This is OWL's Story

OWL began with my love for organization and my husband's encouragement to turn years of experience into a business.

I'm Leslie, founder and lead organizer of Organizing With Leslie (OWL), a professional home organizing and life management company serving families across Southeast Louisiana. Looking back, I realize this business was a lifetime in the making, I just didn't know it yet.

Organization has always come naturally to me. My brain automatically sorts, declutters, labels, and creates order. Throughout my life and career, friends, family, and coworkers constantly commented on how organized my home, schedule, work, and family life were. Over time, I realized organization wasn't just something I enjoyed, it was a skill that could help other people experience less stress and more peace in their everyday lives.

So how did OWL become a reality?

In 2020, my family sold our longtime home and began building a new one. We moved in during June 2021, only to have Hurricane Ida arrive two months later and "remodel" our home by dropping four trees through it. We moved out, rebuilt, and finally returned home in early 2022.

That season taught me more about organizing than I could have imagined.

Living through construction, moving, rebuilding, and unpacking showed me that every home (and every family) has different needs. What works in one space doesn't always work in another. I learned that people navigating moves, renovations, growing families, and busy lives often don't just need containers or labels, they need practical solutions that fit the way they actually live.

That's when the idea of becoming a professional organizer first began to take shape.

A few months later, my husband watched a television series about professional organizers that I had been following. When it ended, he looked at me and said, "You should be doing that. That's everything you love and everything you're good at."

Around that same time, visitors to our home regularly commented on how organized everything felt. They noticed that every item had a home and that our house functioned well for our family. Those conversations confirmed what had been quietly growing in my heart.

So I started researching the professional organizing industry, learning everything I could, and allowing myself to dream about building a business that truly helped people.

One evening, while talking through those dreams with my husband, Organizing With Leslie (OWL) was born.

The name was intentional.

Organizing tells people exactly what we do.

Leslie is simply me.

But WITH is my favorite word in our name.

We don't organize for our clients, we organize with them and with them in mind.

We work alongside our clients to understand how they live, teach practical organizing strategies, and create customized solutions they can actually maintain. Our goal is to create homes that are easier to manage and support the life our clients want to live.

I officially launched OWL as a side business in January 2023 while continuing my career as an assistant principal. After spending 25 years in education as a classroom teacher, reading coach, curriculum coach, master teacher, and assistant principal, I retired in June 2024 to run Organizing With Leslie full-time.

As demand grew, I expanded my team so clients receive the same personalized service while benefitting from the efficiency of two organizers.

As I worked in more and more homes, I noticed a common thread. Many clients weren't just overwhelmed by clutter and disorganization, they were overwhelmed by life. They were juggling careers, raising families, managing schedules, planning meals, remembering appointments, and trying to keep everything afloat.

That's why I became a certified life coach specializing in time and life management.

Today, OWL helps clients organize more than their homes. We help them create organized spaces, manageable routines, realistic plans, and everyday systems that reduce stress and make life feel lighter.

Because I believe an organized home is important, but an organized life changes everything.

Whether we're decluttering a pantry, organizing a closet, unpacking a new home, creating functional storage solutions, or coaching a busy household CEO through daily routines, our mission is always the same:

To help you create a home and life that feels calmer, more manageable, and easier to enjoy.

I'm incredibly grateful for every client who trusts OWL with their home and their story. It is truly an honor to work alongside families as they create spaces and routines that serve them well for years to come.