May the Fledglings Fly with you

[EspeciallyDistracted]

Hello everyone, and welcome to the May Flylady thread! I have shamelessly copied the OP from the April thread, thank you Sing

We welcome newbies and returnees - if you are curious about the system feel free to ask questions or lurk! We do follow it, erm, loosely to say the least. So there is a lot of chat about random life stuff as well as housework, decluttering and organising.

A key element of flylady is not being a perfectionist!
I don’t think the regulars would mind me saying that most of us here are not naturals at housekeeping etc, so please don’t feel we are some intimidating group who demand perfectly shined sinks. We are human. We fall off the wagon. We commiserate and help each other climb back on, and we stock the virtual naughty corner with snacks and blankets for the days when adulting is just too hard.

So, the system:
🔹Some baby steps which are designed to help you build up a routine.
🔹Daily missions to help with sprucing up particular areas in the zones, for example the first zone of the month is the entry/porch and dining room if you have one.
🔹Try and do 15 minutes decluttering a day. It didn’t get cluttered in a week so it will take a lot longer to clear it!
🔹Daily focuses to help shape the week.
🔹Here on the thread many of us post to do lists, but also “ta da” lists of things we’ve achieved that day.
🔹We also recommend the Power of Three technique - if you’re overwhelmed with too much to do, just pick three things and don’t think about the rest.

Anyway, I will post some links each day (hopefully) but whether you follow the system or not - many of us just take the bits we like or build our own flylady style system to suit our own lives - do join in if you want a place to chat about keeping a house and family running!

That! <pull’s That’s arm to help escape from clutter>

Happy belated birthday Courante! You’re definitely allowed a slip on the flying and body clutter front when it’s your birthday.

That sounds interesting Sing!

Wow ED, hope today is a bit slower paced.

YesTaDas:
✅ ironing pile almost cleared
✅ cleaned bathroom window, sill and mirror while doing s&s
✅ carried lots of crap back downstairs and put it away
✅ kept on top of the dishes and tidying
✅ came back downstairs after putting DD1 to bed and actually had a conversation and watched TV with DH instead of just falling into bed at 8:30 when MiniUp goes down. Discussed a behaviour strategy as DD1 is rather trying at present.

Ta Das:
I DID A HOME BLEURGH THIS MORNING!

I hope you all don’t mind, I’m going to dump all the things about getting the home bleurgh done that I’ve remembered for when I used to be good at it. Feel free to skip but it’ll help me to brain dump it somewhere, and might help some one else.

So I did each part against the timer and stuck to the time properly. If I had a bit of time left from
one bit I went back to another bit I hadn’t finished until the timer went. Before I started we got both DD’s ready and did a 5 minute family pick up, then DH took the girls out.

I then did:
5 minutes upstairs tidy
5 minutes upstairs dust
5 minutes upstairs hoover
5 minutes emptying upstairs bins and putting clean clothes away
10 minutes bathroom clean
5 minutes downstairs tidy
5 minutes downstairs dust
10 minutes hoover/sweep rug, stairs and hard floors downstairs
10 minutes downstairs mop

Changing the bedding doesn’t work for me in the home bleurgh. It takes too long and I’m going to go back to doing it on a Sunday.

I didn’t deviate from the home bleurgh. I made a mental note of things I noticed that were dirty that I instinctively wanted to clean, and will add them to my planner for the week in the relevant zone. I did not lose my shit when I came across crap left on the floor. Instead I will remember next week that we need to do a floor check before the rest of them go out. I also need to remember to check the shark doesn’t need emptied or dehaired before starting as I had to pause to sort that.

Feel so much more positive after getting that done, and like I can enjoy the day with the family now. I’ll have cross posted loads here, but hope everyone has a lovely Saturday ☺️

Now Willow make sure you sit down and rest before you hurt yourself today please! <firm mum voice>.

Ooh and the other home bleurgh point I had to remind myself of. It’s NOT a deep clean and does not need to be perfect. I’m trying to think of it almost as a panic clean before someone comes round at short notice. It’s the first time I’ve done it properly for ages so isn’t going to result in anything being shiny but I know it’ll get easier and more efficient every week.

Wow, that sounds like an excellent Home Bleugh Still. I like your approach, I am constantly sidetracked by "I could just clean that..." and end up sitting on the floor looking at photos from Uni 🤦.

I have tried to have a quiet day, really. But DH has got his Getting Things Done hat on, so I have:
❤️ Done the morning routine
🧡 Helped DH hoover the music room sofa after WillowHound knocked a plant off the windowsill and covered it in soil
💛 Aquiesced when DH wanted to wash the sofa covers and done 3 loads off washing for that (IKEA 3 seater Ektorp. Big sofa!)
💚 Washed the lampshade in the hall
💙 Taken the bookshelf to the man who asked for it on Trash Nothing
💜 Been to Tesco for vegetables and black pudding
❤️ Tried to update my bullet journal and kept getting interrupted by DH
🧡 Ordered a new Leuchtturm1917 notebook as my BuJo is going to run out of pages in June

DH has now gone to collect my turntable from Stereo Hospital and will probably call at the garden centre for more shit some carefully selected plants on the way home. I am in the garden with tea.

My Getting It Done hat is on too Willow.

🌟I have gathered old toys and boys runners/wellies for donation
🌟Washed items for donation
🌟Organised the collection of an old child's desk and chair
🌟Restocked and labelled the frozen food section of our fridge freezer - made list of frozen foods to aid easier menu planning ❤️

🌟Checked something for work

Afternoon all. Friend just left. Really glad I didn’t cancel. I think having had two older kids who struggled a lot in situations like restaurants (which obviously now I know was sensory/change of routine etc) I forget it actually isn’t particularly stressful to do that stuff anymore. So while I’m still in the mindset of something like a quick play in the park and then lunch out being really exhausting, when I don’t need to worry now. Everything is tiring in a sense because chronic illness but doing stuff with Cagletini isn’t super exhausting like it was when she was a toddler. I need to bear that in mind and actually try more - maybe life will be a bit more fun now.

Great to see you that!

Definitely want to be sensible re the possible change of qualification. I’ve emailed the researcher and had a thorough look of the school website and course handbook etc but my friend also suggested reading more about the researcher herself so will do that.

Going to get Cagletini a snack of veggies and then curl up on the sofa with my phone for a bit.

Remember you are post-viral too @BeanAnTae . That sounds like enough for today.

@DitzyBluebells yes, I think six months will be when I'm more confident. I am at the point where I'm getting things right but I don't understand how, it that makes sense. I obviously know more than I think I do. Onboarding from home is so difficult. I used to panic every time I was given a task.

@StillUp that's so true. Why is it never finished?! How do some people have show homes and where can I get one?

@merryhouse how long away is the interview? I work in account management so may not be relevant at all but I have categories that I think of 3 examples of and also read the job description thinking of 2/3 examples of when I have done each requirement. My categories are a time where I/I was able to

Proactive
Prioritise
Work under pressure
Attention to detail
Communication
Adaptable
Customer focused

Just practice it over and again. Sorry if I'm preaching to the choir

DP has gone to London today so I have taken DD to see my mum who's dog has just had puppies. I personally don't agree with breeding dogs but she does do it "properly". My mums house is atrocious and honestly, going there would spur anyone to clean. She is one person in a large 30s semi with outhouses. It's full to the brim with shit and dirt. I also see her slowly becoming my grandma which inevitably means I will become her. Urgh. I rarely go as it's quite far away and she is infuriating.

Hope the visit to your DM’s went ok Duet, and you and DD enjoyed puppy cuddles.

Very productive days Willow and Bean. Willow you forgot to sound the stationery klaxon. Those notebooks are so lovely.

Glad you enjoyed the meet up with your friend Sing.

After my productive start yesterday my afternoon wasn’t so great as I had a headache. A little nap helped and we just had a relaxed afternoon with the girls. I did bag up so charity shop things though.

Today I need to change the beds and iron school uniform. We are also planning on sorting the garden. About to go out for a walk as soon as we are all dressed though. It’s a glorious day here.

Oh finally it’s letting me type! MN is really getting to me 🤬

Anyway good morning.

Duet that sounds really tricky with your mum’s house. 💐

Am curled up with period pain this morning so planning an easy day of pottering around doing house and life admin stuff.

to do (hopefully not too ambitious!)
🎯pay chemistry invoice
🎯send homework for maths
🎯book cinema tickets for tomorrow (sonic 2 with home ed friends)
🎯laundry
🎯make sure DD1 is ready for a new week at school and cleans hair dye out of the sink
🎯make sure DS tidies his room
🎯Cagbunny care
🎯bit of uni work - need to work out what still needs catching up on
🎯look up researcher
🎯sort meds for the next two weeks
🎯clean and rewrite the weekly planner board
🎯meal plan with DH and edit tesco accordingly (do we have room in the freezer for me to slow cook a massive chilli?)

A longish list but nothing too difficult really.

Oh duet I'm sure the puppies were lovely ❤️

DH and Ds out at soccer. I've just tidied up and had stretched and was just about to head out for a briskish walk when I noticed that an Amazon delivery is coming. It's freezer blocks which are slim for lunch boxes. My current ones are very blocky. Also a marker for freezer labels and a shallow tray for freezing it's separately.

I have two sage plants that I need to plant later. Am planning to buy more plants for our patio pots. Joining you in the garden Up!

Freezing things separately I meant

@merryhouse I'm finally catching up on the thread. Congratulations on the interview! Is it online? If so, have some notes on the desk in front of you. I made a prompt sheet of examples, I love the list Duet posted above! For mine, I went through the job specification and took key words/phrases from that, eg a lot was mentioned about outreach so I thought of relevant examples. You could look at key words on any of the company’s marketing too.

Re outlook, if you don’t have a hotmail or outlook email I’d just sign up for a free one, then sign in on a computer rather than phone so you can explore. I would think the main things would be using events on the calendar, onedrive (which is very much like windows explorer other than having shared files) and teams. If you want a practice with someone I’d be happy to give you my outlook address!

Right, well I’ve not done much yet other than putting the drying on again and cleaning up spilled cereal/milk <sideways glance at Cagletini> so I’d really best get on with my list hadn’t I.

Oh and happy Mother’s Day hazel if you’re celebrating the US one, a random email informs me it’s today over there? Hope you’re getting pampered! 💐

Right seriously Sing. C’mon. Move.

Afternoon all!

Apologies, @StillUp for failing to sound the Stationery Klaxon. I have purchased one of these and a matching pen loop (stationery nerd alert).

Duet that's a brilliant list of things to focus on for interview / CV. I shall pinch it! I've been thinking on the dog walk about your concerns about turning into your Mum so, with apologies for a bit of a deep dive on a Sunday, here are my thoughts.

You are clearly concerned that you will replicate your Mum's behaviour (and possibly your grandmother's?) but you won't, for the following reasons:

1. you are 50% your Dad, so your natural aptitutes and attitudes may be different
2. your "housekeeping inheritance" is different from hers. For example, I grew up in a house where my Dad didn't notice housekeeping things for long periods, then would hire a skip, chuck everything out, move house or redecorate, and the cycle would begin again. Mum tried to keep up, but was born in 1945 and spent a very long time fighting the idea that she would give up her much loved career to just be a housewife and raise DC, so she hated housework and everything it represented. I grew up with those ideas, but have (over a very long time) reached the conclusion I am happier with order and cleanliness and less stuff than she could ever be and, crucially, I don't have to fight society's expectations in the same way.
3. What's your object permanence like? DM and DSis (and DS2 and DD and DH) have a real issue with "out of sight, out of mind". If they can't see it, it doesn't exist, so tidy is NOT their forte.
4. You're aware of it now, and fighting against it. For this reason, we are decluttering madly, having spent the last 6 years moving DM from the house I grew up in to a much smaller property and getting rid of masses of stuff because it simply won't fit. I am NOT leaving the same job for my DC, it's been really, really, hard for everyone.

Anyway. Enough burbling for now.

Ta Da:
💖 Bed stripped
🧡 First LOL done and on line
💛 Second LOL in
💚 Hound walked
💙 Kitchen clean-ish
💜 DH dispatched with DS3 for new trainers, tennis shoes and a tennis raquet. My youngest DC now has feet bigger than mine!
💖 Constant WhatsApps from DH responded to 🤦‍♀️
🧡 DS2 has turned up to sit in our garden (they don't have one)
💛 Use DH's absence to play my records on my turntable 😁

Still To Do
☀ More washing as washing the sofa covers yesterday has left me a day behind
☀ Put the sofa back together
☀ Roast beef & yorkies etc for tea. I am not supposed to be cooking as these bloody steroids are making me dangerous (I am covered in burns, cuts and bruises because I keep misjudging things) but realistically I will be because that's how it works.
☀ Sit in the garden with sewing
☀ Update BuJo and do Nice Bits of Planning - pretty bits, and birthdays, and so on.
☀ Plan for work next week, I've been getting far too little done
☀ Update kitchen fridge planner (thanks for the prod there, Sing)
☀ Turn mattress and remake bed
☀ Wash lampshade on the landing as the last day in Zone 1
☀ Not kill DD, who starts A Level mocks tomorrow and is wound up like a coiled spring and being very brittle, rude and snippy with it. I understand, but she is being very hurtful and I could do without it right now.

Oops, have written an essay. Happy US & Australia Mothers' Day, Hazel, and 🍒👋 to everyone else.

Afternoon all,

Lovely to see you back again That.

Up - brilliant work on the home bleugh, you have inspired me!

Sing - hope the period pains ease off soon

Duet - I can imagine it is hard onboarding if WFH. Do you go into the office at all? I tried WFH at the start of lockdown 1 but we managed to get the workplace covid secure enough for me to go back after 6 weeks, it didn’t suit me WFH, we haven’t got space and I felt too isolated. Although it was nice spending more time with the DCs, that made it a lot more bearable (they are teens so didn’t need me to homeschool them).

Anyway, tada!

Cup of tea in the garden
Sorted papers for DD’s paper round and woke DD up
Washing on
Breakfast and another cuppa
Dressed and went to allotment, popping back to drive DS to work, then back to the plot. Instructed DD to put washing on line
Bit of gardening at home
More washing on
Another cup of tea
Mini home bleugh (thanks to Up)

5 mins each:
Kitchen floor hoover and mop
Dining room, hall and stairs quick vacuum
Upstairs hoover landing and master bedroom
Empty waste paper bins
Bathroom sweep and mop floor, wipe down lid of bin, scales, few other things
Binned old loo brush and used new one
Hung up 2nd washing
Sorted and put away yesterday’s washing

Lunch, back to town to pick up M&S parcel and DS from work.

I have done some stuff on the list. Including some uni catch up and getting lost down an internet rabbit hole of psychology stuff and reading about other people who run the course I’m considering.

Now I’m going to move the laundry on and then curl up and watch random shite on my phone I think.

@merryhouse oh and also have a quick spiel about what you know about that company and why you want to work for them. And yes,@SingToTheSky makes a great point, if it's over teams then position everything so you have important notes around you. I had one over conference call too and I stood up with my notes over the kitchen side to position me powerfully.

@GreenWillowAndCatkins that's so sweet of you to take the time to respond with such good points. That's touched me! You're absolutely right. I rarely keep things for sentimental reasons. She has a loft full of my school books and 3 workout VHS' from the 80s out in the living room as if she could use them at any moment! One is Cher and the other is the Y plan and a fabulous montage of 80s styling. It's a lovely house but it's ruined. The animals also create a lot of dirt and she is disabled after an incident/attack. I feel for her but I can't help her any more. I may be 50% my dad but he is worse in many ways 😂 as he is also single he has hobbies so his 80s detached 3 bed is also filled with shit. My dad had two chairs in his living room (one is apparently a 2seater but it's so small just he fits on) and at Christmas DD and I went to see them and I didn't have a place to sit in either house because of the shit. My dads house is very tidy and well placed as opposed to my mums chaotic clutter and hoarding. Just convenient for him - 3 bicycles and their equipment in the living room type of thing. They are weird.

Your ta-da list is impressive. 😄

@EspeciallyDistracted did you go in every day then? Did people join you? It's funny as I got made redundant during lockdown 1 and they were all starting to talk about going back. After that they stayed 1-2 days minimum. The next place made us go in everyday, even if we had been in close contact or further lockdowns ensued and they had us listed as key workers so they could get us in. Bullshit. This place I started mid December after two interviews over teams. I met my manager on the day I collected my equipment and then we didn't go back in until April. We are 2 days a week and I see my manager one of those. Over Christmas everyone was off so I just sat at my laptop for the three days unaware of what to do. Training was dismal. We (a few started in the new year so I joined them in training) were showed a process and then had to get on with it but as we learned a few similar ones at the same time, I've never been too sure I'm doing it correctly. I used to open a case on sales force and just think "shit, what do I do with that?" It may as well have been written in another language. Now that's only 5% of the time but as it's over teams, getting confirmation of something takes forever. I trained people over teams previously and I spent the majority of the day with them showing, talking through and then getting them to complete. I think that's they better way to do it. Office work is better for morale abs engagement but my family life is better because I'm at home. I can take DD to school, I see DP and clean more. I also get 40 mins back each way travelling plus petrol saving.

@SingToTheSky what are you doing at uni, is it psychology? An easy rabbit hole to go down!

Sing & willow yes it is mother's day here in the US. We are on our way to lunch. We had a steak & shrimp dinner last night for mothers day, ILs got me a huge hanging basket that I'm excited about. I also got flowers, Fluffy socks, smelly stuff and a candle. I'm spoiled 🥰
I did have some flowers delivered yesterday to my mum as well.

I've had a busy week. Wednesday I actually got some stuff done after work, like cleaning both bathrooms, putting things away, and still got to relax. Thursday was a different story, I was exhausted and was in bed asleep by 9:35pm (which is unheard of unless I'm sick).
Friday night we went out to a BBQ at a friend's house & Saturday I worked all day at my 2nd job.

DH handed in his 2 weeks notice (but will end up being closer to 3 weeks to finish out the pay period). DD is planning on moving out this coming week, although I have an order for cupcakes that I'll be working on so won't be available to help her move.

Lots of changes happening in the Hazel household for sure!

Happy Mothers' Day to US fledglings and fledglings of other countries who celebrate it today ❤️

Evening all,

Duet - my work isn't really amenable to WFH at all, 2 out of 14 of us were able to do it short term while we worked out what to do but this was done by swapping responsibilities around and putting some projects on hold. None of the others did it at all and the other 6 week WFH person went back when I did. We implemented weekend working so there were fewer people on site on any given day, had to eat at our desks instead of the kitchen, use teams for meetings instead of the conference room, luckily we have a relatively large building. We are totally back to normal now (no WFH at all) apart from having all the windows open and creating an open plan meeting area.

Hazel Happy Mother's Day, you have got a lot going on. Will DD be far away?

DH decided to declutter the garden shed today. I am a little bit disappointed at the smallness of the pile of stuff to go to the tip which resulted. Might have to venture in myself and see if I can liberate anything else.

ED DD won't be far, maybe 5 minutes away.
Sorry to hear that DH didn't declutter as much as you'd hoped. I know that we have stuff that's laying around that we no longer need, but DH wants to keep it "just in case" which only happens every once in a great while.

duettino it does sound like you have seen & experienced the way your parents live and have made a conscious decision to NOT become them. You are breaking the cycle.

Bean you mentioning the meal prep has reminded me that I need to get our lunches ready for the week, although we had so much food leftover from last night's dinner and today's lunch that I think we are covered. I'm not hungry at all tonight (late lunch and quite a bit eaten), it's dinnertime and I'm still full.

Ta Das:
🌸 grocery pickup order placed, picked up and put away
🌸 enjoyed lunch out, and had a margarita 🍹
🌸 relaxed on the couch
🌸 Skyped mum

I had no expectations for today, so I wasn't disappointed. DS also got 1 LOL washed today and the DW just needs to be loaded

Morning all, sorry I'm a bit late

This week we are moving into Zone 2, the kitchen.

The Flightplan link is here www.flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=-60

Our mission for the day is to scrub the stove top. Monday is Home Blessing Day

I have just remembered I haven't posted anything about Baby steps - a small step to add to our routines for each day of the month, take a look here

www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/

Morning!
I managed most of my list yesterday. Now I have a couple of hours to get more stuff done (DS is already doing his English) before we have a nice afternoon with friends - they’re bringing their boys round briefly first, then we are going out for lunch and Sonic 2 at the cinema.

po3.1
❗️Find the diary and fill in the rest of the week on the planner board (I did most from memory)
❗️Sort meds for the next two weeks
❗️Log into laptop

Yep duet I’m doing a psychology degree although my first course with the OU is a general social science one which you have to do at the start. I have other undergrad modules from before (I got sick when I was about halfway) and that plus other factors means I may be able to go straight to a masters in a particular subject that I’m very keen on… with a school that has an approach I am also very keen on… decisions decisions. I’ve decided to leave it another year at least though because DD1 has her GCSEs next year and I need to be around as much as possible!

Love the new bujo willow 🤩