A Little Meet & Greet... How I Became Cleaned & Contained

Hello hello, and welcome to my blog! Thanks for being here! If you don't already know me, my name is Ashley and I am the owner and founder of Cleaned & Contained LLC based in Northern California.

This business has been many years in the making, I just never dreamed everything would come together so perfectly and fall into place as it did.

I took an uncharacteristic leap in October 2022 and made the decision to become a professional organizer and housecleaner. A decision to create a business of my own with no credentials or degree in this field.. just a passion, a deep desire, and a fire in my soul.

I get asked often if I was organized from the beginning. I can't say that I was a particularly neat & tidy child. While I wasn't a total slob {my room rarely looked like a tornado had blown through it}, I was just somewhere in the middle of clean and chaos. I enjoyed having a clean space and my mom always kept a tidy home {still does.. thanks mom for showing me the way!} so I was aware of the benefits from the start.

Looking back now, I realize that she kept our house the way she did for her own benefit more than ours, she needed less physical chaos in order to keep the calm mentally. A trait that I can absolutely relate to!

With organization comes empowerment.

When I became a young mom thirteen years ago to my son, I had a newfound responsibility not only to him but to our little family. I was now the keeper of our home, wherever that was at the time. We started at a rental apartment in Chico while finishing school, then moved to multiple rentals in the Bay Area. Even though we did not own at the time, I immediately felt an urge to create a home and embraced all aspects of a my role as a stay at home mom. Watching all those hours of HGTV growing up paid off. I thrived being able to design our space {thriftily and on a budget}, organize, clean, and figure out which systems worked for us and kept our lives flowing smoothly as we navigated being young parents, working professionals, and humans who were still learning their place in the world {still are by the way.. making good progress though!}.

My firstborn was a breeze. He was such an easy going, joyful little guy and our life back then was much slower paced. Several years after we started our family, careers were progressing and we ended up buying our first home away from the bay area and adding a second bundle of joy, my daughter. An unexpected side effect of becoming a family of four..

OH, THE ANXIETY.

Once she was born and I was now responsible for two littles, it did not take long to realize I was thrown into the throngs of post partum anxiety. Over the course of that first year the anxiety I felt and the mom guilt of having to divide my attention was a rough time.

Becoming a mom of two brought to light personality traits of mine that I never realized {or fully realized} were so prominent. One of those was my anxious nature. I knew the feeling well but until that time in life I had never labeled myself as such or even really known that anxiety was what I had dealt with my entire life. It was freeing to finally understand that part of myself and be able to hone in and learn how to better manage it. In addition to the anxiety, I also have my own form of ADHD. I can't tell you how many clients think that organizers can't have this diagnosis because clearly we have our s*** together all the time. We absolutely can and in fact, I have harnessed it and now use it as a magical superpower to be amazing at my profession. I know that the way my brain works allows me to think outside the box, exercise my creativity for problem solving, focus on the tasks that interest me {such as decluttering, designing and curating your new space!}, delegate those tasks that don't interest me as much, systemize your life so that you can maximize your productivity, and clear your mental chaos so you might find peace and relaxation. I know because I did this for myself.

Being organized isn't about being perfect, it's about improving the way you work and live. You cannot focus if you are surrounded by chaos. Having a simplified, uncluttered home is a form of self-care.

I am currently in my early thirties and have reached a point where I know myself well and am aware of what I need to be mentally and physically healthier. Organization is so much more than a pinterest worthy pin, an instagram post, or an aesthetically pleasing space. Being organized is a way of living.. living mindfully and intentionally. Creating systems for yourself and your household will create less stress, more free time, more joy, more money in your account, less mental clutter, more focus,... the list goes on and on. A decluttered and organized space is the answer. It may not solve all your problems, but it's where you should start! I find true purpose in helping others with what may not come as naturally to them. I will shout about this from the mountaintops because I know how beneficial these services are and what a change in your life they can make. Seriously, if you bring up my line of work with me I can talk your ear off for hours {so probably best not to unless you're into that sort of thing.} This is just the beginning and I cannot wait for the many years to come growing my business and my clientele.

Thank you for being a part of my my journey!