personal cleaning coach

Photo from FlyLady

My step-mother is the queen of clutter. It's pretty clear that her problem stems more from a psychological or emotional attachment to stuff rather than an inability to be neat. But still, her office is in need of serious help.

We've helped her organize it a few times, but it always goes back to being an unnavigable mess. In my quest to find a way of helping her, I came across the FlyLady.

If you don't already know, the FlyLady and her crew are personal cleaning and de-cluttering coaches who will give you all the tools you need (sometimes literally) to whip your home into shape. They'll give you a schedule and send you e-mail reminders and sell you products and give you pep talks. At least, this is what I can garner from the Fly Lady web site. I haven't tried it.

While FlyLady sure seems like it can be helpful to some, I have to admit that the web site stressed me out. It's so incredibly busy... so many links and boxes and colors. It's much too cluttered for me to even delve into (much like my step-mother's office).

I know I'm not the only one who feels this way about FlyLady. There's even a group here at CafeMom called the FlyLady Club Home Organizing and Cleaning Help, which is devoted to helping moms who find the FlyLady approach a little too overwhelming (me!).

Tell me, have you tried FlyLady? Has it worked for you? What do you like about it? What don't you like? Should I get over my initial stressed-out reaction to the site and jump right in?