Following Flylady into September - Fledglings starting a new term

[EspeciallyDivided]

Welcome to the September Flylady Thread where we follow the Flylady routines for running our homes and lives. Links to the relevant parts of the Flylady site are posted each morning (most of the time - see naughty corner below). The Fledgling threads are long running, some have been posting for years some are new, all are welcome. Just jump in and ask if you don’t understand anything. The chat is an important part of the thread too, housework is not the be all and end all, we like to pass the time amongst friends while we get our houses in order.

This is not a strict thread but a gentle way of following the guidelines on the Flylady website without having to sign up the emails, which can become a bit overwhelming. Do as much or as litle as you can, there is no judgement here.

If you are new to the system start with the baby steps. These are designed to get you into a routine so you know longer think about doing the chores they are just habit. Set time, set day - do the thing. We do recognise that this is not a good system for quick decluttering and many of us in the past have combined this system with other systems for getting the heavy duty sorting out and cleaning out done. We don't judge.

Babysteps and household focus zones start again on the 1st of every month hence a new thread at the start of each month to keep things orderly. That is one of the great things about Flylady, you can jump in whenever because everything comes back round again soon. You are never behind.

Lastly we have a naughty corner - if you are struggling in any way this is a spot to join in the chat snuggled into comfy cushions with some nice drinks and nibbles until you feel ready to Fly again. So even if you have not lifted a finger around the house you can stay and chat. The thread leader may be found there from time to time putting the kettle on and plumping up the cushions.

Welcome to September.

This link www.flylady.net/c/lp.php is the Flylady launchpad. All the different parts of the system can be found here.

This is the Flighplan - the do do list which updates daily www.flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=-60

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

Oh yeah.
🎯Sort our volunteer admin and email supervisor

Quiet this evening! Hope everyone is ok.

ta da
🌀meeting with boss
🌀answered some customer enquiries
🌀impromptu meet up with a friend

Errrm think that’s about it. Must be much much more productive tomorrow.

Yesterday -
Completed the day's kitchen mission
Brought down stairs the remaining items for DS's flat.

Now able to put all spare bedding in cupboard. And discovered that I had bought the same duvets twice at some point in my more disorganised past. Fortunately tesco's own cheap and cheerful, so no great financial harm done, and I obviously won't need to buy extra now for this winter.

Very proud of LG. Over the past few months she has gone from massive door-slamming meltdowns through flare-ups of temper and pointless squabbles with LB, to occasional shouts of frustration and eye-rolls, to putting off the tv yesterday evening without any prompting from me, then sitting with me and wrestling with maths homework for an hour. On top of that, she has her first proper period, and is dealing with it with confidence.

Not to be outdone, LB got his maths sheet out - what I would call arithmetic - and completed a column of sums. Then challenged me to some Hit the Button. Then LG had to challenge me of course, then LB decided to read three or four sentences from his reading book. This is huge for him.

All-in-all, a lovely vibe, and the kitchen smells good.

Just got to pop out and take DD to the station as it's raining, back in half an hour or so.

I can see from my newly downloaded Flylady app that today's mission is to sort out the drawer or shelf where you keep foil, plastic bags etc

@Happyinheels welcome on board, just ask if you don’t understand anything.

@WeegieGranny2022 that’s so lovely about the LOs, well done to them both.

I was out the whole day and most of the evening yesterday (work, pilates class then we went to Spoons for dinner as DS goes off to uni at the weekend and we wanted a bit of family time - we’re not very good at sitting and chatting around the table at home but much better if we go out). As we were leaving I bumped into a group of mums from the DCs primary school and stopped to chat to them for half an hour (the others went on without me) so that was nice, we have all got DCs starting uni, college or both.

However I still haven’t done my cutlery drawer or fridge .

WFH today but only have a couple of hours work. Need to help DS set up his laptop for uni and register with the GP up there today too.

Today’s flightplan

www.flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=-60

Our mission as I mentioned earlier is to declutter our foil, cling film etc drawer or cupboard. Thursday is errand day, I’m going to go to the tip as we seem to have accumulated far too much cardboard to go in our recycling bin this week.

Today’s babystep is to start your control journal www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/day-8/

This is the planner that you use for writing down your routines and plans - Flylady suggests usinng a loose leaf folder, I think a lot of people now are more likely to use phone notes, apps etc but whatever works for you. I must confess that in 10 years plus of Flying I have never really sorted this out, I just sort of remember what I’m supposed to be doing but if I make a daily to do list (I use a bullet journal) I might add the mission to that.

Hi everyone 👋

welcome Urgh and Happy. I’m at the end of maternity leave but will also be working 4 days when I got back Happy, slightly shorter days than you and what I’m used to doing, and I’m hoping I can use that extra hour constructively unlikely

I wouldn’t worry about the McDonald’s Zireael. MiniUp gnawed on pizza crusts for tea the other night after a particularly busy day Now that felt like a parenting fail (I did lob her some token cucumber but that was instantly discarded).

Aww it’s lovely to hear about the progress of LG and LB Weegie.

Irritating about the appointment Hills.

Ive had a busy few days with various appointments etc, but I’ll dump some tadas since my last post:

😎car related admin
😎work related admin
😎school related admin
😎RSVP’d to a party invitation
😎cleaned the hob
😎cleaned the kitchen window and sill
😎decluttered and cleaned the cutlery drawer
😎I’m on top of washing and reasonably tidy

My cling film etc drawer is fine but under the sink is not so that’ll be my mission for today. Have a good day everyone.

My clingfilm drawer is a holder and nothing can be put in it until the utility room has been deep cleaned to removed the fibre glass so that ain't happening. My cultery drawer holds nothing but cultery and currently a few crumbs but is regularly cleaned out so I am not bad at that one.

Wrt the control journal. My control journal was set up a long while ago. when i get past the mess that is studies and house sorting so we have a house for christmas and not a building site... I am going to sit down, revamp and get it updated. But i have loads of really useful information in there, and it looks pretty and it is more of my household command hub then a control journal. It is a leaver arch folder and i keep the summary info of date and policy no# for things like insurances/ car services + mileage/ car tax / rates etc. It also has some nice little month by month charts for birthdays with plastic folders so i can allocate the card for the person into there ahead of time and it is very grab and go. It did work, but it got abandoned in the crazy and i really want to get back to that level of organisation.

Ds and a person manage to coordinate so both of them got out the door to their respective places on time this morning
I made sure ds had what he needed and went back to sleep, a wise move because i have a headache and that would have been a migraine otherwise.
Spoken to other person and agreed a swap of tech help to sort Christmas presents out, for them picking up a folder for me whilst she is in town.

I have a meeting at 12:30 so just going to grab a quick bath and get set up for that and then set the pizza dough to rise before disappearing for a few hours to study. Now that schools are back there is a nice little carpark in a local park with free parking that is 5 mins up the road from me. When the schools are on holiday there are a lot of shouting kids there which makes it less than ideal for focusing.

Remember people, if you haven’t done the mission on the right day, or the daily focus, don’t feel you HAVE to catch up! You are never behind - it’ll come round again. 💐

Currently feeling all panicky and overwhelmed - for good reason, as I have an interview to prepare for on Monday. But in the meantime I have a huge amount of work to get done today, lots of little tasks that I need to get my head around. So between that and my final OU course deadline I’m a tad swamped. I can’t even think of a power of three really so I’m just going to try and make a to do list in my work notebook I think.

Think I'm getting the hang of this a bit now. I keep forgetting to do the hotspot clear ups though. Doing well for keeping on top of laundry. Got my out of house errands done today as well as the quick sweep of bathroom. Didn't do the clingfilm drawer as that's the same as my cutlery drawer and did that the other day. Also have a sickly baby at the moment so we've been having a bit of a lazy day with lots of cuddles.

Yesterday ta-da's:

💗 Cutlery drawer. How does it get to be so dirty when the only things put in there are clean?
💗 Life admin
💗 Short trip to the local shop
💗 Helped friend with the neglected building for a couple of hours
💗 Went to feed the ducks
💗 Visited another friend

Today's ta-da's:

🌦️ Life admin. Where does it all come from? It feels never ending
🌦️ Made a few phone calls
🌦️ Went to the post office
🌦️ Cleared the shredding pile
🌦️ Decluttering
🌦️ Tidied the kitchen sundries cupboard

It's almost zero food waste here so no need to clear the fridge.

Welcome to the thread Urgh and Happy. I've found FlyLady helpful for organising myself, hope you do too.

That's annoying about the hospital appointment Hills, better luck for the rebooked one.

I like the hooks idea for the wardrobe ED.

Congratulations on creating a whole entire cupboard of space Weegie. I'm the same with owning multiples of things where I've forgotten I already bought it so buy another. It's sweet that your DC are making such good progress.

Sympathies to your DD Zoo. I went to a pressured school and had several hours of homework each night. I had no life for 5 years. It wasn't worth it.

You're doing really well Laalaa

It's been a stressful day today and I'm feeling fed up.

Hello!

I'm going to join this, been thinking about it for a while, just been diagnosed with Rheumatoid arthritis and so struggling with mobility some days, I need a new way to keep on top of things that can be little & often. Leaving it all on the bad days and then getting overwhelmed currently.

I currently have a potty training 26 month old so I've really picked my week to start 😂

I just can't get on board with wearing shoes in the house, do slippers count? 😂

I have a new papier planner coming soon so can open the morning emails with my morning coffee and write the daily jobs down in my daily to do list, otherwise I think I'll struggle to remember them.

Any tips for getting started? The website isn't the most user friendly I've seen and embarrassingly I've never had any sort of cleaning routine before.

Slippers count. Also socks. the focus on shoes is misleading. The babystep is being dressed to the point where you could leave the house in a moment's notice or recieve unexpected guests. So essentially clothes, hair and makeup if you wear it. Shoes or not is irrelevant.

Welcome aboard.

They updated the owl. He is way more obnoxious and way less userfriendly and I am unnecessarily grumpy about it and need to find a user friendly app for language learning because Duolingo is no longer it. Bloody paths. If you do not know what i am on about they have a blog on it on their website. NOT a fan at all in any shape or form. <sulks>

to do
finish past papers in the time limit of the exam - currently going to fail cos taking too long
sort out the question I have not studied
Fix the question which i get 4 formulas wrong all. the. time.
Panic as the exam is monday and totally not ready for it

The Memrise app is supposed to be good for languages @HillsBesideTheSea . I haven't done any Duolingo for a couple of years (was doing Latin) so haven't seen the changes.

Sorry about the lack of links, it has been a busy morning with much distraction due to the passing of HRH, I'll be back later with some, in the meantime the app informs me that today I need to check stocks of cleaning supplies and other under the sink stuff.

I'm decluttering today before anything. DD was picked up at 9am by the in laws and I've already filled the car with things to go to either the clothes bank, dump or charity shop, so off to do that currently!

I slid off there for a couple of days.been manic!
Visited D's new Sen school yesterday.if we can get transport on board he starts next week.i say IF as they don't answer calls,and the email I sent yesterday marked urgent(and cc in his school for good measure which is in another county)has not been the rocket up the arse required

Been to camhs with lil zoo this morning.she doesn't want me in there so I popped to home bargains and Poundland..home bargains full Halloween and Xmas stuff.its too soon for advent calendars!Poundland is sticking to Halloween right now,although I'm sure the tinsel will be out very soon.

I've not checked my steps yet but as walk camhs(best part hour) then there to school(ditto)and home from there I suspect it's a fair bit.
Need eat then clean,just go check the steps first...

18,107 steps😱

Nellie I read one of FlyLady's essays about the shoes thing and she says one of the reasons is to stop you procrastinating going outside and doing what needs doing, such as emptying bins, hanging laundry or running errands. If you're like me and happy to slip shoes on and off 100 times a day as you go in and out the front door then you're doing fine. Another reason she gives is that for some people it's psychological. I can't remember exactly what she says but the gist of it is that putting shoes on means you're in action mode but shoes off is lazing around being cozy mode. So I guess if you're one of those types of person it could make a big difference to your productivity. FlyLady says if you're worried about tramping dirt through the house have a pair of shoes just for wearing inside. Personally I'd have foot rot if they were encased in shoes all day, my feet need to breathe and I kick off my slippers every opportunity I get.

I'll forget by Monday so I'll wish you good luck for your exam now Hills.

Willow we like to feed the ducks here. We have a tame bunch at the park who come running when they see us and stand at our feet quacking. You can hand feed some of them. They're very sweet.

Christmas stuff in September Zoo 😶 Summer is barely over, who buys Christmas decorations this early?

To-do:

Everything. Yesterday evening was stressful so today I am having a day off and a massive lie in. Need to go sort out the chaos now though.

Yes, i think the shoes is about making you feel ready for anything. I slip mine on and off all day as needed. I do sometimes stay in my nightshirt to do chores as is loose, comfy and cool but on the whole I think getting dressed does lead me to feel more efficient.

Anyway, some belated links

www.flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=-60 - today’s flight plan

Friday is clear out your car and bag day and date night.

The mission today is to check under your sink, are you running out of anything? I went to Aldi this morning and forgot dishwasher tablets so that’s a fail.

@NelliePig welcome, you’re right the website isn’t the most user friendly. Basically the system consists of

Weekly zones - these repeat monthly, eg kitchen, living room
Daily focus - the same every week, errands or similar
Habit of the month
Babysteps - there are 31 of these and each one is a habit that you should build into daily routines
Daily routines - morning, afternoon and evening
Missions - a short task in the week’s zone (Mon-Fri only)
Decluttering - Flylady recommends doing this in 15 minute stints

The Flight plan gives all these details on a daily basis. I have posted quite a lot of links further up the thread to useful places on the website.

I've already fallen off the thread but I have been doing all my chores!

I see next week is about the office and I don't have one. What do others do in this scenario?

Just pick another room that needs work. the whole point is that the flylady system is a principle based system and totally flexible to fix with your schedule.

God a good chunk of study done but need to do more. However, brain is a little dead right now so taking a brain break whilst listening to R4 and waiting for the King's speech.

The people have calmed their nonsense and drama, and we have found compromises to prevent confusion where it is preventable. Clear plans for next week are being drawn up, it is going to be a mad massive whole house rescue event. and honestly i am already dreading the amount of work and energy involved but Friday is a deadline so needs must and i will be curled up with fluffy blankets by next weekend

I did my cutlery drawer while watching the HRH memorial service. Very moved by the King's speech, it's going to take a bit of getting used to isn't it, also with all the other titles going to W&C. Glanced into the fridge, it needs a bit of tidying but nothing needs to be thrown out.

@pompomseverywhere whatever the flylady plan for next week, I'll adapt it for office-type stuff, like tech things, the shelved cupboard where I keep paperwork and shredder, the sitting-room with mounds of magazines and books, and the paper hotspots all over the house.

Ta das:

• Load of laundry
• About 30 seconds wipe down off bathroom sink
• Didn't really need to do anything under the sink so didn't the time cleaning the car instead as well as decluttering it / looks LOADS better!
• prepped lunch and tea in the morning to make it quicker and stop us being tempted until takeaway / eating out
• met friend for baby play date which was arranged on The planning day this week
• went to pub for date night
• cleared out purse and bag (my bag is now my baby's change bag)