Hello! My name is Elaine, a Small Home Organizer

"My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” - Maya Angelou

Welcome to the home of Organized Soul! My name is Elaine Lin, a proud Cantonese born Canadian. I speak both Cantonese and Mandarin. I am an ESFJ (Myers Briggs) and double Gemini Horse for those who are into astrology. I was born and raised in Vancouver, majored in Sociology at UBC, lived and studied Mandarin for 2.5 years in Qingdao, China, travelled to East Asia, and moved to Toronto in June 2019. I never thought that I’d live anywhere outside of Vancouver, but life experiences can take you to places that you would have never imagined for yourself. When I felt it in my heart and soul to pursue a reimagined life, I knew I needed to make it happen.

Why I Got into Home Organizing

I want to share with you why I got into organizing. I was working in social services for the most part before embarking on this entrepreneurial journey. I thought that I would be working in social services for a long while as I have a passion for social justice, my BA is in Sociology, and I like doing direct service work. I was working specifically in employment services with youth before experiencing my "aha" moment of my soul career.

The problem with my previous job was, I dreaded going to work almost every morning and even more daunting, I had a never-ending and often bureaucratic list of things to do. Though I appreciated the opportunity that I was given, I knew inside that the job wasn’t the right fit. I was not swimming, but drowning in a sea of work that didn't feel fulfilling and kept piling up. At the same time, I liked the so-called security, preexisting structure, and status that came with a job. Never would I have thought that I would go into entrepreneurship.

After considerable contemplation and courage, I did the hard thing: I decided to resign from my job. It was a very painful period as I had worked so diligently to secure this job (starting from a preliminary video screening interview back in Vancouver) and it was my first job after moving to Toronto. I felt that I was not only disappointing myself but my team and the clients I worked with. I felt like a complete failure. That said, I believe pain can bring about creativity and inspire us to create amazing things.

I began to channel the pain I felt into creating a home that was my own. I couldn’t stand the dump of a home that it had turned into any longer, which had never happened to me before. Prior to my job resignation, I was living out of a suitcase full of clothes while dedicating most of my time and energy to my full-time job.

Little by little, over the course of 3 months, I cleaned and organized my home and realized that not only did I enjoy organizing, but that I can possibly make it into a career. After organizing and decorating my space, I felt more productive, happier, and very proud of myself. I was healed from my pain in the process. I realized that I wanted to bring the same kind of transformation that I experienced into other people’s lives.

My Living Room - After My Living Room - Before

My Kitchen - After My Kitchen - Before

What felt like a hard and unnatural attempt at fitting myself into a puzzle in my previous job now felt the complete opposite: "I" was fitting the pieces of a puzzle together. It was liberating and I "loved" it! I strongly believe that despite living in a small home, one can still make it homey, organized, beautiful, functional, and invite guests over through a sustainable and simple organizing system and decorating their space to make it their own.

I have always been organized and have an eye for aesthetics and coordination. I would voluntarily organize my family’s different rooms, from the kitchen to my parents’ closet, office, and everything that needed organizing and looked out of place. Even at work, I NEEDED to organize the office cabinets (not part of my job duties) as it bothered me that they were disorganized and that my co-workers and I were wasting time finding things that we needed. My mom wanted to be an interior designer but unfortunately didn’t have the opportunity to pursue that line of work, so she would make our home her decor projects. My dad did home renovation and repair work for decades. In hindsight, growing up in a home design-oriented environment definitely played a big part in my interest in home organizing and decor.

I named my business 'Organized Soul' because...

I deeply resonate with the word "soul" as I want to have a soulful approach to working with clients. I also have had a long love for soulful/R&B music 🎵! 'Organized Soul' evokes a feeling of comfort and peacefulness that I want my clients to experience after their homes are transformed!

What I like doing aside from organizing

Aside from helping people organize, I am a huge lover of 90s R&B (smooth and slow jams all the way!), reading (including self-help and biographies on my fave music artists), exploring new things to do and places to visit, travelling (to major cities and going to cultural museums, intimate live music events, and shows), and most of all, I cherish my friends and love connecting with a variety of people. I will never stop learning and growing and I think life has so much to offer, even the bitter and sour parts of it.

Take your time to explore my website and feel free to make a comment below and share my blog entry or website with others if it resonated with you in some way. Also, I would love to get to know you better! You can email me at elaine@organizedsoul.ca to introduce yourself, share what brought you here, and to ask me anything related to home organizing and decorating in small spaces! :)

Soulfully Organized,

Elaine

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