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

Aww mc the painting idea sounds lovely!

We have a visit from SILs tomorrow (as DH and DD1 will be out and getting their visit first it avoids the six people problem!) - must clean up a bit in the morning!

I’ve been trying to think about the future friend idea beyond just nighttime. Not that I’ve got back in the swing of that as it is. Not even got used to getting Cagletini’s nursery clothes ready yet and she

(For newbies, FF is the idea of getting stuff sorted in advance so your future self will thank you!)

Anyway, I think a lot of the constant frazzlement I feel is down to not being set up enough for the next thing, and it just builds up more and more stress and tiredness as it all feels so much effort.

Eg if I’m stressed I don’t get stuff sorted for the next day like toddler clothes and DS’ home ed stuff, and don’t go to bed at a decent time either. Thankfully DH sorts nursery run in the morning anyway but I’m on the back foot and helping find socks etc, and am not organised enough to have a decent breakfast so I eat crappy cereal.

DS doesn’t get straight on with work if it’s not set up so he’s harder to motivate and the guilt builds up. Then I don’t go off and do my own study/future planning because DS needs more supervision as it’s not all set up in advance. So I have the guilt about that too.

Then I have a friend pick me up for gym class and am flustered if I haven’t got all my stuff ready (and haven’t actually booked normal sessions on my own for a few weeks now because I’m not organised).

After the gym class it’s not as quick to get in the shower as I have to faff about finding clothes etc (granted this will be easier when the wardrobe arrives!). And I’ve not planned lunch let alone prepared anything, and because I’m craving carbs thanks to rubbish breakfast I end up not eating well either, which sets me up for a bad afternoon... by the time evening rolls around I’m tired and don’t bother getting the Caglets sorted and so it goes on!

This is all hypothetical in the sense today was better, but also is quite a typical description of life really! 😳 Apologies for that rambling insight.

So anyway I’m trying to think of ways to make all that easier. Like it’s occurred to me that as part of getting ready for a gym class I could actually put all my clothes ready with a towel before I leave so I can go straight in. Having an easy lunch ready would mean I then have something decent before I’m too tired to move (fatigue tends to set in once I stop moving IYSWIM) and end up snacking, and means Cagletini is sorted too.

The problem is the thought of remembering all the future friend things is equally overwhelming 😂 it’s embarrassing but my brain really doesn’t do habit very well so I am always having to remember all the simple day to day stuff as well as the more complicated stuff. The more I can automate the better like having a set time each week for swimming, gym, maybe even study and which nursery runs I do... maybe. I just always feel like I don’t know if I’m coming or going!

😳

Anyway if anyone has other ideas of little tricks to help my future self - even if it’s literally an hour in the future, not even the next day - I would be most grateful!

I tend to crave a massive life organisation thing every now and then and get desperate to routinise my entire life so you are all allowed to laugh at me in about a month when I say all this again having done nothing much about it 😂

Sorry for the long post 😳 TLDR: help 😂😂😂

Sing I am just getting into swing of things with FF. I don't function well in the morning (especially when I had to get up early to physically go to work) so I don't do anything complex at that time of the day. I would suggest start small, it don't try to overhaul your whole day in one go. I started with setting up coffee machines in the evening, so it's all ready in the morning. Perhaps you could put out breakfast stuff at the same time, ready to go with minimal effort in the morning.

I've got a capsule wardrobe (sort of), so most items of clothing go with each other, so I don't really need to pick stuff to wear the night before or think about what to wear. I also find organising drawers by Marie Kondo method I don't even have to think about where to find specific items.

For kids, I am not the best advisor as I don't have any yet, but I would probably do something similar. Organise the kids drawers by Kondo for quick access, and have a selection of clothes that don't clash even if you put them together with eyes closed (and if specific outfit required for the day, then leave it out the night before).

Gym - I always kept my gym gear in the boot of the car, and I always showered at home (saved the whole faff of taking a clean change of clothes etc). I don't swim though. Gym bag got sorted with clean gym clothes as soon as I enter the house after the workout so I don't even have to think about it.

Lunch - for me it's usually left overs from the dinner the night before. Don't know how well that works with kids though.

I might be changing my time when I will be going back to work after mat leave, but that's how it runs at the moment.

He is ok now thank you, Foxes, although still coughing a bit but he felt fairly unwell Thursday and Friday last week. It was only a cough and some digestive speediness, rather than a cold, which made us think maybe it was Covid (We were notified of 2 known cases at school the previous week: a yr 6 and a school office team member) but since we have been isolating from everyone DS2 now has a mild snotty cold, so I'm guessing it's the same bug but affected them differently and not Covid. How lovely to know that your extra work was appreciated so much. Hope you enjoy your prosecco after your busy day.

I'm going to have to Google painted bumps now, Mc. It sounds fascinating. I don't think I could have done it due to having a very ticklish midriff.
Will you be doing the painting yourself?

Hope you had some time to relax after the marking, orange. Must be nice to get it out of the way before the weekend.

Sing, for me all that kind of stuff is on a spreadsheet/checklist type of thing, even silly things like wiping the table after breakfast so we don't sit down to do some craft or fetch lunch in from the kitchen to find it covered in crumbs. The list is divided in chunks of time, e.g. before school, when I get back from taking DS1 to school, lunchtime, while DS2 has a nap, when DH finishes work, dinnertime, boys' bedtime, our bedtime. The items in each list were initially things I might forget to do that would annoy me later and then I added things I could do to help me later e.g. when preparing veg for lunch, also prep veg for dinner or getting everyone's pyjamas and night nappies for those who need them ready in the bathroom when I do swish and swipe. I still add things to it as I think of them if I can see anything I do that helps and because it's all in front of me, if I unexpectedly have free time I can easily look ahead and see if there is anything I can complete and tick off early.

I also have a default 2 week meal plan that I am supposed to adapt twice a month but which can be used as it stands, so that encourages us to eat something reasonable at most mealtimes. Following the meal plan somehow seems like less effort than making something easier plus I use up leftovers more effectively, which means fewer meals to make and I don't end up giving the boys poached egg for lunch before realising I'd planned omelette for dinner!

Happy Saturday everyone. All caught up.

Zoo there’s nothing I can say that will help, but and I really hope you feel better soon.

Bower I’m sorry the job you loved has ended differently to how you would have imagined, but well done for having the courage to walk away when you were being treated badly. The world is your oyster now and you can have a fresh start.

Hope (negative!) test result is in soon SC.

Mc bump painting looks fab! I never did anything like that, in fact I barely even got a photo of my bump.

Cineraria have you tried overnight oats? I do 40g oats, handful of frozen mixed berries and 100gish of Greek yoghurt. I usually do 2 or 3 portions (future friend!) and it’s a healthy start to the day plus much more tasty than porridge.

Orange the home learning packs sound fab, you sound like a lovely teacher.

Sing Inhad to start FF when I went back to work after mat leave. Prior to that I was always on the back foot, stressing to find clothes, socks etc in the morning before dashing for the bus, eating rubbish because I was disorganised etc. I started with a plan for each week on one sheet and each day I wrote on what I had to sort that day ready for the next. It took a few weeks to get it perfected, and longer for it to become habit, but now I don’t need the sheet anymore. My biggest thing was sorting out clothes for the week on Sunday. Uniforms are washed on a Friday night/sat morning and on a Sunday I iron it all plus enough other clothes to last the week. I make sure we all have enough paired socks, underwear etc in our drawers, and if there isn’t I sort it then. So whatever goes wrong in the week at least I never have to search round for clothes. I usually do it while listening to a podcast or something.

Wellies happy anniversary for yesterday!

Lisette that sounds like a lovely day and I hope you’re feeling less anxious.

My other personals have fallen out of my brain

No ta das this morning yet apart from making a cuppa, handing DD a banana and dragging a quilt down for us to curl up on the sofa. DH had to go into work for a few hours early this morning and it’s a wet windy day so we aren’t planning on moving until he is back to cook us bacon sarnies

I did get a little bit of my planned stuff done at work on Thursday, but yesterday was a write off and I am very pleased it’s the weekend! Home bleurgh downstairs at some point, otherwise minimal flying I think.

Oh remembered another personal - Foxes how lovely about the flowers, and glad the play date is over and done with!

Cin I will start by painting it myself, although I can already see it will be a job even using a mirror. art is not my strongest point in life, but I will give it a bash.
I like the idea of 2 week meal plan!

Catching up!

Congrats on resigning bower i hope you will be happier now

I am about to go back to my job which was making me miserable prior to my maternity leave. I have told myself to give it a go until Christmas.

Well done on the studying sing you have motivated me to do the first page of my maths homework for both of us!

Zoo i hope you are ok my lovely

Orange i think its great you are making sure that isolation work packs are not too difficult. Two of mine have been in isolation and a lot of the work set for my 7 year old was very difficult, other parents found this too which did make me feel a bit better.

Happy anniversary Wellies

Cineraria i can also relate on the children destroying the house thing! My big four were back at school for a week and our primary shut leaving me to isolate with the two primary aged dc and a VERY mobile one year old. I had really been looking forward to some chilled time pottering around

tksstgiftguide.tumblr.com/tagged/art-and-design/. Found on Christmas thread. Good for interesting and creative kids' Christmas presents

tksstgiftguide.tumblr.com/

Try again Lisette here

I've literally just realised its nearly october

I'm very confused

It was august like a week ago i am sure!

September has gone super fast hasn’t it. Can’t believe we’ve had three weeks of term already but equally can’t believe it’s only been three weeks?!

I’m just having a sit down between tidying ready for a flying visit from SILs. I’ve sorted laundry and some rubbish, and booked swimming for Monday morning! For once my power of 3 list isn’t to force me to do stuff when unmotivated but more because I can’t decide what actually takes priority on limited time/energy.

PO3.1
📌breakfast
📌quick clean of main bathroom (the downstairs one is the adapted one now so guests use the upstairs)
📌put laundry away

Also thank you for the thoughts re routine and future friending. Lots of great advice which I will make notes from after the visit! I have such a mental block about it and definitely need to start simple.

Afternoon! I wrote a post this morning but I think in my half asleep state I didn't post it 🤔🤔

My future friending is basically just a wash on every night ready to hang up in the morning, I find that very helpful to make sure I stay on top of the laundry. I also always make ds his packed lunch the night before! And I also have a two week meal plan.

I think a spreadsheet or tick list sounds great, I just never seem to get round to actually doing things like that, I tend to write reminders on my phone as I go along which means my phone is always binging away 😂😂

Ta das so far today
Washing hung up
Dishwasher on X 2
Made cookies with the kids
Made berry crumble cake
Chicken out of the freezer for dinner
Made lunch for the kids , leftover cauliflower cheese for me

The kids have built a huge den in the living room and we are expecting MIL over soon so that will need to be cleared away because at the moment there's no room for anybody to sit anywhere.

Haven't RTFT for the last couple of days but just wanted to say to Bower - we have been to the Everhot showroom this week and are totally sold on them. I would never have heard of them without you.

Afternoon all! A chill Sunday is happening here I think, we will go the woods later but a movie day is on the cards. I’ve got some great news, after losing a lot of weight when I was depressed last year I have finally gone back to how heavy I was before it!. I’m so happy and it really feels like a new beginning for me.

sing I’m a bit crap at that too. I have started putting clothes out for the next day, not on the weekend though. Lunches don’t happen in the week as I have mine at work, generally from the school canteen or I will get a meal deal. The kids have their lunch at nursery. I do plan for the weekend though, including sides. I don’t go to the gym so I can’t help with that.

cin I still have some marking to do to tomorrow but it is nice to get the bulk done.

Oh thank you up that’s so kind of you to say. The kids are brilliant so I just want what’s best for them, especially after the year they’ve had.

THAT I think a lot of teachers seem to be forgetting that if the students are isolating some of them may not be well, some may not feel like they work well at home, some may have parents that don’t have enough time to spend hours on their packs with them and so on. I’ve tried to keep communication open between me and parents in case they need any support but by making the packs as relaxed as possible then hopefully it will make it easier for everyone.

Orange well done for the weight loss that’s awesome! Weight and depression can go hand in hand can’t they. I had some bad news earlier (nothing terrible and it’s sorted now, it just knocked me for a bit) and my instinct to eat comfort food was SO hard to ignore.

Was quite nice being able to clean up a bit for SILs without a big panic as the place wasn’t too awful (I mean it’s not great but they’ve seen our house a LOT worse before). Lovely to have company and chat for a bit. They were really encouraging on the work front too. Also handed over loads of toddler clothes for their GD and a toy as well.

DH is on the way home from work, finally. Feel a bit wobbly this afternoon so I’m just mooching around till he gets back. Will distract myself sorting birthday presents for Cagletini!

Orange congratulations on reaching the weight you are happy in! It's a great achievement! 💐

Sing sorry to hear you had some bad news, I am please it's all sorted.

Sing can you put clothes away as an outfit? I know it might be a little tricky now, but might be something to think about once you get your wardrobe. There are some other great suggestions that have already been said about starting a new routine. Maybe writing a list of everything you want to get done (broken down into manageable pieces) every night/ day and a time slot to accomplish it?

lisette thank you for sharing that link, it gave me an idea for DS for Christmas! I never would have thought of it and they're cheaper than I thought they would be.

orange that's good news to hear you are in a better place now than you were mentally. A relaxing movie day sounds perfect.

that Hopefully your job is better when you go back. It's good to give yourself a time frame though. Sounds like 3 months is a good amount of time too.

Happy anniversary for yesterday wellies! It was also my ILs anniversary too. I'm making dinner tonight for them to celebrate, even though it's their turn to cook.

The DC did their chores yesterday so the house is clean! I went out with a couple of friends last night, went out for dinner and had some drinks. It seems a lot of places around here are watering down their drinks. I had 3 cocktails and 2 shots and barely felt buzzed last night.
To Dos:
🍁 Skype mum
🍁 Grocery shopping
🍁 make dessert for tonight

Not much else planned, I need a relaxing day after the week we've had at work!

Wow! Need to catch up on catchup.

Wasn’t on yesterday because I baked yesterday and the tried out Friday Mass which went ok although I got a bit terry about job and my sister who is back in hospital.

So despite DHs negative remarks I baked one Barm Brack, one coffee cake and 56 buns.
I got up at 7:45am had a cup of tea and started icing x3 flavours. I set up a table with tea tablecloth and put out cakes and before I had bunting up I had three sales. I had a pop up cake stall for Macmillan’s and I have raised £59:82. I made DH pay for some Barm Brack 🤣
We only had three cupcakes left so we were going to have those then someone knocked at 6 pm ( I finished at 1:30 pm) so I sold them to him. He had walked down the hill which is about a mile away so I didn’t have the ❣ to turn him away empty handed.
The 🙄 neighbours to the right didn’t bother. The ones that don’t speak now.
It gave me something positive to do. I used to do it every second year with the ( previous)Assistant Head. DH put it on the village website but the rest were villagers walking or driving past. So glad I did it.

Oh and someone else has resigned! 👍 That has made me feel better and that I have done the right thing.

Another leaver - You've started a movement Bower. Well done on the cake sale. Delighted Hungryhazeleyes - it's a great present suggestion list. Tweens are difficult to buy for. Ahem - we waited in all morning from 8am to lunchtime for an electrician, having totally emptied a full wardrobe so that he had access to a roof hatch. And he was a no show. I was livid as I'd done extra cleaning and had opened windows etc so dh left a polite message on the electrician's phone - this time I provided dh with the number but for the initial call I'd let him look it up on his own. Just as well he was polite - dh the eejit had phoned some different random electrician in Essex (regular readers will know that we live at the opposite end of the island) yesterday to arrange the visit so of course our local electrician was mystified by dh's message. Didn't even have the excuse of a similar sounding company name. 😤😡😠 I have no idea how dh got this so badly wrong. And he disturbed my BATH to explain all this. I bellowed 'get out' I was so mad. I told him the name of the electrician's company, we've used them before and he calls a completely different outfit. HOWLS.

I know, I know LTB.

Happy anniversary Greenwellies 😁

😁 we are talking but it's been a long day 🤪

Oh Lisette, that is such a pain! I bet he is very apologetic now and feeling guilty as anything. Sounds like he will need written instructions -stappled to his forehead- next time.

Bower that's a stellar baking sale! Massive well done!

Ta Da
🎉Morning and evening routines

Watched Dr Zhivago today with DH. Even though it's a 3 hour film, it flew by. Quite enjoyed it!

ta da
🍏sorted some clean laundry and at least got it out of the way, if not actually away...
🍎cleared and cleaned table
🍏booked swimming
🍎restarted food diary and fast timer
🍏put some washing up away
🍎quick clean of bathroom
🍏took some printed sheets off the walls
🍎cleaned bin lid
🍏downloaded friend’s book she published
🍎made lunch for toddler
🍏updated fun spending budget log
🍎tidied the hallway and landing a little
🍏towel LOL, then DS put in dryer
🍎sent scary email
🍏another LOL
🍎got DS to tidy and clean windows etc

The rest of the day was spent doing nothing although we did watch the first half of Enola Holmes as a family after dinner.