Being born and raised in the Lower East Side means being an expert in living in small spaces and mastering how to utilize space. Let’s be real, New York’s reputation of “shoebox apartments” probably stems from the cramped tenement style apartment I grew up in. We learned how to make it work. Being a Certified Professional Organizer taught me a thing or two, but I learned my purging and organization skills as a city kid, when I shared a one bedroom apartment with my mother and sister… and having a Dominican mother obsessed with cleaning and tidying up at 8:00am on Saturday mornings. Thanks mom.

In those humble beginnings, I learned the importance of being mindful of what we kept and how we kept it.

Being a Dominican-New Yorker in the Lower East Side/East Village, also means that part of who I am revolves around art, commuinty, culture and creativity. Home for me was not only the four walls I lived in, it was in my neighborhood and my community.

As my community has grown over the years, I noticed something. We’re all like the batteries of our phones. The heavier the load of juggling the many roles we have: work, parenting, etc. the less perecentage of battery we have left to spend in our homes trying to figure out how to organize the closet when you still have to cook dinner or take the kids to ballet.

Combining funcationality, the love of art, interior design, home organizaiton and community- and what it means to me, with the joy of helping people feel like they are at home when life has gotten in the way of that, is why I started Intentional.