February Flying for Fledglings, No More CHAOS here

[ExpletiveDelighted]

Welcome to February! This is a friendly ongoing thread where we follow (n some cases, very loosely) the Flylady method for sorting out our homes and lives!

Newbies are always welcome here! It’s a long running thread so please don’t worry if we appear cliquey. There’s a lot of chatter and support for all sorts of things, alongside the housework stuff.

Every day I will post a link to the Flylady launch pad, which is where you can access the information for that day - babysteps, missions, daily focus etc. But if you’re confused about anything, please ask!

Check out the website too - but we suggest not signing up for the millions of emails.

The great thing about Flylady is that you jump in where you are. Everything you do is progress. Don’t worry about not “keeping up”. Any achievement, however small, means progress.

More info to follow.

tinselette & willow thank you for thinking of DH. He finally went back to work yesterday (Thursday) and I've been fighting it off. Thinking it's a losing battle, although at work. I had a fairly high fever this morning, but not enough sick time to take off. Medicine dropped my fever, feeling good now, although not looking forward to medicine wearing off later. I have the next 4 days off, but really don't want to spend them being sick with the flu

Trying to keep disinfecting everything today so no-one else gets sick in the office!

I'll try to get back on later to catch up better

I'm just popping by to say I won't have access to the laptop for the next couple of evenings so will be reading and posting from my phone. I might manage links but not much in the way of chat. Not too much Flying over the weekend anyway, family fun etc.

Don’t worry about links expletive we can scroll back for launch pad anyway.

I haven’t made it upstairs properly yet. Realised I’d forgotten about costume bags for ballet 🤦‍♀️ luckily we have some, but not enough. Will have to order more.

DS clothes can wait till tomorrow, I have got all his stuff out so we can go through it in one go. DD will have to do it after ballet.

This evening is complicated - DD has ballet, but they’ll have to get a cab back so I can leave to see DS’ investing at scouts, as DSD is also out so can’t stay with the toddler. It’s feeling a bit like Piccadilly Circus in here right now! But the young ones are all eating and I’m escaping to wash the chlorine out of my hair and put on clean clothes.

hazel i hope you fight it off quickly lovely
Lane for social activities mine do non basic chores for cash(dd2 off to out Sundaywith friends to eat.she earned money clearing litter from front garden)other times it's been taking things to chazza,helping carry heavy shopping,helping supervise other two sorting out clothes that don't fit,amusing other two when driving me nuts,she gets money for helping if I can't do stuff-unable to cook etc she gets some effectively as helping care other two)
Went town to get kibble etc as not risk repeat last Sunday storm shop fiasco
Made DP a gift,
Help D's make girls little paper birds
Made them all a heart with paper,card and paint
Made heart shaped cookies
Bins and littertray sorted
Rang optician,collecting D's glasses tomorrow
Cheesy pesto pasta tonight,followed by cookies and fruit

Do ordered new washer.coming wednesday

Hope you don't suffer too badly with it hazel and god your DH is feeling a bit better now.

This afternoons ta-da's
✔️ school run
✔️ made dinner
✔️ dishes
✔️ ironing (not put it away will do that in the morning)
✔️ S&S
✔️ general tidy round
✔️ collected DS1&2 from cubs
✔️ reading and SALT homework with DS3
✔️ had a quick flick through DS1&2 homework to see what they need to do as its tends to be projects over holidays so we'll have to make sure we have everything that we need.

Now going back to the biology assignment and helping DS2 with some grammar homework which he got out and started himself 😱

Finishing my ta da from yesterday
✅got DD1 to sort out all her clothes (including the stuff already in her drawers - tipped everything onto her bed and left her to it)
✅got all DS’ clothes out and put them ready to sort out today instead
✅shower
✅used hair straighteners for the first time in years*
✅hung up the clean bath towels
✅went to scouts to see DS make his promise etc ❤️ he didn’t notice I was there for the first 10 minutes 😂

ta didn’t
❌sort the rest of the clothes. They were in piles by owner on the bed so I am not sure where DH will have put them as he had to go to bed. 😣 Really regretting the swim TBH - felt an almighty crash last night, fell asleep on the floor etc. Just woke up for painkillers and hoping to go back to sleep for a bit.

*Used said straighteners because my hair is getting super frizzy at the front, I hate it! It’s definitely getting worse and while I generally couldn’t care less about my hair it does make me self conscious now. Any budget friendly advice on this please?!

Lane, possibly not budget friendly but would be worth getting a hairdresser to cut and look at your hair and recommend something. You might only need to book one appointment and then you can always get cheaper versions of whatever they recommend.

Hazel, hope you feel better soon.

Don’t worry about the links Expletive. I never look at them anyway .

Not to worry ED.

Earning money from little jobs is fine it encourages work ethic, responsibility by spending foolishly and wisely and gives some independence. However I also had some jobs that didn’t get paid but were part of sharing a house and freeing up time to do something fun together.
£45 is a ridiculous amount. When mine were young they earned enough for a comic and a sweet. They received it on Saturdays after morning jobs and we went to the village shop. They could forgo the sweet and save it up for something better which they sometimes did. Extra jobs were usually in school holidays.

Today's ta da's
✔️ Breakfast
✔️ 2 x LOL
✔️ ironing
✔️ bathed, dressed, hair blow dried
✔️ took dc to the library to get some books to read over the holidays
✔️ lunch
✔️ dishes
✔️ general tidy round
✔️ got DS1 started on one of his homework projects which is making a t-shirt. Spellings with DS2 and set him away on his online reading homework, filled in his reading diary to say he'd read some of his first library book. Reading with DS3 and filled his diary out and now helping him do his phonics homework and will then do SALT homework.

Have promised DS3 I will paint his nails when he's finished since he's off school.

Also need to write a meal plan and shopping list.

I've had an awful headache since last night and painkillers are doing nothing ☹️

I felt exhausted yesterday so didn’t do much. We had to spend quite a while in the city on Thursday. Nipped in to M&S yesterday.

Woke up at a reasonable time today.
DH actually helped clean without being asked😳🤗

Ta Da
Sitting room
Cleaned windows. We can see out now🤣 we get quite a bit of dirt from the tractors.
Moved stuff and vacuumed. DH did the fire. I was a bit late and it just limped along.
Changed a few bowls and stuff around on table. Dusted.
Dusted telly etc. Pictures, etchings.

DH found the paint for the new shelves and boxed in pipes. He also found the left over tiles that he vowed weren’t there a year ago. Mmm. I said they were there. It means we can ask D to tiled the bit of kitchen that showed up with a slight change of design.

Cleaned front door glass and vacuumed carpet and stairs.

Sounds productive Bower. You must be especially pleased with the tiles.

Hope you feel better Hazel

I did some work for my job this morning. Just organising emails and catching up so that Monday is less fraught.

Photographed my clothes for my closet app. I am clearly not a fashion plate 🤣.

It is wet and miserable here. Ds's football was cancelled due to torrential rain. We're all gutted thrilled!

I'm feeling better today. Thank you all for your well wishes. Last night DH took me out to dinner, it's a bit of a drive, but worth it to have some delicious shrimp and lobster! This morning I stripped the bed, including the mattress protector and threw it in the washer. I'm currently sitting at the hairdressers getting rid of the greys. It's 9am here right now, and plan to spend most of my day cleaning and disinfecting the whole house. Hopefully I can check in with a long ta da list later on.

Definitely over budget at the moment sadly stressy 🙈 it is a good idea though.

I am shattered! Went through aaaaaall Cagletini’s and my clothes, got DH to do his too, and sorted all of it - moved the toddler stuff into a quarter of the Trofast units on the landing, so we have the Kallax back again.

Massive hold-all type bag full for charity and a bin bag for rag recycling (that’s not even including what DD1 sorted yesterday)

DS hasn’t done his yet and I just can’t 😂 it can wait until tomorrow. I’ve made too many decisions today already so I don’t want to supervise any more 😂

I’ll try and do some of the ACEs reading later I think. Nothing physically demanding on the cards at all I feel like a train wreck

Ah fair enough Lane.

Today I cleaned the house. Took me bloody hours. So much for Flylady’s 1 hour home bleugh . DH did food shop and has cooked tea.

Both kids bored.

Family fun day going well here .

Glad you are feeling better Hazel

We're bored too Toostressy. Dh is cooking a curry, ds is building a den in the kitchen. I'm watching Poirot

I suppose baking is kind of crafty in a way, Tinselette. I just hadn't thought of it like that because I bake mostly to get tasty cake to eat but used to do other crafty stuff more for the enjoyment of doing it than for the end result. What is the closet app you are photographing your clothes for? Does it help you choose outfits?

Nothing much achieved here domestically other than daily dishwasher, meal cooking and associated kitchen and dining room clean ups. Toddler nail cutting is an achievement, perhaps.

I have very frizzy hair, Lane. It's very long now so I keep it tied up to avoid having a collection of ASBOs (it has been known to commit small thefts, attack people and make prank calls when loose) but when it was shorter, in a longish bob style, the absolute best anti frizziness thing (also extremely cheap and not hugely effortful) was an old fashioned wet roller set, ideally on the largest Stohr brand pin cut rollers that would stay in it. It would get very smooth and almost straight but not fake looking straight and stay like that until it got wet again. Nothing else I've tried since matches up to it. I sometimes did it on smaller ones to have non-frizzy, curly hair but then it took ages to dry. Blow drying the front forwards over a round, metal centred, bristle brush (Poundland one's are fine) when almost dry after washing is fairly effective but doesn't last nearly as well.

It's called YourCloset on android cineraria.
It helps me to put outfits together and useful when shopping.

What a great idea! My current wardrobe is pretty much half a dozen wrap front dresses and a couple of cardigans but when DS2 stops breastfeeding, I have some vouchers ready to spend on nicer clothes and might look into using that app to organise and plan properly. I was definitely very bad at having clothes that made up useful outfits before having children.

lane you could try coconut oil, put it in your hair about 30 minutes before a shower, rinse and wash as normal. That's what I have done when my hair gets dull, so worth a try for frizzy hair. SIL also does that sometimes when her frizz gets out of control.

Stopped for a little break/ lunch.

Ta Das so far:

~Bedding and mattress protector washed and put back on bed

~2nd load in dryer now.

~DC clothes taken in to bedrooms so they can put away.
~Went through pantry, threw away leftover valentines candy from last year!

~Dumped remaining Christmas biscuits, tin washed.
~Hot spot on table cleared, tablecloth swapped with clean one, after treating the wood on the table.
~All surfaces wiped.
~Washer and dryer wiped down with Windex.
~Wiped rubbish bin, cleaned mirror on sideboard, wiped microwave door and handle, windows in kitchen and door-all wiped with Windex so now sparkling.

~Washed up hand wash, started dw.

Will move to bathroom once I replace the blankets on the couch that I just washed. I will get this sickness out of the house!

More ta das:
~ Bathroom bleached - filled the tub and sink with bleach water, soaked inner shower curtain, wiped everything down.

~ All mirrors cleaned in the house.
~ Towels washed, now in dryer, clothes all put away other than what needs to be ironed.

~ DW emptied.

~ House aired out as it's nice outside today.

ILS coming over tonight for dinner, they are bringing the food, I just have to make the side. Maybe play a game after dinner, but hoping it won't be too late tonight. Couple hours before they get here so going to relax for a bit, unless I see something else that needs doing..

Not caught up yet. Thank you for input on hair and chores I will read back later.

Totally overwhelmed this evening! DH got the diary out and it turns out there are LOADS of extra commitments over the next couple of weeks to the extent I’m panicking about how I will manage - it’s mostly DH out at various appts, meetings etc and I really struggle without him around at the moment.

I was looking forward to a much calmer week what with the lack of courses/school/nursery but my head is spinning in apprehension now!

ta da
✅sorted loads more clothes
✅reorganised clothes storage
✅journaling
✅look through diary with DH and wrote more stuff in - definitely missing some bits though so need to look up more stuff soon 😭

I forgot to say welcome to the newbies! Cinaria (and whoever else I missed).

I really want to have my wardrobe as a capsule wardrobe, my problem is I find too many clothes I love and not enough actual combinations of outfits, so I find I pair the same things together quite a bit. I have saved a few pins on Pinterest, but really don't know where to begin. Anybody have any suggestions?

Lane do you have anybody IRL who can help you manage while DH is busy with appts and meetings?