Meet my friends at Meat & Potatoes Organizing in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul
Here’s what I know about professional organizing, and professional organizers.
WE ARE A REALLY NICE BUNCH OF PEOPLE.
I came from corporate America, where for 20 years I worked in cutthroat, competitive industries were millions of dollars were on the line for contracts, relationships, all the things. When we saw a competitor, there was no kindness or hellos—we were not friendly nor even cordial. Sometimes we were openly hostile, honestly!!
Then I became an organizer. And to my surprise…everyone was SO NICE. People were helpful, and we really believe in collaboration over competition.
Like—really.
I have helped “competitor” organizers build their business. I will give advice to anyone--I mean, anyone who asks for it, I’m not just running around yelling “WHO WANTS TO HEAR ABOUT STARTING AND GROWING A PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZING BUSINESS!?” —but it doesn’t matter to me if you are in my backyard (literally, there is another organizer whose house I can see from my own office window!) or if you are across the ocean from me—I am ready to help you.
One of the best examples of this local organizing collaboration over competition is my friend and colleague (and competitor!) Cori McDougald of Meat & Potatoes Organizing in Prior Lake, MN, which serves home organizing clients all over Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Cori and I have been friends for a few years now, and it’s been one of my favorite things ever to watch her grow from a brand new organizer to a totally killer businesswoman with a large team and multiple locations across Minnesota and Wisconsin. Her business has had professional organizing clients across the upper midwest, and they have made so many families be able to live better in their homes. She cares so much about her clients, and I know this because we’ve had so many personal conversations about how much being an organizer means to us, and how much we love helping clients come home to decluttered, organized homes.
Cori asked me to bring my KonMari folding skills to her organizing team, because they had been asking to get some fun folding practice in. I showed up at Meat & Potatoes Organizing world headquarters (AKA Cori’s beautiful house) and I had a great day with her team, teaching them everything I know about what I learned as a certified KonMari organizer about folding (hey, I’ve watched Marie Kondo fold IN PERSON! Which, honestly, was cool.)
We talked about a lot of other things, too—so I’ll let Cori tell the entire story HERE at her blog.
I have many friends in the Twin Cities area who technically I “compete” against for organizing clients. But I don’t see it that way. I believe that there is room in the organizing industry for all of us—and we all offer something unique and different to potential clients. I might not be everyone’s cup of tea, and I would love for people to have the best professional organizer for them. I love being able to recommend Cori and the Meat & Potatoes Organizing team to clients that I can’t serve, or clients I know that are better served by a team than me (happy solo organizer here!)
I’ll just brag on Cori a little bit more—she recently passed her Certified Professional Organizer® exam and is now really, really official with those magical CPO letters next to her name! She has thousands of hours of organizing experience under her belt, which is why I never think twice about recommending her to clients who are a better fit with her than with my business. I know they are in good hands with her and her amazing team.
I would really encourage you to reach out to fellow organizers in your area and see if you want to try an organizer meetup—a group of our Inspired Organizer members did this recently in Dallas and they had a great time. Go out for happy hour and find your people—you won’t regret it! It’s great to find people that you don’t have to explain why it’s a big deal that your client finally parted with two trash bags of donations when previously they’d only given away one pencil—-our people GET IT!
Thanks to Cori and her team for having me visit them for continuing education—I’ll be over here cheering you on!
