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Hello! I have gone back and forth about whether or not to start blogging. My goal is to provide more information about organizing than what social media can provide. I would like to give you the tools and advice for you to do organizing projects on your own.
Full disclosure, I don’t know if people even read blogs much anymore and I am probably late to the game but I thought I would give it a shot!
Let’s start with an introduction so you can get to know me better and how Simply Organized Dubuque came to be. My name is Nicole and I am a mother of three, wife to Brady and have my bachelor’s degree in nursing and a master’s degree as an Adult/Geriatric Nurse Practitioner. I grew up in Dubuque, Iowa, moved to St. Louis where I went to college at Saint Louis University (go Billikens!). After college, my best friend and I backpacked through Europe for 2 1/2 months before finally coming back to St. Louis where I began working as a nurse on a cardiac step-down unit at St. Louis University Hospital. I met my husband at the hospital on his first day of residency. We dated for about two years before getting engaged and then married in St. Louis. I worked full-time as a nurse while obtaining my master’s degree, and started working in pain management as a Nurse Practitioner.
Our first child was born in 2016 and when our second was born in 2017, I became a stay-at-home mom. We moved back to Dubuque in the fall of 2018 to be closer to family and a better job opportunity for my husband. In that time we remodeled, our third house and I was pregnant with our third child so going back to work wasn’t feasible. And then the world shut down in March 2020, right before I had our third baby in April 2020. My husband is a pulmonologist/critical care physician so C*vid kept him very busy. It was a very rough time with having a newborn, two other children under the age of 4, limited help due to C*vid and a husband who was working crazy, long hours. It was during this time I did a lot of reflection and decided I wanted to go back to work.
I started looking for jobs as a Nurse Practitioner, but the healthcare world wasn’t one I was eager to jump back into. So when I started thinking about things that I love to do and am passionate about I landed on organizing. I have always been one of those “naturally born” organized people. When I would babysit when I was about 10 years old, I would reorganize and tidy the house I was at after the kids went to bed.
Mind you, I have no business background, no social media or marketing background, just a nurse who decided to start her own business. I brainstormed business names and secured a domain before making it legally official and creating an LLC. I didn’t want to invest a lot of money, not knowing if this would actually be a success or not, so I designed my website and my logo myself. In April 2021, Simply Organized Dubuque was founded and through social media advertising and a lucky by-chance article in the local newspaper, I hit the ground running.
I quickly learned that some jobs need a team and I added another organizer, Addie, in November 2021. We love being able to help individuals, families and businesses reclaim their space and transform it by combining beauty and function. I am beyond grateful to be able to do what I love every day!
I hope you enjoy following along and also learn a few things or feel inspired along the way!
-Nicole