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Team Work Truly Makes The Dream Work.

See our lovely team of professional organizers who are passionate about bringing order to chaos and creating functional, efficient, and aesthetically pleasing environments! 

Organizing With Love In Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota!

The crew

Lead Assistant Organizer

Lead Assistant Organizer

Helping You Get Down To The Basics

Helping You Get Down To The Basics

Cori McDougald

Twin Cities & South Metro Area

I started Meat & Potatoes Organizing because I wanted to help people get down to the basics in life – the Meat & Potatoes – if you will. Personally, I found so much freedom in downsizing, decluttering, and creating organization systems in my own life and I love sharing this experience with others.

Call me crazy, but my favorite organization projects are garages & basements. (I also love organizing all other parts of the home). I grew up competing in Olympic weightlifting and I absolutely LOVE lifting heavy objects and physical work. Anytime I can move and sweat – I am happy!

In my non-organizing time, I love to hang out with my two boys, Thor & Magnus. My husband Damon does security consulting (from home mostly now, thanks to Covid) and we enjoy skiing and snowboarding together in the winter. My happy and licky dog, Jellybean, is my only little girl and by little, I mean BIG, sweet, doberman!

I hope you learned a little bit about me and now I cannot wait to connect and hear about YOU and your family!

Brenda Safe

Cannon Falls, Rochester & Surrounding Area

I joined the Meat & Potatoes Organizing team because I had the opportunity to work with my daughter (Cori) on a love we share; downsizing, decluttering, and creating organization in our homes.

I’m coming from a 20 year career of being a massage therapist into a new adventure of organizing. I personally enjoy working on offices, home offices, and finding your perfect “paper solution”.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the paper in your home, we can work together to figure out what to shred, what to save, and how to stop paper from taking over your life.

I enjoy spending time with my husband Scott, of 38 years. We have a son/daughter-in-law and a daughter/son-in-law, that have blessed us with 5 energetic grandsons.

I look forward to working with you on your project!

Olivia Johnson

Fargo, ND

Organizing is something that I have always been very passionate about. Joining the Meat & Potatoes Organizing team has been the perfect job for me. I love creating spaces where you can be stress and clutter free. I have found in my own personal experience that having an organized space and environment to surround myself with helps me live my life to the fullest. I am passionate about helping others achieve this as well. I love my job because I get to help others and do one of my favorite hobbies, organizing! 

I am currently a student at North Dakota State University in Fargo, ND. I am majoring in nursing, and in my future I hope to work with children as that is another passion of mine. Between organizing, nannying, and school, I still try to find time to be with my friends and family, travel, and be outdoors.

Olivia "Liv" Link

Minneapolis MN

I started at Meat and Potatoes Organizing in 2021 assisting my sister on projects and I quickly realized I had a passion for everything about organizing!

My absolute favorite part of organizing is ensuring that every item has a home that is functional and appealing. At M&P I am in charge of custom Cricut labeling and I also run our social media accounts! In my free time I love all things craft which makes creative spaces my favorite area of the home to work on!

Before starting at M&P I worked as a nanny and also did some seasonal work as a craft instructor at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, CO. From those experiences, I have learned to communicate well with families while listening to their desires when it comes to organizing and how they want their home to flow!

In the past couple months I have *slowly* been working through organizing my moms house. My mom lives in the same house that she grew up in AND the same house that she raised my siblings and I in. As you can imagine there is a lot of history in those walls and so many things that have been there since the day my grandparents moved in! With the skills and strategies that I have learned from working for M&P I have been able to approach the seemingly impossible task of going through my childhood home. I enjoy telling clients my story and about the process, most are shocked that I haven’t gotten through everything yet but I always point out that it is a lot more difficult to sort when it is your own stuff! It is much easier to get distracted or unmotivated when dealing with your own items, that is why the M&P team is here to help you stay on task and get the tedious jobs done for you!

Jamie Rother

Southern MN - Rochester, Cannon Falls & Surrounding Area

After a chance encounter between my best friend and Brenda, Cori’s mom, my friend told me I just had to check out M&P because it would be perfect for me, knowing my bit of obsession with organization!

I had recently left a job I had been at for 15 years to have time to chase my two kids to and from school as well as to activities – meaning I was looking for something flexible. At 6 and 9 my girls are just getting started with their crazy schedules and M&P is just that, with a side helping of not feeling like work!

I come by my organization skills naturally, using a dose of anxiety! As house items and kid stuff pile up so does my anxiety – calming the clutter around me helps me calm my mind and gives me an attitude boost. If you feel overwhelmed by clutter around the house or a pantry/closet stressing you out, I’m your gal!

Abby Strauffenecker

Fargo, ND

I joined Meat and Potatoes organizing last fall after Olivia J. said she needed some help in the Fargo area. I have since loved helping people create useful and organized spaces in their homes. I have always loved organizing rooms in my home so I was super excited when this organizing opportunity arose.

I am originally from Spicer, MN. Right now, I am a student at North Dakota State University in Fargo, where I am majoring in nursing. I hope to work in pediatrics after graduation in 2024. As a student living in a small apartment, being organized is a very important part of my lifestyle. It makes my school work and home more stress free and practical. I’d love to help you make your spaces organized and useful as well!

Sandra Johnson

Lead Assistant Organizer

I’ve never considered myself a super organized person. (I know, why would you write that! You will see)  From a young age I always loved decorating my room and changing around the furniture.  This drew me to interior design alot through my high school years. I grew up on a farm in between many small towns.  I knew everyone’s name and probably their parents’ names as well.  This has made me a very friendly, and relatable person.  I find myself giving smiles and waves at people throughout my day, and if you know me, I laugh and smile all the time.

I would say owning a house and having kids is when organizing became more of my passion.  It brings in my love for interior design and helps cure my crazy anxiety.  I have a wonderful husband, Nick. We met when I was 17 but didn’t start dating til 6 years and 3 kids later.  Nick has 2  wonderful kids ( boy, & girl),  I have a beautiful daughter, and together we have our littlest boy. Yes if you ask the kids he is probably the spoiled one! We enjoy our time together as a family,  everyone gets along (for the most part).  We are fulfilling a dream that Nick and I have shared since we met.  We love our MN, & WI lakes.  Fishing and boating are our favorite things to do on a nice day. We spent years sending each other links to cabins we would find online.  It wasn’t until 2022 that we were able to confidently buy our 2nd home in northern MN.

 Family is huge for us, and they were not excluded from our dream of having this cabin.  Everyone has a room, or a space or their own when they come.  We want family to feel like this is their place too. Nothing makes me happier than waking up and seeing all the cousins out fishing and relaxing on the dock. Grandparents drinking coffee in the sunroom, listening to the loons.   These memories to me are what life is all about.

I want people to be able to have more time with the ones they love.  Making memories and leaving behind great impressions.  I feel organizing is such an impactful way for me to help others.  I want to help you get down to the basics so you have more time with loved ones.

Emily Wendt

La Crosse, Wisconsin & Surrounding Areas

My organizational habits started at a very young age. My parents recall me always cleaning up after my messes and the messes of others all while singing the Barney “Clean Up” Song. For as long as I can remember, my clothes have always been sorted by color, and I have always been the friend who makes itineraries and google spreadsheets for trips and vacations. Since I was a child, one of my favorite activities has been cleaning, reorganizing and rearranging my room and my friends’ rooms when I would go to their houses. And yes, I have watched the Home Edit and Tidying Up with Marie Kondo repeatedly since they were released on Netflix.

When I was in college, being a professional organizer wasn’t really a thing. I graduated from Hamline University where I studied Public Health, Psychology, and Non-Profit Management. After graduation I moved back to Rochester and pursued a career in health care.

Five years later, my husband’s career took us to La Crosse, WI.

I was recently cleaning out and organizing a storage unit with my brother-in-law when I thought to myself, “I would love to get paid to do this kind of thing!” Of course my brother-in-law looked at me like I was crazy, but right when I got home I searched “home organizing companies in my area”. It was then that I reached out to Cori at Meat & Potatoes.

Cori has given me the resources and training that will allow me to make that dream a reality and help so many clients. I am so excited for this career where I get to help others in a way that I am extremely passionate about. My professional goal as an organizer is to help others feel the satisfaction and empowerment of getting organized and allowing them to live a sustainable, livable and joyful life.

Whitney Bamrick

Minneapolis MN

Having grown up in a very small farm town, you either earned money picking rock in someone’s field, or worked for your grandma doing small tasks. Well, my grandma sure knew how to keep a kid busy! I started cleaning for my grandma at a very young age. I’m not talking just a dust and sweep kind of job. More like dust and shine every crystal on the giant chandelier kind of job. This kind of work made me pay attention to the finer details with every job I’ve had growing up.

I’m currently coaching at a CrossFit gym in Lakeville, which is where I met Cori!

In between coaching I had found myself organizing and cleaning all the equipment in what some would call “an obsessive manner”. Cori recognized the effort I was putting into my surroundings and asked if I’d be interested in Meat & Potatoes Organizing, to which I said, “Sure! Why not?!”

A year later and I’m still so grateful to have found this business and these people. The reward is endless. The relief our clients get brings me all the joy, and the satisfaction of that end result is priceless!

Melanie Peiffer

My favorite things to do growing up when I would get bored were to organize my room and my parent’s “junk drawer.” When I would come home during breaks at college, I would always clean and organize the refrigerator at my parent’s house, where there was sure to be something expired left in there from the last time I cleaned it out. So I guess you could say I’ve always had a passion for organizing! I didn’t know I could turn this passion into a career until February 2023. I was previously a preschool teacher, but after having my first baby in 2022, I decided it was time for a different career path. I wanted to do something I really loved, gave me more time to spend with my son, and made leaving him to go to work easier! I found this in Meat & Potatoes Organizing! I love being able to help clients reclaim their space and make their lives more functional and easier! My favorite rooms to organize are kitchens and bathrooms.

When I’m not organizing, which isn’t often (the spaces in my own house get reorganized often!) I enjoy spending time with my husband, son, and our two dogs. We love doing all things outdoors! Our favorites being hiking, running, and going on UTV adventures in our side by side. I love curling up in a comfy chair with a good book and a cup of coffee in the mornings, doing home revo DIY projects, exploring new places, trying out new restaurants, and listening to live music.

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