Fledglings Flying - May we all conquer the clutter

[EasilyDeterred]

Are you looking to finally getting into a new routine with housework? Something simple to start that can be easy to add to over time? Flylady may be the answer for you!

This is a long running thread, but we are a friendly bunch and all are welcome to join in. We start a new thread every month even though they don't fill up because the Flylady system re-starts on the 1st of the month. However you can jump in any time.

Do NOT sign up for the Flylady emails - it's an excessive amount sent every day. you have been warned! 😁
There are Baby Steps for starting out, add one thing at a time to start good habits and routines.
There are 5 zones that we will rotate through, don't worry about finishing it all this month, it'll come around again next month! Flylady is NOT about perfectionism!
Daily missions: each day of the week has a different mission.

• Monday: Home Blessing (or as we call it, home bleugh)
• Tuesday: plan & play
• Wednesday: anti-procrastination
• Thursday: errand day
• Friday: clean car & purse out a week. It's also date night (with your significant other, or friends, or yourself!)
• Saturday: family fun day
• Sunday: renew your spirit

Common acronyms we use:

• LOL: load of laundry (washing is certainly NOT funny!)
• DW: dishwasher, we are not rotating wives by any means, although an extra pair of hands could come in handy sometimes 😆
• LMS: lose/lost my shit
• DNLMS: do/did not lose my shit
• BRC: box/basket of random crap
• Mount Washmore: self explanatory

There are more, but I can't think of them all. Feel free to ask us to explain something. I'll try to update links every day, although there is also an app (I haven't tried this)

Links are below 👇 if I happen to not add links in time, they do update at midnight for you.

Zones (these change every week through the month). https://www.flylady.net/d/zones/

Baby Steps (habits to build into daily routines)
:https://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/
The Current FLY Zone | FlyLady.net
https://www.flylady.net/d/zones

Flight Plan (list of all the relevant daily parts of the system)
http://www.flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=-60

Thanks to Hazel for running the April thread

Hope you managed the workout @HazelNotHungryLC I need to go ot the gym today.

Well, I didn’t manage to declutter the fridge yesterday but I did give a thorough clean to another section of the kitchen (worktops, splashback and the outside of the fridge which was covered in fingerprints), plus a bit of decluttering so it all looks better now. Tricky family stuff has all been sorted amicably too, so we’re all good again.

Today’s Fligh Plan is here http://www.flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=360 today’s mission is to declutter plastic bags, foil etc. Our drawer for that stuff is OK at the moment (we don’t use much of those things any more) but the one with the plastic boxes and lids is in disarray so I might tackle that one.

Have a good day everyone.

I have a very short list of TaDas, I eventually cleaned my upstairs bathroom, it's positively gleaming!
My little cylinder vacuum died, Amazon refunded me although I'd had it for 13 months, great customer service!
We have a BT engineer coming this morning. Last time I had to complain about the man they sent because he was making sexual innuendos and spouting racist shite, so at my insistence DP has taken the morning off to be here.
I'm actually still loafing in bed with a cup of coffee and listening to DP tidying up, he's vacuumed the stairs and for some reason I'm finding it really amusing 😅
He did have to ask where the attachment for hoovering the stairs was - err, same place it always is - and he will probably want a lot of praise for his manly efforts 😇

ED yes, I did actually do my workout, and felt great for doing it! I hope you get your workout today too. That's good everything worked out with the family stuff.

Cherry I hope this BT worker is more professional. Isn't it awful when men feel like they can be crude because we're female?!
I'm laughing at your DH fishing for lots of praise 😂 my DH would ask me which attachment to use, but we have so many, it can be overwhelming!

I'm glad that in our house everyone says thank you for everything. I may have my moments of feeling like a maid, but usually DH will thank me for cleaning the house, cooking dinner etc, and vice versa. I also make sure to thank DS for doing his chores every day, so he knows how important it is to say it as well.
I think that showing appreciation for the little things goes a long way.

That was kind of random! One of my coworkers is being very random today, maybe she's rubbing off on me 😱

I'm not sure what I'll get done today when I get home from work. It does seem to be really nice outside for a change, so we might actually be able to work outside!

I’ve been out in the garden as much as possible. Three (mostly) sunny days in a row! A couple of trees have been too tall and close to the house, and we had to crown them. I was sad at the time, but it looks a lot more balanced out there now. It got a lot neglected over the past couple of years.

TeenGirl has to start wearing a blazer to school (S4) next week. Yeah, cos that’ll get them further up the league tables!

And breathe ….

Dishes are done, tomorrow’s washing is in a neat heap, and I’m relaxing with a coffee. I’m managing to plan meals a bit better, with some batch cooking and more organised online orders.

Evening all
Not much flying been going on here. Struggling with motivation a bit. Have done odd bits here and there and some random bits that don’t get done regularly but I think I’m suffering with overwhelm. Eg we got the baby stuff out of the cellar to try to sell and it was stored in an unused room. But then dp decided that was the room he was working on next so put it all in the hall and living room instead because he was taking off plasterboard and chasing in cables etc causing a lot of mess and dust. So there’s a lot of stuff everywhere which I struggle with at the best of times. Then we had new internet connected (fibre) but that also involved moving loads of stuff and drilling holes in walls. And moving the stuff made me discover loads of dust and grime I was previously oblivious to which makes me feel the whole house must be like that. And I cleaned a mud smear off the skirting board in the porch and then that bit if skirting board looked so much cleaner than the rest which made me realise that my weekly quick wipe with a damp cloth isn’t doing as good a job as I had thought! I just feel like I will never be on top of this house because there is always so much to clean. Anyway trying to remember one thing at a time and to focus! Have high hopes for tomorrow so posting a list tonight in the hope it spurs me on

Friday todo’s
Move baby stuff out of hall and living room (back into cellar?)
Clean kitchen cupboard fronts
Clean the inside of the doors on the worst ones
Deep clean kitchen work surfaces
vacuum through
mop hard floors

@CherryogDog that's brilliant about your vacuum! I probably wouldn’t have tried after that long but it makes me think
i should! That bt worker sounds awful, glad you complained and hope you got someone else this time!

@Scourgify is s4 age 14/15? Mine had to wear them all through secondary but they changed the logo after ds1 had been there a year and gave them detention if they continued wearing the old one after a certain date. I was fuming at having to buy a whole new blazer after a year when there was nothing wrong with his first one. Then they changed the ties this year and had to buy him a new tie even though he’s leaving school next month 😡

@SleepingIceDragons sorry to hear you’ve had yet another delay. So frustrating for you.

@EasilyDeterred glad family stuff got sorted

@HazelNotHungryLC thanking each other sounds nice. We tend to for the bigger stuff but not so much the smaller stuff and actually that’s the stuff that makes you feel taken for granted so I should try to mention those things too and hope others follow my example

Morning all,

Hopefully next week when I am back at work I will be posting a bit earlier! It has been nice having the week off but I don’t seem to have got as much done as I would have liked to, isn’t that always the way.

Anyway, on Fridays Flylady instructs us to clean out our car if we have one and handbag. I did my car last week so it’s OK for another week i think but will look later. Bag definitely needs doing. It is also date night, we haven’t got any plans for it.

Our flight plan for the day is here http://www.flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=360
Our mission is to sort out the under sink cupboard, throw out any empty containers, re-stock anything that has run out etc. I got ahead on this one by using up my Barkeepers friend to get rid of limescale round the tap earlier in the week then buying some more.

@Scourgify my DD’s secondary school changed their uniform after she had been there one year, it was annoying as she had had her big growth spurt by then and didn’t need new size=wise. There was a one year grace period. However we got “lucky” in that covid intervened and by the time that was all over the head had left, a new one came along who wasn’t bothere and she stayed in the same blazer and skirt till she left (they weren’t hugely different). The old blazer was nicer than the new one IMO.

@CherryogDog glad you reported BT man. My friend and I were out for a walk with her dog a couple of days ago and an older bloke outside a pub started making lecherous comments as we walked past, we ignored him but it does make me angry that this happens.

@TheMainCharacter I often feel that sort of overwhelm too. DEcluttering really does help, we had a huge purge last year andI am still chipping away at it. Having the right tools for the jobs helps too, I dust the skirting boards with one of those pledge dusters on handles which means not much bending, it’s very quick and you aren’t faffing with hoover attachments.

Yesterday I scrubbed the rest of the kitchen counters (we have a corner which has several small appliances plus fruit bowl and bread bin lined up so I moved and wiped those too). Also cleaned the inside of the patio doors in the kitchen, hoovered the whole downstairs and mopped the kitchen floor. The kitchen ahd got quite grubby. DH is in charge of the daily wiping down of counters etc but he never moves anything just wipes in front of things.

The weather is glorious here again today, I am sitting in the garden with my cuppa and its so nice and warm.

Morning.
had a day to renew my spirit yesterday. It involved a lot of walking and i caught the sun on my shoulders.

This morning is a slow start and motivating ds to get to his exam when he knows he isn't going to pass it (yes we have had the he doesn't know might get lucky etc etc convo) is a struggle.

The house is a disaster, i need to run some errands, and mostly i want to curl up in a ball and sleep for another couple of hours. So behind on sleep that now i am able to catch up I would like to. But as a grown up stuff to do, adulting to happen.
3 must do's today:
chicken pot pie into freezer
ring student loans
cpd record update.

I've got to add CPD to my to do list too @SleepingIceDragons , I have just been requested to revalidate my professional qualifications. My records are a bit makeshift, their portal for doing it on is very clunky.

Just sitting out in the sun with a coffee 😀 I love the sun so much! I’m always cold so being able to soak up some warmth feels amazing to me.
We used to have gym membership and once I was in the sauna and someone accidentally touched my foot and exclaimed “oh my god how is your foot that cold when you’re in a sauna?!” Bit embarrassing but gave everyone a laugh.

Tada’s so far
☀️morning routine
☀️school run
☀️moved baby stuff into basement cupboard
☀️hair cut (forgot about this until this morning)
☀️vacuum kitchen
☀️clean tumble dryer grill bit and floor around it where someone had spilt a drink down it and left it 😡
☀️cupboard fronts (this actually doesn’t take long as when we were putting in our kitchen despite loving the look of wooden shaker style, having lived with my family for some time I knew they were messy wotsits so chose plain white handleless gloss so they can be very quickly wiped over)

Going to vacuum the rest of the house now before mopping

@SleepingIceDragons I hope your ds does ok in his exam. Ds has his first gcse today. And dd’s A levels start next week. Never have children two school years apart 😆

@SleepingIceDragons hope your sons exam has gone as well as it could do. I’ve also been onto student loans this week as having issues with their systems to sort out eldest’s application - really clunky way of resolving said issue but it’s done and hopefully all ok !

@TheMainCharacter ive made that fatal mistake with the little two of 23 months apart - so 2 school years.

The exam went terribly but at least he went in, and lasted an hour before coming out. He will have done better than not. Not holding out hope for a pass, but not needed as highest grade in the exams counts and his last attempt was ok enough to finish the qualification. Last exam is monday then a batshit ton of course work to get finished.

I feel like a slug, motivation is nothing, energy is nothing, phone lines are playing up - fucking internet phone crap. Yes i have feelings - the old system worked and was reliable, now neither the phone nor the internet works properly 90% of the time.

Going to go do the errand so that something productive happens. Although i still want a nap really really badly.

@Hemax1 @TheMainCharacter my two are 23 months apart too, so we had the GCSE and A level year two years ago, DD starts A levels in a couple of weeks and DS finishes his second year uni assignments next week. I did worry about them both having exams the same year but actually it was fine as they were in it together so to speak, rather than having one revising and one chilling. DS and I had to write an old fashioned letter to student finance recently but it did all get sorted.

I'm sitting out too but in the shade, I am loving this weather but I can't sit out in the actual sun for any length of time, I hate the way it feels on my skin after a few minutes, I run very hot too and don't really feel the cold. I went to the allotment at 9 for an hour and had to come back as no shade up there.

@SleepingIceDragons glad DS got through the exam and that he has the previous one to fall back on. Mine did BTEC alongside A levels but they never got the second chance exam because of covid.

The student finance system is ridiculous. I had to support dds application. Tried to do it without setting up my own account as my loan was before online accounts were a thing but they said no our records show you have a student loan so had to set up an online account using my student loan details to do so. All ok, then clicked on the button to do her stuff. No you can’t do that because your name doesn’t match 🙄. Uploaded proof of identity, birth cert, passport, marriage cert, national insurance no etc and posted it all too. No you have to fill in paper form and upload it. Tried to upload to my account, no dd had to upload it on hers for it to work. You’d think there’d be a way for them to tell I was the same person through my national insurance number or other docs. Or by the fact that they knew I had a loan when I initially tried (using the name that they then wouldn’t accept!)

Oh, what a pain, ours wasn't that bad. DH and I are old enough not to have student loans at all. But DS clicked something wrong on the application and didn't realise till it was too late and the only thing we could do was fill in a form and post it to them with a covering letter.

Last year we just logged onto our student loan accounts and filled in on there as the system had actually worked. It linked properly to dd and all good.

This year, getting emails saying dd has filled in her part of the application and we need to do ours … but it hasn’t linked properly, so have had to download the paper form, both fill it in and reupload to one of our accounts. Hoping that it’s all gone through properly now!

Morning all,

Well, that was an unexpected turn of events, the Northern Lights, I’m glad I wasn’t following Flylady’s advice re early nights (or date nights, DH had gone out with a friend). The rest of us jumped in the car and drove about 5 miles out of town at about 10.15 and it was incredible. although by the time we got home you could see them clearly from the back garden despite light pollution. Hope some of the rest of you got to see them too.

So, no missions on Saturday, it is Family Fun Day Chez Flylady. DH and DS are going to parkrun, DD is staying at home to revise and I am off to an all day training course (related to volunteering). Tonight we will be watching Eurovision, somewhat reluctantly on my part but the rest of them love it.

I attempted to go to bed early because i was exhausted but every one kept texting me and because priority mode doesn't ping when on bedtime mode and I was on standby for emergency lift for ds so needed to hear him ping (the ping is loud enough to wake me up as stupid light sleeper) So I neither saw the lights nor got my early night. So i am tired, grumpy and have a lack of sleep migraine this morning that is not going to be helped by oil based paint fumes shortly.

The northern lights sounds amazing to see!

Running on very little sleep sounds exhausting dragons I hope you'll be able to catch up soon!

Things have been a little crazy here, as expected. Work has been busy (adding in the fact that the coworker I was stuck with yesterday usually works hard at NOT working, and I forced her to actually step up and do more to help).

We had our camper detailed on the outside last night, had a guy DH knows come by (he's just starting out). He did a great job! I now need to clean it on the inside, before we go camping again. I would have him do it as well, but I'm capable, and need to get laundry washed from in there.
My Jeep is filthy! But the carwash was out of service last night. I do need to get that cleaned this weekend, if possible.

It's Mother's Day here in the US tomorrow, we'll be going plant shopping, which I'm excited about!
Today I'll be baking some cupcakes as a trial run, I've never made lavender cupcakes before and they'll be for SILs wedding in about 5 weeks! I'm hoping they like them, so I don't have to experiment too much more.
We are going out for dinner tonight, so no one has to cook on family night with the ILs, then everyone coming back here (it's our weekend to host).

Yes we saw the Northern lights ! Big bucket list tick done, and bonus that we didn’t have to travel for a great show! Stepped out of our back door and were able to see them.

As a result it was a 1am bedtime… not great when it was early morning wake up call for 8am gymnastics 😴 but I would have really regretted not staying up to see the lights. Hopefully we’ll get another show tonight ( although not supposed to be as good ). From what is being said atm we should see them. So another late night looming…

House is trashed, busy week out of the house has meant that I haven’t kept on top of things as I should have, and a busy weekend of parties and meeting friends and family means it’s likely it won’t be until next weekend that I might be ‘caught up’ ( although I realise with flylady we’re never behind )

Oooh, those northern lights are beautiful 😍

Ta das:
🧁 rotated DW
🧁 handwashed dishes
🧁 wiped countertops
🧁 baked lavender cupcakes
🧁 bleached both bathrooms
🧁 LOL x1
🧁 put clean clothes away
🧁 showered, scrubbed, shaved
🧁 applied self tanner

ta da
3 loads of laundry
a batch cook of lagsana components - ran out of steam so in fridge for assembly tomo
2 chicken pot pies - one for tea one for freezer
empty bedroom, deep clean and prep for painting
2 coats of paint on the office walls
shuffle boxes around
a whole heap of pots washed up
dw unloaded, loaded and run twice - might see if i can get another load on tonight
Fix the skirting board filling ready for painting the bedroom monday

Also figure out the plan for tomo food wise - chicken cooked, chicken stock, quiche and pastry mix (going to be a long ass day tomo kitchen wise plus there is more laundry, plants to deal with, fridge to clean and boxes to shuffle about. So a hell of a lot of walking up and down stairs.

Skipping eurovision this year. Was not in the mood for being company at the watch party i was invited to. Going to go clear up, make sure pathways are free in case of fire, and have a bath cos paint drips and splatter has made my hair a whiter colour than it is naturally.

I am reluctantly watching Eurovision with DH and DD who are enthusiasts. It's not my cup of tea at all. So here are a couple of my Northern light photos