Lauryn & Aubry | Stay Golden Organizing
In this episode of the Tulsa’s Home Podcast, Laurel and Aubry from Stay Golden Organizing discuss their journey from being elementary education majors and teachers to starting their own organizing business. They share their process of custom planning and executing organization projects, including move-ins and specific room organizing like closets and pantries. Various personal stories are highlighted, including their connections to Tulsa, personal lives, and initial challenges in the organizing business. The episode also touches on the value of Tulsa to its residents and the unique experiences of going into people’s homes to transform their spaces.
Show Notes:
Stay Golden with Lauryl and Aubry: From Classrooms to Closets
Join us in this episode of the Tulsa is Home Podcast featuring Aubry and Laurel from Stakeholding Organizing. Discover their journey from teaching to becoming professional organizers, their favorite spaces to transform, and how they turned a fun summer gig into a thriving full-time business. Learn about their process, the challenges they face, and why Tulsa is a special place for them. Whether you’re considering a move to Tulsa or want to enhance your home organization skills, this episode is packed with insights and stories from the organizing pros.
00:00 Introduction and Guest Preferences
01:00 Welcome to Tulsa is Home Podcast
01:31 Meet Laurel and Aubry
01:46 Personal Backgrounds
02:50 The Bens and Organizing Beginnings
03:30 Starting the Organizing Business
05:05 Challenges and Success Stories
09:52 Favorite Spaces to Organize
11:09 The Organizing Process
17:55 Ideal Clients and Refresh Services
19:15 Why Tulsa is Home
21:32 Conclusion and Farewell
Keywords:
Tulsa podcast, Home organizing, Professional organizers, Lauryl Pingel, Aubry Mayfield, Tulsa is home, Tulsa businesses, Moving services, Home organization tips, Custom organizing, Closet organization, Pantry organization, Moving to Tulsa, Favorite Tulsa places, Tulsa economy, Tulsa entrepreneurs, Tulsa artists, Tulsa foodies, Organizing projects, Home organizing consultation, Custom home organization, Organizing makeover, Professional home organizing services, Tulsa living, Organizing business, Home improvement Tulsa, Tulsa lifestyle.
Special Offer to Tulsa is Home Listeners:
Contact Information:
- Website: http://www.staygoldenorganizing.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/DD913KXOFv5/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/staygoldenorganizing
- Other Social: https://ph.pinterest.com/stay_golden_organizing/_created/
- Phone: 918.853.2216
- Email: staygoldenorganizing@gmail.com
Transcript:
Aubry Mayfield: [00:00:00] to like, do you want to have a preference on product? Do you want to pick things out with us? I feel like nine times out of 10 people are like, we don’t care. Like just make it beautiful. Especially cause most things are behind closed doors and they just want it to be functional. Um, but yeah, most of the time we’re just.
They’re trusting us, which is great,
INTRO VIDEO: known as the biggest town you’ll ever experience with. Its unique historical background. Tulsa is home to a diverse range of people and businesses with a thriving economy. Delicious eats nightlife and entertainment for all ages. Tulsa is also home to business titans, entrepreneurs, artists.
And foodies, whether you’re considering a move to Tulsa or just wanting to learn more about the place you call home, the Tulsa is home podcast is for you.[00:01:00]
Roderick Hands: Welcome to another episode of the Tulsa’s home podcast. Uh, today we get to speak with Lauryl and Aubry and. I’m sorry. Oh, you made me second guess myself. You
Aubry Mayfield: got it! I’m sorry. Oh my gosh. I shouldn’t have told you that earlier.
Roderick Hands: Well, cause you say your name, sometimes they say Audrey. Yes. Okay. Yes. So it is, it is Aubry.
Aubry and Lauryl. Yes. Okay. With Stakeholding Organizing. Yes.
Lauryl Pingel: And,
Roderick Hands: uh, so we’re going to talk through, you know, everything organizing different projects that you have. Uh, but first off, before we get into the business side, let’s talk personal as far as where you’re from, where you grew up. family, um, and that stuff, and then we’ll kind of transition into the business stuff.
Lauryl Pingel: Awesome.
Roderick Hands: So, whoever wants to go first. Where are you from?
Lauryl Pingel: Um, so I grew up in Louisiana, and then my dad’s job moved us to Owasso, Oklahoma when I was in 6th grade, and then I’ve been in the Tulsa area ever since. Awesome. And then I
Aubry Mayfield: was born and raised here. Left for four years [00:02:00] to still water for OSU for college and then came right back.
Roderick Hands: So you made it out in four years.
Aubry Mayfield: Yeah, we did. We both did. Yep.
Roderick Hands: I took the victory lap there. Oh, did you? Nice.
Aubry Mayfield: It’s not shameful. It’s okay. I feel like a lot of people do that. Five,
Roderick Hands: you know, is the new four.
Aubry Mayfield: It’s a good place to stay. It is actually, yeah.
Roderick Hands: Um, and then family, are they still here in Tulsa? Yeah, my
Aubry Mayfield: family’s here.
Your direct family’s here. Um, but yeah, my parents are here. I have a brother. He was in Dallas for a while, moved back here. I feel like everybody ends up coming back here. It’s true. It’s a good place.
Roderick Hands: And we’ll, we’ll touch on that, on Tulsa, and what it means to you, and all that.
Aubry Mayfield: Yeah, I love it.
Roderick Hands: But um,
Aubry Mayfield: And then I am engaged.
Okay.
Lauryl Pingel: Um, we’ll get married in June to my fiancé, Ben. And then I’ve been married to my husband, Ben, for nine years.
Roderick Hands: Ben and Ben. Yeah,
Lauryl Pingel: the Bens. Did
Roderick Hands: they know each other before?
Aubry Mayfield: No.
Roderick Hands: Okay.
Aubry Mayfield: No, we did. And they did not, but people often get their names when we [00:03:00] say, we call them the Bens.
Yeah. Like,
Aubry Mayfield: we’ll refer to them as like, my Ben and your Ben.
And we’ll be like, oh yeah, the Bens are gonna come with us to this thing or whatever. And one time someone was like Like thought B I N S, bins, like organizing bins. We bring those with us to a lot of places and we’re like, no, the boys are in the bins. My fiancee and her husband. Yeah.
Roderick Hands: I mean, being in the organizing business.
It
Aubry Mayfield: fits very well. How
Roderick Hands: many bins do you have in your car right now?
Aubry Mayfield: Actually a lot. Probably a lot. Always. Always. That’s so funny.
Roderick Hands: So what got you into the organizing?
Aubry Mayfield: Um, it kind of just happened by accident, kind of. I mean, we were both teachers full time. Um, we taught for six years. Um, that’s one of the reasons why we knew each other in college.
We were in the same sorority. Both had a lot of classes together because we were elementary ed majors. And, um, we were having dinner catching up one night. And, it was 2019.
Lauryl Pingel: And,
Aubry Mayfield: I told Lauryl, I was like, hey, I have this like [00:04:00] weird idea to like start this fun little organizing thing. And I was like, would you want to do it with me?
And she was like, yeah, that sounds so fun. And like as teachers in the summer, we’re always looking for things to do. And so we thought it would be like a fun summer gig. And we did that. We started in June of 2020. Um, and. We were doing it full time with our teaching, so we would teach all day, and we’d organize
in the
Aubry Mayfield: afternoon slash evening.
Like, we would be in people’s homes while they were eating dinner, and we would not eat dinner until like 8 p. m. every night. It was rough, and then we worked every weekend that year except for one a month. We took off. Um, and then we took it full time in 2021. Yeah, like we did that for a year and we knew we couldn’t keep
Lauryl Pingel: doing both because we were for sure just doing both Like over capacity.
So like we have to choose one. Yeah
Aubry Mayfield: Yeah so we just both knew that we were both very organized because we had lived together multiple times in college and so we were like [00:05:00] We could probably help people.
Roderick Hands: Yeah
Aubry Mayfield: and make spaces look pretty and organized. So
Roderick Hands: is it therapeutic for you? The process. Absolutely.
Lauryl Pingel: Yeah.
Roderick Hands: Do you get stressed when you see an unorganized place?
Lauryl Pingel: I don’t think we get stressed when we, like, see the pictures. Obviously, sometimes when we’ve dumped everything out, you kind of have that moment of, like, Oh, we’ve got to, like, fix this now. But I have, like, full confidence, like, when we go into a space.
I’m like, we’re gonna figure it out. We’re gonna, like, fix it. Like, it always works out in the end. Do we always have a plan? Not always, but we always figure it out in
Aubry Mayfield: the end. And I think we’ve done it for four years now, so we’ve been in a lot of spaces. Our first year, I think there were some moments that we were like sweating.
Yeah.
Aubry Mayfield: Like, what are we gonna do? Who do we call to
Lauryl Pingel: fix this problem? This is our problem.
Aubry Mayfield: We’re in charge here.
Roderick Hands: How many did you do, or how many projects up front before you felt like, okay, like We’re good at this and, and this is like a real deal.
Aubry Mayfield: [00:06:00] So I, I had read a book that basically, well, I’m going to listen to a podcast.
There was something that basically told us like your first job, like you can get paid. Like if you were going in someone’s home and helping someone. You have them pay you. You tell them an hourly rate. So it was literally our first project. We got paid. So we had done like our own organizing at home. Now it wasn’t to the level that we do now.
And now we’ve redone both of our homes. But, um, yeah, we, it was just the first project. Pantry that we did. We got hired. Awesome. Yeah,
Roderick Hands: how much? We faked
Aubry Mayfield: it till we made it. I mean, doesn’t
Roderick Hands: everybody, yeah,
Lauryl Pingel: like y’all are professional organizers,
Aubry Mayfield: we have no idea what we’re doing.
Lauryl Pingel: Yeah, we put custom labels on spaces and we had bought a Cricut machine to make vinyl labels the day before this pantry.
Yeah. Didn’t know how to use a Cricut, didn’t know how to make labels, figured it out. I’m putting them on and like, my hands are shaking, because I’m like, I don’t know what I’m doing, I’m so nervous, I can’t mess up. And now I can do them with my eyes closed. Yeah, yeah. [00:07:00] That’s so funny. I
Roderick Hands: mean, I feel like every entrepreneur goes through that.
The uh, second guessing and
Aubry Mayfield: the
Roderick Hands: doubting. It still happens, yeah,
Aubry Mayfield: to this day.
Roderick Hands: And each time you get a new space, is there a space that you’re like, you know, you’ve done closets, you’ve done pantries, you’ve done garages we touched on. Is there a space you’re like. I wish we had this, and we haven’t done yet.
Or have you, have you pretty much done every type of space there
Lauryl Pingel: is? That’s a good question. I feel like we’ve done a lot of spaces. And we’ve even done like, sewing room spaces, which is kind of niche. Um, yeah. Yeah, we’ve worked
Aubry Mayfield: for a lot of, not a lot, but a handful of like, creatives, like artists. Yes. Like one lady was like, you did a collages with um, paper cuttings.
So she had tons of different colors of paper. Like small
Lauryl Pingel: pieces. Yeah. We organized by color for her in bins. So that when she’s creating her artwork, it’s like organized in bins. Never thought I would do that in my life. [00:08:00]
Aubry Mayfield: We worked for a quilt maker. Yeah. I mean just, I feel like, I can’t think of one that I’m like.
We haven’t done that yet. Yeah. There’s like people that are like famous or like, Ooh, we’d love to organize their closet, you know, just to like see their clothes and to like see their life, but I can’t think of anything. I feel like
Roderick Hands: that is kind of a, it’s a space like you’re going into probably a lot of times the most intimate areas of people’s homes.
Yes. And so it’s good, you know, it’s nice to be able to trust the people who are actually doing that. Yes.
Aubry Mayfield: Yeah.
Roderick Hands: Um, what are, are there any like funny stories or things that pop into your mind? Like, we, we got to tell them this.
Lauryl Pingel: There’s a lot. We sometimes wish like a camera could follow us around. Cause we’re like, no, I wouldn’t believe this unless you were there.
The thought just happened to
Aubry Mayfield: us. Yeah. Gosh, I should have had one ready. I mean, we find weird things all the time. Yeah. And [00:09:00] like, sometimes the clients are aware that we’re finding these things and sometimes they’re not aware, but we’re pretty good at like. You know, we’re going to just leave that right there.
We’re going to conceal that and they’re going to have no idea that we
Lauryl Pingel: found it or whatever. But the thing we find the most often that is pretty random, um, is a lot of baby teeth. We’re vacuuming and we’re like, Oh, that’s a tooth. And then if the client’s home, we’re like secretly in the kids are home.
We’re like, do you want this?
Aubry Mayfield: We find, um, the L. It’s like Christmas elves, we have to keep those hidden. Very secret. Interesting. Those are in weird random places. Because people don’t always store them with their Christmas decor, I think because they’re trying to keep it away from their kids, they’re like, move it.
Yeah.
Aubry Mayfield: Yeah, we find that a lot too. It’s all the like, kid stuff that people are trying to hide and they like shove it in the closet. And we find it.
Roderick Hands: What’s your favorite space?
Aubry Mayfield: Um, ours are different. I really love closets. I worked in retail when I was young. [00:10:00] I worked at the Gap and loved looking at clothes when I was working and it’s kind of the same with closets.
Like, I love organizing people’s clothes and being like, oh, that’s really cute or that’s really cool. So, and I just love like the finished product looks like a store. So.
Lauryl Pingel: Yeah, that’s my
Aubry Mayfield: favorite. Awesome.
Lauryl Pingel: Um, I love pantries. I feel like you get to have like the most fun picking the organizing products for pantries.
And she’s really good at that, too. Like if I’m like, I don’t know what product to pick. I’m like, I leave it up to her because she’s really good at that. So you can pick all the different bins, baskets, textures. And we really like that like if someone has a beautiful kitchen and a beautiful pantry without a door, you can like leave the door open because it looks so pretty at the end.
So, I love a pantry.
Roderick Hands: Awesome. Do you, do you often try to add? Doors and cover or do you remove them or do you leave like the actual structure?
Aubry Mayfield: How it is. Yeah. Yeah, we just leave it.
Roderick Hands: Okay.
Aubry Mayfield: Yeah I mean we tell people when they are stressed about their pantry and want us to do it We tell them like our goal is for you to [00:11:00] be able to leave the doors open and not be embarrassed if people come over So yeah, we’re like if you want to take them off go for it if it makes your life easier now, but yeah
Roderick Hands: So what is your process and what does the process look like?
Lauryl Pingel: So if you reach out because you want organizing, um, you can either fill out a form on our website, you can DM us on Instagram, and we will set up a time to chat with you on the phone. And when we chat with you on the phone, we’ll kind of hear about what spaces you’re wanting organized. And then we’ll set up an in person consultation where we’ll actually come into your home, talk about your goals, talk about what’s not working for you, um, and we’ll take measurements of your space.
And then we sit down and
Aubry Mayfield: we custom order products for that space. So it’s like that’s something that sets us apart from a lot of companies is that we’re like, not just ordering the same stuff for everybody. We have our staples that we use, but. Um, our goal is to make the insides of your home match the outside of the home.
So, we take into account, you know, hardware on [00:12:00] kitchen handles and all the things. Um, flooring, like what’s going to look most beautiful and be functional. So, we order, custom order. Get all the products. We order them. We try to make it to our client. Doesn’t have to lift a finger. Um, and then we schedule a project date.
We go in there and we transform the space. So we have, um, usually we work by the space and that is the typical timeline, but we have clients that hire us. for move in projects as well, which we’re doing basically almost the whole home. And our goal is to try to get that done in a week, maybe a week and a half.
Some people like to kind of sprinkle it through, like they want to start with main spaces and then we kind of trickle through the home. But, um, we have a project coming up in February where our goal is to get that whole home unpacked and organized in one week.
Roderick Hands: And are they in on that process or how did, like, what does it depends.
Aubry Mayfield: We ask our clients to like. Do you want to have a preference on product? Do you want to pick things out with [00:13:00] us? I feel like nine times out of ten people are like, we don’t care. Like just make it beautiful, especially because most things are behind closed doors and they just want it to be functional. Um, but yeah, most of the time we’re just, they’re trusting us, which is great.
But we also don’t mind working with the client and figuring out what they like because at the end of the day we want them to be happy with their spaces. So.
Roderick Hands: Is there a set like rule that you go by for where certain things go? Because if you’re doing a whole house, I feel like that could be, like, up to each individual person, so I don’t know, like, do you have a standard?
Aubry Mayfield: Yeah, we have, like, our typical, like, where we recommend putting things, like, typical, like, batteries, light bulbs, things like that, laundry room, like, we have our mental list, we’ve never written it down, but it’s just, like, what we find to be natural. But what’s nice we tell every client like nothing we do is permanent.
We’re not painting. We’re not drilling things into the wall Unless we’re doing a garage we might but like anything we do can be changed literally [00:14:00] anything So like if you wanted to put all your food in the laundry room, we can do that for you. We’ll think it’s really weird There are a lot of people that want to keep non food items in their pantry And that’s where we’re like, okay, our goal is to try to get it just food and maybe overflow kitchen items.
But, if that’s what they want, like, we will give them exactly what they want, so.
Roderick Hands: Cool.
Aubry Mayfield: Yep.
Roderick Hands: You mentioned garage, so that’s your favorite space, right? Yeah, it’s our
Lauryl Pingel: favorite. Garages are not our favorite. However, we do do them, and they are the most, like, life changing. Because you’re parking your car in there multiple times a day.
That’s what you see the first thing when you come home. Yeah. He wants to pull up and just see all that stuff. Like that’s stressful. Doesn’t feel good. And if you have kiddos, you’ve got bikes in there and scooters and I’m just sure that’s like not easy for them to get their things out to play. So we will do them.
Aubry Mayfield: We will. It’s not our most favorite space. But, um, we also have, um, some help that we have hired on, um, that help us with garages and they are [00:15:00] very handy. Yes. We have some garage guys. We call them the garage guys. Cause we were finding Different from the bins. Actually, one of the bins is one of the garage guys.
Lauryl’s husband is one Very handy. So we were bringing him on to like almost every garage at the end. We would do the whole space and then we would like take pictures or video and be like, Hey Ben, can you hang this here? I do this here. And there were times where he was like, well, it might be better if we do this.
Like his, the way his brain thought was. Better than what we were coming up with. And so we were really busy in the summer and Laura was like, I kind of think Ben would be open to doing the garages with his brother. And I was like, yes,
Lauryl Pingel: and it’s also super hot in the summer. Yeah. So we were like, if you don’t want to sweat into your garage, cool.
We don’t,
Aubry Mayfield: but it’s really great. Cause we still. We still do the consultation and take videos and measurements and we plan with them. We’ll buy all the product for them and kind of set them up and then say, go for it. And they have done an amazing job. Like [00:16:00] every time they do a garage, like best decision you’ve ever made.
I
Roderick Hands: hope you don’t have to fire him.
Aubry Mayfield: I feel like he does make jokes about that every once in a while. So it’s fun. My wife
Roderick Hands: and I work together, you know, so we, we get it. Yeah. And uh, Yeah, we’re stuck with each other. I feel sorry for her. Um, you know, as far as custom pieces, you say you order, is it custom size baskets and, and bins and kind of all the things for each individual shelf?
Do you plan out ahead of time? What is going to go in each of those items?
Lauryl Pingel: We do for the most part. I feel like pantries we plan out the most because we, most of the time it’s an exposed shelf on all of them. So we want all the different things to flow like per shelf. But if it’s behind cabinets, we like already know like we’re going to use these one spins everywhere.
We don’t have to necessarily draw it out. I would say. Yeah.
Aubry Mayfield: So yeah, it just [00:17:00] depends. But there’s times we go into a space, like, with a full plan, and we get in there, and for some reason, like, the bins don’t fit right.
We
Aubry Mayfield: may have measured wrong, or, like, the measurements online were, like, an inch off, or something.
So there’s times where I’ve had to do some improvising, for sure. It doesn’t always go as planned, according to plan. You get
Roderick Hands: it,
Aubry Mayfield: yeah. Totally get it. Yeah, you’re like, this doesn’t work.
Roderick Hands: Every project, there’s that one thing, they’re like, huh. Right?
Aubry Mayfield: We worked in Enid the last two days and it was a two hour drive and usually like we will complete a project and we will have to come back like the next week for like a 15 minute, 30 minute wrap up where we’re like bringing an extra product because we didn’t bring enough or something.
And by the grace of God, we did, we got it all done in two days and like did not have to order additional products. There were some paper trays that we were like, well, I don’t know if those are going to fit and they fit perfectly. So, you never know.
Roderick Hands: What, uh, what’s the, when you get a project, um, [00:18:00] like your ideal client?
You know, so when you see an inquiry, whether it’s from your website or a phone call, and someone tells you about a project, like, what’s your ideal, to where you’re like, yes. Like, I’m really excited about this.
Aubry Mayfield: I would say move ins we do get excited about, but we oftentimes will work with clients who are already like semi organized and they want to take it to the next level.
They want that like Pinterest level or like perfection, which we always tell our clients, even those clients that we know are going to leave it perfect. We’re like, live in your space.
Like
Aubry Mayfield: it’s not going to stay exactly the way we left it and that’s okay. We also offer refresh services to go back and make it perfect again if they want that.
Um, but we really do enjoy clients that love what we are already doing, you know? Um, but then on the flip side, we’ve worked for clients that, you know, might be ADD or ADHD and like need that system to function for life. And cannot come up with it on their own, so. [00:19:00] But, so I would say, we get excited about the ones that we know, like, are passionate about it, like we are, so.
Roderick Hands: Do you have to hire you initially to do the refresh, or do you go in and, okay.
Aubry Mayfield: Yeah, it has to be like a previously organized space by us, yeah. Good deal. Yeah.
Roderick Hands: So, keeping with the theme of Tulsa is home, you know, what, why is, is Tulsa home to you? Like, what, what is It’s so special. Are we starting
Aubry Mayfield: rapid fire right now?
Roderick Hands: No, not yet.
Aubry Mayfield: After this. Aubry is ready. After this, yeah.
Roderick Hands: She is ready to go. She is fired up. How quickly do I
Aubry Mayfield: need to come up with my answer? She wants to know if she needs a short answer or a long answer. And that too, I clearly can tell I’m the one that’s our wordy. Where are we at? What are
Roderick Hands: we doing now?
I’m
Aubry Mayfield: like, do I need to keep it brief or not?
Roderick Hands: So the, the last Kind of wrap up question for the interview. Yes. Is the Tulsa is home question. Sorry to interrupt. No, that’s fine.
Aubry Mayfield: You can re ask it. I’m glad we
Roderick Hands: clarified
Aubry Mayfield: that.
Roderick Hands: So you didn’t give a one word answer.
Aubry Mayfield: I’m ready now. [00:20:00] Oh man.
Do you want to go first? Um, gosh. I mean, this is like a easy answer, but I’ve lived here my whole life, so it just feels like home. I was thinking when we were driving to that project this week, um, We were talking about people that like up and move to like a random, you know, country town and there’s nothing around.
And I was thinking about what if I ever moved and I was like, it’d be so weird to recreate all your routines and like the places that you love. And I feel like Tulsa has so many of those places that you like are obsessed with and you want to go to. And I’m like, that’d be so sad to leave like all these places that I’m obsessed with and all the people, like that’s the other thing I want to touch on this.
I just feel like the people. Our home.
Roderick Hands: Yeah.
Aubry Mayfield: So.
Roderick Hands: Yeah. Tulsins are pretty awesome, right?
Aubry Mayfield: They really are. They’re so nice. Anytime I travel, I’m like, people are not nice here.
Lauryl Pingel: Yeah. I [00:21:00] would agree with that. I feel like it’s just very comfortable because, I mean, I wasn’t born here, but I feel like I’ve lived here almost my whole life.
So all my people are here. All my favorite places are here and I truly can’t imagine, like, Stillwater was great, but I mean, I wouldn’t ever want to continue living there forever. I always knew I wanted to come back to Tulsa. So, I don’t think
Roderick Hands: everybody goes to Stillwater thinking they’re going to stay there.
Aubry Mayfield: But then when people do, I’m like, yeah,
Roderick Hands: why?
Aubry Mayfield: Are you okay?
Stillwater is great, but it’s such a college town. So I just, yeah, it’s weird.
Roderick Hands: Well, thanks for joining us today. It’s great to hear your story and where you’re from, how you got started and all that stuff. So we’ll have links and everything on the podcast, the video, the website, um, it’ll be sent out on the Tulsa Daily newsletter, so if you’re watching this on a platform not from the Tulsa Daily, subscribe to that and we’ll have some, some goodies to give away for that.
Aubry Mayfield: [00:22:00] That’s
Roderick Hands: awesome. But yeah, thank you so much.
Aubry Mayfield: Yeah, thank you. It was great.
so much for joining us. Bye. Bye.
