I started this blog in 2010 and I remember the day clearly. Sitting in my little home office I initially created this blog as something to occupy me while the kids were at school, as I wanted to share some of my organising tips, cleaning how to’s and favourite recipes with friends and stop spending so much money on scrapbooking LOL. My friends shared it with their friends, then they shared it and I was having fun sharing snippets of my life and it grew to more than just a hobby blog. I was really enjoying creating The Organised Housewife blog; I loved sharing my tips, recipes, creating printable checklists, chatting with everyone on Facebook and making the blog itself look pretty. I was doing it all myself, but after a few years, I found I was spending alot of time on it. I would put the kids to bed and continuing to work on the blog – caused I loved it – but I was leaving little time for myself and found it overwhelming to the point that I was going to close down the blog (ooh could you have imagined, so glad I didn’t). Ultimately like I said I loved it, I really didn’t want to stop, but I needed to find balance again.
I stopped working in the evening and looked after me a little bit more, however, I was still finding it hard to keep up. Many may not realise but there is A LOT behind the scenes to running a blog! I got a uni intern to help me and I loved the extra help. To ensure I had the work/life balance needed I ended up hiring a lovely lady to help me keep on top of the emails. At this stage, my hubby left his 9-5 office job and started his own business, so we converted our spare lounge room into our office so 3 of us could sit and work comfortably. A few more years later, we moved house, Scott hired a staff member and earlier this year I employed another staff member (now I have a team of 3) and as you can imagine our home soon became crowded with 2 rooms being offices for our home businesses. Working from home certainly has many advantages, but after 8+ years I had finally started to feel the challenges it brings along with it too. I have a very good physical work/life balance (stopping when the kids came home from school), but mentally it was hard to switch off. When it came to weekends, I wanted to just relax at home, but because I’d been there all week I started to feel like a hermit and it was affecting both mine and Scott’s mindset. So we decided to take the leap and search for some office space suitable for us both and our growing vision for our businesses.
This is a funny story and a very long story short, we have leased some office space!! Out of pure coincidence, because there wasn’t much available close to home we ended up leasing the same office that I worked in before I left the workforce (when I became pregnant with the twins). I was the receptionist for a building development company and now I am the Boss Lady!! How cool is that, coming around full circle like that. The office hasn’t changed a bit, same wallpaper, same rattly step, same blinds, just new carpet. But we’ve made it our own. It has quite the grand entrance with this stunning staircase. It’s a hidden gem in an industrial estate.
We moved into the office space last week, I shared a little office tour on our first day on Instagram Live because I was beside myself excited! It’s a great space, with loads of windows and natural light. We’ve each got our own office which helps us to focus on the work we need to do (I feel we are already so much more productive, as you can imagine 3 ladies in one office, there was lots of happy chatting!!). It will have challenges, especially as I write about the home and usually as I write a blog post I get up and go take photos, it now just means that I need to plan ahead with my photos and content. I can do that, I’m the queen of planning!!! You can see I utilised this big wall in my office for just that. My 2019 editorial content calendar is up on my wall and I’m already in planning mode!! Look out 2019, here I come!!
Large A2 2019 Calendar printables available from my shop to instantly download here. Bonus Oct-Dec 18 included.
If you’ve been following along you’ll know that I am quite shy, but I’ve been working on this, trying to overcome my fear of public speaking. I’ve been doing a few facebook lives within my closed 20 Day’s to Organise and Clean your Home facebook group and on my main facebook page, which I’ve actually really enjoyed. Soon I am doing a speaking bootcamp to help me learn a little more as the new office has a great space where I plan on doing workshops with local Gold Coasters beginning in January 2019. I am super excited about this, as I’ve always wanted to meet the community face to face with hands-on teaching and having a cuppa together and this space is going to give me this ability. If you’re a local and interested, please register your details below and I’ll let you know when I have finalised all my plans.
[activecampaign form=55]My daughter set up my desk for me and put all my quotes on the wall behind me, I love it, great pop of colour and inspiration!!
Let me introduce you to The Organised Housewife Team. On the left is Kate who helps manage all the office admin and helps me keep on top of social media. Kate is a newlywed with 2 gorgeous Ragdolls and an amazing ability to create delicious cakes. Despite how much I have enjoyed all these years creating the graphics and printables for the website I’m not superwoman and can’t do it all, so I’ve handed it all over to Clare. Clare is our in-house Graphic Designer, who very cleverly designed our 2019 Wall Calendar which has nearly sold out (we aren’t doing a 2nd print run, so if you want one I suggest grabbing one before they sell out). Clare has a little son who starts school next year and has an uncanny sense of knowing what I want to say before the words exit my mouth. I feel so lucky to have both young ladies a part of my team here at Organised HQ to help me make my vision a reality.
I’m so excited about the future, and my vision for the possibility of The Organised Housewife and putting it all into action. Hope you enjoy the ride with us!!
