Ep. 74 Jaime Bergman

On this episode, I am joined by Jaime Bergman. She is the founder of Crescent Living Co. She is a home organizer who works with clients all over the Fraser Valley and Greater Vancouver areas.

We discuss how difficult downsizing can be and how much guilt is associated with clutter. We talk about some easy tips on where to start by yourself and the benefits of working with professionals.

Crescent Living Co. can also assist you with moving. They help pack up all your belongings, donate everything that isn't coming to the new space and help unpack as well.

Jaime Bergman | Home Organizer (@crescentlivingco) • Instagram photos and videos
Contact 1 — Crescent Living Co.

Filled Up Cup - Unconventional Self Care for Modern Women
Ashley (@filledupcup_) • Instagram photos and videos

Transcript

0:00

Welcome to the Filled Up Cup podcast. We are a different kind of self care resource, one that has nothing to do with bubble baths and face masks, and everything to do with rediscovering yourself. We bring you real reviews, honest experiences, and unfiltered opinions that will make you laugh, cry, and most importantly, leave you with a filled up cup.

Ashley: 0:35

I am so excited today. I have Jaime Bergman joining me. Jaime is the owner of Crescent Living Co here in North Vancouver. Is that right?

Jaime: 0:44

Yes, I actually serve all over the North Shore, as well as into Vancouver and all the way out to the Fraser Valley. So we're fully encompassing of the lower mainland.

Ashley: 0:54

Awesome. Are all of your services in person or do you do online as well?

Jaime: 0:59

In the beginning of pandemic era, we were transitioning to virtual services, but personally, I find that when we do work together with our clients in person, we just get so much more value out of each session and connect with people on a much more personal level and are able to accomplish loads more than Virtually. So we have basically transitioned fully back into in person services as of late 2020, early 2021

Ashley: 1:29

I would think for me personally, the virtual, it's like they would show you exactly what they want you to see. So there could be like a whole mess over here, or I would say that it would be harder to be authentic without the person being right there in some cases.

Jaime: 1:44

Yeah, and I feel like a lot of barriers are really dropped when we meet people in person. It's such a intimate experience to be having a stranger come in and touch everything that you own in a certain zone or room in your home. So when you get to meet somebody in person, your walls drop down a lot quicker than through a virtual screen.

Ashley: 2:07

For sure. Were you always somebody that was really organized or did it happen over time?

Jaime: 2:14

Short answer is yes. I've always been the kid that was rearranging my bedroom and begging my parents to come and take a look or help me move the bed or something like that but when it comes to my education it started in interior design. So being able to niche down into this small market of home organization service, as opposed to providing. Full scope interior design is really where I chose to direct my energy and attention to because it's so needed here locally. I was able to provide a service that is a little bit more budget friendly than a full scope service of interior design. And naturally more and more people wanted to book us. So that's been great for us.

Ashley: 2:59

I do think that so many people don't necessarily realize when we are surrounded by clutter or especially for moms with kids, when birthday parties or holidays come in, how much stuff you have in your house. And sometimes if you're a person that's really emotionally connected to your stuff, it can be hard to incorporate old with new. And then all of a sudden you become. Sort of overwhelmed or it becomes stressed that you can't stay on top of cleaning or you can't stay on top of What's really important as far as like something that was passed down or your kids favorite toy to something that's taking up space just to take up space

Jaime: 3:37

Yeah, you hit two really good points there. One being that the holidays are already stressful enough as it is. And I don't know about you, but if I had company coming over and wanted to go and make them a beverage or make them feel welcome in my home, especially if there were staying here for a number of days over the holiday season I want to have a sense of calm where I know that if my guests need something or needed to find something that I'm not embarrassed to have them go and seek out a mug for their morning cup of coffee themselves or go into my linen closet and be able to get the items that they need without having to Ask me or in another case, the host where it is and feeling like they're interrupting or inconveniencing anybody and having that sense of peace and calm and be in the know of my own home that it is that organized and dialed in that I don't have to go rooting around for anything. It's just peace of mind for me, really. So that's over and above in terms of having people and guests over for the holidays. But We are always going to be accumulating stuff and regardless if that is for Christmas, a birthday, or just a regular old Tuesday when your mom decides to bring home a bunch of your own memorabilia, and it's all about how we are Placing those items within the areas of our home so that they don't turn into clutter and aren't just being valued and sitting in the corner of a dusty basement, but rather if it's grandma's China and you actually want to be honoring it, placing it in a space in your home where it's going to get used or at least looked at as opposed to it sitting in a box is something that a lot of people struggle with for sure.

Ashley: 5:28

We get so attached, like I've moved several times over the years, I still have stuff in Rubbermaid's that I probably could just take the Rubbermaid straight to somewhere and not ever look at it again, but it's funny, the stuff that we keep in boxes just for the sake of keeping for someday and rarely someday actually ever happens.

Jaime: 5:47

You're absolutely right. It's this whole notion of well, maybe I'll need it someday or so and so of my family might want it at some point when from my experience over the past several years of helping families. This is probably going to be a hard pill to swallow for a lot of individuals, but The notion of hand me downs as well as heirlooms is not as strong of a connection or strong of a bond in today's world as it has been in previous generations. Why? Because as a culture we don't have a lot of physical square footage for these items and we're also in a society that is completely being bombarded with get the new thing. Hold on to the old, get the new thing, get the new thing for this season, for that season, and it just creates this Extreme abundance of stuff. And when we are given, or when we are told, Hey, auntie is going to be selling her house, she's going to get rid of all of her pots and pans. They're meant to be in perfect condition, but we don't necessarily have anywhere to house them. So unfortunately giving them to a charity or a goodwill in this circumstance is not uncommon. And holding on to these items isn't going to bring the value back. From how much was spent on them originally either.

Ashley: 7:12

Well, and that's the thing that we also need to almost let go of the guilt of that. If I spent something and it's really expensive and I actually didn't need it or I actually didn't like it or it served its purpose and I used it 50 times and now I want something different or to downsize, it's okay to get rid of stuff like there's so much guilt attached to that unnecessarily.

Jaime: 7:35

Oh, you're absolutely right. The level of guilt that we see within our clients come to surface when we are sorting through any particular room, but a lot of the case, it is clothing. I love helping women get organized when it comes to their clothes and clothing, because they hold so many memories, but they can also hold a lot of guilt because it is something that people tend to invest a lot in, or maybe not in a particular piece, but in An investment wardrobe of you have 20 of the same sweater and you don't want to get rid of any of them, but they no longer fit you or they feel itchy or they're just not part of your lifestyle anymore. So dropping guilt is a huge part of our job as home organizers to Make space in the client's physical room, but also make space emotionally for them to be able to let go of that guilt.

Ashley: 8:25

If somebody was at the point that they were like, I'm overwhelmed by my house, I don't know what to do. I want to create these organizational systems. How do they go about hiring somebody and knowing that that's the right fit for them.

Jaime: 8:38

So definitely do a discovery call or we offer free consultations through Crescent, but it's a chance for not only the potential client to get to know the organizer, it's also an opportunity for the organizer to get to know the client and what type of circumstance we're dealing with in this sense. So if someone messages me and says, Hey, Jaime, I want to work with you. I'm excited to get my kitchen under control and set up some new refresh systems. And they send me photos and then they have a Pinterest board of things that they want to recreate. I say, that's fantastic. That's so good. I'm so excited that you're this motivated. And when we go a little bit deeper into the discussion I can pretty much look at photos at this point or video footage and tell the client. You're going to have to get rid of 30, 40, 50 percent of your stuff in order to achieve the look that you want based on your inspirational board. And if someone says, well, I don't want to get rid of everything, my immediate response is, I cannot simply just organize the excess clutter. It doesn't work. So if we're not able to be on the same wavelength when it comes to getting on board with editing your items, then we probably aren't a good fit. And maybe that client in general is just not ready to have a professional come in yet to help them with the editing process. I always say the magic is in the editing because it truly is. Anyone can go and buy different products to make their pantry look really pretty. But if the editing portion isn't done as the work or the first go round, you will never get to that level of stress free or calm as you see and want to experience in your Pinterest board or inspirational board because you have too much stuff to begin with. So when someone is. Working with me for a discovery call. I talk about all this. I'm very frank and open with people because I don't want someone to be disappointed when it comes to our services and get discouraged from ultimately helping them achieve what they want to. So sometimes it's more of a baby step process,

Ashley: 10:43

which I think is fair enough too. One thing that I noticed on your website that I think isn't talked about enough too, is that, so say somebody comes in, they're on board, you make it pretty. I think that there's a myth a lot of people have that then that's that, that you stay organized forever and that you can, you know, have this perfect space. But I like that your website pointed out that you actually have to go back and help them or re edit and it's a kind of an ongoing learning curve at times.

Jaime: 11:12

I wish that were the case in terms of being able to go in and organize one specific area and it just stayed organized. My husband would never get mad at me if that were the case because even in my own home, I'm a very organized and meticulous person. We maintain a very organized household, but The major misconception is that once it's organized, you never have to touch it. Well, circumstances in your home also changed too. I have a six year old before this, I had a five, four, three, two, one year old. So of course our needs as a home are going to evolve as our child grows. As well as we transitioned to doing things like working from home or going back to the office. And every room in the house needs a little bit of juzzing or revamping every once in a while. And that's okay. Another thing is that. People often think, well, only disorganized people are seeking the services of a home organizer, and that's really not true at all. Some of our most consistent clients are the people who are extremely well organized in their home. They just don't necessarily have the time to do a full reset of specific areas or rooms in their space because they know how important it is. They just don't have the physical time to dedicate towards it. With all the other stuff going on in their lives. So when an organizer comes in and is able to help and set the time aside for the client, it is almost like booking a meeting with yourself and the organizer to get a project finished. And that can be really helpful for extremely busy clients or people that have like an excess of two to three kids or anything like that. It just is impossible to do by yourself, but. They know the value and what it feels like to have those spaces organized and refreshed. So there are repeat clients for sure.

Ashley: 13:00

Time is our biggest currency. But it's like if you have the ability to outsource whether it's hiring cleaners, whether it's hiring somebody to come in and organize like there's so much value in not stressing yourself out, not overwhelming yourself to have somebody who knows the steps. It can be this simple and really, like you had said, booking that time for yourself. Cause I think a lot of times with women and moms, we tend to put the stuff that we want or we need at the bottom of our list, which then almost just amplifies it becoming a bigger issue. So it really is. Nice. When you can say, Hey, I need somebody to take the kids for these two hours on this day and this day, I'm going to do this really quickly and looping somebody else in with it and hiring that help makes it seem like I'm just not taking the time for myself and justify it that way.

Jaime: 13:51

Absolutely. It is a very common theme with us and our clients that a lot of our clients are busy families. It's moms that are reaching out to us and saying that they are drowning in kids toys or don't have time to go through their whole closet themselves and need some help. And this whole notion of women being expected to be at home with our kids and not saying that men don't help, of course, but this. Yeah, this expectation of women have to be able to be home with our kids and raise them while at the same time having a busy career and climbing a corporate ladder or running a business themselves and also maintain a household and keep yourself alive to and shower and do all those things. It's just too much at the moment. I personally, I run a business. I am a mom. I'm a wife and I have a house. Well, what can I outsource? I outsource cleaning. I don't do a deep clean myself every other week. I hire someone to come and do it because I don't have the capacity to spend an entire Saturday cleaning my entire home. I don't want to, I'm way more pleased to spend the time with my family or doing something else. That is for myself or for my business or whatever that might be. And again, it's that theme of guilt that really plays in there with women saying, Oh, I should be able to do this myself. Why? Why should you be able to do this yourself? Why can't you get some help with it? Much like any other service, even when it comes to landscaping, or cleaning, or having someone come in and change your electrical items, or do whatever under the sun in your household. It's no different.

Ashley: 15:34

Yeah, our mental load is way too high and if you think about the model of when, women were homemakers and responsible for all of that, the landscape did look a lot different where maybe we were just at home and had the kids. It wasn't that we had to, work, be expected to, not age and look a certain way. To be a mom, to be all of these things where in today's model, it's just, it's unrealistic. That yeah, whenever possible, outsource and take that time for yourself. Now I know thinking about cleaners, when I first had mine, I was like, I'm going to pre clean before they come in. Do you find that people are like that with home organization that they try to start the project or make the project seem I don't know, less embarrassing for them, even though it shouldn't be before you come in.

Jaime: 16:23

That is something that's discussed in our discovery call. And when I ask for photos, I understand it's a really vulnerable thing to do to ask a stranger to take pictures of their house and then send it to someone that they met on Instagram. Like that is, that's a really big ask. So I tell people to please don't pre clean. I want to see what it looks like right now after the kids have just had breakfast and they've been rushed off to school and you have a chaotic kitchen. That's what I want to see truly and honestly, because that is how you currently are using this space and are maybe not seeing the gaps. That are in the setup of your space that I can help you with. So I always tell people don't feel shameful. They're not going to be released on the internet or put on Instagram without anybody's prior approval. So when we have the ability to, again, start breaking down that barrier with our. Client right from the discovery call, it is much more of an impactful service when we get the true story as opposed to just what is being presented now. There have definitely been times where someone has sent me photos and video of their space, but it's not exactly an accurate description of maybe what's lurking behind a shelf or a cupboard door or 12 cupboard doors that they haven't yet shown me. And then that's when we just have to go into the discussion of this session might take a little bit longer, and that's okay. They're very receptive to it. But it's all about the approach in our sense and being sensitive to the fact that maybe this was just too much for them to handle, or it was something that they were pretty embarrassed about when they were sending us photos and all of that's okay. It's just about communication in that respect.

Ashley: 18:04

For sure. Do you have a certain area that you personally like to organize the most when you go into clients houses?

Jaime: 18:12

That's a really tricky question. I have two. First is definitely a kitchen because it's no joke that the kitchen really is the heart of the home. And I know that it's cheesy and cliche, but Everybody needs to eat. If your kitchen is stressing you out, I can't imagine anything more of a relief than going into a space that is no longer that sense of chaos and clutter. You are proud to be in your kitchen. You are excited to cook the next meal. You take way less time to do things like putting away dishes and cleaning because you have the systems in place that allow you to spend less time doing cooking if that's something that you don't like to do. So we really do tailor it to each and every individual's needs when it comes to how someone sets up their kitchen. I really like the puzzle that goes into that. Secondly, I love working with women and their closets because like I was saying earlier, they really do hold so many memories as well as relationships with our clothing. That seems probably crazy to say a relationship with clothes, but it's true because we have so many things that we're attached to when it comes to maybe a glamorous dress or a sweater that you were wearing when you brought your baby home for the first time. Day or slippers that your mom gave you that are probably ratty, but she doesn't live here anymore. They just hold so many stories. And I love getting to get to know my clients one on one in this really intimate way, because you get to know someone really fast when you go through their underwear drawer. That's for sure.

Ashley: 19:51

I definitely agree with what you're saying about the women's closet, because I feel like it is somewhere where we walk into every day. And if there is. I would say like a lot of should calling this should fit. I should have more time to wear this. I should be going to events that it's like if you walk into that feeling like that every day. That can't be a great feeling.

Jaime: 20:11

No, absolutely. And I can't imagine opening up my closet every day and having all my t shirts tumble down on my head because I can't find the right one. And instead being able to get down to a wardrobe that is full of items that That's a client loves that they feel great in or that they are knowing that they're going to be wearing on a somewhat regular basis. I don't have a hard and fast rule for if you haven't worn it in one year, get rid of it because that's just not been part of our lifestyle for the last. Three years now, so I've scrapped that rule and more so just have focused on the physical look and feel of the fabric as well as the feeling that we get when we do a pile of try ons and say. I love this, how it makes me feel. I love how it makes me look or God, this tag is really itchy or whatever the case is. It's an opportunity to try on anything that you've been neglecting or has been hiding your closet too. And sometimes it can get really fun too. It's like a Carrie Bradshaw moment in some circumstances.

Ashley: 21:12

A lot of times you forget what's even in there. So it's almost like reshopping what you already have.

Jaime: 21:18

It also saves people money in that respect because I can't tell you how many times I've gone into a closet and found the exact same shirt from Aritzia bought three times over because the client physically could not find it in their closet. So clearly it's a winner, but you just couldn't find it in the other items that are cluttering up the space.

Ashley: 21:40

Which is a good point too, especially when we think about fast fashion and things that we know are creating unnecessary problems everywhere else to really kind of think, do I need this or do I like this or things like that too. For people that are wanting to downsize, but they're not quite in a place that they actually want to hire somebody. What are some simple tips that you would recommend to kind of. Start the decluttering process without becoming super overwhelmed by it.

Jaime: 22:11

I would say start with an area of your home that maybe wouldn't be the most stressful or the has the most attachment to. For some people, like we were just saying, might be your closet. That might be a high pressure situation for someone. So start with something that's really low pressure, such as maybe it's your desk office drawer and you want to get that little portion, that little tiny area of your home organized to get the momentum flowing. You don't necessarily have to hire someone to come and organize that for you, but it can really show you in a very small way how satisfying it can feel and how accomplished that you feel and how great you feel about it. And then be able to work in a much more cleaner environment and see what the long term effects of that are, maybe even before you revisit the next project or the next project after that. Once you're able to see the benefits of it longer term than just the reveal, in a sense. It really helps to make people understand that this is a process that you can go through for your entire home, but that doesn't have to be done in one fell swoop by any means. It's just when you hire a team or an organizer, they're going to be able to do it in a much more efficient way and be able to get a larger project done. That you might not be able to do in a single day. If someone told me to rip apart my entire kitchen in a single day, I would say you're crazy because you are. There's no way I could do that by myself. And so often we put this pressure of, I have six hours while the kids are at school and I'm going to rip apart my kitchen to organize it. So often we get pulled in four different directions during that six hours that the kitchen ends up looking like a total tip by the 6 hour mark and you just have to shove everything back in the drawers because it's dinner time and you got to start prep on that or we got to go and do some sort of event or anything can really pop up. So in order to get a larger project done, I would say that would be the time to call in the big guns. But in a smaller way, if you wanted to do something like your desk office drawer or even getting one of your child's. clothing under control. Something smaller that you don't have a lot of attachment to is always beneficial to get the ball rolling.

Ashley: 24:28

See, for me, it's my bathroom because it's really easy if a product is old and gross. Just to be able to, toss it

Jaime: 24:33

Yes, absolutely. And a pantry can also be the same, too, because you can find things that have been lurking in the bottom of your pantry cupboards or pantry drawers and realize, oh my gosh, this expired four years ago, and it immediately creates so much physical square footage in terms of space. It's really satisfying to do that, too.

Ashley: 24:54

When people hire you, how long does organizational projects usually take when professionals come in and do it?

Jaime: 25:02

It depends on the scope of the project. When we work with a client for a kitchen space that is pretty standard, 2000, 3000 square feet, and it doesn't have a Separate butler's kitchen. We can typically do that with two to three organizers in about six to seven hours Now each of us would take a bit of a lunch break, of course But it usually takes two to three organizers six hours and that includes product placement so when I say product placement that means that we're incorporating different containers or bins and items to decant your flowers and baking needs into as well as labeling Everything and doing a solid edit with the client. First we do the edit and then second, we put everything back together while they go and have a cup of coffee and sit down and relax. And then that is when my team and I get to work. Real fast in terms of placing everything back into the drawers or cupboards that is going to be remaining. And that's when the kitchen Tetris really comes into play. But yeah, it takes about six to seven hours. That's typically the length of our session anyways, because we find that you get decision fatigue as a client past that point. And that's something that we want to avoid for sure.

Ashley: 26:18

I love the fact that everything is labeled and has a home. I think that makes it so much easier when you know, okay, I've put this down or my kitchen table. All of the kids have dumped stuff on. I know that it goes here, here and here. Instead of trying to figure out where am I going to put this? Where does this go? It really eliminates that that mental load of having to make another decision at the end of the day.

Jaime: 26:41

And that is exactly why having an organized space, the benefits of it are really long term, because when your house does get a little crazy, and especially after an event like Christmas, you get an influx of stuff. But the system that you have in place on the back end, much like running a business, everything has its place and has a system, it makes your cleanup and organizing and tidying during those middle of the road days much more simple and quicker because everything has a place to go. Anytime that my husband and I are doing a detailed clean of our house, it's gotten a little out of control. We've had a lot of things going on throughout the last week. It makes it so much faster to clean because I know where my reusable chopsticks go. I know exactly where all of my daughter's art supplies are supposed to be. They might not be there at the moment, but at least I know where they have to go in order to quickly put them away and not just get shoved into a drawer.

Ashley: 27:42

It's so valuable to be able to not have to think about those things when talking about different containers. Is there a certain Place where you're like, this is my go to like, are you an Ikea person? Are you a structured person or do you

Jaime: 27:57

kind of Yeah, we do work with a lot of different types of brands and everything I will never say that one is better than the other but I will say that Some of the Ikea employees know me by name at this point because I'm there very often But it also happens to be I live quite close to the location of Ikea So it's easy for me to pop in there. I will work with anybody and any budget that they have when it comes to products, we can go dollar store or we can go pottery barn and everywhere in between. So it just depends on someone's budget. I also have a welcome kit that I send to let people know some of the products that we use on a consistent basis and that have great reviews from our team as well as our clients. I would never promote a product that I. Don't love or use myself and being able to incorporate those on a consistent basis, just allows me to buy them for the client and be able to know that anything that I'm installing is going to be holding its value as well as maintaining the system that we've put in because we've done them time and time again.

Ashley: 29:02

Which makes it huge too, because I feel like when we get too attached to one product, it does make it a little bit difficult and there is so many fantastic options as far as Lazy Susan's and boxes and bins and all that kind of stuff now that it has become. So much more readily available.

Jaime: 29:20

Yeah. And a big mistake too, that I find a lot of people make is that we see all the time on Instagram and Pinterest, that the products are what make everything look polished. And while that is definitely true, the fact of the matter is that really, we shouldn't be buying products for our spaces until we've done the nitty gritty work of editing the items, because you're just really. Buying all of these products for things that you might not necessarily keep and You're going to be overbuying or buying the wrong product if we decided to maybe revamp where things are situated in a closet or in a kitchen space. And that can waste money. It can waste your time by going to shop for all of these products. It can really be discouraging if you ultimately decide that these products don't work for you after organizing. And then you have to make the next run of going and returning everything. So Discouragement, discouragement, discouragement, as opposed to having someone be able to shop for you, bring all the products to site and be able to return anything for you after the fact that isn't used. So that's another benefit of working with an organizer in that respect. We take care of that for all of our clients as well. Of course, we'll take measurements if there are things that need to be purchased specifically, such as drawer inserts or baskets that need to fit on a specific shelf, etc.

Ashley: 30:49

Which I think would be so invaluable because I found even during the pandemic, even just ordering from Amazon and then having to actually send it back. I probably still have some of those things that were on my, I should've, could've, would've, and then you just never do.

Jaime: 31:02

Yeah. So again, it's like time, effort, energy, money. Let's just skip that step and have someone else do it for you.

Ashley: 31:08

For sure. Now, you had touched on the fact that obviously you go in and you organize the space and you reorganize for existing clients. Can you tell me a little bit more about the additional services that you offer?

Jaime: 31:20

Of course, something that we have been really focusing on over the last year and into 2024. Is this whole moving concierge experience so I personally love getting possession of a new space, whether it's a rental property or a new home, and being able to start fresh, being able to curate what you want this new space to look and feel like from the get go is such a blessing so my team and I have been building up our client base when it comes to prepping people for a move and being able to do. Everything from the original decluttering and listing set up when you're going to go list your house for sale and being able to declutter all of your closets, create that beautiful breathing room. And really just downsize the amount of items that you're going to be moving into your next home with all the way to being that first line of defense when it comes to accepting the moving truck on the other side when you go and move into your new house and start the unpacking process. Right from the get go. We will also pack up all the boxes and unpack them for you on the other side so that it is way less time spent with this extremely stressful point in someone's life. They don't need the extra stress of having to then go and unpack every single thing that they own if they don't have the time to do it. So that's when we have. full team on our roster, able to tackle as many spaces as possible in a very short amount of time to get someone settled and nestled into their new home.

Ashley: 33:02

Oh, it's such a valuable service because moving is the literal worst. It is really stressful. Like we had talked about, we don't necessarily have time in our regular day to day to do everything that we need to do that on top of it moving. I couldn't even imagine how amazing that would feel.

Jaime: 33:21

It's way less daunting from the start if you have the knowledge that you already are going to have help with this. If you're thinking, I'm going to list my house in the next three to six months and Again, this is not for just the disorganized individuals out there, it's actually more so we're finding the very organized people that are starting to plan out their moves two maybe three months in advance, and being able to get our services booked in well in advance so that they can have peace of mind that they don't have to worry about it. Honestly, people don't have to lift a single finger when they work with us when it comes to packing and unpacking short of if they want to edit their items before moving now again, I want to stress that it is super important to create space and time for the decluttering and editing step before you move into your new home, as opposed to pushing it off and saying, I'll do it when I get to the new space. It'll be all fine. Well, I'm telling you that yeah. I'm that you're thinking about doesn't really exist. It only exists in our minds because when we actually move into the new space, there is not a chance that you want to spend time decluttering and editing. You want to start living in this space and experiencing it. You're also going to save money and time by not having to pack everything up, spend money on packing materials, boxes, time for movers to cart things from house A to house B. And instead just do it on the forefront. So I can't stress that enough. And that is definitely what we help our clients do. Once their house has sold, we help them to edit and then pack so that they don't have to worry about bringing anything unnecessary to their new home.

Ashley: 35:01

Well, and I think that when you are in the packing stage, you realize, depending on how long you've been in the home that you're currently in, you start to realize, Oh my gosh, I have. You know, art supplies and my kids now in high school and not touching these as much or I have, all of these tea towels and my kitchen is going to be smaller in the next house. And all of these things I find for me personally, it's so much easier to actually really get rid of that stuff before taking it to the other place. The guilt is gone. It just makes it like one less thing that you have to do. So mentally for me, it's been the best. Although when it comes to unpacking, then it's easier to get that fatigue from it. So to have somebody really hold your hand or go in and do it for you and you don't have to deal with it. If you can afford that service, I highly, highly, highly recommend it.

Jaime: 35:49

I always say to moving is an opportunity to touch. Everything that you own and you never are going to get that opportunity throughout your day to day life because we simply don't and don't have the time to. It's not something that I'm going into the back of my linen closet or the deepest, darkest corner of my crawl space just to go and physically open a box. But when you're moving, you have to, there's no leaving it in the crawl space for the next homeowner unless you want it to be taken to the garbage dump. So, another thing that we offer in terms of our service packages, whether that is just a one on one day or a moving house is we take your donations for you. Often we find that our clients donation piles get shoved to The trunk of their car or the foot of their garage, and we take that burden off of you so that you don't have to worry about that extra step of getting it out of your house. And there's no take backsies that way. We are taking it and it is gone. So getting into the hands of the people that can actually really use it is really important to myself as well as our clients. And instead of having it again, just move or shuffle from room A to the garage, Let's just skip that step and we'll take care of it for you.

Ashley: 37:04

Are there certain places that you take donations, or is it basically like any local thrift store

Jaime: 37:11

I like to drop things off depending on what the items are. So if I'm working With a man or a woman and they have a lot of clothing that is in really good condition As well as a little bit more corporate style. We go and drop off at dress for success if it is something that is Consignment we help our clients to consign it we can take them to turnabout for them or depending on what level of A brand. It is another consignment, online consignment store. We'll connect with them and be able to sell them locally. Otherwise there are different free stores. There's one out in White Rock, our lead organizer, Amber lives out that way, so she's constantly dropping things off at the free store is what they call it, And so it's just a great opportunity for people to come in without any shame or guilt and be able to shop from an actual store. But everything is. free. And then, of course, Mamas for Mamas is great for different baby supplies and products and that type of thing that are unused. Some people come there with absolutely nothing to their name. And then there's a lot of more women's shelters out in the Fraser Valley. And Salvation Army thrift store, and then Valley Village for just the kind of everyday run of the mill items.

Ashley: 38:24

If anybody is looking for you online, can you tell them where they can find you?

Jaime: 38:29

Absolutely. We are very active on our Instagram account at Crescent Living Co. We have loads of behind the scenes footage every day of the jobs that we're working on, as well as tons of before and afters so you can see what it looks like to work with us. You'll also find us at www dot Crescent Living dot ca and you'll be able to get a rundown of all of our services and connect with me for any consultations that you want to hold with me.

Ashley: 38:59

Well, thank you, Jamie, so much for having this conversation with me today.

Jaime: 39:03

Thank you.

39:06

Thank you so much for joining us today for this episode of the filled up cup podcast. Don't forget to hit subscribe and leave a review. If you like what you hear, you can also connect with us at filledupcup.Com. Thanks again for tuning in and we'll catch you in the next episode.