Episode 78- Home Organization Tips with Angie from A Proper Place
Episode 78 Show Notes
Ever feel like your home is in a constant state of chaos? You're not alone! In today’s episode, I sit down with Angie, a professional home organizer from Utah and the founder of A Proper Place, to talk about how organization can completely transform your home and mindset.
Angie shares how she turned her natural talent for tidiness into a business that helps families simplify their spaces, reduce stress, and create functional, beautiful homes. We discuss everything from the importance of daily tidying habits to creating a bedroom sanctuary, organizing kids’ toys, and why the garage and pantry are often the biggest problem areas in a home.
If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by clutter or don’t even know where to start, this episode is for you! Plus, Angie breaks down the process of working with a professional organizer—whether in person or virtually—so you can finally take control of your space.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
How Angie turned her passion for organization into a thriving business
Why a tidy home makes daily life (and memory-making!) easier
The key to keeping kids’ spaces clean without stifling creativity
How to approach organizing different areas of your home, from the pantry to the garage
Why your bedroom should be your most peaceful and clutter-free space
How professional organizers help families customize their homes for better flow and function
The psychology behind clutter and how it affects your mood and productivity
Practical tips for tackling home organization—even if you feel totally overwhelmed
Resources & Links:
🔹 Connect with Angie at A Proper Place (insert website link)
🔹 Follow Angie on Instagram: @aproperplace
Let’s Connect! I share tons of fitness tips and more behind the scenes on my social accounts.
Website
Did You Enjoy This Episode?
Leave a review and share this episode with a friend who could use some home organization inspiration! 🎧✨
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Tiffany Wickes (00:00.49)
here so that it has the voice. I'm getting over a cold, believe me. I'm not contagious. It takes forever to get the voice thing out. So my assistant, Maggie, hey Maggie, she will edit out all of the original Chitter Chatter. Okay. Sounds great.
You are Angie. You moved back and forth, right? In and out of Utah? Well, we've been here. No, we've been in Utah for, I've been here since 1996. Okay. Since college. I met my husband who he lives in Heber, grew up here, and that's how we ended up here. But we met at college. So. Okay. And you said you had raised your kids to a point that they were independent enough that you could start.
doing something on the side that was a bit of a passion project. Yes. My youngest was going into first grade and I just really felt I had been a stay at home mom up until that point, which I actually really love. And I'm, very passionate about that as well, but I decided that they were old enough into a place where I could kind of do something that was a little bit more of a creative outlet for me outside of the home. I was debating between a few different
options and I kind of decided to look at my natural gifts and natural talents and go from there. I always tell my kids, I feel like if you start with something you naturally are inclined toward or you enjoy or you're passionate about, you're going to be the best at that thing because you're excited about it. so that's what I did for myself. I thought, what am I naturally kind of good at? And I thought, you know, people are always saying to me when they're in my home,
How do you keep your home so clean? How are you so organized? To me, it was just second nature. It's just how I live my life. And I never really had thought about the fact that maybe other people could use some help and guidance in that area of their life. So I started to kind of go down that path and there were no organizers that existed at that time, zero, that I knew of that I could find. So there wasn't really anybody to be a pioneer. I think I'm the pioneer for myself.
Tiffany Wickes (02:12.43)
And so I had to learn everything on my own, but it was a a great just leap, you know, toward doing something that I, that I loved. And I wanted to help other people. That was, was, and is the reason why I do this. Okay. How many kids do you have? Four. Okay. And what are the age ranges? So our oldest is 22. And then we have a daughter that's 20, a son that is turning, he's 18 today and a daughter that's 15.
Okay, so when these kiddos were all little, it was chaos. How could it not be? Yeah. As a stay at home mom, was busy. kids in the home and you still managed to keep your house organized. Yes. Okay. Were you an organized kid? Yes. Okay. And it kind of says that on my website, I think when I talked about how I started doing this, I'm like, yeah, I was that kid in grade school who had to have my desk just so, you know, before I would leave for the day.
I think it's always been something that is important to me. I've learned that I very much, like, how do I say this? I very much appreciate and respond to my physical environment. I need order, cleanliness, beauty, all of those things really matter to me. And my soul is affected if those things are not my gosh, can so identify with that. Okay, so.
Tell me your thoughts, like maybe this is gonna make your heart like go flutter in a bad way. When people have these signs on their doors that say, nevermind the mess, we're making memories. I'm like, no, we're not, we're making an anxiety disorder. Like that's the way I feel about my own home. So tell me about that mentality because I think a lot of moms tend to cash that part of their life in because they're like, yeah, memories, we have to make memories. can't create.
any type of order or cleanliness, or that means I'm not allowing my kids to be kids in a natural environment. Tell me how you worked through that. think it's, of course, it's so important to allow your kids to be kids and make messes and do play-doh and paint and all the things that they want to do. And there's definitely a place for that. My kids did all of those things. For me, my answer to that would be, I genuinely believe and subscribe to the idea that
Tiffany Wickes (04:33.47)
If you are organized, those things that happen with kids organically are more fun and more exciting because there is some order to it. It's like, mom, I want to paint today. Okay, here's the paint bucket. Here's all the canvases are in there. The paint brushes are in there. The paints in there. It's like all together, ready to go do your thing. Right. And then when you're done, it's cleaned up and then you can move to the next activity. I think that it's.
always possible and it's better. mean, it's what I've faced my, my, the last, you know, 12 years around is like, is legitimately better, a better life if you're living it in an organized fashion. So I think the key, and this is the thing that people don't love hearing because I get it. I'm a mama for, I was in the trenches with littles all the time, but really honestly, the key is tidying. It's like every day, instead of just leaving the mess, take that.
30 minutes or whatever it's going to take to just tidy up, get everything put away, start refreshed for the next day. That's the, the big, I don't know, piece, the key I would say in that, in that situation. And that's not going to happen every single day. There's going to be days where you're like, I'm wiped. It's not, it's not going down today. I'm everything's staying the way it is. So do it the following day when you have some more energy in the morning or whatever. So when you say tidying, does that happen multiple times a day for some people?
For me, yes, I would usually with when my kids were little, we would, like I said, we'd do some kind of fun activity, hang out, let it be for a few hours or whatever. And then when we were finished with it, clean it up and put it away. That for me was the best way to function in our home. think it creates anxiety and overwhelm for people generally speaking. If you have...
lots of clutter and things built up around your home. If, for example, that day you were doing some project with your kids and it's on the kitchen table and then it's time to make dinner and have dinner, you know, it's just causing a few extra steps and a little more work to make dinner happen that day. Okay, so what do you think about kids having toys in their bedrooms? I think depending on your home and the layout of your spaces,
Tiffany Wickes (06:55.254)
It definitely can be something that works out for people. If you don't have a designated playroom, there's really not a better place than their rooms to have the toys in there. Not everybody wants toys in their kids' bedrooms. So I think it's a matter, not really a matter of whether that's right or wrong. It just depends on what space you have. Like people ask me all the time, how many pairs of shoes should a person have? How many?
pieces of clothing should a person have, et cetera, et cetera. And my answer to that is it depends on how much space you have. If you have a 10,000 square foot home with a closet that's as big as a bedroom, have 50 pairs of shoes. It doesn't matter. It's fine, right? Because you have space to have it placed in an organized fashion in your closet. You can see what you have. You can pull things and put back very easily and it flows well. But if you don't have that kind of space and you have...
you know, a tiny little closet, then it's probably a good idea to have five to 10 pairs of shoes or whatever, you know? So that would be my answer with the toy thing is you just have to make what space you have work to the best of its ability. Okay. So in your experience, what part of the house do people struggle with the most? That's a good question. The two areas that we help people with
the most if they're hiring us just to help them with one area of their home. Usually people when they hire us, they want help with their entire house. And so we come in and we work through the entire home. Usually if someone's hiring us just for one area, it's 90 % of the time kitchen pantry and garage is number two. Garage, really? Yeah.
I think garages because that's overwhelming. It's a space that's so big. has so many different categories of items. It can be unpleasant, more unpleasant than inside the house because it's dirty. It's dusty. The floor is concrete. It's not a pleasant work environment. And so when people go out to their garage to try to tackle those spaces, it's like...
Tiffany Wickes (09:06.914)
This is just too overwhelming. I hate it. I don't want to do this. I don't even know where to start. And so that's the one of the areas that I think we. Well, especially if you're not handy and you don't know how to use a power tool, like put hooks. Thank God my husband is. He is like Mr. Hang everything from the roof and the walls and he racks. Like he is way more organized. I legit need to hire you. but he's way more organized than I am. I want to be, but it is not my gift skill set. Yeah.
I think too that a lot of times it's interesting that you say that because that is people's, when they're thinking about a space in their home that might need some help or need some organization, a lot of people, their go-to thought is like, I need organizational products. I need hooks. need shelves. need, you know, bins, all these things. And while that may be the case, that's like step nine, there's so many things that need to happen before we get to that point. And so that's where the overwhelm comes.
because you go out to the garage or you go in your pantry and you're like, I bought all these bins, but now what do I do? How do I, you know, I have all these things that can organize, but you have to make all the other steps happen first. That's the very last step is installing and you know, can I put it in Gosh, we do it backward. Well then if you can, can you tell me, I mean, how many steps do you think people need to know to at least start with their own personal organization process? Yeah.
Like, is there five or 10? I would say the first step is to really decide that you want to get organized, whatever that looks like for you. If that's one space in your home, let's just use the pantry as an example to make it easy. If you decide, I really want this space to function well, to look nice, to really flow so that my family knows where everything is. They can put things back easily. I'm not searching for things all the time. If you like,
the really the first thing is to make that decision that it is important to you and you want it to happen. And the reason for that is because the next steps that I'm going to tell you are not a five minute solution. It takes effort and it takes time. So make that decision and really tell yourself, this is what I want to do. After you've made that decision, the next thing you want to do is set aside a chunk of time, whatever that is, whatever you need for that specific project.
Tiffany Wickes (11:32.332)
If we're talking about a pantry, maybe you say, need six hours and you literally set aside six hours. You put it in your calendar and say, I'm not doing anything else in this chunk of time. You go in your pantry, you pull everything out, look through expiration dates, pull out items that are behind other stuff that's expired or that you're like, I tried this thing. Nobody eats it. Let's get rid of it. You know, that sort of thing.
appliances that you may have in your pantry that you haven't used in several years that you can donate or something like that. You pull everything out, go through it, sort it as you're pulling it out. So you'll put things in categories like all of the breakfast foods would go together. All the snacks would be together. You'd have baking supplies together, et cetera. That's kind of how you want to, you want to sort everything as you're pulling it out. Once everything is sorted and you know exactly what you want to put back in the pantry,
We usually do a quick clean, like wipe down of all the shelves, clean the floor really good. And then you start to move things back in. And this is where the bins and things like that can come into play. Once you start moving things back in, you want to think through what items am I using every single day? Are we making lunches for our kids before they're heading out the door for school every day and we're using the same type of items?
those things need to be what we call prime real estate. Like it needs to be right in the front, easy to access, the kids can get to it. And so that's kind of how you organize as you put things back in, as you're thinking about priority of using that specific product. And then once everything is in, you can get it in all the bins, get things in baskets, all that sort of thing. Labeling is huge. I always recommend labeling for people.
because it really does make a difference. helps, especially if you have a family, for others to know where things belong. And there's never an excuse like, but mom, I didn't know where the bread goes. You know, it's like, well, if you can read, you know where it goes. So then it says bread. Yeah. You could put a picture on it too, for like four and five year olds maybe that aren't reading. And that's what we recommend in toy rooms or with toys in general, if they're in bedrooms or whatever. If you have young children,
Tiffany Wickes (13:48.792)
put pictures on the bins of toys, because obviously reading, they can't read yet. And it also helps when you have friends over or cousins or whatever, and people are helping to clean up. Everybody can help, because you can see exactly what goes in it. That would be so helpful for like a newly postpartum mom. Yeah. Who someone's like, how can I help? And she's like, I don't know. It's chaos in here. Yeah. And then, you know, they come over and if everything were labeled, she could be like, yeah, they're do the laundry. They know exactly where to put everything. Totally.
Yeah, it helps a lot. I think with the example of a pantry, that's an area where generally speaking, most of what you have in there are things you're using pretty consistently. I mean, there are definitely circumstances where we go into pantries where people are, you know, there's food that's been expired for years and all kinds of situations, but like other areas of the home, say your closet or your garage or your storage room, the thing that I want to drive home is that it's so important.
cluttering process is the most important step because getting rid of things and pulling things out that don't fit in your lifestyle or that are broken or you have multiples of that is such a big part of what needs to happen to really make your spaces function properly. Okay. So speaking of properly functioning spaces. So my husband listened on a podcast recently, maybe it was about, not sure.
But they said your bedroom needs to be a refuge. If you were to design any one space to be the most comforting and the most appealing and the most organized and the most clean, it needs to be your bedroom, like mom and dad's bedroom. So I can tell you full on, ours is a total disaster. It's got laundry everywhere. Cause I lost my laundry room when we sold our house and moved. So now I just got this space, tiny space where there's a washer and a dryer.
but there's not a huge countertop that I used to have. Like it was so helpful because I would go straight from the dryer, immediately fold clothes, put them on there. The kids would come and get them, go bring them up. And I don't have that. So now they just like, I've got to run through the laundry. We've got nine people in our house, granted the older two do their own, but I've got seven people, right? And then it just, I'm like, I don't have time to fold that.
Tiffany Wickes (16:05.836)
And then it gets in a basket. And right now I've got about four baskets of laundry on my floor. The kids play WWE on my bed. So the sheets are everywhere. There's nothing hung on the wall. And I want to want to do this. So tell me what your thoughts. Do you share that? Does that go into organization and helping to calm your mind before sleep? Because sleep is a major health issue. And I'm thinking this organization is going to tie right into that. Yeah, absolutely. Tell me your thoughts. I totally agree. We
We always encourage our clients, if a client is hiring us and they have a certain budget that they kind of want to stick within and they're looking at different areas of the home that they could use help with, the bedroom is one area that we do recommend getting help with if it's something that is important to that person. And I think most of the time it is, people want a space where they can escape, right? And just feel a little bit Zen, feel the calm, be separate from everything that's going on.
It's a place that you can be alone. You can close the door and really relax, you know? And so, yes, I think that's super important and that's an area that's maybe sometimes neglected or we don't... The other thing, honestly, that I think is we don't realize what our physical surroundings are doing to us emotionally and spiritually. I think that some people are living in certain circumstances and you kind of...
Are just there and you're just doing it and you're not really thinking about. You're thinking about it on a non, like it's not conscious to you, but it's there, you know, that, that there's kind of this weight or this. Yeah, it's, it's, it's just, it's there and you can't, when you're, when you're trying to sit down and like really relax and rest in the back of your mind, it's kind of pricking at you. Like I really should be folding my laundry right now.
I shouldn't be in the tub reading a book. I should be folding my laundry. I should be cleaning out my pantry. I should be, I should be. Right. And so when those things are kind of put to rest, then it allows you to have those sanctuaries and those spaces that you can relax in. And you're actually able to emotionally, intellectually, spiritually rest rather than just physically, if that makes sense.
Tiffany Wickes (18:25.152)
No, it makes total sense because I know exactly what happens with my mind, my soul, my creativity, my mood. My mood is impacted so much when my house is a mess. I just feel chaotic. And when I feel chaotic, I can't get creative. When I can't get creative, I can't do my job. And when I'm not doing my job and I'm not creative and I'm not living every bit of what God has intended for me, I don't feel effective. And then I feel like a poor servant. I feel like a poor mother.
I feel like a terrible wife because I'm like, yeah, let's come try to like get in the mood in this house. That's just a disaster. Like it just doesn't feel good. my next question about that is clearly decluttering, right? Getting rid of stuff is important in organization, but it sounds like we also maybe need to bring things in for organization. So tell me what are some common things that you
bring into somebody's home. Cause I'm thinking of a design aspect as well. Every time I look at my bed, I'm like, we could use like a bench at the end of it. And then I could sit on that to put whatever on instead of messing up my blankets now that I just did on my bed. both organizational and design aspect, do you bring that stuff in to help people? Yeah, we do. So we talk to our clients about what their design aesthetic is, what their preferences are. For example, if we're doing,
pantry. use that again. We give them several options. Do you like wood? Would you prefer wicker? Do you like clear? Do you, you know, like what do you visually like? And then we kind of go from there. So yes, we bring in all of those things and we kind of have our go-to items that we use a lot in a lot of different projects. But with that being said, of course, it's always up to the client and kind of what they, what they like. We lean toward clear.
clear, nice, good quality bins for most spaces that we're working in. And the reason for that is because people really do better for the most part if they can see what is in the bin. If they're in something that's obscured, but you know, then it's like, ooh, how much do I actually have of whatever that's on a pantry shelf that's up high where I can't see it? And so people usually do better with clear.
Tiffany Wickes (20:48.226)
So that's generally. So I imagine in a bathroom though, maybe you would want something obscure so that you're not like looking at the tampons and the pads. Totally. So it's really space dependent. So what about, I don't know, maybe you don't have a junk drawer now. I want to go rummage in your kitchen and see, but do you have one of those drawers? Yeah. Girl, we have two.
Yeah. have two big drawers now that just have a bunch of stuff in it. And I'm like, we really ought to organize that. Do you organize the junk drawer? Or I had a friend once call it a drawer of useful things. Yes. Do you organize that or do you just let that one place be where things just go? Yeah. Like surely you can't have a space for everything or can you? You do. Yeah.
So that goes back to the name of my company is it's called a proper place. Okay. When I started, so I'll answer both of your questions. I, when I started thinking about what I wanted to call this, I kind of really thought what is the root idea that I believe in my soul needs to happen and be, you know, be like a real life thing for people to subscribe to that's going to like make this click in people's minds.
And for me, that's what it was that you literally have a place for everything in your home, your purse, your keys, like all these things that people just kind of toss, you know, wherever, if it has a place, you're not searching for it before you're heading out the door or whatever, right? Like causing this anxiety or frustration as you're
whatever's happening. Okay. I'm laughing right now because I literally had to text her and was like, I'm running a couple minutes late because my kids hid my purse. Okay. It was in its place. And he is in his place and those little goblins crawled up on the bench, grabbed it, ran off with it. And it's a tiny cross body bag. It's not very big, but they just get a kick out of opening it. And like, what do do about that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. have a solution for that? Nope. That's not.
Tiffany Wickes (22:53.142)
territory, but no, that happens, of course. But yeah, I think having like in general, having a place for everything is that's legitimately what I believe. I think that's how everyone should run their household is having that place. Yeah. And what was the other thing you asked me related to that? Now I can't remember. drawer. Should that be organized? Yes. What did your friend call it? The drawer of useful things. I love that. The drawer of useful things. You can use it. Thank you. The thing is, is everybody needs that.
everybody has random pens and like a catch all space. Yeah, totally. So you have to have that space. You can choose to say, you know what, that's going to be a space in my home that I don't care about. And we're just going to rummage through and look for what we need. And that's fine. Because at least it's contained to that drawer. If you know it's in that drawer, it'll take you 10 seconds to find it. Right. So no bigs. I personally organized mine because I just like how that feels and looks when I open the drawer and it
Feels inviting, you know? But yeah, you can definitely have a junk drawer. Everybody needs it. Everybody needs those. Okay. my gosh. I feel, okay. So my next question is you still have teenagers. You had teenagers and clearly this is just, more naturally inclined in this way. I want to be, but I also find that it's not my strong point. Like I love the peace and the calm that it brings, but I'm like,
I have no idea where to even start. I get so overwhelmed that I just don't do anything. Oftentimes I'm like, eh, for another time, right? And my husband will just be like, everything stops until this is, and I'm like, that's nice that you can totally halt the entire train of our family, but I can't. I have 50,000 other things going on. So when it comes to kids, teenagers more specifically, do you leave them to take
the position, you know, take the lead of what their mother has shown them their whole lives. And maybe they're not so organizationally inclined. Do you leave them to do their own thing or do you go in there and you're like, chop, chop, mister time to get this stuff cleaned up. What are your thoughts? think that was a learning curve for me as I started raising teens. At first I wanted everything nice and clean and organized. And then I kind of realized as my oldest daughter, I don't know, she was probably 14 ish.
Tiffany Wickes (25:18.648)
that I was like, you know what? I just need to let her room be her space and she can let it be what it is. Now with that being said, I did have expectations where every once a month or something, you'd be like, okay, time to clean up the bedroom. You need to clean your bathroom, have your bed made, vacuum, you know, like go through things and actually, maybe it wasn't once a month, maybe it was less than that. I don't remember for sure, but I definitely feel like it's good to have some sort of expectation.
but at the same time, just let them be. I just think as we all do, as we raise teenagers and older kids, you have to pick your battles, right? It's like you can't, you can't do it all and they can't do it all. And they're really busy. That was the other thing is I saw as she got older, she had school and homework and work and friends and volleyball. And you know, there's just a lot on her plate. And so for me, I was kind of like, you know what, if you don't have time to get to this right now,
this whole week or whatever, it's fine. Like it'll, it's no big deal. It'll be, it'll be all right. So, so I'm kind of taking the road right now with our oldest son. When your stench starts moving its way out into the common space, that's when I go in. Okay. So tell me this, do your kids eat in their rooms? Not usually. Okay. So my oldest son always
wants to bring food downstairs because he's trying to escape the little kids. mean, yours are all bunched, mine are spaced out, right? I have a one-year-old all the way up to a 17-year-old. And I nearly have twice as many. So he's trying to escape the younger kids. Like family meals you have to have with the family. But outside of that, he just stacks up bowls. So should the expectation for organization, at least for the family, like to get my doggone dishes back, like it has to come up every day, every night. Yeah, I like that idea. I think that's reasonable. It's not like,
you're asking something that's totally out there, but it's more, you know, for our family to function well and make, I, for me to feel like this, we as a group are working well together, these things need to happen, you know? Cause that, how do you guys do like dishes or clean up the kitchen duty? Is that like, do kids have chores and assignments or is it just random? Cause that's another thought that could, I don't know.
Tiffany Wickes (27:34.678)
Yeah. like you said, busy, right? My oldest son is at wrestling until seven o'clock at night. And then he still has homework he has to do. So we don't expect him to do the dishes at all during the weekdays. And I'm actually thinking about helping him with laundry because I feel like once he gets home, like he eats dinner, he showers, and then he's got to pack his food because he's got practice for two hours, two or three hours the next day. Like he's got a lot to do.
And for his birthday, I actually went in his room, pulled out all of his clothes, washed all of his laundry, made his bed. And that was my birthday gift to him. It's a total mess now. But when it comes to, so it seems like to teach them organization as best you can, at least model it, right? You label bins when they're little and you have them help. And then when they're older,
what 13, 14, you kind of let them be on their own and maybe every two or three weeks go in there and say, okay, these were the expectations. They're not really being met. Do you say, fix this? Or do you say, let me show you? Usually I, usually, yeah, usually I'm helping them early on. Like I would say all the way up to 12, 13. I'm with them, helping them model the how to do it all.
But then after that, I pretty much turn it over to them and just say, you guys know how to do this, make it happen. But I think you landed on a really key point for me personally. What I believe is like, if you're teaching your kids from a very young age that we play all day long in our playroom and we're getting things out and Barbies are out and trucks are out and we're, you know, building forts and all the things we're doing that. And, and then at the end of the day, before we go to bed, we clean things up. Then that becomes.
totally natural for them. They don't know anything different. And so they just kind of subscribe to that. I think for the most part for themselves as they move forward in their life, that doesn't mean by any means that it's perfect or, know, but in general, hopefully they're kind of going, okay, this is how our family does it. It just makes it a little bit more natural, I guess, you know? So tell me what the process is like working with you and your company. Like what is the process from start to finish? Yeah.
Tiffany Wickes (29:50.87)
So people usually will call me and just express what they need help with. I need help because I just met with someone a couple of weeks ago that unfortunately she had cancer. She has five children that she homeschools and she's like, life has just gotten to be too much. It's just too big. It's too overwhelming and I need help. So I'll talk through them, you know, talk through what they need help with and things with them on the phone. And then we set up a consultation. We'll go to the home.
and walk through all of the spaces that anybody would like to see help with. We discuss how their family runs, what their lifestyle is like, what things are working for them in certain spaces and what is not. We try really hard to be very specific with each family that we're working with because everybody's life is very different. What works for one family does not work for another. So I like to get the feel for
Are you a client who needs like all the kids socks in a bin in the laundry room so they can just grab and go? Or are you a client who's like, I want bins inside of their dressers with color coordinated socks. You know, it's like you have the whole gamut of what works for each family. So we get a really good idea for those types of ideas. We go through the spaces with them. Then afterward we measure for product. So we'll measure all the drawers.
the closets, the cabinets, everything that we feel we will need to really make those spaces function properly. We measure for all of that. And then I come home and put together an estimate. I go through each of the areas and make a determination of how many organizers we need to complete those spaces and how long it will take. I send that to the client. And then we schedule and from there, my project manager.
gets all the information from the consultation that I have done. And then she orders all the product that's needed for that job. We show up day one with everything that we need and we just go in there and make it happen. So some clients like to be somewhat involved where they prefer to be home and kind of deciding what items they want to keep and what they want to let go of. And then we have clients that are like, I'm going to California for the week. I'm in and do your thing. And they come home and it's done.
Tiffany Wickes (32:16.246)
It's like, so it just depends on how much they want to be involved too. We have other clients that work full time, for example. And so we're in there working through things and they want to be a little more involved. And so we'll send them pictures and say, Hey, we're in the kitchen right now. We noticed you have six ladles. Which of these ladles do you want to keep? And they'll go, I want to keep those two and we get rid of the rest, you know, depending on what their comfort level is with us making decisions or how involved they want to be with making decisions. But then with us having such a large team.
We can do entire homes in a matter of two or three days usually. So we'll have, for example, six organizers come in one day and we complete three or four or five areas in a home. So it goes really quickly. And that's something that we pride ourselves in is that we're very efficient in what we do. We're very good at what we do. We do it every day. So we have a very good rhythm and can just work through things.
really fast for people. You have a whole team and you do this often. There is really a large need I'm seeing. So what is it about the American culture right now? Are we just so busy or like, have we just not been raised right? Like, what is the deal? I love that question because when I started in this industry, I kind of had this very narrow view of what I thought my client would be.
Singular I thought this is gonna be people who just have way too much stuff and they don't know how to get on top of it They just feel overwhelmed and they just don't know what to do So they're gonna have me come in and help them and as I've worked for 11 years now I've realized it's the whole gamut It's all the way from people who are super super organized and they just don't have time So things just kind of pile up because they're really really busy to people who have had
tragedies in their life or some type of trauma and so that has caused them to get behind on things and so they need help kind of catching up to people that Really just don't know what to do. They're like I'm in this circumstance and I don't know how to start I don't know how to do it. So I need help doing this all the way to you know people that just feel like They just want to hire us to do because they don't want to do it. They have that they have the time they have that they're capable of
Tiffany Wickes (34:38.498)
but they have the money to just say, hey, come in and tidy up my house, organize everything, get everything labeled in bins and all the things, because I really like how that feels and looks, but I just don't want to do it. So it's really everything. have those people that you feel like really buy too much, you know, and all of those things. But I would say overall, it's just busy. It's busyness. You know, people just have a lot on their plates and things pile up.
So as I look around your space, because I was blessed enough to be able to be in your current home while you build your new home. And yes, everything is absolutely organized. It is beautiful. It is peaceful. But I'm like looking like on the counter here is this beautiful, what is that thing? The basket. Basket trade situation. I'm like, wow, I would never think to do that, but it looks both aesthetic.
and it's organized because it's containing fruit. It's containing this, you know, crumb thing you've got going here in this really cute. I would never think to do that. So here's where my question is kind of divulging into is where does organization slash design meet each other? Because I'm imagining you're not going to come in with a basket, right? Or am I wrong? Are you to come in with design elements to help it look more organized? Depending on the client. There are clients that for sure say,
You know what, the design aspect of things is also kind of overwhelming for me. So as you guys are coming into organize, help me out with, you know, those, those things as well. Jen, most of the time that's not the case. We're just doing organizing, but, but a big piece of, living an organized life is visual enjoyment. It really is. It allows you to see the spaces that you're, that are surrounding you every day and feel like that looks nice.
because it looks nice, it feels nice. So it all kind of interweaves together. my gosh. Okay. Jeez. All right. We went through all the steps of what you guys do and then you make it happen. Could happen like two to three days. That's amazing. The other thing that I'll just mention that we do a lot of as well is helping people move. A lot of people hire us because they're getting ready to move to a new place and they just feel like
Tiffany Wickes (37:02.572)
We have so much stuff. We do not want to take all of this with us. So come in and help us declutter and get rid of things that we really are not going to need or want in our new space. So we go in and we help them with that whole process, the decluttering aspect of things and the packing of items. We make things super dialed in organized so that when it gets to the other end, it's very easy and intuitive to get things put away. So we help on the pre move and
And the funnest part is on the post move when people are moving into a new space and they just have all their boxes and we come in and literally put it all away and we bring the bins and we label everything. So literally from day one of moving into a new space, it's completely done and organized and everything's in its place. So, and you have professionals deciding where things are going. And so the flow and function of that area, most of the time doesn't ever have to change because.
It's what we do every day. It's what we're good at. And so we can help people get set and really dialed in day one and then they just live. Oh my gosh. See, when we moved into our house seven months ago, my husband was like, all right, where do you want the spatulas? I'm like, well, I don't know. I have to see like how I move in this kitchen and whatever. So the spatulas moved. Where are the bowls? I'm like, well, I moved them to the right shelf this time because my body just feels like it wants to go that direction. So how much?
Like human design engineering, are you using like psychology when it comes to creating an organizational pattern? there's gotta be some psychology there, right? Not just individual intuition on how they move. For sure. And that's why we try to be very detailed with our clients. We talk to them when we're in the kitchen, we talk to them about how often do you bake? Do you enjoy cooking? Are you someone who's in the kitchen a lot? When we're, know, do you use your air? Are your kids using your air fryer?
Often, yes, they use it every day. So we make note of that and we type that in and say, okay, AirFryer has to be super accessible. So all of those little nuances that relate to each specific family are definitely incorporated as we're organizing. And I think it's really helpful too that we do this every day. And so we really, there are patterns that work well for most people outside of personal preference. We just, have those kinds of things established.
Tiffany Wickes (39:28.59)
But yes, it's very individualized and it really does matter what people's lifestyle is as far as how we're organizing things. We talk to clients about, do your kids do for fun? What activities are they involved in? All those types of things so that when we're coming in and we're finding swim goggles and swim stuff in bedrooms and we find it in a bedroom and in a mudroom and in all these places, we know our kids swim every day. So we are designating a spot.
in the mudroom or whatever, you know, that's easy access where they can grab their swim stuff and head out the door. Like all those little things really matter. And I think that's the hard thing for people in general. Why they feel overwhelmed is because it's so much to think about. And there are little pieces of each category in lots of different places in the home. And so sometimes that can feel overwhelming for people to kind of get started or feel like.
I can do this because it's just tricky to think through all of those things. But when you have a large team of people, it's like, just get in and make it happen. it's quickly efficient. With a proper place, I notice it does not say proper places. So there are no multipurpose spaces for you, right? Correct. There are two of the, would say in the sense that maybe in your laundry room, you have a cupboard that has
light bulbs and batteries and extension cords. But that is also, it's kind of a household, household items cabinet. So the encompassing idea of what is in that space together is one category. And yes, I love this question because that's something clients are always asking us. I want, what about like medicine is one of those things that's like, we have it in our bedroom. We have it in the kitchen. We have it upstairs in a closet where
that's near our kids' bedrooms or whatever. And so with anything, our recommendation, usually, not always, some homes have unique situations, but usually is put all of it in one place so it's intuitive. When you need medicine, you know exactly where to go. If it's two o'clock in the morning and your daughter has a fever and you're like, okay, I'm gonna go up to the closet that's upstairs by her bedroom, the medicine's not there. Okay, it must be in the kitchen, it's not there.
Tiffany Wickes (41:51.69)
It must be in my bathroom. here it is. You know, you've like spent all, you're tired. It's 2 a.m. Like, don't want to be looking around the house for medicine. But if it's all the medicine is always in one place, you go there, you get it and you're done. And so that's what we try to teach people is really try if at all possible to have all the stuff together. Okay. So I'm imagining though, since you have a team and they come in, like you don't do anything virtual or am I wrong? We do. Yeah. Okay. We do virtual.
So that's something that actually has worked for a lot of people. I think it takes a certain personality as the client because then it's on you to actually make it happen. But just this one wasn't actually virtual. It could have been virtual. Just last week I had a client hire me for just an hour because she was giving the gift like you did for your son. She was giving a gift to her husband of organizing her garage. And she was like, I kind of feel like I need some steps written down. I need some suggestions about what to order.
where to place things, how to maneuver things. And so I went over for an hour, we lined it all out. I told her exactly where to put everything, what products to order. And she sent me a picture on Saturday and she's like, it's done, look how amazing it turned out. And they did it and it was awesome. But she just needed that little step, that little boost, you know, to get her going in the right direction. So same thing with virtual. It's like, we can offer all of the suggestions, give you all the steps, give you all of the products that we would recommend purchasing and things like that. And then
you can take it from there. wow, that's awesome. So physically, how far out do you go in the Heber Valley space? So we go, we service pretty much all of Utah. We've worked in Cedar City. We've worked in Bountiful. I mean, we go pretty much wherever our clients need us. There is a travel fee. If we're going more than two hours away, we'll charge it. You know, there's a specific travel fee for that, but anything that's like,
Salt Lake, Utah County, Wasatch County, Summit County, all of that is where we service regularly. So I'm imagining virtual, do they get a discount because you're not actually going in there? Yeah, it's just an hourly flat, hourly rate. so that's just kind of how it is. if they, virtual is the same. But usually if you're hiring us virtually, you're only hiring us for maybe an hour or two. Right, the time is less. Yeah, it's significantly less. Yeah. Okay, awesome. Is there anything else you think we should know?
Tiffany Wickes (44:17.582)
trying to think. I think the only other thing for me would be doing what I do and what our team does is so rewarding and so fulfilling because we just have, my husband always says to me, you're so lucky because every day we leave someone's home, they are feeling this excitement and this new life and feeling fresh and a burden lifted.
And so we're just so blessed to be able to help people in this way. I think that it's really special and kind of unique. know, what we do is not commonplace and it's not something that a lot of people are educated on, but it really genuinely helps people. And I just feel so grateful that we get to do that day in and day out because...
We're never leaving someone's home and they're like, that was the worst. is, know, it's like, have this total new perspective about their home and their life and how they can move forward. And it just, I'm just so grateful that we can do that. feels good. Well, gosh, I legit, we're going to talk about what that hourly rate looks like. I need help. need help. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you for being on my podcast.
And I can't wait to get this article written up because I think everybody in the Hebrew Valley who reads this is going to find so much benefit. So thank you very much. Thanks.