Amy Bloomer spent years working for global financial institutions before she decided to set out on a new career path at the age of 39. She knew she wanted to have flexibility and control over her own schedule, time for her family, and the space to pursue her life passion; to organize professionally. So she started her business Let Your Space Bloom. But this Lutherville Timonium, Maryland-based entrepreneur doesn’t think organizing is just about, “making a junk drawer look like a Pinterest post,” she believes in revolutionizing her clients spaces so they can live their lives more authentically and joyfully.
Mohanty’s story, as told to The Story Exchange 1,000+ Stories Project:
Three years ago, I had the courage to start a second career at age 39 working as a professional residential organizer. Because my husband is a traveling salesman, I knew I needed a career which would give me the flexibility to navigate my own schedule and be home in time to get my kiddos off the bus. I make my work as a professional organizer transformational, not transactional. It’s not about making a junk drawer look like a Pinterest post, it’s about revolutionizing space and empowering clients to live their best life. Hence my business, Let Your Space Bloom, came to fruition.
When it comes to organizing, my philosophy is that it’s about changing the way you use your space, allowing you to discover more time, resources, balance and bliss. Furniture may be moved around, some items may be donated, storage systems reimagined and existing spaces repurposed. The bottom line is that everyone should live in a space that is intentionally organized, one that suits their wants and needs and also enhances their mental and physical health.
Success is remembering to balance work with passion, it’s just that simple. One of my biggest successes was organically growing my Instagram account @let.your.space.bloom to almost 8,000+ followers through my own research and trial and error. I’ve always been intimidated by social media and technology but I knew that I needed to use both in order to successfully grow my business.
The biggest challenge I have faced was changing careers at age 39 and finding the courage and confidence to start my own business! I graduated with a Masters Degree in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University in 2000. At that time the economy was booming, so I had five job offers in corporate human resources and change management consulting. I accepted a position as a Human Resources Analyst at a bulge-bracket investment bank and I was off to the races. My time spent working on Wall Street was some of the most difficult, yet insightful, experiences I’ve ever known. It was also life-changing to witness 9/11 unfold as a resident of New York City and watch not one, but two planes, crash into the twin towers with my own eyes. Perhaps one of my greatest achievements while working in New York aside from surviving the terrorist attack, was obtaining a position in the Executive Development Program working directly for the Chief Executive Officer, a well-known wall street tycoon and billionaire. My former boss at the time, the global head of HR, told me I was going to do something that he had never seen before, which was to start out my career at the pinnacle (an office on the executive floor work for the CEO) and then work my way back down. Yet for me, this was par for the course – I never took the common path. I was always the black sheep; the one who took the road less traveled and endeavored to do things in an unorthodox manner.
I was on a path to becoming an HR executive at another global financial institution when life threw me giant curveball, I fell in love with a late Bloomer. This is the perfect segway into the next chapter of my life which was to give up my career, everyone I knew and loved (except my husband), and move to the desert to support my husband’s career. The next seven-plus years of my life in Arizona was a constant exercise in attempts to “cast off burdens in belief and in apparel,” which is one of my favorite quotes from women’s suffragette Amelia Bloomer. Long story short, it was the longest stretch of my life and I’m grateful every day to be back on the East coast. I’m even more grateful that my move to Baltimore led to my opportunity to pursue my life’s passion which was to organize professionally.
Amelia Jenks Bloomer was a revolutionary women’s rights activist, who also happened to popularize the term “bloomers”. Her work has been a great source of inspiration in my own endeavors personally and professionally since the day I married a descendant of her nephew. In the 19th century, Amelia edited and produced the first women’s newspaper The Lily, promoting events and discussing issues important to women of the time. But she truly became famous when she wore a reformed style of dress that gave women more flexibility, mobility and freedom than the constricting costumes of the day. She caused such an stir nationwide that the outfit became known as “bloomers.”
“The costume of women should be suited to her wants and necessities. It should conduce at once to her health, comfort and usefulness.”
-Amelia Bloomer
I’d add that it’s not just the costume of women that impacts her life, but also her environment. Everyone should live in a space that is intentionally organized, one that suits their wants and needs and also enhances their mental and physical health. Every day, I’m able to move about freely and comfortably as I work in my clients’ space. Without Amelia to pave the way, I wouldn’t have had this daily opportunity to put on my pants one leg at a time.
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