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

And if you've gone on lots of day trips you know all about supervising kids 😁 🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️

I’ve been awoken again by a bed thief. I love having her next to me but my god she wriggles and then I can’t get back to sleep!. So I thought I may as well check in here as I’m awake now.

sing good luck getting back into HE. Sorry cagletini is poorly, has she caught a bug? I was hoping bugs would’ve just vanished😂 as we get winter bugs terrible here and I don’t want to have to miss time off work.

Thank you hazel I really can’t wait until they can’t make up their own minds about him and I don’t have to pretend he’s father of the year. But until then I’ll be ranting away here.

Thank you wellies :)

It can be lisette, it’s not even that I’m frustrated for myself but I’m so annoyed that he’s missing this valuable time with them. He’ll regret it when they’re older.

That’s so frustrating bower

dev oh I love ancestry! My DM does it and I love when she sends me new info she’s found. I could stay on it for days.

merry it sounds like you had a great night!

Oh shit mc are we meant to be cleaning drawers of crap? I have about 20 places for crap in my home, it’ll take eons for me to sort it.

cineraria Aww lovely, my 2 are 3 and 1, so same age gap as yours but a little younger. Their dads a shit, but I’m used to him now.

dancing I’m sorry to hear about your panic attack, they’re horrible when they come back after a while aren’t they?. Regarding the job, I’d go for it. Fill out the application and go to the interview and as a PP says (sorry too tired to read which one of you said it) you can always say it isn’t right for you. It sounds like a great opportunity, I work in a school and a lot of the dinner ladies are mums and it’s a brilliant job to have with little kids as it fits in school hours and term time only, but you still get that little bit of independence.

Also I don’t know if any of you have DC on Tik Tok, and you’ve probably all heard of it by now but there’s a rather upsetting video going around at the minute, so please make sure you’re monitoring what they’re doing on their or deleting the app completely until it’s done the rounds. I’ve seen the video (completely unintentionally whilst reading some comments online) and it’s playing on my mind so I can’t imagine what it’d do to a young child. I’m sure you all are monitoring anyway, but just to be on the safe side I wanted to say!.

ta da
🧚🏻‍♂️Made beds
🧚🏻‍♂️Dressed DC
🧚🏻‍♂️Dressed myself
🧚🏻‍♂️S&S
🧚🏻‍♂️LOL
🧚🏻‍♂️Fed animals
🧚🏻‍♂️Made Breakfast
🧚🏻‍♂️Dropped DC off to nursery
🧚🏻‍♂️Work
🧚🏻‍♂️Picked up DC
🧚🏻‍♂️Walked dog
🧚🏻‍♂️Cleaned up dog poo
🧚🏻‍♂️Cleaned guinea pigs pen
🧚🏻‍♂️Made tea (fish pie)
🧚🏻‍♂️Washed dishes
🧚🏻‍♂️Bathed DC
🧚🏻‍♂️Put DC to bed
🧚🏻‍♂️Cleaned microwave
🧚🏻‍♂️Cleaned oven
🧚🏻‍♂️Tidied fridge
🧚🏻‍♂️Tidied cupboards
🧚🏻‍♂️Shined sink
🧚🏻‍♂️Packed bags and lunches for tomorrow
🧚🏻‍♂️Laid out clothes for tomorrow
🧚🏻‍♂️Bathed

Well I just lost my post so I'll try a condensed version 🤬
We had lunch at ILs today, it was lovely. We sat in their back garden on the patio and it was really enjoyable, even with a bit of wind we had. Tonight I received a call to say the huge pine tree was uprooted by the 80mph guests we were having. It took out their whole neighbourhood's electricity, as well as their internet and cable TV lines. So now their lovely back garden has a huge tree in it, and took down both fences with it, on either side of them. Apparently there were several downed trees in their town. I'll probably take dinner over there tomorrow night as they may not have power still at that time.

Ta Das Monday
🌻 made keto pumpkin cheesecake mousse
🌻 helped make lunch at ILs
🌻 took DS shopping for shin guards for football ⚽️
🌻 bought my first Christmas present for DD at the horror of DS that I would even think about Christmas yet!
🌻 fixed the blind in the kitchen so it fits flush to the window like it should, instead of being bunched up at the bottom
🌻 did the same in DDs room, we had all the other blinds done another time, over a year ago, and those were the last 2 that needed to be done.
🌻 put DSs curtain rod back up, I took out down to paint more than 3 years ago I think and it has taken us this long to get it done. We are major procrastinators in this household, which is frustrating
🌻 cooked dinner - pan fried salmon, in garlic butter, with baked asparagus in a creamy parmesan sauce - while watching the wind change and taking a bunch of things with it, which is the same change in the wind that took out MILs tree!
🌻 crossed my fingers that our power wouldn't go out before dinner was done cooking.

DH went over ILs to see how it was as they were afraid to go outside at that point. They had 2 pine trees go down about 8 years ago that landed on the house so they were reliving the nightmare again. This time MIL watched it go down 😭

Not too sure what tomorrow holds, but I at least want to get ironing done, including ironing DSs curtains, and sewing the liner in DSs curtains as they shrunk when washed, but not the liner. I will also have to go pick up a couple things at the store and get some white chicken chili in the slow cooker for dinner. I would love to do my nails, but I guess we'll see!

orange I sometimes miss the days of DC climbing into bed, but glad they don't most of the time. I hope you managed to get more sleep. That's also an impressive list.

dancing I think you should go for it, as others have said, see how the interview goes and go from there, if it's meant to be it'll be, but you won't know unless you try.

lisette well done for getting the outside of your house sorted. Hopefully you find another painter soon.

I would put more personals on but I'm falling asleep, so here's 🍒🤣 to everyone, including zoo who seems to be MIA (I hope you're okay if you're reading this)

cineraria and oranges that's quite an impressive Ta da lists there!
Oranges I might have gone off piste with the drawer of crap sorting, but I couldn't put it off any more. There is one lesser thing I need to sort cupboard wise, and that's to put those small shelf thingies to display the spices properly in the cupboard.
Hazel what a weather!

Links for Tuesday 8th September

We are in Zone 2: the Kitchen

Spend 15 minutes decluttering here before moving onto detailed cleaning.

Today’s mission is to do the dishes Hunt round for anything that needs a good scrub, check your oven and grill, bakeware etc

Our eighth baby step introduces the Control Journal Check out the link and decide if this will work for you or not.
As said a few days ago, I prefer my Home Routines app

Habit of the month is Before Bed Routine

Tuesday daily focus is planning : meal planning, activities, look ahead to next week to see what you can do today to help – organize any birthday cards, paperwork etc

Orange no idea what caused it, the rest of us are fine though, as was she after just a few hours! Obviously sticking to 48h rule anyway for sickness so she’s home today too.

I didn’t read last night in the end but I did manage to bind two books needed for today. Annoyingly the binder is no longer punching the plastic covers properly but I have coloured card that is sturdy enough for now. I did get insurance when I bought the binder in summer, so I think I will ask for a replacement - not sure if I’d need to send this one away first though so I’ll bind the last few bits I need to first I think.

Yoga in an hour, I definitely need a good stretch! I got my stuff ready too as part of our new evening routine that we started last night. (It’s divided into three - tidying, getting ready for tomorrow, and getting ready for bed.) Although I do need to wash out a water bottle!

Yesterday I also decorated a plastic tray in which we are all putting screens in before dinner. Then straight after dinner we get on with the routine, with music on, and the idea is going to be that nobody gets their phone out until the routine is done. :o

Sing- i am glad your little one is feeling better phew, its worrying when they get ill.
I love you plastic tray idea.

Cineria- i fell of the post alittle while ago...and hopefully back on now...my house needs help.

Big hello to all the newbies!

Bower- i hope your shoulder is feeling ok today?

Mc, Cineria, Sing, Lisette, Orange, Hungry and Wellies and anyone i might have forgot....Thank you to all of you! You are all so kind.
I will go for it, its true I wont know if I dont try.
Kids are at school. House is a shambles but I am going to ignore it all and try and finish the last large bit under experiences.
I havent written this much since my 1st fraggle was born 6 years ago.

I am going to set myself a deadline, I need to complete it by 12pm today.

My 1 friend irl said dont do it. She can see I am struggling.
DH told me to go for it but now says i should give a year before applying. (I think he can see i am drowning in the house.)
My sister- will explode in anger if i dont go for this job as she tried for a long time to get into a school to work as a TA but she she couldnt get her foot in the door.

Part of me thinks i dont want to miss out on an opportunity too. Going to do it.

Big cheery wave to you all.

I think it’s worth trying. Nothing needs to be permanent - if it’s too much you can hand in your notice.

Even if it makes things a bit more hectic, having something outside the immediate family/home life may be really helpful with confidence and self esteem in the long run. That’s more of a drive for me with looking at working again. I feel like I’ve lost a lot of my identity lately tbh!

Morning

Sing tray sounds a great idea.
Dancing don’t want to put you off but do you like the cold? Get a thermal vest as you might be outside a lot. Otherwise go for it especially if nearby.
Hazel Scary about the trees. I always worried in strong wind as my bed is opposite the window and there are some very old, tall trees on the village green. They cut the pine down last winter and although I was sad to see it go I was a bit relieved too. It would have hit our house.

I had a bad night sleep so still in bed.
I have no plans or appointments today so up and start flying after a mug of tea and some cereal or eggs( we have a dozen hens eggs and two dozen bantam eggs) I will start with the declutter drawer as baking drawer could do with a tidy. I did cutlery drawer last week by chance. Then wall unit and might start dresser.

Shoulder still a bit sore but eased and lots of clicking yesterday so going back into place.

Swoops down looks around to see no one has been here since 9:30am🤔

TaDa
Feeling much calmer than yesterday.

Kitchen
Cleaned out and reorganised large baking drawer.
Cleaned most used cupboard- food- tins, jars etc
Cleaned wall unit. Took everything off, wiped, wiped shelves, put back.

I put off doing this yesterday evening because I thought it would take me longer. Timed it 12 minutes. I need to write that in my journal. I have found if I write the time took I can organise the jobs better.
DH has watched a film and has now started watching another. The house would be cleaner and tidier if he helped more. He did vacuum the sitting room and washed up the three dishes last night. I guess when I retire I won’t be retiring from cleaning! The longest job with the least pay.😟
Going to risk hanging out LOL.

Oh I also cleaned outside loo.

So good start on the kitchen. Will do the fridge tomorrow as the veggie box arrives.Fish pie for tea. I remembered to take the fish out last night. Yeah me🥳

Bower Hope you have had a good morning.

No flying, just DIY. I'm happy to see it is kitchen week. The kitchen needs it, I have too much stuff and not enough cupboards.

Chair not hair!

Hi
I wrote a big long message at 11.30am and its disappeared!

I have completed the form. I am going to hand it in today.

I feel drained and exhusted now so trying rest before the school pick up time.

Bower i am glad you are feeling calmer today.

Waves to Alex.
My kitchen is the same...i think i am going to have to hide the extra dishes and bowls again...

Argh post failed. Meant painted garden chair and hand washed Cotswold stones this morning. Picture not loading on app

Go you Lisette that’s how we were in lockdown garden jobs every day. I just have one area to do. Mainly get rid of lots and lots of pots. Waiting until I feel comfortable taking them to Dobbies. Local garden centre doesn’t take them. Then we need to move troughs ( I can’t do this) cut bag black currants and rearrange for greenhouse next year. So if I could just tidy some of it the rest can wait. Will relay flags and thinking I could put bins there. It depends on the raised beds as we will have to move one. DH is not keen.

Leaves rock buns and coffee to keep you going.

Hi all! Just got home, we went for a meal at the pub with my DM and DSF. The DC enjoyed it and I got a break as they were all about nanny and grandad for a few hours. I can’t believe it’s only Tuesday, this week feels like it’s gone on forever already. I’m so excited for October half term. I’m really struggling to get used to the classroom setting due to COVID. I’m glad I’m teaching older ones and not the early years though.

hazel oh that’s so worrying for PILs, I hope they’re not too shaken up. I’m sure I will miss them sneaking in when they’re older, but I’d like it if DD didn’t deliberately hit me in the face all night😂

wellies I only really do most of it when they’re in bed, I’m a clean freak really, so I can’t sleep if it’s not clean. I do clean begrudgingly though, I’m no Mary Poppins😂

Thank you mc 😊, I really need to sort my drawers out. I need to actually get a proper cupboard for anything, my kitchen is currently just things chucked everywhere so I might sort that out actually!. Well done on getting all yours sorted!

sing I’m glad to hear the rest of you are well, poor Cagletini though. I hope she’s feeling better today.

dancing great to hear you’re going for it!, I’ve honestly found since returning to work after mat leave, that I’ve felt a bit more put together. I really struggled to find the energy to clean the house but now I’ve got a set routine I find it a bit easier. Good luck!

Sorry you don’t get a great nights sleep bower

ta da
Made beds
Got DC ready
Got myself ready
S&S
Fed animals
Made breakfast
Dropped DC off at nursery
Work
Picked DC up
Walked dog to pub
Got home
Picked up poo
Cleaned up from breakfast
Cleaned dog bowls
Bathed DC
Put DC to bed
Meal planned
Lesson planned

I’m not cuddling with Ddog on the sofa and watching some couples come dine with me!.

Hope all went well this afternoon dancing with your application. Fingers crossed for you. orange glad you had a better day and it was nice for you all to get out. Socially distanced teaching must be so strange

zoo we looove youuuuu! Hope all is well.

Bower thanks for the mug of tea and goodies to keep me going. Will post picture of before and after patio transformation. The before pictures has weeds in the pots not nice greenery!

Before and after....washed the stones which were covered in moss and had to junk the very old white patio set which had rusted...Had patio cleaned - it was awful. I've painted one garden chair which hasn't rotted and the bench will need to be washed and then sanded in due course. We bought solar lights too.

green wellies your fil has previous with the fridge hasn't he?

Links for Wednesday 9th September

We are in Zone 2: the Kitchen

Spend 15 minutes decluttering here before moving onto detailed cleaning.

Today’s mission is to deal with any hot spots in the kitchen

Our ninth baby step is learning how to declutter Check out the link to learn more about the ‘5 minute room rescue’ and the ridiculously named ‘27 fling boogie’

Habit of the month is Before Bed Routine

Wednesday is Anti-procrastination day - pick a task you have been putting off, roll your sleeves up and JFDI (just f*^@ing do it!!)

I've fallen behind with personals and am a few days behind the thread in general - will try to catch up!

I lost the thread so just popping back in to mark my place. Sorry not going to post much as I've got a headache so going to head to bed in a minute.