It’s June - come and join the Fledgling Flyladies

[ElegantlyDecluttering]

Welcome to the latest in the long running Fledgling Flylady threads, for those new to the system, Flylady is a US based website / app system based on a monthly rotation around the rooms of the house. It’s well established, these threads have been going for many many years, but all are welcome, we love having new Fledglings on board.

Well, May ended with a heatwave for many of us, I know my housework took a bit of a dip last week. But back to normal now as we head into June. A big thank you to Hazel for leading us through May

A few pointers: Do NOT sign up for the Flylady emails - I took one for the team and signed up when the website was down last year, you get about 4 a day - you have been warned! 😂

There are Baby Steps for starting out, add one thing at a time to start good habits and routines. Try not to do too much at once, you don't want to get overwhelmed.

There are 5 zones that we will rotate through each month, 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. I will explain these further as we come across them.
Monday: Home Blessing (or as we call it, home bleugh)
Tuesday: plan & play
Wednesday: anti-procrastination
Thursday: errand day
Friday: clean car & purse (handbag) out. It's also date night (with your significant other, or friends, or yourself!)
Saturday: family fun day - no missions
Sunday: renew your spirit - no missions

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
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 (although I only have it for when the zones change). You can also modify the tick lists to suit your home & lifestyle.
Links are below 👇 if I happen to not add links in time, they do update at midnight for you.

Daily missions: for the zone we are in.https://www.flylady.net/daily-mission

Baby steps: it's not technically flylady, but they're still working on the new site. https://mymerrymessylife.com/flylady-31-baby-steps/

Thanks for this thread @ElegantlyDecluttering . It's getting me doing something which is better than nothing!

Yesterday Swept the porch and hoovered all the ornamental crevices that I could reach. Then went in and googled platform ladders to tackle the fiddly features round the top.

TeenGirl has decided she wants her bedroom completely changed around and decorated. I spent a while measuring and it looks as though it can be done with about one inch, literally one inch, to spare along one of the walls. Now that everything is on her laptop for school then college she won’t need huge shelves for ring binders, lever arch file, etc. Should all be doable during the holidays.

Getting up a bit earlier is making a big difference. Also, TeenBoy is being very brave and mature and gets the bus to school while TG walks. My morning is much less harassed. Lol hung up.

I like the spund of mornings being less harrassed @Scourgify . I am usually up first in our house but don't always make best use of the time. However this morning I have fed cats, showered and hair washed, put on WM and DW. Just sitting down with a cup of tea now.

@Lovelyview glad it's helping

Yesterday ended up being a lot of errands, I was out for several hours shopping in our nearest big town (wool, B&Q, clothes and other high street things then food shopping). Posted a parcel, dropped two carrier bags of stuff at the charity shop and went to the cashpoint which is a rare occurrence now. Also tackled dust bunnies and a big pile of paperwork. Today I am going to be out all day and evening so probably not much more Flying.

Sorry, got distracted there. So today is Friday, that means clear out your car and bag day. Mine are both OK. It is also meant to be date night but I’m going to a party related to a hobby so no partners. Sorry DH! But he’s going away for a few days.

Today’s mission is to pamper your houseplants. I did a bit of this earlier in the week, getting dead leaves off, dusting, watering. Bought a new one for the bathroom yesterday. https://www.flylady.net/daily-mission

Babystep 5 is banishing negative thoughts, this is a good reason for posting your achievements here. So instead of thinking you didn’t get much done think about all the things you did do.

https://mymerrymessylife.com/flylady-31-baby-steps/5/

My partner came round for the first time in a week, and genuinely thought I’d hired a cleaner! As that’s what I’ve done in the past.

I was so proud to tell him of my new routines and that I was finding it easy.

I’ve got to keep going though.

I will clear out bag and car today. I like how there’s actually a day for that, as that’s the things I usually don’t think about.

Well its that time of the month again where I appear and declare myself a failure 🙃 In my defense I am having some joint pain atm so having to pace myself. I've ordered some collagen powder as recommended by a friend - anyone tried this?

Today's Ta Das

🫟 stripped beds - mine & small 3 dc
🫟 LOL x2
🫟 washed last night's dishes
🫟 hoovered - landing, my bedroom, small dc bedroom

THAT I'm currently using collagen peptides powder in my coffee every morning. I started it to help my skin, not joints though. Although come to think of it, my knees haven't been too bad lately.
Just a warning though: for me, the collagen I'm using also has probiotics in it. A couple of weeks ago I had experienced an uncomfortable feeling in my nether regions, along with a discharge that's not normal for me. I thought it was a UTI or infection of some kind, but everything came back clear. I'm pretty sure it was clearing out toxins!
I had been taking it for about a week-10 days before I had symptoms and didn't put the 2 together. My symptoms lasted about 2 weeks overall, but the sensitivity I experienced was only 3-4 days.
I feel great now!

Joyful26 that is a massive compliment from your partner!

ED it sounds like you've had a busy couple of days at the end of the week. We're you able to relax this weekend?

YesTaDas:
🍬 caramels made!
🍬 rotated DW
🍬 vacuumed
🍬 S&S
🍬 grocery shopping for last night
🍬 picked up rhubarb plants from my previous neighbour (for a friend & MIL)
🍬 hosted ILs & family friend for dinner

To dos today:
☕️ wrap caramels
☕️ meal plan
☕️ grocery shopping for the week
☕️ harvest rhubarb
☕️ make rhubarb fluff (take some to old neighbour)
☕️ pick up some cut rhubarb from old neighbour for a friend (& drop off rhubarb fluff)
☕️ have friend pick up rhubarb/ plants
☕️ paint nails (I still haven't done this - but I think they needed a break anyway)

@BloomingHazel thank you, yes I have had a quieter day today.

@THATsummergirlera please could I refer you back to Babystep 5 - Negative Voices. You’ve got a few things done so that’s all good. But you know we always keep the naughty corner open for those who just want to post for a bit and keep in touch rather than going full on flylady <plumps up cushions>

Morning, apologies for lack of posts over the weekend, it was a busy one. There are no zones and missions over the weekend, but saturday is Family Fun Day and Sunday is Look After Yourself day

Today we are moving into Zone 2, the kitchen. Our mission is to scrub the stove top.https://www.flylady.net/daily-mission

I have missed a c ouple of babysteps over the weekend, but they are all listed here https://mymerrymessylife.com/flylady-31-baby-steps/5/

Monday is Home Blessing Day, I prefer to do this over the weekend, change beds, empty bins, run the vacuum and duster round, not in detail, just the worst bits.

Hi all, I'm going to sit in the naughty corner with pregnancy as my excuse. I have been swish and swiping the past w days and today cleaned the kitchen sink and hoovered the most disgusting part of the living room, play dough and other tiny craft mess+ food. The kids decided they wanted to eat a whole raw pepper each but scattered little bits of pepper everywhere.

The school runs were extramly tiring today. DH took kids out to a birthday party yesterday and today Monday mood set in. I put on a TV show kipper (low stimulation, thought it would be good) then after one finished we went upstairs to get ready and I said we can watch a 2nd kipper when done. DS3 wanted to wear t-shirt and shorts, unapropriate for the weather and not quite dry, then went through his draws in search of I don't know what clothes, he went in t shirt and trousers. DD7 stropped into his room saying, I've brushed my hair, now put TV on. I said that not how you speak to me, she said 'you said we could watch kipper after I brushed my teeth' then sat next to me arms crossed and stared at me saying no when I told her to go to her room and give me space so I frog marched her to her room. Then after everyone was ready I said now they can't watch TV, want to play play dough for 15 minutes? DD said no, DS said yes. Then she changed her mind and demanded playdough. It's actually DS play dough. He didn't want to share. DD was still being verbally aggressive so I walked her back to her room. He had a nice chat upstairs, but the clock ⏰ n her room was out and DS disappeared upstairs to change his socks so we were late and went in through the office. DS fell in a puddle. Insisted he change into shorts. I wasn't arguing anymore.

Afternoon school run slightly less stressful, but DS had wet himself at nursery and no-one noticed so needed to use the toilet and get changed. By the time we drove to get DD, we had to pass another primary school and a moron opened his door onto it road. Nothing happened. Somehow I managed to arrive only just after her doors opened.

So I've written a long rant, after half clearing up the playdough mess from me saying no TV and leaving ds with it while I sorted DD this morning. There's still plenty of playdough on the floor behind the table and chairs.

DD has busy few weekends and her best friend has invited her to a Sunday birthday party from 3pm. The weekend after hers. I tried to arrange a joint party as it was very tiring for her last year but we couldn't agree and everything, so doing it separate.

Oh and there's a month long village festival that it might be nice to go to some events for, but today I'm not feeling it.

Oh dear @Alwaysgrowing that does sound very hard. I will add some decaff coffee and herbal tea to the naughty corner for you. And maybe some nice soothing music. And some heatpads for @THATsummergirlera ’s aching joints.

I have just cleaned my stove top, but it’s induction so didn’t take long, much easier than when we used to have gas. However when I was reaching under the sink for the hob cleaning stuff I knocked against a bottle and dozens of things all cascaded onto the floor, hopefully the mission about decluttering under the sink will pop up later in the week. Nothing leaked but it took a while to put them all back in again.

Good morning , sending a coffee to those that would like one ☕️

I went missing for a few days , DD1 is back from uni 🥳 that first year went so quick !

On Sunday I finally managed a bit of decluttering in the dining room , bookshelf has been sorted , hardly any picture books have been kept and the rainbow fairy books have gone 😢 feels like the end of an era . I really had to fight the urge to keep some for if any grandchildren that may come along but we can’t keep everything forever can we !

Yesterday I was up early and most of the uniform is complete , I will carry on this morning . I went to bed at 830 last night feeling nauseous, woke up sneezing at 230 and haven’t been able to re-settle. Every single joint hurts and I’m fully congested, paracetamol taken before I start getting a few bits done. Taking it steady today though, hoping to do a bit of ironing and clear out at least a shelf of a kitchen cupboard possibly fill out the calendar . Main priority though is to survive the school and work day , make sure everyone’s eaten and where they need to be , anything else will be a bonus !

Hopefully I’ll be back with a tada list before work 🙂

Always that sounds tough to deal with. Take it easy in your pregnancy! How far along are you now? Are you getting excited?

ED thank you for keeping the thread running along! A gas top is harder to keep clean, but I do love my gas stove!

Searching I hope you feel better soon! Is it a sickness do you think? Or hayfever?

My mind was racing last night so I had a hard time falling asleep. My watch thought I was asleep apparently, but I still had a "fair" score, which isn't good.
I'm planning on going to bed early tonight, and I'm on track for that. I've already my shower, just have to take my meds. It's not quite 9:30pm here.

Morning all, heatpads and snuggles for you too @Searchingforsparkle . My DD comes back from uni tomorrow so I am preparing for mess, to be honest she left a lot of mess here anyway and it’s only going to get worse. I’ve had the discussion with myself about keeping stuff for grandchildren but neither DC seems likely to produce any any time soon and to be honest, my mum kept a lot of our stuff and then as my two turned out to be the only DGC we got dumped with it all and then felt guilty if we got rid of any of it (and virtually none of it got used, it just cluttered the house up).

@BloomingHazel hope you got a decent night’s sleep this time.

Tuesday is Plan and Play Day, choir for me so that’s play sorted. I need to do some holiday planning later too.

Our mission is to declutter and clean the silverware holder, or any pot you have of utensils or similar. We have those magnetic knife racks and the tops of them get grotty so I’ll do those as the utensils all live in a drawer. The drawer could do with doing as well though.

https://www.flylady.net/daily-mission/20260609-zone-2-mission-2-tuesday-your-kitchen

Babystep 9 - 5 minute room rescue, set your timer and see how much you can achieve in one room in 5 mins, starting with clutter.

https://mymerrymessylife.com/flylady-31-baby-steps/9/

At the bottom of that page are links to all the babysteps, I have jsut gone back and looked at the ones we missed over the weekend and 6 and 7 are actually important ones, putting out hotspots (those places in your house where stuff just gets dumped) and putting out your clothes for the next day, these should be part of our daily routines.

Ah @Alwaysgrowing that sounds like a hard day! Being pregnant & having small DC is exhausting (physically, mentally & emotionally!) - I am glad these years are behind me. Be kind to yourself.

Joint pain seems to be easing a bit. Collagen delivery has not yet arrived. Last night I managed a bit of study time.

We go on holiday at the end of term and I have lots to buy and organise for that, also uniform for September (4dc in school) and dc1 will be going to uni in September too (living in halls) so he will need lots of stuff too! It's going to be an expensive summer.

The smallest dc were up before 6am. I need to iron uniforms. I may try and iron more than just today's. Future friend and all that!

Ta da
🫖 made and drank tea

Im 15 weeks today. Only had my '12 week' scan last week and they dated me a bit later, but I'll stick with my original dates for myself. It was nice seeing the baby and has got me more excited, thinking about practicalities etc. because baby was above a threshold in length I couldn't get the test for downs, Edwards and patels. I could do a different test just for downs, but we've decided not to. I'm a little irritated as I let the maternity services know the day I got my first faint positive and they still couldn't book the scan in time. The midwife suggested I try and book and earlier than one and I tried 4 or 5 times and couldn't. The next one is also 2 weeks late so the sonographer said I should try and get it earlier. But the receptionist was very dismissive then gave one 3 days earlier, as that's how much my dates changed, so I'm still the last day in the protocol window. And almost more hassle than it's worth as DH and I have change his booked time off with work. In the grand scheme of things, it's fine, I'm not paying for it, baby is healthy, growing well. It's just little irritations add up, like yesterday.

Morning enchanted decorations. I'm not working today. We need to plan DDS 8th birthday. It's in 2 weeks Event is booked, guests confirmed. So need to send a message out to parents confirming, and other info. An organised mum at her school has done this a week before and it's a good strategy. plan the picnic and cake...may delegate cake to my sister as I'll make a cake on her birthday... could make a couple. Play- DS and I will go to the farm park soon.

I've had energy this morning.
Tadas:
🌷Delivered DD to school - she was grumpy no hug bye. 😔
🌷Cleaned kitchen sink.
🌷 Scrubbed clean pan
🌷Rotated DW
🌷Put away some clothes (more to do)
🌷Washed just DD bedding and made her bed (this took 12 minutes, not the 10 minutes for all beds like flylady can do. I'll keep timing things like this I think it's helpful to know. I could probably beat this time if I wasn't simultaneously stopping ds from messing up DDS room)
🌷Some dusting, visible places plus top of 2 doors and TV.

To do:
🌷Pack picnic (half done)
🌷 Hoover (optional)
🌷hang up bedding.

MIL is storing a lot of our DCs old baby things (bath, crib, bassinet) for SIL, as they have the room for it. I'm not sure any of it will get used at this point, and knowing MIL, she'll want to save it for my DC, and I'm not sure they'd want any of it (not sure I would want any of it used either as it's all been sitting up there for 14/15+ years!).

ED last night's sleep was amazing! I was in bed, asleep, before 10pm! As it's my day off today I slept in an hour later than a work day (still up at 6:15am thanks Coco). It felt so good, and I feel refreshed this morning.

THAT it does sound like an expensive summer! Hopefully it's not too bad overall.

Always 15 weeks! That does sound stressful and irritating re testing and schedules. Delegating the cake is a good idea, you have enough going on as it is, you don't want to overwhelm yourself I'm an expert at that - don't be like me!

Day off today, I have a lot of laundry to catch up on, as I didn't do any over the weekend 🤦‍♀️
I also have grocery shopping to do for the week, and DS has a dentist appt. It's quickly becoming a full day.

DH and I spent some time this morning measuring wardrobes and beds for TG’s bedroom swap. We spent ages moving clothes out of one wardrobe then DH took them up to the attic room. It was an embarrassing amount of stuff, and I’ll be decluttering before it comes back down.

Scourgify we all end up with so much, especially when we don't see it necessarily. We have a lot of decluttering to do also.

Ta das so far:
🦋 LOLs x3 (3rd lol is currently in the washer)
🦋 bed remade (1st lol was sheets)
🦋 other clean laundry put away
🦋 handwashed dishes
🦋 rotated DW
🦋 wiped countertops
🦋 wiped out microwave
🦋 wiped down stovetop
🦋 had lunch with DH
🦋 currently at the dentist with DS

I still need to go grocery shopping, do more laundry, as well as the home bleugh (vacuum, mop, clean bathrooms, empty bins). It's almost 2pm and it feels like I have so much to do still!

Ta das:
🦋 4th lol
🦋 vacuumed
🦋 mopped
🦋 cleaned both bathrooms
🦋 grocery shopping
🦋 DH emptied bin
🦋 got my clothes out for tomorrow
🦋 helped DS a little bit with dinner, he cooked most of it
🦋 wrapped a few caramels (I have run out of wrappers, didn't realise I only had 10 left! I ordered them over the weekend). One batch makes about 94 caramels.. the rest are still in the moulds.

Some great lists there well done Fledglings 🏅

Wednesday is Anti-Procrastination Day - is there something you’ve been putting off? I need to cancel a subscription, I feel bad because it’s to a service a friend runs but I’m just not using it enough (exercise classes).

Today’s mission is to clear out the fridge. https://www.flylady.net/daily-mission

I need to do the top shelf, the one with the half used jars of curry paste and mango chutney but the rest is OK, I try and give it a sort out over the weekend when I stock up on salad and veg. I did clean the tops of my magnetic knife holders this morning and also along the tops of all the plug sockets in the kitchen.

Babysteps https://mymerrymessylife.com/flylady-31-baby-steps/10/

The Power of 15 - this one is really worth reading, I find it very helpful, what you can get done in 15 minutes plus building our routines

The power of 15 is probably the most useful thing I've taken from flylady

Morning 🌄 everyone 👋
I'm in the naughty corner (as usual 😏 😜) with the occasional foray into the cleaning cupboard.
Had to tidy and clean for the Sky engineer (behind my TV was disgusting !)

But here's a story that might amuse you.
We have what we call the dog room, it's a downstairs bathroom/utility that has the dogs beds in. We leave the back-door open (weather permitting) have an outdoor dog bed, so they can sun themselves/cool down, go to the loo if we're out.
So last Friday I came home, went outside to say hi to the dogs. And found a fillet of fish. My first thought was a bird had stolen it and dropped it.
Then I saw the two boxes of frozen fish that were meant for the local fish shop, delivery driver for some weird reason had thrown them over my garden wall, which is 8' high, and those boxes were heavy!
Think he maybe used to work for Amazon 😄
Fish shop man came and collected them and I thought that was the end of it.
Until I found pieces buried in the dog beds, both inside and out. Attempted burials in the plant pots.
Ended up chasing my little dog round the patio to get the fish that was bigger than him out of his mouth!
The fish had started defrosting, and the stench was horrendous 🤑
All the dog beds had to be washed twice, floors mopped, patio scrubbed (took 2 days to get rid of the smell outside), my washing machine needed 2 drum cleans to be usable for clothes.

It's safer in the naughty corner 😆