Fledglings January 2023: the one without an interesting title

[CurseYouPerryThePlatypus]

Hello everyone, it’s that lovely time of year when we all aim at a fresh start! Welcome back to our regulars, and if you are new or returning, a huge welcome to you as well! Please feel free to post or lurk, whatever helps you most.

So, Flylady. That mysterious system that promises a lovely clean house! This link is a good place to read about the basic principles, but we strongly recommend ignoring the first bit - do not sign up for emails as you’ll be inundated!

www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/

If you’re new to the system, or are wanting a refresher course, the baby steps may be a good idea. Some are more useful than others, we’ve found, and stuff like affirmations may not work for you, so pick and choose what you want to try. You don’t have to do it all! Perfectionism can be left at the door, we celebrate any achievement here no matter how small it seems (this is why you’ll see our Ta Da lists as well as To Do lists!).

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

There are parts of the house called zones, each taking a different part of the month, and missions in those zones to do little tasks we may have neglected. If you don’t feel ready for those though, a good way to start is doing 15 minutes decluttering in that zone! Remember it didn’t get messy in a day so it won’t be fixed in a day either. Slow and steady.

Then there’s the daily focus - each day of the week has a theme, although many of us switch them around to suit our own lives.

Each day I’ll provide the link to the launch pad, which is where you can see what is meant to be done that day (but again don’t feel you have to do all of it! That way lies burnout!).

A couple of principles we talk about on here are:
Future Friend - the idea of doing something today that benefits you later, such as choosing your clothes or making your lunch the night before.
Power of Three (po3) - if you’re overwhelmed, just pick three easy tasks - no matter how small - and forget about the rest until they’re done. Then reassess and decide another three.

Finally a few acronyms:
DW - dishwasher, not dear wife!
LOL - load of laundry, we aren’t finding washing hilarious
WM - washing machine
TD - tumble dryer

Howdy, lovelies!
Great lists.

Hazel what a bummer re Jeep. I hope it's easy enough to fix. When do you expect to get it back?
Willow so pleased to hear your DD is moving in the right direction. It's always scary when children are unwell.
Pompoms you sound like a really creative mum who got her shit together! I'd love to have the energy to do all the messy arts and crafts with my DS, but by the time I am back from work, and get dinner on the table, I am brain dead. It's a good day if I get to set up a train or read some books. What's your secret?

I am home for the next 2 days with DS who spiked a fever courtesy of an ear infection. He is feeling ok in himself, so I am trying to keep him entertained. Got a list of activities to get through, hopefully it will make for good bonding time. Managed to get some flying done.

Ta da:
💪Cleaned out the fridge. Threw away ancient stuff, washed shelves.
💪Usual DW rotation and kitchen tidy up after meals
💪2 LOLs - washed and dried
💪Hoovered

To do (by the end of tomorrow):

• fold clean laundry
• make dinner
• clean and organise bedroom surfaces

Oh, I also found out today that baby #2 is another boy ☺️ Delighted!

@UsernameNotPresent thanks for the mega compliment that's made my day! But there's no secret. I stay at home and don't work. As soon as I'm back in work the kids can forget all that craft business.

H doesn't earn a huge amount so we are pretty poor and don't have holidays but that's our choice for now. In the meantime it's glitter and glue galore!

Also congratulations on the baby boy business. 💜💙💚

Yep, there have been a couple of threads that have been published of late, Only spotted because the news paper articles were pushed by fb and i remembered seeing the threads. The caravan don't want to loan one was the lastest one that i saw published.

So bloody lazy of the papers.

Actually it is in the terms and conditions that anything we put on the site we are liable for but mnhq can use at their discretion. it is a common clause on most platforms. Nothing to say HQ is not selling stories/giving permission for this as a way of generating revenue.

Annomous platform but still social media that is available to be broadcast to the world. You don't want it out there don't put it on here.

That's why I tend to stick to long-running and non-controversial threads like this one, and tweak my name all the time.

To be fair, I don't think anyone would be vaguely interested in my mediocre posts on housework and pregnancy 🙈

Made it through another school closure on Monday, this time with both children being off. LB went to full-day-care, LG slept till nearly 11 then watched tv in the kitchen. She co-operated with a wardrobe clear-out and made jugs of tea, so I was happy with that.

We are in a bit of a lull here, tbh. No-one seems to have energy for more than the basics after all the coughs and viruses of december and beginning of January.

Got up a bit earlier than usual and had a wee tidy of my bedroom. Think I'll treat myself to a "new" duvet, ie one from the unconcious overspending stash of several years ago.

@WeegieGranny these bugs seem endless and back to back at the mo.

🥶 food shop
❄️ made soup with fridge leftovers and pumpkins we'd stashed away in October
🥶made pasta sauce with ropey looking tomatoes
❄️quick hoover as my floors will not stay clean this week
🥶craft after school...it's Welsh Valentine's Day this week hence all the craft as it's such a nice them.
❄️posted card
🥶finished book

username thankfully DH was able to replace the part within an hour so it was running again pretty quickly. He's pretty handy with stuff like that! Congratulations on finding out you're having a boy!

Ta Das:
💤 actually I'm so tired I'll just add my ta das tomorrow!
Goodnight all! 🍒👋

Trying out a new username to keep me focussed and motivated.

Very strange unpleasant smell in my vehicle this morning. I think at least one apple core has been jammed between seat cushions. Total gutting-out needed as soon as it stops raining.

@GreenWillowAndFairyLights it's called St Dwynwen's day and basically she's the saint of love here. Long story short, she loved a boy, he loved her back. Her dad didn't approve and wanted to marry her off for money. She was heart broken, some trouble occurred, an Angel came and gave her some wishes and she wished for people in Wales to find their one true love. Happy days. She went to be nun on Anglesey and built a church and you can visit her well where some fish can read your fortune. ❤️

pompoms that's a lovely story. I love legends like that!

Lovely people who have lots of perfume bottles, how do you store them? Between me and DH we have a lot, and I mean A LOT of perfume bottles. My DH has a thing for it, so it's definitely not a 'declutter needed' situation. At the moment I keep them on 2 shelves on those stair shaped plastic stands, but I hate cluttered surfaces and that's exactly how it looks. Is there a neat solution to storing lots of perfume bottles?

YesTaDa
🔱filled in a form requesting referral from GP
🔱paid tutoring bill
🔱transferred money into savings
🔱reading practice with Cagletini
🔱worked 9-3
🔱listened to audiobook
🔱got DD1 to do some English revision
🔱finished a college application with DD1

Apologies for flying visit (instead of actually Flying!) am utterly overwhelmed!

But UNP congratulations, a little brother for DS!!! 🤩

I've long time been watching and reading these threads so I think I'm gonna dive in and join you lot to help me keep in line 🙂

Another day at work done and the kid is fed and is currently doing his homework. Ours is cooking now before dh takes ds to his football training. With the empty house I will try and get the following done whilst I have an empty house to myself:

-Wash dishes
-Antibac and tidy up kitchen
-Mop kitchen floor
-Clean the loo
-Mop bathroom floor
-Sort the laundry out
-Do some ironing
-Tidy living room
-Phone mum and brother re estate agent selling our deceased family member's house

Seems a big list it all written out 😬

@RocketIceLollie welcome to the thread

ta da
transfer plants to bath tub
soak plants with water and plant food
return to pots
clean bath tub
clean window
clean up soil from where plant decided to chuck itself at the floor

Hopefully i have done enough to rescue the plants which was looking poorly, and help them all to thrive.

Welcome Rocket or would you rather be called Lollie 🤔

Since I was too tired last night to drop my ta das in, here they are (I'm on my lunch break)

YesTaDas:
🧚‍♀️ cooked eggs for DH
🧚‍♀️ washed bedding, including mattress and pillow protectors
🧚‍♀️ rotated mattress
🧚‍♀️ vacuumed mattress
🧚‍♀️ wiped ceiling fan in master bedroom
🧚‍♀️ vacuumed dust off the walls (I have a love/ hate relationship with the fan)
🧚‍♀️ wiped bedside tables
🧚‍♀️ vacuumed bedroom floor thoroughly
🧚‍♀️ vacuumed the rest of the main floor
🧚‍♀️ sprayed all carpets with carpet refresher
🧚‍♀️ re- vacuumed floors once they were dry
🧚‍♀️ picked up prescription for DS
🧚‍♀️ cooked lunch for DH & I
🧚‍♀️ washed 5 other LOLs, including dog beds and our towels
🧚‍♀️ put all clean LOLs away
🧚‍♀️ S&S both bathrooms
🧚‍♀️ dropped off DS'S trombone to be repaired
🧚‍♀️ paid for dog licenses for 2023
🧚‍♀️ washed handwash dishes, dried them and put them away
🧚‍♀️ spin bike workout
🧚‍♀️ cooked dinner
🧚‍♀️ early shower
🧚‍♀️ got clothes ready for today
🧚‍♀️ had DS rotate DW
🧚‍♀️ wiped countertops down
🧚‍♀️ went to bed on time!

It was nice to actually get some proper flying in, actual zone work!
Right best be getting off here, lunchtime is almost over!
🍒👋 to everyone, sorry for lack of personals 😳

😴 toddler group
😩visit to library
😴 lol
😩morning routine
😴helped at school disco
😩not speaking to H
😴 afternoon routine

Been awake since 4am and up at 5. Had argued with H by 5am so not a great start to the day.

Evening all,

@RocketIceLollie welcome on board, ask if there's anything you don't understand, the ways of Flylady can be a bit mysterious but they do work.

@UsernameNotPresent congrats on another DS! I keep all my perfume in the boxes in a basket on a shelf, but that's probably not very helpful.

@Redsquirrel5 I spent most of the weekend cooking all sorts on the EH, it is just perfect for this cold, cold weather.

Well, I have been doing quite a lot of decluttering and tidying. I stash all my charity shop stuff in the boot of my car till it's full. So a couple of weeks ago I cleared it all out, and had a good tidy up of the things that I keep in there (various car essentials, umbrella, picnic chair, ikea bag for taking all the stuff into the charity shops). So now I can start putting charity shop stuff back in again.

At the weekend I started on the boudoir. I have a small wardrobe, 4 wide drawers for PJs, jeans, leggings, teeshirts etc and 4 very narrow drawers for knickers, bras, socks and tights. I decluttered all the drawers and instead of just shoving the remaining stuff back in I rolled it all up neatly and arranged it in categories, there seems so much more space now and I can find everything easily.

I also treated myself to a nail varnish holder - I have lots of them and they were also in a basket on a shelf previously, then in one of my bedside drawers, neither were satisfactory, so they are all in a neat carry case stashed between the bed and the bedside table and the drawer is now free for other stuff.

Rocket Hi! Welcome to the thread ☺️
Willow oh that looks good, I like the artsy twist. ED I'd love to shove all of those bottles into a basket and close the blooming thing, but DH may have an issue with that. It's almost a morning ritual for him to pick through his collection choosing what he will smell like that day.
Pompoms sounds like it's a bit tense with H. Hope things get less rocky soon.
Perry hang in there, you are doing great!
Hazel you are on fire!
ED I love what you've done with the drawers. I Marie Condo-ed all the clothes drawers in the house when I was pregnant with DS1, and it's still remains in that order! Really works, that stuff.

Ta das:
⭐kitchen clean and DW rotation several times
⭐batch cooked
⭐3 LOLs washed, dried, AND folded/put away. Almost unheard of in this house
⭐bathrooms cleaned
⭐house hoovered

Ta didn't:

• sort out bedroom surfaces properly. Just did a quick dust, but that wasn't the intention.

pompoms arguing that early definitely isn't a good start to your day, I hope it got better 🤞

Username I fold the Marie Kondo way as well, I'm the only one though in this house. It really is smart, there seems to be more space and you can really see everything!

ED I am wanting to get more decluttering and organising done. I did actually get rid of a bag of old gel colours today that I won't use, a co-worker's daughter now has a lamp, hopefully this'll give her some options.

willow I think you're right, work today did seem like a break from yesterday, although we were so slow that I was wishing I was home to get more stuff done! Woohoo on your client!

hills I hope your plants survive (and thrive!)

Perry what are you overwhelmed with? Is there anything we can help with?

Only ta das for today is cooking dinner and cleaning up the kitchen! I'm tired and ready to take a shower so I can start to get ready for bed. I'll get my clothes out for the morning as well. My lunch is already in the fridge ready for tomorrow.

🍒👋 to everyone