Cluttered chaos at home or beautiful 'Giving Spaces'?: Mollie's transformations

Have you ever found yourself staring at a mountain of clutter, feeling utterly overwhelmed? Imagine the relief of transforming that chaos into a tranquil, functional haven. That's exactly what Mollie, my dear friend and founder of potentially will be called "Giving Spaces," (she is still deciding on a name so if you have a suggestion, comment on our Instagram post with your idea!  On today's episode, we walk through her thoughts on setting up a business which will help others go  from cluttered spaces to crafting serene and practical living spaces. As a mother and super-engaged woman in her community, Mollie brings a unique perspective on turning those dreaded spaces into something that gives you joy. She also talks about when she started considering this business idea, the challenges she has had in getting it going and what the future might hold. 

Join us as we peel back the layers of creativity and strategy involved in home organization and starting a business! The two, strangely enough, have many parallels. Mollie doesn't just arrange spaces; she infuses them with beauty, making use of the simplest items like repurposed shoeboxes as organizational gold. We share laughs and insights on how a well-ordered environment impacts mental clarity and the courageous steps required to embark on an entrepreneurial adventure. Through her story, Mollie illustrates how nurturing an innate skill can blossom into a valuable service, encouraging the way for others to follow suit.

Finally, we close the chapter on a note of liberation that decluttering brings. Not merely an act of tidying, but a stepping stone to freedom of mind. Mollie's reflections serve as a valuable roadmap for anyone considering their venture, and her practical tips offer a helping hand for those seeking a fresh start in their personal spaces. Her drive and determination are nothing short of inspiring, and I'm excited to share how her business, is not just about decluttering homes, but about giving people a place they feel at home in. So, if you're ready for a change, not just in your closet but in your life, ready to start your own entrepreneurial challenge, take a seat and listen in! 

Chapters

• 0:00 Starting a Small Business
• 6:59 Organizing Spaces for Function and Beauty
• 20:27 Starting a Business
• 26:14 Decluttering for a Fresh Start

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Hi there, welcome to Business Juice. I'm Yuta Devinich. I'm a Public Relations Consultant and Multiple Entrepreneur. I've traveled the world, worked for corporates and large not-for-profits across the globe and run several businesses, and now I am based in Mississippi, where I also run a business. I love running my own business and, even though it's not always easy, I have learned so much along the way. And now I want to inspire you and re-energize you as you run or as you set up your own business, and do so with joy. So tune in and here we go. Yeah, hi, welcome to today's podcast. I'm very excited to have my dear friend, molly on the call with me On this podcast, as I've shared last time, is we really want to talk about small businesses, how people come about starting a small business and then their journey through that, and Molly has kind of agreed to come and have a chat with me.

Speaker 1: 1:10

Her business hasn't started yet, although it has in her head, in the sense of she's been mulling it over and she's been thinking about it. So Molly is, as I said, she's dear friend of mine. She has three children, she's incredibly busy, she's a mom, she's a wife, she's a daughter, she's a sister, she's a friend, she is involved in church, her husband's a pastor, and so starting a new business is actually a big deal because it means taking on another role, and so I thought this would be interesting to hear and to talk about on the podcast. So, hi, molly, how are you?

Speaker 2: 1:54

Hi, I'm good, I'm doing a while this morning Lovely.

Speaker 1: 1:59

Hey, molly, I've just kind of introduced you but maybe, like, is there? Is there anything that I've forgotten that you know?

Speaker 2: 2:05

you think, like you like to say about yourself, to introduce yourself a bit, Sure, yeah, I have three sons and you know running a household is a lot With these kids. It's just keeping them going, keeping them organized. I also teach piano lessons on the side and love to meet with the minister to young women, so I'm often going about for a coffee date or what have you. But yeah, I love to be with people and I love to help people and I think you pretty much cover the rest of it. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 2:49

Yeah, that's actually that's absolutely true, like the amount of people who come to you for advice and people that you engage with and, yeah, you really do love helping them. I can see that and we've had many wonderful conversations ourselves, so yeah, so, molly, tell me a bit about your business idea, like when did you start thinking about I want to run a business, or I want to have a small business, and give us a bit more of a sense of where that began and then what you're hoping to achieve?

Speaker 2: 3:19

Sure, I would say the heart to start a business and own my own business probably began about I don't know, 10 to 15 years ago. Just I thought maybe I could do that someday, you know, someday in the future. And I've just been a school teacher the past couple of years and I think when you get a bit restless and you start thinking, is this, what is what I'm doing now, when I want to do long term? And if that answer is no, then I think you know you start to get a little more serious about your dreams or kind of what you desire to do daily, like what is the work I want to be about daily? And so really last year is when it kind of began to become more real, like a possibility that could actually happen. So and I've just been slowly praying about it, working through it, talking to my husband about it, and it seems like it's kind of starting to take shape. And of course I've been working with you a bit just to hone all those thoughts into one trajectory, like what exactly I want to do? How do I go about it. So that's kind of where I am now.

Speaker 2: 4:40

But the business idea is to come in and help organize areas in your home that are perhaps sources of stress or anxiety for you, and to organize those areas so that that area functions in a way that serves you and your family. I like to call it a giving space, not a cluttered space, something that, and it could be anything. It could be your closet, it could be your pantry, it can be a drawer in your kitchen. Everybody has that junk drawer, just with bunch of stuff in it. It's like how can we turn chaos to something that is a little more organized and streamlined? So that excites me. I like that, I think that way. So, yeah, I think I'm at the point now and all the signs are kind of leading towards okay, go go for it, do it. So.

Speaker 1: 5:41

Yeah, I love that. I love the name that you have for it the giving space. That's fabulous because I think organizing can be for people a chore. And then, obviously, because it can be a chore, they just they do what you just said. You know, they create this drawer where they just stuff everything in, Whereas, yeah, if they had a different perspective on it and said you know what this is going to be giving space, this is something that makes me happy when I open it.

Speaker 1: 6:10

It's going to give me all the things I need. I'm looking for that's great, I love that terminology, that's wonderful and give me some examples of things that you've done at home that have helped you stay organized. As you said, like you know, you are very busy, but what are some of the things that, if you didn't have those, it would be, you know, more frustrating potentially?

Speaker 2: 6:38

I sick a question, you know. I guess my first thought too is I still want the listeners to know that I have cluttered areas. You know everybody does, but you do the best that you can with the areas that you have. So some of the organization techniques work and some of them are trial and error and I have to start over again and I think, oh, that didn't work.

Speaker 2: 7:00

But when it comes to mine is my closet. I have a bunch of bins on a shelf and I kind of fold and put my shirts straight down where I can see them all vertically and I don't know it just helps keep that organized. But here's a side note too, like if you don't, if you can't afford or you don't want to put the money into a bunch of bins and containers, you can still get real resourceful. And so actually, my closet that is organized. It's organized with a bunch of shoeboxes. That's literally what my T-shirts are in, because that's what I had at the time. But I love that because I don't know. I like my closet to be organized. I don't know. We had a junk drawer and it was just pencils and rubber bands and quarters and matches and who knows what, and it was chaotic, and so all of a sudden one day I was just like, oh well, I could buy a desk organizer that holds pins and all the things, paper clips, whatever, just having a spot where you can see everything, I think visually, it's important too, because if the brain is looking at a bunch of clutter it can't make sense of it.

Speaker 2: 8:31

But if you have organized spots, I think it helps. You feel like, oh, I know where my stuff is, I can function. Now I don't know. I'm trying to think. I mean, most every room has a flow, it's organized in a way. Organization doesn't just have to be bins and containers, right, it can be. How do I make this living room flow so that people can come in and sit down and there's room and then there's like organized spaces for where can I set my cup and where can I lay my book? I mean, I know that might sound silly, but if you wanna create an organized environment, it doesn't have to be sterile and completely perfect. It can be warm and inviting. That also can be an aspect of organization, so that, again, the point is to organize so that it functions to serve right. And so if you're wanting to create a warm environment that serves your family again, that it doesn't have to be bins and containers always.

Speaker 1: 9:45

But no, no, exactly, I mean, and your house is definitely not I don't even know that I've seen you being a container in that sense. Right, it's very inviting and it is very natural and like in your kitchen. You know you can go in someone's kitchen and open the drawers or be looking for something and you go oh, why is that there? But yours does flow.

Speaker 1: 10:10

So when you're looking for something. It's I kind of know where it is, just because it makes sense in many ways and you've organized in that way and I remember coming into your kitchen once and thinking, oh, money has a space for all those water bottles that her boys need for their soccer, and that's just. They know where they are and that's I. That was like, like you know, a moment of oh yeah, I could have done that with the intelligent. It's clever, because my boys are always looking for their bottles.

Speaker 1: 10:45

So, yeah, I like what you say, like it doesn't. It's not organized, doesn't have to be organized in terms of, you know, radically prescriptive. You have to. It has to be like this rather than, as you said before, you know that life-giving design, if you like, because it's it's very much a design, isn't it? And, as you said, you're trying to make your space more of a home or to include these things to make sure it feels like a home. Yeah, that's great. And as you're thinking about helping other people do that, what are some of the things that potentially have held you back from moving forward? Or what are some of the things that you think are going to be challenges for you to take the next step in the business.

Speaker 2: 11:40

Some things that have probably held me back are just just the busy life schedule that I have. You know. You think I don't know if I can even do I have time for that, you know it's the question, but I think that's why I think it needs to be. It needs to be structured and I think that's why this is all funneling towards being a business, because I do want to do it and I haven't had the time. And in a sense, it saddens me when I hear some friends talking about spaces that are overwhelming them. I mean, they're drowning in their laundry room and they don't know how to create a system. Even. I think even a side note here, like organization is also creating a system for people. How can this room? We can set it up a certain way, we can organize it, but like, what is your system to keep it that way and to keep it functioning? So I just yeah, I think busyness has kept me from doing that, and it saddens me when I hear that a friend or an acquaintance can't figure that out or doesn't know how.

Speaker 2: 13:03

My sister always says I have a born organized mind and some people do and some people don't, and that's okay. One's not better than the other. But I want to bring that born organized mind to help. You know, and I, I don't know, I've just put it off for too long and I think it's time to pursue that in a, in a no pun intended, but just a more organized way, you know approach, taking a more organized approach to really helping my friends and really helping acquaintances and then, hopefully, it going from there and then just to launching that idea or business. I don't, I don't know, I think. I think I'm a little fearful, I think I've got to get around worrying about what I don't know about. I don't know if that's really answering the question, but I just I don't, I don't know, I don't know what challenges are ahead.

Speaker 1: 14:18

Yeah, yeah, and I think I mean that's that's. I think that's a common thing, isn't it? Because when we start something new, we don't we can't see beyond a certain area, a certain timeline, if you like, but it's the same as, in fact, it's very similar to what you're describing in terms of what you're helping other people do. It's the same thing with setting up a business. It's coming up with a process, coming up with steps to take and then, as you just said, well, how do you keep it going? It's the same idea, really, in terms of setting up your business. You need, in many ways, an easy to follow plan and consistency and a process that just keeps going, and obviously, that also allows for you to make changes. And I think that's one of the biggest stumbling blocks is for people who want to start a business, and I think that's one of the biggest things about a business is they think that everything has to be perfect and then I'll start. But it's very much about okay, get the basics in place and be okay to make mistakes or to fail, because every time we make a mistake or something goes wrong, well, we've learned from it and it can only get better from there. So that's what I found working with different people.

Speaker 1: 15:43

So where I used to live in the UK, I worked with designers, and designers are wonderful people. They're very creative, but they don't always know how to promote themselves or how to organize a business around what they do, and so giving them a structure that they can work towards really helps. It's not how their mind works, like you just said. You know, for some people who can be very organized, that's a natural thing, and for setting up a business, the same. Some people have that skill maybe, and others don't, because their skill is somewhere else and that's where they're focused on them. So, yeah, I think, not knowing why, that can be worrying in some ways. You only know if you step forward. That's the only way you're going to know. So, yeah, so if you think about, if you could like paint the picture and everything was perfect and ideal, what would your day look like in terms of actually running the business? So how? What would that look like? Helping someone?

Speaker 2: 17:00

Right? Well, I would, you know, schedule a time to come to their home, and they could. It depends on what they're looking for. Are they wanting me to just fix an area in their home? Are they wanting to learn a system for how that area could function once it's organized? You know, it depends on what the client wants. But I would come with a predetermined kind of approximate time that I would spend there, let's say two hours to four hours. You know, it could be different depending on the room.

Speaker 2: 17:38

But going there and literally working through the clutter, creating categories what do we keep, what do we throw away? What do we repurpose? Maybe it doesn't belong in this room, maybe it doesn't belong in this space and then going about that work, which could take, who knows, you know, depending on the space. But then if the client is there and wants to work with me which you know I'm still trying to work through what does that all look like? But I believe that if someone wants to help or wants to be there and learn it, then I'm all for that, because the point is to help the person. So if they want to be there, great. So working with them to get that space cleaned up and then trying to show them.

Speaker 2: 18:36

Okay now, after you like, if it's the laundry room, where should the clothes go when they're brought in here? Creating space for that, you know, just walking them through a system after they close or dried, where do they go? You know they can't just sit here in the dryer, they can't don't dump them out on your bed. You know, coming up with a routine and then maybe even printing that, putting on the wall, like whatever. I mean we can get real detailed or we can stay big picture. But having that just I envision that it should be completed that day, unless it's a very large project like a basement or something large. You know where they're like. I want this entire area to be streamlined, so that could take potentially longer. But yeah, does that kind of cover it?

Speaker 1: 19:29

Yeah, yeah, no, that, yeah, I can kind of you know it paints a picture of what that would potentially look like. I like that you are open to either just going in and you know, doing it for them, obviously, explaining to them afterwards how adult functions, or them participating in it, and I think you'll find that I would imagine that you will find that to be both, both categories of customers, so to speak. Some are more hands on and some are less. You know, right and quite happy for you to just kind of get on with it. Yeah, no, that sounds really good. And so if you think about your work that clearly when you describe it, I can, I can hear that you know there are key things that you are going to really enjoy about the business. Ultimately, it is the job itself. So, just that organization, helping people, yeah, create that space that they need. What do you think you will not enjoy about running a business?

Speaker 2: 20:38

I think you know it's hard because it all still feels unknown, because I haven't walked a lot of those steps yet and perhaps I'll have better answers for you in the future. You know, as far as being an organized person, I do like to keep, I love to create a schedule, I love to keep it all organized when and where you know. I like to search for bins and organizers, you know. But I think I don't know, I don't have a lot of experience and I don't know a lot of websites yet, and that is what I'm kind of trying to build, trying to build my knowledge on where would I go to purchase an item to help organize this room? And I feel like I don't know.

Speaker 2: 21:35

That could be. That might be a little stumbling block at first, just figuring out how to best fit this room with organizational tools. I'm a little nervous about some of that because and I'll say this, not that I feel incapable, but I think I know what works for me and I think, trying to know my client, what is her or his style, what do they like visually, how do they function, I'm a little nervous. Like that, I may not meet someone's expectations. Does that make sense?

Speaker 1: 22:22

Yeah, yeah, I totally get that, and I think that's something like, as you're building your business and you know we'll be talking about it more and working on that, that in itself gives you an opportunity to create a mini process Were you invite that person to give you some information before you ever start where you say, look, these are the styles of things that we could be using, what appeals more to you, so that you have an idea upfront and also they know that their expectations are met. So, rather than doing the work and then going, oh, I think you know, I hope this is going to be fine. You set that up front. So, yeah, those.

Speaker 1: 23:11

I think that's a great insight on your part that you're like, okay, where could this go wrong or what might be uncomfortable. But it's exactly that which is part of the planning that you challenge yourself and think through what is going to be uncomfortable, what is going to be a challenge to me, what would make me feel uncomfortable, not so good about the work I've done, and put things in place to overcome that, because none of us can do everything and do it all perfectly. It's never going to happen, but we can prepare, we can be more prepared. So, yeah, good, yeah, that sounds good. I'm so excited to be working with you on this and I hope that maybe in future we can do another podcast and see how you're getting on.

Speaker 2: 24:01

Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 24:03

Just on, as we come to close. Is there any particular thing or tip or tool? You've already given us some, actually, but I just thought I'd ask at the end is there anything that you want to recommend for people who are listening when you go? Hey, this is like a key principle that I would recommend.

Speaker 2: 24:25

Yeah, and I think that's a great question, because now I think, oh, key principle, I need to go right down some of those. That's just. It's just helping me, even as we're talking, to help formulate.

Speaker 1: 24:40

Yeah, I mean you do. You do it all naturally. That's the thing it's like cooking, isn't it Like so naturally make a wonderful meal, but if you ask them, like how they did it, that can be difficult.

Speaker 2: 24:53

Yeah, it's a great question. It's a great question, well, I mean right off the bat, like an advice. Advice for anyone would be you know, start small, just take a small little area and declutter, just get rid of some stuff. That alone is probably the number one principle for organization Get rid, get rid so you can see what you have and what you really want to keep. And then you know I've said this before but bins, containers, that you know can take any shape or form.

Speaker 2: 25:29

Really, I mean, like my shoeboxes, that my shirts are in. But if you have a tool like that, right away you're visually creating organization in that space and it's immediately. You will. You will, you'll feel the result of that immediately in terms of getting rid of some stress or anxiety. Going away, getting rid of and then having a container or something that X thing goes in, could really, really it's small and these are just small things, but could really make a huge difference, a big impact for that space and bring it, it'll bring you some joy. I think Letting go of stuff is unburdening yourself.

Speaker 1: 26:21

Yeah, it's really helpful.

Speaker 2: 26:23

So yeah, taking time to declutter, throw away, repurpose and then getting some bins.

Speaker 1: 26:29

But yeah, great. Well, thank you so much, molly. That's I'm so excited to see where this is going to go, and I will be moving into my own house at some point after being in a new state for a while now in you know, sort of temporary accommodation. So, who knows, I'd be bringing you in to help me organize my house, because there are many areas that I could do much better in. So thank you so much for being on the podcast and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.

Speaker 2: 27:03

Thank you. Thank you for having me Love to come help you with your home too.