Cilley's FlyLady career started with an appointment to the county commission in November 1998.

"I woke up in January 1999 and said, 'I've got to get organized!' " she said. "So I got out my card file, which is an 18-inch card file, and started to sort the cards into piles: things to do daily, things to do weekly, the morning pile, the afternoon pile, a pile for every room. I got so overwhelmed I couldn't do anything.

"So I decided to take one habit for the month of January. That was keeping my sink clean and shiny. That's all I had to do that month. But in doing that, the counter got cleaned, the dishes got done, the dishwasher got emptied because I had to have a place for the dishes so my sink could be clean and shiny.

"This shiny sink put the rest of the kitchen to shame. Pretty soon, the stove said, 'Clean me!' It was contagious," Cilley said.

Cilley started collecting and sharing the things she was learning.

In 2001 she started the FlyLady Web site, which promotes a no-nonsense approach to housekeeping while having fun.

"I'm real tough on people. No whining is allowed." She promotes taking 30 seconds while in a given room of the house to clean up along the way. "Wipe down the counter, swish and swipe the shower, make the bed as you slide out. No multi-tasking because we've all been trying to do two things at once for too long. It's just a 'do it now' attitude."

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