In the early days of The Home Organisation, when I was still figuring out how The Home Organisation could become a proper business, I started sticking gold stars on a little picture frame for every project we completed. While things felt uncertain and new, my gold stars were a small token of proof that something was happening. Progress, one tiny sticker at a time.
As the business grew and we became clearer about it all, that first frame filled up. Then I got a new one for year two. Then year three. Now we have a growing collection of frames, each year’s collection getting more crowded with stars as the business has grown. Each gold star is just a quiet reminder that we got to help someone with something that mattered to them.
But somewhere along the way, we wanted to mark our progress in another way too. We wanted something that felt as positive and hopeful as those gold stars, but with a bit more permanence. That’s when we started planting a tree for every project we complete.
Don’t worry, I haven’t abandoned the stickers! I still love them, and sticking a new one on the frame is very pleasing. But now every gold star has a tree partner. Every organised kitchen, streamlined wardrobe, or decluttered playroom gets both a star in the frame and a tree in the ground.
We’ve now planted hundreds of trees across Kenya, Madagascar, Ethiopia, Uganda, Peru. They’re often species we’d never heard of before like Zanthoxylum Usambarense and Avicennia Marina too. We never know where the next tree will be planted or what type it’ll be until it’s done, which adds a lovely element of surprise to every completed project. Some of our regular clients have quite a few trees to their names now!
There’s something extremely satisfying about it. We can look at our wall of frames and see years of progress marked in gold, then check our tree planting dashboard and see forests growing across the world. Both capture the same feeling: that quiet satisfaction of progress made, and help given. One small step at a time all thanks to our wonderful clients who make every project and every tree (and every star!) possible.
