Meet the Girl behind the bandana
Meet the Girl behind the bandana
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Hi, I’m Sarah. And no, my house isn’t perfect either.
Hi, I’m Sarah. And no, my house isn’t perfect either.
I've been cleaning, organizing, rearranging and trying to make spaces work better for about as long as I can remember.
But Bandana Girl Cleaning Co. wasn't born because I've spent my life living in a perfectly organized house. Quite the opposite.
I've raised a family, accumulated twenty years' worth of life and belongings, watched people I love struggle with letting things go, and learned firsthand that “just get rid of it” is considerably easier to say when it isn't your stuff.
Somewhere along the way, I also discovered something unusual about myself:
The jobs that overwhelm most people are usually the ones I want to tackle.
I wasn't born organized.
One of my earliest lessons came after my mom repeatedly told me to clean my room. On the third trip in, she arrived with black trash bags and packed up every Barbie, doll and toy I'd left lying around.
Little-kid me was convinced they were gone forever.
They weren't. I eventually found them safely tucked away in the shed.
But let's just say... the lesson stuck.
As I got older, organizing became something I genuinely enjoyed. I organized shelves at a thrift store because I was bored. I cleaned friends' bedrooms during sleepovers because apparently that sounded like entertainment to me.
Apparently Black Bag Barbie Day worked. 😂
A few years later, everything had a place, everything stayed in its place... and yes, my movies were alphabetized.
A few years later, everything had a place, everything stayed in its place... and yes, my movies were alphabetized.
How Bandana Girl actually happened
From “I Like Organizing” to “Wait... I Could Actually Do This.”
A few years ago, someone close to me needed help emptying a large family home after serious property damage.
What followed was an enormous cleanout: furniture, electronics, family belongings, boxes, drawers and thousands of pieces of paperwork.
I went through everything carefully because mixed among what needed to go were photographs, important documents, sentimental pieces and things that still had value.
It was dirty. Tedious. Physical work.
And I loved it.
Somewhere during that project, I realized I would rather be doing that than sitting comfortably at the office job I had at the time.
Not long afterward, I answered a social-media post looking for cleaning help. What I expected to be an ordinary cleaning job turned out to be a seriously overwhelmed home.
Instead of wanting to turn around, I wanted to start.
That job led to more homes, estate cleanouts, rental properties, storage spaces and increasingly challenging projects.
Eventually the obvious finally caught up with me:
The work other people found overwhelming was exactly the work I kept wanting to do.
And Bandana Girl Cleaning Co. started taking shape.
No Judgment Doesn't Mean No Honesty
No Judgment Doesn't Mean No Honesty
I will never measure your worth by the condition of your home.
But judgment-free doesn't mean challenge-free.
I'm not here to shame you, and I'm not here to make decisions for you. I'm also not here to help you keep everything exactly the same when you've asked me to help you make a change.
Sometimes you need encouragement. Sometimes you need patience. Sometimes you need humor. And occasionally you need somebody to lovingly ask:
“Okay... but do we really need fifteen of these?”
You always have the final say over your belongings. My job is to help you make decisions, find workable solutions and keep moving toward the home you told me you wanted.
Sometimes progress is an entire transformed room.
Sometimes it's two boxes out the door.
Both count.
We meet you where you are. We help you get your home where you want it to be.
I Practice What I Ask of You
I don't expect my clients to do something I'm unwilling to do myself.
I've challenged myself to go through the makeup that was expensive, barely used or “part of the set.” I've parted with books I swore I'd keep forever. I've tackled clothes, jewelry and plenty of other categories where my own brain can produce some remarkably convincing reasons why something needs to stay.
Why?
Because decluttering somebody else's belongings looks easy.
Decluttering your own reminds you that it isn't.
I don't expect perfection from my clients because I don't pretend it exists in my own home either.
The puzzles. We don't talk about the puzzles. 😂
The puzzles. We don't talk about the puzzles. 😂
Yes. They're mine.
I said I practice what I preach. I did not say I had graduated.
So... Why the Bandana?
So... Why the Bandana?
It's practical, it keeps my hair out of my face while I'm working, and I've always loved the look.
I grew up loving the colorful, retro style of I Love Lucy. Women in my own family wore bandanas. I've always loved bright colors, and somewhere along the way they simply became part of how I showed up to work.
When it came time to name the business, there really wasn't much competition.
Bandana Girl was already standing there. 💜
I Don't See a Hopeless Mess.
I Don't See a Hopeless Mess.
I See Somewhere to Start.
I See Somewhere to Start.
Give me the room you've stopped opening.
The storage unit you don't know how to begin.
The basement that's gotten away from you.
The ordinary home that's simply been losing the battle against ordinary life.
Or just the house that needs somebody else to clean the bathrooms this week.
You don't have to get your home ready for me. That's the whole point.
No perfection required.
And seriously... don't clean before you call us. 💜
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