Inside \u2013 on thick, glossy cream-coloured paper, like a menu at the better class of restaurant \u2013 was the heading \u2018CURATED SPACE CO. Luxury Home Transformation\u2019 and a list of services offered, from \u2018Space-saving folding & techniques\u2019 to \u2018Storage solutions\u2019 and even \u2018Decision-making support\/Guidance through emotional or difficult decisions\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u2018Imagine opening your closet and finding everything beautifully arranged and effortless to reach,\u2019 mused the menu, giving a number to call and finally making this promise: \u2018A beautifully curated home where everything has its place. A refined, discreet, judgment-free process.\u2019<\/p>\n
The idea of paying someone to rearrange and organise your wardrobe (or kitchen, or pantry) might\u2019ve seemed outlandish not long ago \u2013 the kind of caprice one associates with heiresses and footballers\u2019 wives, women (it\u2019s mostly women) with time on their hands. But things have changed, a trend led by various \u2018organising consultants\u2019 but especially Marie Kondo, a Japanese woman behind four bestselling books and an Emmy-nominated Netflix series, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo.<\/p>\n
Two of Kondo\u2019s books \u2013 Kurashi at Home and Spark Joy, both in Greek translation \u2013 stare up at me from the sofa in Nicoletta\u2019s house on the outskirts of Nicosia, left there as if for inspiration.<\/p>\n
Nicoletta is today\u2019s client. She\u2019s not an heiress, or a footballer\u2019s wife (she actually works at a software company) \u2013 and she has a problem with her kitchen, specifically two problems<\/strong>. The first is that she can\u2019t reach some of the cupboards. The second is that everything\u2019s so full that she can\u2019t find what she needs easily. Sounds like a job for Curated Space Co.<\/p>\n Andrie Alexandrou is Curated Space Co, having started the business<\/a> just a couple of months ago, after 32 years as a bookkeeper. It wasn\u2019t exactly a lifelong dream, just because she didn\u2019t know it was possible till she discovered Kondo a few years ago \u2013 but it\u2019s certainly something that fits her personality.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve just always liked being organised \u2013 in my house, my office, my closets,\u201d she says, admitting that her passion for order is \u201cto the point of being a little OCD. Like, if I\u2019ve picked up a pair of scissors, and used them, I absolutely have to put them back in their place. I can\u2019t just leave them there\u2026 Every object needs to have its home<\/strong>. Like we each have our own home.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Her warm demeanour hides a painful story. In her early 40s (she\u2019s now 52) she began having stiffness in her joints, especially the fingers and especially in the mornings. The stiffness spread, \u201cthen came excruciating pain\u201d. It was rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disorder \u2013 though doctors took years to diagnose it, leaving her in pain both physically and (since she didn\u2019t know what was going on) spiritually.<\/p>\n Andrie\u2019s body is a literal document of those painful years \u2013 because she decided to start getting tattoos, as a kind of distraction from the pain and also, perhaps, a creative riposte, turning herself into an artwork.<\/p>\n On one arm is the Archangel Michael, further down a plane-tree leaf to honour her heritage (she\u2019s from Kakopetria). Her first-ever tattoo has the lyrics from \u2018Carmina Burana\u2019, a reminder of her dark mental state during those years: \u2018O Fortuna, velut luna, statu variabilis\u2026 Vita detestabilis, nunc obdurat et tunc curat\u2019. \u2018O Fortune, like the moon you are changeable\u2026 Hateful life, that oppresses and then soothes.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n Bookkeeping wasn\u2019t such a bad profession for a mind that thrives on order and organisation \u2013 but it was never her happy place<\/strong>. Andrie was always the artistic type, painting in her spare time and crafting little bowls and bells out of clay. Then came the illness \u2013 and that was the last straw. She knew it was time for a new chapter.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, I left it late,\u201d she laughs. \u201cBut okay, everyone has their own timing. And when you get older, it\u2019s important to be happy in your daily life\u2026 And you start to realise some things \u2013 like for instance, at the very least, you want to live whatever time you have left doing something you love.\u201d<\/p>\n This is all quite relevant to Curated Space, as Marie Kondo would be the first to confirm. It\u2019s not just that health problems spurred Andrie Alexandrou to follow her passion in middle age \u2013 it\u2019s also that organising one\u2019s space in particular (and, by extension, helping others to organise theirs) has a great deal to do with health, especially mental health.<\/p>\n Kondo\u2019s mission is \u201cto help more people tidy their spaces by choosing joy\u201d, as it says on her YouTube page. \u201cIf you tidy your space, you can transform your life<\/strong>,\u201d claims the page. This is not (just) about finding things more easily when you\u2019re trying to get dressed in the morning. It\u2019s about mental \u2018wellness\u2019, that ubiquitous buzzword.<\/p>\n It makes sense, of course. Modern life is filled with clutter, especially in a Western society where the proverbial machine keeps pushing us to buy and acquire stuff. There\u2019s a deep satisfaction in dumping (or just harnessing) the clutter, a sense of control \u2013 plus of course the aesthetic pleasure of a neat cupboard, or items grouped by category, or clothes folded into cute little squares, Kondo-style.<\/p>\n Why not do it yourself, though? What does Andrie know that her clients don\u2019t?<\/p>\n \u201cNothing,\u201d she replies frankly. \u201cEverything I know they could learn by reading books, or spending time watching videos\u2026 They could even ask ChatGPT \u2018How do I sort\u2019, it\u2019ll tell them now, with technology. I have no special knowledge. What I have is a great love for what I do<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n Her role is really to enable. Rearranging closets takes time \u2013 she budgets around three hours per client \u2013 and it\u2019s a chore, especially on your own. It becomes a whole lot easier with someone who\u2019s willing to take the lead, doing the donkeywork of shifting things around and discussing the process, helping with priorities, giving ideas on what goes where, and even bringing \u2018organisers\u2019 like baskets and boxes.<\/p>\n One such helpful gadget is a plastic step Andrie brings to Nicoletta\u2019s kitchen \u2013 basically adding a shelf within a shelf, allowing items to be stored both on the step and under it. If this were a bedroom, and drawers were available, she\u2019d also do some Kondo-style folding \u2013 but of course it\u2019s a kitchen, so the job is different.<\/p>\n Preparation is key, explains Andrie. She starts with a video call a few days before the visit, where the client (having previously completed an \u2018intake form\u2019) shows her the general situation \u2013 so she already knows that Nicoletta\u2019s cupboards are indeed full to bursting<\/strong>, though at least it\u2019s a kitchen so the big question (What to Throw Out) is a bit less emotionally fraught.\u00a0<\/p>\n Admittedly, there\u2019s the salt. Nicoletta, it turns out, has a lot of salt \u2013 several jars of it \u2013 and some of the salt was collected personally from the sea (or perhaps a salt lake) by her own grandmother (!), so it has sentimental value.<\/p>\n Andrie\u2019s position is surprisingly firm. \u201cWe never throw those things out,\u201d she asserts when I ask about clothes (it\u2019s usually clothes, not salt) that we no longer wear but may have belonged to a mum or grandma. She won\u2019t advise clients to dump anything they\u2019re \u201cemotionally attached to, that\u2019s very important\u2026 It\u2019s part of their life, their family. There are so many other things they could throw out\u201d.<\/p>\n There are limits, of course. Souvenirs don\u2019t have the same emotional attachment, and can usually be culled; if you have a T-shirt and a fridge magnet from that trip to New York, do you really need both? Bric-a-brac and baubles are also disposable; \u201cIf your house caught fire and you could only take five, which would you choose?<\/strong>\u201d she asks clients, urging them to keep only those. Smaller handbags can go into bigger ones. Bottles of booze are another source of clutter. \u201cIf you get a new bottle, an old one has to go\u201d \u2013 one way or the other.<\/p>\n With Nicoletta, the mission is clear: rearrange items so the ones she uses least often go in the hard-to-reach cupboards, and tidy (and thin out) the items in general.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t stay long enough to see what the \u2018After\u2019 version looks like \u2013 but I stay for the first stage, the clearing-out, all cupboards emptied and everything placed on the counter. There\u2019s vanilla, maple syrup, nuts, spices, cooking butter, pomegranate juice. A bottle of zivania which she didn\u2019t even know was there (it\u2019s transferred to the freezer). Two glass jugs are unearthed, and Nicoletta looks surprised.<\/p>\n \u201cI never use those!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Never\u2019? Excellent, I like \u2018never\u2019,\u201d replies Andrie, and sets the jugs aside for future storage, probably in the basement.<\/p>\n It\u2019s all common sense, needless to say. One easy-to-reach cupboard is full of cookbooks, but Nicoletta (who loves to cook) admits she only uses a few of them on a regular basis \u2013 so the others can be moved somewhere else, clearing up space. Expiry dates are checked. Everything gets sorted into categories, so it can be stored more functionally. There\u2019s a brief discussion on pots and pans. And the salt? \u201cJust don\u2019t buy more salt,\u201d counsels Andrie.<\/p>\n She\u2019s not dogmatic about the need for order. \u201cEspecially for artists, messiness can be their inspiration,\u201d she admits, as an artist herself \u2013 but even painters, for instance, need to be able to find their paintbrushes, and store them all in one place.<\/p>\n Home organising \u2013 and life organising \u2013 isn\u2019t about making everything dull and antiseptic. On the contrary, it\u2019s about empowerment. Rather like feng shui, it shows how, by taking a step back and rearranging daily life in a new permutation \u2013 using common sense, for the most part \u2013 one can feel refreshed, almost purified, and more in control<\/strong>. It\u2019s a way of making life seem full of possibilities again.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you decide to make your space more beautiful, and tidy it up, your energy is better,\u201d says Andrie \u2013 and clients confirm it. \u201cI\u2019ve had them say things like, \u2018I open my closet and it feels like being in a clothes shop\u2019\u2026 They feel good.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n She, I assume, feels good too \u2013 this woman who spent her entire adult life in a job she didn\u2019t love, racked with pain for the last few years, and is now showing others the path to calmness and peace of mind. \u2018Order isn\u2019t just for your home,\u2019 declares the Curated Space menu in the small brown envelope. \u2018It\u2019s a gift you give your mind.\u2019 True.<\/p>\n CURATED SPACE CO. Luxury Home Transformation can be contacted on 99-488079, Instagram: @curatedspacecy<\/a>, Facebook: Curated Space Co<\/a>, [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/profile2-Before-and-after.png\")
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