New Kentville business aims to help clients clear the clutter
Longtime friends start Your Last Resort
If you’re overwhelmed by the clutter in your home or want to achieve a different look without investing in new furnishings, these three friends are Your Last Resort.
Partners Jennifer Williams Saklofske, Laura Churchill Duke and Raina Noel of Kentville are longtime friends who have started a home organization and staging business called Your Last Resort, each bringing a complementary set of skills to the table.
Churchill Duke said the partners offer a sort package where they help people comb through cluttered areas of their home, such as a basement, or do a general decluttering throughout an entire house. She said some people can be overwhelmed by a situation such as this, not knowing how to go about tackling the project or even where to begin. Some home owners can be “paralyzed” by the decision making process.
“I think that’s one of the big things, people just don’t know where to start and what to do with the stuff. They don’t want to throw it out but they don’t know what to do with it,” she said.
Your Last Resort offers a sort and stage package where the partners will go to a client’s house and do an interior re-staging or redecoration using the person’s existing possessions, de-cluttering and sorting items as they go.
The partners offer seasonal staging, such as helping people decorate for Christmas, using the client’s existing items. This package comes with de-cluttering as well.
The team plans to work with real estate agents to stage homes for sale as well. Churchill Duke said Williams Saklofske and Noel both have a keen eye for interior decoration and experience in this regard.
However, re-staging a home isn’t just for those looking to sell. Churchill Duke had Williams Saklofske and Noel help her re-stage her house, rearranging existing furniture and pictures to arrive at an entirely new look.
Churchill Duke said visitors have started noticing items she has had for years that “weren’t in the right spot.”
“I heard from a woman the other day who’d been living in her house for eight years and still had boxes in her basement that she hadn’t unpacked yet,” Churchill Duke said.
Williams Saklofske said they started out helping friends declutter their homes as a gift and to gain valuable experience.
“We’re all busy, we’re all working moms and just have a hard time getting on top of things,” she said.
By helping friends get on top of the little things, she said there seemed to be a positive snowball effect in their lives and the lives of their family members. This served as the genesis of Your Last Resort as a business.
She said they also want to help seniors looking to downsize or those facing mobility challenges “age in place” by helping them remove the barrier of unnecessary clutter.
They’ve created a database to help determine where unwanted items can be donated instead of sending the material to the landfill. The business is fully insured, they sign confidentiality agreements with clients and the client maintains ownership over the process.
Your Last Resort offers gift certificates but it’s important to check with the recipient first to make sure he or she is comfortable with the idea.