My business and work combine a variety of disciplines, including professional organizing and decluttering, the psychology of people’s relationship with their home, and interior and space design. As a result, the group of people who have influenced and inspired me is also quite diverse.
One of the first people to inspire me in the early stages of developing my business was Steve Jobs. A hard hitter, his commitment to excellence and high standards, coupled with his sincere belief that good design can empower us all and transform people’s lives, deeply impressed and motivated me. He wasn’t known for having particularly good social skills, but his vision to create innovative, wonderfully functional products with the highest design values impressed me deeply. His tenacity and faith in the face of setbacks, buying back Apple after being forced out and transforming it into a titan of industry was extraordinary. I love how his determination and vision that all Apple products seamlessly marry sophisticated design and user-centric functionality became so ingrained in the company culture that it continued after his death. In my own way, this is what I aspire to do when I redesign and organize people’s homes.
Another inspiration was the designer and creator of Habitat, Terence Conran. His vision to revolutionize the way we live and use our domestic spaces, and to make modern design accessible to more than just a few, has had a far-reaching impact. This corresponded to my aspiration to make living spaces simpler and more functional. As part of his interior design process, he famously advised people to take everything out of the room and put it in the garden to properly evaluate the space: something that is routinely done on television programs today. I share his belief that clearing a space is an essential part of gaining clarity on what it can look like. I know from experience, working with hundreds of people, that beneath the piles of clutter are rooms and homes that have infinite possibilities. My passion and calling are to free my clients and their spaces from clutter and help them review and redesign them. I love transforming homes from places that drain people’s energy to places that empower and inspire them every time they walk through the door.
In my early days of business development, I had the opportunity to work with Daniel Priestley of Dent Global. His masterful way of explaining business concepts in a very accessible way helped me grasp the steps I needed to take to build a solid business. His work and teaching were instrumental in creating a company that would ultimately become something I never imagined possible. Daniel talked about the importance of developing the 5 Ps! Presentation, profile, partnership, product and publication. This inspired me to create my Home Declutter Kit, a product that people can use to help themselves or a friend declutter. And publish my book “The Secret Life of Clutter,” a way to connect with people about how deep the need is to understand personal stories about the meaning and significance of our home and possessions. I would add another P: I fuck. During the process of writing my book I discovered that my aim was to break down the wall of shame surrounding disorder and educate and empower people to have more compassion for themselves and others, as there is always a reason to which we get stuck.
Oprah Winfrey has continued to inspire me as a powerful and successful woman. She shows that it is possible to be strong and vulnerable and lead with ambition and passion. I love how throughout her working life she delved into people’s struggles and consistently showed such compassion and care for the human experience. In her later years, interviewing great writers and bringing revolutionary ideas and concepts to daily awareness was a constant inspiration to me. I love this quote, because it reminds me to value my unique mix of skills and interests: “No one does it like you, and understanding that what you have to offer, what you came to give to the planet, is your gift, your offering in a way that no one else can, and how much that matters.
Finally, as an active psychotherapist whose practice greatly informs my other work, I must mention depth psychologist Carl Jung, whose life’s work was based on his fascination with archetypes of the psyche. His exploration of his dreams, and how he transformed these concepts into reality, had a profound influence on my approach to understanding how people relate to their home and what deeper factors are at play when they struggle to create spaces that truly nourish and support them. I feel so often that when I work in someone’s home and with their possessions, in a profound way, I also enter their inner world, their psychological space. I am constantly amazed as their life story unfolds before me. I attribute this depth of understanding to my studies and work as a therapist. I was particularly influenced by Jung’s profound inner journey that built his home, the Bollingen Tower, on Lake Zurich. One of his many insights that spoke to me most powerfully was the concept that our home is an expression of our deep self. The main living areas are the face we present to the world; the basement or basement levels, which reveal our cultural influences, our history and our unconscious; and the mezzanine and the attic, or in his case the tower, which reflect our spiritual life and our aspirations.
I believe it is the diversity of these influences that have organically led to the development of my unique practice, the way I work with both people and their homes and dance between the sacred and the everyday. I truly love my job, every day is an adventure and every client is a privilege to work with.