Leslie Todd, the next big thing (in the organizing world)

When I was a little girl, I always remember keeping a clean/neat room.  Every Saturday was "chore day" and Sis and I would have to clean up our rooms along with other duties.  As I grew older, I would always rearrange my room and frequently reorganize my drawers.  My room was my pride and joy, because it was my responsiblity.  If I ever had a friend or visitor come to my house, I would ALWAYS have them come see my room.  It didn't matter who you were, you were coming to see my room.  I am even like that today only with the whole house.  If you are a guest in my home, be expected to take a tour of the house as soon as you come in the front door.  I have cleaned the house especially for you so humor me.

In the 5th and 6th grades, I would rearrange/clean out/organize my classmates' tubs.  (All of our books and notebooks wouldn't fit under our desk seats so we had plastic tubs to go under the book rack that attached under our seat.)  Yes, I was extremely nerdy, but I loved being able to help my peers simplify their lives with a clean tub.  In some ways, I always knew they would get better grades because of their clean and organized tub, and they would have me to thank.

While visiting home during the college years, somehow it was my duty to organize the kitchen cabinets and drawers.  I was the only one (oh, lucky me) who was able to clean out the Lazy Susan cabinet in the kitchen.  For some strange reason Sissy nor Mom couldn't seem to do as good of a job as I with cleaning that particular cabinet out (or maybe they were pushing the work off on me).

My love for organizing grew exponentially when I started watching "Clean Sweep" on TLC in college.  I was a sophomore in college and I would clean out and organize my "under the bed" tubs at least twice per show.

I can't really remember exactly when it started (maybe high school), but I have organized Sissy's closet at least 10 or more times.  The deal always was whatever clothes Sis didn't want/or couldn't wear, I would have dibs.  I have received a lot of hand-me-downs over the past few years from Sis.  Just take a look at one time's fun cleaning out process:

Before

After

Frankly the pictures don't do it justice:  the mess and the post-mess.

After years of cleaning and organizing my stuff along with others', my dream of becoming a professional organizer seemed out of reach.  How many professional organizers do you know who live in Alabama?  I mean this is like a big city and TV show type of a job.  I had come to grips that this was a dream that I would die still wanting to achieve it until I actually met one...

Daniel is currently involved in a 9 month guys bible study.  Back in October, his group had a spouse get-togerther at one of his group leaders' houses.  After a wonderful meal, we had to go around and introduce ourselves.  Y'know...the usual stuff:  how long you have been married, jobs, kids, etc.  I never expected one of the wives to say that her job is being a certified professional organizer.  Immediately Daniel and I looked at each other and my dream of being a professional organizer suddenly jumped into the reality category.  Of course, I talked with her about her profession and her schooling afterwards.  She really helped direct show me the direction that I need to go.

Starting this Saturday, I begin my first official, unofficial job of working as a "professional" organizer.  My first house is my Aunt Jane's.  I call it my "dummy" house, but it might be more appropriately named my first "model" home.  And when I say I am doing the house, I mean I am doing the whole house (minus the bedrooms)!  I am starting in the kitchen and working my way to the other end of the house, not to mention the basement.  I might need an entire year just to clean out the basement.

I am super excited about this door that God has opened for me.  I have no idea where this path will take me or how "professional" I will become.  I can only trust Him and be faithful in using my gifts to serve and honor Him.