IN COVERSATION | With Mary Jo of Organized by MJ
- 11 minutes ago
- 8 min read
The goal isn't a perfect house.
It's a home that asks a little less of the people living in it.
There is organized.
And then there is effortless.
The distinction matters.
A beautifully labeled pantry may look spectacular on Instagram. But how many of us are actually spending Sunday afternoon unloading groceries into perfectly matched containers?
Not me. And definitely not anyone else in my house.
This month, we've been thinking a lot about the systems quietly supporting our lives at home.
Where things land. How we move through a room. What we reach for every morning. And how seemingly small points of friction can steal more of our time and energy than we realize.
It's something we consider constantly in our work at Atelier. But thoughtful design and functionality only begins when the cabinetry is designed.
Enter Mary Jo.
As a professional organizer, Mary Jo helps families create systems around the way they actually live—not the way a perfectly styled social feed suggests they should.
As our conversation unfolded, one thing became very clear:
The goal isn't a perfect house.
It's a home that asks a little less of the people living in it.
MORE THAN LESS MESS
I started with the obvious question.
What does an organized home actually give us beyond simply having less mess?
“Calm, peace, and time,” Mary Jo answered.
Sold! Three things I would welcome a little more of.
I think about the morning scramble. Someone can't find a shoe. The backpack isn't where it belongs. And the form that absolutely, positively had to go back to school today has mysteriously vanished.
Everyone was supposed to be out the door five minutes ago.
“Creating an organized home can make getting ready easier,” Mary Jo explained. "When the things we need are accessible and easy to find, we spend less time searching—and considerably less energy stressing about them."
That distinction is important.
Organization isn't really about making a home look perfect.
It's about removing friction from the life happening inside it.
We've been talking about this idea all month at Atelier: perhaps one of the greatest luxuries a home can give us is simply requiring less from us.
Less searching. Less shuffling. Less mental energy spent managing our stuff.
Because every bit of energy we don't spend fighting our homes is energy we get to spend somewhere else.
THERE IS NO "RIGHT" WAY TO BE ORGANIZED
When Mary Jo enters a client's home, she doesn't arrive with a predetermined system and a label maker at the ready.
Mary Jo starts by looking. By listening.
“I’m looking for spaces that might be underutilized,” she told me. “I’m asking questions based on things I see, asking about living arrangements, responsibilities...I’m trying to get to know the client and family members and how they live.”
Sound familiar?
It certainly did to me.
At Atelier, we walk our clients' existing homes for much the same reason. We can ask how a family lives, but seeing it tells us things they may never think to mention.
Mary Jo approaches organization similarly.
“At the end of the day, there is no right or wrong way,” she explained. “The way that works is what is right for that person.”
That may be my favorite organizing advice yet.
Because a successful system shouldn't require a family to fundamentally change its behavior just to maintain it.
Mary Jo would rather understand the behavior first.
“Most people aren't going to make big changes,” she said. “You have to customize your organization plan to the way people live and function versus making people adapt to your organization plan.”
Design the system around the humans. Not the humans around the system.
We're speaking the same language.
SOMETIMES THE SOLUTION IS THREE FEET LOWER
Mary Jo gave me one of the simplest examples of reducing friction: the pantry.
If you want your children to get their own snacks, why are those snacks stored somewhere they can't reach?
It's almost comically obvious. Yet those are exactly the little details that can make a home work better.
Who uses the space?
What do they need access to?
What can they manage independently?
Who puts things away?
That last question becomes surprisingly important.
Mary Jo pointed out that the person unloading the dishwasher isn't necessarily the person doing most of the cooking. If only one person understands where everything belongs, the “system” starts falling apart the minute someone else unloads the dishwasher.
Her solution might be as simple as labels inside drawers so everyone knows where the garlic press goes.
Now, anyone in my family will tell you that Mary Jo was preaching to the choir with this one.
I LOVE A LABEL. L-O-V-E A LABEL.
I label bins. Drawers. Shelves. If an object has a designated home, I see absolutely no reason we should keep that location a secret.
My family finds this endlessly entertaining (and annoying).
I consider it a public service.
But Mary Jo's point isn't that every drawer needs a label—despite my personal enthusiasm for the idea.
It's that a good system shouldn't live exclusively inside one person's head. If everyone uses the space, everyone should be able to understand how it works.
Not very glamorous, but very effective.
And this is where our two disciplines begin to layer beautifully.
Our team thinks through cabinetry long before it's built—inventorying what needs to be stored, considering clearances and access, and studying how our clients move through their spaces. Mary Jo can take that infrastructure and add the final layer: a maintainable system for the people actually using it.
Because having enough storage isn't necessarily the same as having the right storage.
BEFORE THE CABINETRY IS BUILT
Naturally, I wanted to know what Mary Jo would ask for if she could join the conversation before a renovation began.
Her answer was refreshingly practical.
Inventory first.
What do you actually own?
Then ask what works in the current space—and what doesn't.
Finally, layer in the wish list.
Put those three things together, she explained, and you're much more likely to create not only a dream space, but a high-functioning one.
This is precisely why Atelier thinks holistically about our clients' homes.
A beautiful cabinet finish is only part of the conversation. We need to understand what that cabinet is actually being asked to do—and sometimes another professional brings a perspective that makes the answer even better.
We believe in putting the right expertise around the table: architects, builders, lighting designers, fabricators, organizers, and specialists who see things through a different lens than we do.
We don't have to be the expert in everything.
We do need to know when another expert can make our clients' lives better.
INSTAGRAM MADE ME DO IT
Of course, we had to talk about the perfectly organized pantry.
You know the one.
Matching containers. Immaculate labels. Snacks lined up with military precision. Not a half-empty cereal box or rogue bag of Goldfish in sight.
I'll admit it. My heart swoons a little just typing that.
Beautiful?
Absolutely.
Mary Jo, however, asks the question that brings us immediately back to reality:
Who's going to maintain it?
If everything gets decanted into matching containers, who does the decanting when groceries come home? How are expiration dates tracked? Does the family realistically want to maintain that routine
“A lot of people have not thought about these things,” she said.
Mary Jo thinks about function first.
Then beautiful.
I happen to think the best solutions give us both.
But beauty without a realistic plan for maintaining it simply creates another job.
And none of us needs another job.
RENOVATION SURVIVAL IS A SYSTEM, TOO
Organization becomes especially valuable when a family is about to temporarily turn its home upside down in the process of rennovation.
There is inevitably a period when life gets significantly less organized before it gets better.
Mary Jo can step in before construction begins to help clients purge what they no longer need, coordinate temporary storage, and think through how the family will function while parts of the home are unavailable.
Her logic is hard to argue with:
Why pay someone to pack, move, store, move again, and unpack something you didn't want in the first place?
Touché, Mary Jo.
She also encourages clients to plan for disruption lasting longer than anticipated. If seasonal clothing might be needed before everything comes out of storage, don't bury it behind 37 unidentified boxes.
Label things. Organize the storage unit. Plan for access.
The same thinking applies to a move. Editing beforehand means fewer things to pack, fewer things to pay someone to transport, and fewer things to unpack on the other side.
Less stuff moving around means less friction.
There's that word again.
WHEN ORGANIZATION BECOMES PERSONAL
Our conversation eventually moved beyond kitchens and closets.
Because our belongings aren't just belongings.
They're memories. Relationships. Seasons of life.
Mary Jo has helped people sort through possessions after losing a family member. She's worked with clients moving through divorce.
She has laughed with clients. And cried with them.
There is an intimacy to being invited into someone's home. You see behind the curtain—the things people treasure, the things they've avoided dealing with, and sometimes the pieces of a life that's changing.
“I am compassionate while trying to keep the project moving,” she told me. “I also try to bring a smile or laugh when appropriate.”
Clients have told her they couldn't have done it without her—physically or mentally. Some have called her a blessing.
One sentiment has stayed with her more than most:
“You are part of our family.”
Suddenly, hiring a professional organizer doesn't sound particularly indulgent.
It sounds like support.
There are moments in life when handing part of the physical—and mental—load to someone capable of carrying it alongside you might be one of the most practical luxuries available.
A HOME THAT GIVES SOMETHING BACK
Toward the end of our conversation, I asked Mary Jo what becomes possible when we're no longer spending so much of our energy managing our stuff.
Her answer brought us right back to where we started.
“You can spend your energy on other things that matter. You can relax and enjoy your home.”
Maybe you welcome people in more often.
Maybe home becomes the place where you can exhale.
Maybe it stops feeling like another thing requiring your attention and starts giving some of that attention back.
Mary Jo described it as becoming “your zen or your happy place.”
Then she said something I loved: “It is for sure your home and not just a house.”
And there it is.
At Atelier, practical design has never felt separate from beautiful design. The two are intertwined.
We want to understand how our clients live before we tell them how their homes should work. What needs to fit inside the cabinetry. What materials can withstand real life. Where the daily friction happens—and how thoughtful design might remove some of it.
Sometimes that means knowing the answer ourselves.
Sometimes it means knowing exactly who else should be at the table.
Because a thoughtfully designed home isn't one that performs beautifully for a photograph.
It's one that performs beautifully on a Wednesday morning when everyone is late, someone can't find their other shoe, and the garlic press somehow still makes it back into the right drawer.
That's The Art of Everyday.
And perhaps that's luxury, too.
A home that asks less of you, leaving more of you for living.
COULD YOUR HOME ASK A LITTLE LESS OF YOU?
Mary Jo, founder of Organized by MJ helps clients create practical, personalized organizational systems for the way they actually live. From kitchens, pantries, and closets to moves, renovations, and seasons of transition, her work is about more than putting things in order.
It's about making everyday life feel a little easier.
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