From Cluttered Home to Aligned Life: How Decluttering & Feng Shui Help You Leave the Wrong Job (Without Leaving Yourself Behind)
You’re Space is Talking To You… Are You Listening?
If you’ve ever found yourself tearing through the house looking for your kid’s library book, a pair of pants, or that one document you swear you put “somewhere safe,” you’ve already met one of your biggest energy leaks: your environment.
Most high-achieving women blame themselves:
“I just need to be more organized.”
“I should be better at this by now.”
“I’m probably just overwhelmed because I’m not managing my time well.”
Meanwhile:
Your home is bursting at the seams
Your office doesn’t feel like a place you want to work
Your job feels “fine” on paper but misaligned in your body
And you start quietly wondering:
“Am I being too much for wanting more ease, more space, and a job that doesn’t drain me?”
In a recent episode of Simply Own It, I sat down with Korinna, founder of Align Your Shelf — a professional home organizer and feng shui consultant — to talk about how decluttering your space can literally change your life, your business, and your exit plan.
This isn’t a cute “how to fold your socks” blog.
This is about identity, self-trust, and designing a life that fits.
From “Hurricane Korinna” to Professional Organizer
As a kid, Korinna’s nickname was Hurricane Korinna. She grew up in a home so cluttered and chaotic that she wasn’t allowed to have friends over. Mess wasn’t just a pile of stuff — it was a source of shame.
Fast forward to adulthood:
She and her husband are working from home in a one-bedroom apartment during COVID.
Her “office” is a tiny table squeezed next to the bed.
She starts having panic attacks.
A holistic practitioner asks her a question nobody else had: “Is your house organized?”
Not “are you meditating?”
Not “are you trying harder at work?”
Just: “What’s happening in your space?”
That question struck her.
So, she started decluttering:
Letting go of clothes, furniture, and random stuff she was keeping “just in case”
Clearing enough space to create a real office setup
Noticing she could finally breathe again
And then she watched The Home Edit and realized: “Wait… people get paid to do this?”
Within months, she started taking on clients after work and on weekends. The more homes she organized, the more she saw the same thing over and over:
When women decluttered their spaces, they started making braver decisions in the rest of their lives.
“You’re Doing Feng Shui.” “No, I’m Not.” (Spoiler: She Was.)
As her organizing business grew, people kept telling her, “You’re doing feng shui.”
At first, she brushed it off. She didn’t even know what that meant.
But after enough people said it, she finally looked into feng shui and realized:
She was intuitively placing furniture in supportive positions
She was paying attention to the flow of energy in a room
She was thinking about how a space made someone feel — not just how it looked
Now she blends professional organizing, feng shui, and design to help clients create homes that feel both peaceful and powerful.
Because a color-coded pantry is cute. But a home that supports the life you’re building? That’s a revolution
Your Home Is a Mirror of Your Identity (and Your Job Situation)
Here’s what I see over and over with my own clients:
They don’t actually “hate” their job.
Their job is… fine.
It pays well
They’re good at it
Other people rely on them
On paper, it makes sense
But their body screams every Sunday night. Their calendar feels like a trap. And their home often tells the same story:
Overflowing storage — because there’s always “room to stuff more in”
A spare room or closet that’s become the secret shame space
A home office that doesn’t match the business they say they want to build
What’s happening is you’re in an identity gap… you know where you want to go and who you want to be, but it doesn’t feel like you’re there yet.
You’ve outgrown the version of you that said “yes” to all of this… But you haven’t fully stepped into the version who will lovingly say “no” and create something else.
Your home reflects that in real time.
When Your Standards Rise, Your Environment Has to Catch Up
One of my favorite parts of our conversation was hearing how Korinna and her husband found their current home.
As a feng shui practitioner and organizer, she did not treat house hunting casually.
She had standards:
Certain floor plan dynamics were a non-negotiable
Certain neighbor situations (like literal junkyards next door) were a dealbreaker
She wasn’t willing to ignore the energy of a place just because the listing looked good
From the outside, it might look “picky.”
On the inside, it was self-trust.
They walked away from houses that other people might have “made work.”
And then they found their current home — a net-zero house with solar, a floor plan she calls “the most perfect” she’s ever seen, and the kind of energy she’d been visualizing for months.
Here’s what I want you to hear:
Wanting a home, a job, or a business that actually fits you is not being high-maintenance.
It’s being honest.
Decluttering as a Portal, Not a Punishment
So how do you actually start using your space as an ally in your reinvention instead of something you apologize for?
Here are a few simple entry points:
1. Start with one intention, not the whole house.
Instead of:
“I have to declutter everything, I’m such a mess.”
Try:
“What’s one space I want to feel different in the next 30 days?”
Maybe it’s:
Your office, so your business feels more legit
Your bedroom, so you actually rest
The entryway, so coming home doesn’t feel like walking into chaos
Let that intention lead, not shame.
2. Let your future self make the decisions.
Hold each item up to the lens of identity:
“Does this belong to past-me, present-me, or future-me?”
“Would the woman I’m becoming buy this again?”
“Is this here because I love it… or because I’m scared to let it go?”
If it’s past-you or fear-based, it’s a candidate to leave.
3. Give yourself a “maybe” system, not a meltdown.
If you have kids (or an inner child) who panic at the idea of getting rid of things:
Create a bin or closet where things go “on pause”
Label it with a date 6–12 months from now
If nobody has asked for it or used it by then — it’s released (donated, sold, or tossed)
This helps you build the muscle of letting go without feeling like you’re ripping off your own arm.
4. Notice how space changes your decisions.
When you clean up your office, you might suddenly feel:
Ready to show up on video
Clear enough to map your next offer
Energized instead of wiped after a work session
When you clear your calendar (hello boundaries), you might notice:
Your exit plan feels less terrifying
You have energy to actually build the business
You stop feeling like you’re betraying your job and start realizing you’re honoring your life
Space — in your home, in your schedule — gives your identity room to expand.
When It’s Time to Leave the Job That’s “Fine”
I’ll say the quiet part out loud:
Most of my clients don’t leave jobs they hate. They leave jobs that are fine — but suffocating to the version of them they’re becoming.
That was true for me.
That was true for Karina.
And it might be true for you.
Signs you’re closer to leaving than you admit:
Your business work lights you up more than your “real job”
You find yourself doing your side business at night and on weekends and it energizes you
You start resenting the time your job takes, not because you’re lazy, but because you know it’s not where you’re meant to stay
You don’t have to quit tomorrow.
But you also don’t have to stay forever because it’s safe.
A Gentle Next Step: Reinvent the Woman Inside the House
If this is all hitting home (pun fully intended), here’s where I’d start:
Listen to the full episode with Korinna to hear her story in her own words
Pick one space in your home that feels like “old you” and begin shifting it
Start letting your standards show up in tiny, practical ways — a better office chair, a clear desk, a boundary on your calendar
And if you know you’re in that identity gap — no longer okay with “fine,” not quite clear on what’s next — you don’t need to figure it all out alone.
Offer Suggestion: Industry Icon
Inside Industry Icon we don’t just talk about leaving your job or starting a business. We do identity-first reinvention:
Questioning the rules you’ve been living by
Rewriting your calendar to match who you are now
Building a life and work rhythm that feels like yours
We basically turn your whole life into a “feng shui for your identity” project — from your calendar to your career.
If you’re ready to stop living in a life that looks fine but feels misaligned, Industry Icon is the perfect next room to step into, and the next round begins April 9th!
