Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kimberly Bouton. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Kimberly , thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I had previously co-founded a business back in 2013, a website and iPhone app to. help pets get adopted which was later acquired by PetSmart. My lead role was Product Manager on web and iOS, so processes and problem solving have always been inherent within me. After spending a few years working in marketing after the acquisition, I became a mother to an amazing little boy. As much as I felt fulfilled by my new role, I also felt very lost. We’d moved cross-country from NJ when my son was only 4 months old in the middle of Covid and had no support. Moving boxes sat in all of our closets because I couldn’t bring myself to expend energy on sorting through them. The complete lack of control that I had in my life as a new mom was starting to take over my whole being.

So one day, I decided to tackle our front closet, which is a multi-purpose closet. It was… overflowing with items I didn’t even know we had. I spent 2 hours sorting everything into “keep”, “trash” and “donate/sell”. I then picked up some bins from target to contain smaller items, created zones for each category and finally set up the closet to function how I needed it to.

I cannot tell you how accomplished this made me feel, or how much joy simply opening the closet made myself and my husband feel. Suddenly I started to feel like myself again, like the former business owner I was. I also realized there must be so many other parents and caregivers who are stuck in deep holes that they can’t seem to find a way out of, and that regular house-hold tasks can be enough to break them some times. I decided to learn as much as I could about home organization, practice on friends and family and eventually launch a business of my own so I could lend a hand to other families and busy professionals who wanted to feel more calm than chaos in their homes.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I was born and raised in New Jersey, and have been living in Mesa, Arizona for 3 years. I have an incredible husband and an hysterical 3 year old son. Starting Tidy in the Desert has been one of the best choices I’ve ever made. I feel truly honored to be welcomed into my clients homes where I get to hear about their lives, empathize with their struggles, and offer solutions to help ease their day-to-day routines.

In the era of social media it’s very easy to feel “less than” when you see perfect photos, and home organization is not immune to that. I don’t want my followers or clients to think that they “need” a perfect pantry or perfect closet. I don’t want them to think they have to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars to achieve an organized home. At Tidy in the Desert, I am grounded in empathy and I will always work to create solutions for my clients that reflect their budget, lifestyle, and use products they have already purchased.

Clients can choose from the following services when they book with Tidy in the Desert:

Organization: I will declutter, sort, categorize, label and create a custom solution for each space in your home that aligns with your budget and lifestyle.

Decluttering only: I will help you sort items in a space in your home into “keep”, “trash” and “donate/sell” and take all trash and donations with me

Moving assistance: I will help you declutter, sort and organize your items to help prepare you for packing. I also offer to unpack and organize your belongings once you have moved into your new home.

Can you talk to us about your experience with selling businesses?

Back in 2013, I was the co-founder of AllPaws.com with Darrell Lerner in New York City, NY. At the time, there were a few main players in the pet-adoptions space who had cornered the bulk of the market. When we decided to create our own adoption platform, not many people thought we would succeed given how strong of a hold the other platforms already had. But the biggest lesson I learned, and that Darrell stated immediately at the start was simply this:

execution is everything

And it could not be more true. Just because a product or service already exists does not mean it cannot be improved, or that you cannot create a brand that stands out on its own.

For us, we decided to bring a new angle to pet adoption. Instead of just filtering your search by sex, breed and age, we added filters a-la-online dating: sex, breed, age, temperament, if they need a yard, if they’re good in an apartment, if good with kids, etc etc.

We created a site that aimed to take the guess work out of. pet adoption so we could help increase the number of adoptions nation-wide.

It proved to be a resounding success as PetSmart bought us 3 years later, and I’m incredibly grateful to this day for Darrell’s confidence in execution.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

“Aim for perfection”– perfection doesn’t exist. And when building a small business, if you wait for perfection you will most likely miss your window of opportunity to market your business or take it to the next level. I would instead like to offer something else instead:

“ask for forgiveness, not permission”. It is far better to take a risk than to sit stagnantly waiting for the perfect moment, the perfect design, the perfect marketing strategy, the perfect TikTok, etc. Just get started. Start posting on social media, even if you know what you’re putting out isn’t great– it WILL get better as you learn. Books and e-courses are great, but it’s a waste of time if you’re not actively taking the initiative to apply what you’re learning.

At both AllPaws and Tidy in the Desert, I have been woefully inexperienced in social media marketing and thus avoided it at AllPaws at all costs. I was insecure about my lack of knowledge, so instead of asking for help and guidance I just…. never posted. If I had, would we have been bigger? Would we have sold for more? Would we have gotten more pets adopted? What would I have learned about myself? I’ll never know. But with Tidy, I still am inexperienced, but at least now I’m trying. I have committed to putting out reels, how-tos, TikToks and applying everything I can to grow my brand and clientele. It’s not perfect, and that’s okay, because sometimes “enough” is perfect enough.

Contact Info:

• Website: tidyinthedesert.com
• Instagram: @tidy_in_the_desert
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090929880831
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberlybouton/

Image Credits
All my photos but the headshot, which was taken by Jillian Monson