Weekly Flylady Thread Week 23 April 2007

sarahlouise210

I really want to join in with this ...but does anyone else feel that it is all a waste of time wgen your house is grotty and needs so much dcorating.refurbishment ??? I mean...I have a go, but my 1970 bathroom just cannot look good even if its gleaming and our carpets in the hall tairs and landing and lounge have 1971 newspaper underneath..so pretty grim (and baby poo colour!!) i work all day tidying and trying to make the place fresh..but it still always looks old and grotty. We are hoping to get new carpet soon which will help, but we live on a man road and the plaster keeps cracking and I yearn fora home that I can whizz round and then ask someone in without feeling embarrassed! What can I do ??? I am doing the 27 fling boogie..that is working! Any ideas to cgeer me up..or am I destined to envy every house I go in? Money not good at the moment...even flowers are not helping !

oldMcDonald

sarahlouise210 wrote: »

I really want to join in with this ...but does anyone else feel that it is all a waste of time wgen your house is grotty and needs so much dcorating.refurbishment ??? I mean...I have a go, but my 1970 bathroom just cannot look good even if its gleaming and our carpets in the hall tairs and landing and lounge have 1971 newspaper underneath..so pretty grim (and baby poo colour!!) i work all day tidying and trying to make the place fresh..but it still always looks old and grotty. We are hoping to get new carpet soon which will help, but we live on a man road and the plaster keeps cracking and I yearn fora home that I can whizz round and then ask someone in without feeling embarrassed! What can I do ??? I am doing the 27 fling boogie..that is working! Any ideas to cgeer me up..or am I destined to envy every house I go in? Money not good at the moment...even flowers are not helping !

Hi sarahlouise and welcome to the thread.

I feel the same way sometimes, we don't have much money and we certainly don't have a 'beautiful' house in the way that others would use the term. Our house is a beige '80s box. The carpet is beige, the curtains are beige, the walls are beige.....everything is bl**dy beige and I hate the colour!! *edited to add: except for the kitchen. Our kitchen is blue. Very airforce blue. I don't think I like airforce blue, either! Cupboards, floor and curtains, all airforce blue. However, the walls aren't - the walls are beige!:D* There is so little colour and it all looks rather shabby with stains on the carpets and marks all over the walls that I can't clean off. Sometimes. Other times I see it as my home.

I spent quite a while feeling like you describe, wondering what people thought of our 15year old portable TV and the sofa and chairs which are at least 25 years old. Very little in our house isn't a hand-me-down. I hated people coming in and seeing inside our house, and couldn't see a reason to work my bum (was going to use another word ) off cleaning and tidying it.

Eventually I realised that I shouldn't give a rats bum (again, insert other word:D) about what other people thought. This is our home, I keep it as clean and tidy as I can for the kids, DH and me and if the decortation / carpets / furniture make me feel embarrased then thats because I'm trying to read someones mind and deciding that they are looking down on me as my house is not as 'beautiful' as theirs. I decided that if they were that shallow then their thoughts didn't matter anyway!! Stopped me feeling embarrased:D We will get there eventually, but I'm not going to put off loving my home or spend the next couple of years feeling like my house is second best to everyone elses.

oldMcDonald

Good morning everyone

Can't sleep and have been wasting time on MSE for the past hour and a half. I couldn't bring myself to clean the oven yesterday. I thought about it, and even opened the door and looked at it - but I couldn't talk myself into doing it! Reading through the other posts, it looks like i wasn't the only one

Hope everything went well for the newbies yesterday.

Todays To-dos


Tuesday Living Room, Hall and Stairs


[STRIKE]Dusting and cobweb removal (if you want to dust round things that is fine)
Vacuum floor and sofas
Remove clutter making sure stairs especially are safe
Clean TV, other electricals and cabinets
Tidy shoes, coats and bags [/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Clean window[/STRIKE] Decided that it looks clean enough:D
[STRIKE]Wipe light switches and banister
Clean any other glass like mirrors etc
Vacuum under furniture (only if you won't hurt yourself doing it, don't want any injuries)[/STRIKE]
Other
Sort one cupboard even if it's just for 10 minutes
[STRIKE]15 mins declutter bedroom[/STRIKE]
wash muddy-dog-paw-marks off the outside of back door

RacyRed

sarahlouise210 wrote: »

I really want to join in with this ...but does anyone else feel that it is all a waste of time wgen your house is grotty and needs so much dcorating.refurbishment ??? I mean...I have a go, but my 1970 bathroom just cannot look good even if its gleaming and our carpets in the hall tairs and landing and lounge have 1971 newspaper underneath..so pretty grim (and baby poo colour!!) i work all day tidying and trying to make the place fresh..but it still always looks old and grotty. We are hoping to get new carpet soon which will help, but we live on a man road and the plaster keeps cracking and I yearn fora home that I can whizz round and then ask someone in without feeling embarrassed! What can I do ??? I am doing the 27 fling boogie..that is working! Any ideas to cgeer me up..or am I destined to envy every house I go in? Money not good at the moment...even flowers are not helping !

Hi sarahlouise, my last home was like that, and I had an OH who, when I was younger and had the energy to do it, ridiculed me for trying to improve it in any way, it just wasn't important to him. I'd blitz the place and it still looked really, really grotty. For many years we had no flooring at all, just painted concrete. To say I came to hate it would be the understatement of the year!

What I did in the end was make myself a small area which I could love, and fillled it with things I loved to see and took great pride in. Of course, I kept that spotless, and it motivated me to keep the area around it clean too. I might not like looking at the rest of the place but my eyes could turn to my little haven.

When you think about your dream home, what is the first thing, after the practicalities have been done, you'd put in it? A picture? A lovely throw? Plants? Whatever it is, see if you can build "the look" you want in one small area of your home to see if this works as well for you as it did for me.

One point, don't allow yourself "why can't the rest of my home be like that" thoughts. Change them to "well, that bit looks really lovely, and one day the rest will too"

(((hugs)))

comping_cat

Good morning everyone,

Didnt get the kitchern floor cleaned yesterday (although i did sweep it) so thats top of my list today. Will be hitting the living room and hall this afternoon, as i need to go into Plymouth this morning whilst LO is at nursery (when i normally do my jobs) as its my DDs birthday at the end of the week, and i need to get her birthday card and wrapping paper.
So, bit of a busy day today then - so better crack on.
Hope everyone has a good one xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

maralum

Morning all. Sorry to hear about those who don't like their homes at the moment and racyred, that's a really good idea. What a great way to do things, one little space at a time! :j That way, even when the rest of the house is not to your tastes, you have one place where you can bring company with confidence and spend time happily yourself.

Well, today I have the usual list, I'll be going for a level three as well as my dailies and calling the midwife to try and sort this mess out!

Tuesday Living Room, Hall and Stairs

Level 1
[STRIKE]Dusting and cobweb removal[/STRIKE]
Level 2
[STRIKE]Vacuum floor and sofas[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Remove clutter[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Clean TV, other electricals and cabinets[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Tidy shoes[/STRIKE]
Level 3
[STRIKE]Clean window[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Wipe light switches and banister[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Clean any other glass like mirrors etc[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Vacuum under furniture (only if you won't hurt yourself doing it, don't want any injuries) [/STRIKE]
Declutter mission task
Sort one cupboard even if it's just for 10 minutes - I'm still threatening that airing cupboard, but so far, it's just useless fist-shaking.

I'm having hoarding pangs this morning. DH took two items (Owen's broken tricycle and an old baby chair) to the skip with him this morning. I know that these things are of no use to us and are just cluttering the place, but I can't help feeling stressed - I just hate getting rid of things! In truth, both items will probably be rescued from the skip by the drivers at his work (they take them, fix them up and pass them on), but still, I feel almost like a failure that I couldn't find anything to do with them. Especially since they were both baby things - I don't know about you, but I grow quite sentimental towards old baby things. It's so silly, I know my house will look better without !!!!!! cluttering it up, but I hate letting go of things.

I feel as if I should have sold them or something. Even then, I know I couldn't get rid of them before the baby's born, I just don't have the time or energy. We need the space for when she arrives...grrr grrr grrr mumble mumble grinding teeth. Just whinging, ignore me. :rolleyes:

Have a good day's flying all and take care. Take breaks when you need them and have lots of fun in between jobs - or even during!

Solwaykid

I'm going to be late for work but I had to have a quick catch up, if yestserday is anything to go by I'll be overwhelmed with the number of posts come 6pm when I get back.

Just wanted to say welcome to the GE ers who've found us, I hope the levels approach works for you. We're a nice bunch.

Glad too that other folks saying what I feel about not living in a show home. I've moved every three years for probably the last 17 and almost always rented. There's a limit to how much you can make a home how you'd want it and I have been too ashamed on occasion to let visitors come round in case I'm being judged. But I know that its clean and I have all my own things which I love and so say b***ocks to 'em. This is me. House envy is an awful thing but sometimes it spurs me onto make small, affordable changes.
Catch you all later. x

jovichick123

Hi all,

Ok, my first ever day following this thread didn't go too badly!! I managed to do the following:

Monday - Kitchen and Dining Room
Level One
[STRIKE]Clean floors[/STRIKE]
Level Two
[STRIKE]Clear and wipe kitchen surfaces[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Wipe window sill, clean any marks off window if required[/STRIKE]
Dust any extra furniture in dining room, checking for cobwebs on way round
Wipe dining table (clean table cloth if necessary) No Dining room to clear!
[STRIKE]Sort fridge bringing what needs using soon to the front[/STRIKE]
Level Three
Clean microwave
Clean cupboard door fronts and the front of appliances
Wash the washer drawer out if it's gunky
Clean oven if you didn’t do it last week
Declutter mission task
27 fling boogie, grab a bag and clear that clutter!

I also managed to study :j

So for today... I am heading out in an hour - I have two exams today at Uni, should be back for 2.30pm ish so am going to aim to complete L1 and L2 again today!

Have a nice day all,

Sarah x

AnW'sMum

Morning all

I agree with others house envy is a terrible thing. The ONLY thing I do envy is how tidy everyone else seems to keep their homes. We are hoarders too which does not help in my mission to get this place tidier and cleaner. It's going to take an awful lot ot '10 mins' to get sorted here!!!! But sorted we will become.

I did sweep the kitchen floor yesterday and had another go at the oven and one of the grill pans. It's become a bit of a mission in it's own right to have it spotless (going to take a lot of elbow grease though!)

Anyway onwards and upwards. Today I am out again this morning visiting a friend so won't get anything done before this afternoon. Welcome to the newbies and returnees and hi to everyone else

Hope you all have a productive one.

AnW'sMum

And just for pigpen KICK!!!!! and anyone else that wants/needs one (includes self :rotfl: )