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

I've mostly been in the naughty corner today, not much flying here.

🛌 Morning routine
🛌 Planning for the week
🛌 Painted nails
🛌 Evening routine

I'm so glad you said otherwise I'd have done screen shots each day!

I'm actually planning on putting the links up each evening for the following day if that's ok with everyone.

Hey @SpringtimeCherries fab work on the decluttering. I've been doing the paperwork bit of decluttering myself the last few days. I hate it. Knowing what and what not to keep. I'm trying to downsize the paperwork into a simple filo folder...

Yesterday ta da

• made breakfast ✅
• made beds ✅
• weekly food shop ✅
• made packed lunches ✅
• washed dishes ✅
• antibac kitchen tops ✅
• antibac + bleach downstairs loo ✅
• antibac downstairs loo basin ✅
• general tidy up in living room ✅

🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸

Tuesday 31st January

Last day of the month and our third in Zone 5, the living room! www.flylady.net/d/zones/zone-5/

Today’s mission is to do a detailed vacuuming session.

Today’s focus is planning!

Here’s the launch pad:

www.flylady.net/c/lp.php

I think this month has taught me I can’t manage work and thread hosting (let alone actually Flying myself 😂) - apologies for missing several days of links 😬🙈

🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸

Doing about 15-20 minutes in the garage every morning, and bits and pieces in the garden if it's dry.

Batch cooking and freezing at the weekend there. Staying on top of kitchen and utility.

Completed a form that I've been scared of. Once I read it properly, I realised that I had misunderstood it first time around, and that it was actually a total doddle. Lesson learned.

Living-room is a bit too messy atm. Everything has ended up in there because the other side of the house is so badly insulated and the heating is on its last legs. So I'll tidy what I can, and hoover the wee space in the middle.

A hit the ground running kinda day.

ta da
dropped ds at college
stripped bed
bedding into washing machine
photo copy the back of something needing attaching to the wall for screw hole template
get the people sorted
load and get dw running
issue warnings that if not bringing washing up out and downstairs I will enforce a deep clean of all bedrooms
2nd load of bedding into washing machine
hoover bookcase 1
take room apart in attempt to find floor etc
head into office to start working there taking the start of stuff to go away in that space
archive and pull out for destruction old study notes
Put text books in a sensible place for reference as needed
collect fabric waiting for time and floor space into now empty drawer
collapse clothes holder
re-gig the bookshelves for sensible accessibility
regret not taking a damp cloth with me and take anti-histamines
fold laundry
put basket 1 away
raid ds' room for cultery and laundry
hoover gap between bed and wall
try to figure out if have a box already or need a box for ribbon storage
put plants from downstairs into bath tub to soak

Whoops i should probably eat lunch

Wow a lot of busy good work here, I’ll try keep it as my motivation!

I feel like I started well in January and now have stalled. I am not letting things build up again, so the house looks tidy. But I still have to de clutter the ‘things’ in drawers. But just feel like it of late. I think I need a whole day to blitz it rather than one drawer at a time.

Impressed by the morning routines.

I am a bit fustrated with myself. After a few years of trying to install better daytime routines for me, bit of exercise, eating well etc, I have only gone through patches of it being good. It never lasts!

Even now, I just need to walk every day, do some strength exercises (only 10 mins), drink enough water, eat better, but I only manage this 3/4 days a week. 😫A bit cross with myself! It’s just a few extra minutes a day. Why am I so slack about this.

ta da
🥁got up early and made sure DD1 was up for school (DH usually does this but he had hospital appt)
🥁last night’s LOL in dryer
🥁new LOL
🥁finished loading DW and switched it on
🥁cleaned bunny litter
🥁shower/hair wash
🥁booked immersive Van Gogh exhibition home ed trip!
🥁reading practice with Cagletini
🥁staff meeting
🥁painting/maths with Cagletini (combined the two)
🥁LOL in dryer
🥁new LOL (hadn’t planned to, but I got paint on my trousers!)
🥁wrote and sent a project proposal <eek>
🥁attempted to attend two meetings, was thwarted by internet being stupid
🥁prepared for tomorrow’s focus group

See you in February!

Cherries you need to start the FlyLady baby steps which will build your routines. There's about 18 individual minor steps on my morning routine and about 7 on my evening routine. Once you get into the habit of it it's over fairly quickly in the morning leaving you ready to face the day and provides the timeframe to do everything necessary to prepare for tomorrow and wind down before bed in the evening. It's taken me a year to get to the point where I'm doing my routines with 90% consistency.

Ta-da's:

😵 Morning routine
😁 Shopping
😷 Dr apt
😴 Evening routine

Glad I started the feb thread yesterday as I've only just got in from 6 hours at casualty.

Rogue baby pom-poms drank some Olbus oil. All is absolutely fine but obviously they needed regular obs.

✅food shopping
✅cooked a vat of minestrone soup whilst neglecting baby pom-poms
✅ had some good quality play whilst waiting in hospital.
✅ lol
✅ s and s loo

Here's the link for tomorrow again just in case anyone missed it.

Flylady Fledglings February: Thawing out of winter www.mumsnet.com/Talk/housekeeping/4731996-flylady-fledglings-february-thawing-out-of-winter

Thanks @DitzyBluebells I hate mornings and love to just have a coffee and start painting for a bit. But I will start on the evening routine and report back!