Connections! in SW Florida - Featuring Tiffany Misenko from Clear the Clutter

Good morning and welcome, Tiffany. Welcome everyone on Facebook and YouTube. It is Friday. I don't know how you feel about Fridays, but it's Friday, and I know people get excited about Fridays, mostly when they don't work in real estate, by the way, because Friday is another work day. Uh, my name is Renee Hahn, and I am bringing you Connections in Southwest Florida today. And when I started Connections in Southwest Florida, my whole premise during a time when we were still for the most part on the homestay, I wanted to make sure that we could continue to connect businesses, local businesses, with local entrepreneurs and local people. And I've loved doing these. I've been doing them every day, and I keep saying when people stop asking me to do them, I'll stop doing them. But the whole premise is during a time when people may not, even, even now when we've gotten a few more freedoms to go out, may not be back to their full state of feeling comfortable to interact and be in close proximity. So that's what these are all about. And today I am honored to have Tiffany with Clear the Clutter, and I know we're going to talk about your business, Tiffany. I can think of— I know I can think of lots of uses to clear clutter because Lord knows even the OCD people like us have clutter in our lives. I'm not sure that you want to clear all of it. But what I'd like to do, Tiffany, is start with just a little bit of an introduction so we can learn more about you. So tell us about yourself, Tiffany.

Okay, thank you for the intro. My name is Tiffany Masenko, obviously. I am originally from Philadelphia, moved down here about 6 years ago after the birth of my youngest daughter. Let's see, I was trying to escape the winters and be closer to family. I've moved up and down the East Coast my whole life, from Florida to New York and a lot of places in between, and I think that I kept coming back to Florida because of the beach. Beach. The beach is my favorite place to be in the whole wide world, and Barefoot Beach is my very favorite beach here. I hope I don't blow it up. It's so nice and quiet. Anyway, my passion is actually— is really helping others, and my talent is organizing. So it's actually more of an obsession. I am obsessively organized. I have always organized for friends and family, and I really never even thought it was a thing. I just thought it was something that I did. I would go into friends' houses and say, "Oh, look at your— can you give me like 20 minutes in your closet, please?" That's just how I am. And it's really nice though, because when we do help someone, when we do take someone from a place of complete chaos and disarray We give them their home back and we give them their lives back. I mean, it sounds corny and blown out of proportion, but really, I mean, people's lives are changed. And it's like, I never, I never had any idea. I just thought I was being tidy, you know. And so it's just turned into a really wonderful, wonderful blessing. The rewards are, are unbelievable.

Well, and we'll, we'll go into that. It's interesting, Tiffany, because you are a wonderful example of what I tell my younger daughters all the time. I say, look, figure out what you love to do and then find a way to make money at it. Because if you love what you're doing, yes, it's work, but it's a different type of work because when you're following your passion, it's so much more rewarding. And you're living that.

It's, I mean, every time I think about it, I mean, I've had so many wonderful jobs and so many career choices that I thought were going to be really, you know, oh, this is it. I finally figured out what I want to be when I grow up. And I was 37 till I did. So I'm just every single day, I got up at 1 o'clock this morning, but usually I'm up around 4 and I'm like, okay, what am I gonna do for my business today? How are we gonna make this? I mean, I'm so excited. It's a little much sometimes.

Well, Tiffany, if you're getting up at 4 in the morning to start the business, what time do you go to sleep?

Usually between— if I— it's 7:30, if I fall asleep putting my 6-year-old to bed, it is between 10:30 and midnight depending on what I have left to do. I just always 4:01, 4:02, 3:58, I open. That's just perfect. When my body gets up.

I love it. Well, I envy you. Pardon the life going on behind me. I have temporarily moved myself into our kitchen area because anytime there's storms, and yesterday there were some storms, my— the internet connection, even though we have this fastest speed, sometimes gets disrupted, and I didn't want to do that to you. So I'm like sitting right on top of the modem, which just means life is happening behind me. So welcome to homestay, right?

No, you're fine. I had a magical morning of everyone getting out of the house at 8 o'clock, so I was like, oh, It's gonna be perfect.

I love it. Well, you need to go relax after this. So Tiffany, talk to us a little bit about, you know, you said you've had this, this both this passion and this talent. At what point did you realize you could actually turn them into a business? What was your inspiration for starting Clear the Clutter?

Well, I, I was actually in between jobs and I just, it was February, December 2017, January 2018. And I had accepted a job with Raymond James in St. Pete and was in finance. It was really going to be a really great career choice. I was really excited and a bunch of issues happened with my paperwork and the job fell through and I was completely devastated. So I thought, you know what, this has always been my experience. This has always been the case that whenever something bad happens, I, I just know that something great is going to come out of it because it has to. Otherwise, what are we doing here? You know what I mean? So I kept my head up and I said, something's going to come out of this great. I'm not going to worry about it. Next day, my girlfriend called me and she said, hey, you're a real nut when it comes to organizing. She said, I have a client and I want you to come to her closets. She wants you to come to her closet. So I said, okay, yeah, that sounds like fun. So I did that. And it was the second day in and I thought, oh my God, I could do this all day, every day, forever for the rest of my life. Be so happy. And that was the moment that I was like, I figured out what I want to do when I grow up. I cannot believe this. I'm totally going to do it. So I just put it out there on Facebook first and just to kind of see what everyone would say. And this person referred me and this person referred me and this person heard about me and I was doing my neighborhood, which, you know, I didn't even really have to drive anywhere. It was just ideal. And then I started advertising and getting a lot more clients in Naples and then further north. So, um, it just kind of took on a life of its own, took off.

Well, I love it. I was telling Tiffany earlier when we were— before we came on live— that when I, um, first advertised that she was going to be one of my guests, I got at least a few unsolicited, 'Oh my gosh, I love that business, she's awesome.' So you're obviously touching lives, Tiffany. So you kind of fell into it. This friend saw a talent in you, perhaps an obsession, whatever you want to call it, but this talent, and invited you in to help one of her customers. And before long, you had, you realized there was really a demand for this.

Oh, huge.

Yeah. Talk to me about, because we all think clutter in lots of different ways, right? There's psychological clutter, there's physical clutter, there's all of this clutter that happens. What types of projects does Clear the Clutter work on? And if you say that fast 3 times, I'll probably get tongue-tied.

I could.

What kind of things do you often get invited in to do?

Our most popular service for sure is the moving services. So, you know, as a realtor, many people move to Florida every single day. And these people, whether they have packed themselves hired professional packers, it is just a nightmare. They are completely overwhelmed with the move. So we do everything from meeting the movers at the house, letting them know where the furniture should go. I do have an on-staff interior designer that I'm working with. She's incredible. So she'll help me kind of lay that— lay out the house. And then when the boxes come, my organizers come in, they start opening unpacking, taking out the garbage, taking out the boxes, taking everything away, and start putting everything away just nice and neat in the home. So really, it's, it's you get your stuff here and we'll take care of everything else. We take away boxes, we haul away all the junk because donations, because a lot of people tend to move things that when they're unpacking, they go, I don't need that, let's just get rid of it. I don't know why I moved it. It doesn't fit in this house. It doesn't go with this house. I was tired, whatever, you know, whatever the case may be. So definitely our moving services. A lot of people move, are moving locally, so we will pack them. And what we do is what I call an organizing, an organized pack. So we're not just throwing stuff into boxes, even carefully throwing stuff into boxes. We are making sure that each box is exclusive to one type of item or just one room or whatever the case may be so that when you open it, if you're moving somewhere where we don't offer service, you can open it and say, oh, this item belongs in the kitchen. This whole box is kitchen. This is great. And move on to the next box. Whereas most of the time you open a box, okay, this is kitchen. This is garage. This I don't even know what this is. I don't know why I brought it down here. I've been there.

I was a senior executive with a large company and they moved me every 2 or 3 years. And I can tell you what you described was absolutely my experience. I would have loved you in my life, Tiffany. Things would have made sense. I wouldn't have had to wait for day 15 after my move to figure out where something I needed on day 1 was.

I know. It's crazy. I just, I understand professional packers and they are way faster than us, I'm sure, but it's not gonna be a crapshoot what's in the boxes when you get to your destination. So we pack so that unpacking is a breeze. And if you let, if you're moving locally, like I said, we pack, coordinate the move, unpack, take away everything, so all you have to do is walk in the house and go, "Huh, okay." And we'll do, of course, a final walkthrough so you can say, "Actually, I don't want that there," or, "I want that there," or, get rid of that. I don't know why I kept that, which is— we get a lot of that.

Well, I was gonna ask you, Tiffany, you kind of answered it with someone organizing your home. I imagine, do you do a reorientation to their new organized home so they know where to find things?

Yes, and I get phone calls, it's so funny, or texts every now and again, and it's like, the purple bin with the, with the blue sticker on it that had a broken latch on it, do you remember where that is? And I'm like, oh, Yeah, go in the living room, turn left, look under the satchel. I would, all my girls, and I don't get to organize anymore, I'm not in the field anymore, but I have 6 wonderful employees that are out there organizing and they, we all remember stuff like that. And it has something to do with the way our brains function when we see a space, we see, okay, if I move that there and I move that there and I put this under here, okay, that'll look pretty, it'll be functional, And for whatever reason, all that sticks in our head. So 3 months later, when you call and ask me, where's your such and such? I'm like, oh yeah, I know exactly where that is.

Well, the nice thing is, 'cause there's truly a method to the madness. Oh yeah. You know, you're probably following some logical sequencing in your approach. There's an aesthetic piece to it, but there's also a, you know, a sort of practical piece, I imagine.

And it has to be practical. Practical. Or else I don't, I just, I couldn't leave, I couldn't leave someone like that, 'cause if you're not gonna use it the way it's set up, you're not going to use it, and it's going to become messy, or you're going to just start putting stuff in there 'cause you don't use, you know what I mean? It's just, it has to be functional and it has to look good, and luckily we have not been stumped so far, so 2 years in and we're doing pretty good.

Well, and something I was gonna say, going from doing it as your passion to now having a large enough business that you have 6 people that are also good at organization. How have you passed on that skill set to make sure that those that work on behalf of Clear the Clutter are offering that same valued service? Do you hire for that and you look for that skill, or do you train for that, or both?

Um, I don't— we do train, but I don't believe that the Compulsive organizing is anything I could teach. And I do look for that in the interview. And most everyone in the interview always says something to the effect of, I've just always done it. I don't really, I don't know. I just can't be in a space that's not completely organized. Everything has to be this, this, this, and this. Some people use the term OCD, and I don't mean to be offensive, but they use it jokingly. And I'm like, I do understand. When I go out to eat, I make sure my forks, you know, is facing the right way. So it really is just something you are and something you have. And it's like, oh, make it pretty. Can't relax. No one relax. We're gonna make it pretty first and then we can all relax. And all my staff are, they're exactly the same.

Well, I was gonna say, Tiffany, I almost need to have you repeat that in 2 seconds as my husband's walking in because we have a running joke. He just walked in. I love my house in order. And I'll come home and it's in disarray. And I'll say, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. And he'll say, Renee, relax. And I say, babe, you just don't get me. Relax is what happens after order is restored, right?

Exactly right. Like, it's okay. I'm like, no, it's actually not because I can't get anything done before I clean.

The nice thing about what you do, Tiffany, is It doesn't even have to be, I imagine, it's not that everyone that brings you in is disorganized. It could be that time is a premium and maybe people who have a natural tendency towards organization maybe just don't have the time to fulfill it. So you don't have to necessarily be somebody who's just, whether it's, you call it messy, disorganized, to bring Tiffany and her team in. It may just be a luxury to have Okay, that was funny.

That was great. Was that your cat?

We were talking about your cup earlier and how it reflected.

Oh yeah.

Never did I think I'd have a diving cat. We have seen it all here today. Let's just be honest. This is Homestay. You've had my kids in the back. You have my cat jumping over the computer. All right, so back to what I was saying, Tiffany. My apologies.

This peace and calm as a sign of how it's been because I kicked everyone out of the house at 8 o'clock today so I could do this in peace. But it's usually not.

It's all to help you relax, Tiffany. I figured if I could just have Comedy Central on my end, you'd just laugh into relaxation.

Thank you.

Tell me a little bit about with your customers. So we talked about your service. It could be, I imagine, anything from, we talked about the moving being a big piece, but I always hear you know, garages, right? It's the end-all debate between men and women. I hate to say that, but so often myself, we, we negotiate and allow the, the, the husbands to have their space in the garage, right? They're like, let that be my haven. And then it drives us crazy because it may not be organized the way we want. I imagine you do garages. Do you do businesses?

Oh, absolutely. So, um, residential, commercial, we do I mean, everything from closets to storage units, to pantries all over the home. We do— oh, I wanted to tell you, we also have a monthly maintenance program. So and it could be monthly, it could be biweekly, quarterly, but most people are monthly, once a month is enough where we come back in after we've organized and kind of take a couple hours and just restore it to its original, original way. So that you're not going a month and 2 months and 3 months and all of a sudden it's completely back to where it was and we have to come in for a whole day or 2 days again or something like that. So it helps the clients stay organized and stay nice and tidy. And if they have a bad week and it, you know, this area got messy, it's not anything we can't do, you know, with 2 girls in a couple hours. That's been a really big help for a lot of people.

I love that because you— that was a great lead-in. I was literally going to ask you the question, Tiffany, do you ever go back and do a post-organization to see how much of that organization sticks? But even better that you guys have an ongoing service after the initial. So that's— does that— what's your proportion? Do most people do that?

I would say at least half, at least half, because I would say half of our clients are in a place where they're just not really interested in organizing and keeping their home tidy anymore. It's a service that they would just rather outsource. So about half of our clients are people, the other half I should say, are people that have unfortunately gone through some tragedy like losing a child or losing a spouse or some sort of physical disability, getting fibromyalgia or rheumatoid arthritis is a big one with a lot of our clients. They just can't do it anymore. And most of them used to be, or still are but unable to perform, obsessively organized. And these people are just they're just miserable because they can't do it themselves. They're used to all of them. I was like you, I was like you for 50 years and then I don't know what happened. I was like you for 70 years and I don't know what happened. It's like, it's okay.

Yeah, I've got to imagine there's almost a sense of feeling trapped and helpless when you want something to be a certain way and you're not capable of doing it yourself.

I can't imagine, I can't imagine how horrible that is. So I'm just grateful that people are able to reach out. You know, a lot of people are embarrassed. About the way their home looks. And I'm like, you see a mess, but I see a big jigsaw puzzle. Like, woo! All right, how are we going to get this pretty? You know, like, I just don't. And like I said, all my girls are the same way. Girls, they're all women. I should call them women. I'm sorry.

Well, let me ask this. Let's go to the extreme. We've all seen it on TV, or some of us have seen it in life. Have you been able to help even with situations where there are clinical hoarding situations go in and You know, I've seen it particularly with like estates, right, that maybe somebody was a hoarder during their life and now the families come in and needs help figuring out what's in there. Do you do that type of organization as well or not so much?

I would like to get into that aspect of it and get like a hoarding division because there's a lot. We don't do any technical hoarding cases right now because there's hazmat and different things that has to be protocol that have to be followed and different. I don't even know what they are yet. I haven't even looked into that. But we have had cases where definitely hoarders, but not, you know, dead animals or human waste or a bug. I've seen bugs too. One of my clients that was so bad, I had to call— I had to leave the project and call an exterminator. But I have a bug guy. I have a guy for everything. So we got them out, we got the bugs out, and then we came back in the following day and fixed her all up. So seen a little bit of everything. I wouldn't say the, like, hoarding like on the show, only because again, there's some sort of hazmat conditions that's going on that may be going on there with mold or something like that where we couldn't even go in the home.

Sure. No, makes perfect sense. And I've got to imagine at the end, you know, we talk about Some of us, I'm not saying myself, but you know, there's jobs you hear people talk about, oh, I'm in a thankless job, I'm in a thankless job. I can't imagine a day, Tiffany, where you and your team get done with a project and people aren't thankful because it is, it's, it, that, that sense of accomplishment, that sense of peace when things are organized and you didn't have to worry about. I can't imagine that people aren't just in love with the outcome.

They are. And that's, I mean, I'm telling you, that's nothing I ever anticipated when I first started the business because I thought, oh, everybody likes a pretty house, you know. But I mean, so many of our clients are in tears when we're done. Like, you changed my— whoa, not getting emotional. But it's so, it's so rewarding beyond anything I ever thought it would be because these people are like You know, a lot of— I had an elderly woman that kept tripping and falling because her home was so bad, and she wouldn't let anybody in, wouldn't let anybody in. I was like, just get me a foot in the door and I will talk to her. And we ended up doing her house, and she hasn't fallen since. And I'm like, you know, we talk, she has me over for coffee sometimes. I just— you build a relationship with these people going through their personal things, and You know, holding their hand while you go through pictures of their spouse who passed away or their child or son. These people are just so grateful and so deserving of it. You know, it's so rewarding. I'm so grateful. I'm so blessed.

Well, and that led me to— I was— this— you didn't say this, but my mind went there when you were talking about just get me a foot in the door. So are sometimes the services initiated by by, or are you invited into situations, maybe not by the person you end up organizing, but by someone who cares deeply for them? Or is it always the person getting organized? I don't know how else to call them, but you see what I'm saying is—

Absolutely. Yeah, it's, I'd say 70/30, about 70% are people call for themselves and probably a good maybe 25-30% call for a loved one. A lot of people have their parents down here. And the last time they came to visit, they were like maybe not doing so good, you know, not, not to the point of needing home care, which I have, um, I mean, there's so many wonderful medical professionals that we can hook them up with, but people who just can't do it anymore, um, don't have the, don't have the physical abilities to do it anymore. And like I said, families will come to visit and see us and say, "Oh my God, I don't have time to do this. Can you come over to my mom's?" or so we get a lot of people calling for other people and those are probably the most challenging to get the foot in the door but once I get in, I'm like, "Come on. I'm going to love you. I'm going to make everything better. Please let me help you." You know, it really is It's a really easy thing to do to try and get people to get on board with.

Well, it's a matter of trust because you talked about that. This is very personal. Let me ask this because I see we've got 5 minutes and I wanted to find out because it's probably a question people have. What do you come in and bid a job and bill by the job? Is it By the hour, if somebody was interested in having Clear the Clutter come and work, how, how do they, they derive what it would cost?

So it, we do bill by the job. We have an hourly rate. If people, some people want the hourly rate, they just want to pay for what they want to pay for, and that's totally fine. But you actually save money when you bill by the job, because it always ends up being a little longer than than you thought it was gonna be. I just do it that way 'cause I don't like surprises. I don't wanna bid somebody one, I don't wanna give them an estimate and then give them a bill that's different from the estimate. I just, I don't like when it happens to me. So our consultations are always free and we are offering in-home and virtual. We started virtual consultations over the shutdown. So I would come in the home, walk around with you, you can tell me what your goals are. I would assess the situation, write you down a little plan, get you a quote right on the spot, and then we'd go from there. So yeah, it's, it's, it's like, here it is, here's exactly what we're going to do, how long it's going to take, and how much it's going to cost. And every job— I know people say, what's your ballpark? It's— they're so different. Every job is so different, it's hard to especially over the phone, it's hard to judge. So I like to get in the home and actually take a look at it so I can see what we're, what we're up against.

Well, and Tiffany, you mentioned doing virtual quotes and virtual consults. Where, where are you at in terms of the ability now to, to be able to do in-person consultations and, and, and work on projects? Are you guys to a point where you're able to do those now with the COVID-19?

Yes, I think it was May 18th, and I don't think we went back till the, or May 11th, I can't remember the date now, but yes, we just went back to work, just started working again. And my girls have masks and sanitizer and gloves. If the client wants to wear a mask, their choice. My girls who don't, I have a couple girls who wanna wait till June, or one who wants to wait till June, one who wants to wait till July. To work, totally fine. I don't want to put anyone in a situation where they don't feel comfortable. But some of the clients are like, oh, take your mask off, it's fine. So it's really everyone's— what everyone, the client's comfort level is, is what we're going to do.

Wonderful. Well, thank you. Let me do this. I'm going to pause for just a moment. I am in a popular pet path here, as you just saw the tail going across.

Oh, I wonder— okay.

There's actually birds flying over. I'm on the edge of my house and, and it overlooks the pool. You can't see that, but there's a ton of birds flying overhead and it's driving me crazy. All right, so I wanted to pause for a moment, Tiffany, and just share some of the other businesses I have coming at some of the upcoming segments. Um, we are taking Monday off. I originally scheduled one for Monday and then both of us realized that Monday is Memorial Day. And I'm a workaholic, so sometimes I have to have the reins throttled back. But Tuesday we'll pick back up and we have Walter Salazar Pest Control. I have Wednesday Make Sense Tile and Grout. We've got Contracts Media coming up, and Potty Express was scheduled yesterday and rebooked for next Friday. So next week's full, but if anyone has a business they own, or you know somebody that may have their own business, not you, that you'd like to refer. These are completely free. I, as I mentioned, I'll do them as long as there's an interest in doing them, and I'll phase them out when people are done. So it's just about getting your business out there, being able to talk about what you do and the services you offer in a public setting so that we can continue to keep these businesses that are the fiber of our communities going. So Tiffany, I certainly, it sounds like the demand is real for you and I hope you guys continue to have that. Let's wrap up with Tiffany, anything you'd like to share with our viewers that are online with us now live or even those that may join us in the replay?

Yes, thank you. I wanted to let you know we are now doing closing packages for realtors and leasing offices, something you might be interested in. So rather than a welcome gift, the realtors who, who work with us, we will have— will be able to offer their clients the unpacking assistance when they move in. So like something I know some realtors do, like an appliance or a gift basket or something like that. How about a day of unpacking? So we have that for realtors and leasing offices now. And, um, yeah, I'm really excited about that. Those are, those are going well so far. So, so good.

Feel free, uh, when you see this posted on Connections, any information— because I selfishly am interested in learning more about what you just talked about— feel free if there's any information you want to post below the live session, um, have at it. And, uh, and then selfishly, you have my email address So send me any information about the, the closing, uh, gift. That's a brilliant idea. We really appreciate you. It is 9:30, so it's keeping true to my word, we'll wrap up. But, um, again, this could be the gift that keeps on giving. So I think it makes a perfect gift. Now I don't know, we've got Father's Day coming up, and I talked earlier about You know, some of the wives may be interested in getting this service for their husband, and he may not necessarily want it, but I bet he'd appreciate it when he's done. So absolutely, a lot of the opportunity for Father's Day. Let's help people get organized, bring peace and balance into their lives. And Tiffany, you have a fabulous week and weekend along with everybody else.

Thank you so much for having me. That was so kind.

My pleasure. Have a good day, everyone. Have a great weekend.

Thank you. Bye.