MDC FlyBabies check in: Jan 27-Feb 2 - Page 2

[Megs Mom]

I'm a big fan of menu planning. I do use Leann's Menu Mailer. If you ever decide to sign up I'd sure love the free month I can get from a referral. PM me for my email address if so.

[Mom4tot]

I have done this before too, come home from shopping without a clear plan for dinner. What works for me is to make a list of atleast 4, maybe 5 meals...dinners for the week. Then I shop with that list. I feel much more relaxed when I know what is for dinner. I am afraid we are still in the phase of sometimes fixing more than one dinner, so I always have certain staples for the kids as well.

[peacepie]

wow glad to hear what i know are real life stories!
i turned off flylady when i read, put the dish rack away, thinking, when am i ever not doing dishes?? but recently i subscribed and i think that even in deleting all those messages, they are getting to me. as many have mentioned in testimonials. and i revise her tactics to fit with my everyday life. maybe i oughta follow her to the letter....
i find i like to do a crash course, our joke is lets have a party, the house needs a good cleaning. and we do it all on the last day, right up to getting dressed as guests are arriving!
well i am tackling more of the problem spots, and i have a new respect for tackling the 'hotspots', and a name for everything. i too bought an ostrich feather duster, doesnt shed yet, isnt great at attracting the dust, but isnt horrible; i am sure to frequently 'bless the outside'....
i also tried those new swiffer dust things, though i hate those kinds of products, but they really do hold the dust, and i had some real problem areas. wont be spending a dollar a swipe in the future though. was glad to read about others buying the feather duster, i wondered if it was the same.
i have gone through the kids stuff before but i did it again with my newer attitude and i have two more garbage bags of stuff for the thrift shop. actually one of those i may keep for our yard sale, or for friends who are having babies, etc. i mean some of those toys cost lots of money! or were very useful! most was from the thrift originally and i love the idea of endless recycling.
i want to sell stuff on ebay, we have so many collectables, comic books, etc, but we dont have a credit card so we arent allowed to even sell. working on it though.
i will say that i gave a friend a bunch of nice stuff which i saw the next week at the thrift and i thought , well, the nerve(isnt that horrible?), even thought of buying the stuff back to give to a friend who could really use it! of course i dont really care, i told her some of it was destined for the thrift shop, but some of it was so nice, i saved it special, & if she didnt want it another friend could have used it.....
lol but these days i have fewer regrets about getting rid of anything...havent thought of anything i've missed.
i try to look at buying stuff only when i can get rid of something in its place... but still there were three nice pairs of jeans i didnt need, at the thrift yesterday, and now they're in the washer, no drawer to go to after....
ah well baby steps .....
oh and i just found out our local book store will give you a credit in exchange for used books. i had four boxes purged, two are left after dh got to them, so yeah i get a couple of nice new books i want(local stuff, not a huge selection), and i get some use out of the books i don't want!
looking into that other menu site, thanks for the link...
in another thread there was a link for www.organizedhome.com which i thought was great too.
also from mothering once i got the idea to keep my baking soda based cleaner in a mason jar with nail holes in the lid....
lots of great ideas!

[BrandyMama]

Originally posted by peacepie
i find i like to do a crash course, our joke is lets have a party, the house needs a good cleaning. and we do it all on the last day, right up to getting dressed as guests are arriving!


i will say that i gave a friend a bunch of nice stuff which i saw the next week at the thrift and i thought , well, the nerve(isnt that horrible?), even thought of buying the stuff back to give to a friend who could really use it! of course i dont really care, i told her some of it was destined for the thrift shop, but some of it was so nice, i saved it special, & if she didnt want it another friend could have used it.....
lol but these days i have fewer regrets about getting rid of anything...havent thought of anything i've missed.

That was so me!! I scheduled playdates, mom's night out and my dh would have tattoo parties here, just so I would have to clean house. Of course, I wasn't really cleaning. Just stuffing things into closets or taking it upstairs so the downstairs was presentable and keeping my fingers crossed that no one would go up there. I remember one time when one of dh's friends brought his little girl over. She climbed over the gate and went upstairs. Much to my horror, her dad went up to retrieve her and saw the black holes that we call bedrooms. I was so mortified!

As for your comment on it being hard to get rid of things, I am really getting so much better at this. I think that I held onto so many things for much too long, pondering the fate of the item after it left my hands. I was watching TLC's Clean Sweep a lot, which was a total motivator for me to return to FlyLady. When they are helping people let go of things they ask them if the item makes them happy and if they love it. If not, it's gone. I just keep reminding myself of this and the freeing feeling that I get from flinging is gradually replacing the fretting over where the item will end up. I'm *trying* to tell myself that if I'm letting go of it, I don't need to worry about where it's going to.

[BrandyMama]

I had a great 27 fling boogie in my kitchen this morning. I was able to organize one of my cabinets, and you can actually find things now. I also cleared one area of the kitchen counter that was a perpetual hotspot.

As for the meal planning, I sat down last night and made a menu for the week. It was so easy! I made my grocery list and was shocked to find out how little I really needed to buy. We have a chest freezer from when I thought I was going to do once a month cooking (that lasted a whole month...lol) that is full of chicken and meat. I was able to build meals off of what I have and the extras were few and far between. Hopefully if I put these things into my routine, I'll be better at taking stuff out to thaw the night before.

[MamaMonica]

I always forget to take stuff out to thaw, too. We just got a microwave, and that has been an amazing time saver. I was pretty much against microwaves until I realized something had to give.

All I'm doing is cleaning the sink and kitchen- basics. I'm sick, kids are sick. I heave-ho stuff into bags for the thrift store on a regular basis, so no super large build ups in that area. Just toys strewn everywhere and vacuming not done. Need to scrub bathroom but need to read to dd.

[ShannonCC]

I wanted to chime in that Flylady is not incompatible with "people before things". Isn't that part of her message? The point is to get your routines going so that you DON'T spend 5 hours every weekend cleaning the house and ignoring your kids! I also do things with the kids right there. I do 5 minute clean ups with my dd for example. And this evening I sorted through some toys to find ones to give away while playing ball with my toddler (throw the ball, quickly grab a toy and stuff it in the give away bag while he retrieves the ball, turn to catch the ball he throws, repeat as needed ). I try to involve my kids when I can and at the least, I am able to hold conversations while doing things. Or sit cross legged on the floor, sorting through toys while the boy is latched on And we use home made cleaners (baking soda, etc) so the kids really can participate without hurting themselves.

Of course my house is far from perfect and I'm not a really good example of a Flybaby, but she sure is inspirational. I'm really happy with my house now. Decluttering RULES!

[Mom4tot]

I went out with my dd for a few hours for a girls afternoon out. We went to a cute coffee shop for hot chocalate and who do you think we ran into??? You won't believe what group of ladies was lunching next to us...

A group of Flyladies!

They were talking about the flylady closet and cleaning their tables! Then a woman pulls out a big woven throw and says, "I just don't like it. My MIL gave it to me, and every time I look at it, I get depressed. So, who wants it?"

Dd got a kick out of it since she sees all the emails I get and we do fling boogies together (well, once). I told her to give a testimonial for how she cleaned out from under her bed!

Just had to share :LOL

[BrandyMama]

How cool Joan! I was telling dh the other night that it must be such an amazing feeling for the FlyLady to know that she has helped so many people. I know that some people think FlyLady is silly, and that you shouldn't need someone to tell you how to keep your house together, but I know that many of us need that extra push. If left to my own devices, it just wouldn't get done!


I tackled the patio yesterday, and it was SCARY! The kids have a playhouse out there that they can't use because it has been taken over by spiders. I also opened the cabinet out there and flung a bunch of stuff. I'm still slapping imaginary spiders off of my body, and I think I'll be itching for days. I sprayed everything (including Marcellus...oops...lol) down with the hose and I intend to do the same thing everyday until the spiders figure out that they aren't welcome in the playhouse anymore...lol.

When dh came home from work last night at 11:30 p.m., he found me on a chair cleaning off the top of the refrigerator, with my timer set for 15 minutes I can't believe how many things I found up there that I thought were lost. Things I have paid money to replace, like the stapler, three bottles of glue, five packets of colored pencils...lol. I put away the huge stockpot that had taken up residence up there, and only gets used a few times a year. This left space for my bread and cereals up there, getting them off of my counter I have to make a Goodwill stop on my way to Grandma's house today, and then my counters will be completely free of junk! I could have done it yesterday, but like a SHE, I figured out that I was stranded at home after leaving my car keys in dh's truck the day before

[MamaMonica]

I went through the toys and ruthlessly removed everything they weren't playing with, as well as the bin organizer from Target that the bins never stayed in(they got used as boats, tables for bear picnics etc and generally dumped out).

The glitch I've run into that all the donation sites like Salvation Army in the immediate area are full and not taking donations and I don't want to drive to the next suburb so the stuff is still in the closet and garage.

[Pynki]

II'm still here.. Really.. AWOL for 3 wks with out internet.. I was going bit.. ild

We also founbd out why I am not feelings like doing anything and was feelings sooo yucky.. Hyperthyroidism.. Better now. .I have done more in the last 2 weeks than I have done in the last year...

Hopping back on the wagon..

Warm Squishy Feelings..

Dyan

[Danesmama]

Can I join?

Hi - I have been lurking on your thread and would like to officially join! I have tried flylady once last fall and failed miserably! Because I work, it just got too disappointing to see all of those e-mails stacking up and not be able to do something about them. The concept is great, though.

We are trying to sell our house right now, so I would really like to get my before bed and morning routines set. . . That way I won't have to run around in the mornings before work trying to make sure that the house is clean. We also have a friend living with us for the month, which adds to my desire to keep the house cleaner.

Well, good luck to everyone

[BrandyMama]

We're here now!