today’s mission is to give your kitchen work surfaces a thorough scrub

Baby step is a particularly good one: lay out your clothes for tomorrow before bed

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

Monday is the dreaded home bleugh 10 minutes each on seven key household tasks

Fuzzpig it was not your post that did it. My entire fb feed was full of omg I love my mum today kinda posts and I just wanted to scream if you love you mum so fucking much tell her ALL year around, do nice stuff randomly because you can, and ffs it NOT the world's business. This was not helped by some stupid facebook bastarding popup thingy that would not sod off that was demanding to know what I was doing for mother's day. We celebrated mother's day a month ago according to native country traditions. And most of the world celebrates mother's day much later in the year. I just get overwhelmed by all the presumptions, implications and smug posts this time of the year and it never ends well. Sorry if you felt it was a personal dig.

Thankfully ds is ok although has weirded me out by giving me very precise instructions as to what is to happen it him if he dies before me However, I have managed to cover myself, the car and ds' bag of clothes in gone off smoothie because it looked a bit odd and I decided to shake it Don't ask me why i decided to shake it but it really really didn't end well. So now I am washing lots of stuff including myself from top to bottom to try to remove the smell and the sticky ickyness.

to do
loads because I do stupid shit.

Are you OK there, Einstein?

Ah I see Einstein (and don't worry I didn't take it personally :)) euuuww at the smoothie incident

Yes I have been astounded at all the gushy posts both about mums and about children/husbands spoiling them. It's definitely one of the most show-offy days I've seen on FB for a while.

I had a nice day, nothing postworthy :o just watched cartoons (my choice of Avatar - "I don't like that" said DD, they've since spent much of the afternoon playing it... ha! Got them hooked now) and played some nostalgic board games and ate a lot of cake.

Tomorrow we're making a fruit salad as we have lots of fresh stuff in. Knife skills for the DCs I suppose. Just writing it here so I don't forget! :)

I decided to tidy my room this morning so have a bed full of stuff, tomorrow I have to clean the car upholstery and outside, I am predicting massive battles over school tomo with ds, And insomnia is bad. Which is just generally making me more fragile and grumpy. Although tonight it does mean that I can get my bed tidy and deal with all the stinky clothes. Just 5 lots of 2hr sleep nights are already taking their toll :(

Hanging in there frizrim and mostly nothing that a good night's sleep won't help. The death was one of those where there is shock and sadness but also a kind of relief that it was quick and not a long drawn out painful one for the individual who passed. It was not entirely unexpected but came sooner than indicated so it was all a bit upsetting. Mostly my thoughts are with the individual's family.

Sorry about the bereavement Einstein I really hope you get some relief from the insomnia soon too. And shedloads of empathy re: the tidying room = bed piled up with stuff issue. That's been pretty much every day this week here

Hope you get a decent night's sleep tonight, it does really help. It's hard to keep going when you're running on empty yourself - be kind to yourself.

Well, Mother's Day has started and ended with shouting and ill-temper here, with a nice interlude in between. I don't expect much on MD (a card and a cup of tea in bed to be precise) but today's performance was crap even by those standards.

However we went to the beach and popped into see my parents this afternoon which was nice. And created a new chores rota to go with the newly zoned house routine, which is working ok but needs a bit more tweaking. Also gave the loo and basin a good scrub while DD had her bath, even though she's 10 now she likes company while in the bath which is nice.

Sorry about the frayed nerves. Great job on the schedule though!

I think we will need to do this. Obviously we are hoping that DH will get a new job ASAP but I want to prepare for the time he is home. He can be a bit of a softie and doesn't know our usual pattern for learning time etc, and I don't want to lose the momentum we've built up with regard to home ed and end up with too much telly etc. :o I'm hoping to build in more time outside for them, as walks in the woods are something I can't really manage myself.

Right, I'm going to be good now and actually go to bed rather than sleeping on the sofa.

Morning all! Hope everyone ok.

Thanks for links Grey!

Sorry to hear about the bereavement Einstein. Hope your ds went off to school without too much protest this morning.

Hope migraine finally recedes today Fizrim

Your new chores rota sounds impressive Whoknows (May I ask, do you insist on chores being done, even when dc are late or 'down to the line' with hwk? This is a big stumbling block here at weekends. How do you handle it? Do you ask that chores are done at a certain time or do you give them a "must be done within" window? If they don't do them, do you impose sanctions? DD now does her hwk fairly consistently (with a bit of nagging encouragement) but she is never early with it ifyswim which, what with ballet, leaves virtually no time for anything else... although she seems to have lots of time for her Ipod come to think of it [confusion])

Big waves to Fuzz Blue Toffee Knitting Ellie Shannara Scatty Feetheart Mamamermaid PA Honu Nicknacks Lauren and many more fledglings I have inevitably forgotten to mention!

Got back earlier than expected from travelling yesterday because we all felt a bit exhausted/flu-ish, largely due to a very late night on Saturday watching Spectre with friends.

Spent Sunday afternoon doing usual uniform/gym kit/ballet/shoe polishing routine. And then furry one worried us all by flying in from garden, rushing around in a circle like a mad loon, holding up his paw, then knawing at it, then whimpering, then turning circles again endlessly... . Inspected his foot and couldn't see anything untoward such as a thorn, grass seed or stone but one of his pads was a bit swollen so decided to give him a bath, then decided to do his teeth and ears too, and he eventually settled down and he seems fine again (and very shiny!) this morning.

House is a complete pit and I am just girding my loins and about to start (v late!) a complete home bleugh on ground floor. Have been up since six am getting dd off to school but needed time to 'come round' this morning and imbibe lots of caffeine before starting. So far I've read recipes, tidied the bathroom and sorted the laundry (yawn).

Strong coffee, croissants and pain au chocolat on naughty corner bar for everyone to help themselves!

Good morning!!!

ta da
3 loads of washing
outside of car washed
car windows polished
smoothie removed from inside
send ds to school with all letters, notes and clean PE kit
Write shopping list

to do
wash bedding
carry on washing smoothie disaster affected stuff (found more when cleaning car) :(
shopping (spread over 3 towns)
put in a prescription request (must not forget this!)
put clean washing away
More ironing (did most of the pile last night)
Tackle ds' room
work more on my room
hoover through the lounge
kitchen taming
furniture returning (still in safe places from ds' party nearly a month on)
craft stuff away

Wow that must've been an awful lot of smoothie Einstein :( that's the kind of thing I'm always doing. I'm so clumsy.

Not much housework done at all here. I did tell DCs to tidy their room but haven't been up to check yet! Reasonable amount of home ed though and the DCs have had some time outdoors which enabled me to finally finish watching my film

Afternoon all,

My DS has been waking up at 4:30 again for the last week and I'm fed up of it; making me grouchy and lacking patience. Grrr.

Ta Da
Cats fed
Beds made
Two lots of washing done
One washload tumbled, folded and waiting to be put away
Dishwasher run, now half unloaded
Took DS to playgroup
Finished a full declutter of my desk
Little bit of admin and some phone calls made

To Do
Another wash load
Put away clean laundry
Prep dinner
(Thats all I have the energy for at the moment!)