A reader recommended the works and website of Maria Cilley, a.k.a. “Fly Lady,” many weeks ago. Wow. What a reservoir of quirky but sensible advice on how to organize your home for maximum health and effectiveness. While the tips on Fly Lady’s website are not overtly spiritual, Cilley and co-author Leanne Ely make it abundantly clear that your precious spirit will not flourish if your house–or any hot spot within it–is clutter-filled and out of control. They’re Feng Shui ladies with a down-home, just-do-it attitude.

Once on Fly Lady’s site, you’ll read her bylaws (or “Baby Steps”), which are different from the household laws your mom may have passed down. First, Fly Lady believes you should never go to bed at night without first cleaning and polishing your kitchen sink. That’s a biggie. Fly Lady says that you will not fly high in life if your sink is holding you back. I’ve been incorporating some sink polishing into my own practice, and the glisten of it really does give me a boost at six-thirty in the morning.

Every month, Fly Lady dictates a household mission. She’s also got morning and evening rituals that will help you care for clothes, pay the bills, and keep it together day after day. Bad news for Chattering Mind: Fly Lady thinks women should put on a little makeup in the a.m. as part of their greet-the-day ritual. On most mornings, I’m avidly plain and unadorned. In fact, I show up in our school principal’s office some mornings, to ask him a question, looking like Grace Poole, that crazy lady who lived unacknowledged in Jane Eyre’s attic.