Motivation Monday (at its finest)…

Oh boy do we have something FUN to motivate you on this SNOW DAY Monday! We recently paired up with Stefanie Jones of The Realistic Organizer for some home organization projects. Today, we’re sharing all about Stefanie and her amazing company as well as how she transformed a tricky space in our new Living Room built-ins into a tip-top establishment. Before and afters that will leave you saying HALLELUJAH!

It is a known thing that I like to organize. I get such a high off of sorting, purging and re-organizing. Lately, however, we have been so overwhelmed with our renovations that those fun, little projects have become a burden. Enter Stefanie, THE Realistic Organizer. We found each other over social media and when we first connected we, well, connected! She is one of the most lovely people to hang with and we share so many of the same interests - organization being one of them. She immediately sensed my anxiety on this next phase of building our home - no time to organize and be creative in that process, let alone get a space to look cool while organizing. I am the type of person that knows what I like and rarely ask for help. It is a fault and I recognize that but lots of times when I cannot be the one do something that I love I struggle.

However, Stefanie and I started planning. She came over and checked out our space. She noted everything included in the space - objects we’d like to store there, how we would like to utilize the space, how we would like the space to look, how frequently we would utilize the space and the objects stored in it, and the overall function of the room itself and how this tiny space fits into the room. The problem with this particular space is that the objects that have to live there don’t really match the rest of the cabinet theme. Again, because this is an old house there are not many closets or cabinets. So we’ve had to get creative on how we store our goods. We’ve gotten rid of a TON, but the things that did not make it to Good WIll are all things we use - (mostly) just not that frequently. The section that Stefanie took on houses our “stationery desk” goods. So our stamps, envelopes, notecards, extra writing tools, shipping tape, extra tape rolls, our important file folders and miscellaneous shenanigans like the girls fake tattoos 😂. I used to have an old family stationery desk that held all of this, but it does not work in this room nor any other room downstairs (tear). The things I have in this space need to be accessed almost daily, so it needed to fit in the same place as where we keep our vases, entertaining platters and disposable cocktail napkins, etc! The room is our living room where we entertain, have our piano and wet bar so to have these objects being stored on one side feels out of place. Tricky. Not to Stefanie…

Stef was not overwhelmed at all. She was here for 30-40 minutes one day “consulting”. I told her the things we need to be “easy to access” and that we want it to look clean, fresh and fun. She then emailed me that night with a diagram drawing (see below) of the products she thought would clean up the space, look nice and overall make us happy. Before ordering she confirmed that I liked everything. In some sections she bought a few options so we would be able to test different designs out (all returnable). That was amazing. Long story short, she worked so fast getting our space up-and-running. It is now super functional, MUCH nicer looking, and kind of a secret if company ever sees behind the doors when we host a get-together. She seriously rocked my world in a good way and I didnt want her to leave! I wanted to hang with her all day long. She is so comfortable and easy to be around! Professional and personal all at the same time.

If organizing is your thing and the thought of hiring Stefanie takes you out of your comfort zone OR organizing is your nemesis and hiring Stefanie still takes you out of your comfort zone, I am here to tell you to STOP THINKING ABOUT IT and HIRE HER ALREADY! She has crossed off a portion of my “to-do” list and with that has come much de-stress.

To tell you the truth, since she finished organizing our tiny space we have been so busy. I never had a chance to fill Mike in on how she executed it. So, the other day he went in there to grab a stamp for a letter he was mailing. I was at my desk and waited before I went in there to help him find the stamp. I sat and listened to him standing there taking it all in 😝. Just when I was about to pop into the room to help him he turned the corner and said “Al, will you mail this letter for me tomorrow?”! If the fact that Mike needed no guidance or explanation doesn’t tell you that Stefanie executed her job to perfection then Im not sure what would!! She is EASY to schedule (of course, b/c she is so organized herself LOL). We can’t wait to have her back to help us with more projects around this piece - so keep it here for MORE coming in the future!

Hit up her website (Therealisticorganizer.com) and/or her Instagram account (@TheRealisticOrganizer) to see her “portfolio” and get inspired. If you are local, you need to consider hiring her!