Sink Reflections by Marla Cilley (2002, Paperback, Reissue)

If you were not "Born Organized" and you are living in "CHAOS" ("Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome!) then this book will help you; at least, it has helped many others in the same situation to recover. I can say with certainty that flylady's system really does work!

Her system is very simple. Anyone can do it. The best part about it is that, when you use her system, you never get behind. There is no failure with this system. You have permission to go at your own pace. In fact, "baby steps" are encouraged and "perfectionism" is discouraged. As flylady says, your house did not get messy in one day and it is not going to get clean in one day either.

What flylady does is, slowly and step by step, teach you routines that will work for you. The very first routine you will learn is how to shine your sink, and to make sure that it is shiny every night before you go to bed. If you stick to that routine every evening, it means that you will be greeted by your shiny sink every morning. Once you have that routine down, it's on to the next one. And it builds from there...15 minutes at a time, until finally, not only are you living in a clean house but you are also easily able to maintain it.

The humor in this book is great too. Flylady is very empathetic; mostly, I think, because she really has been in the same clutter-filled situation herself, and she found a way to dig herself out of it. She is never judgemental.

In my opinion flylady's system only has a couple of very minor downsides. One of them: she insists that you get dressed to shoes every morning. The shoes part just does not work for me; we don't like wearing our shoes inside. Also, there are a lot of acronyms to keep track of (CHAOS, etc.) None of this is that problematic, because with this system you can always just use what works for you and ignore the rest. For the most part I find the system to be very user-friendly and workable. It works for me!

To test flylady's methods for yourself, the first thing you want to do is buy her book. Then go to her web site and sign up for her email list. At first it might seem a little strange- getting daily emails from someone you've never met, never mind emails that say things like "where's your laundry?" But once you get used to it you'll probably find that the system works very well. (And if you don't like the emails, you can always unsubscribe.) Then buy the book for your friends/family who weren't "born organized"!

Definitely recommended!