What's in a shining sink? A reflecting smile

By Marla Cilley
For the Deseret Morning News
Published: Thursday, Jan. 19, 2006 11:12 a.m. MST
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When you first come to FlyLady.net you may be shocked to hear what the initial task is! "Go shine the sink!"

How is that going to help me get my whole house in order?

Right now you are probably feeling a bit overwhelmed, but I promise this is going to help you get out of the CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome) that you have been living in for such a long time. It all starts with that shining sink.

When I set out to get my act together in 1999, I didn't know where to start, either. This is why I just picked my sink. I was tired of beating myself up over the way I kept our home looking. At this point, I knew what I had been doing would not work for very long. It was because I would go gung-ho for a week or two, then I would crash and burn. There was no rhythm to my method. I was forcing myself to adhere to a new set of rules, and I felt so confined by the sheer number of them. I knew the system I had always used was not going to work again. This is when I started to rethink how I treated myself and guilt trips I would force on me. These were not working, and I was so beaten down.

Right then and there I decided I would be nice to me by only requiring that I do one small thing each day. I needed to establish a habit. I had plenty of habits, but they were not effective ones for taking care of me or our home. I picked keeping my sink clean and shiny for a whole month. It was just that simple!

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What is in that shiny sink anyway? When you walk into you kitchen in morning and you are confronted with yesterday's dirty dishes; you just want to go crawl back into bed and pull the covers over your head. Along with these dishes are hurtful feelings because no one is helping you. Not only do you have to get these out of way to start another meal but you are beating yourself up, because you let them go. That nasty water is just a reflection of how you feel when you face a sink full of yesterday's dirty dishes.

Now on the other hand, when you are greeted with a shiny sink, all these bad feelings are gone and for the first time you can see a reflection of you. This is why I named my book "Sink Reflections." That shiny sink brings a smile to your face. You deserve to smile. The guilt has vanished because you are standing in a kitchen with no roadblocks to begin your day. That is a great feeling, and that is what a brand new day is all about!

The goal is to keep that sink clean and shiny for a month. If we miss a day; we just jump back in and don't beat ourselves up over it. We know that it will only take a minute to get it back to its shiny self. When you are shining your sink you are really just putting a little shine to your day and a smile on your face.

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