It all started with my grandma’s stuff.
My journey to ClearSpace began with a visit to my grandmother’s house when I was young. The shades were drawn, as if she didn’t want anyone to see inside. And as my mother and I entered, I immediately understood why: There was stuff everywhere.
Over the next week, I helped her go through it all, room by room, until we were done with the entire house. Then we gave it a thorough cleaning, too. I knew she felt a weight had been lifted, because she was willing to open the shades again. And I liked the feeling helping her gave me, too.
I knew she felt a weight had been lifted, because she was willing to open the shades again.
What I didn’t know yet, though, was that this one little experience had sparked a slow-burning fire inside of me. I went off to college, first intending to go to medical school, and then switching to archaeology (fittingly, the study of historic humans and their things). But after I earned my degree, grad school didn’t feel like the right step. It felt like that would only serve me, rather than others.
So I focused my time on service, raising kids, volunteering with Boy Scouts, PTA, and other worthy organizations. And when the kids got older (and when I got restless), I made my way into the business world, eventually starting my own successful cleaning company—CleanSpace Cleaning Services.
That was in 2015. And as I worked with more and more people, I saw more and more stuff. I saw clients struggling under the same weight as my grandmother had. I saw good people, even high-performing professionals in control of every other aspect of their lives, whose clutter had gained power over them.
The fire in me had been burning all those years, and finally, I felt it. Leaving the day-to-day operations of CleanSpace in the care of my talented employees, I launched ClearSpace—a business that serves others while also fulfilling me. It’s more than a company; it’s a calling, something I have been preparing for my entire adult life. It just took time for me to arrive in the right space to realize it.
No matter how many things you have, or how much they have taken over your life, you aren’t defined by them.
It can take time for my clients to arrive in the right emotional space, too. Some are simply downsizing or need assistance when it’s time to for their parents to leave the family home. But many have accumulated things for years, and they’re unsure how to get out from under the weight. They often feel ashamed and embarrassed.
There’s no need for shame. No matter how many things you have, or how much they have taken over your life, I know you aren’t defined by them—and it’s important for you to know that as well. You can gain control again, reclaiming your space just like my grandmother did. And I’d be honored to help.