by Sproutling | Feb 12, 2024 | Uncategorized
Operation Organization by Heidi has been the name of my Professional Home Organizing business for over 15 years and it’s interesting that I am currently finding myself in a similar stage and phase as many of my clients – ready to let go of what is no longer serving me and transition and change to something new; Nurturing Order.
When I launched my business and had visions of helping clients get organized in their homes as a professional organizer, the name Operation Organization by Heidi felt ‘just right’. I knew I was equipped to help people cure and overcome the ‘clutter condition’ they found themselves in, and I was on a mission to provide them compassionate help and understanding aid in achieving the order they desired.
I first began coaching and assisting people in the process of decluttering and getting organized in their homes while living in Fayetteville, Arkansas. I also introduced Operation Organization by Heidi to the land of 10,000 lakes for a few years when I relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Eventually, life transitioned me to Georgia where Operation Organization by Heidi was warmly welcomed by the community of Peachtree City. The Business Women of Fayette and Coweta County group was greatly instrumental in my business growth and I enjoyed the benefits of growing many wonderful friendships, business relationships as well as receiving some stellar referrals.
Love and marriage brought Operation Organization by Heidi to Marietta, Georgia in 2020 and I was eager to get connected to networking opportunities in my new community when groups began meeting together again after the pandemic.
I found an instant connection and camaraderie with fellow local Cobb County entrepreneurs at The Marietta Business Association and am excited and honored that they are partnering with me to celebrate the transition of Operation Organization by Heidi to Nurturing Order in a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony April 16, 2024 (more details to come)!
Though the name of my business is changing, I still plan on providing the same type of personalized and compassionate home organizing services that hundreds of clients across the country have received over the years.
“What’s in a name?
That which we call a rose, by any other word would smell as sweet.”
~William Shakespeare
So, why the change to Nurturing Order?
Ultimately, the change will allow me to more easily bloom into providing additional resources and services related to getting organized at home and to enhance the understanding and the value of order beyond just working alongside clients.
While I do still intend to continue helping families and individuals as I have up to this point, I also have a budding desire to offer and provide more…in the right season and time.
As the children in our household are growing in independence and one by one leaving our nest, I find myself with increased time and energy and capacity to share how to achieve more order and peace at home on a larger scale and platform. The new season ahead in my life will allow me to encourage and educate an even larger audience on Nurturing Order in their home, office, and life.
My mission and purpose in business will remain the same regardless if it is identified as Operation Organization by Heidi or as Nurturing Order;
Helping you create space for living a life you love.
The name Nurturing Order also more accurately reflects the type of service I have become known to provide as a Professional Home Organizer.
In the words of a valued Metro Atlanta organizing client:
“I love the name (Nurturing Order) because it signifies more than just “organizing drawers and closets.” Heidi brings a sense of calm, peace and PROGRESS to the situation. She takes into account each “individual” client and meets them where they are. She doesn’t talk her clients into making the next step…instead she guides them in such a way, they feel empowered to take action and progress forward. She takes inventory of both the person as well as the space. She takes into account if there are other people (spouse, kids, other family members, etc.) that may impact the overall goal. Once Heidi assesses the situation, she simply asks the “right” questions to lead her client to a place of peaceful resolution.”
In the coming season, you can look for Nurturing Order to provide additional resources like digital classes or courses, On-line coaching opportunities, monthly newsletters, product suggestions and book reviews. Who knows, I love writing so much that I may even publish a book of my own one day. I have a file full of ideas just waiting to be expressed.
If you’ve landed on my site looking for support and encouragement in getting organized in your home and life, I would be honored to journey alongside you. Organizing is a skill that can be learned and decluttering can be an overwhelming and emotional task that I seem to have a natural gift and talent to gently guide my clients through (with plenty of shared laughs and loads of grace along the way).
With any challenging obstacle in life, working as a team makes it so much easier and a lot more fun to face. I hope Nurturing Order can be a reliable and encouraging teammate to your goals in creating more order, peace and ease in your home and life for many years to come.
Happy Organizing from Your Tidy Team Captain,
Tidy Heidi Milton
by Heidi Milton | Jun 18, 2022 | Uncategorized
Most anyone you meet would likely agree that there are many benefits to being organized and seeking to produce a tidy and organized living space, yet so many individuals and families struggle to either get organized or stay organized in their home.
After some intentional research, client observation, and personal reflection, I think I may have a solid suggestion for an antidote to getting organized and staying organized.
An Antidote is defined as something that works against an unwanted condition to make it better.
Something that relieves, prevents, or counteracts unwanted effects.
Read on to consider how this suggested antidote could be just the ticket to more consistency in achieving your home organizing goals – or any goals!
Some goal seekers strive to make progress toward success by seeking just the right “motivation” for their particular situation. They create vision boards, they seek out inspiration from others, or they simply wait for the illusive motivation to simply strike and they wait for the perfect conditions before expecting to produce any change.
But honestly, I have found that motivation as a catalyst for getting things accomplished is a myth.
Motivation alone cannot be relied upon to make progress on your goals. You must identify and capitalize on what will consistently inspire you to ACTION.
Our repeated experiences often shape our lens of how to attain success and achievement.
Think about it – For the majority of our developmental years, we have outside sources guiding and directing our success. Like goal achieving guard rails set in place to support us, propelling us forward. Parents guiding and directing expectations in the home, teachers at school, coaches of sports teams, leaders of extra curricular activities. We HAD to show up to class every day (built in routines), we were EXPECTED to turn things in on time (assignments from teachers), we gave and received support from our team-mates and in some cases, consequences were doled out when expectations were not met.
When we launch out into the world on our own, those built in expectations and outside forces are simply not as present in the same way outside of expectations from a boss or supervisor on the job. It’s now our job to produce that. Some will continue to succeed on achieving goals without these external sources in place, but for others, its more of a struggle and that can be quite frustrating for someone who was identified as being a successful high achiever in their younger years.
Perhaps we but simply need to consider how those same experiences of built in outside expectations can be replicated or built in for ourselves to find the success we seek within our home goals, or any personal goals, for that matter.
I love reading and learning about personality differences, traits and such. I can completely geek out on all things relating to the various individual Temperaments, The Enneagram, Myers Briggs and the like. So, naturally I was quite interested to check out a particular book by Gretchen Rubin titled
‘The Four Tendencies . If you click through to the
Amazon link you’ll see that in this book;
“Rubin realized that by asking the seemingly dry question “How do I respond to expectations?” we gain explosive self-knowledge. She discovered that based on their answer, people fit into Four Tendencies: Upholders, Questioners, Obligers, and Rebels. “
For myself, I identify somewhere in-between the Upholder and the Obliger Tendency. I observe that inner motivation will only propel me so far, then I need to rely upon outside forces, sources and accountability in order to keep me consistently showing up for myself and my goals.
I’ve long been a fan of checklists and have relied on them to help stay on track to uphold routines get things done. I created a collection of
Printable Checklists that you can reference and download.
Recently, I additionally made a more personalized checklist in order to stay on track with some of my more current and specific goals.
I have also considered and identified additional ways to make intentional efforts to create guard rails and outside support and expectations to continue propelling myself forward. One example is in asking for accountability from outside sources like my husband, friends, fellow entrepreneurs as well as professional and personal coaches. This works particularly well for those certain tasks I knew I might be more reluctant to attain simply by relying on my “Upholder” tendency alone. Another example was to join a local gym that has strength classes that I can sign up for. That way, I can get crowd accountability to complete my strength training goals alongside others rather than relying on personal “motivation” to pursue that all on my own. The monetary investment is an additional incentive to show up once I sign up!
If you determine that a particular goal is worthy to prioritize giving your time and energy to pursue, take some time to consider how you relate and respond to expectations. You can then consider how you can seek to create select circumstances and experiences for yourself as a way to serve as a catalyst to growth! The solutions will depend on your natural bents and tendencies and and once you uncover that, you’ll find your personal antidote to achieving success in your goals as well!
If you also have obliger type tendencies, (where you tend to meet outer expectations, but struggle to meet inner expectations) then finding outside sources to spur you on towards your goals will be huge! Seeking out additional accountability with a friend, family member or professional will be just the ticket to your eventual success!
Finally, no matter what individual tendency you have, one constant will always remain:
The more items you have, the more you’ll have to manage.
If you find you’re consistently overwhelmed and over-worked in terms of keeping things orderly and organized, the best antidote may be to simply, but intentionally, remove the amount of physical items within the home in order to more easily manage and maintain overall.
33.952602-84.5499327
by Heidi Milton | Jun 9, 2022 | Uncategorized
An Organized lifestyle is not something you merely attain, but that you also must maintain…
The act of de-cluttering and finding homes for everything alone, will not be enough to keep order in your home. Regular Maintenance is necessary to keep an organized home.
Identify specific times during the day that you will dedicate to the habit of tidying your space, 10 minutes being an absolute minimum. ( You may decide to increase the time or frequency. )
You will likely observe a few things in this commitment:
1) The more you have, the more you have to manage…might you determine to own less in order to spend less time and energy to manage it?
2) You may find that there are “homeless items” that lack an intentional place to live when not in use. Identifying places for things to live will speed the maintenance process as you will not need to additionally make decisions about what to “do” with an item just lying about. It becomes automatic.
3) Because you’ll gain a sense of being at peace which increases feelings of calm and control due to your efforts, you’ll begin to look forward to your pockets of tidy times. ⏲️
by Heidi | May 31, 2022 | Home Organization, Marietta Professional Organizer, Uncategorized
Our homes should feel like a sanctuary from the storms of life…a haven to rest, recover and recharge. Though it takes intentional effort, time and energy to create and maintain an orderly and serene home environment, it’s well worth it as its been proven to have a big connection and impact to our mental health.
In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, I’ve collected a list of helpful articles and included a few quotes to further understand and unpack this connection of how the state of our home is closely connected with our mental health…
Mess = Stress & Clutter = Cortisol
“When everything is in order, you know exactly where you put your glasses and keys so you can grab them and go on with your day. That saves time and a whole lot of hassle. In one study, women who saw their homes as cluttered had high levels of the stress hormone cortisol throughout the day, while those who described their abode as a well-organized, restful space had lower levels..”
“…physical, mental and emotional clutter can contribute to the inability to think clearly, which can contribute to stress and low energy.
Clutter can make it difficult to get things done, to find what you need, and to live in an orderly and efficient manner. When we spend time everyday looking for our keys or trying to find that one pair of pants, we can become frantic and stressed, allowing this negative daily energy to build up over time.
Spending time sifting through physical clutter to find something can take up a large amount of time, potentially taking time away from other important tasks and self-care routines.”
“The brain has a limited amount of functions it can perform at a given time. Distractions and clutter that aren’t worth attention take up some of that space in the brain and reduce the space remaining for things that matter — and thinking overall.
Ignoring anything takes energy, and the brain becomes passive when it can’t control what to think about. Ignoring clutter around you (noise, distractions) often takes the same amount of energy as focusing.”
“…our lives have so much clutter, both physical, mental and digital. All this creates clutter and the need to ignore, which makes the brain work harder.”
” When you remove the unnecessary elements from your life, that’s when your energy can be used for those elements to really help you grow as a successful, well-connected person. It all starts with the elimination of clutter.”
“Our brains love order. The human body consists of thousands of integrated and interdependent biological and neurochemical systems, all organized and operating along circadian rhythms, without which our bodies would disintegrate into chaos. It’s no wonder that the organization within our very own bodies naturally extends to the desire for order and tidiness in our homes. And, “order feels good, in part, because it’s easier for our brains to deal with and not have to work so hard,” says psychotherapist and professional organizer Cindy Glovinsky.”
“Chronic clutter can create prolonged stress, throwing us into a state of low-grade, perpetual fight-or-flight—the system designed to help us survive. The fight-or-flight response involves the complex interaction of many body systems and organs that activate needed functions and minimize unnecessary functions during times of stress. These systems must remain in balance to maintain optimum physical and psychological health.
According to a Cornell University study from 2016, stress triggered by clutter may also trigger coping and avoidance strategies, like eating junk food, oversleeping or binge-watching Netflix.”
* * * * *
“The brain has a limited capacity to process information. To filter out extra stimuli and focus on what we are trying to achieve at any given moment, the top-down and bottom-up attention mechanisms compete. By mutually suppressing each other, brain power is exhausted, and ultimately we lose focus. Whether we know it or not, a kitchen counter stacked with mail and basket full of unfolded laundry can be as distracting to us as a toddler in the throes of a tantrum.”
* * * * *
“In addition to improving our mood and focus, decluttering often acts as a catalyst to taking better care of other aspects of our life. “By purging unneeded items from our homes, it is like deleting files to create disk space on your computer. Suddenly, the whole operating system is more efficient… this decreases stress and increases your effectiveness personally and professionally,” says Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor, Joyce Marter.”
“Living spaces are energetic extensions of ourselves. When our outer world is in order, our inner-world feels well-tended and nourished. Conversely, when our homes are dirty, disorganized, or in disarray, we can feel overwhelmed, ashamed, lethargic and anxious.”
* * * * *
“The act of cleaning itself also has a positive phycological impact. Cleaning gives us a sense of control and accomplishment, which helps us better manage the ups and downs of life with a sense of resilience and self-confidence.”
* * * * *
“Darby Saxbe, assistant professor of psychology at USC, said “[Cleaning] gives people a sense of mastery and control over their environment. Life is full of uncertainty and many situations are out of our hands, but at least we can assert our will on our living space.” If cleaning can lead to feeling in control of our personal destiny, count us in.”
by Heidi | May 22, 2022 | Uncategorized
Tidy Heidi Milton ( Marietta Professional Organizer of Operation Organization by Heidi )
Proudly Presents this Farmhouse Pantry Project Makeover!
Heidi helped her client source materials similar to photos that the hard working mother and wife had saved of her ‘dream pantry’ and then happily set to work to bring that dream into reality!
This is how the pantry looked before…
Before, there wasn’t consistent clear and defined categories for certain items to belong and groceries landed where ever there was a place available…
Heidi chatted with her client about their family shopping and food preparation habits, their priorities of products used and with what frequency.
| Before : Multiple Categories stored on over-crowded shelves… |
Clear and Defined Categories were created with the help of these bins as well as strategic placement in order to separate multiple Food Types and other kitchen and pantry related supplies. Now, items can be found and re-stocked with ease…
| |
| AFTER : Clear and Defined Categories Created |
by Heidi Milton | Mar 1, 2022 | Uncategorized
Many of my clients have several pesky areas in their home that they’d like to improve upon when they reach out to inquire about my Professional Organizing Services. In this particular home, I completed a Pantry Organization project, Master His and Hers Closet Organization as well as revamping a linen closet. I am always SO proud when a client is able to implement ideas that come up during our time together all on their own – and that’s what this post will highlight: How to Organize Board Games!
My client knew that she wanted to use this hall closet in a more intentional way, as well as put together better storage for her family board game collection (some of their games were also stored elsewhere in the house).
The family had only been in the home for about a year, and this area had become a bit of a ‘stash and dash’ zone where things were being kept ‘for now’ until they found a more permanent home. Based on the location in the home, it was my impression that this closet would traditionally be used for coats. However, the home owner hadn’t used it for that purpose yet, and didn’t feel a distinct need for that storage in this zone.
 |
| BEFORE: Hall Closet Stash Zone |
I suggested that a good principle of organizing is to always make it your aim to store like items with like items. Based on the number of games they owned, both she and I thought this closet could work but my client wasn’t sure the best way to store them…
I suggested looking to purchase some free standing shelving that could be moved easily, should they decide they wanted to move the game collection elsewhere or re-purpose the closet for more traditional use…
My client found this
shelving on
Amazon that was perfect for the space and ordered and stacked two of them. I loved that she placed the board games side by side in order to house more as well as make it easier to remove and replace a game to and from the shelf.
33.952602-84.5499327
