Let My Blogging Journey Begin!
I am so incredibly blessed to be here, writing this from the comfort of my home, while my youngest plays in the sunroom and my oldest is at school. Three years ago, I thought I would never get here. Achieving the goals of being my own boss, running my own business (team of one) and actually having more time with my family as a result. I thought it made sense for this first blog to be about my journey to this point, in order to give you a little background on me and what makes me tick. Some of you already know this story, whether you are family, friend or the beautiful people who have graciously invited me into your homes and asked for my help. And to those of you who don't know me yet - I look forward to this opportunity to tell you a little more about me. To all of you, thank you for supporting me!
I Was Born With These Skills
I credit my organizing abilities to my dad and mom and my birth order, come to think of it. I consider myself the middle child. "Consider" because technically I am the second of 4, but I am the true middle because my younger brothers are identical twins. We were a family of 6, and for the majority of my childhood my mom stayed home with us and my dad worked full-time in the retail management world. Our family vacations consisted of anywhere we could travel by car and sleep by tent. Early on, I marveled at how my dad could organize and pack a car for these vacations, by the time I was a teenager, I was begging for the chance to help him. And my mom has always kept an immaculate house. So I blame my need to vacuum daily on her. We moved a few times during my childhood, due to my dad's occupation. And I saw how with each move, it was a chance to purge, decision make, and deep clean. It stuck with me. As I got older, I would rearrange the furniture in our home on a regular basis. Sometimes, I don't think this thrilled my parents to come home and have to learn a new pattern to our home.
And Picked a Few More Up Along the Way
Fast forward to my college years. I got my BA from Lebanon Valley College with an English Literature major and a concentration in Theatre. I had the most amazing internship with the Fulton Opera House and had dreams of breaking into the world of theatre. As is the way with dreams, the beautiful ones can be hard to make into reality. To make money, I worked for the Bombay Company (remember them?), during my senior year of college and after I graduated, fell into a permanent role with them. I transferred to Wilmington, NC as an assistant and thus began my years in the world of retail management. I fine-tuned my merchandising capabilities in the years I spent with the Bombay Company. Oh, and I can operate power tools and hang pictures in a jiffy! (Just ask some of my clients - they can validate these claims!)
From Bombay, I did a quick stint as a department manager for Dilliards and then settled into my role as a store manager for The Fresh Market. I had the opportunity to manage one of the locations in Richmond, VA and then the store here in Wilmington, NC. Retail management was never going to be my end game, but I did enjoy it for (almost) all of the years I was in it.
How I Got Into the Organizing Biz
Around the time I got pregnant with my first daughter, I started looking for what my next step could be. My husband offered up the idea of owning and running my own business. His suggestion, bless him, was a cleaning business, "because you love to clean." Now, in Jeff's defense, he had a multitude of really valid and well thought out points, but, I blame it on the pregnancy hormones, because I stewed on this one statement for a long while before I actually located the support and value in all he was saying. Working the long hours, all holidays, every Saturday and sometimes Sundays, began to really take it's toll on me and by the time I was pregnant with our second daughter, I upped my efforts to figure out exactly what I wanted to be doing with my career.
We bought a 1973 ranch style home in the spring of 2014. I was sold the minute I saw the sunroom, open concept floor plan, fully renovated kitchen and ALL OF THE STORAGE!! It has a walk-in attic, pantry, 2 entryway closets, walk-in master, laundry room and a bonus room over the garage. My mind went into overdrive thinking of all of the ways I could organize and make this house our home. I took a few days off of work to move and in that time it looked like we had been living here for months. I had pictures on the walls, all boxes unpacked and closets labeled. I invited one of my best girlfriends over to see the house and spend the afternoon on our deck. When I walked her through the house, opening closet doors and showing off all I had done, she commented on how I lit up when I was talking about how I organized and set up each space. This comment really got my wheels churning.
The stress you feel when walking in the door at the end of a long day to see paper piles on the countertops, laundry over-flowing the baskets, dresser drawers too packed to close properly, garages serving as a dumping ground instead of maximizing the storage available, was no stranger to me. I also have always known and appreciated the value of organized spaces. When a junk drawer is sectioned off, labeled and everything is contained within categories, it is so quick to find what you need. The "ahhhh" feeling that comes from knowing your closet floor is clear of items and all things within are categorized and will be used - not to mention COLOR COORDINATED when possible! To have a family command center where you store all pertinent schedules and information to move through the busy weeks efficiently and effectively is, to me, the very definition of sanity. I KNEW how to organize, I just didn't have the time to tackle the projects beginning to end in my own home. And I KNEW I wasn't alone in this. I knew there were so many individuals out there like me, working full-time, with families and/or other obligations that filled the hours leaving little to no time to accomplish the laundry list of tasks within the home.
Me - caught in a rare moment on camera without a child in my arms.
Back at work after the move-in, I started looking around with this new knowledge and realized I had been successfully doing all things organizing and more, just in a different realm. The back room was organized, categorized, clean and labeled, I was writing and approving schedules for multiple departments and 80 plus employees, managing inventories, planning and executing merchandising programs, and caring for our customers and their experiences. I carefully and strategically put my business plan into play and by the Spring of 2015, I launched my residential organizing business, Organized For You, LLC.
Follow Along With Me!
And here we are, 2017 and I am extending my services to you. Follow along on with my blog posts - I will be sharing timely tips and how-to's on how you can create organized peace in the clutter. Also, I am a DIYer and have some really great (and easy!) projects to share with you!
Until next time!
