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Housekeeping

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Stepping forward in October: the new look fledgling Fly thread.

999 replies

Spreadingcudweed · 30/09/2018 09:34

OK so maybe not new and improved exactly... but a more slimline, concentrated version!

Huge thanks to Hills for guiding us so slickly through September Flowers Cake Brew!

Many of us have been here forever; the thread where we (loosely) follow the Flylady housekeeping system here to combat CHAOS (can't have anyone over syndrome) with a load of Wine chat and mutual support along the way. For that reason, we may seem cliquey, but we really aren't and all newcomers, lurkers, returnees and (intermittent) regulars are hugely welcome!

We are not posting links to the Flylady site on a daily basis anymore, just the daily baby step and flight plan, and the missions and zones on a weekly basis, but don't hesitate to ask questions about the system if you have any!

More information available here and from the launch pad here.

And borrowing heavily from Hills September introduction ... .

There are 4 levels for Flying:
-Baby steps - good for finding a routine in the tasks and getting over the perfection crippling effect
-Baby steps and missions - yep basic routine and more in depth tasks

  • Baby steps, missions, and deep cleaning (if you are at that stage) - can't clean clutter so don't consider this one if you need the next level
  • Flying combined with a decluttering system (kondo/unfuck etc etc) lets be honest fly lady is good for routine but not so quick with the decluttering results sometimes.

There is NO wrong or right way of doing this, it is about adapting the system to suit your life circumstances, which will be different from someone else's.

And when it all gets too much: come and take a seat by the fire in our specially adapted "naughty" corner where you can enjoy virtual Cake and Wine and tangible support from fellow fledglings.

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Thread gallery
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Spreadingcudweed · 30/09/2018 09:52

So borrowing heavily (again!) from Hill's September introduction ....don't be put off by the barftastically twee nature of the Flylady site, the underlying system is sound. Feel free to ignore any step or routine that doesn't sound you or your home!

More info follows:

** launch pad (general info)

**[[http://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/
daily babysteps (ignore the ones that don't suit you or your home)]]

** week day missions (some fledglings find it easier to do them at weekends)

**weekly zones (a rough weekly guide to which area of the house we are tackling currently, again adapt to suit yourself)

**daily focus (helpful guide to allocate a certain day for a certain task)

** deep cleaning lists pdf (only attempt when you have decluttered as you can't clean clutter!)

Happy Flying everyone!

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Spreadingcudweed · 30/09/2018 10:04

Er, that should have read "suit" not "sound" sorry!

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Cagliostro · 30/09/2018 10:15

Hello! Thanks for new thread and hills for September

I will really try and keep up this month. With the thread I mean. Flying itself is unlikely 😳😂

SassitudeandSparkle · 30/09/2018 22:19

Just booking my place for October! Thanks for running the October thread SC and thanks for the fabulous September thread Hills.

This month, I will make a difference and enforce order on Chez Sparkle

HillsBesideTheSea · 30/09/2018 23:24

Evening.

Bowerbird5 · 01/10/2018 05:19

Good morning.
Thanks Hills for leading us through September especially as you were unwell. Hope October is better for you.
Thanks for hosting the October one SC.
Hoping to get cracking this month starting today.

Stilllivinginazoo · 01/10/2018 05:42
Spreadingcudweed · 01/10/2018 06:57

Good morning all!

Sorry to the early birds; had intended to do this last night but fell asleep!

Here we go again anyway; the start of another month! Have a good one fledglings!

This is how the zones pan out for the month of October:
Zone 1: Entrance, Front Porch & Dining Room (1-5 Oct)
Zone 2: Kitchen, Pantry (6-12 Oct)
Zone 3: The Main Bathroom and One Extra Room (13-19 Oct)
Zone 4: The Master Bedroom, Bath, Closet (20-26 Oct)
Zone 5: The Living Room, Den, Family Room (27-31 Oct)

WEEK BEGINNING MONDAY OCTOBER 1st
Today's flight plan: here. (It shouldn't be showing two zones as we are in Zone 1 currently.)
Today's baby-step: here.
This week's zone: here.
Missions for the week: here.
The daily focus for Monday is: here.
The habit for the month of October is paper clutter.

Tomorrow I will only be posting the flight plan + baby-step. Have I got that right according to what everyone wanted? Please tell me if not!

Have a productive start to the week fledglings!

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foxessocks · 01/10/2018 07:16

Morning everyone! I'm feeling less tired this morning I was exhausted this weekend and we were so busy. I'm not working today like I usually do on Mondays and we have a fairly quiet day just a little toddler group up the road and take dd to school obviously. So I plan to get the home bleugh done as per usual and also a little bit of zone stuff. We'll see how it goes!

Need to jump straight in the shower now while the dc are still sleeping. (Why oh why couldn't they have had a lie in yesterday morning?!)

HillsBesideTheSea · 01/10/2018 07:55

Sounds good to me SC

bower still struggling with the lurgy - always takes forever to fight off viruses - its a perk of a compromised immune system.

Not sure how much I will be about this month. Ds is not doing well and needs a lot of hands on parenting. Also need to get all the things done. Still working on August's to do list, haven't really started September's to do list, and there is well over half of JUly's to do list left too.... A depressing thought for a chilly MOnday morning.

Shannaratiger · 01/10/2018 08:19

Morning all

Thanks SC for taking on this month's thread.

My house is in CHAOS! Going back to baby's tips to try and regain some routine and organisation. Am also going to put the routines up somewhere so DH and the kids can see it. If DH is having a good day he can manage about 10 minutes of housework which really helps his mental health.

To Do

Last night's washing up
PCWORLD to buy new laptop
Finish filling out Universal Credit Formby
Go to work
Need to get moving.
Have a good day and hope poorly people are feeling a bit better.

Spreadingcudweed · 01/10/2018 09:14

[Stokes fire and slumps in to rocking chair for five mins with Brew. Offers enormous teapot and plate of Biscuit around to everyone else ... .]

Lovely to "see" you Shannara; and all the regulars of course!

Thanks Hills! I am your doppelganger today because I feel pretty much the same wrt Aug, Sept & Oct "to do" lists so you are not alone. Flowers .Sorry to hear your ds is finding things tough going at school and funnily enough I am also battling lurgy! Hope you can throw off yours soon.

Zoo how is your ds doing atm?

DD also needing a lot of input (no sn so not remotely the same I know) but academic level and pace has stepped up considerably this year (as has amount of hwk required) and its been a bit of a shock to her. Also she loved her mixed level titulaire group last year and this year is much more competitive. Let's just say that the during-the-day stresses are fully expressed after school!

Meant to say to Sass earlier that it's great to hear that your dd is settling in to her new school so well!

Simply cannot believe it is October already and I am supposed to be sorting (finally!) office paperwork! And even more depressing, I remember sitting in this very room (home office) typing away at this point last year saying the very same thing! At least this year the home office is in a reasonable enough state to start tackling the paper clutter ifyswim (papers stacked neatly in labelled boxes instead of being in teetering piles an heaps on the floor). I suppose that's progress. Even though it's progress at tortoise speed!

I am also tackling my diet this month (have put a kilo and a bit on since returning from holiday and needed to lose weight before that!) and upping exercise. Also focusing on French study for residency test.

I had better crack on. Done morning routine but now I am paying for my creative afternoon yesterday (did some embroidery; whoo me, life on the edge!) and have a shed load to cook to keep dh happy. [sigh]

Dh and I are still very "off" with one another today (or rather I am "off" with him as it would take a tsumani or earthquake or some such to disturb his demeanour or work routine!). Very childish on my part really but I am still cross!

I slept through the alarm clock this morning and dh hit the kitchen before me with the result that I was greeted with a huge greasy frying pan full of leftovers of black pudding, apple and bacon when I descended downstairs, and grease spattered all over the stove top. [sigh] Perhaps that is what's known as a passive agressive breakfast?

Heigh ho and onward!

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Spreadingcudweed · 01/10/2018 09:24

Sorry that was far too long!

Ta da:
checked e-mails
carried dirty washing and mugs downstairs (twice)
prepped collars and cuffs and underarms of dh work shirts
two loads of washing on
emptied dw
filled dw
washed up greasy breakfast pan and cleaned bin lin
cleaned kitchen surfaces
cleaned stove top
put away glass recycling
paired socks
carried clean washing and shoes upstairs (twice)

To do:
exercise
French
on-line spice order and UK expat supermarket order
cutlery order
make squash and pepper soup that didn't get done yesterday
make apple pudding
make onion gravey and potato and carrot tray bake thing to go with pork tonight
make biscuits for after school for dd
put away yet more laundered knitwear
continue laundry
bed linen calendaring
dye Barnet Fair
dining room table hot spots
continue decluttering art cupboard
15 mins of paper decluttering!
boudoir bed clearance
sort calendars
chase up friend invitation

That'll do for now although there's loads more!

Onwards and upwards everybody! And if you are finding the colder mornings hard going; remember just doing 5 mins of something will make you feel better!

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Spreadingcudweed · 01/10/2018 09:25

Sorry, emboldening failure there Shannara! Welcome back!

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Cagliostro · 01/10/2018 10:08

Morning all! Feeling much more human today, despite still being incredibly heavy it wasn’t nearly as bad overnight. So managed to help clear up a bit (love how quick it was to be “visitor ready” - far from perfect mind you and did have to shut the door on the kitchen 😂). And we can now start catching up on washing. 🙄

Friend came round to do Japanese, Caglets and her DS didn’t really join in (all 3 autistic) but I think they’ll gradually get used to it. Going to get them to write some in their books now. It’ll take a lot of work during the week to keep up with it but it’s the only way we will move beyond just learning the hiragana (symbols - the Caglets are really good at that) and actually starting to learn to speak it.

DH took Cagletini to the park while they were here so a nice time for them too.

Must go and do some actual work with the Caglets now as they have a birthday party after an early lunch.

SassitudeandSparkle · 01/10/2018 12:17

Well the only order I enforced this morning was disorder Hmm Muck fee, this morning was pants! Grin

DH had an emergency appointment with the GP that I attended with him, as well as making a load of appointments for my DD. I need a 2019 diary now to keep up with a lot of this, or put them in an online diary (I do have a Cozi account with the Flylady stuff that downloads automatically into it, must start using it more!).

I've had a free McD's coffee and will be resetting my day starting now. Or possibly after lunch.

MsForestier · 01/10/2018 12:57

Thank you fledglings - chezForestier is well again and we have made a start on the garden. The house is in okay shape but I'm thinking ahead to renovations and what type of flooring we might have that would be easiest to clean. Move away from carpets might be in order as ds has slight asthma and dust problems.

away next weekend so not bothering with food shop. Hoping for a goodish week. Have shined my sink and am dressed to slippers which is as good as it gets in terms of wearing shoes in the house.

hope you are all recovering nicely/well...

MsForestier · 01/10/2018 13:00

okay … I'm slow off the blocks here today. Barnet fair is indeed hair, n'est ce pas?

Or am I going slowly mad SC?

MsForestier · 01/10/2018 13:04

Sorry, Hiberno-English with the odd splattering of Doric is the lingua franca of the Forestier household. I'm really bad at cockney!

Was going to look up Barnet Fair as a 'thing' - thought it was an object.

Spreadingcudweed · 01/10/2018 13:14

Glad you are feeling better MsForestier and Cag and aye to Barnet Fair =hair!

I've been busy preparing a bilin' o tatties for a recht denner (she said in her best Doric Wink) but I'm a ower the back Grin Grin

Hope your dh is ok Sass must be a lot to take in Flowers

Still working through the list here ... . Wing flaps to all!

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MsForestier · 01/10/2018 13:18

That's funny SC! well done - you've better doric than me!

Spreadingcudweed · 01/10/2018 13:37

Straight from Google I must confess Blush

Being Anglo-Irish, my Hiberno-English is better!

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MercuryRising · 01/10/2018 14:25

Flying by to wave hello after falling off the last thread. Im now 32 weeks pg and am desparately in need of maternity leave. Today I have done 3 loads of washing and paired underwear. I am having to go for small wins.

Spreadingcudweed · 01/10/2018 16:48

Yay Mercury great to "see" you! How exciting; not long now!

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foxessocks · 01/10/2018 17:05

Ta da
Hoovered downstairs
Mopped downstairs
Dusted
Washing on and hung up
Washing folded
Dishwasher on and emptied / reloaded
Fresh towels etc put out
Changed dc bed sheets
Polished mirrors
Emptied bins

I seem to be tired and on the verge of tears a lot at the moment and I'm not entirely sure why Confused I think dd starting school has been harder than I thought (for me not her!) and it doesn't help dh working so much at the moment. Ds didn't nap today and consequently was very difficult on the school run.

Going to chuck some quick and easy stuff in the freezer for dinner and try and pull myself together. Not sure why I feel so out of sorts.