Hi friends!
My name is Heather Downes and I started Orderly, a professional home organization service, in January 2023. I’m excited to welcome you to my blog and tell you how Orderly came to be. First, a bit about me—I am married to my high school sweetheart, Jonathan, and mom to three wonderful (and messy) children. I am also a former 3rd-grade teacher and military wife.
When my husband was in the Army we moved and purged often. I could have named every item in our house and told you exactly where it was. When he left active duty we bought his childhood home. Over the years we added two more children and a thousand piles of toys, clothes, random papers, pieces of trash (fast food toys, anyone?), and who knows what else. I loved staying at home with my babies, but found it overwhelming to keep up with the house, the meals, the playdates, and all of the things!
When 2020 hit we were drowning in clutter. In March 2020, I (like so many others), begrudgingly slipped back into the role of a teacher in a pseudo-homeschool kind of way and felt like I was going crazy trapped in my house 24/7. So I did what any slightly OCD mom would do and I dived into the world of purging with a side of sourdough bread-making. Didn’t we all in 2020?!
Over approximately 6 months, I got rid of SO many things—toys my kids had outgrown, household items I had not used in 12 years of marriage (does anyone really use martini glasses?), childhood mementos of mine that no longer held sentimental value, stained and old clothes, all the high school clothes I will never fit in again (sad, but true!), an attic full of stuff that we did not need to store, and SO MUCH RANDOM CRAP! It is amazing how much you can collect when you aren’t paying attention!
As all those items left my house, I began to feel free! I always say that stuff can be suffocating, and I truly mean it. I am in no way a minimalist, but I do consider myself to be a what-i-really-need-ist. My house went from taking 3+ hours to prep for our sweet cleaning lady, to it taking just 20 minutes to be guest-ready! It has taken SO much stress off of my plate and it inspired me to start Orderly.
My goal for Orderly is to help others do what I discovered in 2020—that by simplifying, decluttering, and organizing, I can take away stress and bring function to my home and family. I’m not suggesting that we strive to be perfect moms and wives with a perfect home that looks like no one lives in it. My house is certainly not a model home! It’s a place where my family and I can relax and enjoy time together. Through this blog, I want to encourage you to live a simple, organized life with a home that is functional and easy to maintain. More next week, friends!
