[00:00:00] Welcome to this episode of The Working Moms of San Antonio podcast. We have a great guest with us today. Delana Keywell of Bless This Mess Organizing, and so I'm going to just turn it over to her and let her introduce herself.
Hi y'all, I'm Delana with Bless This Mess Organizing, and I have been blessed .
That's an honest truth. Love it.
Yeah.
I guess if you want to just talk about maybe how long you've been in organizing and how you
got started in there.
I started when I was about four years old, and as I understand, I was, organizing my sock drawer and my toys and, just everything.
I've always been of a mindset. And it progressed as I was getting older. I remember I would convince my sister, Karen, to switch rooms with me. So we would trade the furniture, we would do everything. And then I'd go in her room [00:01:00] and set up her closet and her room and her drawers. And I would do the same with mine.
And then when people would hire me to babysit. I would organize a pantry when the kids were satisfied and I'd go and organize their pantries and their kitchen cabinets and things like that. And and then I just, it's just started flowed from there. Then now when I started it as a business.
Rather than a hobby, my, my twins had just entered kindergarten and my child who's 26 years, 26 months older than she was in second grade. And I just hung out a shingle. I just told people. Hey y'all, I'm a professional organizer and they believed me.
They let me come in and paid me to organize this, that or the other in their home. And it just went from there. So it's been going on. My oldest is 26 and my twins are 24. [00:02:00] So long time. Yeah, I did take a hiatus in there, a period where so I really just did it as a hobby, not to support myself while I was married.
And then I took a hiatus when I got divorced and did some other things and but came back full force and it is no longer a hobby. It's supporting me and it's been incredible. It's been incredible.
That's incredible. Oh my God. I love organizing, but I'm horrible. I'm horrible at it.
And it just I'll give you some lessons.
That's what I do.
Yeah. So is it word of mouth? How you get businesses, people referring you, is that how that works?
In the past, primarily, but that's because when I was started back in like what, 2003, I made up my own website using Oh, it was a page something, I don't know, but it just wasn't great.
I didn't know how to do the SEO and get people [00:03:00] driven there and all that. But now people are really seeing my social media because I've come to my, What is it called? I've come of age with social media, so I'm posting a lot of videos and how tos like tip kind of stuff. And so people are seeing that and they're getting in touch with me.
But recently, so here's the thing. I don't work with hoarders. There's, I've been tricked into it a few times and then I get in, I'm like, oh man. And there's just too much psychology behind it that I don't really know how to address. But my pastor asked me in late January, he said, Alana, we've got a gal.
This is her situation and really needs help. And would you be willing? And so I had a conversation with her and she was right where anybody would be. We just had a lot of pre work to do. And so I said, yes, let's do that. And so a couple of days ago, [00:04:00] we finished the excavating is what I call it. We finished the excavating of the living room, which was the final frontier.
And now we are actually starting to organize. And it is just, oh, I tell her all the time and I said it yesterday, I don't know who's more excited about this, me or you.
But it's just been a huge blessing. And and because of what I'm doing with her, I have so much to put on my Facebook and Instagram and other people that she knows are seeing what we're doing and they're getting in touch with me. And so it's just, yes, now it's a lot of word of mouth.
It's fascinating to watch.
I haven't I had only seen your page when you posted it on our group. So I looked, I was interested. I'm like, and I was, sorry, Facebook stalked you a little bit. I was watching it. It was incredible. I was like, oh my God. And [00:05:00] it was so satisfying to see the pictures progress. Yeah, it really is.
I don't know if it's I loved it. Your content is wonderful.
Thank you. And it's not, girl, just wait till you see like her kitchen is almost completely organized and we're starting to get decor going in there. So just wait till we get the pictures of those. I wanted to do like a midway through the organizing, but I decided, no, we're just going to wait.
I'm gonna wait till it's completely done. And we're really close. What is a
typical day? So obviously for this particular client it's a longer period of time, because there's more things to do is what I'm understanding. What is a typical day or how long do you work with a client? It does it, I'm assuming it varies, but what's a typical day for
you?
Okay. So a typical day with a typical client, again, it does vary as far as how many sessions we have to have, but we work in four hour sessions. [00:06:00] And so we'll go in and we allow the, so first we do a. 30 minute assessment and I can either come out and do that and then we schedule a date or we can, I come out and do that and then they say, all right, let's get started today.
So I will make that 30 minute assessment when I have a day that I can start if they want to. Got it. And so we'll assess. What we've got to do the various projects could be a craft room, could be a bathroom and kitchen, et cetera, or it could be the whole house. And we're going to start. With this project in the house.
And so we start that day or whenever I will we'll start by pulling everything else. It's gotta get worse before it gets better. And we'll start categorizing everything. And [00:07:00] along the way, if I'm working with the client now, I'll address that in a minute because just this time and with one other client that I'm working with right now, I'm learning that there is a way to do it without the client president right there.
There are so many benefits to doing it with a client right there beside you, though, that Don't prefer that way, but I can't. And the client will eventually be involved in it. It's just, I can do a lot of it myself, but anyway, so we'll make categories of everything. Then we'll tackle one category at a time where we purge, we always have an initial purge and then with what's then we purge each category.
Then we go back and we look at what's left and we do a second. Purge on it, make sure that we know exactly what we need to keep. And that allows us in each category [00:08:00] to know exactly what we need to contain and how we want to organize that particularly, that particular category. So then we, so I always tell my clients, aesthetics matter, they really matter.
If you are looking at a closet, I'm thinking about like a craft room right now. So you're looking at a particular closet and it's got all your craft stuff in it, organized nicely. Yes, but you've got a coffee can and you've got a hot pink tub, which I'm not a big fan of tubs, that's a whole other thing, but It's like a toy box, it just, organizing.
Anyway, some in some respects, yes, but anyway, so you got a hot pink tub. You've got shoe box. What else might you have a plastic bag holding this? Okay. You look in there and in your mind, what's in each thing, but [00:09:00] it's still a hodgepodge. So we talk about aesthetics and how that triggers your brain to make you want to keep it organized.
And if it's hodgepodge, you're not. As psychologically inclined to keep it organized. And so it's true. And so we will go out in your budget. And we will make it look nice. And of course we label everything. So that's pretty much the process. And what happens is people just don't know where to start.
They walk into a room and it's got all this stuff. And they have no idea how to start. And then they may get started and then they get overwhelmed or they don't know how to proceed. And so that's where I come in and I'm telling you right off the bat, I make it fun. . [00:10:00] I can't, yeah, I can't tell you how many people have told me over the years.
Oh my gosh, this is fun. And I'm like, why do you think I do it? I get paid , basically,
it's in, it's incredible. She's made her passion. Your job, which is not a job at all. Then you love it. And I can feel that I can feel that you, it's a passion for you. And I have to say it's for working moms.
It's difficult, obviously most of the typically, the moms are the ones who are picking up the house, keeping things organized, I live in a home full of boys and I'm it's myself and I have three other people in the home that I have to. Pick up after, and it gets overwhelming.
I don't have to.
I know. I don't have a lot of anxiety, but sometimes when the counters are cluttered, I get the hair on the back of my neck stands up. I cannot function. It drives me bananas. And I feel so much better when things are clean.
And so did you [00:11:00] happen to see my 10 minute challenge video? I
did not, but I plan to go back and
check it out.
Yes. It, once you get a place for everything, seriously, you can clean up any spot in your house in 10 minutes. You really can. You got to try that challenge. You got to get organized to be able to do it. Yeah. Yeah.
Do you feel like generally speaking, like people, like society, we all just have too much
stuff.
Yes. Yeah. There's a, have you seen the Berenstain Bears book called too much stuff. Yeah. I should carry that with me everywhere I go, but yes. That book, I like, when I first started my business, I thought about basing my business on that book. Yeah.
Yeah, that's true. I just personally, we have three kids and, you really don't know.
I found, and maybe it's because I'm in real estate and we move all the day
time, but
I feel like you [00:12:00] really don't know what you have until you try to pick up and move it. And it's unbelievable the amount of stuff that we have. And so we are, I'm nowhere near organized. I like to think I am. I like to get things like aesthetically clean, but it's not organized.
And so that's where I need to maybe look at that challenge as well. Get organized first and then try to sort
that out. I think when we moved, we're like, we'll never doing it again. What we did is when we moved out of our last home we ended up using pods and we, Thought we organized it and put everything in it, right?
We put everything in because we were going to rent for a little bit before we found our next home. The worst mistake I ever did was I'm like, I'm gonna invite my whole family over where we found our home. We're going to unpack all the pods all at once. And everything just came into the house and I was so stressed out for so long because it was there stuff everywhere and i'm sure the stuff that we hadn't used in years and i'm just stuffing it in closets Just to get it away from the open space that I was using it Oh, it's awful, but you're right [00:13:00] until you move.
You don't know
how much stuff you have and so that's a service I offer on the front end of a move I make sure that we are packing ONLY what you want to unpack on the back end. And that way, first of all how many rooms do you have in your, did you have in your house that you put in the pods?
That we moved,
There was four bedrooms only really three were being utilized for the most part. And obviously living room, front room, ,
the pods were how, like, how
they're large. We, and and I had never really moved this much stuff before, but in my head I'm like, oh, we're just gonna put everything in there.
How we gonna take it out? But the biggest issue was, I forgot what I put in there. Like I, I probably packed up that I didn't need after a year. And then when everything came out, it all just came out and got. Put into the house, the new house, which I didn't know where things were going to go in the front.
I hadn't thought about,[00:14:00] where my dishes were going to be placed at first. Where are my cleaning supplies going to be? Where are my linens? I hadn't even gotten to that point because I hadn't, we were just moving in. And then all the stuff was just everywhere.
So that is, so see, yeah. And so when you moved in to your apartment, you probably had to go buy all the stuff that you already had packed, like the supplies.
And yeah, so that's something that I really make sure happens with my clients is we we pack everything in a specific way. We label everything in a specific way. We pack everything in the moving truck in a specific way. Like I work with the movers to make sure that specific things are at the front end or I'm sorry, at the back end of the truck, when they open up the truck, what my clients are going to need when they move in right away is right there.
I also work with my clients. To create their little go bags, the things that they're going to need [00:15:00] overnight for food and silverware and for hygiene and clothing and all that, what they're going to need for the first three days. Or longer if they want. So that when they get there, they've got what they need.
They're going to have a, either a blow up mattress or they're going to have a mattress and box springs and, or at least a mattress or whatever. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Right there. So the movers can get them immediately into the correct place. So they have some place to sleep, eat and bathe.
And brush their teeth, the shower curtain, blah, blah, blah. Anyway so that, so I help on the front end and back end and everything goes smoothly. And when we start unpacking and putting things where they belong, cause I've done it so many times, I'd, I recognize the, where things should go in the kitchen, so forth it's smooth.
It's enjoyable. It's somewhat peaceful, so that's a real my clients love that. And I, [00:16:00] again, I don't know who likes it more,
I didn't even know that like organizers would offer that kind of service. I can't tell you. I'm sure I have a million clients that would take advantage of that moving and that kind of thing.
I just didn't even know that was a thing. You think about your movers and you think about, turning on your electricity and making sure this is happening and making sure this is happening, but really getting organized before you move and then afterwards is super important. It would take a lot of stress off.
I think.
That's what I was saying. It may probably makes the process of buying a home and selling a home less stressful. But that's part of the part of people. I'm like, I don't want to pack. I don't want to move because I remember my experience moving into this home, which I love. It just, it took me so much longer to get organized.
And it was just a very stressful, stressful, no matter what. How often do you, would you suggest, so I'm having kids, right? How often should you, would you suggest purging or going through their toys? So the boys, as they get older, I'm like, when was the last time you played with this? We need to, I try to do it once a year.
Because [00:17:00] obviously for birthdays and Christmas, we just get a big family, wonderful gifts, but it's always either they get double of stuff or we have a lot of things. So how often would you suggest like moms going through kids toys and clothes and
stuff like that? So obviously when they're shifting sizes and clothing.
And then if you have a younger child who's going to grow into those clothes, you go through those clothes, you figure out which ones are salvageable, which ones are stained or ripped or whatever, or you just didn't really like and didn't wear, didn't put on your kiddo. And then you store away in an orderly fashion so that when you open it, you're glad you stored it.
You store away those ones that, That junior is going to grow into and then as far as toys, you're doing basically the same thing when you have new things coming in for a new developmental age, right? You're going to take the ones that he's done with [00:18:00] and has that grown developmentally. And if you have a child coming up, then you're going to.
store those as well, unless they've just been very luck. One of the things that I really think is a beautiful thing to teach your children is that when you are, you're receiving blessings upon blessings of new toys and things like that is to choose, say, so you can get five new toys or however many you choose for your child.
You can get five new toys. So if you get 15 new toys. Why don't we find a place where children who are in the foster system or you know that they don't get birthday parties like this and let's donate to those kids the excess because we really just don't need that many, that sort of a thing.
Yeah. You don't have all this, tremendous load and they, the truth is. There's just not [00:19:00] time in a day, or if you don't dig that idea, because you feel like other people might be Oh, what's that word? I never get this way. I offended people were like, I don't want to offend you. I'm like, unless you talk smack about my God, you're not going to offend.
And so unless you're concerned, other people might be offended because there's toys, the one that your child did not choose, then you can store the majority of them away. And when they're worn out on these toys, then you can donate those and pull out a new bag. That's a good idea. Yeah. That, that's the way that I would purge is just, We've outgrown these, we've moved on, so let's go to the next level.
Same with clothes.
We try to do it once a year, but I feel like mine are growing out of shoes every six months, it feels like, [00:20:00] and clothes, and oh my goodness, it's hard to keep up. And then I realized, I'm like, where are all the hangers? Because they have so much clothes now, I'm like, I need to take out the old.
In order to put the new or, cause they've outgrown stuff. So
we love to dress our kids, buy our kids new shoes. I was accused of having my first daughter so that I could dress her.
We love to buy stuff for our kids. If we buy something, we're going to take some stuff out that we don't necessarily love. And we choose other things ahead of, so we might as well just take them on out. Yeah. Yeah.
We can definitely tell that you're passionate about your career. I love it so much.
I just think that's so wonderful, but can you narrow it down? What is your favorite thing about your job?
What's the wind? Oh, that's easy. That's so easy. My number one favorite thing is [00:21:00] Watching my client become so joyful and liberated and come to peace and just watching them be so blessed.
That's why my tagline is that I'm blessed with this gift. And I get to bless other people with it. And so to watch them just exhale and be blessed with their new what's the word I'm looking for their new digs, everything in their home. When you live in a chaotic environment. You have a chaotic mentality and a chaotic brain, and you just don't really feel rested in your own home.
And now you can walk in and you know what you have and where it is. And there's just so few things that are better.
With everything so fast and [00:22:00] going and you said so much stuff people have, once you get it organized, it just, you feel better. It's hard to explain, but you do feel better when everything's done.
So what are some tips you can give mom starting out? Let's say they're, Young kids trying to keep organized and they have, a full time job and stuff going on. So what were some tips that you can give them?
Okay. So number one, be realistic. You got to be realistic about what you can and cannot do.
Another one, be realistic about how many clothes Your kids need, do they need 20? Does your child, you have one child, right? That is wearing onesies unless you like me had twins, but be realistic about how many onesies you really need. Do you really need the white ones? Or would you rather dress your sweet baby in the cute ones?
But the point is, be realistic about how many clothes your child needs and [00:23:00] how many she can actually wear or he can actually wear. Another thing, do laundry every day. Do laundry every day. Even if you're just doing baby clothes, throw some of your tops in. If you're nursing, throw those nursing tops in there.
And then wash bottles. If don't wash every bottle right after you use it, but if you can swing it, find a time every day. Don't be stressed if you have to go to bed and there are dishes in the sink, don't stress about that. You will find time sometime during the day to knock those out. So just relax with that first child and by the time the second child is going to come, you're just going to give up.
Anyway, so it's really just a game about don't be too hard on yourself, and if you need help in getting your systems done, or your systems in [00:24:00] place, ASK! Find an organizer who can come in, find an organizer who's already lived through that stage of life where you've got three kids under the age of three and you got to figure out how to make it work and let her come in, she's not going to judge.
She's going to help.
Yeah. So when you go to a client's house, Dawn, do you, is it just yourself or do you have a team that comes with you to help or?
It's just me and the client. And so there are benefits. So here's the thing. Most organizers, from what I can tell, And the research that I've done, and they they'll go in, you tell them what project you want done, they go in, they do the work themselves, and then they expect you to come in and conform to what they put together.
It seems to be a cookie cutter. I don't do that at all. Everything I do is personalized. And so I for all these [00:25:00] 20, 19 years, even when I took my hiatus, I had to get my organizing fix. So I was doing stuff with people some, a lot of the time, just for free, cause it was my hobby. But there are so many benefits to working one on one with the client.
Number one, they get a strong visual. Where are they really stand? So they see this, this messy space, but when we start digging into it, they really see just what's going on underneath all that. Another one is that they get to take ownership. They get to take ownership of, Oh, this is the problem.
And this is how I got here. And they get to take ownership. of solving that, right? And helping fix the problem. Another thing is it's just one long teachable moment that I get to be all along the way. I'm giving them tips. I'm giving them ideas. I'm [00:26:00] teaching them how to categorize, how to purge and so forth, how to make those purging decisions, right?
And it also they're putting their own skin in the game. It's super easy to throw money at a problem and then go in and the problem is solved, but you don't know how to maintain it as well because you weren't part of the solution. Oh, very true, yeah. Yeah, so they're putting their own skin and time and effort and learning into the game.
And that makes a huge difference in the long run. And then also, and everybody likes this, it saves them money because they're helping me get that done. And I love that for them. And then and so overall, it's just win. It's just win. But I will say. And these two projects that I'm doing right now, the one that I'm working on with my hoarder, [00:27:00] who is ready.
She's ready. She really just has the tendencies. Her parents were the hoarders, but she has a tendency. But she's letting go. If I'm telling her, think about it. She's just letting it go. Most workers can't do that. That's why I see she's just has tendencies. And then I have a young mother.
She's got an eight year old and two I'm sorry, in twin nine month olds. Oh, and I'm gonna leave it at that way. And she is overwhelmed her parents. Something going on as well, some issues going on too. And she has a hard time being present when we're working on getting those toys that are painful, right?
And she has a hard time getting, being present when we're working on the clubs, cause she's got to run back and forth taking care of her twin. And her eight year old is an amazing young man and he's really helpful. What I'm learning in these two is I set my current, my client with, that I'm working with daily.
I set [00:28:00] her on a task of getting something done. So I have to go work on something else and I'm having to do it without her. But I've learned how to adjust to that where I get everything ready and then I bring her in. And I say, let's go through this and this. And so I'm learning to work it on myself on my own, but yet she has to come in and offer her feedback which is not something I've done in the past.
I don't do it. I'm learning how to do that, but yet. My client still has to make a decision and she has to be involved in the organizing part of it. Got it. Creating the organizational system behind it so that she can easily maintain it. Got
it.
I don't want to do that a whole lot, but I would rather, because it does go faster involved,
erica, is there a place in your home that you feel like you could use organizing? Oh my gosh.
Everyplace.
Everyplace. [00:29:00] Yeah. Everyplace.
I will say I'm really lucky because I've got a 11 year old daughter who maybe much like you,
maybe that will
be her career. I don't know. She loves organizing and will say things to me like, Mom, can I organize the pantry?
Can I do this? Can I do this? And I'm like,
absolutely. Yeah, you can. Can I borrow Emma? I need to borrow her.
Emma's so good about that. She loves she really likes doing that kind of thing. And she helps me so much. But yeah, many places in my house could use, some organizing.
I have trouble with paperwork.
So I've inherited quite a bit of. Paper from my parents past, I've gotten their stuff. I have my own stuff. I have my sister's stuff in my home. Cause I have this, I have a lot of paperwork that I'm having to slowly go through and figure out what needs to be retained and what doesn't. I'm like, is there any way to organize like paperwork, like easily?
If you don't, I don't have lots of storage spaces. Do I need to scan them and tread them? Yeah. So there's, I have a lot of trouble with paperwork and I need that. [00:30:00] I need to get that under.
So I created a system 20 years ago, probably even actually before that, because I did it before I started this business.
It's called, I do, I have a shallow storage and a deep storage. And so my desktop system, I actually I have not explained it online yet in a video, but I'm going to, but I do have a picture of it by accident as my profile picture on my personal Facebook account. It consists of four folders as the base.
It's the short term action, short term keep, short term I'm sorry, long term action and long term keep. And so I set those four folders up in four different colors and I explain to my clients how they work and then we practice with it. While we're going through the paper and [00:31:00] that I have these on desks in businesses, like my ex has been worked for a company here in town, a large company here in town.
And I came in and put it on every desk in the department that he managed. And that was for their everyday paperwork that. Then I have the the deep storage. Now this is really specifically for home. And that is for the papers that you need to store on a monthly basis, really. And there are some things that are deep storage that you are going to keep at all times for like taxes, things like that.
2019 taxes, everything for them is right here. And and so I've been doing that with clients for years. And now I will say over the years that has been changing. And it just changes organically according to what we need. Like for instance, [00:32:00] now we don't need to keep our long distance phone bills, right?
Because. For obvious reasons. And then we don't need to keep our CPS bills anymore because they're all online and we can always get them when we need them. But this is where we would keep, I keep a copy of my will and my living will and all of that. I keep all of that in my deep storage and in my and yes, there is a system for that.
And I also help you determine there are a number of questions that you can ask yourself specifically to help you determine, do I need to keep this? piece of paper, or can I get it somewhere else? And what are the legal ramifications if I don't have this paper? What are the anyway, the long term ramifications?
Yes, the answer to that is yes. And paper, I'm a paper and pencil person. I like to write. My lists rather than thank you, [00:33:00] but at the same time I'll write the list take a picture of it and then go Because I don't want to carry the papers I'm gonna lose it, so
got it. No, that's great. That's a great advice It's keeping so I guess that when I have inherited all this paper.
I'm like What do I do with all this stuff? It's everywhere. I have a desk in my bedroom that I don't like, but it's, I have stacks of paper that I just need to, I've organized them that way, but I need to figure out, do I need to keep them? Can I shred them? And I hadn't asked myself, can I get this anywhere else?
Can I hadn't even thought about that. So that's great.
And you set up a schedule when you have like my client that I'm working with daily, almost. She's got A lot of papers that she needs to go through. A lot of it is just obvious. Skim. I need to shred. But you set up a schedule for yourself.
I'm going to go through papers, this amount of paper, every Monday, Wednesday, Friday. And I'm going to make decisions about them and get this stuff, get through this stuff because I don't want it sitting around anymore. Yeah, [00:34:00] you got to set up some sort of a system to get yourself through it. Got it.
Awesome. Yeah, I love it.
I love it. I feel like I've learned so much
in this conversation.
And but we want everyone to be able to benefit from
you. Can
you let our listeners know like what's the best way to reach you for your services?
Sure. And the very best way to reach me is to text me. So yeah, my phone number is, are y'all ready?
Do y'all have your phone? Do you have a pen and paper so you can take a picture of what you write down? Is my name is Delana. It's D A capital L O N A. My business is Bless This Mess Organizing. And my phone number is 210 842 9965. 8 4 2 9 9 6 5 If you wanna check me [00:35:00] out on Instagram, that's probably the easiest way to see me is btm, as in bless this mess, BTN organizing.
And then Facebook is Bless is mess. Organizing LLC. Perfect. Love it.
Yeah, that sounds
good. We'll definitely put that contact information in the episode description as well so that way people can get it that way so sometimes it's easier to see it too, I think and yeah. So that was great.
Thank you so much for being a guest. And thank you to our listeners for listening to this episode. And so
we'll just see you guys next week. See you next week. Thank you.
Thanks
so much for tuning in to the Working Moms of San Antonio podcast. Be sure to follow us on social media at our respective Instagram accounts or join our Working Moms of San Antonio Facebook group. Those links can be found in our episode [00:36:00] description. If you have an episode topic suggestion or question, please email us at office at Radius agent.
com and be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave us a review.
See you next
week!
