Home ~ Family

TESTIMONIALS

“Bernardine was amazing!! After all our work, It was just wow to come home and see the effect – especially our transformed “mud room” [a small landing at the bottom of a flight of stairs] into something practical, functional and minimal and maintainable. Bernardine had a very calm but focused presence. She was great at directing the process, keeping me focused and organized and efficient. I just felt like everything took the right amount of time. Neither too much time getting oriented nor too little time to understand the problem… You could tell that she applied these principles in her own life and this was something that she knew through and through from personal experience. She had experience identifying which tasks might be easier than it seemed, and which might be harder. She’s very knowledgeable and had lots of methodology but was never pushy or condescending or judgmental.

She could tell that…we just wanted to live an organized, purposeful, uncluttered life.  When I picked up an object that I did not know what to do with, she took the opportunity to tell me not what to do but how to think about what to do with it. She would ask me questions that would then lead me to the answer. In this way, I felt like I wasn’t doing something just for today, but I was preparing to learn how to do [my own organizing] for the future. My husband and I were able to use the skills and methods we learned from her to sort other areas in our home together — something we were not able to do before because our approaches were so different…I feel empowered. I could see what needs to get done now from start to finish and how to think through all the little steps along the way.”

– M.L, Brookline, MA

*Is this service the same as home organization?

Yes and no. A lot of times when people think of home organization, they think of buying nice storage baskets, maybe a new shelving system, perhaps taking inspiration from magazines and creating an “instagram-worthy” home. The focus is often on doing something about their stuff, their things (or on replacing those things with “better” things). In home optimization, yes, your home will be more organized. It will flow better. You will like your “after pictures” better than your “before pictures”. Perhaps (but not necessarily) you’ll buy a few baskets or some hooks. Yes, we will deal with your stuff. But, no, our focus is not on “what else can I bring into my home to make it better” nor on making it impressive for a general audience. Rather, in our process of going through your stuff and listening to your life priorities, we discover what it is about your home—including the things and the people inside it—that already lends itself to crafting the home you wish for. We take what you have and what you know about yourself and your family—with all the gifts and challenges—and optimize your home so that it is freed from the things and ways that no longer serve you and enhanced by organizational flow that is purposeful and functional in a way that serves your inspiration, your family’s needs. Working together, you will gain a more organized home and skills and insights to build a framework for intentionality, maintenance, and rejuvenation moving forward.