Swooping into September - Flylady fledglings assemble!

[MogTheSleepyCat]

First of all, a big thank you to SingToTheSky for leading us through the August thread, (you can park your mop and hang up your duster now)

If you are struggling 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 support and chatter along the way.

The FlyLady link is here . Don't be put off by the twee language of the site – we all agree that the underlying system is very effective.

This little-and-often system is designed so that you can follow a series of steps and routines each day (which gradually become second nature) in zones of the house which are designated weekly; defining and minimising housework - which in theory should leave you with loads more time to do something more interesting instead.

At the same time it is intended to reduce that panicky "rabbit in headlights" feeling when you are overwhelmed and everything needs doing all at once. No problem if you miss a day or two; just jump right back in and it will all come around again next month.

It's up to you, but we advise not signing up to receive the Flylady e-mails as you will be swamped with marketing nonsense. All the information you need will be linked here on a daily basis.

From the first of the month, we will be following Flylady's steps and routines using a three-pronged approach (dependent on the stage everyone is at):

• start or repeat baby steps
• repeat baby steps + do 15 minutes a day decluttering in the current zone
• reinforce baby steps 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.

There are three key points to keep in mind throughout:

• No perfectionism allowed - this is harder than you would imagine and many of us on this thread struggle with this one.
• You are never behind - just start where you are and anything you do is progress.
• It didn't get into a mess overnight, it won't get tidy over night - accept it will take time to get on top of things and you will be happier.

If you are new; then trying to spend 15mins decluttering daily and doing the baby steps is a good way to start. Some of us (mentioning no names) can have scary looking ‘ta-da’ lists but don't let that worry you. Do what you can, anything is better than nothing, and don't judge yourself against others.

If all else fails, a + the power of three technique + a bit of support on here can work wonders.

Here's the launch pad for more experienced fledglings.

Don’t let it put you off if we appear a bit cliquey, we really aren’t. Some of us have been on here for years – but all lurkers, intermittent returnees, oldies and newcomers very, very welcome.

SingToTheSky put together a glossary of the many weird and might-seem-a-bit-cliquey terms. We have been going a long time but we always love newbies - hopefully this list will help you settle in.

KCC - the Keep Calm Corner, invented by our lovely Fledgling SC back in March, where the OP posts nice diverting links, memes, questions etc to distract us from the pandemic.

Ta Da - instead of a to do list (which is of course welcome too) we often post our achievements, with accompanying jazz hands, in order to celebrate the positives, however small they seem! Sometimes if we want to share an embarrassed giggle/commiserations we also post a ta didn’t - the stuff we didn’t get done!

BRC - Bag/Box of Random Crap. These are usually formed when we are panic tidying and shove anything in “to sort later” which is also known as a stash and dash .

Power of Three or PO3 - the idea that if you’re feeling really unmotivated/overwhelmed by your to do list, you just choose three things to do, and then post when you’ve done them.

DLMS - didn’t lose my shit - in other words, somehow stayed relatively calm despite a stressful day!

SS/S&S - Swish and Swipe - this is one of the key parts of the morning routine, a quick once over of the bathroom.

And a few basics:
LOL - load of laundry
WM - washing machine
TD - tumble dryer
DW - dishwasher
HSL - hallway, stairs, landing

Woke up at 1:30 am in awful pain had to get up and take two paracetamol in order to get some sleep. That is because I did all that cleaning in kitchen. Rest day today.

Wow that 1 already belated 🎂🍼baby that.
Juggling family, man child and studying is difficult well done That your enthusiasm shines through. I did a two year NNEB had Dd a baby and just three others and DH working away. It was hard work.
Snaffles some croissants 🥐🥐 but leaves some for others🥐🥐🥐🥐🥐🥐🥐🥐🥐🥐🥞🥞🥞🥞🥞🥞🥞🥓🥓🥓🥓🥓🥓🥓🥓🥓adds pancakes and bacon with maple syrup.
Thank you zoo get those teens to help more zoo.
I have a general health appointment with a nurse if I can’t get GPS I wished I had made more fuss with DH when I did it. I should of asked him to take me even though he didn’t want to go.

Plan for today
🥞🥓
Clear hot pot off table.
Mass
Lunch
If DH is in good mood a drive and I have cake so might make a flask.
Make list for Monday.

Morning!
Bower what a horror story about your early days on Mumsnet - that's why it's taken me so long to post .( I often mis-speake IRL , and get myself in a fankle, so who knows what gaffs I may make here!)

Mog I've really enjoyed the links you've posted and learning a lot about Flylady.

sing you must be so proud of your DD ( and your parenting!), that she can deal with exBF ( very adult problem), and make choices to fix it!

zoo, amazing lists, rotating cupboards takes waaay too much of my time ( especially now cos ds has very specific/few foods he eats, so need stock in case of s/ isolating).I am forever rotating / checking - does my head in!!)

That carrying mental load of 7?? 7!! I managed to forget my mumsnet password between yesterday and today and had to get a reset.I swear my brain's so full of stress there's no room for anything else.

Up Eek at hose!! ( sorry I did giggle a little, was expecting a big plumbing job)

I am very aware I may miss people as I post, going on, please forgive, as never mean to miss anyone out!
Ta das- posted in mumsnet! Researched how to bold names (hope it's worked)
To dos - quick lick of wood preserver on patio care bits.

• take ds to garden centre( easy social skills) and maybe buy bulbs. Are bulbs from lidl ( much cheaper!)as good as garden centre, never done spring bulbs before...

PS sorry Bower about your shoulder, hope you can get help.

Thank you all (again! This thread is the bees knees ❤️)

I need some serious distraction today (preferably with actually doing my to do list, but I’m not making any promises) - a friend showed me an email (from a third party) that says the rule re college is that they have to be home educated for a year before going. So I’m really anxious to discuss this with them as it makes the decision rather urgent (or moot depending what they mean by “from September”) - unless they’d make allowances for the fact she was home educated for nearly five years before that. So I have approx 23 hours of fretting ahead of me as “not thinking about stuff while I can do nothing about it” is really not my strong suit :o

I should scroll up the thread to actually see what my to do list for the weekend is. 😳

mog dont worry, you doing great and i understand. I am popping in and out of the thread due to the school stuff.

won just add cheery waves to everyone else at end post if you can't remember/miss something...I do it all the time as I repel technology and it's hard on my phone to remember who said what!

Tada
❤️Finish under stair cupboard
❤️Breakfast for all
❤️Sort headless mouse/fledgling
❤️Wash in drier
❤️More in
❤️Write shop list
❤️Shop,wipe and put away
❤️Fold dry laundry and put away
❤️More in

It is dry and sunny here,but I need get on top of things faster than line drying would allow(esp as I'd need constant check for cat sprayer if washing fiend)plus I always end up with wrinkles that need ironing and I'm bit lazy in that department....

Dd2 throwing full on strop can't get editing app downloaded to work.i need escape,so taking D's out for walk.hes fretting as his favourite cuddlies are in machine due to nose bleed incident and he self soothes with them normally.

Left the house and have gone to the next town over. It’s surprisingly sunny and hot, I’m regretting the jacket! I am going to sit in the pub and do some more home ed planning as I downloaded enough stuff to get on with (WiFi is always sketchy in there). Hoping it calms me down a bit. I need to find a 1st birthday present too!

Ended up walking thru local nature reserve and into co op where they had reduced priced apricots,plums and grapes so I bought all three as we burn thru fruit anyways..

Tada
❤️Lunch
❤️More washing/drying/put laundry away
❤️Clean bath and sink
❤️Pop a toilet fizzing thing in lav
❤️Made start D's home learning as school haven't bothered
As I kid my middle school had names four local families.ds task is to investigate one a day.i know for fact one was first to introduce shoe making machinery into our town,and owned a large house which grounds are now a park,another was large house and grounds that a park and museum now but has been other things along the way..

To do
Littertrays
Bag up all rubbish
Quick wash all lower floors

Self care Sunday is going to be hot shower,face pack and foot mask as my heels are "rougher than a badgers arse"(quote pinched old school gate mum,whom I did ask if she had knowledge of this from stroking badgers bums.she didn't🤣🤣🤣🤣)

Tada
❤️Tell/threaten zoolets to provide bags recycling and rubbish from room if doom/boy dungeon or tom I will launch EVERYTHING on the floor
❤️Empty rest house bins
❤️Remove all recycling/add cardboard that's been in back garden farcyo long(one week in recycling bin now full,so neighbours be curtain twitching at bags in front garden for next week tough cheese)
❤️Utilise neighbour who lives by self black bin and fill remaining half his bin,as well rest my large bin(bar room for fresh kitty litter to be done in the morning)
❤️Sweep all lower floors
❤️More laundry

Place almost back to normal standards still low,but at least not neck snappingly unhygienic

Dd2 start rev up so off walk with her,then my shower and treat time is calling!!

Tea tonight for lil ones- pasta pesto with green beans and butterbeans followed by apricot,plum and grape salad with oat milk yogurt and ginger

My tea may be similar(but more likely be cheese sandwich)

Ah thanks IWill, obviously boobed there.
Think it's too hard to not mis-speake so will shuffle off Mumsnet. My bad, not yours.

Very best wishes to all!

Ah don’t shuffle off Won, I don’t think you’ve boobed? And even if you had, it doesn’t matter here. I also expected a huge plumbing job so I’m very relieved that all it took was turning a tap off, even I did end up with very wet slippers in the process!

Glad you’re planning some self care after being so busy Zoo. Hope you feel a bit better now the house is back under control and you’ve had a walk.

Sing good call getting out the house for a bit. How is DD feeling about school tomorrow? She’s been very strong but hopefully the ex will move on and everything will blow over soon. Good she has an extra option though, and surely the college will employ some common sense when she was home schooled for a long time, and not penalise her for having tried school again.

Wellies DH has redeemed himself with his roast, but we think the hose has been on for a week . Thankfully just trickling. Will definitely be indulging in a long deep bath tonight! Hope you enjoy your quiet afternoon.

Ta Das: (I’ve actually been very productive for a Sunday!)
✅ living room dusted, throughly hoovered and mopped
✅ pulled out fireguard to dust that, the log burner and hearth
✅ cleaned living room window
✅ reclaimed detritus from under sofas
✅ cleaned living room window
✅ decluttered box of randomness
✅ tidied, dusted, hoovered and mopped hall/stairs
✅ 2 x LOLs washed and line dried including several of the coats I retrieved from under the stairs that needed freshening up
✅ emptied out beach bag, tipped out all the sand and put bag and beach bits away until next summer
✅ carried several armfuls of stuff upstairs
✅ convinced DD to have an hour in the garden. She played football with DH and in her playhouse while I did some weeding. Quite proud of what I got done, it looks loads better.

Currently having a cuppa while she does cosmic kids yoga and DH sorts the kitchen from Sunday lunch. Upstairs is a disaster zone with all the clean washing and stuff I’ve carried up, so I’ll sort that while my bath is running. Hope you’ve all enjoyed your weekends fledglings.

Thank, yes up I’m really hoping they’ll be reasonable - it’s not like we would be quitting school just to get a place there. I’d be gutted if the fact she had given school a try was a problem, it seems doubly cruel! It’s not just the boyfriend thing BTW, it’s more the environment that’s a symptom of - bullying, shitty behaviour (both towards each other and in classes - the latter she found amusing at first but the novelty has thoroughly worn off and it’s exhausting and loud), the fact that someone can come up to her and hit her several times a day and nobody even notices because it’s so common. And yet in other ways it’s been really good, there are some really lovely teachers and she’s got more confident in asking for help and tried new subjects. So I don’t know what will win out for her, but she’s not someone to give up easily (sticks to activities, loyal friend etc) and she was so excited to finally try secondary, so for her to be saying this, I know she’s feeling really bad. Sorry I’m thinking aloud a lot on this - it’s thoroughly knocked me sideways TBH as I really thought she’d be happy there.

Just doing some planning for the week. Nearly ready. Then during the next week I really need to start some more long term plans so I don’t have to do quite as much each weekend.

Ooh and I failed miserably to convert the plain whiteboard into a weekly planner but I found a cheap tear off planner pad with a magnet on the back! So I got that instead because frankly our track record of keeping whiteboard pens more than a week is abysmal anyway. So either it’ll live on the fridge or we can just stick the new week somewhere prominent every Sunday.

Won please come back! It's quite hard joining a long running thread where everyone seems to know each other but the reality is that there are some old-timers, some relative newbies, some who just pop in occasionally and, well, I suppose I can only speak for myself but I'm pretty sure we all have moments when we think we've posted the wrong thing, missed someone out, got a name wrong. It's all fine. No Fledgling left behind is our motto.

Hi everyone! Dog sitting went fine, kids had swimming lessons too so just got back in and got them settled into bed.

Welcome won hope you're still here this is a lovely cosy corner of Mumsnet

I really really need to jump back into some proper flying...what's the zone next week, is it a good one 😂 I actually really need to sort my kitchen cupboards so maybe I should just do that regardless 🤔 not that I ever get time on a Monday

Feeling quite efficient though as washing is on timed for tomorrow morning and I have made ds packed lunch. On the down side I can't be bothered to make anything proper to eat so I'm having crisps

No fledgling left behind won. There are lots of newbies on here so just pile on whenever you want. I've had an unproductive day due to a gippy tummy that appeared two days ago. I've postponed all activities and am subsisting on the 'brat diet' of bread, rice, applesauce, toast or as close as I can get to it. Garden is looking better but rain has appeared so next week I'll sand the garden seat. DH cut the backgarden grass. It now looks like someone lives here! 😂

checks notes - zone 3 is the bathroom and one extra room.

@Wondayatatime I see no boob! Do stay - your posts have been so
lovely :)

Hello can I join this thread please? I work full time, and have 4 DC under 7, as well as a few animals. DH does the cooking and I do the housework but since having DS4 in April I’ve let it all slide a bit and I need to get back on it.

Welcome whirlpool. Gosh you must be busy. Are you still on maternity leave?

Links for Monday 14th September

We are moving into Zone 3: The main Bathroom and One Other Room The other room can be your spare room, study, even the garage.

Spend 15 minutes decluttering here before moving onto detailed cleaning.

Our missions for Monday are thoroughly cleaning the base and back of the loo, and general declutter and rubbish clearing on the Other Room

Baby step 14 is learn how to use a calendar Yes, seriously.

Habit of the month is Before Bed Routine

Monday focus is the beloved [snort] home bleugh Essentially spending 10 minutes each on seven key areas of housework.

lisette Thank you for my welcome, we are very busy!. Also no, I work in a school so made the decision to finish it early and come back in September. So that’s made it even harder to get back into the swing of things with housework as I’m not at home for 7 hours a day.

Ta Da
Cats and DS fed
Made beds, DW, LOL, laundry on line
Washed up pots and pans
Folded and put away a LOL
Chicken chores and let the girls out for some free ranging
Sorted and separated recycling heap
Cooked dinner and have a portion aside for tomorrows lunch
Evening walk by myself - 'twas lovely

Sorry fledglings, no time for personals, bed is calling me zzzzz.... See you on the other side

< waves to Whirl > Welcome!