Lost the plot with clutter? Want sparkle(r)s in your sink? Come Fly with flare on the November Fledgling thread!

[Sludgecolours]

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.

This is where, from the first of the month (seriously, HOW is it November already?!), we follow – loosely – the rules of FlyLady [see website here ]. (Pls ignore the barftastic language, and we suggest NOT signing up to the emails as there are rather a lot of them. All the info you need will be posted here on a daily basis.)

Helpful info on getting started here!.

We adopt a three-pronged approach:

-start or repeat baby steps

• repeat baby steps + do 15 mins a day decluttering in the current zone or area (yes, just 15 mins focused work a day makes a difference!)

and/or

• 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.]

NB
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 not only welcome to join in but positively encouraged to do so!

Another NB
Start where you are. There is no need to worry about being perfect – perfectionism = paralysis! There is no such thing as ‘falling behind’ with FlyLady, if you miss anything, just move on and continue as normal the next day.

Any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

Good luck!

I finally shifted myself late in the evening and did a set of housework. Some ta das covering the entire day:

-- market shopping

-- cleared the dishwasher and loaded it

-- made soup and cleared stuff in the fridge

-- cleared dishwasher again and OH took over loading and cleaning the rest of the kitchen

-- sorted summer vs. winter clothing and packed away summer stuff. This cleared my half of the wardrobe as everything was a total mess in there.

-- OH & I put unwanted clothes into a nice hard shell suitcase to donate to refugees. I'll drop that off in a couple of weeks. It's alarming how many extra clothes you have once you really start picking things apart.

-- OH fixed the slats and metal supports on the bed so we can sleep easily again instead of gingerly waiting for the bed to crash every couple nights. :/

The closet stuff was a huge weight off my mind because I seriously dreaded getting dressed in the morning. Tomorrow evening I'll focus on unpacking one of my bags from all the traveling we've recently done. I'm so bad about unpacking suitcases and such. There's a duffle bag and a suitcase sitting in the middle of our living room right now :(

Lovey family visits thank you sc. Waves to everyone!

Tadas

Dm’s list finished!
Dh collected from airport
Hotel and restaurant booked for Friday evening as going to visit ds2 in London

To do tomorrow

Spend some time with dh for a change

Morning all(mad early riser here)
bower we are not like a large part of mn these days(bitchy)no one gets flamed on this thread no matter what you fess up too
which is why i moved in and took up residence

Tadas
Fed cats
Cleaned littertray
Empty bathroom bin
Cleaned down hob
Wiped kitchen surfaces

Ready to clean fridge and freezer out
Dp off today(due 830 as was on a sleep in last night) so trying get bits done so we can gave some time together..
cag making milk is a great tada!!(only thing better was tada and a baby born!!)
stressy hope birthday went well still trying find homes some lil zoo things

< waves to everyone else>

Yesterday Ta Dahs -

Dusted
Hoovered
Meal planned
Organised sofa repair
Got all Christmas presents out of stash and looked at them with DH - decided we have enough. We don't
Tidied kitchen before bed

Left the pile of paper clutter in the kitchen.

Today I'm going to look at switching energy suppliers and broadband. I am also going to seriously think about that paper clutter pile.

Bloody cat woke both my children up early this morning . I have put her in the garden but will feel sorry for her in a minute and let her back in so she can continue annoying us!

To do
Swish and swipe toilet
Daily routine
Paper decluttering (I'm still focusing on that as my meal planning is ok but my paper is NOT!)
Declutter in porch (leaflets to recycling today)
Wipe down dining room walls?! (Bit random not sure I've ever wiped walls down...maybe I should have been!)

Oh and my errand is to pick up groceries later.

Off Christmas (sorry! !)shopping with my mum today which I'm really looking forward to as its a chance for us to cheer each other up a bit and take a break from funeral plans and sorting bits out

To do
work
clear up glass I have just knocked off the bedside unit
prep for white goods delivery tomo
pack ds' stuff for weekend
build a thing
go to bed early

Going out to bank today and I hope to pick up some bits for Christmas if it's not too early to mention it!

I'm not a very conscientious flyer: I have tried it before and didn't get on with the sink shining or regimented shoes-on approach.
What did occur though was I saw the benefit in routine cleaning the kitchen at night and swiping the bathroom: essentially the little and often approach rather than the epic blitz I'd managed with in my youth!

My living room looks better because I moved some stray items on Tuesday however when I first read the task to move out anything that didn't belong I thought there was nothing in that category. I am a bit blind to reality (until a guest arrives!)

Morning! Gosh, everyone is very active today! I see quite a few of us are carrying on with the October habit of paper decluttering having sorted our meal plans long ago! (I wholeheartedly support the notion of prioritising grub over admin )

[tentatively steps around Hills in naughty corner and adds extra fleece, fluffy pillow and a flask of strong coffee] Hope your ears get a bit better as w/e approaches and congrats on v respectable ta da list achieved yesterday. Hope today is better x

Mercury congrats on a shiny sink and on the tidying. I have to ask about Christmas parcels in the porch though. Are they coming in or going out? I bow down in admiration if the latter!

What a lovely first post BowerBird5 and a very warm welcome to the thread! (Love your nn btw!) Many of us on here have stacks of craft materials so you are not alone! And congrats on first ta da list!
And gosh, awwwww to finding baby hedgehog!! How is it today? Believe it or not, that is the second hedgehog that has appeared on this thread. Both you and Cag chanelling the tiggywinkles!!

Speaking of Cag a most essential ta da list achieved there!

Enjoy your delayed Halloween celebrations with your dss today FlyingJellyfish! Hope you all have a good day!

[Nicks slice of black forest gateau and sticks behind ear for later.] You are so right about the starting being the most difficult thing Onemorecoffee! I often build up tasks in my imagination and dread them, when in reality they are not that onerous and the energy put in to the stress and angst of procrastination, would really have been better spent doing the actual task .

JingsMahBucket Hope you had a good night's sleep without enduring a bed collapse! Congrats on your productive day yesterday, especially the wardrobe decluttering! I need to follow your good example and get mine sorted before Christmas. Too many clothes of different sizes (owing to weight gain ) here! I agree it makes such a difference in the morning when everything is organised! And sympathies over suitcase disorder - dh contributes lots in this dept!

Hope you and your dh and ds2 have a fab time in London over the weekend Longtime!

Callmecordelia I am seriously impressed that you have done most of your Christmas shopping already! I have a few items but haven't started mine properly yet! Must get cracking! Congrats on your list achieved too!

Don't worry Foxes I think it is only smudges and finger marks we are meant to target on the dining room walls! And congrats on a productive day yesterday. Hope you have a lovely time shopping with your mum today; you deserve some time out at the moment [flower]

I can see your shiny fridge freezer from here Zoo! Here's a and some energy boost after such an early start!

TaylorTinker you are definitely on the right thread as we are not very conscientious Flyers either ... well some of us are... but some of us (include myself in this category) definitely are not! But, as you say, despite the barftastic language, the underlying system is sound and all the routines and baby steps (urgh, still loathe that phrase after all these years) and little and often approach do actually work if done consistently. Glad you are beginning to see the results in your sitting room anyway!

I hope I haven't missed anybody! Just about to go and prod the teens who I can here are awake but have not emerged yet! My plan to smoke them out with wafts of sausage and bacon aromas hasn't worked so I am going with the loud rustling of the croissant bag technique . They are both riding at lunch time so need sustenance beforehand. Think they were up mega late in to the early hrs this morning though ... heard lots of giggling in the night ... .

On holiday here so not Flying particularly - just relaxing - although kitchen (temporary camp in barn) needs organising before next set of visitors arrive on Sunday! And builders' rubble needs sorting of course ... as ever ... .

Have a good day everyone! BBL this evening to see how you have all got on!

Cheery wing flaps to Honu Cotswold Afreshstart and everyone else I have missed!

Sorry missed newcomers Lizziesnips, I'vegotbills, Aurora, BzyB, Getyourrocksoff yummyeclair ibuiltahomeforyou Lelly78 off the wing flap list! Hope you are all doing ok! Any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

[Sorry BzyB know you are not strictly a newcomer!!]

Missed Mercury and Shannara too (apologies!) difficult to scroll on this device!

Hope I haven't missed anyone else and apologies if so!

Have a great Flying day everyone! Tally-hooooooooo!

Morning! I am a bit grumpy this morning due to lack of sleep. Not because of baby - she is doing really well so far and tends to go 12-4.30 which isn't bad for a week old I think?! But anyway when I got up to feed her I was having those horrible afterpains again and so ended up with painkillers, hot water bottle and TENS machine as it was so bad.

No plans particularly today, was hoping to get out for a little walk but will have to see if I'm able to now. DH is taking the Caglets to Badgers later. Should probably sort clean clothes and stuff today if we are stopping in for most of the day. I'm still in bed cuddling a milk-drunk little lady.

Hello! Really trying to establish the 15 minutes of declutter rule. I don't have a dining room as such but a large Ikea unit at the back of the living room where the dining table is. So I spent 15 minutes decluttering that last night even though I couldn't be bothered. I forgot the power of 15 and how that little time can make a difference. Just about to go do the same with the hall.

Morning routines are done, the are pretty established now. I manage to make the bed, empty the dishwasher, put a load of washing on and swish the loo all before the kettle boils!

ta da
✅got out for a walk! 20 mins very slow ambling (partly footpath through the woods) but felt soooo much better for the fresh air

Photo of milkdrunk baby just for cotswold :o

Had the builders in to look at the attic. Waiting for a quote but they said they are booked until March and they can come in then. I said to DH that seems fine as the next two months we'll be prepping for xmas anyway. This means we have 4 months to do xmas and declutter the whole attic as they need it empty!

So I've told DH best thing to do is to get all clutter INTO the attic and organise the layout of the rest of the house and declutter over the next 4 months.

So today took kids to park and DH has taken them swimming. I will empty dining room and hopefully master bedroom into attic. Working over weekend so will start zones next week/ organising rooms.

Aww Cag what a sweet little baby!

I need to go and sit in the naughty corner. It was a lovely day, so I went for a walk and a coffee with my Dad instead of any house stuff.

*

The summary for Fri 3rd November 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. 3 for Fri 3rd Nov is here! Continue with steps 1 and 2 and explore the Flylady website.

We are in Zone 1 (November 1-4) : here.

By the way, if you want to see how the zones pan out for the month of November, have a look here.

Spend 15 mins decluttering the current zone.

When you have finished decluttering, the detailed cleaning list for Zone 1 (if you are at that stage) is here.

Friday's mission is here. Put on some music and spend 15 mins decluttering/sorting things that live on your dining room table; the things you usually have to move before you can sit down and eat.

The daily focus for Fri is decluttering our purses, handbags, cars + date night here.

The monthly habit for November is menu planning here! (Although many of us are still focusing on paper clutter!).

Flykid's challenge: here (hopefully continually renewing itself).

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

Holiday missions here!.

Keep going everyone!

What a gorgeous photo Cag!! Hope after pains are easing. Go steady!

Good luck with renovation planning FlyingJellyfish we are doing a lot of that sort of thing here atm!

Posting the links early tonight because busy this evening! Hope you have all had a good day!

Oh yes, ta da:
cooked teens brunch
took them horse riding waiting and brought them back
took them out for croque monsieur + soup lunch in local cafe
baked 4 lots of sticky gingerbread (very messy) with their help
made beef and mushroom casserole
made butternut squash soup

Off out tonight to local event, catch up with you all tomorrow morning!

Have a good evening everyone!

CallmeCordelia The whole point of the Flying system is that it should ultimately allow you to have more time to do things that are much more interesting than cleaning! So on that basis, you have Flown very well indeed today ! We all need a break sometimes anyway and are usually much more productive for it! Besides which, we need to enjoy the lovely autumn weather while it is still here!

Getyourrocksoff glad you found the "power of 15 mins" effective and congrats on decluttering + routines!

Cheery wing flaps to everyone else!

Aaaawwww! What a gorgeous photo of baby caglet.
Great Ta Das baby feeding and a fresh air walk.

My before work Ta Dahs:
Washing on (1 load)
Empty dishwasher
Breakfast on kitchen table ( ta dah is it is possible)
Washed floor last night but needed to do a quick swish where chicken sneaked in with a mucky foot.
Shopping list but then couldn't find purse so couldn't do it after work.
PM
Home before dark😊 made my tea early and fell asleep afterwards. Granny nap but not a granny!
Load dishwasher.
De cluttered wrappers from some left over Halloween sweets (still on paper declutter from October.)
15 mins cleaned dining room window.
Now going to do some work( colouring in S&L cards).

cag love the picture!
Callme Agree with SC on the issue of taking time off. The fly lady says it is important and makes sunday a pamper you day so NO guilt for things like coffee with family!!!!

Lots of productive days here.

My day is out of control and my ta da list growing exponetially it feels likes. Will be a late one and a long list. For those that find it scary looking just ignore it white good delivery + bombsite house + ds away for the weekend + 5hr road trip tomo = lots to do tonight. Tomo will be gentler. And saturday will probably include very little too. saying that now watch me have huge lists both days as life throws a curve ball but that is the plan!