- Will you consider this: You look around any room where you live and wonder, when did I accumulate all this?

It's just stuff.

And sometimes it's organized, sometimes not so much, but there's usually a lot of it.

What to do to tackle that stuff?

(upbeat music plays) As the late George Carlin observed, the whole meaning of life is trying to find a place for your stuff.

He said, "If we didn't have so much, we wouldn't need a house."

Well, I can attest to probably having too much, and thinking about downsizing at any time, well, what do you do short of putting it in storage?

I'm Christine Zak-Edmonds, and Lauren Scachette and Lindsay Hawkins of "Stuff Happens" have taken it upon themselves to help anyone tackle all their stuff and for a good cause at that.

Welcome ladies, we have Lauren and we have Lindsay, these L words.

You guys have been friends for a long time.

What made you decide to try to help people with their stuff?

- That's a great question.

You know, Lauren and I have been friends.

We met through mutual friends and had been friends for a long time and just always continued to get closer and closer.

And, you know, we really bonded over some things in our past that were tough, you know, and we've all gone through tough stuff and we had bonded over it.

And one day, I mean, really there was a, there's a period of time that I was really at my darkest and I went over to Lauren's house just to cry.

I mean, to be completely honest with you, - [Christine] You need a friend like that, right?

- You need a friend like that.

So she said, "Come over for coffee, and you can just lay on my couch and cry."

And I did just that, but on my way over, she had an idea.

- [Christine] Okay, do tell.

- It seemed like for some reason, something was telling me, just go ahead and share this with Lindsay.

Maybe she'll kind of jump on it.

And I said, you know, I just, I really actually enjoy going through all of the extra things that, you know, everybody, even Lindsay and I accumulate things that we don't need, but I just really like going into other people's spaces when they say "I have way too much of these things."

and going through it, organizing it, figuring out, okay, well, what do you actually need to keep?

What would you like to keep?

You know, what are you maybe just not ready to let go of?

And that's okay too, but how do we make it a more usable space?

How do we make it a more effective space for you so that it can still be used?

- [Christine] So this idea just popped into your head one day?

- Yeah, yeah, pretty much.

And so we both just kind of, - No, I was going to say - Ran with it.

- You had been working with your mom, I think?

- Yes, that's right.

- Because she was moving.

So I think it was kind of on the top of her head.

And then when we started talking about it, we were that person in our families, at workplaces, really with other friends, that we were always the ones who would get called, "Hey, we, you know, we're moving, we need somebody to help us."

- [Lauren] "Please help me with this."

- Right, and so we just naturally had done this a lot.

And I think we had always been trying to find a reason to spend more time together or to just hang out together, and we're very purpose driven people and very passionate people.

And so then all of a sudden it was like, "Oh, are we doing this" I mean, it was like that day on the couch.

It was like, "Oh, I'm not crying anymore.

Okay, we're just going to do this."

- We grabbed a notebook and just started writing down, "Okay, well, how do we make it happen?"

- [Christine] Right, right.

So how long have you been doing this?

- Well, that was about a month before COVID hit.

And so as we were starting and coming out with plans to advertise and really get started, suddenly it might not have been such a good idea to go into people's homes one-on-one and so we thought, well, we're going to have to wait a little bit.

And so we adjusted.

- [Lauren] Stuff happens.

- [Christine] Okay, got it.

- Quite literally.

So, yeah, so we kind of took a back seat, did a little bit more planning.

And then, I mean, during the pandemic, we just saw so many people obviously struggling and in so many different ways that we thought, "Okay, this decluttering, this organizing, can we make it into something bigger or something more?

- Can we make it something, we're both so compassionate towards, you know, people who don't have access to the type of resources that we've been, you know, we've been blessed to have those things in our lives, but not everybody does.

And so during, like you said, Lindsay, especially during the pandemic, it kind of opened our eyes to, there are so many more needs than just this.

How can we, how can we make this bigger?

And that's when we kind of decided we need to make this, you know, can we make this nonprofit, can we make this something that benefits the community as a whole?

- So explain that, because yes, you go in and you help declutter.

And it, it might be hard for people to part with some things, especially sentimental things.

And that's one of my biggest problems.

My husband and I say, "We're not hoarders, we're collectors."

- [Lindsay] Yes.

- But we need to get rid of some of those collections.

And a lot of people are that same way, and it's that sentimental tug, but we'll get back to that.

So tell me then how you are a 501(c)(3) and how you are helping others.

- Absolutely.

So we're working on getting the 501(c)(3) status currently, and basically the idea behind that is to be able to use the profits that we get through those decluttering services and through selling donated things, we call them "Stuff Sales."

- [Lindsay] Because we're not selling the garage, and we're not selling the yard, - We're selling the stuff.

- We're selling the stuff.

- [Christine] Got it, got it.

- But we want to use those profits.

The long-term game is buy vacant properties.

I've just gotten my real estate license to kind of facilitate that, buy the vacant properties, fix them up a little bit, especially homes that need just a little bit of a facelift, you know, and make them into safe and beautiful housing options for people who don't have that, who don't have safe or beautiful housing options, maybe they're fleeing from a bad domestic situation or they're, you know, facing some kind of homelessness, you know, anything like that.

So that's.

- Yeah, we, we know that, I mean, Peoria is a community that takes care of its own, right?

I mean, we have so many wonderful organizations and we have benefited ourselves from many of their services, but there were a few gaps that we saw.

And for example, I mean, we have crisis shelters, right?

I mean, there are places for people to go if they're in emergency situations, but when they're ready to go out on their own, there's still sometimes barriers.

It might be that they've never lived on their own before.

It might be that they don't have, have credit good enough to get a really safe apartment or right, to buy a house.

Or they might go to do that, but then they don't have anything to furnish a place.

They don't have a bed, they don't have those things.

And so these are people that they're working hard.

They're trying to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, but there's just, there's that gap, they're so close, but they need something.

- [Lauren] They need a leg up.

- [Christine] They just can't get over that hurdle.

Right, right.

- Absolutely, and so we somewhat think of it as providing transitional housing or helping them transition to independence and home ownership or whatever that is.

But also we know there's so many, you know, historic areas of neighborhoods and whatnot in Peoria, that maybe have not been as well taken care of, or neighborhoods that maybe a couple of houses have fallen into disarray, and it's having an effect on the whole block.

And so if we can reinvest in some of those properties, I mean, we're really going to benefit everyone.

- [Lauren] It's not just helping one family, it's helping a whole community in that way.

- Right, okay.

So explain then exactly how it works.

So you come into my basement and you go, "Oh, it's not good."

And so you take, do I hire you to come there?

And then you clear it out and you check with me what you're gonna dispose of or what, and then what happens from there?

- [Lindsay] Yeah, good question.

- So we actually, we really love when the, the person who hires us, if it's a homeowner or if you live in an apartment, whatever it is in that case.

We love when the person who hires us is kind of part of the process, because then it's, we don't want it to be, we don't want a lot of repeat customers in, "Hey, six months down the road, I'm right back where I was before."

It's kind of an educational process as well.

So maybe you hire us and we come in, and you sit with us while we say, "Okay, what's this, how important is it?

You know, is there a sentimental value?"

If it's paperwork, you know, you can go through it, and that happens.

At the end of the process, we basically will have a, you know, this is what's being gotten rid of.

Maybe it's, it might be a garbage pile.

This is maybe if there are items that you wish to donate or sell, and then the big part of the process is what's remaining in the space and how to make it an effective space for you to continue using, and to put into place a process for you that is going to continue working so that you don't find yourself right back where you started.

So that's kind of what, I guess, the process looks like.

- Yeah.

And so then we come up with a plan with our clients.

So, okay, if this is garbage, when's garbage day?

Just helping them think through the steps.

And then, okay, this is a donation.

Like, do you have a favorite charity or place that you want to bring these items to?

Or do you want us to just take it away today so that you don't have to worry about it?

And then we take it and use it towards our mission.

- [Christine] For your sales.

- And then, and then yeah.

Making the rest of it more functional.

But what's been really fun is that a lot of the people that we work with, it's like, we help them declutter a space, and then they give us, you know, these donated items, and then it'll be like a week or two later, and they're sending us a picture of their space and like "I kept doing it in this area and look how great, you know, I did here or, you know, were you so proud of me?"

You know, that's really rewarding.

- It lights a fire and yeah, they really enjoy continuing.

- [Christine] Yeah, well, that's good.

I mean, it's a crazy idea.

Are there other services like this around the country?

This is just, I mean, did you know about this before this idea came into your head or the name or?

- I looked into it a little bit just when the idea came to me, like, is this a real thing?

Is it plausible?

There are other services that are not, not really in the Peoria specific area that I'm aware of, but it does exist, and especially in larger metropolitan areas.

And none though that I'm aware of, that are linked to a, to kind of a bigger cause.

- [Christine] Bigger picture, okay.

Right.

Right.

Well, that's pretty notable.

How many clients have you gotten or is it word of mouth right now?

Or is that mostly how it's done?

- [Lauren] It's a lot of word of mouth.

- Yeah, it's word-of-mouth, and I think that it's a lot of people who think, well, we've had people.

So the middle step that we haven't discussed yet is we have these stuff sales.

So the garage sales, we have all these donated items that we get that are still in great shape, but didn't serve a purpose in that household anymore.

So we sell them at garage sale prices.

So they're cheap because we want them to be accessible to anybody.

- [Christine] Whoever needs them.

- Exactly, exactly.

Find them a new home.

And, and that's really fun too, because Lauren and I are, we're extroverted people if you couldn't tell.

- [Christine] I didn't.

- No and we're very quiet.

Sorry about that.

- [Christine] Thanks for coming alive for this.

- [Lindsay] We really tried.

Thanks for the coffee.

And we have a lot of fun meeting with the people there and just telling them about our mission.

And so we do, a lot of word of mouth is our mouth.

You know what I'm saying?

Like it's us talking about it.

And so many people just, as we get into conversations, as we're just telling them our mission, they're like, "Oh my gosh, I know somebody who needs this," or, "Hey mom, you gotta come over here.

I got their card."

Because we've all been there.

I mean, and it's just a matter of getting started because so many times our stuff takes over our life, you know what I mean?

And so our lives become more about managing the stuff around it than really living or enjoying them.

- And just the idea of getting started on going through it is what hinders people.

- Right.

- We find that people, just setting an appointment, knowing that this is the designated time, because people are coming to help me with it.

So now it's on the calendar, it's set, it's going to happen.

And just that takes a load off of their shoulders.

I was going to say, one of the other things we often hear is, "Oh, you wouldn't want to see my basement."

- [Lindsay] Oh, yes.

- Yes, we do.

That's the basement we want to see.

If you think we don't want to see it, that's the one we want to see most.

- [Christine] Okay.

How bad, how bad have you seen some stuff?

I mean, just a narrow pathway?

- It's not even about that.

Because we always tell people it's, we come into spaces without judgment, you know?

So it's not even about how much or what kind, it's about freeing that up.

So I want to look forward, not back, you know what I mean?

I don't want to feel like, like you have any hesitation to bring us in.

So I don't think it's about "How bad is the space?"

I think it's about how can, how can we make it easier for you?

- [Christine] How can we make it functional?

- [Lauren] How can we make it easier for you to go through it?

And if that means bringing a couple of strangers in that are going to say, "All right, this is fine.

Let's do it."

- But we're not attached to this stuff, right?

I mean, it is completely objective and we just see, oh, there's too much for you to function in this space the way that you want to.

But actually I was thinking of one of our first clients.

So she, she was like, "Okay, I really don't think that you want to come in.

I'm really nervous."

And we were like, "Oh, come on.

It's going to be fine.

No big deal."

And when we got there that day, I mean, she was an anxious mess.

And she was really like, "I have been dreading this.

I thought, for sure, you would come in, take one look and go, no way, we are not" - "We have to leave.

We can't do this."

- Right, and of course we came in and we were just like, "All right, where are we starting?

Do you like that box, that box?

Because Lauren and I, it's almost like an adventure for us or like a treasure.

- It's like a puzzle.

- Yeah.

So, you know, you have these boxes that you've been putting in a corner and piling up and not looking at.

And we open it up and we're like, "Ooh, what could this be?"

Or like, "How can we sort these things?"

Or like, "Do you need this?"

Or like, "How can we use it better?"

And so not, we fully understand that most of our clients do not respond like that.

That's our job, right?

But there's no judgment.

I mean, really, we have seen it all.

Don't get me wrong, we've seen it all.

And sometimes we go into spaces and we're like, "Do you really need help?

I mean, this is okay."

But it's about meeting the client where they're at and where they want to go, and so we try to be adaptable at every step of the way.

- [Christine] So you guys are like psychologists too, - A little bit.

- [Christine] When you think about it.

- I mean, not licensed, but we will try.

- So, have you always been kind of OCD, both of you?

I mean do you, - In certain ways.

- alphabetize your spices or anything like that?

No?

- Spices, so funny that you said that.

My husband is nodding his head somewhere.

- Right, it's so funny.

Her husband's probably the more orderly of the two.

No, I have two little kids.

I can barely keep, you know, my floor clean enough for the robot vacuum to keep it without it eating socks and whatnot.

- I think that speaks to the point though, is that a lot of times it's really about bringing an objective party in that isn't, you know, Lindsay has hired me, hired in quotations, to come in.

The first spaces that we really kind of tried to if this was a workable plan - Test it out.

- Was her saying my "Okay, my office space, I really need to, I can't get through it."

And I came over and we knocked it out in an hour, two maybe.

And then we did the same thing in my basement.

And again, you know, my husband came home and he was like, "I never thought that it would look like this."

- He was so funny, cause he was like, "I mean, I believed in you guys, but this was really good.

I mean, this really is something that you can do."

And so that really, I mean, thanks Adam, shout out.

You know, it really boosted our confidence.

And then, you know, my mom who I love dearly, - [Christine] Who told me about you guys.

- Yes, she works at WTVP and she was, you know, one of our first clients as well.

And it was, you know, just a matter of, for her, downsizing, you know, it was "Wow, you know, I've lived my whole life with so many of these things, and now it's just time to start thinking about the next chapter.

I don't want to spend so much time, again, managing all of this stuff, when instead I could be enjoying my grandsons.

I could be learning."

You know, she's gotten into so many different arts and things like that since she's been able to free up the space and she is one of the people most enthusiastic about showing us the next thing that she's done and how she's, you know, - [Lauren] I'm about to hire her, I mean, oh my goodness, she's amazing.

Her whole mindset has changed, and we see that often.

- [Christine] Well, you know, I think they've done studies on that too, where they say that if you can be organized and keep it organized, your life is so much simpler, you know?

just finding where your other earring is or something like that, wow.

How long does it take you for like a really hot mess or how many hours do you spend with a client or is there an average?

- It really, again, we meet the client where they're at.

So for say like my office, you know, it was, it was pretty full.

You really couldn't use a desk or use the floor or anything like that.

And it only took us about two hours to get it to a functional level.

Now, since then I've, on my own, you know, gone through and gone through my files a little bit more and done, you know, different things in the closet, but a space like that, it was pretty, you know, two hours easily got me to a place where I felt it manageable on my own.

- And that's what we try to do is get the client to a place where they can kind of take over.

We don't, we're not deep cleaners.

We're not, you know, we're not going to go through every piece of paperwork, if I come to a box and it's entirely medical bills, - [Christine] Kid's papers or something.

- Bank statements, where I'm going to say, "Okay, here you go.

This is a box for you to go through."

It's your personal records.

I'm not going to look at that.

You know, that's for you to go through and decide what's important to keep or, you know, file away or whatnot.

And we call that your homework.

So, but for a large space, we, I don't think we've ever spent more than five hours in one space.

- At a time.

- Yeah.

- Right.

- And occasionally we've had to break it into, you know, - [Christine] A couple of days, - I guess two separate days really is the most, we've done.

- [Lindsay] Two separate days, yeah.

And that's for, I feel like that's really been for like a whole house situation or like a full garage.

- Very full garage, very full basement that has just been collecting and collecting and collecting.

- For years and years and years.

- But we also have really found a new interest that we're seeing more people inquire about is when, again, they're moving, they are downsizing, or if they have an estate that has been left to them.

So like a full house that just has been sitting there, right?

And you know, someone has passed away and now a child or another family member goes in and there's just so much.

- [Lauren] Too much.

- I mean the emotional labor that goes into that can be so overwhelming and so exhausting so that when, again, to people like us, which, you know, we just, we enjoy it and we're having fun.

It helps it all seem manageable for them too.

So really that has been an area.

We have always tried to stay flexible in terms of how we do things or what we're doing it for.

I mean, keeping our mission and our vision in mind, but to be flexible how we do it.

And so we're finding more and more of a need there.

Like we also this summer have found that apparently when garage sales are over, other people's garage sales, they don't want a single item to come back in their house.

And so they call us and we've had neighborhood garage sales give us a call and just say, "Okay, can you just like basically come up and down the street and around the block and pick up what's left?"

- [Christine] How many trips does that take?

- [Lindsay] Oh, you know.

- [Christine] You get a U-Haul?

- Well, we've been filling up our own, our personal vehicles at this point.

- If anybody has a big old truck they want to get rid of, we could use it.

We've just been filling up.

I mean, I think one Saturday we went back and forth with three SUV's and it was like two - [Lindsay] And a big van, we used to have a really big van.

- Oh, we did have the big van.

Her name was Misty, may she rest in peace.

- We miss Misty.

- We really do love and miss her.

But that was her final ride.

Cause we really put her to the test, but it's really, it's, it's been so fun because people underestimate the amount we can fit in our car.

So we say, you know, - [Christine] So you know how to pack, too.

- [Lauren] Tetris Queens.

- We're excellent at it.

I mean, people go, "How?

How did you do that?"

- They'll say "This is probably gonna take you a few trips."

And we're like, "Okay, that's fine.

Yeah, no.

- So it's almost, it's entertainment.

So if you need us to come pick up a donation.

Just watch us pack.

- Now people are just going to be like "Challenge accepted."

- I know right.

- [Christine] And you have your stuff sales, so where do those take place?

- So those take place at, I have a house on Florence, it's right across from Thomas Jefferson school.

So it's a really great location for its - [Christine] Central, right?

Central location, right between Sheridan and University.

So we get a lot of traffic through there, but it's, you know, - [Christine] How often do you have those, then?

- [Lindsay] It ranges.

- We try to watch the weather.

And it, of course it always depends.

We always have different things because our inventory fluctuates so much, but we've been getting enough donations, we've been able to do about two a month.

But honestly, I think we can do more than that, because it's been a really great thing.

We've seen a lot of donations come up in terms of the things that people are donating.

So we've been able to do - [Christine] What are the best things they're donating?

Furniture, or electronics?

- Furniture does well.

Electronics go immediately.

People are always asking for tools, and we don't ever seem to have enough tools.

They go first thing in the morning.

- They go immediately.

- TVs or monitors go very quickly.

- Clothes, and a ton of clothes.

- We get a ton of clothes.

- [Christine] Probably children's clothes.

- We have a lot of children's clothes.

- Books and DVDs are surprisingly, always very popular.

- People will come up with just like armfuls.

And they're like "This is like my DVD rental for the month."

And that's how they think of it that way.

- [Christine] Wow.

- So it works out really nicely.

- [Christine] And then they call you later and say, "Can you come get this stuff?"

- [Lindsay] I mean, - We'll do that, that's fine.

- Full circle.

- And what's really been fun about the stuff sales is again, it's our way of networking with the community.

And we have a lot of people that we see every single time we have a sale.

I mean, garage salers are hardcore, right?

I mean, they, that is what they do.

- [Christine] They pay attention.

- Absolutely.

But then we have some people who either they knew us or they've become familiar with us because of these sales that now we refer to them as like our best friends, because we're friends.

- [Lauren] "Our best friends are here."

"Our new best friends are here!"

Or, "Did you meet our new best friend?"

And those people really have brought new life into us every single time we have a sale because we're like, "Oh, we're really connecting with the community."

And this is again, a reminder of why we're doing this.

And so, I mean, we've got a lot of different plans and ideas of how this is going to continue to evolve and listening to the needs of the community, just in the real casual, again, a garage sale, like hanging out, music playing type of atmosphere is great.

- The amount of people that come to garage sales specifically to buy things, to then donate.

I have found to be really inspirational as well, you know.

Or I remember there was, we've had people who come and there was a woman specifically who came in, we had two children's bikes.

And, do you remember this?

And, and she bought one.

She had her grandson was, it was going to be the perfect size for her grandson.

But then she came back for, there was a little girl's bike too.

And she came back and she said, "You know, my, my son's girlfriend has a little girl, but she, she can't ride a bike.

She's disabled, she can't ride a bike, but I just can't bring a bike for my grandson and not bring a bike for her.

I'm just, I'm going to buy the other bike too.

And it just stories like that, that it's like, it just, it fills my heart, you know?

- [Christine] Gives you a purpose to it.

- Yeah, it just reminds me, there's so many needs out there that, you know.

- Well, you guys have, have uncovered a lot of needs, which is pretty interesting, and done it in a whole different way, a whole new approach, which is kind of exciting.

And then you have baby boomers and a lot of them are downsizing right now.

- Sure.

- Absolutely.

- So yeah, you have a market for this whole endeavor.

- Right.

And, it's the baby boomers again, who, like you said are downsizing.

It's also people who are getting married later in life, who, you know, just millennials in general are waiting to settle down.

And so they have already gone out on their own, - [Lauren] Two sets of stuff.

- They have two full sets of housing, like complete.

And they're like, "We don't need eight different sets of bedding or this many pots."

And so all of a sudden they're like, "Oh perfect."

But they're also ideal clients for the decluttering because they're like, "Well, how do we even manage what makes sense in these spaces?"

Because maybe one is moving into the other's house.

It's already established, and so again, an objective eye, - [Christine] Good for you, ladies.

- We're trying.

- Well, thanks for sharing the story.

Stuff happens.

Make sure you listen to George Carlin's routine on stuff and you're in the right place.

So again, thank you for being here with me.

Thanks for joining us and hope to see you next time.

- [Lindsay] Thanks.

(Outro music plays)