What if getting organized started with kindness instead of shame? This is how Holly Blair turns home organizing into an opportunity for mental clarity.
Holly Blair understands the impact of physical space on mental health. Twenty-two years as a Child and Youth Worker gave her extensive training related to mental health and neurodivergence, and when she decided it was time for a career pivot, home organizing felt like a natural direction.
“I have a slogan called calm space, calm mind, and that comes from personal experience,” Holly explains. “I'm a professional home organizer, but I don't live a perfect life. A lot of people think that they're all professional organizers, they won't understand my life. But I've been there. I've dealt with my own grief and anxiety and depression, and I've had big life transitions where my home was cluttered, and it really did affect my mind. If you're coming home and it's somewhere that is not peaceful, then it's not great for your mental health.”
After getting trained with the Professional Organizers in Canada, Holly launched Peace of Mind Home Organizing this past April. She offers a variety of services, including decluttering and home organizing, senior support and downsizing, packing and unpacking for moves, and systems maintenance. Along with offering mental health-informed care, she’s also attentive to mobility considerations, such as finding usable locations for people using walkers or wheelchairs, especially if they live alone.
But no matter the client or the service, Holly prioritizes personalization. From her perspective, there’s no one-size-fits all approach to home organizing.
“My system isn’t Instagram or Pinterest-perfect,” Holly says. “It’s made to meet peoples’ lifestyle, their needs, their brain. It’s finding what works best for each individual so that they're happy in their own home, feel at peace, and can maintain it.”
Holly has found that many of her clients are diagnosed or self-diagnosed with ADHD, and need highly practical systems-design that fit their unique needs. This could look like avoiding “out of sight, out of mind” storage by using clear bins or clear labels, helping with executive functioning and building new habits and routines. Above all, it requires nonjudgmental support. As someone who lives with neurodivergent family members, Holly’s seen it all, and goes in ready to encourage rather than shame.
“Many people who are neurodivergent have tons of amazing ideas and thoughts circulating in their brain all at once, and sometimes it’s hard to focus on one thing at a time. When this happens, I often recommend body doubling which can help keep them focussed on one task at a time. Getting started is also a hurdle for many. The overwhelm can be debilitating. That’s where I come in.”
Holly offers free, no-obligation in-home consultations to get an idea of what habits are already in place and where there’s opportunity to transform them into organized systems. For example, if someone already brings their mail to the kitchen, that would become the homebase for a new mail-sorting system. An entire reset is intimidating, and not actually necessary; it’s just a matter of finding and working through the barriers.
As a business, Peace of Mind Home Organizing has gone through its own systems building this year. Being a certified professional organizer was one thing, but being an entrepreneur was another entirely, and Holly was starting brand new. She began workshopping her dream with Emily Mason from the SBEC, and then connected with The Atrium to get it off the ground.
“On my second day working out of The Atrium, I registered and launched my business,” Holly says. “Becoming a member has been a tremendous help with learning how to be a small business owner. I come in with questions and I absorb like a sponge, and facilitate those systems into my work. It’s such a positive, welcoming environment where people focus on collaboration, not competition. I really don't think my business would be where it is today without Elle and my favourite coworkers.”
This year, Holly has been selected as a recipient of the Starter Company Plus program this term through SBEC and the St. Thomas Economic Development Corporation. As her business continues to grow, she’s ready to keep meeting people where they are and helping them find their calm.
Ready to reconnect with your space? Find Holly at peaceofmindhomeorganizing.com, on Instagram and Facebook , or via email at peaceofmindhomeorganizing@gmail.com.