Fledglings cocoon, we're Flying in June ... .

[SansCollier]

Welcome to the June 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 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!

Good luck Cag it's a nightmare and the "points" system is an awful way to assess

Work day today but day off tomorrow huzzah

Have a good day everyone x

Good morning all!

Cag Very best of luck with the all-important appointment today and agree that a points system sounds awful. And don't worry too much about decluttering (easy to say I know!) it's important to get out and about too though!

Afreshstart hope your boss is amenable to you dropping your hours as your current situation sounds unsustainable/very stressful/ you are stretched very thin There are only so many hours in a day and 4.30 am teething sounds v tough too. And for fab weekend Flying! Oh and did you find the Marmite in the end?

Hope you had a better sleep last night Cotswold!

Toostressy Good luck with the 123 plan and for clothes decluttering! And another one for "moving in June"! Glad your in-laws visit went well! If you don't mind me saying so, if you all get on well when they come, then it kind of demonstrates even more that your parents behaviour wrt your dc and parenting etc is completely unreasonable, and nothing whatsover to do with anything you have done!

Toostressy Bit extreme but have you considered a dog? (For wearing out dc I mean!) Poss the last thing you want to have to deal with currently (so ignore if so!) but DD used to be a very high energy child before adolescence struck (so there is light at the end of the tunnel there btw !) and one of the reasons we adopted our dog was to provide a focus for walking and getting her out for a walk after dinner (she always had mahoosive post-dinner energy surge). Your dc might be a bit young atm but in my (limited!) experience animals really help to calm dc down. I am a firm believer in fresh air (which I am sure you are already providing loads of) but its much easier to insist that dc come out for dog walks than just for walking per se. Swimming is also totally knackering for everyone I think but I hate it and was fortunate that state schools here offer good swimming programmes. Dance was fantastic for wearing her out of course until she gave it up but she's now in to long-distance running, step dance, badminton and cycling instead. Don't know if any of that is helpful or not!

Rosa Hope your sun burn is easing! And don't be so hard on yourself re: the daily stuff! Pat yourself on the back for your significant decluttering achievements!! You've done loads!

[I'm rather disappointed in myself that I haven't managed more in the boudoir last week. I thought it would be easier - working on major tidy up and sort from previous month - and it would have been had I kept at it consistently. But of course, owing to work, did virtually no Flying at all last week and now all the clutter has built back up again. (Not quite to same level thankfully but nearly.) Gah!

Hope you have caught up with some shut eye Einstein! And congrats on mega-Saturday -list . Hope you and have found a solution for the eight-legged one!

Zoo nets and stream sounds idyllic and glad kitties totally recovered now!

Mermaids now the holidays are coming up, I think I need to do the same with the router thing!

Purple hope you haven't been eaten by the washing pile monster and that crisis clean went ok! Not surprised that survival was the order of the day with 35°c heat in the classroom !! No wonder you were exhausted! Glad the batch cooking was a success though and sunburn now healing, albeit peeling!

Dh and I had some extremely rare time alone yesterday which was nice after our picnic delivery duties were done and had a great time at the coast and caught up with some relations on dh's side of the family. Furry had a great time barking and running away from waves! And dd is exhausted from bicycling many miles with friends!

However that meant that I had to do quite a bit of work when I got home last night which was totally stupid and completely self-inflicted.

Heigh no! Another day and all of that! Have a good one everybody!

Enthusiastic wing flaps to Honu¨Greymalkin Whoknows Foxes Mumontherun Mercury and everyone I have forgotten!

Morning everyone! Hope everyone had a nice weekend.

Happy belated to your DD Cag and good luck with the assessments

Hope your boss is on board with change of hours afresh fingers crossed

Still very much in catch up/ survival mode here. We are just too busy at weekends lately and both me and DH feeling a bit run down and lacking in motivation!

Flipping Hoover has broken AGAIN it's a dyson and the hose has split, this is replacement hose number 3 that's gone now. I refuse to replace it again! I don't know what we do to them but don't feel we are excessively rough with it! Time for a change...any recommendations?

Sorry left Longtime Alfie and Bluepheasant off wave list and many others I am sure!

Ha! x posts Bluepheasant Telepathy obviously!

Take it steady if you and your dh are feeling below par! That's not good about the hoover. No suggestions I am afraid but watching with interest as I need a replacment! Always found my late ma's Dyson to be stonkingly heavy though!

Yes dyson is way too heavy, something lighter is a must, I'm so fed up of the lugging the stupid thing around!

Eight legged one is still hiding somewhere in my room.
Ds has left the lounge a bomb site and told me I am making a fuss over nothing
he is cross because I told him i was not doing school uniform wash until he gave me all of the uniform out of his room. He didn't so he has to wear his least favourite uniform shirt (it is missing a button and he was supposed to remind me so I can fix it but he forgot)
And there is NO drinkable milk for coffee. There is about 3 pints of milk that has lumpy bits that float in coffee but none for drinking

All i want to do is curl back up and go back to sleep really not feeling on top form atm. But I have a mahooosive list to do. So I am going to have to fall into the shower and then crawl round to the corner shop for coke or milk so I can get a nice strong caffeine fix to help.

To do
Laundry - wash it
fold it
iron it
put it away
wash my bedding incl duvet which had stuff split over it when i sneezed last night
wash ds' pillows for his anti dust mite wash
rediscover the lounge
move books from up stairs downstairs
sort financial paperwork
move 2 book shelves having emptied them - 1 spider hunting, 2nd for rearranging height
tackle my room.
hoover my car
food shop
rescue kitchen - god know what happened in there in since sat lunchtime
rescue pot I burnt yesterday
put tea on to cook
sort out airport run arrangements
post letters that I have still not sent - it is getting ridiculous now

And there is probably more but I am going to start with that as the most essential...

Oh dear, not the best Monday morning Einstein! Good luck with the list! Mine is similarly lengthy but am going to do mini lists today otherwise I think I'll just give up!

Ta da

Finished online food shop
Washed breakfast dishes
Wiped worktops, (except by Kettle as can't bloody see the surface)

To do

Washing out on line
Next load in machine
Clean kitchen table
Sweep floor

I'm with you re: the "power of three" today BluePheasant!

Einstein you have total sympathy from me wrt delivering washing thing! We had a great system set up - dd chose the laundry receptacle she wanted from Ikea - and it was her job to put her dirty clothes in it and carry it down to the top of the basement stairs (didn't even ask her to take it all the way down to the laundry!) every Friday night! This worked well for about six months and then the novelty wore off ... oh boy... drives me nuts!!!! I have to go around searching for her dirty laundry which she now leaves not only in her room, but seemingly all over the house! (And as there are approx 70 stairs between the laundry and her bedroom I am not at all happy about this!) I have carried on doing her laundry nonetheless (which is probably where I went wrong) but not for much longer. And she can be quite rude if she doesn't have the item she wants washed and ready!! So I think someone is going to have a laundry lesson 101 during the holidays and start doing their own at least while they are off school for nine weeks anyway!!

Meant to say take it steady if you are feeling below par, and good luck with your list

At what age did everyone start doing their own laundry at home btw?

I'm pretty certain I was doing all my laundry on my own by the age of 16/17 yrs, but can't remember very clearly! I definitely did all my own riding stuff and school uniform/gym kit etc from about the age of 14 yrs I think. But it's a bit of a blur. Which kind of shows how little domestic tasks register in the adolescent mind!!

Good luck for today cag fingers crossed this will be a step forward for your ds.

Let us know when you get a response fresh, hopefully your boss will be flexible enough to let you drop your hours.

sc glad you enjoyed some time with dh, we all need that time to appreciate each others company, which can be forgotten when bogged down with day to day stuff. It's hard keeping on top of things whilst decluttering, I'm still playing catch up. I'm sure we'll have beautiful houses.........eventually..........hopefully..........maybe

Ta da
2nd load of washing in, 1st out on the line
beds stripped
kids at school

to do
house bleurgh (need to spend some time on dd's room this week, she's such a scruffbag haha)
chicken curry for tea (new recipe)
some more washing
play catch up on other daily stuff

dd2 has decided to only have a 10 min nap so I'll need all the luck I can today, she's currently quiet having a snack, I'm hoping that if I keep nipping outside with her, then inside to do something off the list, then outside again it'll stop her from getting bored of Mummy doing chores. Better get on and try to attack the never ending list!

I don't think I did start doing my own laundry while I lived at home SC and to be honest I don't think it makes any sense to do so. For example my DCs each have a white school shirt every day and I might wear a couple of white tops in a week plus mine and DD's underwear. At the moment that is one machine load of whites. If we all did our own whites that would be three not very full loads. Also doing the Flylady one load a day thing works really well, but if we were all doing our own we would end up with more than one person washing, maybe not enough room on the line for it all or whatever. Also I am really strict about not having the WM on while we are out or in bed because of the fire risk which restricts when we can do it. So, I'd rather still combine everyone's washing and have the DCs take turns to do it whoever it belongs to, which they are starting to do.

Yes indeed, one can dream Rosa!! We definitely need to stay positive!
Tbh, I've come to the conclusion that I need to Fly with iron determination in order to succeed - something that is definitely not happening atm! Where I am going wrong is making progress one week - and instead of building on that- am sitting back and being too complacent with the follow up: hence not much decluttering progress made! OK, so last week I was very tied up with work, but I could have made the effort to do 15 mins in boudoir if I had put my mind to it and been better orgnanised! Gah! Need to actually do this instead of waffling on about it! Good luck with yours though !

Whoknows yes it is for all those reasons you've listed that I haven't delegated the washing yet. Have exactly the same situation with dd needing a white uniform shirt per day. I also colour separate to a ludicrous degree and have little piles everywhere waiting to form a complete load - something I need to get less anal about! Good idea about taking turns to do the family washing though! Think I will adopt that strategy for the holidays as I do want dd to learn how to do it and also gain a bit of appreciation of what is involved. And obviously, much more economically efficient to do it your way! Thanks!

I was doing the family wash by the time I was 12, but then I was running the house pretty much and was caring for my siblings. So I was also doing the cooking, reading practise and the ironing etc.
Ds knows how to do put a load in the washing machine and by the time I have 6 blue shirts, 2 pairs of black trousers and a blazer it is pretty much a full load and goes on as such. He will be putting this load on himself later. He was ironing his school t-shirts in primary. He has ironed 1 school shirt and any grief today about the washing and he will be ironing his own shirts! can you tell I am pissed off?

Imo they don't need to be only putting on a load of their washing they are part of the family and totally capable of putting on a load of family washing!

I should really get moving. someone miss judged my mood and caught a bit of a rant.

Blimey Einstein you took on a lot of responsibility as a child! That sounds tough going, which must have been hard, although good prep for the future I suppose. You sound like my dh who grew up in a similar situation. OK - agreed - family loads of washing it is! Thanks for the advice! And hope your day improves

Tbh it was a hell of a lot easier than what I am dealing with now.

But it is also the reason I get so pissed off with ds who refuses to do ANYTHING around the house.

Same here Einstein my late ma was very strict/old school - I wouldn't have dared to get away with some of the stuff that we let dd get away with ! It infuriates me too as I had quite a few non-negotiable jobs to do around the house and had to do them when told!! I would not have dared to refuse, or not to carry it through.

It's such a difficult balance to strike because I don't want to be nagging and runnng a house by fear, but dd doesn't respond to polite requests either . I am at a loss really! I just have to step back and hang on to the fact that looked at objectively and with a broader perspective, although she may not be doing the things I ask at that moment, or even that week, things are gradually improving and going in the right direction over time!

Right, now coach-loads full of children, removal vans, and rubbish collection carts have all stopped making a noise in the street ... I can finally get on with my work!

Have a good day everyone!

Morning all

cag good luck today
Rosa be kind yo yourself.you've achieved LOADS decluttering this week
afresh bugger of an early start.if you anything like mr be face down in sofa by 8pm

So bandy nets went down a storm,had lively time.then on way back ds start complsun chest very painful(he's had a bit cold all week n eyes stream a bit which think maybe hayfever,neither seem serious enough warrant gp) anyhoo halfway home he starts lagging saying in lit pain.we get in he kinda panting with s grunt /cough every couple out breaths.I sat down with drink n helped girls wash hair(both very long) and by time csne back he was getting worse.... I rang gp fir OOH number and it just connects 111.as ds has chest pain and breathing problems we got a paramedic emergency response in under 4mins
I was so embarrassed as all I wanted was see out hours doctor
Stupid system wasting valuable services(but I do appreciate the NHS and all the wonderful people who make it happen)he refer us there after a quick ECG and oxygen check.dp spent bear 3hr down there incl 45min ds on nebulizer. He's an inhaler n told cough/grunt return in next 3days see gp......

After all that I barely slept

Tadas
Fed Scoutcat
Fed Kitts/litter tray
Re do litter tray after poo "puddle"- damn goat kitten eating corned beef off floor
Breakfasts and pack up
Slow walk lil zoo school.ds was pant way back but I had no other way get her in.have manage find someone to pick up

Indeed but the what mess I got from ds this morning has proper pissed me off along with various other issues which would have been solved if he had tidied his room as he was told to this weekend. Tonight it gets tidy and I will be picking that battle.

It is really stupid isn't how you can only access ooh GP through 111, who refuse to allow you to see them because the computer said no. Although tbf with the treatment he received it does sound like he did need the response he got. Hope he improves soon zoo

Posted too soon
Bins out
Recycling out
Wash on
Located table top(had clear space girls eat breakfast)
Hallways shoes in box,coats bags hung up
Stairs cleared
Landing cleared
Hoovered-kitts scatter fearful of huge black sucking monster!!
Wash in dryer,more on
Feels better be able walk into tidy area.poor paramedic near snap neck getting in yesterday

Wash up done
Surface wiped
Hob cleaned
Cupboard fronts wiped

Running out of steam.I may attack front room after a rest.ds prop ip on sofa looking very sorry for self

Thanks Einstein

I too sm do battle after school
Dd2 laundry is joke scattered everywhere, along most her belongings.had meltdown voilfnt find pencil case/planner this morning and of course all my fault couldn't find clean trousers.I snapped had you out then even on the landing they would've been done but if you squirrel them god knows where I not fannying around hunting fir them.gggggrrrrrrrrrr

Just got home. It's official. Both the Caglets are autistic!