Jen Robin - Life in Jeneral: A Joyful Guide to Organizing Your Home and Creating the Space for What Matters Most

This ones for you, Dad.

For all the ways you continually

chose to make space for me.

For showing me that life is meant

for loving people.

And for proving that a glass of wine

and a good laugh (or cry)

will fix just about anything.

I believe that people are the happiest version of themselves when they are organized. Not happy in a giddy-surge-of-excitement kind of way. Happy in a deeply settled waythe feeling that comes when youve made room for what matters most in your life.

No, Im not a psychologist (though Im a big fan of therapy and often recommend it to my clients). Im a professional organizer, which does mean that Im trusted to go pretty deep into peoples homes and, by default, into their heads as well. While I love it all, its the latter part that keeps me passionate about my job. The business I founded is called Life in Jeneral, and its a lifestyle and organizing company that has helped thousands of people simplify and transform their homes into spaces that invite a more joyful way of living.

Our work began in Los Angeles (my home base) and, in the last several years, has taken us across more than fifteen states and into Canada. Our clients are Hollywood celebrities, teachers, military personnel, big families, small families, bachelors, and bachelorettes. They live in every setting, from twenty-five-thousand-square-foot mansions to tiny studio apartments. A clients income level and fame, or the size of their home, could not matter less to me. What matters to me is the intention of the heart. I want to help anyone who desires to live more freely and fully by organizing their homes from the inside out. Thats why I wrote this book, and why Im so glad youve picked it up.

My guess is that you, like all of my clients, are in the midst of some kind of transitionmoving to a new town and starting a new job, navigating the needs of growing children, bearing through divorce or the death of a loved oneor just navigating through the feeling that a change is needed, even if you cant put your finger on exactly what that might be.

Add the constant transition of life to the frantic speed of twenty-first-century living and you have a giant magnet for the accumulation of belongings. But whats missing is the time and the mental capacity to discern if those things are actually enriching our lives or just distracting us from the bigger picture. Its ironic, isnt it? The more stuff we have, the less time we have to enjoy it. Or each other.

That disconnect breaks my heart because Ive personally seenhundreds of times overhow destructive it can be and how hopeless it can feel to lose touch with the people and the things that give our lives meaning. I never take it for granted that my clients invite me into their homes at some of the most vulnerable times in their lives. It takes an immense amount of courage to let someone into the intimate corners of your home life, to air your dirty laundryboth literally and figuratively. And Im humbled by that trust every time. It fuels my resolve to see each individual and each family break free from their constant survival mode and step into living with intention. People come to me with tears, shame, and heartbreak, but I always know that my team and I will leave them hopeful, changed, organized, and free to be more fully themselves. Because that is my purpose in this world, and it always has been.

As far back as I can remember, Ive always been a natural streamliner. In elementary school, I convinced one teacher that I should stay back from recess until all the desks were better organized for classroom flow. Looking back, I laugh about what that teacher mustve thought of this nine-year-old talking about maximizing the space to its fullest potential. She mustve thought I was crazy, but she was gracious. Youve gotta love a good teacher, helping you build your confidence. In middle school, a Saturday-night slumber party at a friends house turned into an organizing fest with me going deep in my friends closet, creating keep, toss, and donate piles on the floor. I know, Im a real party animal. But while I appreciate the aesthetics of a tidy space, thats not what draws me to organizing. I may not have recognized it in grade school, but my effort to create more efficient spaces is really about how the outcome will make people feel. I still remember how excited my friend was at that sleepover when she realized that every single thing in the closet was something she loved.

Having a natural intuition for creating better flow came in quite handy in my early twenties. At that time, I was working as the personal assistant for a professional athlete in LA. My job was to keep all aspects of his daily routine and home life organized. The fact that he moved five times in about as many years might sound like a nightmare for someone in my position, but I saw each move as an opportunity to create increasingly better systems of organization for his home, lifestyle, and priorities. I loved that challenge because I became a firsthand witness to what it looks like when what you own is no longer owning you but serving the life you want to lead. The more we simplified and streamlined his living environment, the more at ease and upliftedthe more himselfmy employer became. Ultimately, I wanted to make my boss happy, not only with my work but with the rhythm of his daily life. Little did I know that the principles I uncovered in that process would lead to the business I have today.

Perhaps its because my career in organizing did not begin in a traditional way that my approach with new clients is a little out of the ordinary as well. Its grounded in happiness, and in helping clients figure out what will allow them to live more wholeheartedly in their own homes.

When new clients approach Life in Jeneral, often they have already tried some kind of organizing method themselves or even hired a professional to help overhaul their homes, but it didnt stick. They couldnt maintain the order, and they feel discouraged because of it. Why couldnt they sustain an organized home? Because holistic change requires a holistic approach.

Whenever my team and I begin a new project, before we do anything else, we take time with our clients and ask to hear their stories. Weve listened to account after account of how things just keep piling up and then life in general (get the company name now?) becomes overwhelming. And while it has always seemed natural to me to seek a fuller picture of someones life and goals and what makes them tick before we jump into the work needed in their home, most of my new clients are surprised at our efforts to get a deeper understanding of their personal stories. Its not uncommon for me to hear, No ones ever asked me that before!

I think one of the biggest misconceptions about organizing is that it can exist in a vacuumdiscard, clean, repeat. But in reality, thats totally not the case. Since every facet of our lives is interconnected, our health in one area inevitably affects our health in another. And thats why Ive always felt that Life in Jenerals approach needed to serve both the emotional and physical levels, by (1) seeking to understand a persons values, passions, life goals, and potential emotional hang-ups around possessions that arent serving the life they want to live; (2) helping them identify and flip the script on those emotional barriers; and (3) creating real