Fledglings Feeling Festive - come Fly with us

[ExquisiteDecorations]

December is where the winter starts properly, all are welcome as the Fledglings prepare their nests for the frosty times ahead, we are following the Flylady system for running our households - http://www.flylady.net

This is a long running thread, but we are a friendly bunch and all are welcome to join in. We recommend you do NOT sign up for the Flylady emails - we have been saying that for years because it used to be the case that there were far too many, no idea if that’s changed, if anyone has tried do report back. If you’d rather not, check in here instead or download the app.

There are Baby Steps for starting out, add one thing at a time to start good habits and routines - link here http://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/

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. 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: did not lose my shit
BRC - box/basket of random clutter/crap

There are more, feel free to ask us to explain something. I'll try to update links every day, although if you can, it's worth downloading the app, you can even have it send you notifications. You can also modify the tick lists to suit your home & lifestyle.

December’s monthly focus is pampering 😀.

Links are below 👇 if I happen to not add links in time, they do update at midnight for you.
Baby Steps http://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/
Monthly habit http://www.flylady.net/d/habits-of-the-month/december/
Launch pad http://www.flylady.net/c/lp.php
Flight Plan (all the day’s tasks in one place) http://www.flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=0
Sneak peek for the week - summary of the current week so you can plan ahead http://www.flylady.net/c/sp.php

Scourgify & Dilly I'm sorry you hear you are both ill, I hope you recover soon!
Dilly sorry to hear about your parents situation. It must be hard going to see them living the way they do.

Plan for today:
🎸 go with DH to pick out his bass guitar (Christmas gift)
🎸 take presents to ILs for BIL & his GF
🎸 get ham & rolls started for tonight
🎸 wrap presents for tonight
🎸 paint my nails!

DD & BF are coming tonight for their Christmas. We are doing Christmas Eve tonight, then Christmas Day tomorrow with them. I'm excited to see them 😍

Second christmas sounds exciting hazel

Things here are a bit meh. The man child and I have been separated for months but still living in same house. Its crap.

New year goal is prep for sale. Put on market and move the fuck on

On this note i have booked a skip

@THATbasicfuckingelfontheshelfshit welcome back! Well done on the skip can you stick the manchild in it?

@DillyDeclutter that sounds hard with your parents. My mum is a hoarder, but a clean one, in fact their house always looks superficially orderly and tidy, but it is a big house, modern, light and airy with masses of storage so once you look a bit more closely you realise there is stuff EVERYWHERE. She keeps starting to declutter but there is so much it is completely overwhelming. I will certainly need skips when the time comes.

@HazelNuttyElf enjoy your second Christmas.

Well I have had to slow down a bit the last couple of days otherwise I would have completely burned out. Christmas at my parents wasn’t ideal, it was hard work with mum, she’s settled back in now and carers are starting on Monday. But I did manage parkrun and a few chores today before falling asleep on the sofa.

✅robovac downstairs
✅used handheld vac on stairs
✅fetched logs in, cleaned out fireplace and lit fire
✅emptied all bins
✅mopped kitchen floor
✅bit of food shopping
✅one load of washing
✅loaded DW and started it

Very tempting ed!

I am looking forward to filling skip very much!

It would be hard to live in the same house. Well done for booking the skip. When we put our house up for sale, we got rid of a bunch of crap, left the minimum in the house and put the excess that we still wanted into storage. It actually made it easier for moving as there was no rush for the stored stuff.

ED I'm sorry to hear that Christmas was hard work, hopefully your new years day will be easier and calmer

living in the same house is draining, but this is the last christmas, soon it will be the last new year - onwards and upwards

Morning all

Ta Da
🧹 dryer emptied, refilled and back on
🧺 first LOL of the day on
🧼 made my bed
🧽 opened windows
🛒 started adding to Tesco order

To Do (PO3)
🧹 take all dirty washing down
🧺 prompt DD to strip her bed
🧼 sort clean / dry washing

Exhausted day today, DH walked the dog, I made an easy dinner, sandwiches for lunch, no flying at all. Sometimes resting takes priority. We see what tomorrow brings.

THAT looks like you've made a great start!

Nellie rest days are very much important!

We had our Christmas with DD & her BF this weekend, it was great!
They left about an hour ago. I've washed handwash dishes since they left. We've already rotated the DW twice today. Dinner (if anyone gets hungry) is whatever you can find, we have lots of leftovers!
I'm just relaxing now. I would like to watch a movie, but DH is practicing on his new bass guitar!

Glad you had a good day with DD and BF @HazelNuttyElf

I agree about rest days @Nellieinthebarn I have had to indulge myself in a lot of sofa time over the weekend to recover from all the December busyness.

@THATbasicfuckingelfontheshelfshit I do like this particular name of yours! Really pleased you have positive plans for the NY wrt decluttering the manchild, we're always here for moral support.

Went to mum and dad's yesterday afternoon and helped them with a few odd jobs (watering plants, vacuuming etc). Starting to realise the full extent of the clutter problem there. There's an illusion of tidiness because the living room is huge, bright and airy and tidy. But every other room has shelves and cupboards and drawers stuffed with all sorts of random crap plus a cellar, an attic and a double garage <sighs>.

Anyway, I'm at work today. It will be a quiet one. Tonight will be fairly chilled too. I want to finish a jigsaw, watch the darts.

Does anyone feel like picking up the thread for Jan? If not I'll do it again, but it is hard keeping up the momentum after a couple of months, as you may have noticed!

I don't think i'm reliable enough to lead a thread unforunately!

Skip filling has commenced

Should have got a bigger one

ED I'm willing to run the Jan thread, if no one else wants to give it a go. January should be a quieter month for me.

My mum's house was always that way, a few things in little piles, but mostly stored away. When my dad died though, she actually got rid of quite a few things, of his and her own stuff.
My ILs OTOH worries me. MIL keeps absolutely everything! FIL keeps saying she needs to go through stuff and get rid (he's not like her). But she's going to need help. Who's going to end up helping her? Me! 🙄

Anyway, great progress THAT! it made me lol to read that you need a bigger one, not because it's funny, but because I would be in the same boat, I'm sure!

I worked all day, but we did get the wrapping supplies all put away. Still a lot more to do though, as far as trees and decorations.

DS is sick. He had a fever, sore throat, headache. I got some meds and tea with honey in him, along with soup for dinner and now he's starting to feel better. We've given everybody a heads up for who was coming tomorrow, so they can decide if they want to come or not. He'll be hiding downstairs in the basement anyway, so won't really be around, other than to eat.

What is everyone else doing for New Year's Eve?

We are going to a friends house this evening, last year it was fabulous mayhem with about 15 children under 8.

I have bought a new cupboard for toy storage, DH as always is resistant and just thinks we need to stack our existing stuff "better" and "somewhere else" but has no actual solutions. So today is going to be a big house shuffling exercise as I move stuff around and ultimately (hopefully) out.

Dusted all of the ceiling lights yesterday, small but satisfying job.

Hope everyone has a happy New Year's Eve!

Tonight i have planned a bit of a buffet and games night at home with the DC. I don't know what the man child is doing because he is mostly ignoring us all at the moment. He can join if he wants but if he has plans to go out then fair enough.

Filled a bin bag in my bedroom last night so I have just been and put that in the skip which thankfully no one has added to overnight.

This year has been crap. I'm hopeful that this time next year the DC and I will be settled in a new house.

Thanks @HazelNuttyElf I don’t mind picking the thread up again in another month or two but need a break from it at the moment, I often find when I have been “thread-leading” I rebound by not posting at all for a few weeks afterwards but I am going to try and stick around this time as I have been finding it very helpful. Sorry DS is not well, my DD has a cold and DS and I have both had sore throats for a few days. Fortunately we don’t have any NY plans, we normally just stay in and have food, board games, watch a film or whatever. When the DCs were younger (pre-covid) we often used to rent a cottage for a few days over NY, but the DCs always seem to have exams looming now (GCSE/A level mocks, uni exams/assessments) so we have stopped doing it, also the cottage we used to go to was sold and it wouldn’t be quite the same somewhere else.

Onwards and upwards @THATbasicfuckingelfontheshelfshit we will all be here to lend support for a house move.

Well done @DillyDeclutter hope you have another fab evening tonight.

I was at work yesterday too, but using my last day of annual leave today, I have had a mega lie-in and we are all about to head out to the nearest big town shopping (not food). The house is still a bit untidy TBH, I have put away all the gift bags, leftover crackers etc but general non-seasonal debris is building up on surfaces again.

ED I understand what you mean, it does get tiring, especially 2 months in a row!
Shame about the cottage, that sounds nice to get away like that.
Enjoy your day out shopping! I still have a few things laying around from our Christmas party, let alone Christmas itself and everyday stuff 🤦‍♀️ I'll be getting that all sorted today though, before the party tonight.

THAT what do your DC think about STBXH, ignoring them too, I presume? It sounds like everyone will be better off once you are in your own space. I really hope everything goes well and quickly for you!
Your NYE sounds great too! It'll be interesting to see how many show up tonight, but DS is still asleep so I can't ask him how he's feeling yet. He went to sleep early last night, and I gave him some more meds. His fever was lower and he was already feeling much better.

To dos:
☕️ hair appt
☕️ wash Jeep
☕️ go to the bank
☕️ grocery shopping (which reminds me, I need to add online coupons!)
☕️ LOLs
☕️ get food ready for tonight
☕️ clear surfaces, rehome things
☕️ start taking Christmas decor down
☕️ put new years decor up
☕️ clean bathrooms

I will be back later with the new thread 👋

Happy new year in advance everyone. FlyLady was my 2024 resolution and it went better than expected! It's created a lot more awareness of what needs to be done and how much of a difference a bit of a "swish and swipe" can do. Hoping to shine the sink ahead of the new year... there's washing up to be put away and another round to do... which I may or may not get around to this evening. We have so many family visits in January that I'm hoping the pressure of hosting will keep us tidy, at least downstairs. And I'm he last couple of days we've been decluttering the box room - very satisfying. My January plan is to list a whole load more stuff on eBay!

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/housekeeping/5241797-new-year-fresh-start-for-your-home-january-flylady-thread
Link to new thread ☝️

Chestnut I'm glad to see Flylady is working out for you!
I find that hosting is a very good motivator to keeping the house presentable and clean! That's probably why I like hosting so much 😂

Happy new year 🥳 I hope 2025 brings us all good health , happiness and a cleaning fairy 🧚
Thanks for this thread @ExquisiteDecorations and for hosting Januarys @HazelNuttyElf I really appreciate your efforts ❤️