Solutions for a Cluttered World
Have you ever felt you are the only one who has overstuffed rooms, closets, and drawers? Does reading the first sentence give you hives and want to crawl under the covers? Do you tell yourself you want to hold onto this stuff, just in case? Is it an item you had since 2001? Maybe it was given to you by a family member who has passed or a friend that you no longer speak with. Well, it's time to learn you are not alone. Oftentimes, it is the unknowns of a small or big project that makes it feel stressful and overwhelming. What's more alarming is that 9.4% of U.S. households rent a storage unit. And ladies, women on average have $1,000 to $2,500 of clothing sitting in their wardrobe. 9% of women have over $10,000 collecting dust in their closets!
Listen to Steffanie's journey as she turned her passion and skill into a successful business while becoming an expert in organization, simplification, and helping others detach from materials. Steffanie and her team give their clients permission to let go and declutter space creating room to clear their minds and feel free from material items that no longer serve them.
Steffanie Porter, founder, and owner of TidySmart Organizing Solutions, a native of Atlanta, Georgia, has lived in the Northville, Michigan area for 18 years. TidySmart Organizing Solutions has been in business for 12 years. During this time Steffanie and her team of nine organizers have helped hundreds of clients from all different walks of life go from being overwhelmed with clutter to enjoying their well-organized living spaces. They are very excited about their recent partnership with The Container Store to become the In-Home Organizer for the Container Store Novi, Michigan location. TidySmart Organizing Solutions is a Metro Detroit-based professional home organizing and move management company.
In addition to home organizing, TidySmart offers services for those clients that are moving, which include home staging, decluttering, and organizing to make the home look great for potential buyers, as well as packing and unpacking to help simplify the home listing and moving process. They also offer Moving Concierge Services to help make the relocation process as smooth as possible.
Learn more here on Steffanie’s website
Listen to the full episode:
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[00:00:00] Amy: All right welcome back to the Kindling Project podcast. I've got my girls here today, Monica and Melissa. We have an awesome guest, Ms. Steffanie Porter. So Melissa and Monica, how have you both been?
[00:00:13] Melissa: I'm trying to be positive on these things, but I do have a kid homesick today. I'm just hanging on, right? I'm hanging on like we all are. I've got a couple businesses going, a couple teenagers going. A household, a husband, I would say this is an average week.
[00:00:31] Amy: That sounds about right. How about you, Monica?
[00:00:34] Monica: Well, my sophomore in college is currently in Cancun for spring break, so that's always fun. In the middle of the night I wake up, I'm like I hope he's okay. It's one of those things where you have to let go and trust that the seeds I've planted will somehow come when he needs to make those choices, so. Fingers crossed, he's 20 and spreading his wings.
[00:00:57] Amy: Do you follow him his location? Do you do anything like that?
[00:01:01] Monica: No, I do have him on my phone, but I learned early on, especially his first week of college, that I would never sleep if I stay focused on that. Because the first week he left, I would be like, 2:00 AM What's he doing? Where is he? What's happening at 2:00 AM he's only 18. And I thought, okay. I looked at my husband and we were like we're not doing this. We're not playing this game. We've done our job. Let him fly. Emergency, God forbid, I know I can track him, but I don't wanna do that. Plus I have to trust him. He's gotta live his life. He's gotta make his choices. And as a mom, we talk about this a lot, ladies, I cannot hover. I am not a helicopter mom, and I cannot dictate their choices. My point for them is in life, go be you. Go figure it out and make mistakes and you're gonna fall. They know they can come to me whenever, so the answer is no.
[00:01:55] Amy: I did that. I think each child is different, but I know my oldest right now is in Amsterdam for the week, so I know he is across the pond, but I haven't looked, I haven't looked where he is because, what am I gonna do? I think for me, knowing if he's traveling or if he says he's going somewhere, if it's nighttime, I don't do this all the time, but I just wanna make sure he's gotten there. Like at this point he's gonna be 21, just like your oldest. What am I gonna do? But I think some parents can go pretty extreme on those, and they're not always accurate either.
[00:02:31] There's glitches at times, so.
[00:02:33] Monica: Mel, you're still not there cuz you have the high schoolers. So you still can, not control, but you are very active. I mean, you're still an Uber driver for your youngest, so you know exactly where he is at all times.
[00:02:44] Melissa: Right. I've got 18 and 14, and my 18 year old you guys have met her. She's more responsible than I am. She's like, mom, I've been trying to find your iPhone . You're not picking up. I think that kind of goes both ways with she and I, but I don't worry too much about her. Most of my weeks are just basketball, and every waking moment. We are currently in a schedule with him speaking of Uber driving where there's two practices a week, two games a week, a tournament every weekend, which can be two to four games. And then he's, " can I go to basketball coaching?" I'm like, "when?? In your sleep??"
[00:03:18] Amy: Yeah, you're in the eye of the storm because once he starts high school too, it's just gonna probably ramp up. I don't know, but I'm thinking it might.
[00:03:25] Melissa: You guys had boys and sports. Sports guys I mean, me and Matt and Elise are all artists types, like sports: ball, they're all the same to us, but Miles is just come, he's been cut from a different cloth. He's Mr. Jocko. He's cutting. He's lifting weights in the basement. He's counting all of our carbs.
[00:03:45] Monica: It's so fun to watch them on the floor though, right? To do their thing and just watch in amazement. I remember thinking, who is that guy? I love watching him and just being part of it and just cheering him on , it was some of the best memories.
[00:03:57] Melissa: Well you guys, we have an amazing guest here today and she also has two boys, so I'm really outnumbered by all of you boy moms, although I have miles, but it's just, Elise can be the only the token daughter in this conversation if we need one. So I wanna introduce you guys to Steffanie Porter. Steffanie Porter is our friend. She's our neighbor.
[00:04:19] Amy: I can only imagine having your own business, how busy your schedule must be. So we're really grateful to have you. So I'm gonna just talk a little bit about you. So Tidy Smart Organizing Solutions is a metro Detroit based professional home organizing and move management company. You focus on decluttering and organizing homes by narrowing down what's important for your clients to keep, then creating solutions to have an organized living space for the future.
[00:04:46] Steffanie Porter, you are the owner of Tidy Smart Organizing Solutions. You are a native of Atlanta, Georgia, and you have lived in Northville for the last 18 years. After a 10 year career in the construction industry, you made the shift to leave your corporate career and become a stay-at-home mom to spend time with your sons, Liam and Evan. After spending free time organizing your home as well as friends and family members homes, you decided to turn your hobby into a business that allows you to balance your passion for organizing and devoting time to be with your family. Over the last 12 years since Tidy smart Organizing Solutions has officially been in business. You and your team of nine organizers have helped hundreds of clients from all different walks of life go from being overwhelmed with clutter to enjoying your what, their well organized living spaces. They're very excited about their recent partnership with The Container Store to become the in-home organizer for the Container Store, Novi location. Congratulations on that. In addition to home organizing, tidy Smart offers services for those clients that are moving, which include home staging, decluttering, and organizing to make the home look great for potential buyers, as well as packing and unpacking to help simplify the home listing and moving parts. You also offer a moving concierge service to help make the relocation process as smooth as possible. Whew! That is quite the bio. Welcome, Steffanie. We're so glad to have you here.
[00:06:19] Steffanie: Good morning ladies. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to talk with y'all.
[00:06:24] Amy: Oh, so you do still have some of your Georgia accent?
[00:06:28] Steffanie: I will not ever let go of y'all. Michiganders, who say you guys to a room full of women? No .
[00:06:35] Melissa: So how did you end up in Michigan? I mean, I know you're our neighbor and I know you live in our community, but how'd you get here?
[00:06:41] Steffanie: So I grew up in Atlanta, as Amy mentioned, and I went to work on Mackinac Island as a summer job. Found out about Mackinac and actually I pronounced it, Mackinac didn't even know how to say it. And cause in Georgia, no one had really heard of it. And so I had heard about it through one of my college roommates, and she had a family friend that was working on the island. She said, come on to Mackinac with me. Let's go up there and work for the summer. Went up there completely blind, had no idea what Mackinac was about. And as most of the Michiganders listening, know that it's a very beautiful, wonderful place. And fell in love with the island. I ended up meeting my former husband there. We dated for several years, dated long distance actually, and I went back and forth each summer to work there for about three summers, and we got married on Mackinac. We moved back to Atlanta so that I could start my career and he had a job down there as well. And then as we were married for a few years and wanted to start a family, we realized that Atlanta was not the right place where he wanted to be. And having a drawback to Mackinac because his family lived there during the summers, was something that was important to us at the time. So I was in the construction industry and I was doing recruiting for the company that I was with. And a position was opening in Detroit in 2005. And if anybody remembers, 2005, it was a very rough year. It was great for business in Atlanta. And when I went to my boss and told him I'd like to move to Detroit, he about fell out of his chair and said, you're leaving the best housing industry in the country to go to Detroit, are you really sure you wanna do this? And I knew God was calling me for a reason, to come to Michigan. So we made the relocation. We chose Northville because we had some friends that were here and just decided, and we'd visited and just thought Northville was a really lovely community. So we have now been here for 18 years. Really hard to believe. I was thinking the day that I've almost been here as long as I've lived in Atlanta, so my time in Michigan, by the time my youngest is gonna graduate will be longer than when I left Atlanta, so that's how we got to Michigan. And honestly, I can't wait to move out when my youngest graduates. I am definitely a warm weather girl, and so that will be the next step of the plan of how to start something in other warmer cities as my youngest gets ready to graduate.
[00:09:04] Monica: How old are your kids?
[00:09:06] Steffanie: My youngest will be 13 on Saturday, and my oldest will be 16 next month. So we got a lot of transitions happening.
[00:09:14] Monica: Oh, you sure do. You went from construction. What exactly were you doing?
[00:09:18] Steffanie: So I was in the building materials distribution business. Very male dominated industry. And here I was a female in my twenties coming in to sell building materials to contractors, which are an interesting breed. They're now thankfully, a lot more female contractors in the industry. But at the time it was, 99 per percent males. But I was able to grow my sales territory, do really well in the markets that I was in between Atlanta and in Detroit area, and ended up becoming branch manager of the location that the company I was with here in the metro Detroit area. And that happened right about the time that I was giving birth to my oldest son. And so I was branch manager there as well as I was head of recruiting for a management training program that the company had where we were recruiting people outta college, taking 'em through a program through sales and management, and they would go on to open their own branch location one day. So as I had Liam, my oldest and my former husband had actually started his own company at the same time, we had an in-home nanny and she was watching Liam. As time went on and we got pregnant with our second child, Evan, we realized that having someone at home in our own family was really important to our dynamic, our family dynamic. And I had gotten in the point with my job that I was at a dead end road. Didn't really have much challenge and really much desire to continue to do it, and fortunately, my former husband's company had taken off and done really well. and he had grown the company to be able to put us in a position where we could go to a single income. As my youngest is born, Evan, I left my position with the building materials distributor and decide to stay at home with my boys. One of the biggest transitions that anybody can go through, if you've gone through that change, to go from a corporate or a actual full-time job out of the home and then to come home to the kids.
[00:11:18] Melissa: Oh, I remember that. I think all four of us have done some of it to some extent, right? Where either work from home, work only on the family from home, or some combination of those two, but I just completely remember that time and that transition. And I mean, for me, I don't know about you, like the first couple years it was very scary and lonely because nobody tells you how to be a mom or how to raise a baby. And then also you're doing it by yourself.
[00:11:47] Steffanie: I remember going to my first mom's club group with all these moms babysitting in their laps and looking around going, what is going on here? This is a lot of chaos. This is not my normal work meetings. But I ended up developing a really wonderful group of friends just from those moms groups who are still friends. We're still great friends today. So through those transitions, great relationships came out of it, but it is not something anybody can prepare you for until you go through it. I went from being really great in my career and having this identity, and again, being a female in the male dominant industry, they all knew who I was. I wasn't just some average 40 or 50 year old guy walking into the contractor's office that they remember who I was. And so having that distinction and that I have a strong work ethic and a drive that all faded away into different world. And then here you are with crying babies and babies who won't nap, and someone always needing something. and it's just a whole different challenge and mindset. So I got to the point I think about four or five months into being home where I realized that I needed at least an afternoon or two off and just to go run errands by myself. Cuz anybody knows trying to run errands with kids is not fun. So thankfully we had a really wonderful high school neighbor that she came over a few days a week, just allowed me to run errands and that was such a saving grace. I'm so thankful for Ellen is her name, and she dropped in our lap right at the right time, right when I needed her because you just need that time for yourself as well.
[00:13:21] Monica: So true. I love that you did that. Our stories are very similar When I gave up my career after six months of being a stay-at-home mom, that I actually went to a therapist. I was having a very difficult time figuring out who I was and playing on the floor with these babies, I wasn't getting what I would get on my corporate job. I wasn't getting the accolades. No one was clapping it out for me for cleaning the toilets. It was like, what happened to me? Where's my bonus for the year? I can empathize with your experience so well.
[00:13:51] Amy: Yeah and I think that's why connecting with other moms is so important. And it's so interesting because when we get into those moms groups, maybe with our oldest, and then the second, we don't realize that these really could be women that are friends for life. So many of us are so vulnerable in that space too, because I remember trying to take a shower and brush my hair and maybe put on a little makeup just to present that I was presentable because, it was rough. It was a rough time. Physically, emotionally, spiritually, well, there's a lot of praying because I was like, oh my God, Jesus, take the wheel cuz these boys are driving down the street if you don't, and there's so much pressure, I think as women, and then let's face it, other women, we feel that we have to look a certain way, act a certain way, and then if our kids don't behave a certain way, oh, you're the mom that has the kids that climb on the furniture and jump on the roof. There's some of that too. It's nice when we can get into those safe spaces with other women. I'm glad you found that Steffanie.
[00:14:55] It's a blessing for sure. It is a blessing and I'm thankful for that time that I have with my boys.
[00:15:01] Monica: How long were you a stay-at-home mom for?
[00:15:03] Steffanie: Well, about 12 years now. I mean, I'm still am around and helping them out, but yeah, and I didn't go back until I started my company was when I started working. I didn't take any other type of work outside of that. The way that I started the business was just to do jobs here and there for friends and so I would do 'em on the weekends when their dad was home or late afternoon when I could get my sitter to watch. And it was just a couple days here and there. And then once Evan got into preschool and to kindergarten and have more time in the day, that's when I started to fill my work schedule more.
[00:15:38] Melissa: That's exactly how I did it. Amy and I lived in the same neighborhood when our kids were a little tiny, and it was a brand new build neighborhood, and so I started by people paying me to pick out their paint colors. Then my husband was laid off and we moved a couple times. And so there was like this pressure of, okay, well he's looking for a job. I want some more security. So I would do more freelance work and I would do a website or I would do a business card, it was just kind of all things creative and design related to the career I had left. And It just tumbleweed itself into a business. I don't know if I really thought oh, I'm a stay-at-home mom and a freelancer, and then, I woke up one day and I was like, I actually have a business here. There's a dozen clients and there's half a dozen contributors, and this is a real thing.
[00:16:22] Amy: Yeah, I mean, it's such a gift to be able to turn your passion into a business, a financial money stream, all those kinds of things. so Steffanie, I'm curious, you've mentioned that you basically turned your interest, your hobbies into your business and there came a point when You had to become more financially responsible you really had to maybe more take the lead because your personal life was changing and so the goals and the expectations and things like that was shifting. Can you tell us a little bit about that experience for you?
[00:16:57] Steffanie: Yes I'll back up about 12 years ago when the kindling started for this business and this feeling of, I need a self-identity, I need something back for myself. And so I was always doing some kind of project at my house or family member or friend's house. Whenever I go there, can I just organize? Can I just look at your junk drawer and clean it up? And so if I was gonna do something at that point, I wanted to do something that I loved, and that's how the organizing company idea came about. So started to reach out to some friends and let 'em know what I was doing. And then word of mouth started to grow. And I remember on my calendar, I was like, I still just wanna have two or three free days a week just to have time for myself. Well, Those two or three days became like four days a week. And I was like, I need some help. And just by the grace of God of how it's happened with every single one of my amazing team members that has come into my life, I was walking with a friend one morning and I said, well, what are you doing today? And she started to explain that she's doing some like home improvement type projects. And I said, oh, well, would you like any additional work? And she said, sure. So she started to work with me and she was my first team member. And then I started to get more work and realizing I'm booking clients out a month ahead of time. This is too much. The next angel drops in my lap. And so that's how this wonderful team of, now nine of us, has grown of just these people, right? I put the energy out there and boom, here it comes. Here they come. Floating down from the sky and here they are, and just amazing people. And so that has been the major success that I've had is my team behind me to be able to take care of our clients. As the last few years have happened we've had, major change in 2020 go along, that time of being at home, quarantine, was a major introspection time in my life. As I believe Monica had mentioned going through therapy when you had started with when your kids were home, I started therapy also about that time and same thing, I was just going through this identity thing. It was real struggle for me having a little trouble in my marriage at the time, and so did start therapy about, 10, 12 years ago. And then as we went through the change of 2020, Just again, this feeling inside me of things are just not how I wanna be. This is not at all where I am happy. I had decided in February of 2020 that I needed to go away for a few days. I just needed some time for me. I mean, again, we all have boys except for Melissa. I mean, but all this testosterone in my house was like making me crazy. We usually always took a warm winter vacation in February, but we had decided to take a ski trip, which I'm not really a skier. Again, I'm from Georgia. I like the warm weather. And so we went on this ski trip to Canada and I just was there going, I'm so miserable. I don't like the snow. All these wonderful men in my life are driving me bananas. And so I said to my husband, I said I need to take a trip. I just need a few days of myself. I need some warm weather. So I booked a flight and three days later I was in Scottsdale. And I happened to be on Amazon thinking, I wanna order a book, and I would like to read a book and I don't even remember the topic, but I stumbled upon this book called Perfectly Yourself by a Catholic author named Matthew Kelly, and it was the exact right book at the right time, and it was talking about being true to yourself , being honest with yourself and really digging deep. And so going through that book, it actually took me a couple months to read it because then we went into quarantine and I was homeschooling kids and all that. And as the months went on through spring and summer, and I did have more some more therapy and just realizing that my life needed to change. we came outta quarantine. In June of 2020. It was like the fire hose opened and boom, it was crazy busy. Thankfully, 2020 was a good year for us. I believe I added on two more team members. I think there was four or five of us at that time. And then by fall of 2020, I had decided that I needed to make a marital change. We went through a separation and as we went into 2021, business with real estate, which I'm gonna back up a little bit, about seven years ago, I had a friend that was moving from stonewater subdivision here, Northville 5,000 square foot home to San Francisco, California, downsizing by half, paying for the move herself with her family of five, and said, Steffanie, I have to purge this house. I cannot move everything across the country with me. So we went room by room, we staged the home. She sold it, super happy, and it opened my eyes to the world of real estate and how much help that people need when they're going through the home sale process. So I started to reach out to friends who were realtors and let 'em know, Hey, if anybody that needs help moving, here's what I can help with. And so that really moved our business forward in helping clients on the real estate end. So that's why I was talking about real estate earlier and how I'm gonna blend this in now. So real estate in 2021 was on fire and at that time I was going through my divorce. I was thinking that I was gonna keep the marital home that we had, but then the real estate industry was so great, and it was a larger size home that I said, I don't need this big home anymore. I would like to sell it. So as I'm going through now a decision to change where I'm gonna live, I have a business that is growing rapidly. From 2020 to 2021, our sales grew by five times. I grew to a team of six at the time and I was going through divorce and selling my home. So it was a lot , but I made it through and at the other side, it's been great. Monica has answered your question as far as financially being able to Make the pivot and make the change, and to just trust God that it's all gonna be taken care of, I am beyond grateful for where I am today. I now own my own home by myself. Last week I was able to take my boys on a Caribbean vacation and pay for it. It was just a really wonderful feeling to be sitting on the beach. I've done this. We made it through. We're okay. We're having a great life.
[00:23:20] Monica: I love that you're here. That's fantastic. If you don't mind backing up though, because your story will resonate with so many women. How did you handle, which I'm sure you had many naysayers when you first maybe came up with your idea, and people looked at you like, who are you to start a business? Or how dare you even think about divorce? Like these big decisions in your life, how did you manage that
[00:23:42] Steffanie: the business part, I've always had really great support behind it, and so that's a very positive thing. Going through divorce is a whole nother world. I had people saying that, would have this , sign on my back or this like stigma attached with who I am now. And thankfully,
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[00:23:58] Steffanie: I had connected with a really awesome life coach, and she helped me with different therapy modes and different mindset modes to know that I was 100% sure in the decision that I was making. I knew it was gonna be tough. And she coached me through that and walked me through that. I just knew I had to trust God to take care of my boys and me, and that at the end of the day, I just wanted to be happy. And I didn't know what that looked like. I didn't know how that path was gonna be. It was rocky a lot of the times. I did have a couple people say to me, too, well, don't you just wanna stay together for your kids? And I just, I fully confidently said to them, no , I can't stay together just for my kids. That's not the life I wanna live.
[00:24:45] Melissa: Plus it's not a good message for them. I feel like I am the result of parents that got divorced right after we all left, but we knew for a decade that they were just hanging in. It was like I think it almost would've been better if they had gotten a divorce when we were in middle school, and it would've saved us like 10 years of being exposed to unhappiness and argument and strife. I think it's better to be honest with your kids about who you are and what's important to you.
[00:25:10] Monica: It's a huge disservice to children, truthfully. And I think for the three of us who are raising men, it's not boys, men, we wanna be an example of, hey, as women, we have a say in our happiness and I always think about how my husband treats me and the relationship we have. They're watching everything, and I want them to learn the best of the best. And that means mom being really happy because she's cared for and respected, and feels alive with her partner.
[00:25:40] Amy: Yeah. It's interesting when when couples or people that I've worked with, they say, well, the kids don't know anything. It happens, and I think no, kids are very intuitive. Kids, they don't have the guards up or the trauma, at least until they get older they start to feel that trauma. But really kids know when mom and dad don't get along. And so, Steffanie, we're so proud of you for being brave enough to do that because even though unfortunately, divorce is more common these days, I think I can speak for all of us that we support you and your decisions, and that was a brave and bold decision. And the fact that you went inward, like you did a lot of self-reflection
[00:26:19] Steffanie: I appreciate that and again, at the right time and right people that drop into your life when you need them. I did have some new friendships that really came out of the blue, right before, and right during the time that I was going through my separation divorce of new friends that had been down the same road. and those were not people in my normal circle, which was in our Northfield bubble community. 99% of people are married and whether they're happy or not, they're still married . And so having these other people that, again, God placed in my life at the right time just helped pull me through. There was no other way. And now I have had other friends that are coming to me and they're going through the same life change that I went through. And so it's a blessing to be able to support those friends that are going through that now and letting 'em know. Yeah it's hard. It's really hard. It's very challenging but you'll be okay. You really will be okay. You can't ever put the plan together because we don't know what it is.
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[00:27:22] Steffanie: But you just have to trust that if you have that feeling inside that something's not right, you have to continue to move forward to figure out what can make it right.
[00:27:30] Melissa: And don't you think that putting trust in your gut or your intuition, like listening to your inner whispers, we always say here that also is what helped align everything else, right? I mean, I know you're giving credit to God and I don't wanna take credit away from God, but I'm sure there was something about your mindset and you being aligned with, I'm gonna take care of me and I'm gonna get my priorities straight. That attracted the right people at the right time.
[00:27:56] Monica: Yeah. My sister went through a divorce, and knew that it was time for the marriage to end she still says it was the hardest thing she's ever done, be a single mom. But she did it anyway. And what I hear from you, Steffanie, is that you not only listened to the whispers, you also put out in the universe Exactly what you need and want. And it comes knocking on your door and all you're doing is answering.
[00:28:20] Steffanie: Yes.
[00:28:20] Monica: So I love that because it's really that mindset of knowing what you want and going after it.
[00:28:27] Amy: Yeah. And trusting that pain. You think about it ladies, when we're growing, those are growing pains. I don't ever grow when Im just skipping around and looking up at the stars. I'm growing when I'm in pain or in heartache or in deep self-reflection. That's where the growth. It, from my experience is really happening. So then we get to the other side of it and it's oh my gosh, I freaking did that. And it becomes part of your story and it just gives you so much more street cred. Listen, bitches, I freaking went through that and I did it. So to me it just adds more stars and stripes on our badge of honors. Steffanie speaking of emotions and decisions and supporting one thing that is really fascinating regarding your industry, but when you are going into people's homes, You are looking at their stuff, I'll call it, I don't know, maybe you have a nice industry name for it, or junk or crap or whatever, things that need garbage, but you're really stepping into a layer of intimacy in many ways. And especially with family members who have their parents who have been in this home for 40, 50 years, or someone who has been separating from a marriage and they have, original things like that. Let us in and share with us what some of these experiences are and how has that perhaps change the lens of the services that you offer for your clients.
[00:29:55] Steffanie: So we have two different basically divisions or service offerings that we have for our clients. Those that are just looking for in-home organizing and to get things in order. They're just overwhelmed with too much stuff and they want better solutions to make their home more functional. And then the whole real estate side. And with the real estate side, people are moving for a multitude of reasons. Like you just mentioned, Amy. We're working with people who are going through life changes. Many clients who have gone through divorce, they've lost their spouse of 50 years, and now they have to move and they're going through memories and they're going through their husband's clothes, and it's more emotional most of the time than it is physical. I always tell them that they're gonna be more emotionally and mentally drained by our process than they are physically because of the decision making process. So we have to obviously be very empathetic, be very patient. We work with a lot of seniors and it's a lot of years of things for seniors to have to go through, and they're very concerned on who it's gonna go to. Is it just gonna be junk? We don't really like to use the word junk because it's not sometimes junk. It is important to them. So we try to come up with the right solutions as they're getting rid of items we call 'em items, not just stuff, the items in their home of what's the best donation sources, what's something that's true and dear to their heart. we are very sensitive to knowing that each client has called us in for a very specific reason and we come up with a game plan specific to what's going on in their life? The number one word that people use when they call to set up appointments with us, I'm so overwhelmed, and I said, well, the hardest thing that you've done is now to call us. And we'll take it from here. it can become paralyzing. I even experienced it in my own move. Here I am going through this move of downsizing by half. I'm going through marital items, I'm going through my kids' items. I'm stressed with work at the time, and I hired my own team to come in and help me with the move. I couldn't do it on my own. I remember sitting in the hallway in my new. In July of 2021 with my nanny at the time, and she was helping me sort through things to go in the bathroom and just sitting there crying on the floor going Mia, I can't do this. I just can't do this. She said Steffanie, come on. Let's just do it. Let's just get through it. I'm the organizer. I hadn't have encouragement to do it. We all go through this challenge no matter what our profession is. When we are working with our clients, though, we're the third party. These aren't our things. And so we're able to be more diplomatic in a way, I'm not sure if that's the right word, but more bird eye perspective and let's really talk about why you're holding onto this. And thankfully, even for people like Amy here, She's been great about referring some clients to us and we get lead sources from all over the place, but we have had many people come to us as they've been going through life changes and therapy and their therapist has said, have you thought about reaching out to home organizer? They're the professional. That's, why you've come to me to talk about how you wanna handle these life changes. Why don't you go work with a home organizer? The perspective is too, you go to a dentist, a professional, to keep your teeth clean and keep your teeth in order. Why not go to a home organizer to keep your home in order?
[00:33:08] Monica: Yeah. But it sounds to me like you're actually a therapist with a duster. So you're doing a lot more than cleaning out closets. Your clients are feeling a hundred pounds lighter just from the work you're doing with them. So it's really beyond cleaning out the pantry.
[00:33:24] Steffanie: And they do too. The emotional and even the physical changes that we can see our clients as we work with them, especially if we're working with 'em. Maybe sometimes we're working 'em over weeks or months. You can see the change. You can see they're, oh, now I'm excited to see y'all here today. Cause sometimes we're like I'm kind of nervous about you being here. I don't know. Please don't judge me. I get a lot of that. Please don't judge me. No, really, I've seen it all. It's okay. This is our job. Just giving them that comfort that we can help them come with a solution that life doesn't have to be like this, that we can be able to provide more comfort and more functionality in the home.
[00:33:58] Melissa: This is what I love about your business, but also I know you and I are in this wonderful business organization called Entrepreneurs or EO Entrepreneurs Organization, and I've been finding more and more that when I meet middle-aged women who have made this decision to start a business or grow a business or pursue a passion, it ultimately ends up not just being about their own passion. There's almost always like a service directive where it's, I love organizing, but then the way you just described your life's work, like you're really helping people and serving people, and it doesn't really matter if it's design or if it's childcare or if it's real estate. I mean, over and over again, I find this is a common denominator for women when they're actually doing.
[00:34:44] Monica: Have you ever been in a situation where you've been maybe referred by a therapist or someone else, you walk into the home and, we're talking, it's a hot mess where you feel this is actually an unsafe environment for the children that live here, or have you ever had to make a difficult call?
[00:35:00] Steffanie: Not so much about to say dfcs, but had a situation about a month ago where, walk through a home and it was like someone had, multiple parties, like raging parties, and the house was just trashed. And then I walk upstairs and there's a handgun on the floor and I couldn't run out of there quicker. And so I called I do have a junk caller that I work with and called him and I said, you have to take this job. We cannot take this job. It's too much. And so I did let the client know, this other person's gonna be a better fit for you but you will be taken care of. He will take care of you. So that's about the worst one that I've been in. But we do work with hoarders and we do work with families of hoarders. That's the majority of where we're usually working with the family of the hoarder. And what we've found in hoarder situations is that some kind of trauma has happened in their life and they're trying to fill it. They're trying to fill their home to fill this void or what's happened. We're usually in a situation, they're gonna sell the home and either mom or dad have moved into senior living, or they might have passed away and now they need to get rid of the home. And let's face it, we all are busy mentally, emotionally, and physically the adult child does not want to go through all this stuff. So we have developed a process with an estate sale company where we go in and we get rid of the personal things that they wanna keep, and then we're going through and helping the family to get the home ready for an estate. So we get the things out of there that are not gonna sell in the estate sale, and then the estate sale can happen. It's a win-win for the family because they're not having to spend the time and effort to do the grunt work that we do, and especially the emotional work that we're gonna do for them. And then they're gonna reap the benefits of having the estate sale and then they get the home sold and then they're able to take the profits of the home sale to help mom or dad in their future or for whatever they desire after the sale of the home. So that's been one growing thing that we've been able to do in our business. I have one that we went into this week, I was meeting with the adult daughter she said, I don't even know what I would do if I didn't know you. I would burn the place down. I don't even know.
[00:37:10] Amy: Yeah. It's so triggering for people. What I love that you've done is you've really triaged these situations, you're working with a, what I would say, a multidisciplinary team. You're working with the real estate and the estate people and then your organization and because you really need that type of triage for these types of more complicated cases because it is all tied to emotions and oftentimes I'm sure those family have had fragmented relationships with the hoarder because they didn't understand it. It's just like loving an active alcoholic or addict or whatever their ism is.
[00:37:52] Monica: But Steffanie, give us the skinny, honestly. Let's just have a real conversation. Tell me one of these you found like cash stash and a sofa. Any fun stories that you can share?
[00:38:02] Steffanie: I'm gonna write a book one day . I am for sure gonna write a book. All my ladies and I, we have so many stories. Oh. Yes. We find money all the time and even if it's a quarter, we hold it out and put it all in the jar for the clients. We find jewelry, like we're cleaning out a closet and she's lost her diamond tennis bracelet and we find it in the closet, $10,000 bracelet. Oh my gosh. I've been looking for that for years. We have been able to uncover things like that. Oh yeah we've definitely found some very interesting lifestyle things .
[00:38:30] Melissa: My mother-in-law, she did this herself for her mother-in-law a number of years back. And she would call us and tell us about all the crazy things that she was finding. And one of 'em was, I don't know how many, dozens and dozens of empty boxes of hair dye. My husband's grandma would dye her hair, but then she would put everything back in the packaging and seal it up and save it and grandma Helen was gone, we couldn't ask her, why did you save several years of hair dye containers?
[00:38:58] Amy: Maybe generational too. Some generations, the older ones, they save everything.
[00:39:03] Steffanie: Everything. Plastic bags is a big one for our seniors. They love to save plastic. Every home in this type of situation that we go to, we always find something new. I'm like, oh, I haven't run into that before. Oh, that's a new one. Okay. All right. I haven't seen that. Kept in the kitchen before, but, okay. So again, there's no judgment.
[00:39:21] Melissa: Yeah it's almost like an interesting look into the human psyche, right?
[00:39:25] Steffanie: It very much is, and I'd say again, You've called us, we're here to help. And if we are working with directly the client, then that's the conversation we have. I know this is really hard for you, but we're gonna make life better. We will make life better.
[00:39:39] Amy: Yeah. And the thing is that they're judging themselves hard enough as it is. There's no judgment because there's a lot of shame. I guess I would guess attached to some of these situations. You know, cuz it's like, how did it get to this? How did it get to this point? So Steffanie, where do you see your business? Where do you see yourself professionally in the next six months or one year?
[00:40:02] Steffanie: Well, as Melissa mentioned through our connection with eo, I am so grateful to be a member of this wonderful organization.
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[00:40:10] Steffanie: So for any entrepreneurs out there listening, please look into Entrepreneur's Organization. That was one thing that just fell into my lap, ended up talking to a friend who was a member one day he told me about it and I was like, yes, I need this. As an entrepreneur, you're on this island by yourself so much of the time, and you're like, I can't find the lifeboat. I can't get off the island. I need some help. And then all of a sudden, here in eo, the lifeboats are coming around. They're helping to take you back to mainland and to bring you back in this community where you can get this help and support. And so my goal is to continue to grow the business revenue wise and with my teams. As I mentioned before, I would like to move out of Michigan one day. Would love to keep my location running here, but also start something in another city or maybe multiple cities. I'm so excited about our partnership with the Container Store as well, because that gives us opportunity to have potential opportunities in other cities to do the same thing with this Container store here in Michigan. What I've done over the past, really 12 to 18 months is to pull myself out of the field and as any business owner, Can relate to this, letting go of control is so hard to do. Type A person here. Yep. And just letting go, delegating to my team. My team, they all love organizing. They all are great with people and I just trust them to take care of our clients every day. And they know that me doing what I'm doing on the business development and is only gonna help them have future jobs down the road. So over the next year, my goal is to double our sales again, which we are already on track to do for this year. And yeah, really excited about that so far. By the end of this year, I would like to hire someone to help me with operations.
[00:41:59] I love the sales part of my business. I don't even really call this a job anymore. If I won the lottery, I'd still do this. I love what I do, and so I would love to hire someone for operations just to help me on the back end of these things. But I love the networking. I love meeting with realtors and sales and doing presentations and teaching and meeting with clients to do consultations. So that's where I see us by the end of this year is to have some more admin support and to hopefully double our sales.
[00:42:30] Melissa: Oh, I'm so proud of you and I can't agree more. Find yourself an EO or a business accelerator or a mastermind. I mean, if you're out there in Steffanie's position maybe what it looked like a few years back. It's amazing to have the support of other entrepreneurs so that you don't have to learn everything the hard way. Right. I mean, somebody's actually already figured it out for you. If you can connect with them.
[00:42:55] Steffanie: Yeah. One of our EO coaches said last week in our meeting, if you don't wanna do it, write a check.
[00:43:02] Melissa: Yeah. It's true for life too, right? I mean, people are writing a check to you for organizing and then it sounds like you wrote a check to somebody for childcare. And I think that we have to normalize it's not always a luxury to hire a service provider. Sometimes it's a lifeline, right? It's absolutely necessary.
[00:43:21] Steffanie: And thankfully Melissa, for you and I connecting, you've been able to help my company with doing some marketing and that was stuff that I was doing on my own, but, I did not care for it all. It's not my strength. And so again thank the universe for us connecting. I was like, here you go Melissa. You can take all this off my plate. I'll happily pay you for it. Because I knew that me taking my time and wanting to pull my hair out and doing something that I'm not strong at was not gonna make me happy and was not gonna help my business in the long run. So I just think you know, write Melissa check.
[00:43:54] Melissa: I appreciate it. And here at the Kindling project, I mean you're probably aware cuz we're all connected in one way or the other. It's a second business for me and Amy and Monica and I are sorting this out of what are we all good at? And then, What happens if there's something none of us are good at, who has to pick up and row the boat and if we can't write a check yet? So these are the like real growing pains of a business.
[00:44:18] Steffanie: The right person's gonna pop into the community at the right time to help.
[00:44:22] Melissa: Yeah, I trust that over time. I wanna go back a little bit cuz one thing that has been on my mind about you really for months is how you see yourself fitting into organization, I think is a subject matter is like culturally more relevant than it's ever been. Like I'm thinking about the Marie Kondo book and I'm thinking about some of the Netflix shows and the reality shows. And so how do you see Tidy smart fitting in culturally to this like new conversation? It reminds me of maybe 10, 15 years ago when HGTV was really taking off. Like a lot of people did not necessarily redecorate their house. They set it up and they lived in it for 40 years and then all of a sudden this culture of remodeling and redecorating took hold. And it seems like a culture of organizing is also taking hold?
[00:45:13] Steffanie: Again, thankfully for social media and for shows like Netflix has on it has opened people's eyes to the world of, Hey, there's people who do this for a living and I don't have to live under this clutter. The opportunities really are endless with what we do, and I feel like we barely even scratch the surface. Even here in the Tri-County area, there's just so much opportunity.
[00:45:35] Monica: So many people who are starting a business or dreaming of a business, one of the first things that they say is well, there so many people are already doing it. I can't create a niche.
[00:45:44] And you're a great example. Like you didn't create this industry. There's plenty of home organizers. But yes, somehow, look how in a relatively short time, you are incredibly successful. So you just have to find your uniqueness is what makes the business different. What you bring to the table.
[00:46:00] Amy: Again, thank you so much for your time today and carving out a little corner of your schedule to share with us your experience and your strength and your hope and all these wonderful things and one of the things that we like to do, Steffanie, at the end, is we like to give shout outs for whoever, whatever it is. Monica, do you have a shout out today?
[00:46:20] Monica: I'm going to chat out our community. We've seen so much correspondence back and forth and I feel like some of the women have really stepped up and been so supportive and helpful. And so I say to the Ignite Facebook group, thank you. Thank you for showing up for us. Thank you for showing up for yourselves and sharing and contributing. We couldn't do this without you, and I feel like even when I have moments like, oh, I'm exhausted and then I get a little memo or a messenger saying, thank for connecting me with X, Y, and Z. So that's my shout out for the week.
[00:46:51] Melissa: I'm gonna give a shout out to EO and some of the other business accelerator organizations here in Metro Detroit that have helped women like Steffanie and I, but I know that they exist in every single city in community and municipality. I really encourage you to find that support.
[00:47:09] Steffanie: Well, Melissa stole mine.
[00:47:11] Melissa: You can give it twice!
[00:47:13] No I just, cuz like, this is how we all have connected through here. But, Amy, we've been in touch for so many years too, and thankfully Amy has dropped a couple of angels into my lap of her friends and connections that now work for me. Shout out this whole community, but specifically with eo. Just such a wonderful organization to be a part of because it's not networking. It's not, I'm gonna give you this lead, I'm gonna give you that lead. And that's what the best thing about it is. It's all about development. Whenever I'm talking to an entrepreneur, I feel 'em out first to see, are they the right fit for eo? And if I feel like they're even a slightest bit, I'm like, let me tell you about something. I gotta tell you about something. It's like this secret network, but it's such a wonderful place to be.
[00:47:53] Amy: Yeah, that connection to purpose is so important. And the final shout out, I'm actually gonna send it out to my husband, which this is like a unicorn sighting. So everybody, hold on. So what he started doing this week is he started putting my coffee mug next to the coffee maker, which I've been drinking coffee, but the other morning I went downstairs and there was a coffee mug, like next to the coffee maker and I don't know what it was, but I was like, wow, that was just so kind. And then the other part of it is that he's notorious for using any type of towel that we have to either dry the dishes or clean the floor in the garage or dry his car. No towel is safe in our house. Okay, so I had just done a load of laundry with towels. And all these clean towels are just like in the sink, in the laundry room. And I'm like, seriously? Like I literally, and so he had thrown those in the laundry too, and I'm like, okay. So I'm just gonna give a shout out to him because thank you.
[00:48:51] Monica: So nice. Small things.
[00:48:53] Amy: We're gonna end this amazing time with you, Steffanie. Have a beautiful rest of your day. Thank you so much again for your time. And of course to Monica and Melissa, my partners in crime. Could see the Italian goodbyes take forever.
[00:49:07] Melissa: If you want more information about Steffanie, we'll definitely have links to her business in the show notes and you can find her in our online community Ignite. If you're interested in organizing or if you're interested in how to make a big life transition, she might be your girl.
[00:49:23] Amy: Awesome. Thanks, Melissa. Thanks so much, Steffanie. Have a great day.
[00:49:27] Steffanie: Thank you ladies.
[00:49:28] Melissa: Bye-bye.
[00:49:29] Amy: Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
[00:49:30] Monica: Thank you! Bye!