It’s Friday! Stopping by to share a peek at our early Fall decor, details about an upcoming local event and sharing something I am VERY proud of!

MINIMAL + LIGHT FALL DECOR

Last weekend I pulled out the Halloween and Fall decor bins. Decorating in a new home, you never really know what’s going to work until you get started. Seeing the minimal decor I have reminded me how hard-core I was about decluttering last season. Ha! Not that I’m rushing out to fill in the gaps just yet because I seem to have enough for this minimalist decorator. But I can definitely improve in a few areas – especially since the kids get excited about seeing the house decorated.

I will be back to share more once I have it all set up but wanted to share this pretty area of the family room…I love making dinner in the evening with this view…

( mirror | lanterns | rug )

Just because Fall is best known for oranges, browns and rustic colors doesn’t mean it has to be that way. Decorate in a way that makes YOU happy! I personally LOVE light greens and neutrals.

You may recall these are the same garlands I decorated with last year for my niece’s wedding…

By the way…I can’t believe her wedding was ONE YEAR AGO this month!

After her wedding, I left the garlands up but removed the pink ribbons…

This light green color may give a Spring vibe, but I think it works well for Fall. I added a couple straw bundles and a white pumpkin, so that helps – lol!…

( garland | lights | white pumpkin | similar wheat bundle )

AND a lot of twinkle lights!

We’ve been enjoying cozy nights watching football together with the lights on. Look forward to fires soon as well! The weather went from 110 degrees last week to a much more bearable 70 this week. Fall is definitely in the air and we’re getting rain this weekend. Can’t wait – we need the rain!

PROUD OF MY TEAM

I need to spend A LOT more time talking about our growing team and introducing everyone. As of today I have seven employees and four independent contractors. And we are still drowning – in need of hiring more people. What?! I owe you guys an update! And if you are local / interested in applying, you can find more details about the two job roles right here.

It has NOT been easy – trust me. It’s not glamorous and running a small business in CA is expensive and so much to contend with but….I’m steadfast with our mission to help as many families as we can.

Earlier this year, we hired three employees. Their role will eventually morph from being an assistant and learning all the ins and outs, to running a small team in their own area. I specifically hired them in the Oakland, Lafayette and San Rafael areas because we receive numerous inquiries from these cities. Of course, we receive inquiries from everywhere around the Bay Area but we had to narrow down a few to begin with. And I needed to slow roll this as I learn how to have employees, develop myself into a great leader and all the back end business stuff I have to deal with. PLUS transitioning this business from SAM only to “it’s not just Sam anymore”. That has been a challenge because most people want me on their project 100% of the time. This is a topic for another time, but it’s a big hurdle.

Anyway, our three new gals have been with us since early summer and have been exposed to MANY projects and experiences. They’ve been passing every test with flying colors BUT the real tests began last week when I started giving them project puzzles to solve with only a little input from me. Two of our newest went right to work and nailed it! SO proud of them!!

Earlier this year I installed an under stairs closet, but it was left unorganized since. Between summer schedules, hiring, and general busy stuff (on both ends – me and the client), her closet sat in a sad state until we were ready.

Here’s where we started in the beginning…

After my painter worked his magic…

And after I installed the organization system…

Looked amazing, but sat this way for a few months…UNTIL…I passed on the organizing portion to the girls and this is what they did!…

YES!!! Didn’t they do an incredible job??

They were so stressed, but I was there to calm and remind them it’s simply organization of a closet. Nothing complicated. They wanted to nail it and care so deeply for the mission / outcome of every project. It really touches me how deeply this team feels about the work…literally as passionate as I am. Love the team we are building AND more importantly the culture we are creating. It’s been a dream…although tiring and hard and it’s certainly a grind on me, I am grateful and excited to see where we go from here.

SIMPLY ORGANIZED x KM HOME EVENT

I wish all of you were local so you could join me, but if you are local to the Danville, CA area, I’ve been invited to speak at KM Home next week. By the way, isn’t it funny how similar our business names are…KM Home and SO Home. ?? Love it!…

Kriste Michelini is a local interior designer. She opened a design studio / shop not long ago and their shop is full of timeless, classic decor and gifts. Last holiday season I purchased many hostess gifts from her shop. They curate the loveliest collections!

Together we will be speaking at the intersection of design and organization…Kriste’s going to style a table for Fall and I’ll talk about organizing using some of her beautiful organization products. Here’s an example of her products…we are raffling off these two glass canisters. So pretty!…

Honored to be invited into her shop and for the opportunity to see local people we know / meet new faces. If you’re local, come by her shop on Thursday the 22nd between 5:30 – 7:30. You have the call to RSVP…it’s open to just 80 people because of the shop size.

If you can’t join, I’ll definitely share a post with photos and details after the event.

Oh! One last thing…I’ll be back soon with more, as usual…but…

This weekend – today through Sunday – The Container Store is having a 25% off sale. There was no big event around this and it came out of nowhere so I wanted to be sure you knew. Everything is 25% off (except Elfa and their custom closets) so if you need to stock up on organizing products or you’ve had stuff sitting in your online cart or had a project in mind you wanted to work on, NOW is the time to buy. 25% off is a big deal for the store right now. They were really impacted with Covid so I was surprised to see this…in a good way! I hope we’re getting somewhat back to normal. ??

Back soon guys! Hope you had an awesome week!

xo,

Sam