Carrie Lagerstedt of Curate Home.
Professor Carrie Lagerstedt brought her professional training and experiences with ADHD to a new business established during the pandemic.
What does your business do?
I am a professional home organizer. Working with busy families
and neurodiverse people to organize their homes and establish realistic and functional organizational systems.
I work alongside people to transform disorganized and messy spaces into calm, functional and systematized living areas.
I often help people who are entering a new phase of life, such as having children, moving house, or downsizing. People find that they can accomplish everyday tasks, but clutter builds up in the background and behind closed doors.
I also specialize in neuroaffirming organizational systems that make a home easier to keep tidy and manage if you have ADHD or autism.
You set up Curate Home in 2021, a pretty difficult year for many Kiwis during the pandemic. How challenging was that in terms of time?
In terms of timing for a business that focused on people’s homes, it was probably perfect.
Over the past few years, people had been forced to reflect and experiment with how their homes worked (or didn’t, as the case may be).
I started the business as a part-time venture and worked as a relief teacher to supplement my income.
It’s a small industry in New Zealand, so I have to advocate and educate on behalf of the industry alongside my own business. It was certainly a bold decision, especially for a single income.
How does your experience as a teacher influence your current work?
Inviting someone to your home in this context is very vulnerable and requires a lot of courage, so my teaching experience ensures a degree of sensitivity and understanding when working with clients.
You must be able to read people’s energy levels and emotions. Decluttering is physically and mentally exhausting, and there is a lot of emotion and context surrounding our belongings.
I also love working with children to manage their spaces. They feel excited and proud once it is done.
Have hyperactive disorder and attention deficit (ADHD). How did that influence his thoughts about becoming a small business owner before creating Curate Home?
I never imagined I could be self-employed, although curiously I set up the business shortly after I was diagnosed with ADHD.
Many people with ADHD are self-employed and I think it suits us. We are creative, tenacious and imaginative.
I definitely wasn’t feeling confident, but a recurring business mantra has been to feel absolutely terrified and do it anyway. At some point, you just have to take a leap of faith and try things.
Having a good accounting system made this possible, since I have dyscalculia (a learning disorder that affects numbers and concepts related to mathematics). I’m terrible with numbers.
Tidying up must have its challenges sometimes. What is the messiest place you have ever found?
Every day I work with people who feel overwhelmed in their homes, and honestly, the more disorganized it is, the more I get out of sorting it out for people.
There is a difference between chronic disorganization and a hoarded home, but both feel very embarrassing and difficult to live with.
The challenge for me is not so much the physical manifestation of the disorder.
It’s more about my client being open to the process, trusting that they can let go of the elements and embrace creative solutions to organizational challenges. The final result is very satisfactory, it changes people’s lives and takes a great weight off their shoulders.
We hear more about neurodiversity now than ever before, but why do some neurodiverse clients benefit from hiring a stranger to sort their properties?
An outsider is impartial, knowledgeable and, most importantly, non-judgmental.
You need to have someone advocate for your needs, rather than providing “support” through their own filter or lens.
Many of my clients tell me about the shame and exasperation they have to endure from family members outside the home: adult women who don’t invite their mothers because they are tired of being shamed and lectured.
Neurodiversity research and knowledge is changing rapidly, but there is still a lot of stigma that overlays the way we think and live.
You have to feel confident and comfortable making informed decisions, without feeling belittled, embarrassed, or influenced by someone else’s opinion.
As he told John Weekes. Small business questions and answers may be edited for brevity and clarity. If you have a small business story idea, please contact newsdesk@nzherald.co.nz with the subject line ‘Small Business Q&A’.