Why I'm the right person to help you...

I grew up in a musical, artistic family.  We lived in a very humble home in coastal New Zealand.  Whilst my mum kept things in a kind of make-shift order, it was my 'adopted' nana next door who showed me what 'tidy' was.  I adored her!  She was so different to my family, I was captivated!  She knitted, baked, preserved fruit, made jam, grew her own vegetables, served tea in a tea pot (I still grow veggies and use a tea pot to this day), collected salt and pepper shakers (displayed with great joy).  I think that's where the seed of tidiness was planted, although it didn't really germinate until a few years later.

I love music, art, theatre, science, umpiring netball - my interests are very diverse.  I originally studied fashion and costume design, then traveled through Europe, lived in England and Scotland, then returned to Australia to study film and TV production.  I worked in TV for 20 years, initially as an executive assistant, then as a production manager and producer, and then (after my daughter was born) into the slightly less frenetic world of project management.  I also took up another passion, singing, and studied to be a vocal teacher myself.

We moved to the Southern Highlands in 2016.  After two years of the long commute, I left the TV/project world to teach singing in the Highlands in my own studio.  Teaching is in my blood (my grandmother, mother and sister all teachers), I love it!

That tidying seed my beautiful nana planted so many years earlier finally germinated in my mid 30s.  Like my mum, I always had my own make-shift way of keeping things in order, but I had a terrible habit of making 'piles', and keeping things for sentimental reasons or 'just in case'.  I engaged a 'home organiser' in 2009 who helped me enormously.  I also give credit to my husband, who is rather minimalist, but who tolerated my 'piles and boxes' with great patience.  I'm sure his habits slowly and subconsciously, influenced me too.

But the game changer was reading Marie Kondo's 'The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up' about 7 years ago.  I loved her philosophy as much as her practical method, honed over many years - I trusted her teaching.  Through her book my life started to transform in so many ways.

I'm so excited to now be a certified KonMari® Consultant and to share this transformative method of tidying with others.