Gather ye dusters (fledglings) while ye May, for soon we shall be Flying ... !

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Welcome to the May 2017 fledgling Fly thread!

Feel free to park your mops and buckets here from the 1st of the month!

This is where we attempt to declutter our homes and follow the 30-step wisdom of Flylady (minus cutesy barftastic language and a surfeit of e-mails) with lots of chat and support and mutual motivation (and of course) along the way.

More info available here, here here and here.

As usual we will be following a three-pronged approach - and don't worry - we are all at different stages. (Some of us are still stuck at the decluttering stage after quite a few years ):

1 - repeat or start baby steps (again!)

2 - repeat baby steps + do 15 mins a day decluttering in the current zone

or

3 - reinforce babysteps and/or do daily missions
And those of you who have decluttered and are really enthusiastic can throw some detailed cleaning in to the mix as well!

The idea is that we focus on short, ring-fenced, daily bursts of activity (steps and routines) that will help our homes run (more or less!) on "automatic pilot" allowing us to do far more interesting things instead!

This is a very long-running thread so we may appear cliquey but we really aren't! All newcomers, long-termers, lurkers and intermittent returnees welcome!

Helpful pointers: No perfectionism allowed! If it took a while to create the current C.H.A.O.S. (can't have anyone over syndrome) in your home, then it will probably take a while to reverse the situation (you can't clean clutter!). Small steps are the key! And you are never behind: just jump in where you are at!

Any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

Good luck!

Bless you Foxes that sounds really hard.

Foxes, does he have any other support / carers in place other than your mum and dad? Is he at home or in a residential / nursing home? Does he have a dementia nurse / social worker? Don't feel you have to answer but just in case there are any tips.
It is hard . Maybe try again later with the food and drink and give him a break for now. If there is anything he likes that might tempt him later (or it might not, I realise it is very difficult).

Wow love mermaid's cake too! Great stuff!

Sorry people are feeling so rubbish x

toostressy he has carers Monday to Friday and a dementia nurse was meant to come today but didn't show up unfortunately. He lives with my parents and has done for over 15 years so my mum is desperately trying to keep him there as it's all he knows now . My dh is here with me too and helping out lots , my parents are having a well deserved day off . I feel really bad because I've taken the baby out for a walk to get him to sleep and left dh with my dd and grandad and I'm now sitting by a duck pond just feeling close to tears and not wanting to go back but I know I have to help. It's just he gets so much worse every time I see him but today is the first time he has been angry with me. Dh has reminded me not to take it personally but it's my grandad and we have had a difficult relationship over the years and now it has hit me that he doesn't know who I am and I can never properly talk to him again. I'm not making any sense sorry. Also feeling unbelievably upset on behalf of my mum (and dad) for the amount she has on her plate but she would never complain.

What a day.

We are getting fish and chips for dinner which was always his favourite so will try and tempt him with some chips. Every time I bring him any food or drink he tells me it's disgusting.

Sorry. This is so off topic!

Foxes so sorry to hear that sounds very difficult and like you are all doing your very best. With my mum I always try and think that it's the illness that is making them like that and not their own selves. It's a horrible horrible disease and so hard on the patient and the families go easy on yourself💐💐💐 xxx

Thanks mum , I did see that some of you on this thread have parents with dementia and that must be much harder than this because this isn't my dad but my grandad , for my poor mum this is her dad. I'm really so in awe of everyone dealing with it daily.

afresh my utility room , apologies for the mess I promise the rest of my house isn't as bad (well not quite!!). It's very handy for extra space but it does turn into a bit of a dumping ground! The cupboards are mostly full of alcohol

We are back home now and got the kids to bed. Thanks for kind words everyone, today was really hard, I think it's partly the guilt of the fact that I get to go home and I was relieved to leave. I don't think I handled any of it well today.

No flying this evening , I'm drinking tea and eating chocolate!

foxes . Dementia is shit and it is normal to feel guilty when you have the option to leave and others don't. It sounds as if he is well supported but it must be so very hard for your parents (and others struggling with similar).

Not a huge amount of flying done this afternoon as had friend and her DC round - they are going thorough a really hard time so was good to give them a bit of normality. Just summoning up the energy now to deal with laundry etc.

foxes

Haven't done much flying today but had a fab day with the kids, football tournament then movies night with the older 2 once dd2 went to bed, a few things got done though.
Ta da
Morning routine
Load of washing dried
Everyone did a 10 mins blast downstairs so we could relax and watch the film, the kids really enjoyed seeing how much they could do before the timer went off, so I may pop it in the evening routine so they can pick up their toys and pack their bags.

Evening all

to everyone on here who have family members with dementia. It is such a cruel illness .

I have achieved absolutely zero Flying today and just one dog walk. Dh staggered around manfully doing the other two. Oh and I managed to stuff some seed potatoes that are way overdue for proper planting in to temporary pots. Also played about 10 games of cards with dd, two games of Frustration and one game of Monopoly as a family. Shame really to spend so much time indoors as it was a beautifully sunny day but none of us felt up to much.

Like the idea of your utility room cupboads loaded with alcohol Foxes

Links coming up ...

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The summary for Sunday 7th May is available on the Flylady website here under "Today" and via the flight plan) which should update itself automatically on a daily basis.

Baby-step no 7 for Sun 7th is here. An important one about putting out clothes for the next day, the night before!

From the 7th May we will be starting in Zone 2: Kitchen, Back Porch, Laundry Room,Pantry (May 07-13) here.

Spend 15 mins decluttering the current zone. (If you do zone work at weekends that is; I'm afraid I rarely do!)

When you have finished decluttering, the detailed cleaning list (if you are at that stage) for Zone 2 is here.

No missions because it is the weekend! Yay!

The daily focus for Sunday is renewing your spirit which is a rather sick-bucket-ish way of saying take some time out for yourself to do something which helps you feel rested and refreshed (not always possible with young 'uns at your heels though]].

The monthly habit is moving in May!

Daily reminders (which should also update automatically) are here.

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Thanks for links SC. Meant to say earlier, that sounds promising that your DD is looking at other dance / exercise. It is hard when a huge part of life just disappears .

Off to watch a bit of TV before bed. As usual not quite achieved the organised, spotless, calm environment I aim for .

Thanks Toostressy we'll see what happens; it has to be her own decision. As long as she does some form of exercise I'm happy, although I do miss seeing her dance!

Btw ... Organised, spotless, calm =boring , I reckon

Ta da
Morning routine
1 load washed & dried
15 mins decluttering paperwork work cupboard (really need to get this finished so I can move zones)
15 mins putting clothes away
Started to pack for dd school trip for next Sunday

Dd2 got up at 530 and everyone was still in bed so I managed to get lots done before they got up

To do
Finish packing / final shopping list for the trip
15 mins decluttering kitchen - kitchen isn't cluttered apart from a bit of skirting board that needs painting and sticking on, then the radiator can be put back on instead of being lent on the wall, I've asked oh to tackle it and surprisingly he's already started it!!
Roast dinner
30 mins ironing
2 x washing

toostressy I hardly ever achieve what I set out to do either, if I can eventually get to organised chaos rather than chaos I'll be happy, life's too short to worry about having a show home.

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend !

For those that have done all of the zones before, I have a conservatory on the back of the house that I use as a playroom , would that be classed as the back porch, or do you do living areas in another zone?

Good morning Rosabella

If you look here you will see that Zone 3 includes the bathroom and one other room. So that other room could be your conservatory?

As you get used to the system, you can just adapt it to suit your own home though. For example, my house has loads of rooms that don't fit in to the zones as prescribed by Flylady (this is not a stealth boast btw; as most of them have missing floorboards, holes in the walls, plentiful cobwebs, crumbling plaster and no leccy) but I have added a couple of them to each zone, so that they get a going over ever month, or (in reality) every other month or so.

Also, as your house gets less cluttered and cleaner by the month (not sure mine does but this is the theory anyway!) you might find you can fit more rooms in to certain zones. For example, our bathroom is now decluttered and clean (although it does need decorating badly) but anyway, what with s&s, it really doesn't need lots of extra scrubbing so I can easily now fit two extra rooms in to Zone 3 if I wasn't a lazy arse that is.

And at the start of this month, I didn't need to do much in the dining room porch area as it is pretty clear (although I should have done front door and outside etc which I didn't) but I used that time to do some work on our woefully cluttered first floor.

Hope that makes sense!

Oh sorry, I don't think I read your question properly after all of that

Sorry! Zone 5, the living room, will be from May 28 to 31 here. Flylady tends not to allocate much time to sitting rooms as I think she reckons they receive quite a bit of attention in that we spend more time in them. Not sure!

HTH!

And should have said, Zone 5 includes a "den" which could qualify as your playroom/conservatory perhaps?

Got there finally

Dh has taken dd to maths tuition (on a Sunday morning exceptionally) armed with a food list to do some grocery shopping. Which leaves me one hour alone to wash uniforms and sports kit and start tackling the hideous pit that is our boudoir. No one sleeps in it (except when someone is ill) and so the bed gets used as a depository for every random bit of clutter that doesn't have a home (or we can't be bothered to put away properly). Right now the level of crap is about a foot high (and the floor is not looking much better). Wish me luck... .

SC and Rosabella, organised chaos is going to be my aim! Good luck with boudoir SC.

Ta da:-
One load laundry on line, other in washer
Dishwasher on
DH has taken DD2 out and I am at DD1's activity

To do:-
We are seeing relatives this afternoon - hardly ever see them, a bit worried about how it will all go tbh
DD1 has a fair bit of homework so will need help plus we need to take some photos then find somewhere to print them out on a Sunday. So not really expecting any flying this afternoon.

Bah. Going away tomorrow and am ill. Typical!!!

Aww hope you feel better Cag as the day goes on. Can you take anything for it? Not done too much today as my son was playing football and it was quite far away so we had a bit of a road trip and just back.

2 loads of washing done but house overall not looking too bad as got a few bits done yesterday.

Not looking forward to decluttering the kitchen this week though it's probably my worst room for mess and badly needs updated. I have 2 cupboards full to the brim with junk so I am going to get onto them.

But not today...it's lovely and sunny so sitting in the garden while the sun is out xxx

Ta da
Daily routine
Ironing
Dh hoovered downstairs
Dh and dd made gingerbread men

To do
Get children in the bath and into bed!

Have got new baby lullaby light projector for ds cot. I'm not expecting miracles from it since we had one with dd and it never got her to sleep but it did calm her down if she got agitated in the night with teething etc. Hopefully DS will like it anyway! And if it does make him go to sleep then so much the better!!

Hope everyone had a nice day today. Hope you feel better very quickly cag

Hope you feel better Cag. Rubbish timing .

Ta da:-
The meeting with relatives was fab
Tea eaten
DDs bathed and watching a film upstairs with DH to let me tidy downstairs with Netflix .
DD1 homework done

To do:-
Laundry - put in drier and get bits off line
Milk for DDs
Dishwasher
MUST do some kind of downstairs organising later- there are piles of paperwork
Bedtime
Calendar check

Thanks all I am somewhat limited because of the pregnancy! Not that anything particularly works when I get like this TBH (due to the underlying health issues these silly viruses tend to really kick off). DH is bringing some bits home from work - squash and honey for hot drinks etc. But yeah soooo pissed off about the timing. Will need to see a doctor tomorrow I think (just in case it is an actual infection - it's getting worse) - thankfully we weren't leaving till the afternoon anyway