We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Martha Carol Stewart a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Martha Carol, appreciate you joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

13 years of being a kindergarten teacher. 13 years of watching the result of families struggling to get their kids ready for school all while getting themselves ready for work, ultimately leading to meltdowns and frustrations. Lost papers, lost shoes, no lunch and lots of tears from both parents and children were just a few of the things I experienced in the morning carpool. I knew some of my organizing skills could help these parents and children start their day on a more positive note. I decided to take a risk and leave teaching to start my business as a professional organizer in hopes to help families just like the ones I was teaching.

My mother taught me the basic organizing skills of categorizing and color grouping. These skills have developed into a system over time. Routines, lists and less stuff were just the basics of what I learned from her. As a teacher, I knew these skills were something I could teach. I wanted to teach my clients my process of categorizing, questions asked when purging, organizing in bins and how labeling can help the family know where things belonged. At the time, I didn’t even realize this was called organizing. I always called it “cleaning out my crap.”

Helping friends “clean out there crap” was a common occurrence for me. While I was helping a friend chose bins for her bathroom, I stated, “I wish I could do this for a living and help families who struggle like you.” My friend is a college counselor and of course, looked it up immediately. “There is a National Organization for women just like you. You CAN do this for a living.” The idea of entrepreneurship was born.

Could I do it? Can we afford for me to quit my job? Can I still be a mom and run a business? Scary thoughts for someone who never thought about leaving her career. I handled tuition for our children. I would have to earn enough to be able to pay that bill. What if I failed? I didn’t know a thing about running a business. It was a huge risk for our family.

That was 10 years ago and I haven’t looked back. I now have a team of 6 that include a media manager and an assistant. We have traveled to 5 different states as well as various cities across Louisiana. I have co-written an organizing book that will be coming out in November called “Southern Chaos; Organizing the Southern Home.” And I have far surpassed just paying tuition. It was a scary risk that I’m thrilled I took!

Martha Carol, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Chaos Organizing is a professional organizing company that specializes in home organizing, unpacking, downsizing and business organizing. We help families get their chaos organized one space at a time.
Our organizers have life experience as mothers who juggle work and home. They understand what it needs to run a home in an efficient way so that your home is a place of peace and not just another thing on your to-do list. Our homes should be our sanctuary where we find rest and can get away from the busy world. Our experience and knowledge will help get you there.
I am most proud that I took a risk, helped hundreds of people get out of chaos, survived a pandemic, and co-wrote a book all in a 10 year period and I’m still going strong!

What I want people to know about Chaos Organizing is that we treat your home as if it were our own. Our clients become like family to us. We come prepared, ready to work and leave your home organized and peaceful.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Home organizing came to a halt during the pandemic yet your bills still came. I had to think quick! Thank goodness I learned from other entrepreneurs and had the internet to fall back on. I did a few different things to survive. I developed a series of online organizing classes. Those who bought the classes were entered into a closed Facebook group that met once a week where I could answer all of the groups organizing questions. I went live once a week to show my organized spaces in my home and lastly, I did virtual organizing sessions via zoom or FaceTime. Pivoting my business to online services allowed me to have some income for bills and develop more of an online presence.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Organizing is a hands on profession. To allow organizers in your home and see your “chaos” means you have to be vulnerable and takes a bit of trust. I believe our online presence and organizing diagnostic build the trust between Chaos Organizing and our clients. The icing on the cake is when the organizing team arrives and you realize we relate to why you are overwhelmed and disorganized. Our clients take a deep breath when they realize they aren’t being judged. When someone gets over the top service from our organizers and has complete faith in our organizing system, they tend to share that experience with their friends. This trust is what fuels our company and our clients recommendations keeps us growing our clientele.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.chaosorganizing.com
• Instagram: www.intagram.com/chaosorganizing
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/chaosorganizing

Image Credits
Hoppe Images