How to get started

Olliebeak

Have you made yourself a checklist of all the people/companies/organisations that you need to notify of your move? This is a good checklist and it has room for you to add some personal ones:

http://www.houseweb.co.uk/house/pros/moving/tell.html



Make sure that you read your meters when you are leaving your old place and again when you get to the new place - then get onto the gas/elec suppliers immediately to make sure that they have your new details. NEVER trust that the outgoing person has done those things properly - you need to take that responsibility personally. If they HAVE done it then that's all well and good and your numbers should tally .

Good Luck in your new home .

Steel_2

I sympathise with you all the way.

I've tried and tried and can't do Flylady. My schedule is too manic and I cannot get a routine at all. By the time I manage to check my personal emails for her messages two or three days might have gone by.

So I sort of adapted it. I do things while I'm waiting for the kettle to boil. Or the onions to fry. It seems to always be in 5 minute increments and I can pack loads of those into a day.

Today I was out the door at 5:30am and back at 5pm. In addition to cooking dinner and doing some more work, this evening I managed to do all the washing up (three fast five minutes spurts), moved the microwave to another part of the kitchen and sorted out my cookbooks to fill the gap (two 5 minute spurts), and cleared two 'hotspots' in the living room (five minutes each).

Last thing at night I swish the loo with cleaner and brush. First thing in the morning I wipe around the sink. I never go upstairs, downstairs or into another room without looking quickly to see if something needs to go with me, and putting things away and picking up after myself.

Don't think about all the things you have to do to do everything perfectly. Just decide what are the top things to address and concentrate on doing them. For me it was the washing up, putting things away after I'd used them and making sure the bathroom was clean in case of impromptu MIL visits!

moo2moo

Fly Lady is great but I was finding that my 15 minutes decluttering was usually spent reading and deleting the hundreds of e-mails she sends each week. The Fly Lady thread on OS is much more user friendly.

My on-going challenge is to recycle / freecycle as much as is humanly possible which frees up wheely bin space. Part 2 of the challenge is to make sure the wheelie bin is full to the brim on bin day. The more I throw out the less clutter I have to clean around which speeds up the whole cleaning thing. I then prioritise my cleaning into areas which annoy me if they are a total disaster zone (my bedroom, guest bathroom and kitchen).

I have downsized my laundry pile from 3 hampers of dirty laundry to 1 (DDs now have a hamper each as a toy box) and my putting away pile from 2 sofas to 1 armchair. I've also got rid of all the clothes the dds have outgrown and those that the OH hasn't worn in years. Its made more space in the cupboards meaning when I've eventually done the ironing theres somewhere to put it, the somewhere used to be inside DD2s dolls house!

moanymoany

I started with 'go shine your sink' and 'wipe and swipe' the bathroom. It worked for me.

I asked the people I know who always have clean and tidy houses and they all said they put away after them.

I started to do this and the best result was that when I wanted something it was generally where it should be. In the end it save loads of time as you're not rushing around like a headless chicken looking for things.

The benefit of not having clutter everywhere is that the house is easier to keep clean. I used to have to put so much stuff away before cleaning I never got to the cleaning.

I also have an apron with pockets to put the stuff in I use for cleaning. I keep them in there all the time. Works for me.

I started being really frugal old style - always cooked from scratch - when I wanted to save an extra £500 a month to pay off the mortgage. This left MUCH less for groceries - so the Old Style began!

taplady

foreversomeday - I thought your post was brilliant:T a real inspiration to those struggling!

I am lucky in that I am very organised but my tips for being so are

• declutter - housework takes half the time without so much junk around!
• little and often - I allow myself half an hour on the PC then I get up and do a job before coming back on
• tidy up before going to bed - eg take the washing up out to the kitchen, plump the cushions etc so it looks nice in the morning and not so depressing
• load the washing machine as soon as you empty it, at least the laundry bin wont overflow
• hang things on hangers straight from the machine - saves on ironing
• if I am in the kitchen cooking I usually clean something at the sametime eg cupboard doors etc
• try and have a place for everything
• clean the bathroom straight after your bath - its easier!

there's lots more I do but it doesn't take long and I work full time and have 2 dogs and a teenager but still have plenty of time for myself. Hope I've been of some help!;)

foreversomeday

Thanks taplady It's really changed the way I feel about the house!

I personally steer well clear of the emails though. It's just too overwhelming and although they are light hearted it feels a bit like nagging and like moo2moo said you spend ages clearing them out!! For the same reason I don't generally read the flylady thread, I just pop into the first page for some ideas on what to do - and then I might skip to the last page to see what others are up to and may or may not add my own list.

Hope this helps! I feel like I have found a magic housework potion!

hot.chick

Right...

Today is the day!!!

I've had a brief discussion with DH (who to my suprise is aware of FLYLADY!!!!!)

And we are in agreement that we will start with baby steps today!

I'll let you know how we get on.....

foreversomeday

Good luck! Feel free to come back and have a moan if it's not going the way you think, I would have given up on that first day if my mum hadn't come round and helped out - sometimes you just need a hug to get you started again!

rosieben

foreversomeday wrote: »

... since I was doing nothing anyway, slightly more than nothing was an improvement! ...

Another round of applause for foreversomeday, brilliant post!! :T

I first found Flylady when I was recovering from depression and it gave me such a boost to even achieve one small thing a day!

I’ve drifted out of my routines several times and only just re-started the swish and swipe and shining my sink since I moved house mid-June. A friend called in unexpectedly yesterday to check out a bathroom plumbing problem for me and there was no panic at all as I knew the bathroom was clean and tidy – it’s a great feeling, such a weight off my shoulders!

As for being inundated with the emails, you can opt for a daily digest for testimonials and tips etc.; I get 2 or 3 emails a day and I can read just as much or as little as I want. And of course, as Flylady says – ‘you have the power of the delete button’ 

Incidentally, my dgd loves the idea of 15 minutes and will time herself to tidy her bedroom etc.

Good luck hot.chick!

belfastgirl23

The one tip that I have tried to follow is to leave the main living areas (kitchen/sitting room) tidy going to bed and going out to work. Coming down to a messy house really depresses me and makes it much harder to get anything else done.