I was never a Nancy Neatnick or Polly Perfect, and I'm still not. But in late 2016, I transformed my cluttered home into an oasis of organization. I know what it's like to hate your home and feel like a failure as a wife and mother.

I had recently sold a website design and marketing company, and for the first time in my adult life, I did not have a job and was in a position to take a few months off. I looked around my cluttered house, and I realized that it was now or never, that I was never going to be any younger, any more energetic, any more motivated, or have any more time than I had at that moment. In addition, I did not want to leave this mess to my kids to clean up in the hopefully distant future when I was no longer living.

Looking back, I would say that my house would be about in the middle regarding the level of clutter compared to the clients we help today.

I told some friends I needed to organize my house. One recommended the hot new book of the moment: The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo. I read this book in one day and was so inspired by it that I decided to Kon-Mari every single item in my house. The first step was acknowledging that I had an issue with clutter in the home; I sorted and edited out the things that did not spark joy and organized them as I decluttered and deep-cleaned each room. I enjoyed doing the work but mostly relished the incredible feeling of peace and lightness as I finished one room after the other. It was in such contrast to how I had felt about my house for years.

Since we moved into the house, had kids, and I was a full-time working mom, I would avoid dealing with my home by working late hours at the office. If we had a guest over, I could pull it together, but it would take an entire day. And all I did was shove piles into closets and pray that the closets wouldn't burst open and hurt my guest in an avalanche if they happened to open the door.

After I subjected every single item in my house to the question of, do I need it, do I use it, and do I love it? I lightened my load so much, and everything that I was keeping just fell into a natural home, and ever since then, I have been able to maintain the organization in my house pretty easily. I also don't bring non-consumable things into the home that I don't need, use, or love because I know that, eventually, somebody will have to decide on it.

While organizing my house, I realized, hey, I genuinely love doing this, and I wonder if people would pay me to do this for them. I looked into becoming a professional organizer, joined NAPO (National Association of Productivity & Organization Professionals), got trained and certified, came up with a company name, and set up a website. Six years later, I have 18 part-time employees and serve customers in the South Shore, South Coast, Cape Cod, and the Islands.

We bring peace and order to homes all over southeast Massachusetts. I genuinely feel that it is my mission to run and organize a company that allows the organizers to help many people achieve lasting transformation in their minds, bodies, and souls through living in a peacefully organized home.