Today we’d like to introduce you to Marina Mahnken.
Hi Marina, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I grew up with Italian-born parents in Brooklyn, NY, in the 80s and 90s. As a product of my environment and nature, I developed a fiery personality growing up. Whenever my mouth would get me in trouble or felt out of control of a situation, I discovered that decluttering and organizing my room gave me a sense of control and made me feel better. Removing everything from every drawer and reorganizing it or rearranging the furniture in my room was my distraction and seemed a solid coping strategy. I developed the skills to create uncluttered and organized spaces early in my life. After graduating high school, I realized time was ticking, and I needed to pick a career path for my future. It would be practical to head toward Early Childhood Education to learn about young kids. My mindset was that even if teaching kiddos didn’t turn out to be my “thing,” at least I would gain some future parenting skills. I headed in that direction, and ultimately, I earned an A.S. degree in Educational Studies, a B.S. degree in Early Childhood Education with a concentration in Sociology, and Master’s credits in School Leadership. During my years as a certified preschool teacher, I realized that my favorite parts of the job were planning my lessons and decluttering, organizing, and maintaining my classroom. My favorite time of the school year was Professional Development days, when I had the opportunity to dump everything out of the storage closets and organize. For more than a decade of my preschool teaching career, colleagues often requested that I help organize their areas. I would teach others how to maintain organized classroom spaces, which became a cherished task. Eventually, in my early 20s, I began helping family members and close personal friends declutter and organize their home spaces and asked if I could take some photos of the “before” and “after” of my projects. I didn’t know what to do with these photos, but I felt I needed a portfolio of my work. I became interested in the mindset of folks with disorganization and began reading books on the subject. I created surveys for everyone I knew and asked what they thought about clutter and maintaining their organization. This was the beginning of my Professional Organizing journey. In 2015, my husband and I moved from an apartment in Brooklyn, NY, to our first house in Aberdeen, NJ, to have more space in the suburbs with our kids. I decided to pursue my dream and open my own business, which I called Declutter My Clutter. Very soon, I was taking courses with the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and the Institute of Challenging Disorganization, earning myself a bunch of CEUs and Certificates. Even with my education, nothing came close to my experiences working in homes with my clients.
People may not realize this, but decluttering with someone in their home can be highly personal. Clients shared emotional stories about their personal belongings and what the process of letting go of items of lost relatives and relationships meant to them. Organizing changed people’s lives entirely for the better. They could finally find their items, felt less stressed and weren’t struggling as much. A weight had been lifted for them. Those experiences shaped me in more ways than I could’ve ever imagined. Working alongside my clients shaped me, teaching me a lot about compassion and understanding. Eventually, I grew my business and trained some fantastic organizers. We grew to be a team of six Organizers, and I loved every minute of working with my team. At the end of 2019, I decided to close up shop and spend more time at home with my three daughters, which became necessary throughout the pandemic. In the summer of 2021, my family and I moved down to Winter Garden, Florida, and I decided to open Declutter My Clutter LLC back up and start from scratch in a new place with new local clients. I couldn’t even imagine a better place to start a local business. This city is gorgeous, and the community is very invested in their small businesses.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There is no road leading to entrepreneurship that is entirely smooth. By the time I finally decided to become a business owner, I was already a mother of two little kids, a wife, and a homeowner, and I had another career as a preschool teacher. This would interrupt my path, invite some risk (as starting any business tends to do), and force me into a balancing act that is the reality of all mothers with any career. But I was ready to move on from teaching, and most importantly, I had a very supportive husband who encouraged me to pivot wherever I may. In the beginning, I taught preschool 3 days a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) and took home organizing clients on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and weekends. On the weekends, I also handled my business paperwork and wrote my lesson plans and newsletters for parents for my teaching job. I was balancing this work schedule while also taking care of my family, and home requirements were sometimes overwhelming. I left my teaching position and decided that it was time to let go of that career path entirely.
Then we got pregnant with kiddo number 3. I took on another Organizer to work with me on projects that were too physically taxing during my pregnancy. I loved having a team member in my business. She was an integral part of my business growth at the time that I was also growing my family. Once baby number 3 came, I began wearing a new hat – “employer” for Declutter My Clutter. I started conducting interviews to grow my team because while my business was gaining more clientele, I needed to be in a position to serve everyone the way I once did. And this is where the road became pretty bumpy.
I had a new baby, two other young kids, and my household to maintain. And a growing business with employees. I realized how much money it costs to run a multi-person business correctly. There were employer expenses of various insurances, employer taxes, business software to run the business properly, money lost offering discounts and freebies to clients who worked with new hires while training (and paying) those new hires, money spent still taking organizing courses (which at this point I certainly did not need), and industry association memberships. While also still paying for daycare expenses for my infant to be available to run this business. I spent too much money on my business, which grew too quickly. It is a very exciting time to have a thriving business, but you also need to know how to do it in a fiscally responsible way. I never allowed my business to touch the red line. Still, after paying employees, business expenses, and quality childcare so I could work, I was barely making a profit anymore. I also was able to spend less time being present with my own family. I decided to close the business in December 2019 (which broke my heart) and took a long break to learn from my experiences. That break lasted 3 years, and in that time, a pandemic and a huge move from New Jersey to Florida passed through. In starting Declutter My Clutter LLC back up here in this new place, I have the knowledge and experience to do it differently this time.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about Declutter My Clutter LLC?
Declutter My Clutter LLC is a local residential decluttering and organizing business. I coach my clients in decluttering items at home that no longer have value to them or serve a purpose in their present life. I also work alongside my clients to transfer skills to improve their home’s organization and personal habits to maintain the home’s organization. Finding the right Professional Organizer has to do with organizing style. Here is where I differ. I noticed that over the years, especially with the uptick in social media influencers, this industry has become saturated with this idea of perfection and pristine home spaces where it used to be about realistic functionality for folks who needed help. I am less concerned with creating a social media-perfect look when organizing rather than helping to create a realistic and functional space that makes sense for each client’s needs while considering natural landing places and current behaviors. I assist individuals and families who are willing, ready and committed to eliminating clutter and improving organization in their homes. My in-person decluttering/organizing sessions are 4 hours long (9:30 am-1:30 pm) on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. All in-person sessions are reserved for Winter Garden, Horizon West, and Windermere, Florida residents. For clients who want to work with me outside of those 3 local areas, I also conduct 90-minute Virtual Organizing sessions via Zoom on Wednesday mornings.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
My honesty and my no-nonsense approach are why my clients work with me. I believe in being intentional with every decision and am focused on self-reflection. Experiences must be had and mistakes made to learn. I ask myself the hard questions and update the answers as I discover more about myself. Inquiry and self-awareness is the key. I encourage my clients to be realistic about their intentions too. I ask a lot of questions when I’m working with my clients. I ask why they do things, why they own things, where they would look for things, what are their natural habits, and once they’ve seen the outcome of decisions, is there further improvement to be made to get closer to their goal. It is important in life and in business to sit in your mistakes, own them, and feel them, and then you can let go of them and move on to improvement.
Pricing:
- $195 – 4-hour in-person decluttering/organizing sessions (9:30am-1:30pm) for clients living in Winter Garden, Horizon West, and Windermere, Florida
- $55 – 90-minute virtual decluttering/organizing sessions (via Zoom)
Contact Info:
- Website: decluttermyclutter.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DeclutterMyClutter/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DeclutterMyClutterWinterGardenFL
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/declutter-my-clutter-winter-garden
- Other: https://calendly.com/decluttermyclutter
