We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jodi Holtz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jodi, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think it takes to be successful?
My job is to help people make the spaces in their home work for them. Whether it is their kitchen, office, garage or somewhere else, people’s spaces can either be calming and functional or frustrating and inhibiting. My job is to make sure everything about a space works as well as it can. Success for me is when my clients feel happy in their homes. I feel particularly satisfied when my clients tell me they are so pleased with the space and have been motivated to continue in another part of their home.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I’m Jodi Holtz, founder of Happy Helper Organizing. I work passionately with individuals and families to craft personalized organizational systems for their homes and offices. As a mother of two young children, I understand how challenging it can be to keep a home in order. I’ve become incredibly efficient at creating methods that work for four totally different people and where all items have a place.
I came to a career in organizing from teaching elementary and special education in four states and three countries. My roots are in the Midwest. I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and graduated from Indiana University. I am now happily settled near family in Northern Atlanta Suburbs.
I serve as the secretary of the Georgia chapter of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals (NAPO) and am certified as a Professional Organizer from the International Career College (IAP College).
When I am not organizing, I enjoy spending time with my family, being outdoors, riding my bike, photography and traveling.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
Organizing solutions for people with ADHD is a book I read this year and focuses on how to best support people who are Nero divergent.
“Just because it’s organized doesn’t mean it’s efficient.” For example the author mentions putting all your right shoes in the attic and left shoes in the basement is organized but it’s not efficient. The goal is to be able to get your shoes and leave your house with as little effort as possible. Lids are also barriers. They are an extra step. When you need a lid like a pot lid store the lid with the pot because searching for it is another barrier to cooking the meal. This new way of thinking has helped me to support clients to keep things simple and focus on efficiency.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Don’t pass guilty clutter onto your children. As a sentimental person every outfit my boys wore or toy they played with has a memory but saving these items means another child is missing out on the opportunity to use them. Also as I have learned to save less it makes the items I do save more special. I have a small box for each boy and fit clothing and baby trinkets inside. When the box is full that means everything else goes. They enjoy looking through this box and seeing the items from when they were babies but no need to save them all.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Www.happyhelperorganizing.com
- Instagram: @happyhelperorganizing
- Facebook: @happyhelperorganizing
