My parents were both public school teachers, so they built on their secondary talents and started their own companies for extra income on the weekends. This instilled an entrepreneurial spirit in my sister and I that we both carried into our adulthood where we started our own companies. I look back and realize I took a huge leap moving cross country and starting my own company at the young age of 26. My parents showed us that anything is possible. They wanted us to love what we do, create our own schedules, make our own decisions and be successful in our own way. I feel very lucky that my parents cared enough to include us in their businesses. I started passing hors d’oeuvres for my mom’s catering company at the age of 5. I would go to my dad’s work sites and hammer nails at the age of 8. I learned from a very early age how important it is to work hard, work smart and lead by example. My sons occasionally come to clients with me to see first hand what it takes to run a business and help do all the jobs…hauling trash, loading donations, sorting by categories, taping a box. Of course, they’re hoping for a tip! But they have good spirits, nonetheless. Hopefully I am teaching them the same lessons my parents taught me.

I moved from my home state of California to Atlanta in 2003 to be closer to my sister and newborn nephew. In the midst of this major move, I knew I wanted to help others navigating change. I was born with an entrepreneurial spirit and realized that I could combine my past work experience of organizing and planning events with my love for inventive, productive ideas, and organization systems for busy families by starting a career in professional organizing.

In 2005, Leave it to Lara was born.

Since then, my team and I have organized thousands of spaces, homes, and garages, as well as managed hundreds of moves for clients. I feel so lucky to do what I love while also making a huge difference for people who are often in the midst of life-changing transitions. I have built my company solely on referrals and I’m so grateful for all of our client relationships. I am proud of the personal connections we make with all of our clients, which fortunately results in frequent repeat business over the last 17 years.

Personally, I have created a busy household of my own, marrying my incredible husband Bill in 2008 and welcoming Luke in 2011 and Drew in 2012. I went from organizing playrooms as a single transplant where I would claim my future children would never have mountains of Legos (!) to creating successful systems in my boy’s playroom that allows them to clean up their Legos themselves.

When a client hires Leave it to Lara, they are hiring an amazing and talented team of people who love what they do! In this day and age, it’s more important for us to create relationships with the client and really meet their organizing goals and not just put together Instagram-worthy cookie cutter spaces that aren’t always realistic to maintain.

This is why Leave it to Lara is Moving Made Simple. Organizing Done Right.

I have been running a successful business for so long, it was scary to imagine pivoting. Organizing has always been my first love and the reason I started my company in 2005. But as the real estate industry continues to change, I realized I could make moving easy and stress-free for my clients by focusing on move management. Our team comes in to purge, pack, move, unpack and organize. In and out of cardboard in a week and it won’t break the bank! We help clients make decisions they have literally been sitting on for many years, and save them money by doing it as part of the move.

We have repeat clients who come back to Leave it to Lara years later, when they need help with a new life transition. We have become their multi-generational family organizers, helping parents, kids, grandparents and grandkids and now we are honored to be their family move managers! Luckily, my team is well versed in both organizing and moving, so our clients get double bang for their buck!