Maureen Chilcott

I just have a natural talent, and it's just the way my brain works. I've just always been an organizer. You know, when I was a little girl, my sisters would tease me. I would have all of my dolls sorted by hair color and size, and we didn't have any containers like we do now, but I used paper sacks from the grocery store, and I would organize them and put them around the perimeter of my bedroom. So they always thought that was funny, even when I was little. So I've just always had that knack to, you know, everything kind of fits where it fits in my brain, and it just kind of goes where it needs to go. I always say there's a place for everything, and everything in its place.

Everything happens for a reason, and just because you are not in a particular job anymore, something better will come along. That's kind of how I lived, even though I never changed positions in my corporate world. I stayed in the same position the whole time because that's what I wanted to do, because I was more involved with my family. I was in leadership training, and I actually exited from that because it was taking too much time for my family. So I just wanted to go to work 8 to 5, and that was it. I was really excited to get out of the corporate world, just because I want to help individuals, and not just pad the pockets of people I don't even know.

I would actually tell them to learn about the psychological part of it, of letting go. Learn about that first, before you go into people's homes, because it was kind of easy for me to understand it, but a lot of people don't understand it. So I think that would be key for people to understand the psychological impacts of editing things out of your home. I think that's a lot where Marie Kondo came from, too. But I would just tell them to just persevere, and just, you know, keep going. You're gonna have some clients that you don't particularly get along with, but most of my clients have been repeat clients, and so I would just tell people, you know, don't let one bad apple ruin the whole thing for you.

Honesty is key. I mean, people are putting a lot of trust in me when they allow me in their homes, and that's huge for me. So that's a very key value, and ethics, you know, I would never cheat anybody on anything. I go over and above rather than take it from somebody. I usually give my time away at the end of the day more than take it from somebody. And just empathy, it's huge in this field. You have to have a lot of empathy for people, and give them their space and their time that it takes to make the decisions, especially when you're talking about sentimental objects. I always have them leave that till the very end. You know, if it's sentimental, we just set it off to the side, because that's just huge, and that will slow down the whole process. The empathy thing is huge, because it is a huge step for people to actually make the call to me to say, hey, I need help. So that's a huge jump for them to make. I'm always honored that they choose me after they go through my website, and there's a lot of people that do what I do, and they choose me, and it's an honor to me to help them.