KINDRED SPACES
Hi!
I'm Emily Tse. Founder, Owner, and Professional Organizing Expert
Lifelong enthusiast of all things organized, simplified, functional, and beautiful.
Patient, compassionate educator with almost a decade of experience.
Experience with the unique challenges that come with situations involving grief, life transitions, neurodivergence (such as ADHD), anxiety, and trauma.
Resourceful problem solver who LOVES a new project and challenge!
scroll
Philosophy
Being organized isn't a fixed trait that you have (or lack). It's a set of skills that can be learned, practiced, and mastered.
You don't have to keep every item that is still useful in your home forever to avoid being wasteful. It is possible to take care of the environment AND live in an uncluttered space.
Passing on discarded items to places where you know they will be used and appreciated can decrease the anxiety and stress that you might associate with letting go.
Feeling emotional about getting rid of your belongings is normal. We tie a lot of emotions to our things. Having support to process these feelings can make it possible.
Decluttering and organizing your spaces can make your daily life more calm, efficient, and joyful. Reclaim time to do the things you love most!
Understanding your own habits can help you tackle the organizing obstacles in your life and prevent your stuff from getting out of control in the future.
Your organizing needs are unique. There is no one way to organize that is best, which is why you need strategies that fit seamlessly into your life in order for the results to last.
My Story
I’ve loved organizing for as long as I can remember. As a small child, I found an uncommon amount of joy in the act of finding the perfect place for my stuffed animals and arranging the items on my bookshelf. Let me draw your attention to the photo on the right: a polaroid photo that I requested my big sister take to show me cleaning up my toys. My room was actually spotless before this was taken, but I messed up some toys on purpose so that I could clean them up again and have this totally cool photo. Fast forward to my teen years when my younger sister dug through my purse in hopes of finding a magazine like Teen Vogue or Teen Cosmopolitan to borrow. What did she actually find? The latest issue of Storage Magazine. Yes, that exists. And yes, I was saving up for a monthly subscription. If this early enthusiasm for organizing seems odd.. that’s probably because it was. Somehow I instinctively knew early on that I felt calm and happy in a space that made sense.
As I grew, so did my quirky organizing habits. I didn't think much of it, I just thought it was my way to make sense of the busyness of daily life. Wherever I was in life, from my childhood room to a busy university dorm, I knew I could breathe, focus, and unwind more easily when my space made sense. What I didn’t realize until later on in life is that so many people have the same desire for a calm and organized space, but face hurdle after hurdle in trying to achieve it. Life changes, the loss of a loved one, balancing career and family life, health challenges, and so many other circumstances can make it hard to find the time, energy, and support to stay on top of things. In the same way I don’t naturally posses the skills to be an Olympic figure skater *cue laughter from anyone who has seen me on skates*, it’s pretty normal to be lacking the skills, energy, or time it takes to successfully declutter and organize your space.
Now that you know how much I deeply love organizing, let me explain the other part of Kindred Spaces philosophy that lies close to my heart. After learning about the tragic garment factory collapse in Bangladesh in 2013, I started learning about the fast fashion industry and how consuming a seemingly endless supply of cheaply made and widely available products can be so harmful to the people who make them and the planet itself. The more I learned, the more I wondered how making little changes in my own life could actually make a difference. It’s easy to feel powerless in the wake of tragedies like that, as well as ongoing issues like environmental pollution. It’s true that no one person can save the planet, but by adjusting our habits around what and how much we bring into our homes as well as how we can responsibly dispose of the items that no longer serve us, it can make an incredible impact.
This is why Kindred Spaces was born. The act of decluttering can appear to be at odds with the desire to help the environment and reduce waste. How can you discard items freely without hurting the environment? How can you ever possibly stay on top of decluttering when there seems to be a constant and never ending parade of new clutter entering your home? It is possible. I am beyond excited to not only help you transform your space, but also transform the way you see your clutter. Life can be so busy and I realize that these passions of mine may not be everyone’s passions. You likely don’t have the time to match each discarded item to its new home where it will be appreciated. That’s where Kindred Spaces can help. I can’t wait to help you discover the beautiful, functional space you’ve been dreaming of, coach you through the tricky stuff, and roll up my sleeves to connect your clutter to the places where it becomes useful and meaningful once again.