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Lorie Marrero assigns a theme to every year of her life. Last year was ‘conquer the fear’ year. That meant she would go, along with her father and siblings, skydiving. Literally. “It was amazing. I thought I would be scared, but I wasn’t.” That about sums up Marrero’s path to success, an avalanche of which she’s experiencing now, right down to this austinwoman feature story spread on her; and the appearance of her Clutter Diet® in Good Housekeeping Magazine.
Lorie Marrero promises she’s not obsessive compulsive or a neat freak. She’s been accused of such, and her popular, ever-spreading “clutter diet” philosophy infers that there may be some truth to such accusations. She does admit to saving her allowance to buy a label gun when she was in the fourth grade, but she says it was just the practical thing to do. What’s all the fuss about?
Well, there’s lots of it. Marrero, a native Texan, is an accidental entrepreneur whose enthusiasm is contagious. In 2000, she founded Living Order, a luxury service that offers people personal organizers for their homes and offices. She loved the work, “but began to feel everyone should have access to the services we offered. I went to an internet marketing seminar, and on my way home in the airplane, with my brain stuffed with a million ideas, I had an aha-moment.” Marrero’s moment turned into what is now a fast-growing business that primarily features online, virtual organizing for a mere $15-a- month. Or browsers can simply visit the site for daily tips and access to Marrero’s helpful blog.
Today, she has a small staff that helps her answer the onslaught of “Help-me!” cries. “Our clients send photos and lists of organizational issues that are overwhelming them. We then offer individually tailored tips and outlines to help them solve the daunting issue of the moment,” Marrero says. The thing that most commonly blocks people from being organized is “the sense that if they can’t do everything all at once, perfectly, they’re not going to do it at all.” The Clutter Diet® manages that pressing feeling by offering concrete suggestions to conquer management dilemmas by committing to 15 minutes a week.
Marrero, a firm believer in and user of social media, isn’t ‘just’ the honcho of The Clutter Diet and its growing blog, which currently boasts 2000 readers. In fact, she’s so busy, one wonders how she does it all. “It’s not about neatness,” she insists. “It’s about saving time.” And so it must be, because time is of the essence in the impeccably scheduled life of this mother of two teens, public speaker, guest writer for several other organizational sites, product developer, and finally, author of the new just-off-the-shelf self-published book, The Clutter Diet: The Skinny on Organizing Your Home and Taking Control of Your Life. She started the book thinking she’d just compile the blogs and articles she’d been assembling since she started in the organizing business. “I got into the thick of sorting things for the book, and realized I was in deep. I got up most mornings at 5 a.m. just so I could write, in peace.”
As the mother of two mid-teens, Marrero admits to struggling a tiny bit about always doing the right thing. “This is the tough time,” she says frankly. But she also admits that her husband is a huge help, even if he has occasionally chided her over the years to ‘get a real job.’ Marrero says she’s occasionally tempted by what she calls the “French fry guy” concept. “I see the guy at the fryer, whose main job is to be sure there are always hot fries ready, and I think, ‘Man, wouldn’t it be nice to be him? Knowing you have a specific job and every week you’ll get a paycheck for it.’” It’s a tale often, if differently, told by entrepreneurs – the story of the people with predictable jobs and equally predictable paychecks.
Marrero knows, though, that all of her hard work has most assuredly paid off, as she builds readers, and members for her site, sells product in the Container Store, and gets her book onto shelves (it’s already a Kindle bestseller). Having the personality of a great best friend will help Marrero continue to achieve prominence. But, mostly, the reason she’s so successful, and will undoubtedly continue to grow her business and her brand, is not because of anything external. It’s because Marrero possesses a trait necessary to anyone daring to gamble at the entrepreneurial table: the trait is self-discipline and, of course … living a clutter-free life.
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