The Founder’s Story Behind Compassionate Decluttering™

My Grandma Marie

I believe in the healing power of home.

Growing up, I loved how the women in my family created homes, especially my Grandma Marie.

My dress-sewing, dough-beating, dinner-party-hosting, doily-slinging grandmother was an impeccable home creator.

She raised six kids—my mom being the oldest—on a 180-acre farm in the Midwest. It was not an easy feat, but she found joy in the simple things, like seasonal canning, weekly baking, and the hum of her sewing machine. 

Like any good Scandinavian, she had a knack for cleanliness and order, but she also knew how to have a good time. Whenever you walked into her home, you felt seen, known, and most of all, loved.

I grew up watching my mom and Grandma Marie manage their homes beautifully with curated treasures. No excess, just essentials. 

At 12 years old, I found myself drawn to my Grandma Marie’s style when I designed my first bedroom—the first place I called my own.

It wasn’t anything fancy, just a small 10’ x 10’ room tucked into the basement, but it became my haven. 

As much as I loved my matching plastic yellow lamps and the JVC turntable player in the corner, it wasn’t the stuff that made my room special. It’s the peace and comfort I felt within those four walls.

The outside of my home. My room was in the basement (back of house in the right corner).

The plastic yellow lamp shades!

Raised by Scandinavian farmers, I learned to work hard and cultivate a sense of home from a young age.

After graduating high school, leaving home, and enrolling in college, I quickly realized I needed to make full-time money on a part-time schedule. I kicked around a few ideas until I decided to start a house cleaning business called Maximum Joy—a name inspired by Sade’s song “Smooth Operator.”

With a vacuum in one hand and freshly printed business cards in the other, I set out to find my first clients. Little did I know I’d find five clients right away through a business meeting. Within three months, I had a full client list while managing school and loving my work.

I continued my cleaning business for another 10 years after graduating from college with a degree in Horticulture & Landscape Management.

Then, I sensed it was time for a change.

As much as I loved cleaning, serving my clients, and owning my own business, I found myself gravitating toward design.

Since my favorite college class was landscape design, this wasn’t surprising. My love of exterior and interior design brought me to a Design Associate job at Room & Board, a Scandinavian-inspired home furnishings company headquartered in Minneapolis, MN. 

I loved helping customers find ideal furnishings for their homes, but I noticed that when customers called with complaints, there wasn’t a clear path to resolve issues or provide solutions. After talking to my manager, I moved to the distribution center to help them expand their Customer Service department. 

Within my 10 years at Room & Board, I was promoted to Delivery Manager and later became their Training & Education Specialist. I loved the culture and the people there, but during a company restructuring, I decided to explore other career paths.

One day, I overheard a receptionist at Room & Board talk about life coaching.

I couldn’t help but perk up. I hadn’t heard much about life coaching before, but I was immediately intrigued. As she talked more about it, I wondered if this could be the path I’d been searching for. Finally, a way to combine my love for design and creating joyful homes, all while helping women thrive!

I signed up for an International Coach Federation (ICF) coaching training program and never looked back.

The program culminated in a guided walk through the Pyrenees Mountains in France with other life coaches from around the world. We were invited to reflect and sit with big questions, like how we were going to live more fully and show up in the world differently.

I came away from the walk with a sense of clarity. I was here to help women love their living spaces.

This inspired me to come home and start a new business in 2004 called Design Within. I offered landscape design, interior design, and interior painting services while doing some life coaching on the side.

My clients were more interested in having me paint their walls than sharing their life goals, but I couldn’t ignore the intrinsic connection between our mindset and home. 

To explore this connection more, I started a self-directed Master’s program in 2006, giving me the freedom to explore many of my interests—from French language classes to culinary school to international business and creative leadership.

Essentially, I was trying to create a new career for myself—one that would help women create homes that reflected their values. 

I didn’t know exactly what shape it would take, but this passion led me to write my thesis titled Recover Your Authentic Self Using Life Coaching and Home as Your Medium.

My thesis planted the idea that would one day grow into the Compassionate Decluttering™ brand you see today, but it needed time to grow.

My daughter, Daisy Marie, named after my Grandma Marie.

Enter 2008—my biggest year yet.

It was the year I graduated with a Master’s in Human Development, wrote the first pages of my book, and welcomed my daughter Daisy. Like most parents, everything about my life changed. My then spouse returned to work and I was suddenly a stay at home mom, raising our daughter and managing all things home and life.

With so many distractions over the next 12 years, I remained focused on turning my thesis-inspired ideas into my book.

Fast forward to 2020. I finally invested in professional help and partnered with Wise Ink, a local female owned book publisher. I was assigned a fantastic book editor. With grit and determination—and my fair share of rewrites and revisions—I was able to finish the manuscript and publish it in 2022.

During that time, I started calling myself Home Coach Hoff and coached clients through a distinct decluttering process, but it was difficult to attract clients since no one really knew what a “home coach” was.

Sensing the need for a change, I invested in a nine-month program led by the CEO of an international women’s networking group. With her mentorship, I renamed my business to Compassionate Decluttering, and created the framework for my ALIGN Method™.

And the one element that stayed the same?

Helping women in midlife realign their lives through decluttering their space. 

I coach women who feel like their stuff is keeping them stuck. Together, we address the emotional and physical clutter so they can build a clutter-free life they love. 

Following my five-part ALIGN Method™, we collaborate with professional home organizers to combine mindset coaching with boots-on-the-ground support. Witnessing the transformation in my clients’ homes and lives while guiding them through the decluttering process is such an honor! 

This work feels like a beautiful culmination of my life experiences—and it all started with a deep appreciation of home.

EXPLORE WHAT'S POSSIBLE

EXPLORE WHAT'S POSSIBLE

Is it time to clear the clutter? 

Let’s rediscover the life you’ve been dreaming of—the one that’s been buried beneath all the stuff.

You don’t have to declutter alone. I would be honored to guide you through my signature decluttering process. 

Let’s begin by scheduling a free call, which is our chance to explore what’s possible within a clutter-free life!